New: LexMeta presentation slides, Euralex 2022 conference, available here.

LexMeta, a metadata model for lexical resources

LexMeta follows the entity hierarchy for the representation of artistic or creative endavour proposed in the FRBR ontology, widely used in libraries, which we partially map to the two-level hierarchy for the representation of Lexical-Conceptual Resource (LCR) metadata proposed in Metashare, from where we inherit the terminology, and the definitions. These hierarchy levels, expressed as classes, are the following:

FRBR class Metashare class LexMeta class Definition
frbr:Work dcat:DatasetSeries (discussion ongoing) Lexicographic work (Q41) FRBR: An abstract notion of a creation; used to group different expressions (editions, versions) of the same work, and address statements that apply on work level.
frbr:Expression ms:LexicalConceptualResource LCR (Q4) MetaShare: A resource organised on the basis of lexical or conceptual entries (lexical items, terms, concepts, etc.) with their supplementary information (e.g., grammatical, semantic, statistical information, etc.)
frbr:Manifestation ms:DatasetDistribution LCR Distribution (Q24) MetaShare: Any form with which a dataset is distributed, such as a downloadable form in a specific format (e.g., spreadsheet, plain text, etc.) or an API with which it can be accessed

The entity Schemata for LexMeta LCR and LCR Distributions are aligned to those of the corresponding FRBR and Metashare classes (in other words, the LexMeta class is a subclass of both). This has several implications:

  • Properties that describe LCR content are attached to items of class LCR (Q4).
  • Properties that describe the LCR distribution, e.g. a physical dictionay in book form, or an electronic dictionary in a dictionary web portal or as downloadable dataset, are attached to LCR Distribution (LexBib Q24) items.
  • LCR Distribution (Q24) items, when they have publication metadata as books have, are LexBib Zotero items, i.e. in LexBib wikibase, members of class BibItem (Q3). This applies mainly to book publications, and distributions on CD-ROM. But also online electronic dictionaries are collected in library information systems and can have publication metadata, and can exist as LexBib Zotero items.
  • A dictionary with the same contents in printed form, on CD-ROM, available in a mobile app, or downloadable in different serialization formats (XML, JSON, etc.) will be represented as the same LCR (Q4) with different distributions (Q24).
  • Different versions, editions, conversions, summaries, etc., of a lexicographic work will be represented as different LCR (Q4) items, being able to describe relations between these using properties defined in Metashare.

Note: This is ongoing work.

Description of lexicographical works

LexMeta provides this class for lexicographic work records in the catalogue, in parallel to what libraries do (example from DNB). Such records are used for grouping LCR as different expressions of the same work. Identifying and provenance metadata can be attached to work items. See an example record.

LexBib property Property label Range or datatype Wikidata equiv. LexMeta OWL equiv. Definition
Properties pointing to ontology items
P118 has realisation LCR (Q4) frbr:realization The value of this property is an expression that is an intellectual or artistic realization of a work.
Identification
P2 wikidata entity external ID lexmeta:wikibaseEntity
P6 title monolingualtext wd:P1476 dct:title

Description of lexical-conceptual resources (LCR), such as dictionaries

On the level of class frbr:Expression, libraries don't typically collect item records (they are focused on publication metadata, i.e. in LexMeta terms, distribution level). Expression is the level where metadata describing a resource's content corresponds to. For LCR records, LexMeta provides properties for classifying dictionaries and other lexical resources. The properties and their datatype or range of items that is accepted as object), are defined as listed in the following table.

Properties describing dictionary structure and type have certain concept schemes as range. See these schemes, together with their top concepts (which may relate to other terms as narrower concepts) using this Query.

