Interoperability of Language-related Information: Mapping the BLL Thesaurus to Lexvo and Glottolog

Interoperability of Language-related Information: Mapping the BLL Thesaurus to Lexvo and Glottolog V. Dimitrova, C. F¨ath, C. Chiarcos, H. Renner-Westermann, F. Abromeit Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany {v.dimitrova@ub, faeth@em, chiarcos@em, h.renner-westermann@ub, abromeit@em}.uni-frankfurt.de Abstract Since 2013, the thesaurus of the Bibliography of Linguistic Literature (BLL Thesaurus) has been applied in the context of the Lin ��gu ��is ��tik portal, a hub for linguistically relevant information. Several consecutive projects focus on the modeling of the BLL Thesaurus as ontology and its linking to terminological repositories in the Linguistic Linked Open Data (LLOD) cloud. Those mappings facilitate the connection between the Lin ��gu ��is ��tik portal and the cloud. In the paper, we describe the current efforts to establish interoperability between the language-related index terms and repositories providing language identifiers for the web of Linked Data. After an introduction of Lexvo and Glottolog, we outline the scope, the structure, and the peculiarities of the BLL Thesaurus. We discuss the challenges for the design of scientifically plausible language classification and the linking between divergent classifications. We describe the prototype of the linking model and propose pragmatic solutions for structural or conceptual conflicts. Additionally, we depict the benefits from the envisaged interoperability - for the Lin ��gu ��is ��tik portal, and the Linked Open Data Community in general. Keywords: Lin ��gu ��is ��tik portal, Bibliography of Linguistic Literature (BLL), thesaurus, language identifiers, Linguistic Linked Open Data (LLOD), Glottolog, Lexvo 1. Introduction The Lin ��gu ��is ��tik portal (www.linguistik.de) is a hub for linguistically relevant information developed by the University Library Frankfurt and the Applied Computa- tional Linguistics lab at the Goethe University Frankfurt. As a main service it provides a research tool that comprises selected online sources, databases, open access documents, bibliographies and catalogs for linguistic literature. Re- cently, the portal has been connected with the Linguistic Linked Open Data (LLOD) cloud1. A novel, LOD-based search function has been developed, and numerous lan- guage resources have been integrated. The thesaurus of the Bibliography of Linguistic Literature2 (BLL Thesaurus) serves as a connecting point. It has been modeled according to LOD principles and linked to a lin- guistic ontology covering the domains of morphology, syn- tax and morphosyntax. In this paper, we describe current efforts to enhance the functionality by establishing interoperability between the BLL Thesaurus and two LLOD terminological repositories that provide language identifiers: Lexvo3 and Glottolog4 . 2. Motivation and previous work The LLOD cloud comprises lexical-conceptual resources (dictionaries, knowledge bases), corpora, terminological repositories (thesauri, ontologies), and metadata collec- tions. Published under an open license, these resources can be of great benefit to the users of the Lin ��gu ��is ��tik portal. Thus, we decided to establish a connection between both platforms and make as much language resources as possi- ble visible and searchable via the Lin ��gu ��is ��tik portal. 1http://linguistic-lod.org/llod-cloud 2http://www.blldb-online.de 3http://www.lexvo.org/ 4http://glottolog.org/ The concept we developed builds on the interoperability of linguistic terminology and the interconnected nature of the resources in the cloud (Chiarcos et al. (2016)). Since the BLL Thesaurus provides …

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