Workpackage 2: Computational Linguistics

 

Executive Summary

 

WP2:  Second Year Accomplishments and Third Year Goals

 

In the past year, WP2 has focused its labor on the development of a multi-lingual information retrieval tool.  This tool has two primary components:

 

 1)  a facility to extract translation equivalents from our available digital corpora

 2) a user interface allowing users to construct their queries for a traditional

mono-lingual search engine. 

 

We created the core data for the query translation system using a program with a modular design that automatically extracts translation equivalents from any SGML or XML dictionary tagged in accordance with the guidelines of the Text Encoding Initiative or any other user defined DTD. After entering query terms in English, the user is presented with an interface with detailed information to allow them to construct the best translation of the word for their needs.  This process can range from the simple elimination of obvious ambiguities and mistakes to a careful consideration of every term.  The interface provides a list of translation equivalents for the word or words that the user entered along with an automatically abridged English definition of the word, a link to the full definition for each word, a list of authors who use the words, and data about the frequency of each word in works by the selected authors. We also experimented with automatic extraction of translation equivalents from the parallel Greek and Latin corpora of the Perseus Digital Library and met with only limited success.  The methodologies we used were based on work done with parallel corpora where all documents were of comparable size.  Because of the heterogenous nature of our corpora and the varying sizes of our available text chunks, we achieved far too many false positives in our results to be of any use to the average user.  We were more successful in implementing a query expansion routine that provides the user with possible suggestions of words that were not in their original query by automatically extracting related definitions from the TEI-conformant lexica.  This work was integrated with the results of WP1.  After a user uses the WP2 multi-lingual search tool to construct his or her query, it can be passed off to the mono-lingual visualization tool of WP1 for further study and refinement.

 

Our second year also saw the continuation of our efforts to capture feedback about the word study tool and re-integrate it into the database.  This took several forms including further editing of texts to achieve better extraction of parallel Greek and English text segments.  Our work here had overlap with the alignment work we attempted for the multi-lingual search tool.  Because we did not need to subject these texts segments to further statistical processing, our insertion of milestones was more successful for this purpose.   We also worked to reintegrate other forms of existing knowledge into our database by mapping the citation scheme of poetic works in older reference works such as the Liddell, Scott, Jones Greek English Lexicon to the more current and widely used standards established by the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae.    Finally, we continued work on the document architecture for the lexicon with a particular focus on transformations that will be appropriate for both the print edition and integration into the digital library system.

 

In our third year, we will turn our attention to our syntactic parsing toolbox.  In this phase, we will try to develop programs to discover selectional preferences and subcategorization frames for Greek verbs.  Our first step will be to develop an architecture that allows for detailed statistical analysis of sentences in Greek.  Our initial hypothesis is that we will be able to refine the interface that we developed for the vocabulary profile tools and then turn to the statistical analysis. 

 


 

 

Quarterly Progress Reports for Year 2

 

 

Cultural Heritage Language Technologies

 IST 2001-32745

 

June 1 August 31, 2003

 

Workpackage 2:Word Profile Tools

 

University of Missouri, Kansas City

Faculty of Classics, Cambridge University

 

Bruce Fraser

Jeffrey A. Rydberg-Cox

A.A. Thompson

 

 

 

1. Summary of key indicators of project progress

 

1.1  Overview of objectives

 

The practical tools under development in Workpackage 2 can be divided into three groups:

 

1) Multi-lingual retrieval facilities for digital library systems (DLSs).

2) Vocabulary profile tools for texts and corpora (in DLSs).

3) Syntactic parsing tools for Greek texts.

 

1.2  Overall assessment of main milestones, results, or deliverables

 

            Our first year was focused on the development of the vocabulary profile tools and the integration of user feedback.  Work in this area has continued in this period with a continued focus on problems of document architecture and establishing unique identifiers for documents in the system.  At the same time,  we began work on the Multi-Lingual information retrieval facilities.  Our next deliverable in this area is a multi-lingual thesaurus that has been automatically extracted from our parallel corpora.   Our initial focus has been on data structures for aligning our parallel corpora and the most appropriate algorithms for our use.

 

 

2. Work Progress Overview

 

            2.1 Specific objectives for the reporting period

 

We have had three specific objectives for this reporting period. 

 

1.  To continue working on the document architecture for the lexicon with a particular focus on transformations that will be appropriate for both the print edition and integration into the digital library system. 

 

2.  To continue developing a mechanism that will allow for better integration of pre-existing expert knowledge into the word profile tool, with a particular emphasis on mapping the citation scheme of poetic works in older reference works such as the Liddell, Scott, Jones Greek English Lexicon to the more current and widely used standards established by the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae. 

 

3.  Preliminary work for D2.3: Tool to Extract Corpus Based Thesauri from Corpora.

 

2.2 Achievements

 

Document Architecture:

 

The architecture of the Greek lexicon needed to have a design which is suitable for both the print edition and the digitized version. The development of a dedicated document structure or Document Type Definition (DTD) was described in the Progress Report for February-March 2003. However, the individual documents also need to be linked into a unified system which allows for a wide variety of textual interrogation, and they also require suitable XSL transformations for display in the print and digital versions. Document linking is described briefly first.

 

Linking documents:

 We initially contemplated the 'XLink' system, which uses a single file which contains all the links for the entire lexicon, in the form:

 

<interlink>

<fromPoint href="Filename.xml#ID_OfSomeElementOrAnchor" />

<toPoint href="OtherFilename.xml#ID_OfThingToLinkTo" />

<go />

</interlink>

 

However, we decided that it was possible to link documents in a more straightforward structure, through direct HREF linking between the documents, with all external linking achieved with the 'headword' of an entry as the target. This created a much simpler architecture.

 

Each document may also contain a number of document-internal links, using attributes to the elements <RefFm>, <RefVL>, and <Form>. Of these, <Form> points to the HL within a single entry. <RefVL> and <RefFm> occur only within cross-reference entries, and refer to a variant or other form of the headword, within whichever entry is the target of the <Ref> element.

 

The <Ref> element always refers to a headword, and its attribute carries the only HREF link which can point to a target headword external to the  document. Every document in the lexicon carries a unique identifier, and the headwords that appear in it carry a 'name' attribute (applied during production). We anticipate that this structure, in conjunction with the finely-structured DTD, will support a wide variety of textual interrogation.

 

XSL transformations

 

It is desirable to have a high-quality display, both for feedback during the authoring process, and also for reader use, since the lexicon is so densely formatted, using Greek, italic, bold and bracketted text. We especially wish to avoid the almost unreadable texts of some earlier classical-language dictionaries. We are therefore using XSL-FO transformations, which are capable of generating print-quality output, with precise determination of text detail, as well as whitespace, indents, and other aspects of the overall appearance of the document.  The transformations are still in the process of development. The output so far achieved is exemplified by the PDF file included here as an appendix (see Annex 2). An extract from the coding is given here:

 

<!-- ***** fo:page-sequence mode ***** -->

<!-- Creates fo:page-sequence elements -->

 

<xsl:template match="lex:lexicon" mode="fo:page-sequence">

  <fo:page-sequence master-reference="lexicon-page-sequence">

    <xsl:apply-templates select="." mode="fo:title" />

    <xsl:apply-templates select="." mode="fo:static-content" />

    <xsl:apply-templates select="." mode="fo:flow" />

  </fo:page-sequence>

</xsl:template>

 

<!-- ***** fo:title mode ***** -->

<!-- Creates a fo:title element -->

 

<xsl:template match="lex:lexicon" mode="fo:title">

  <fo:title>

    <xsl:value-of select="lex:header/lex:file/lex:title" />

  </fo:title>

</xsl:template>

 

<!-- ***** fo:static-content mode ***** -->

<!-- Creates fo:static-content elements -->

 

<xsl:template match="lex:lexicon" mode="fo:static-content">

  <fo:static-content flow-name="running-head-recto">

    <xsl:apply-templates select="lex:header" mode="fo:static-content" />

  </fo:static-content>

  <fo:static-content flow-name="running-head-verso">

    <xsl:apply-templates select="lex:header" mode="fo:static-content">

      <xsl:with-param name="side" select="'left'" />

    </xsl:apply-templates>

  </fo:static-content>

  <!--

  <fo:static-content flow-name="footer">

    <fo:block>Footer</fo:block>

  </fo:static-content>

  -->

</xsl:template>

 

