Author Archives: Johann-Mattis List

About Johann-Mattis List

Seit Anfang 2023 leite ich den Lehrstuhl für Multilinguale Computerlinguistik in Passau. In meiner Forschung nehme ich generell einen datenbasierten, empirischen und quantitativen Standpunkt in Bezug auf Sprachwandel und Sprachgeschichte ein, mit einem speziellen Fokus auf südostasiatischen Sprachen. Im Gegensatz zu rein computerbasierten Ansätzen versuche ich jedoch, meine Forschung nah an der traditionellen historischen Linguistik und der linguistischen Theorie auszurichten, weshalb ich einen computer-gestützten Ansatz im Gegensatz zu einem rein computer-basierten Ansatz verfolge.

CLICS⁴ as CLLD Web Application

The fourth version of the Database of Cross-Linguistic Colexifications (https://clics.clld.org) was published last year. Now, we launched the accompanying web application that presents the data for interactive inspection and exploration. The study presents the application in brief and discusses also the development of cross-linguistic colexification databases in the future.

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Foundations of Formal Etymological Analysis

This study gives a brief overview on formal aspects of etymological analysis, by providing a modified workflow for the classical comparative method in historical language comparison. This workflow is contrasted with the current state-of-the-art in computational historical linguistics, pointing out where computational methods and interactive tools for annotation are lacking, and where they are available already.

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Computing Detailed Colexifications with Missing Data Information from the CLICS⁴ Collection

CLICS⁴ offers a refined structural representation of cross-linguistic colexification patterns but retains an implicit representation of missing data. This obscures whether the lack of a colexification in a language for paired concepts is due to its true absence in the language, or due to missing data on the concept or word form level. We introduce a straightforward workflow that can be applied to individual datasets from CLICS⁴ to identify cases of colexification via a three-way attestation scheme. Our approach captures the presence or absence of a colexification in CLICS⁴, but it also explicitly encodes the presence or absence of data at the level of the original questionnaire, or the individual language, elicited with the help of the questionnaire.

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Transparent Application of Text Generation Tools in Scientific Research

In this opinion piece, I share my view on the application of language models and text generation services in scientific research. In my opinion, scientific research that lives up to the promises of open science must provide full documentation of all prompts and exchanges that were used to create a given study. A mere mention that AI tools have been used in study design, writing, or coding is not enough.

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Towards a Unified Conversion Table for Semitic Transcriptions and Transliterations

In this study we present a preliminary conversion table that can be used for transcriptions and transliterations across different Semitic languages. We introduce the basic idea behind the table, show how it can be used, and explain how we hope to expand it in the future.

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Manipulating Lexical Forms with the PyLexibank FormSpec

Multilingual lexical data is typically stored in a wide variety of forms, based on many idiosyncratic decisions that vary from dataset to dataset. Here, a simple but efficient solution for the manipulation of lexical data in multilingual wordlists will be introduced. This solution, the PyLexibank FormSpec, was originall developed for the conversion of various kinds of lexical data to Cross-Linguistic Data Formats, but it can also be used as a standalone. This study offers a basic tutorial that illustrates how the FormSpec can be put to concrete use.

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Illustrating Data Curation in NoRaRe with the Help of Templates

This study introduces a collection of templates that can be used to contribute data to the Database of Norms, Ratings, and Relations (NoRaRe) of words and concepts. The templates are intended to facilitate the process of dataset conversion and serve as a starting point for those who are interested to contribute data to the catalog. A first template structure with two sample datasets is introduced and discussed in more detail, pointing to those aspects of data curation that may lead to confusion among users who contribute the first time to the NoRaRe database.
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Making a Lexibank Dataset from Lee’s “Phonological Features of Caijia” from 2023

Caijia is a very interesting Sino-Tibetan language variety. It has been documented only recently, it seems to belong to the Sinitic branch of Sino-Tibetan, but shows some archaic features that have led to some controversies among scholars regarding its proper affiliation, and detailed comparative analyses of the language in comparison with other Sino-Tibetan languages are still in their infancy. This little study demonstrates how a first published wordlist of Caijia (Lee 2023) can be prepared for the inclusion in the Lexibank repository.
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Extracting Transparent Compounds from Lexibank

Many languages make use of transparent compounding processes in order to express certain words in their lexicon. With time, these processes can loose their transparency, making them hard to detect automatically. With large data collections simple tests can be designed to detect transparent compounds and investigate their distribution. This study illustrates how a very rudimentary analysis of cross-linguistically recurring transparent compound patterns can be applied to Lexibank data with a few lines of Python code.

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Lexibench: Towards an Improved Collection of Benchmark Data for Computational Historical Linguistics

Computational approaches in historical linguistics have made great progress during the past two decades. As of now, it is much more common to propose subgroupings based on phylogenetic analyses than on traditional considerations using shared innovations. We have also seen a drastic increase in openly available datasets that share cognate judgments for various language families. Thanks to new standardization efforts providing facilitated access to several dozen comparative wordlists, it seems about time to work on on improved benchmarks of manually annotated cognates in computational historical linguistics. In this study, a first effort of this kind is undertaken, by presenting Lexibench, a preliminary gold standard for computational historical linguistics. Lexibench builds on the Lexibank repository to extract 63 multilingual wordlists, all manually annotated for cognacy, that can be used to assess the quality of cognate detection and phylogenetic reconstruction methods in computational historical linguistics.
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Typing Special Characters as a Key Skill for Linguists

Most linguists have to type special characters that are not available on an ordinary keyboard on a regular basis. Reflecting about the general problems involved in typing special characters, I review different solutions and argue that linguists should not only be able to type special characters on their computers, but that they should also have some basic knowledge about their technical aspects and know how to expand and customize them. In order to improve the training of young scholars, it is important to discuss special character typing more openly in linguistics, especially in the classroom and with doctoral students, sharing individual solutions openly.
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Adding Standardized Transcriptions to Panoan and Tacanan Languages in the Intercontinental Dictionary Series

In this study, we illustrate how standardized phonetic transcriptions can be added to the data for Panoan and Tacanan languages provided by the Intercontinental Dictionary Series. The result is presented as a new dataset that keeps reference to the original data and adds phonetic transcriptions for each word form in Panoan languages, Tacanan languages, as well as Spanish and Portuguese.

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Converting an Artificial Proto-Language into Data for Testing Computational Approaches in Historical Linguistics

This small study shows how data for an artificially created language that was supposed to reflect features of “proto-languages”, predating modern languages by several thousand years, can be used in testing computational approaches in historical linguistics. In order to do so,  computational workflow is described that retrieves the data automatically, creating a comparative wordlist compatible in format with software tools for historical linguistics, and then uses a baseline method for automatic cognate detection to compare an artificial language against a sample of Indo-European languages.  The results show that artificial languages might help to fill a gap in testing that has so far been ignored in the literature.

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A New Python Library for the Manipulation and Annotation of Linguistic Sequences

The Python package linse (https://pypi.org/project/linse) offers various methods for the manipulation and annotation of sequences. In this short overview, we summarize its major functionalities and provide some information on its background and how we intend to develop it further in the future.

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Past and Future of Computer-Assisted Language Comparison in Practice

Our blog “Computer-Assisted Language Comparison in Practice” goes into its seventh year. We reflect on the role the blog played in the past and present and new goals and concrete ideas for the future. The most drastic innovation we initiated is to turn the blog into an open journal, which means that all future and successively also past contributions will be archived in PDF format with digital object identifiers.

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