TypeCraft collaborative databasing and resource sharing for linguists

Abstract

Interlinear Glossed Text (IGT) is a well established data format within philology and the structural and generative fields of linguistics. The best known format for an IGT is the one found in linguistic publications, where one line of text is followed by one line of glosses and one line of free translation. Although used in different functions, IGTs are ubiquitous in linguistic research and publications. Yet they also have been criticised for being fabricated and unreliable in some of their uses. However that might be, IGTs represent linguistic knowledge, and in particular for less-resourced languages, they are not rarely the only structured data available. Under the auspices of the Digital Humanities, linguists increasingly focus on the advantages of Semantic Web technologies. Presenting the modules and procedures of the web-based linguistic application TypeCraft (TC), we outline how the creation of IGTs can become an integral part of a shared linguistic methodology. Linguistic services have the potential of allowing efficient data management, and their strength lies in facilitating new forms of collaboration beyond social networking. They pave the way towards what one might call shared methodologies. In this paper we would like to discuss the linguistic value of web-based technology. By presenting the functionalities of TC and giving a detailed summary of online linguistic data creation and retrieval, we will present external and internal criteria for a single system evaluation of TC centred on usage objectives.