<xsl:template match="lex:header" mode="fo:static-content">

  <xsl:param name="side" select="'right'" />

  <fo:block xsl:use-attribute-sets="lex:normal-font lex:italic-font"

            font-size="9pt" text-align="{$side}"

            space-before="{$fo:region-before-extent} - 11pt"

            border-bottom="0.5pt solid black">

    <xsl:value-of select="lex:file/lex:title" />

    <xsl:text> </xsl:text>

    <xsl:value-of select="lex:file/lex:date" />

  </fo:block>

</xsl:template>

 

<!-- ***** fo:flow mode ***** -->

<!-- Creates a fo:flow element -->

 

<xsl:template match="lex:lexicon" mode="fo:flow">

  <fo:flow flow-name="xsl-region-body"

           font-size="8.5pt" line-height="10pt"

           text-align="start">

    <xsl:apply-templates select="lex:text" mode="fo:block" />

  </fo:flow>

</xsl:template>

 

<!--

<xsl:template match="lex:AdvUsg | lex:Alt | lex:Ann | lex:Au |

                     lex:Case | lex:Cllc | lex:Cmpl | lex:Ctxt |

                     lex:Def | lex:Deg | lex:DInfl | lex:DL |

                     lex:Ed | lex:Encyc | lex:Envr | lex:Ety | lex:Extra |

                     lex:Form | lex:Func |

                     lex:GLbl | lex:Gntv | lex:Gr |

                     lex:HL |

                     lex:Indic | lex:Infl | lex:ital |

                     lex:Lbl | lex:LblR |

                     lex:Md |

                     lex:Obj |

                     lex:Prnth | lex:PrPhr | lex:PrpUsg | lex:Prsd | lex:PS |

                     lex:QualN |

                     lex:RefFm |

                     lex:Spec | lex:Subj | lex:Summ |

                     lex:title | lex:Tns | lex:Tr | lex:TrPhr |

                     lex:Usg |

                     lex:Vc | lex:VInfl | lex:VL |

                     lex:Wk |

                     lex:XR" mode="fo:inline">

  <xsl:text> </xsl:text>

  <xsl:apply-imports />

</xsl:template>

 

<xsl:template match="lex:Lbl" mode="fo:inline">

  <xsl:text> </xsl:text>

  <xsl:apply-imports />

  <xsl:text> </xsl:text>

</xsl:template>

-->

<!--

<xsl:template match="*[not(preceding-sibling::node())] |

                     lex:hyph | lex:Hm" mode="fo:inline">

  <xsl:apply-imports />

</xsl:template>

 

<xsl:template match="*" mode="fo:inline">

  <xsl:text> </xsl:text>

  <xsl:apply-imports />

</xsl:template> -->

 

(See also Annex 2.)

 

Integration of Expert Knowledge:

 

The development of the word profile tool has faced two major interrelated problems in the integration of primary textual data. The first is that the corpus is not static: new textual information is continually being discovered, especially in the Oxyrhynchus papyri, which have been published regularly since 1898, with approximately another 40 volumes due to appear. The second is that Ancient Greek poetic texts have been edited using multiple citation systems, many of which were devised in the nineteenth century.

 

A binary search procedure was designed to overcome both problems. The Perseus morphological analyzer can search throughout all relevant textual databases in the DLS, including newly-digitized texts as they become available. This will be particularly useful for Hellenistic (post-classical) Greek texts, where many important new discoveries are being made.

 

The second problem, of multiple citation systems, is especially severe for early lyric poets such as Sappho, whose works are preserved mostly in fragmentary state. Therefore, as well as the equivalence tables described in the Progress Report for June-November 2002, we have also built tables for the poets, which will be integrated in the search software. The morphological analyzer can then conduct separate searches which are restricted to passages cited in reference works such as the Liddell and Scott Greek Lexicon (LSJ), and match the old citations to the digitized texts. Outputs from the two types of searches can then be used for scholarly research, in tandem or separately.

 

The equivalence tables will also have a more general reference use for classical literary and linguistic studies, as they will enable readers of LSJ and other reference works to identify passages in the modern editions. They will therefore also be published in print form.

 

An extract from the introduction to the human-readable version follows. See also a sample from the table, included as Annex 1.

 

[Extract from Introduction begins]

When using the Greek-English Lexicon of Liddell-Scott-Jones (LSJ), readers face the problem that many citations of the early Greek poets are to editions which are out of print and have been superseded by more recent works which give different numbers to the fragments. Although their comparationes numerorum provide helpful 'back bearings' to the earlier editions, they do not constitute a fast method of linking from citations in LSJ to the texts. In addition, users of the Thesaurus linguae Graecae (TLG) CD-ROM may have no access to them, and citations in Montanari and the DGE cannot always be matched to LSJ. The authors and works covered are summarized below, grouped approximately by genre.

 

 Lyric and iambic poets

 

Mappings are given for Alcaeus, Alcman, Anacreon, Archilochus, Bacchylides, Callimachus (Aet., Epigr., Hec., Iambi, fragments), Carmina popularia, Corinna, Hipponax, Ibycus, Ion, Lyrica adespota (in Page PMG listed as Fragmenta adespota), Philoxenus, Pindar (Paeanes, Parthenia, Dithyrambi), Praxilla, Sappho, Scolia (Carmina convivalia in PMG), Simonides, Stesichorus, Timocreon, and Timotheus.

 

Epigrams

 

Epigrams by lyric and iambic poets are included in their listings. Citations from the Anthology (AP, APl., and App.Anth.) retain the same numbering in most modern editions, apart from the collections of Gow & Page, whose indexes are cited. 

 

 

Bucolic and elegiac poets

 

Poets are not included if their early numbering is retained in modern editions. These authors include: Callinus, Demodocus, Mimnermus, Moschus, Pratinas, Semonides, Solon, Theocritus, and Tyrtaeus. However, the fragments of Bion are mapped, and the division of Theognis into Books 1 and 2 is given.

 

Epic fragments:

 

Citations of epic fragments in old editions are mostly from Allen, and sometimes from Kinkel. Mappings from both are given for Cypria, Epigoni, Il.Parv., Il.Pers., Nosti, and Titanomachia. For Hesiodic fragments, readers are directed to the concordance in Merkelbach-West.
Comic fragments

 

While most fragments of Aristophanes and Menander have the same numbering in old and new editions, much new material has been discovered, and fragments have been extensively renumbered. References are given to Kassel-Austin's PCG III.2 (for Aristophanes) and VI.2 (Menander). For Menander, mappings are given for line numbers of named plays, and for fragments which appear in Sandbach.

 

Philosophical fragments

 

Old editions cite from Diels Vorsokr. or PPF. As the same numbering is retained in Diels & Kranz and KRS, it is not given here. The editions are cited in the bibliography.

 

Tragic fragments

 

Citations of Aeschylus and Sophocles have the same numbering in most editions, so these are cited, and mappings are given to Diggle TGFS. Mappings are also given for citations of Aeschylus from Weir Smyth AJP, and, for Euripides, from Arnim to Page Select Papyri, Bond, and Diggle Phaeth.

 

[Extract from Introduction ends. See also Annex 1].

 

 

Preliminary Work for D2.3: Tool to Extract Corpus Based Thesauri from Corpora

 

Work on Deliverable 2.3, a tool to extract a corpus based thesaurus from our parallel corpus of Greek and Latin texts focused in two areas.  First, we looked at document architecture to allow for more precise alignment of texts.  The Perseus Text Display system can display parallel segments of Greek and Latin texts but the level of granularity is very high.  The only map points available are the ones defined by the <div> or <milestone> tags and declared in the <refsdecl> tag of the TEI header.  While this mechanism is appropriate for works such as Greek Rhetoric where the standard citation system is usually no more than a paragraph or two, it is less appropriate for poetry and drama where milestones might be 200 or more lines apart and the div structure might present entire scenes from a play.  Therefore, we have developed a system for automatic text alignment that takes advantage of a facility in the Perseus text display system that allows us to get a precise citation that includes a line number for the beginning of any particular sentence.  For example, a display chunk of book 1 of Homers Iliad in our system will offer parallel translations of lines 33 to 65 but it is possible to use the byte-offset in the XML file to discover that the sentence ennmar men ana straton icheto kla theoio begins at line 53.   Our approach, therefore, for texts structured with line numbers like this one is to get the citation information for every sentence in both the Greek and English version of the texts, round the line number down to the nearest 10 and then use that citation as an alignment point for chunks of text.    This data is stored in a SQL database with the following structure:

Attribute |  Type   | Modifier

-----------+---------+----------

 sennum    | integer |

 docid     | text    |

 tail      | text    |

 lang      | text    |

 senid     | text    |

 senlen    | text    |

 toplevel  | text    |

 cit       | text    |

 dcit      | text    |

 

Where dcit is the rounded citation for each sentence.  We then select all of the sentences from the Greek and English versions of the text with the same dcit value and use the resulting sentences as the basis to calculate possible translation equivalents.

