"Change, alter, or perhaps transform?" Selecting the perfect word for a specific context, such as when composing a report or a speech, is all the easier with a thesaurus at hand. These... Show more"Change, alter, or perhaps transform?" Selecting the perfect word for a specific context, such as when composing a report or a speech, is all the easier with a thesaurus at hand. These lexicographic resources are invaluable for looking up alternative words or phrases that convey a specific meaning. In addition, thesauri offer a number of uses beyond looking up alternative phrasings: they are veritable treasure troves for cultural, linguistic, anthropological, and literary-critical research — especially when these resources are arranged in a topical fashion, a hierarchical ordering of its groups of loosely synonymous words according to their meaning. This doctoral dissertation investigates how Web-based dissemination of historical language thesauri can be improved to facilitate academic explorations of language and culture. The investigation includes a case study of "A Thesaurus of Old English", expressing it in a Linguistic Linked Data form and making it available through the web application Evoke, newly developed by the author of this dissertation. A number of researchers, taking part in the research project Exploring Early Medieval English Eloquence, have engaged with these two digital resources and show that thesauri are by no means exhausted by previous investigations. The results demonstrate that both the new dissemination form and the innovative functionalities provided by the web application can offer novel ways in which to explore and analyse thesaurus content of this early medieval variant of the English language. Show less
Natural history collections provide invaluable sources for researchers with different disciplinary backgrounds, aspiring to study the geographical distribution of flora and fauna across the globe... Show moreNatural history collections provide invaluable sources for researchers with different disciplinary backgrounds, aspiring to study the geographical distribution of flora and fauna across the globe as well as other evolutionary processes. They are of paramount importance for mapping out long-term changes: from culture, to ecology, to how natural history is practiced.This thesis describes computational methods for knowledge extraction from archives of natural history collections---here referring to handwritten manuscripts and hand-drawn illustrations. As we are dealing with heterogeneous real-world data, the task becomes exceptionally challenging. Small samples and a long-tailed distribution, sometimes with very fine-grained distinctions between classes, hamper model learning. Prior knowledge is therefore needed to bootstrap the learning process. Moreover, archival content can be difficult to interpret and integrate, and should therefore be formally described for data integration within and across collections. By serving extracted knowledge to the Semantic Web, collections are made amenable for research and integration with other biodiversity resources on the Web. Show less
