Online lexicon

The LES Online Distributional Semantic Lexicon is a unique and extensive research tool that allows its users to explore how a given search term is used in online news media or social media across multiple languages and countries.

The lexicon is based on distributional semantic models, which collect co-occurrence statistics from online text data. When typing a word into the search field, the lexicon returns a set of "neighbouring" words that are considered to be used in a semantically similar way as the search word.

The lexicon can be used to examine the utility of different translations by comparing and contrasting translated terms in a cross cultural setting, which is important for comparative survey methodology. It can also be used to study online debate and discourse in relation to politically contested concepts, and by using the lexicon we can explore whether concepts important to social sciences are used in similar or different ways across languages, cultures and countries on the internet.

Are you interested in trying out the LES Online Distributional Semantic Lexicon? The lexicon is free to use for research purposes but due to limited server capacity, we can only grant access to a limited number of users at the same time. Contact us for terms of service and login details.