The Database of Cross-Linguistic Colexifications, reproducible analysis of cross-linguistic polysemies

Abstract

Advances in computer-assisted linguistic research have been greatly influential in reshaping linguistic research. With the increasing availability of interconnected datasets created and curated by researchers, more and more interwoven questions can now be investigated. Such advances, however, are bringing high requirements in terms of rigorousness for preparing and curating datasets. Here we present CLICS, a Database of Cross-Linguistic Colexifications (CLICS). CLICS tackles interconnected interdisciplinary research questions about the colexification of words across semantic categories in the world’s languages, and show-cases best practices for preparing data for cross-linguistic research. This is done by addressing shortcomings of an earlier version of the database, CLICS2, and by supplying an updated version with CLICS3, which massively increases the size and scope of the project. We provide tools and guidelines for this purpose and discuss insights resulting from organizing student tasks for database updates.

Authors

Christoph Rzymski, Tiago Tresoldi, Simon J. Greenhill, Mei-Shin Wu, Nathanael E. Schweikhard, Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm, Volker Gast, Timotheus A. Bodt, Abbie Hantgan, Gereon A. Kaiping, Sophie Chang, Yunfan Lai, Natalia Morozova, Heini Arjava, Nataliia Hübler, Ezequiel Koile, Steve Pepper, Mariann Proos, Briana Van Epps, Ingrid Blanco, Carolin Hundt, Sergei Monakhov, Kristina Pianykh, Sallona Ramesh, Russell D. Gray, Robert Forkel, Johann-Mattis List

Citation

Rzymski C, Tresoldi T, Greenhill SJ, Wu M-S, Schweikhard NE, Koptjevskaja-Tamm M, Gast V, et al. 2020. The Database of Cross-Linguistic Colexifications, Reproducible Analysis of Cross-Linguistic Polysemies. Scientific Data 7 (1): 1–12.

Published 13 January 2020

@article{Rzymski2020,
  title = {The Database of Cross-Linguistic Colexifications, reproducible analysis of cross-linguistic polysemies},
  author = {Rzymski, Christoph and Tresoldi, Tiago and Greenhill, Simon J. and Wu, Mei-Shin and Schweikhard, Nathanael E. and Koptjevskaja-Tamm, Maria and Gast, Volker and Bodt, Timotheus A. and Hantgan, Abbie and Kaiping, Gereon A. and Chang, Sophie and Lai, Yunfan and Morozova, Natalia and Arjava, Heini and Hübler, Nataliia and Koile, Ezequiel and Pepper, Steve and Proos, Mariann and Epps, Briana Van and Blanco, Ingrid and Hundt, Carolin and Monakhov, Sergei and Pianykh, Kristina and Ramesh, Sallona and Gray, Russell D. and Forkel, Robert and List, Johann-Mattis},
  journal = {Scientific Data},
  volume = {7},
  number = {1},
  publisher = {Springer Science and Business Media LLC},
  year = {2020},
  doi = {10.1038/s41597-019-0341-x},
  url = {https://simon.net.nz/articles/clics-reproducible-polysemies/},
}

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