The second portion of this work has focused on evaluating approaches that will be successful for texts written in Greek, Latin, and Old Norse.  We have focused our investigations on three different equations, a Chi-squared test, a t-score and a mutual information score.  In our initial investigations, the chi-squared test appears the most promising since mutual information scores are highly sensitive to variation in words that occur with relatively low frequencies.  Similarly and t-scores assume the normal distribution of probabilities of words occurring together and Zipfs law shows that this assumption is not true.  At this point, work is proceeding with the chi-squared test as we develop the multi-lingual thesaurus tool.

                        2.2.2 Progress of Workpackage/Tasks

 

We are on track to deliver D2.3 on time.

 

 

                        2.3.2 Work planned for next reporting period

 

Continued work on multi-lingual information retrieval tool and document architecture issues.  Completion of the citation scheme map and its integration into the word study tool.

 


 

            3.1 Co-operation within the consortium, including project meetings

 

Project meeting in Cambridge between the three project members JRC, BLF and AAT, 9-10 June, 2003.

 

Consortium liaison meeting in London, with representatives of all participating institutions, 12 June, 2003.

 

            3.2 Participation in workshops, conferences, publications

 

PUBLICATIONS:

"Automatic Disambiguation of Latin Abbreviations in Early Modern Texts for Humanities Digital Libraries" in Proceedings of the 2003 Joint Conference on Digital Libraries"

 

"Towards a Cultural Heritage Digital Library" (with members of the Perseus Project) in Proceedings of the 2003 Joint Conference on Digital Libraries

 

CONFERENCES:

Joint Conference on Digital Libraries, Houston Texas, May 28 June 2, 2003.

 


Annex 1: Equivalence Table for poetic texts (extract):

 


Carm.Pop. = CARMINA POPULARIA  TLG 0295, 001

(Bergk III pp.654-88 to PMG pp.449-470; GL V pp.232-269.)

 

LSJ                  PMG

 

1                      3          849

2                      34        880

3          PMG, Fr.adesp. 37 = 955

4                      26        872

5                      33        879

6                      25        871

7-8                   5          851

9                      31        877

10                    16        862

11                    33        879

12                    14        860

13                    1          847

14                    17        863

15                    20        866

16                    19        865

17                    18        864

18                    24        870

19                    6          852

20                    30        876

21                    30        876

22A     30        876

22B     15        861

23                    22        868

24                    4          850

25                    35        881

26                    13        859

27                    7          853

28        IEG II p.11, Adesp.eleg. 17

            (TLG 0234, 001 Elegiaca adespota)

29        Ath. 10.455D (83, 2-3)

30        Tryphon p.193, 18

31        Ath. 10.453B (78, 22)

32        Ath. 10.453B (78, 23)

33        Ath. 10.455D (83, 8)

34        IEG II p.93, Panarces (a)

35        Plu. Quom.adul. 54 B 6

36-38   Ath. 14.648F (60, 10-20)

 

 

 

LSJ                  PMG

 

39                    28        874

40        IEG II p.8, Adesp.eleg. 7

(TLG 0234, 001 Elegiaca adespota)

41                    2          848

42                    36        882

43                    23        869

44                    27        873

45                    21        867

46-47   Coll.Alex. pp.173, 138

 

Corinn. = CORINNA Lyr.

TLG 0294, 001

(Bergk III pp.543-53 to PMG pp.325-45; GL IV pp.18-69.)

 

LSJ citations marked "Corinn.Supp." are given separately.

 

LSJ                  PMG

 

1                      5                      658

2                      9                      662

3                      20                    673

4                      10                    663

5                      8                      661

6                      6                      659

7                      3                      656

8                      16                    669

9                      4                      657

10                    11                    664

11                    13                    666

12                    31                    684

13                    2                      655

14                    22                    675

15                    22                    675

16                    22                    675

17                    22                    675

18                    22                    675

19                    7                      660

20                    2                      655

21                    11                    664

22                    25                    678

23                    21                    674

24                    24                    677

25                    26                    679

26                    23                    676

27                    33                    686

28                    1                      654

29                    15                    668

30                    17                    670

31                    18                    671

32                    12                    665

33                    19                    672

34                    35                    688

35                    27                    680

36                    28                    681

37                    29                    682

38                    30                    683

40                    32                    685

41                    34                    687

42                    36                    689

 

Corinn.Supp.

 

LSJ                  PMG

 

1          1 (a) col. 1       654 (a), col. 1

2          1 (a) col. 3       654 (a) col. 3

 

Cypr. = CYPRIA

TLG 1296, 001 (Bernab)

Allen 118-125, Kinkel 15-32, Davies, Bernab, West.

 

Allen   K.        Davies Bernab           West

 

1          1                      1                      1                      1

2                                  2                      2                      2         

3          2                      3                      3                      4

4          3                      4                      4                      5         

5          4                      5                      5                      6         

6          5                      6                      8                      9

7          6                      7                      9                      10

8          7                      9                      11                    15

10                                12                    13                    12

11        9                      13                    15                    16

12        8                      11                    14                    14

13        10                    15                    17                    18

14        11        p.75, 4             21                    19

15        12                    17                    24                    20

16        13        p.160, 4           25                    21

17        14                    18                    26                    22

18        15                    21                    27                    23

19        16                    22                    28                    24

20                    17        19                                29                    26

21                    18        20                                30                    27

22                    19        23                                31                    28

23                    20        24                                18                    29

24                    21        26                                32                    30

25                    22        25                                33                    31

26                    p.52.n.                         34

 

Epigoni

TLG 1351, 001 (Bernab)

Allen 115, Kinkel 13-14, Davies, Bernab, West.

 

Allen   K.        Davies             Bernab           West

 

1                      1                      1                      1                                  1

2                      2          p.74, 1             5                                  3

3                      3                      2                      2                                  5

4                      4                      3                      3                                  4

 

E. = EURIPIDES Trag.

TLG 0006

Most frr. in LSJ are from Nauck, and retain the same numbers in TLG (as work 020). They include most of the passages in Diggle Phaeth. (many of which also appear as TLG work 023).

 

Frr. collected in CCL have Nauck numbers in the text and apparatus, and follow Diggle for Phaeth.

Recent frr. appear in Austin, and in the collections of Jouan-Looy (who cite the numbering of Kannicht and Mette 'E.'), and Kannicht.

 

Frr. are organised in four groups: from Nauck to Diggle, Hyps., other named plays, and plays cited only in the LSJ Authors and Works listing.

 

1) Frr. from Nauck to page numbers in Diggle TGFS:          

 

Nauck                                                              Diggle TGFS

 

187; 206                                                          pp.85-6

228                                                                                         94

282                                                                                          96

285; 286; 292                                      98-100

360                                                                              101

362                                                                              104

453                                                                              114

472; 997                                                         115-6

484; 494; 495; 499                              122-4

506                                                                              127

670                                                                              131

752                                                                              135

771; 772                                                          151

777-9; 781                                                       156-7

821                                                                              162

819                                                                              165

839                                                                              166

898; 910; 912                                      167-9

 

2) E.Hyps. is mapped from Hunt to Bond (TLG work 026). LSJ cites variably by fr., sometimes column, and line. See also CCL II, Jouan-Looy 3 pp.176-223.

 

LSJ                                                                  Bond

 

1                                                                      I i

1 ii                                                                   I ii

I iii                                                                   I iii

I iv                                                                   I iv                              

3 (1) or 3 (1) i                         I i

3 ii or 3 (1) ii                           I ii

iii or 3 iii                                             I iii

3 (1) iv or

5 or 5 (3)                                             I iv

7 or 9                                                  7

16 (18)                                                18

32 or 32 (58)                           58

34 or 34 (60)

            or 34 (60) i                              60

41 or 41 (64)                           64

44                                                                    70

57                                                                    57

60 or 60 i                                            60

64                                                                    64

 

3) Other named plays (marked with an asterisk in the LSJ Authors and Works listing) are cited from Arnim. The letter 'A' is sometimes appended (details below). Most appear in Page Select Papyri (TLG work 029).

