Kirrkirr: A Java-based visualisation tool for XML dictionaries of Australian

Languages

Kevin JanszDepartment of Computer Science, University of Sydney, Australia

Christopher ManningComputer Science and Linguistics, Stanford University, USA

Nitin IndurkhyaSchool of applied Science, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Project Objectives providing innovative ways for representing a

dictionary, through creative use of the medium of computers

providing practical educationally useful programs as a result (at low labour cost)

examining the richness of lexical structure

Initial target: the Warlpiri dictionary.

Talk Outline The research agendas Kirrkirr: A Warlpiri dictionary browser The (XML) Lexical Database

– exploiting the strengths of XML– indexing XML data

Visualisation of Dictionary Content User studies

Research Program: Lexicon A language is more than individual words with a

definition– it is a vast network of associations between words and

within and across the concepts represented by words

The aim of this work is to provide people with a better understanding of this conceptual map.

Traditional paper dictionaries offer very limited ways for making such networks visible

On a computer, there are no such limitations to the way information can be displayed

Research: Computational Lexicography

Dictionaries on computers are now commonplace– But there has been little attempt to utilise the potential of

the new medium– Many present a plain, search-oriented representation of

the paper version

Goal: fun dictionary tools that are effective for language learning, browsing– Like flicking through pages of a paper dictionary – Difference is words are grouped by meaning rather than

spelling

MRD Structure The internal structures of current Machine Readable

Dictionaries (MRDs) usually merely mimic the structure of the printed form (Boguraev 1990)

Some work, notably WordNet (Miller 1995) has involved a fundamental rethinking of dictionary content and organisation (in WordNet, organisation via “synsets” which are related via links of part, subkind, opposite)

But there has been little in the way of software to make such research truly usable by different communities of users.

Initial focus: Warlpiri Warlpiri is an Australian Aboriginal language spoken

in the Tanami desert (NW of Alice) There are a number of factors influencing this choice:

– Rich lexical materials have been collected by linguists over decades (Ken Hale, MIT, from 1950’s) resulting in one of the most comprehensive lexical databases for any Australian Language

– There is a relatively large community of people interested in learning their traditional language

– Until now, results haven’t been produced in a format usable by the community (only raw printouts)

Educational goals Dictionary structure and usability are often dictated

by professional linguists, while the needs of others (speakers, semi-speakers, young users, second language learners) are not met

The low level of literacy in the region makes an e-dictionary potentially more useful than a paper edition– less dependent on good knowledge of spelling and

alphabetical order. – Making it fun and easy to use, and providing multimedia

content and the pronunciations of words is a considerable help as well.

Target user community

Kirrkirr: A Warlpiri dictionary browser

(Jansz 1998; Jansz, Manning and Indurkhya 1999)

An environment for the interactive exploration of dictionaries.

Although our current work has just been with Warlpiri, the design is general (Arrernte coming soon!)

Attempts to more fully utilise graphical interfaces, hypertext, multimedia, and different ways of indexing and accessing information

Written in Java, it can either be run over the web [high bandwidth] or run locally (here Java’s main advantage is cross-platform support).

Overview

Kirrkirr provides various modules Animated Graph layout of word relationships Formatted dictionary entries A notes facility for ‘jotting in the margin’ Multimedia: audio, pictures Advanced searching interfaces others in planning: formatting (XSL) editing, figuration

patterns, semantic domain browsing

These attempt to cater to users with different interests and competence levels

(Kirrkirr screen shot)

The lexical database Original materials are stored in an ad hoc format of

markup using backslash codes with some (rather odd) nesting of structural tags

These were converted to XML using an error-correcting stack-based parser (written in PERL).– The inconsistency and flexibility of dictionary entries actually

made this a surprisingly difficult task.– But parser tries to impose data integrity

Use of XML gives a clear structure to the lexical data, and makes available many (free) tools

XML XML separates the structure of the data from its

presentation Much of the recent enthusiasm for XML has centred

around representing simple and rigid structures such as database records

Dictionary entries are thoroughly suited to XML – rich hierarchical structure– entires vary greatly depending on the word being defined

