Applications and Tools
Once you have signed the license you will receive the data as an archive, typically via download. The data are available in XML and as a database dump. We provide serveral tools and APIs to access the data, including Rover (an online search and semantic relatedness tool) and APIs for Java and Python.
Rover
GermaNet Rover is an online application that can be used to explore the GermaNet data or to calculate the semantic relatedness / similarity between two synsets. It features visualizations and advanced filtering options for synset searching. The application is not restricted to licenseholders, but it can be used by anyone affiliated with one of thousands of academic institutions listed on the login page. You will be asked to choose your academic institution and after successful login there you will be directed back to Rover.
If you have login credentials at an academic institution that is NOT listed, you can gain access to Rover by requesting a CLARIN account, mentioning that you would like access to GermaNet Rover as motivation.
APIs
The Python and Java APIs both have the same functionality, including:
- extended search configuration (regular expressions, edit distance, selected word categories, word classes, orthographic forms)
- semantic similarity / relatedness calculations with 6 measures
Frequency Lists for use with the APIs:
Some semantic similarity / relatedness measures integrate frequency information about words. To use these measures, three files (with frequency information for each word category) are required. We provide frequency lists based on large German corpora from the COW project. If you use any measure that relies on the frequency lists (IC-based measures), please cite COW14 and COW16 and report your publication to the COW project.
You can install the python API as a python package via:
pip install germanetpy
Java API
The source code and the Tutorials are available on GitHub.
- Java API 13.3.0:
for GermaNet versions 13.0, 14.0, 15.0, 16.0, 17.0, 18.0. - Performance improvements
- Java API 13.2.1:
for GermaNet versions 13.0, 14.0, 15.0, 16.0, 17.0, 18.0. - New: advanced search filtering, semantic relatedness methods
- Java API 13.1.0:
for GermaNet versions 13.0, 14.0, 15.0, 16.0, 17.0, 18.0.
How to choose the API version
Use the most recent version of the API that works for your release of the data.
Version numbers are split into parts, where the first part indicates the first release of the data for which the API works, and the second and optional third parts indicate major and minor fixes respectively. The API will continue to work for subsequent data releases, until the structure of the data has changed.
For example:
Version 13.2.1 had 2 major updates, 1 minor update, and works for data releases starting from 13.0
If you only need the jar file, go to the Maven Repository, choose the version, then "Download" -> "jar".
If you are using Maven, add the following dependency to your pom file:
<dependency>
<groupId>de.tuebingen.uni.sfs.germanet</groupId>
<artifactId>germanet-api</artifactId>
<version>13.3.0</version>
</dependency>
germanet-common Javascript Library
germanet-common is a Javascript library for building Web applications
with GermaNet data. It includes components for fetching each of the
GermaNet data types from a JSON API and rendering them in different
formats.
The library is built with React and Redux, and uses CSS from
Bootstrap. The source code is available on GitHub, and it can be
installed as a package via NPM.
Older Software (Deprecated)
Semantic Relatedness API
Semantic Relatedness methods are now included in the Java and Python APIs, and the functionality of this tool is in large part available in GermaNet Rover (full port in progress). It is recommended to use one of the other alternatives, since this tool will not be maintained in the future.
To calculate semantic relatedness between any two words/readings in GermaNet, you can use the Semantic Relatedness API implemented in Java:
- Semantic Relatedness API 13.0: You can download the latest version (13.0) of the Semantic Relatedness API here (including source code). This version allows processing of word pairs from a file, filtering by part-of-speech, and saving results as a csv file. This API can be used for GermaNet versions 13.0, 14.0, 15.0. For documentation, please see the enclosed tutorial or the online Javadoc-documentation.
GermaNet-Explorer
The GermaNet data can now be explored with GermaNet Rover. This tool will not be maintained in the future.
GermaNet-Explorer is a software to visualize GermaNet. It allows to show all lexical units (word senses) and synsets of a word. Furthermore, it can represent all semantic relations in a structured manner. A visual graph-based navigation through GermaNet is possible.
- GermaNet-Explorer 13.0 for GermaNet version 13.0
This software was originally developed in the context of the project "Hypertextualisierung auf textgrammatischer Grundlage" (HyTex) at the University of Dortmund. GermaNet-Explorer was programmed by Marc Finthammer, University of Dortmund, and adapted to the Java APIs at the University of Tübingen.
GernEdiT - The GermaNet Editing Tool
Although no major updates can be made to this GernEdiT desktop application, minor updates will be performed to keep it running with new data releases for as long as possible.
GernEdiT is a graphical editor that is used by the lexicographers to enter lexicographic data into the GermaNet database. It provides a graphical user interface to the database, which mainly allows maintaining the GermaNet data in a user-friendly way. There are several ways to search data, and browse through the GermaNet graph. These functionalities support lexicographers, among other things, in finding the appropriate place in the hierarchy for the insertion of new synsets and lexical units. GernEdiT is freely available for download:
- GernEdiT 14.1 für GermaNet-Versionen 14.0, 15.0
- GernEdiT 13.0 for GermaNet version 13.0
Some flash movies show GernEdiT in action:
- GernEdiT flash movie 1: Basic search functionality, conceptual relations list, hypernymy graph, frames and examples, view editing history with its filtering functionality, list with all lexical units
- GernEdiT flash movie 2: Add new conceptual relation, delete conceptual relation, follow conceptual relation, list with all synsets with its search and filter functionalities
- GernEdiT flash movie 3: Insert new synset with lexical unit, insert new lexical unit, delete lexical unit, delete synset
For more information on GernEdiT, see The GermaNet Editing Tool