 

E.Antiop. is usually cited by papyrus column A or B (mostly preceded by ii or iv respectively) and line number, with 'A', 'Arn.', or 'Arnim' following. Occasionally, Arnim page numbers are given. See also CCL II, Jouan-Looy 1 pp.240-274.

 

Arnim                                                              Page

 

ii A 7 A                                   (Nauck fr.185, 3)

iv B (line) A

(or Arn. or Arnim)                             fr.10

B 58 p.21 A                                        fr.10, 58

p.21 A                                                             fr.10, 66

 

(Other fragments from column A are collected in Nauck as frr.179, 181,

183-221, and also appear in Arnim).

 

E.Cret. (Also see CCL I,

Jouan-Looy 2 pp.322-32.)

(line)                                                    fr.11

 

E.Melanipp.Capt.

(CCL I, Jouan-Looy 2 pp.384-96.)

Fr.6.11                                                            fr.13, 7

 

E.Melanipp.Sap.

(CCL I, Jouan-Looy 2 pp.376-384.)

Prol.15                                                            fr.14, 15

 

E.Oen.

(Jouan-Looy 2 pp.468-75.)

p.39 A or  fr.4 A                     fr.28

 

(Other frr. from Arnim - p.39 fr.6, p.39 fr.5 and p.40 fr.6 - are collected in TLG as work 030.)

 

E.Pirith.Oxy.2078

Fr.1.14                                                fr.15a, 8

 

E.Sthen.

(CCL I, Jouan-Looy 3 pp.22-7.)

Prol.25                                                            fr.16, 18

Prol.35                                                            fr.16, 28

p.44A                                                  fr.16, 18

 

4) Despite the Authors and works listing, E.Archel. is not cited by LSJ. The passage in Arnim is published by Austin as fr.19 (TLG work 021). See also CCL II, Jouan-Looy 1 pp.292-307.

 

Frr. from E.Phath. are collected in Diggle Phaeth. (TLG work 023). They are cited in LSJ only by Nauck fragment numbers, which are given here, with the other passages in Arnim, matched to Diggle. (See also CCL I, Jouan-Looy 3 pp.248-67.)

 

Nauck              Arnim                          Diggle

 

fr.771  p.67, 1-5                                 1-5

fr.772  p.68, 6-7                                 6-7

                        pp.68-9, 1-37              8-43

fr.773  pp.69-72, 1-77                        44-120

fr.774  p.72, 86-8                               124-6

                        pp.72-3, 89-118                      127-57

fr.775                                                              158-9

fr.776                                                              164-7

fr.777                                                              163

fr.779  p.73, 1-10                               168-77

pp.74-5, 1-35            178-213

fr.781  pp.75-6, 1-37              214-250

fr.783                                                              160-2

pp.76-8, 42-79                      251-88

pp.78-9, 1-39            289-32

 

FRAGMENTA ADESPOTA

See Lyrica adespota

 

Hes.Fr. = HESIODUS Epic.

TLG 0020, 004, 007

Rzach to Merkelbach-West (comparatio pp.227-229).

 


Hippon. = HIPPONAX Iamb.

TLG 0233, 001

(Bergk II pp.460-500, to IEG I pp.109-171, Degani; GIP pp.342-499.)

 

LSJ                  IEG I                           Degani

 

1                      3; 3a                            1 + 2

2                      4; 4a                            3

3                      2                                              4a

4                      5                                              26

5                      6                                              6

6                      7                                              27

7                      8                                              28

8                      9                                              29

9                      10                                            30

10                    136                                          144

11                    95a                                          19

12                    15                                            18

13                    1                                              187 + 17

14                    12                                            20

15                    42                                            7

16                    32                                            42a

17                    32                                            42b

18                    32                                            42b

19                    34                                            43

20                    36                                            44

21A     35                                            10

21B     23                                            11

22A     43                                            5

22B     44                                            45

23                    24                                            9

24                    148a                            13

25                    173                                          14

26                    118a                            15

27                    142                                          16

28                    64                                            215

29                    68                                            66

30                    38                                            47

31                    25                                            35

32                    47                                            51


 

[End of Equivalence Table extract]


 

Cultural Heritage Language Technologies

 IST 2001-32745

 

September 1, 2003 November 30, 2003

 

Workpackage 2: Word Profile Tools

 

University of Missouri, Kansas City

Faculty of Classics

Cambridge University

 

Bruce Fraser

Jeffrey A. Rydberg-Cox

A.A. Thompson

 

 

 

1. Summary of key indicators of project progress

 

1.1  Overview of objectives

 

The practical tools under development in Workpackage 2 can be divided into three groups:

1) Multi-lingual retrieval facilities for digital library systems (DLSs).

2) Vocabulary profile tools for texts and corpora (in DLSs).

3) Syntactic parsing tools for Greek texts.

 

 

1.2  Overall assessment of main milestones, results, or deliverables

 

In this period, our work has focused most intensively on the development of our multi-lingual information retrieval tool.  Our primary focus has been research into methods for the extraction of translation equivalents for our multi-lingual information retrieval tool.  We have a few methods already implemented and this research continues in the current period.  We have also developed a base user interface for the tool that will be further refined in the next period. 

 

2. Work Progress Overview

 

            2.1 Specific objectives for the reporting period

 

We have had two specific objectives for this reporting period. 

 

1.  To develop a system to automatically extract translation equivalents from parallel corpora

 

2.  To develop an initial user interface for the multi-lingual IR tool.

 

 

            2.2 Achievements

 

Our achievements in this work are best explained by excerpts from an article written by members of the CHLT consortium that is currently under review with the Joint Conference on Digital Libraries.

 

Cross-lingual information retrieval is a particularly intriguing technology for students and scholars of Ancient and Early-Modern Greek and Latin or Old Norse.  Works written in these languages are extremely important for understanding our literary, scientific, and intellectual heritage, but these languages are difficult and few people know them well.  In particular, this technology can be extremely useful for non-specialist scholars and students who are somewhat familiar with these languages, but who do not know enough to form a mono-lingual query for a search engine.  Students of Ancient Greek literature, for example, might want to know more about the quality of cunning intelligence that is admired and exemplified in the character of Odysseus in Homers Odyssey.  Because this quality is multifaceted, it would be very difficult for readers to formulate a query for this type of passage if they were working only with an English translation of the text; they must rely on the consistency of the translator. A cross-lingual information system, on the other hand, would help students identify key phrases  such as the Greek word for cunning intelligence, metis and then study the passages where they appear.

 

Such a system is, of course, only the beginning.  At best, it can identify passages that need further study and translation since a user who cannot formulate a query probably cannot easily read  the text in its original language either.  While a great deal of work has been done on these sorts of systems in venues  such as the Cross Lingual Evaluation Forum (CLEF) and the Translingual Information and Detection program (TIDES), their focus has largely been on business journals, newswires, and national security applications.  Our work has focused on evaluating how the needs of students and scholars in the humanities differ from those in other domains and developing a system to meet these needs.

 

The problem of multi-lingual information retrieval is essentially one of machine translation on a very small scale.  There have been two dominant approaches to this problem:  1)  dictionary translation using machine-readable multi-lingual dictionaries and 2) automatic extraction of possible translation equivalents by statistical analysis of parallel or comparable corpora.

 

Dictionary translation is a low-cost search technology that translates queries by substituting each word in a query with translations automatically derived from the machine-readable dictionary.  This approach by itself is not very good, achieving results that are only 40-60% as effective as a mono-lingual search.  The primary problems of this approach are related to the introduction of extraneous words and ambiguity into the query due to the multiple senses contained in most dictionary entries, the failure of most machine-readable dictionaries to account for technical terms in a consistent way, and the loss of important fixed phrases. 

 

Automatic extraction of translation equivalents from parallel or comparable corpora introduces similar sorts of ambiguity and carries two additional problems: 1) these corpora can be extremely expensive to produce, and 2) these automatically extracted translation equivalents are most effective in restricted domains. 

 

The needs and nature of our user community of students and scholars in a humanities digital library suggest that we can profitably adopt both of these approaches if we take appropriate steps to reduce query ambiguity.  The nature of the corpus of Ancient Greek and Latin and Old Norse texts makes it ideal for this project, as it is highly domain specific within some broad parameters. Further, the corpus itself is very stable, so the cost of creating a parallel corpus is finite and the investment, once made, would have lasting value for students and scholars in its field.  At the same time, these ancient languages have been highly studied and thus can benefit from the work of scholars who have developed comprehensive unabridged lexica as well as domain specific dictionaries for both fields of discourse and specific authors. 