Result remains a portable, tangible text file

Alternative: a standard database Has clear advantages: structure, indexing, query

language, relationships, integrity. Many people have suggested using a database for

lexical data and some have actually done it (IITLEX, Austin and Nathan)

But in general lexicographers oppose the rigidity, and, in practice, standard relational databases are quite ill-suited to dictionaries– Dictionary entries vary enormously in structure– A Database model is inflexible to extending the dictionary

structure– Lessens portability

Alternative: Object Databases Dictionary can be viewed as a set of entries (objects)

Problems: off-the-shelf products not widely accepted– retrieval via customised query languages– Proprietary storage formats reduce portability– ObjectStore, Versant, Objectivity the main big vendors– Restricted API places limits on extensibility– Generic object browsers not suitable for dictionaries

XML database Document Object Model widely accepted XML document can be searched and accessed XML tools such as XML Parsers, XSL processors are

freely available and easy to use Query languages on the way

– XQL: a recent (and evolving) W3C proposal for querying XML documents

XQL - Potential An alternative to investigate for the future is using a

standard query language – such as XQL – to get material out of the XML dictionary, rather than using our ad hoc index.

At the moment not a huge issue since most retrieval is focussed on components of a particular word

XQL standard not stable yet Very preliminary implementations from vendors

XML indexing - challenges Despite the various XML parsers available, it is

surprising that there has been little consideration in making single entries retrievable from the file

Present XML Parsers tend to put the entire XML document in memory (or its parsed tree form), before the data extraction process begins

This is not practical when parsing significant XML databases (e.g., the Warlpiri dictionary is approx. 10Mb).

XML Indexing - solutions The hierarchical structure of XML lends itself to

indexing, as each separate entry in the XML file can be considered as a separate entity

To make the Warlpiri dictionary usable for Kirrkirr an ad hoc indexing system was developed– Uses a slightly modified Ælfred XML parser– Entries are indexed by headword in a separate index file

The system returns an XML document object containing the single dictionary entry, facilitating:– processing for related words (Graph layout)– XSL processing to HTML

KirrkirrDictionary Browser

<DICTIONARY>

<ENTRY>...</ENTRY>

<ENTRY>...</ENTRY>

<ENTRY>...</ENTRY>

</DICTIONARY>

headword file positionheadword file positionheadword file position

XML Formatted Warlpiri dictionary file

Index in Memory

XML Parser

Across file system or web

Kirrkirr’s XML Index Process

XML Document Object

Kirrkirr Index Processing The use of the XML indexing process considerably

improves efficiency as only requested entries are parsed, hence conserving time and bandwidth

Once whole entries are parsed, they are kept temporarily in a cache

Thus Kirrkirr uses XML as a median between the structure and indexing of a relational database, with the freedom and functionality of text.

Visualisation of dictionary information

For dictionaries with simple textual content behind them, there is little that can be done but an on-line reflection of a printed page

We present much more than just definitions of words– we want to know their relationships to other words, and the

patterning in these relationships

In a computational approach, the program can mediate between the lexical data and the user

The interface can select from and choose how to present information (according to the user’s preferences) – in many different ways

Previous work Current systems present the search-dominated

interface of classic Information Retrieval systems: you type a word in a search box

Results try to mimic, but are generally inferior to, the printed version of the dictionary

But these systems do little to utilise the captivating qualities of computers: interactivity, user control and adaptability (Brown 1985).

Previous work (2) Search-oriented systems are only effective when

user has a clearly specified information need – even here, we are ignoring the distinction between information gained and knowledge sought (Sharpe 1995)

Lack browsing, and chances for incidental or curiosity driven learning

We wish to exploit the essence of hypertext, which is “click to explore” browsing

Graph-based visualisation There is a little previous work on graphical

representations of dictionaries For instance, the visual-thesaurus by plumbdesign

derived from WordNet But it is also a good demonstration of how chaotic

and confusing graphical interfaces can become.

Perils of visualisation

Graph-based visualisation

(Jansz 1998; Jansz, Manning and Indurkhya 1999) Classic graph layout problem Adapts work by Eades et al. (1998) and Huang et al.

