Typological Database System

Menzo Windhouwer

The Typological Database System (TDS) provides integrated access to multiple, independently created typological databases.

Users can query the aggregated databases through the system’s web server:

http://languagelink.let.uu.nl/tds/

The TDS was an NWO-supported LOT project, with participants from UvA, UiL-OTS, Leiden University and Nijmegen University

What is the TDS?

System architecture

TD

S W

orkbench

Importing

Transforming

Merging

Enriching

TDS data

Querying

Navigating and searching

Reasoning

offli

neon

line

Globaldomainontology

LocalDTL

specifications

meta data

component databases

Topic

taxonomy

Topic

taxonomy

Topic

taxonomy

Topic

taxonomy

DT

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gin

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60 &

BB

(Meta)data architecture

Domain expertDatabase developer TDS Knowledge engineer

Topic taxonomies(SKOS)

Global linguistic ontology(OWL)

Local database ontologies(DTL)

Database schemata(any DDL)

Can the TDS knowledge base be represented in the combination of the DCR and the RR?

Local (database) ontologies (DTL)

1. TOP NOTION tdn:locationalPredicates2. LABEL "Locational predicates"3. DESCRIPTION "Information concerning locational predicates, including form of,4. and conditions on, construction, and form of the negation."5. LINK TO CONCEPT locationalPredicate6. GROUPS {7. NOTION tdn:ZeroEncoding8. LABEL "Locational predicate is zero“9. LINK TO CONCEPT conditionsOnEncoding10. GROUPS {11. NOTION tdn:v168_Zero_plus_locative_prepositional_phrase12. LABEL "Locational predicate is zero + locative prepositional phrase"13. DESCRIPTION "The locational predicate is expressed without the use of14. an overt verb, but has a locative prepositional phrase."15. IS FIELD v16816. GROUPS WHEN "yes" {17. NOTION tdn:v169_Zero_for_present_only IS FIELD v169;18. NOTION tdn:v170_Zero_in_positive_sentences_only IS FIELD v170;19. }20. }21. }

Concept notion

Grouping notion

Field notion

Container data category

Container data category

Complex data category

The DTL also allows descriptions of values, i.e., specifies simple data categories.The DTL also specifies structural and semantic relationships.

Global (domain) ontology (OWL)

predicate

non-verbal predicate

adjectival ascriptive existential nominalidentity possessive locational

is-a

is-a

disjoint-with

spatial adverb

adpositional predicate

alias

tdn:locationalPredicates

LINK TO CONCEPT

Local ontology notion

Ontological relationships between concepts.

Data categories

Are these concepts also specified in the DCR, e.g., as concept data categories, or in the Relation Registry or …

predicate

non-verbal predicate

adjectival ascriptive existential nominalidentity possessive locational

DTL Structural relationships, i.e., nesting Semantic relationships, i.e., equivalence,

subset, superset, overlap with a concept OWL

Subsumption Loose synonomy Related phenomena Meronomy Determination Form-function

Relationship types

Are concepts included in the DCR/RR network?

Data Category Registry

Linguistic knowledge baseLinguistic resource (schema)Data categories

Containers

Concepts

Concept Registry

Relation

Relation Registry