 

The information-seeking behaviors of the people who use digital resources in these languages also inform our approach.  Students and scholars of ancient languages are almost a hyper-fit for the profile of a user of a multi-lingual information retrieval facility.  Very few specialists are trained to write and speak Greek, Latin, or Old Norse; advanced training for the most part focuses on reading these languages.  This focus on reading, however, means that the user community is trained in a philological approach that focuses on the use of small families of words and that is attuned to the shades of overlapping meanings of different words.  The example in the introduction of a scholar studying cunning intelligence is not random but drawn from a book-length study of the word metis.  Further, even the most skilled readers of ancient languages are well versed in the use of reference works such as grammars and dictionaries and accustomed to using them regularly as they read.  Classicist Martin Mueller describes the user community as follows:  Very few readers know ancient Greek well enough to read it without frequent recourse to a dictionary or grammar, and because of their highly specialized interests, the few readers who can do so are likely to be particularly intensive users of such reference works. 

 

The nature of our user community means that they are well equipped to help translate their query into the target language as long as they are provided with tools to help them in this process. In 1972, Salton demonstrated that with carefully constructed query expansion thesauri, multi-lingual information retrieval tools could be as effective as mono-lingual tools ([13]).  The information retrieval community has, however, eschewed Saltons arguments for hand- constructed query expansion thesauri in favor of solutions that are more general and domain independent  (i.e. [5], [8]).  Saltons carefully constructed thesauri are still expensive but this is an expense that can reasonably be shifted to each end user at query time for humanities applications. A tool that helps them give feedback during the query translation process allows users to construct their own ad hoc  query expansion thesauri, thus facilitating the construction of a query that is most useful for their needs.  This approach does not preclude automatic disambiguation methods; as we will demonstrate below, we have developed a user feedback mechanism with tools to help end-users translate queries including easy access to machine readable dictionaries and several query-specific statistical measures that assist users identification of relevant search terms. 

 

The search facility begins with a simple interface that allows users to enter their search terms in English, to select the sources that will be used for query translation, and to restrict their results to words that appear in works written by a particular author.

 

Figure 1:  Query Entry Screen

Several of the options presented to the user in this phase are integrated with the larger digital library system and designed to scale up as new texts and reference works are added.  The system for dictionary translation is based on a piece of middleware with a modular design that automatically extracts translation equivalents from any SGML or XML dictionary tagged in accordance with the guidelines of the Text Encoding Initiative or any other user defined DTD.  The author list restrictions are generated from the cataloging metadata from the digital library. 

 

After entering query terms, the user is presented with an interface with detailed information to allow them to construct the best translation of the word for their needs.  This process can range from the simple elimination of obvious ambiguities and mistakes to a careful consideration of every term.  The interface provides a list of translation equivalents for the word or words that the user entered along with an automatically abridged English definition of the word, a link to the full definition for each word, a list of authors who use the words, and data about the frequency of each word in works by the selected authors. 

Figure 2:  Query Translation Screen

            2.2.1 List of Deliverables

 

D2.3: Tool to Extract Corpus Based Thesauri from Corpora:  available on-line at http://icarus.umkc.edu/mlir/mlir1.php

 

            2.2.2 Progress of Workpackage/Tasks

 

We are on track to deliver D2.4 on time.

 

            2.2.3 Work planned for next reporting period

 

Continued work on multi-lingual information retrieval tool with a particular focus on query expansion, development of translation equivalents based on Chi2 scores, and integration of this tool with the visualization tool developed under WP1.

 


            3.2 Co-operation within the consortium, including project meetings

 

Consortium liaison meeting in Kansas City, with representatives of all participating institutions, November  2003.

 

_______________________________________________________________________

 

Annex 1: Equivalence Table for poetic texts (extract):

 


Carm.Pop. = CARMINA POPULARIA  TLG 0295, 001

(Bergk III pp.654-88 to PMG pp.449-470; GL V pp.232-269.)

 

LSJ                  PMG

 

1                      3          849

2                      34        880

3          PMG, Fr.adesp. 37 = 955

4                      26        872

5                      33        879

6                      25        871

7-8                   5          851

9                      31        877

10                    16        862

11                    33        879

12                    14        860

13                    1          847

14                    17        863

15                    20        866

16                    19        865

17                    18        864

18                    24        870

19                    6          852

20                    30        876

21                    30        876

22A     30        876

22B     15        861

23                    22        868

24                    4          850

25                    35        881

26                    13        859

27                    7          853

28        IEG II p.11, Adesp.eleg. 17

            (TLG 0234, 001 Elegiaca adespota)

29        Ath. 10.455D (83, 2-3)

30        Tryphon p.193, 18

31        Ath. 10.453B (78, 22)

32        Ath. 10.453B (78, 23)

33        Ath. 10.455D (83, 8)

34        IEG II p.93, Panarces (a)

35        Plu. Quom.adul. 54 B 6

36-38   Ath. 14.648F (60, 10-20)

 

 

 

LSJ                  PMG

 

39                    28        874

40        IEG II p.8, Adesp.eleg. 7

(TLG 0234, 001 Elegiaca adespota)

41                    2          848

42                    36        882

43                    23        869

44                    27        873

45                    21        867

46-47   Coll.Alex. pp.173, 138

 

Corinn. = CORINNA Lyr.

TLG 0294, 001

(Bergk III pp.543-53 to PMG pp.325-45; GL IV pp.18-69.)

 

LSJ citations marked "Corinn.Supp." are given separately.

 

LSJ                  PMG

 

1                      5                      658

2                      9                      662

3                      20                    673

4                      10                    663

5                      8                      661

6                      6                      659

7                      3                      656

8                      16                    669

9                      4                      657

10                    11                    664

11                    13                    666

12                    31                    684

13                    2                      655

14                    22                    675

15                    22                    675

16                    22                    675

17                    22                    675

18                    22                    675

19                    7                      660

20                    2                      655

21                    11                    664

22                    25                    678

23                    21                    674

24                    24                    677

25                    26                    679

26                    23                    676

27                    33                    686

28                    1                      654

29                    15                    668

30                    17                    670

31                    18                    671

32                    12                    665

33                    19                    672

34                    35                    688

35                    27                    680

36                    28                    681

37                    29                    682

38                    30                    683

40                    32                    685

41                    34                    687

42                    36                    689

 

Corinn.Supp.

 

LSJ                  PMG

 

1          1 (a) col. 1       654 (a), col. 1

2          1 (a) col. 3       654 (a) col. 3

 

Cypr. = CYPRIA

TLG 1296, 001 (Bernab)

Allen 118-125, Kinkel 15-32, Davies, Bernab, West.

 

Allen   K.        Davies Bernab           West

 

1          1                      1                      1                      1

2                                  2                      2                      2         

3          2                      3                      3                      4

4          3                      4                      4                      5         

5          4                      5                      5                      6         

6          5                      6                      8                      9

7          6                      7                      9                      10

8          7                      9                      11                    15

10                                12                    13                    12

11        9                      13                    15                    16

12        8                      11                    14                    14

13        10                    15                    17                    18

14        11        p.75, 4             21                    19

15        12                    17                    24                    20

16        13        p.160, 4           25                    21

17        14                    18                    26                    22

18        15                    21                    27                    23

19        16                    22                    28                    24

20                    17        19                                29                    26

21                    18        20                                30                    27

22                    19        23                                31                    28

23                    20        24                                18                    29

24                    21        26                                32                    30

25                    22        25                                33                    31

26                    p.52.n.                         34

 

Epigoni

TLG 1351, 001 (Bernab)

Allen 115, Kinkel 13-14, Davies, Bernab, West.

 

Allen   K.        Davies             Bernab           West

 

1                      1                      1                      1                                  1

2                      2          p.74, 1             5                                  3

3                      3                      2                      2                                  5

4                      4                      3                      3                                  4

 

E. = EURIPIDES Trag.

TLG 0006

Most frr. in LSJ are from Nauck, and retain the same numbers in TLG (as work 020). They include most of the passages in Diggle Phaeth. (many of which also appear as TLG work 023).

 

Frr. collected in CCL have Nauck numbers in the text and apparatus, and follow Diggle for Phaeth.

Recent frr. appear in Austin, and in the collections of Jouan-Looy (who cite the numbering of Kannicht and Mette 'E.'), and Kannicht.

 

Frr. are organised in four groups: from Nauck to Diggle, Hyps., other named plays, and plays cited only in the LSJ Authors and Works listing.

 

1) Frr. from Nauck to page numbers in Diggle TGFS:          

 

Nauck                                                              Diggle TGFS

 

187; 206                                                          pp.85-6

228                                                                                         94

282                                                                                          96

285; 286; 292                                      98-100

360                                                                              101

362                                                                              104

453                                                                              114

472; 997                                                         115-6

484; 494; 495; 499                              122-4

506                                                                              127

670                                                                              131

752                                                                              135

771; 772                                                          151

777-9; 781                                                       156-7

821                                                                              162

819                                                                              165

839                                                                              166

898; 910; 912                                      167-9

 

2) E.Hyps. is mapped from Hunt to Bond (TLG work 026). LSJ cites variably by fr., sometimes column, and line. See also CCL II, Jouan-Looy 3 pp.176-223.

 

LSJ                                                                  Bond

 

1                                                                      I i

1 ii                                                                   I ii

I iii                                                                   I iii

I iv                                                                   I iv                              

3 (1) or 3 (1) i                         I i

3 ii or 3 (1) ii                           I ii

iii or 3 iii                                             I iii

3 (1) iv or

5 or 5 (3)                                             I iv

7 or 9                                                  7

16 (18)                                                18

32 or 32 (58)                           58

34 or 34 (60)

            or 34 (60) i                              60

41 or 41 (64)                           64

44                                                                    70

57                                                                    57

60 or 60 i                                            60

64                                                                    64

 

3) Other named plays (marked with an asterisk in the LSJ Authors and Works listing) are cited from Arnim. The letter 'A' is sometimes appended (details below). Most appear in Page Select Papyri (TLG work 029).

 

E.Antiop. is usually cited by papyrus column A or B (mostly preceded by ii or iv respectively) and line number, with 'A', 'Arn.', or 'Arnim' following. Occasionally, Arnim page numbers are given. See also CCL II, Jouan-Looy 1 pp.240-274.

 

Arnim                                                              Page

 

ii A 7 A                                   (Nauck fr.185, 3)

iv B (line) A

(or Arn. or Arnim)                             fr.10

B 58 p.21 A                                        fr.10, 58

p.21 A                                                             fr.10, 66

 

(Other fragments from column A are collected in Nauck as frr.179, 181,

183-221, and also appear in Arnim).

 

E.Cret. (Also see CCL I,

Jouan-Looy 2 pp.322-32.)

(line)                                                    fr.11

 

E.Melanipp.Capt.

(CCL I, Jouan-Looy 2 pp.384-96.)

Fr.6.11                                                            fr.13, 7

 

E.Melanipp.Sap.

(CCL I, Jouan-Looy 2 pp.376-384.)

Prol.15                                                            fr.14, 15

 

E.Oen.

(Jouan-Looy 2 pp.468-75.)

p.39 A or  fr.4 A                     fr.28

 

(Other frr. from Arnim - p.39 fr.6, p.39 fr.5 and p.40 fr.6 - are collected in TLG as work 030.)

 

E.Pirith.Oxy.2078

Fr.1.14                                                fr.15a, 8

 

E.Sthen.

(CCL I, Jouan-Looy 3 pp.22-7.)

Prol.25                                                            fr.16, 18

Prol.35                                                            fr.16, 28

p.44A                                                  fr.16, 18

 

4) Despite the Authors and works listing, E.Archel. is not cited by LSJ. The passage in Arnim is published by Austin as fr.19 (TLG work 021). See also CCL II, Jouan-Looy 1 pp.292-307.

 

Frr. from E.Phath. are collected in Diggle Phaeth. (TLG work 023). They are cited in LSJ only by Nauck fragment numbers, which are given here, with the other passages in Arnim, matched to Diggle. (See also CCL I, Jouan-Looy 3 pp.248-67.)

 

Nauck              Arnim                          Diggle

 

fr.771  p.67, 1-5                                 1-5

fr.772  p.68, 6-7                                 6-7

                        pp.68-9, 1-37              8-43

fr.773  pp.69-72, 1-77                        44-120

fr.774  p.72, 86-8                               124-6

                        pp.72-3, 89-118                      127-57

fr.775                                                              158-9

fr.776                                                              164-7

fr.777                                                              163

fr.779  p.73, 1-10                               168-77

pp.74-5, 1-35            178-213

fr.781  pp.75-6, 1-37              214-250

fr.783                                                              160-2

pp.76-8, 42-79                      251-88

pp.78-9, 1-39            289-32

 

FRAGMENTA ADESPOTA

See Lyrica adespota

 

Hes.Fr. = HESIODUS Epic.

TLG 0020, 004, 007

Rzach to Merkelbach-West (comparatio pp.227-229).

 


Hippon. = HIPPONAX Iamb.

TLG 0233, 001

(Bergk II pp.460-500, to IEG I pp.109-171, Degani; GIP pp.342-499.)

 

LSJ                  IEG I                           Degani

 

1                      3; 3a                            1 + 2

2                      4; 4a                            3

3                      2                                              4a

4                      5                                              26

5                      6                                              6

6                      7                                              27

7                      8                                              28

8                      9                                              29

9                      10                                            30

10                    136                                          144

11                    95a                                          19

12                    15                                            18

13                    1                                              187 + 17

14                    12                                            20

15                    42                                            7

16                    32                                            42a

17                    32                                            42b

18                    32                                            42b

19                    34                                            43

20                    36                                            44

21A     35                                            10

21B     23                                            11

22A     43                                            5

22B     44                                            45

23                    24                                            9

24                    148a                            13

25                    173                                          14

26                    118a                            15

27                    142                                          16

28                    64                                            215

29                    68                                            66

30                    38                                            47

31                    25                                            35

32                    47                                            51


 

[End of Equivalence Table extract]

 

 


 

 

 

Cultural Heritage Language Technologies

 IST 2001-32745

 

1 December  2003   28 Feb, 2004

 

Workpackage 2: Word Profile Tools

 

University of Missouri, Kansas City

Faculty of Classics, Cambridge University

 

Bruce Fraser

Jeffrey A. Rydberg-Cox

A.A. Thompson

 

 

1. Summary of key indicators of project progress

 

1.1  Overview of objectives

 

The practical tools under development in Workpackage 2 can be divided into three groups:

1) Multi-lingual retrieval facilities for digital library systems (DLSs).

2) Vocabulary profile tools for texts and corpora (in DLSs).

3) Syntactic parsing tools for Greek texts.

 

 

1.2  Overall assessment of main milestones, results, or deliverables

In this period, our work has continued to focus on the development of our multi-lingual information retrieval tool.  In our previous phase, we worked to extract translation equivalents from multi-lingual dictionaries.  In this period, we worked on methods for query expansion and extraction of translation equivalents from parallel and comparable corpora.  We have also refined our user interface and begun to think about the integration of our work with the results of WP1.  We have also submitted two articles for publication based on our work, one to the European Community Conference on Digital Libraries and one to the New England Classical Journal.

 

2. Work Progress Overview

 

            2.1 Specific objectives for the reporting period

 

We have had four specific objectives for this reporting period. 

 

1.  To develop a system to automatically extract translation equivalents from parallel

and comparable corpora

2.         To develop methods for query expansion within the multi-lingual information

retrieval tool.

3.         To integrate our work with the results from WP1

4.         To begin disseminating our results in published venues

 

            2.2 Achievements

 

Automatic Extraction of Translation Equivalents:

Our research into the automatic extraction of translation equivalents from parallel and comparable corpora in this period focused on determining whether the work of Church and Gale for the Oxford English Dictionary can be applied to our parallel corpora of Greek texts with English translations and Latin texts with English translations.  Church and Gale argue that a c2 test can be used to determine translation equivalents in parallel corpora aligned at the sentence level.  They posit a null hypothesis that words occur in parallel sentences independently or by chance. This null hypothesis is then compared with the actual count of term co-occurrence across parallel corpora block using the following equation:

 with O equal to the number of times that a word pair appears together and E equal to the average number of times that the terms would appear together if they were evenly distributed across the entire corpus.   Our hope is that we will be able to generate a dynamic thesaurus of translation equivalents based on our corpora and offer this thesaurus to our users alongside the machine-readable dictionaries that we are currently using in this interface.

Church and Gales results are intriguing, but it is necessary for us to determine if they can be applied to texts written in Greek and Latin.  So far, we have focused our investigations in three key areas.

 

 First, Church and Gale worked on business documents written in English and French drawn from the Union Bank of Switzerland corpus.  Greek and Latin have much more complex morphological structures and very free word order, so it is necessary to study the impact of these linguistic differences when applying this algorithm.