(1998) on visualisation and navigation of WWW document linkages

Uses the spring algorithm. Big advantage is that it is an iterative updating algorithm, and so gives an easy interactivity:– it wiggles and people can play with it.

Clarity and simplicity of graph: Software maintains a set of focus nodes to prevent overcrowding

Educational advantages Alphabetical order is important, but A web of words offers other effective opportunities for

learning A student can opportunistically explore words that are

related in various ways Important semantic relationships can be understood

Kirrkirr network display

Kirrkirr network display

Formatted dictionary entries Are produced automatically from the XML by using

XSL (via James Clark’s XT) XSL allows easy modelling of some user preferences. Most trivially, one can leave out information such as

part of speech, or detailed definitions, which we do by providing several stylesheets to choose from

This is useful as many users find information overload quite confusing and demotivating

Can produce bilingual or monolingual dictionary Opportunities for various output styles, and formats

such as RTF or TeX for printing.

Formatted dictionary entries

Rich typology of link types The semantically rich types of linkages present in a

dictionary (synonym, antonym, hyponym, subheadword, variant, coverbs, …) solves one of the major problems of the web: we have many link types with a clear semantic interpretation

Use consistent colour-coded text and edges to show these link types

Gives a richer browsing experience Unlike HTML, you can tell where you are going

before clicking

Browsing Work (at PARC and elsewhere: Pirolli et al. 1996) has

stressed role for browsing as well as searching in information access

It provides a context for learning We provide browsing in several ways:

– network-based display of words

– conventional hypertext• but with rich semantically-interpreted links

• their colour-coding matches network edges

Other methods being investigated:– browsing through semantic domains

– deriving terminology sets (words that are used together in culturally important activities) automatically from text corpora

Other components Multimedia (currently pictures and audio)

– Can hear pronunciations - enables better understanding than phonetic symbols

– pictures of plants and animals are more intelligible than descriptions

– (future: videos of Warlpiri sign language …)

Advanced search page– search various fields,

regular expressions, fuzzy spelling etc.

Notes: one can annotate dictionary entries (to correct or personalise)

User study

Mim Corris (Yuendumu, Willowra)

Jane Simpson (Lajamanu) User testing with primary and (lower) secondary

students Observation of trainee Warlpiri literacy workers Comments from teachers, other adults etc. Purely qualitative observational study of dictionary

use. (Doing anything much else would be difficult.) Initial reactions are very enthusiastic Could use as a basis for classroom activities (better

with some further development: games and puzzles)

A positive anecdote“One of the introductory Warlpiri literacy students, who had not

been very interested in the literacy class, spent nearly 3/4 hour looking at Kirrkirr apparently in absorbed concentration. She wasn’t especially interested in the sound and picture possibilities. She moved between words, scrolling along the list, typing in the search, clicking on the words in the network pane. She wasn’t even put off when the dictionary definitions stopped appearing – looking at the networks of words instead. This is quite unlike her attitude to the backslash coded electronic dictionary (where she lost interest quickly because of the difficulty for her of narrowing down searches). After the Kirrkirr demo she asked if she could have a printed dictionary to take away with her to use in camp to learn the words. I interpret this as a desire to learn words in her own time and place.”

Conclusions Kirrkirr is just a prototype of what one can do to

develop new ways to visualise lexicons We have addressed the challenge of making

dictionary information usable in the creation of an application which mediates between well-structured data and users’ needs for searching/browsing and presentation

While we have focused our research on Warlpiri, the system can be easily applied to other languages

Conclusions (cont.) “... The best future applications of MRDs in

education will be those most able to respond to the insights and needs of their users” (Kegl 1995)

Kirrkirr can be seen as a step towards the future of e dictionaries

LinksLinks

• Kevin’s Thesis Homepage:http://www.cs.usyd.edu.au/~kjansz/thesis

• Kirrkirr homepage:http://www.sultry.arts.usyd.edu.au/kirrkirr

Kirrkirr: A Java-based visualisation tool for XML dictionaries of Australian

Languages

Kevin JanszDepartment of Computer Science, University of Sydney, Australia

Christopher ManningComputer Science and Linguistics, Stanford University, USA

Nitin IndurkhyaSchool of applied Science, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore