Feature idea: data structure to improve translation capabilities - Wikitech-l

20 Jun 2021

Hello,

I have been thinking of a way to organise data in Wiktionary that would allow
for words to automatically show translations to other languages with much less
work than is currently required.

Currently, translations to other languages have to be added manually, meaning
they are not automatically propagated across language pairs.  What I mean by
this is showcased in the following example:

 1. I create a page for word X in language A.
 2. I create a page for word Y in language B.
 3. I add a translation to the page for word X, and state that it translates to
    word Y in language B.
 4. If I want the page for word Y to show that it translates to word X in
    language A, I have to do this manually.

Automating this seems a bit tricky.  I think that the key is acknowledging that
meanings can be separated from language and used as the links of translation.
In this view, words and their definitions are language-specific, but meanings
are language-agnostic.

Because I may have done a bad job at explaining this context, I have created a
short example in the form of an sqlite3 SQL script that creates a small
dictionary database with two meanings for the word "desert"; one of the
meanings has been linked to the corresponding words in Spanish and in German.
The script mainly showcases how words can be linked across languages with
minimal rework.

You can find the script attached.  To experiment with this, simply run

    .read feature_showcase.sql

within an interactive sqlite3 session.  (There may be other ways of doing it 
but this is how I tested it.)

I believe this system can also be used to automate other word relations such as
hyponyms and hypernyms, meronyms and holonyms, and others.  It can also allow
looking up words in other languages and getting definitions in the language of
choice.  In short, it would allow Wiktionary to more effortlessly function as
a universal dictionary.

Has something like this been suggested before?  I would be pleased to receive
feedback on this idea.

With kind regards,
Wolter HV