LexBib property Property label Range or datatype LexMeta OWL equiv. Definition text
Provenance & Identification
P154 LCR creator Agent (Q14) ms:resourceCreator The person/organization responsible for providing, curating, maintaining and making available (publishing) the resource
P155 IPR holder Agent (Q14) ms:iprHolder A person or an organization who holds the full Intellectual Property Rights (Copyright, trademark, etc.) that subsist in the resource [...]
P156 LCR name monolingualtext ms:resourceName Introduces a human-readable name or title by which the resource is known
P97 short title string ms:resourceShortName Introduces a short form (e.g., abbreviation, acronym, etc.) used to refer to a language resource
P15 publication date time object ms:publicationDate Specifies the date when a language resource has been made available to the public
P157 LCR provider Agent (Q14) ms:resourceProvider Links to a resource for which the person/organization is responsible of providing, curating and maintaining
P55 has distribution LCR Distribution (Q24) ms:distribution Links a language resource to the various forms with which it is distributed
Dictionary Sructure and Type (point to terms of a certain concept scheme)
P151 lemma type Lemma Type (Q50) lexmeta:lemmaType Specifies the types of headwords included in a dictionary (e.g., whether it includes single- or multi-word units, abbreviations, neologisms, etc.)
P115 linguality type Linguality Type (Q37) ms:lingualityType Indicates whether the resource includes one, two or more languages
P119 lexicographical process type Lexicographical Process Type (Q42) lexmeta:lexicographicalProcessType Provides information on how the dictionary was created (e.g., in a collaborative mode, involving academic lexicographers vs. citizens, etc.)
P90 dictionary scope type Dictionary Scope (Q35) lexmeta:dictionaryScope Classifies the dictionary in terms of its contents and intended use, based mainly on the classification proposed by Engelberg & Storrer (Typologie von Internetwörterbüchern und -portalen, 2016)
P120 dictionary function type Dictionary Function Type (Q44) lexmeta:dictionaryFunctionType Classifies the dictionary in terms of its intended function (e.g., text translation, vocabulary learning) according to the Theory of Lexicographical Functions
P121 dictionary access type Access Structure Type (Q39) lexmeta:dictionaryAccessType Classifies the dictionary based on the approach (onomasiological vs. semasiological) adopted for the organization of the lexical entries
P152 dictionary text part Dictionary Text Part (Q52) lexmeta:dictionaryTextPart Specifies text parts present in the dictionary text (such as front or back matters, and entry types)
P127 microstructure feature Microstructure Feature (Q51) ms:linguisticInformation Provides a more detailed account of the linguistic information contained in the lexical/conceptual resource, as well as on microstructural layout features
Dictionary Sructure and Type (point to LexBib entity)
P150 source language Language (Q8) lexmeta:sourceLanguage Specifies the language a bilingual or multilingual lexical resource provides equivalents for
P134 target language Language (Q8) lexmeta:targetLangue Specifies a language in which a bilingual or multilingual lexical resource provides equivalents
P175 pivot language Language (Q8) lexmeta:pivotLangue Specifies a language used as pivot or bridge in translation between other languages P56 object language Language (Q8) ms:language Specifies a language that is described in a lexical resource
P122 metalanguage Language (Q8) ms:metalanguage Specifies the language that is used as support for the resource (e.g., English for a grammar of French described in English or for a French dictionary with English definitions)
Dictionary Sructure and Type (point to data object)
P161 number of entries string
Relations to other LCR (from MetaShare, point to LexBib entity)
P135 replaces LCR Lexical Conceptual Resource (Q4) ms:replaces Links to LR B that is an older version of LR A (the one being described) and has been replaced by it
P133 is version of LCR Lexical Conceptual Resource (Q4) ms:isVersionOf Links to LR B that is a version (corrected, annotated, enriched, processed, etc.) of LR A (the one being described)
P125 is part of LCR Lexical Conceptual Resource (Q4) ms:isPartOf Links to LR B which contains LR A (the one being described), e.g., a bilingual corpus that includes a monolingual corpus
P136 is similar to LCR Lexical Conceptual Resource (Q4) ms:isSimilarTo Links to LR B that bears resemblances to LR A (the one being described), e.g., they have been built with the same theoretical principles or are the same with different formats or processed at the same level with different tools
P137 is related to LCR Lexical Conceptual Resource (Q4) ms:isRelatedToLR Links to a language resource that holds a relation with the entity being described (without further specification of the relation type)
P138 is exact match with LCR Lexical Conceptual Resource (Q4) ms:isExactMatchWith Links to LR B that has the same contents with LR A; they may have different names or the same name and be stored on different locations
P139 is part with LCR Lexical Conceptual Resource (Q4) ms:isPartWith Links to LR B that together with LR A (the one being described) are parts of LR C
P140 is continuation of LCR Lexical Conceptual Resource (Q4) ms:isContinuationOf Links to LR B that forms the basis of LR A (the one being described) upon which it has continued to extend / enrich
P141 is converted version of LCR Lexical Conceptual Resource (Q4) ms:isConvertedVersionOf Links to LR B that has been the outcome of a conversion procedure from LR A (the one being described), e.g., a PDF to text conversion
P142 has original source LCR Lexical Conceptual Resource (Q4) ms:hasOriginalSource Links a language resource to the original source that has been used for its creation, where it's derived or elicited from
P143 has LCR as part Lexical Conceptual Resource (Q4) ms:hasPart Links to LR B which is contained in LR A (the one being described), e.g., a monolingual corpus part of a bilingual corpus
P144 has LCR as version Lexical Conceptual Resource (Q4) ms:hasVersion Links to LR B that is a version of LR A (the one being described)
P145 is combined with LCR Lexical Conceptual Resource (Q4) ms:isCombinedWith Links to a LR B that has been used together with LR A (the one being described) to create LR C, e.g., two monolingual wordnets/corpora aligned to produce a bilingual resource
P63 is continued by LCR Lexical Conceptual Resource (Q4) ms:isContinuedBy Links to a LR B that extends / continues / enriches LR A (the one being described)
P124 is replaced with LCR Lexical Conceptual Resource (Q4) ms:isReplacedWith Links to LR B that is a newer version of LR A (the one being described) and replaces it

