How to create a UW

The UNL Dictionary is never completed. It is expected to contain all the concepts that are lexicalized in at least one language. These include:

• local concepts (i.e., concepts that are culture-bound and normally untranslatable;
• local named entities (i.e., names of rivers, mountains, beaches, cities, states, neighborhoods, brands, companies, rulers, celebrities, works of art, etc.)
• local products and practices (i.e., names of food, clothing, rituals, festivities, etc., which are specific to a given region)

All these concepts, if lexicalized (i.e., acknowledged as a "lexical unit", to be included as entries in ordinary dictionaries or encyclopedias) in at least one language, must be included in the UNL Dictionary as Universal Words.

Universal Word (UW)

A UW is a concept endowed with semantic accessibility. The semantic accessibility is granted when the concept is introduced in the UNL Knowledge Base, i.e., when we connect the concept to other existing concepts. Thereafter, the concept may be handled even by languages that do not have it yet.

To include a UW in the UNLKB is to define its UCI (Uniform Concept Identifier), which is made of two parts:

• the UCL (Uniform Concept Locator), which is a 9-digit number, automatically assigned by the machine; and
• the UCN (Uniform Concept Name), which is an expression in the format

LRU(RELATION>CLASSIFIER)

In the above:

• LRU stands for Lexical Realisation Unit, i.e., the name of the entity/concept. It can be a proper name (such as "Pablo Picasso", "Guernica", "Spanish Civil War", "Spanish Republican Armed Forces", "Facebook", "Candy Crush", etc.) or a common name ("paella", "baga ghanoush", "latifundium", "ilunga", etc.). For the time being, in order to ensure cross-language understanding, the name must be expressed in the way it is normally translated into English (i.e., "Spain", instead of "España", "Greece" instead of "Ελλάδα", "Egypt" instead of "مصر", "Spanish Civil War" instead of "Guerra Civil Española", etc.). Note, however, that many concepts are only transliterated into English (e.g., "paella", "baba ghanoush", "latifundium" and "ilunga" normally appear as such in English texts, even though they are not English words, i.e., they are not really translated, but borrowed, as loan words). Normally, in these cases, the words are represented in italic or between quotes in English texts, or are followed by a translator note. In any case, it is important for the LRU to be a "lexical unit", i.e., a real word (either simple or complex), and never an expression used to define the word. For instance, the LRU for "baba ghanoush" is "baba ghanoush" and not "dish of eggplant mashed and mixed with olive oil and various seasonings".
• CLASSIFIER is a category used to disambiguate and classify the LRU. It must be UW already defined in the UNL KB, and normally describes a general class or category (such as "person", "country", "city", etc.) to which the LRU may be linked.
• RELATION is a Universal Relations used to link the LRU to the CLASSIFIER. We normally use one of the following ontological relations:
  • icl = is-a-kind-of, when the classifier can be said to be a hypernym for the LRU (e.g., table(icl>furniture))
  • iof = is-an-instance-of, when the classifier can be said to describe a class to which the LRU belongs (e.g., Paris(iof>city))
  • pof = is-a-part-of, when the classifier can be said to describe the whole of which the LRU is a part (e.g., finger(pof>hand))

Examples:

• Spain(iof>country), a country named Spain
• Bay of Biscay(iof>gulf), a gulf named Bay of Biscay
• Spanish Civil War(iof>war), a war named Spanish Civil War
• Pablo Picasso(iof>person), a person named Pablo Picasso
• Guernica(iof>city), a city named Guernica
• Guernica(iof>painting), a painting named Guernica
• paella(icl>food), a type of food named paella
• Facebook(iof>social network), a social network named Facebook
• Candy Crush Saga(iof>video game), a video game named Candy Crush Saga

General Principles

UW's must comply with the following principles:

Non-redundancy

There must be no synonymy in the UNL Dictionary. Do not create UW's that have the same meaning of existing UW's. For instance, there are several different ways of making reference to the city of New York: New York, City of New York, NY, NYC, The Big Apple, etc. All these names must be linked to one single UW. If we have, in the UNL Dictionary, New York(iof>city), we should not create New York City(iof>city), NY(iof>city), NYC(iof>city), etc. The same happens, for instance, with "Pablo Picasso(iof>person)" and "Pablo Picasso(iof>painter)". If they both refer to the same person, only one should be used (preferably the most general one, i.e., "Pablo Picasso(iof>person)").

Non-ambiguity

UWs cannot be ambiguous. Do not re-use existing UW's that have different meanings. For instance, there is a city named "New York" in Lincolnshire, in the UK. This city should not be linked to New York(iof>city), because New York(iof>city) does not describe "any city named New York", but a specific city, as informed in the UNLKB. So, you have to create a different UW in this case: either New York(pof>Lincolnshire), or New York(plc>Lincolnshire), or even New York(iof>city,pof>Lincolnshire).

Simplicity

UWs are only labels for concepts. They are not intended to define or to explain the concept. So, shorter is better. The UW corresponding to the city of New York should be simply "New York(iof>city)" and not "New York(iof>city,iof>capital,pof>New York State,equ>NY,equ>NYC,etc.)". The definition for a given UW is provided in the UNLKB and not in the name of the UW. In the UNLKB, for instance, the UW "New York(iof>city)" will be connected to several other UW's ("capital(icl>city"), "New York(iof>state)", "United States of America(iof>country)", "Manhattan(iof>borough)", "Empire State(iof>building)", etc.), but there is no need for this to be reflected in the name of the UW. In some cases, however, more verbose UW's will be needed to render UW's unique.

Transparency

UWs must be as transparent as possible. The meaning of "New York(iof>city)" is much clearer than "New York(pof>United States of America)". Note that, in the latter case, we would have to go to the UNLKB in order to understand whether we are talking about the city of New York or the state of New York. So, it is better to use general classifiers (such as "city", "country", "food", "person", etc.).

DON'Ts

Do not create UW's for concepts that are not lexicalized in at least one language

The concept "women who wear big hats in theaters", although possibly relevant, does not correspond to a lexical unit in any existing language. It does not describe a single concept, but several different concepts ("woman", "to wear", "big", "hat", "theater") bound together. Therefore, it should not be included in the UNL Dictionary. The UNL Dictionary only contains concepts that are expressed by lexical units (i.e., headwords in the dictionary) in at least one language.

Do not create UW's for concepts that are not normally translated, unless they are really important

Only include proper names if they are normally listed as entries in encyclopedias. For instance, according to the White Pages, there are at least 5 people named "Sigmund Smith" in the US, but none of them are listed in the English Wikipedia or Encyclopaedia Britannica. Therefore, they should not be included in the UNL Dictionary (although "Sigmund" and "Smith", as separate entries, should be there, because they are very frequent). The same happens for other named entities which are not translated, such as "1973-1985", "314, Main Street", "+41 22 8090 8090", "info@undlfoundation.org", "www.undlfoundation.org", etc.

Instructions

UW's are created in the UNLarium by any user holding CUP500. In order to create UW's, go to UNLWEB>UNLARIUM>DICTIONARY>UNL>ADD. The choice on the UW will depend on the category of the UW according to the table below:

Type	LRU	RELATION	CLASSIFIER	EXAMPLES
PROPER NOUNS	The proper noun, transliterated into English, in its most standard format	iof	The general class to which the proper noun belongs	Africa(iof>continent) East Africa(iof>region) Tanzania(iof>country) Dodoma(iof>city) Congo(iof>river) Kilimanjaro(iof>mountain) Pablo Picasso(iof>person) Harry Potter(iof>fictional character) Microsoft(iof>brand)