Second, our corpora are aligned with a much lower level of granularity than the corpus tested by Church and Hanks.  Scholars traditionally refer to classical texts using a standard system, such as line number for poetry or page/paragraph numbers of an early printed edition for prose.  For example, the works of Plato are referenced by a pagination system from a three-volume collection of Platos works published in 1578 by Henri Estienne.  The three volumes were numbered consecutively and each page was divided into sections with the division marked by the letters a-e.   Platos dialogues are cited using the name of the dialogue, the page number from this edition, and the letter from the section containing the beginning of the citation.  Other prose works are divided in similar ways based on other early printed antecedents. Our parallel corpora of prose are aligned at this level and the resulting blocks can range from a few hundred words to almost one thousand words.  Poetry is even more complicated because line numbers offer a false sense of precision.  In actuality, the number of lines in a translation can vary widely between the original and the translation and even when this is accounted for word order conventions are so different that words could appear on widely different lines.  We have obtained good preliminary results by working with aligned segments of ten lines, but we need to determine if this lower level of granularity will work generally across our corpora or alternately -  if we need to explore methods for working with comparable corpora rather than parallel corpora. 

 

Finally, this approach is similar to our query expansion routine in that it favors recall over precision.  We will need a detailed study of our results to determine whether or not the information we are adding is useful to users as they are translating their queries.

 

Query Expansion

 

One of the challenges of  the sort of multi-lingual information retrieval system that we are developing is the dependence on a match between the concept that the user wants to study and the translation equivalents provided in the dictionary entry for the word. For example, a user interested in searching for Greek words that might mean story will find several very good translation equivalents, including the Greek word muthos that means speech, story or tale and is cognate with the English word myth, as well as other words such as ainos, meaning tale or story, and polumuthos, a compound word meaning much talked of, famous in story.  The first phase will, however, miss other related words that do not happen to have the word story as part of their definition, such as epos, defined as that which is uttered in words, speech, tale. 

To address this problem, we have developed a system that provides users with a query expansion option to suggest other words that are related to the exact matches returned by their initial query.  These related terms are generated by an analysis of the definitions contained in the electronic machine-readable multi-lingual dictionaries.  This process involves extracting all of the translation equivalents from the dictionaries and stripping suffixes from the translation equivalents using Porters algorithm.  We exclude translation equivalents where with N equal to the number of definitions in the dictionary.  The terms themselves are assigned a binary weight rather than a weight such as tf x idf. Our experiments with various weighting schemes revealed that they had very little impact on the results because documents were very short (just over four words on average).  Having developed this index, we determine the entries that are most similar to each other using a simple Dice similarity coefficient ().  The five words with the highest correlation coefficient are then included in the results for the query translation phase of the process.

In many cases as in the above example of a search for the word story - this process enhances what are already very good search results.  By its nature, this process expands recall at the expense of precision, thus running the risk of presenting the user with too much irrelevant information in the query translation phases.  Therefore, a user seeking a more precise query can switch off the query expansion function.

 

Integration

 

Integration work in this period focused primarily on the refinement of the common API and indexing format that we had previously agreed on.  Our initial specification was too closely linked to the Perseus text display system and we wanted to be sure that the visualization tool of WP1 would be usable with any text display system.

 

Publication

The article that we submitted in the last period to the Joint Conference on Digital Libraries to be held in May in Tuscon, Arizona was accepted as a poster.  A revision of this article was submitted to the European Community Digital Libraries Meeting and a second article was submitted in this period to the New England Classical Journal.

                        2.2.1 Progress of Workpackage/Tasks

 

We are on track to deliver D2.4 on time.

 

                        2.2.2 Work planned for next reporting period

 

Continue to work to refine the extraction of translation equivalents based on Chi2 scores, integration of this tool with the visualization tool developed under WP1, and preparation of the tool for final release.


 

Cultural Heritage Language Technologies

 IST 2001-32745

 

1 March, 2004 31May, 2004

 

 

Workpackage 2: Word Profile Tools

 

University of Missouri, Kansas City

Faculty of Classics, Cambridge University

 

Jeffrey A. Rydberg-Cox

Bruce Fraser, A.A. Thompson

 

 

 

1. Summary of key indicators of project progress

 

1.1  Overview of objectives

 

The practical tools under development in Workpackage 2 can be divided into three groups:

1) Multi-lingual retrieval facilities for digital library systems (DLSs).

2) Vocabulary profile tools for texts and corpora (in DLSs).

3) Syntactic parsing tools for Greek texts.

 

1.2  Overall assessment of main milestones, results, or deliverables

In this period, our work has focused on evaluation and integration of user feedback into the word profile tool. During the reporting period,, we have been working on text quality, integrating modern readings and adjusting the XML structure of the source texts, in two ways:

1) Creating finer 'chunking' by adding milestones, so that the software can more precisely identify the textual contexts for each word.

2) Adjusting the coding for suprasegmental and metrical symbols, so the texts can be displayed on a wider range of HTML readers, including non-Unicode systems

continued to focused on the development of our multi-lingual information retrieval tool.

 

We have also continued our work extracting translation equivalents from parallel and comparable corpora and integration into the results of WP1. 

 

2. Work Progress Overview

 

            2.1 Specific objectives for the reporting period

We have had five specific objectives for this reporting period. 

1.  To develop a finer system for chunking texts in the word profile tool so that we can better identify the contexts for each word and better align comparable segments of  our corpus.

2.         To improve display of metrical and other non-alphabetic characters in Greek texts

3.         To improve the XML document structure and the XSL rendering system for the Greek Lexicon

4.         To extract translation equivalents from our comparable Greek and Latin corpora

5.              To integrate our work with the results from WP1

 

 

            2.2 Achievements

 

Text Chunking and Display

Because we were dealing with legacy texts that were encoded before SGML became a standard format, we have encountered problems when converting these texts to XML so that they could be used in the Perseus text display system and as part of the word profile tool.  Therefore, it has been necessary for us to engage in some  text clean-up and encoding  in order to resolve these problems. 

Example 1:

Input text for fragment on potsherd (Sappho 2):

 

deurumc2000;m?ekrhta?"?!p !nau'on

a[gnon o[ppai cavrien me;n a[lso"

malivan, bw'moi c2000;demiqumiavme-

#6noi libanwvtwi:                                         (5)

ejn d u[dwr yu'cron kelavdei di u[sdwn

malivnwn, brovdoisi de; pai'" oj cw'ro"

ejskivast, aijqussomevnwn de; fuvllwn

#6kw'ma c2000;katagrion:

ejn de; leivmwn ijppovboto" tevqale              (10)

c2000;tw?t!!!i?rinnoi"c2000; a[nqesin, aij d a[htai

mevllica pnevoisin

#6

e[nqa dh; su; stevmmat> e[loisa Kuvpri

crusivaisin ejn kulivkessin a[brw"                  (15)

ojmme>meivcmenon qalivaisi nevktar

#6oijnocovaison

 

Output text for same fragment:

 

deurummekrhta".p .nau'on

a[gnon o[ppai cavrien me;n a[lso"

malivan, bw'moi demiqumiavme-

-noi libanwvtwi:                                           (5)

ejn d u[dwr yu'cron kelavdei di u[sdwn

malivnwn, brovdoisi de; pai'" oj cw'ro"

ejskivast, aijqussomevnwn de; fuvllwn

-kw'ma katagrion:

ejn de; leivmwn ijppovboto" tevqale              (10)

twt...irinnoi" a[nqesin, aij d a[htai

mevllica pnevoisin

-

e[nqa dh; su; stevm<mat> e[loisa Kuvpri

crusivaisin ejn kulivkessin a[brw"                  (15)

ojm<me>meivcmenon qalivaisi nevktar

-oijnocovaison

 

Translation of same fragment:

Hither to me from Crete to this holy temple,

where is your delightful grove of apple-trees, and altars

smoking with incense;

there cool water babbles through

apple-branches, and with roses is the whole place

shadowed, and from the shimmering leaves

the sleep of enchantment comes down;

there too a meadow, where horses graze,

blossoms with spring flowers, and the winds

blow gently...

there, Cypris, take...and into golden cups pour nectar

mingled with our festivities.

 

Example 2:

Input text for very corrupt papyrus fragment (Alcaeus 77A):

. . .

