XISM: an eXploratory and Interactive Graph Tool to Visualize and Evaluate Semantic Map Models
This tool addresses the problem of inefficient and limited analysis for typologists and computational linguists working with large datasets in semantic map modeling, though it is incremental as it builds on prior algorithmic work.
The paper tackles the inefficiency and lack of visualization and evaluation tools for manually built semantic map models in typological linguistics by introducing XISM, an interactive tool that constructs semantic maps from user data via a top-down approach, displays candidate maps, and evaluates them using multiple metrics, with a publicly available system and demonstration video.
Semantic map models represent meanings or functions as nodes in a graph constrained by the local connectivity hypothesis, with edges indicating their associations. Widely used in typological linguistics, these models compare interrelated meanings across languages. Traditionally built manually in a bottom-up manner, they are inefficient for large datasets and lack visualization and evaluation tools. This paper introduces XISM, an interactive tool based on our prior algorithm, which constructs semantic maps from user data via a top-down approach, displays candidate maps, and evaluates them using multiple metrics. Users can refine maps by editing edges, combining data-driven efficiency with expert knowledge. This human-in-the-loop design benefits both typologists and computational linguists. The system https://770103knev48.vicp.fun/ and a demonstration video https://youtu.be/S-wsVDF2HSI?si=1OrcF41tRznaifhZ are publicly available.