How FrameSQL Shows the Japanese FrameNet Data

Abstract

FrameSQL is a web-based application which the author (Sato, 2003; Sato 2008) created originally for searching the Berkeley FrameNet lexical database. FrameSQL now can handle the Japanese lexical database built by the Japanese FrameNet project (JFN) of Keio University in Japan. FrameSQL can search and view the JFN data released in March of 2009 on a standard web browser. Users do not need to install any additional software tools to use FrameSQL, nor do they even need to download the JFN data to their local computer, because FrameSQL accesses the database of the server computer, and executes searches. FrameSQL not only shows a clear view of the headword’s grammar and combinatorial properties of the database, but also relates a Japanese word with its counterparts in English. FrameSQL puts together the Japanese and English lexical databases, and the user can access them seamlessly, as if they were a unified database. Mutual hyperlinks among these databases and the bilingual search mode make it easy to compare semantic structures of corresponding lexical units between these languages, and it could be useful for building multilingual lexical resources.

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