Towards the Superdictionary: Layers, Tools and Unidirectional Meaning Relations

We report on the ongoing project of developing the Ekilex dictionary writing system and joining existing dictionaries into the EKI Combined Dictionary. To facilitate the joining, several tools have been developed to solve data quality issues and turn textual data into structured entities. The resulting superdictionary thus contains various sets of information, which we call layers, either transformed from existing dictionaries or authored already in Ekilex. Our current focus is on the layers for synonyms and equivalents, which we describe in terms of their data model, lexicographic processes and lexicographer feedback from the first six months of Ekilex in production. As it turns out, the layer system may need expanding to accommodate an ever-growing list of requirements. The unidirectional data model for synonyms fully conforms to its design specification and received favourable first impressions, but extended use has started to cast doubt on the optimality of the model. We describe the pros and cons of this model and possible