Word Ladders is a free mobile application developed for Android and iOS devices as part of the Abstraction research project. The app is designed to collect linguistic data on semantic hierarchical relations, specifically categorical inclusion (IS-A) relations, in a gamified manner.
The game logic involves players creating "word ladders" by adding progressively more general or specific words to a given prompt. The app evaluates the quality of the ladders based on an external knowledge base (MultiWordNet) and provides feedback to users.
The data collected through Word Ladders serves two main purposes:
These resources will be used to investigate the role of word specificity in language processing and text comprehension, as well as to explore the emergence of language stereotypes based on the semantic categorizations provided by users of different sociodemographic backgrounds.
Word Ladders also has an educational component, as it is being integrated into language learning activities in Italian schools to support vocabulary development and "linguistic stretching" exercises.
The app has seen continuous growth since its launch in 2023, with over 30,000 games played by 3,000 active users as of February 2024. Ongoing work aims to expand the data collection to English and further explore the potential of gamified approaches for linguistic research.
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by Marianna Mar... kl. arxiv.org 04-02-2024
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2404.00184.pdfDybere Forespørgsler