!n c3000;15"c3000;15 @ c3000;15c3000;15

asp?o?!!n c3000;15!c3000;15 @ c3000;15ro"c3000;15                       (5)

!a?i" c3000;15d#9pro"c3000;15 @ c3000;15dhprwc3000;15

c3000;15cortouc3000;15 @ c3000;15#6toueriouc3000;15

man c3000;15toutope?!!!!k#9th!c3000;15 @ c3000;15oisatrapaif!!!u?sint?hc3000;15

c3000;15upodhmataupedh"?!!h!c3000;15 @ c3000;15#6boeiouentosqenpil?c3000;15

c3000;15tragwdedhsanwtwamfic3000;15 @ c3000;15tiaponwtoudrakouperc3000;15                                                 (10)

!: c3000;15epeidhsterroterac3000;zc3000;wc3000;15 @ c3000;15hantragoudederma?p?e?c3000;15

p?athr @ c3000;15ou!onpate?r?c3000;15

n"!!! c3000;15!ug#9anemo?"?c3000;15 @ c3000;15 t?owsanento?c3000;15

!!! wi c3000;15 %32?anemwnou!c3000;15

mw! ke?n                                                                                                 (15)

k ovma!!c3000;15gmw4i4c3000;31Nc3000;31c3000;15 @ c3000;15oiaioleissi nt#19!!!!c3000;15

kuvq! c3000;15poll!nlegoianth?!c3000;15 @ c3000;15!apfwkat?!!!gl?c3000;15

c3000;15panta?deosamoid?h?c3000;15 @ c3000;15r?iseno"!!!!n?ag!!!!c3000;15

@ c3000;15ouousiosde?!!!c3000;15 @ c3000;15!!!!c3000;15

@ c3000;15!!!c3000;15                                                                                (20)

. . .

 

Output text for Alcaeus 77A:

. . .

.n "

aspo..n .

ro"                                                      (5)

.ai" d pro"

dhprw

cortou

 toueriou

man toutope....kth.

oisatrapaif...usinth

upodhmataupedh"..h.

 boeiouentosqenpil

tragwdedhsanwtwamfi

tiaponwtoudrakouper                        (10)

.: epeidhsterroterazw

hantragoudedermape

pathr

ou.onpater

n"... .uganemo"

towsanento

... wi vanemwnou.

mw. ken                                       (15)

k ovma..gmwi1N1

oiaioleissi nt....

kuvq. poll.nlegoianth.

.apfwkat...gl

pantadeosamoidh

riseno"....nag....

  ouousiosde...

....

  ...                                                     (20)

. . .

 

 

 

B) XML document structure, and XSL rendering systems:

 

The early development of the XML structure (DTD, 'document type definition', to create a tailored writing environment and a consistently-formatted ('tagged') product, was described in the previous report. Design work started in January 2003, the DTD was produced in a series of 30 drafts between April and September 2003.

 

From September-December 2003, we worked on the 'authoring environment' (essentially, what the writers see on their computer screens), developing the software which produces the print-quality output necessary at the writing and proof-reading stages, and which also gives a template for the typesetting.

 

Since January 2004, the writers have been tagging lexicon entries as they are composed. This enables us to fine-tune the XML structure and the stylesheets, in order to define the precise degree of flexibility which we wish to retain.

 

Example of XSLT Styling, which creates transformations for input into XSL-FO rendering:

 

<!--"Adjective or noun entry". The most common entry type. May include

    sub-headwords for etymologically related nouns, or (for adjectival entries)

    adverbial forms or reinterpretations as other parts of speech. -->

<!--

<!ELEMENT ANE (HG , HG2? , Summ? , S1+ , (XR | Adv | RelN | NPS)* , Extra?

               Keywd?, Ann? , Ed?)>

<!ATTLIST ANE  %commonAtts; >

-->

<xsl:template match="lex:ANE" mode="fo:block">

  <fo:block xsl:use-attribute-sets="lex:hanging-indent lex:entry-spacing">

    <xsl:apply-templates select="lex:HG" mode="fo:inline" />

    <xsl:text> </xsl:text>

    <xsl:choose>

      <xsl:when test="$section-on-newline = 'true' or lex:HG2 or lex:Summ">

        <xsl:for-each select="lex:HG2 | lex:Summ">

          <xsl:apply-templates select="." mode="fo:inline" />

          <xsl:if test="position() != last()"><xsl:text> </xsl:text></xsl:if>

        </xsl:for-each>

        <xsl:apply-templates select="lex:S1" mode="fo:block">

          <xsl:with-param name="number" select="boolean(lex:S1[2])" />

        </xsl:apply-templates>

      </xsl:when>

      <xsl:when test="lex:S1[2]">

        <xsl:apply-templates select="lex:S1[1]" mode="fo:inline" />

        <xsl:apply-templates select="lex:S1[position() > 1]" mode="fo:block" />

      </xsl:when>

      <xsl:otherwise>

        <xsl:apply-templates select="lex:S1" mode="fo:inline">

          <xsl:with-param name="number" select="false()" />

        </xsl:apply-templates>

        <xsl:variable name="this" select="generate-id(.)" />

        <xsl:for-each select="key('lex:inline', $this)[not(ancestor::*[generate-id(.) = $this])]">

          <xsl:text> </xsl:text>

          <xsl:apply-templates select="." mode="fo:inline" />

        </xsl:for-each>

      </xsl:otherwise>

    </xsl:choose>

    <xsl:apply-templates select="lex:Adv | lex:RelN | lex:NPS" mode="fo:block" />

  </fo:block>

</xsl:template>

 

The output from transformations like these are used as input for the XSL-FO formatter, which then produces the PDF output.

 

Example of the final PDF output:

 

________________________________________________

 

C) User Feedback

 

Since July 2002, students within our Department have been undertaking intensive evaluation and feedback on the word profile tool. An intergated methodology has been adopted: the students edit the output texts, noting changes and possible improvements in the tool. They then reintegrate material back into the system, by tagging lexicon entries in XML.

 

Our team has so far included 6 students, mostly graduates, who have worked a total of 23 unit-weeks. In the final year of the Project, we shall increase the team size, in order to gain the maximum benefit for the development process.

 

Automatic Extraction of Translation Equivalents:

Our research into the automatic extraction of translation equivalents from parallel and comparable corpora has continued in this period.  Our work has focused on using a c2 test can be used to determine translation equivalents in parallel corpora aligned at the sentence level. 

In our last period, we identified three potential problems that we faced in applying this algorithm to the parallel corpora available to the project. First, was a problem of word order. Church and Gale worked on documents written in English and French; Greek and Latin have much more complex morphological structures and very free word order, so it is necessary to study the impact of these linguistic differences when applying this algorithm.  In our initial investigations, we have determined that the algorithm as constructed focuses on words individually and does not depend on their relative position within the sentence.  Word order, therefore, does not require any adjustments to the algorithm.

 

The second issue we explored was the lower level of granularity of our corpus alignment.  In our work, some of our texts are aligned with very high degrees of granularity, almost down to the level of the sentence in prose and within ten lines of poetry. This high level of granularity is not consistent across our entire corpus some works are only aligned at the level of a chapter or even an entire document.  This variability has a negative impact on the quality of our results.  We have therefore taken time to add new milestones to many of our texts to help address this problem.

Our current work focuses on the fact that this method of discovering translation equivalents favors recall over precision.  We are currently engaged in a study of our results to determine whether or not the information we are adding is useful to users as they are translating their queries.

 

Integration

 

Integration work in this period focused primarily on extending the programming of the multi-lingual information retrieval tool to use the common API that has been developed for WP1. 

 

 

                        2.2.1 List of Deliverables

 

No deliverables due during this period

 

                        2.2.2 Progress of Workpackage/Tasks

 

We are on track to deliver D2.4 on time.

 

                        2.2.3 Deviations if any and corrective action

None.

`

            2.3 Project Reviews

 

                                    2.3.1 Work planned for future

 

In the final year of CHLT, we are giving thought to the eventual integration of the database with the electronic lexicon which is to be included in the Perseus DL.

 

As a pilot project, we shall first link lexicon entries with the morphological analysis being developed for the Cambridge Classics Faculty's CATR (Computer-Assisted Text Reading) project, which is already in use for teaching purposes.

 

Example CATR text with current clickable parsing system:

The analysis has here identified the form poihsaivmhn on the first line as the 1st person singular of the optative aorist of the verb poievw: the simple translations given here ('make', 'do') will be replaced by more helpful definitions, which will also involve the linguistic context.

 

 

We will also begin work on our syntactic toolbox to discover sectional preferences and categorization frames for Greek verbs.