In order to get started, we begin by installing the pyclics API. For this, I assume that Python3 is installed in a recent version on our system, along with pip the command for downloading and installing new packages, and the version-control system git.

In order to install the pyclics API, simply type the following in your terminal:

$ git clone https://github.com/clics/clics2
$ cd clics2
$ pip install -e .

Now, you can install the old CLICS data underlying version 1.0.

$ pip install -e git+https://github.com/clics/clics1.git@v1.1#egg=lexibank_clics1

In addition, you need to install pyglottolog and pyconcepticon, but not with pip, but rather as local clones (as you need to know where they are installed. So we recommend to install both packages by opening your terminal in your preferred folder (ideally the one where you installed pyclics).

$ cd ..
$ git clone https://github.com/clld/concepticon-data
$ cd concepticon-data
$ pip install -e .
$ cd ..
$ git clone https://github.com/clld/glottolog
$ pip install -e .
$ cd ..

Now you can load the data into your personal CLICS database by simply typing:

$ clics load ./concepticon-data ./glottolog

In order to calculate the colexification network, just type:

$ clics -t 2 colexification

In order to create a standalone application for the data which you can put on a server or browse (when using Firefox as webbrowser) even locally, type:

$ clics -t 2 communities
$ clics -t 3 subgraph

You will find the application in the path clics2/app/. Just click on the file index.html and open it, and you can see an interface that reminds of the old “look-and-feel” of CLICS.

If you want to have a closer look at the network without following all the code examples above, you can also directly access it at http://calc.digling.org/clics1, where we have uploaded the version that we created ourselves in order to test this example.

References

List, J.-M., T. Mayer, A. Terhalle, and M. Urban (eds.) (2014): CLICS: Database of Cross-Linguistic Colexifications. Version 1.0. Forschungszentrum Deutscher Sprachatlas: Marburg. http://www.webcitation.org/6ccEMrZYM

List, J.-M., S. Greenhill, C. Anderson, T. Mayer, T. Tresoldi, and R. Forkel (eds.) (2018): CLICS: Database of Cross-Linguistic Colexifications. Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History: Jena.