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A Psychophysics Paradigm for the Collection and Analysis of Similarity Judgments

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Curating and extending data for language comparison in Concepticon and NoRaRe.

Annika Tjuka¹, Robert Forkel¹, Johann-Mattis List^1,2

¹Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Saxony, 04103, Germany.

Open Research Europe

|August 30, 2023

Summary

We introduce Concepticon and NoRaRe, user-friendly resources for standardizing linguistic data. These tools facilitate cross-linguistic research by providing curated lexical data and enabling data comparison across diverse studies.

Keywords:

Cross-linguistic database Language comparison Lexical data Test-driven data curation Word properties

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Area of Science:

Computational linguistics
Lexicography
Cross-linguistic research

Background:

Standardizing linguistic data is crucial for comparative studies.
Existing resources lacked comprehensive word property data across languages.
Distinct research fields collected similar word property information independently.

Purpose of the Study:

To present major releases of Concepticon (Version 3.0) and NoRaRe (Version 1.0).
To demonstrate the utility of standardized data curation for cross-linguistic datasets.
To enable comparative linguistic studies by integrating diverse lexical data.

Main Methods:

Developing Concepticon as a reference catalog for standardized concepts.
Extending Concepticon with the Database of Norms, Ratings, and Relations (NoRaRe) for word properties.
Implementing a shared data curation workflow for both resources.
Creating a new web application for accessible data retrieval.

Main Results:

Concepticon Version 3.0 and NoRaRe Version 1.0 are now available.
The adapted data curation workflow proved effective for standardizing cross-linguistic datasets.
Combining datasets from different fields enhances language comparison studies.
NoRaRe offers lexical data for multiple languages with tools for curation and reuse.

Conclusions:

Concepticon and NoRaRe significantly advance the standardization of linguistic data.
Integrated lexical datasets foster novel cross-linguistic research.
The new web application improves accessibility and usability of linguistic data resources.