Multidimensional and multimodal information in ecolexicon

Abstract

EcoLexicon is a multilingual terminological knowledge base (TKB) on the environment that targets different user groups who wish to expand their knowledge of the environment for the purpose of text comprehension and/or generation. Users can freely access EcoLexicon, and are able to find the information needed, thanks to a user-friendly visual interface with different modules for conceptual, linguistic, and graphical data. The main goal of this TKB is user knowledge acquisition. This paper briefly explains the theoretical premises and methodology applied in EcoLexicon for knowledge extraction and representation. It also shows how environmental concepts are represented, interrelated, and contextualized. EcoLexicon combines the advantages of a relational database, allowing for a quick deployment and feeding of the platform, and an ontology, enhancing user queries. The internal coherence at all levels of a dynamic knowledge representation shows that even complex domains can be represented in a user-friendly way. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013.