LexVoc translation on Lexonomy

From LexBib

LexVoc terms will be translated using Elexis Lexonomy. To register at Elexis Lexonomy, go there, and click on "Get an account", enter your email and follow the instructions. Please note that you will need to get an account even if you are already registered at https://lexonomy.eu, as Elexis Lexonomy is a separate installation. Then send us the email address with which you are registered and we will give you access to the dictionary of the language you want to contribute to.

We will be translating validated LexVoc terms. Validation means that the term has (1) a skos:broader relation that makes it part of a tree structure, the LexVoc vocabulary, with Item:Q1 "Lexicography" as root term, or that it is linked as skos:closeMatch to such a term, and that (2) is present in LexBib-Elexifinder English corpus version 3, with at least 3 occurrences. To see how often terms have been found, use this query (Query); these numbers are also visible in the corresponding LexVoc Lexonomy dictionary entry.

All 38 LexVoc Lexonomy dictionaries (see the list of access links here) are bilingual with English and contain drafted translation equivalents, marked as "AUTOMATIC", that stem from the following sources: (1) BabelNet translations, marked there as "high quality" (9,424 items), (2) BabelNet translations, marked there as "automatic translation" (9,077 items), and Wikidata non-English item labels (rdfs:label, not skos:altLabel) that were not among those fetched from BabelNet (813 items). In cases were BabelNet and Wikidata had more than 3 different equivalents for one language, we only have taken the first three (favouring BabelNet "high quality" over Wikidata).

LexVoc Lexonomy dictionaries use the list of English preferred labels as alphabetical access structure (the term list in the left pane). Entries contain a display of information about the term, and editable translation equivalents, which are qualified as "preferred" or "alternative", resembling the SKOS model of labelling terms: A term may have only one preferred (skos:prefLabel), and, in addition, several alternative labels (skos:altLabel). "Alternative" is understood as alternative lexicalization for the same concept, i.e. a synonym, and explicitly not inflected (plural, etc.) forms of the preferred label (those are sometimes found in our sources, so that they may appear among automatically drafted equivalents). That also means: Synonyms do not exist as entries; synonyms are listed as alternative lexicalizations inside the entry headed by the preferred lexicalization of the term.

In each dictionary entry, some relations of the term are listed, together with definitions in English, and BabelNet ID numbers. That content is meant for documentation in the translation process, and cannot be edited in the Lexonomy interface.

Items to be edited are the following:

  • Preferred translation for a term (necessary)
  • Alternative translations for a term (optional)
  • Translation status (with values MISSING, AUTOMATIC, TO CHECK, and COMPLETED). The goal is to achieve translations with status COMPLETED. You may discuss in the group that works on your language on how to use these values; it probably makes sense to set newly entered MISSING or corrected or validated AUTOMATIC translations as TO CHECK, until a second person has validated them and changed the status to COMPLETED.

It is necessary to validate all edits by pressing the "Save" button, before leaving an entry.

For the list of available bilingual dictionaries and discussion threads dedicated to each language LexVoc is translated to, see LexVoc Lexonomy. Daily at 0:00 CET, A script collects all edited translations from the 38 dictionaries, and transfers them to this merged dictionary, which can be viewed to check how a term is translated to any of the 38 languages.

The discussion about the translation process is taking place on Elexis LexMeet: https://meet.elex.is/groups/lexvoc-translation/. There you will find a general discussion thread about the translation process, as well as a dedicated discussion thread concerned with a single language, which you can use in order to communicate with colleagues that work on the same language as you. Please note that for accessing the discussion threads, you must register at Elexis LexMeet.