Description of LCR distributions, such as dictionaries distributed in printed or electronic form

Manuscript, printed, and offline and online electronic dictionary distributions as publications are represented in LexBib using the same set of properties as for metadata of bibliographical items (Q3) in general, including metalexicographical article metadata. Dictionary distributions can also be listed in LexBib Zotero. One property is specific to to LCR distributions (Q24): distribution type (P91), which takes values from the LCR Distribution Type concept scheme (Q43).

Most publication metadata properties are described in the BIBO ontology (RDF), which re-uses Dublin Core Terms.

LexBib property Property label Range or datatype Wikidata equiv. LexMeta OWL equiv. Definition
Properties specific to LCR distributions (Q24)
P91 distribution type LCR Distribution Type (Q43) ms:distributionForm
Properties specific to bibliographical items (Q3) in general (identifiers)
P2 wikidata entity external ID
P16 LexBib Zotero item external ID
P17 DOI external ID wd:P356 bibo:doi
P18 ISBN-13 external ID wd:P212 bibo:isbn13
P19 ISBN-10 external ID wd:P957 bibo:isbn10
P20 ISSN external ID wd:P236 bibo:issn
Properties specific to bibliographical items (Q3) in general (point to URL)
P44 official website url wd:P856 foaf:homepage
P112 access location url ms:accessLocation
P113 download location url wd:P953 ms:downloadLocation
Properties specific to bibliographical items (Q3) in general (point to ontology items)
P12 author Agent (Q14) wd:P50 bibo:authorList
P13 editor Person (Q5) wd:P98 bibo:editorList
P35 publisher Agent (Q14) wd:P123 dcterms:publisher
P10 publication place Place (Q9) wd:P291 frbrer:P3057
P36 event Event (Q6) wd:P5072 bibo:presentedAt
P9 containing BibCollection BibCollection (Q12) wd:P361 dct:isPartOf
P11 publication language Language (Q8) wd:P407 dct:language
P27 subject Term (Q7) wd:P921 dct:subject
P26 is reviewed in Review Article (Q15) schema:review
P25 is review of BibItem (Q3) wd:P6977 bibo:reviewOf
P147 cites BibItem (Q3) wd:P2860 bibo:cites
Properties specific to bibliographical items (Q3) in general (other data objects)
P6 title monolingualtext wd:P1476 dct:title
P15 publication date time object wd:P577 dct:date
P22 volume string wd:P478 bibo:volume
P23 issue string wd:P433 bibo:issue
P24 page(s) string wd:P304 bibo:pages
P64 edition number string wd:P393 bibo:edition
P97 short title string

Database Queries

  • List of LexBib entities and LexMeta RDF equivalents: Query.
  • Graph representation of test items (Lexicographic Work, LCR, and LCR distributions): Query.

New: LexMeta OWL

LexMeta_OWL is the specification of LexMeta in OWL format. LexMeta OWL represents an application profile of the MetaShare ontology, extended with some additional properties and classes, and concept schemes that function as ranges of values for certain properties, in parallel to the above described Wikibase implementation.

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