Frame Semantics for Language Learning

This project develops a prototype of a multilingual corpus-based lexicon of Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, and Spanish. The multilingual dictionary will be used at all levels of language instruction to help students acquire and use vocabulary more easily. This online resource is different from traditional print dictionaries in that it is based on large electronic corpora, which illustrate how words are used in real life contexts. As such, students will be able to access all the information about the exhaustive inventory of contexts in which a word may appear. Each lexical entry provides detailed information about a word’s register, its frequency, and how it is related to other words. A major advantage of its web-based architecture is that the lexicon can be constantly updated whenever new words or new usages of existing words are attested in the language. This allows students to learn how words are used in modern-day language. Finally, the web-based lexicon can be linked to other electronic resources that already exist in electronic format for a wide variety of languages.