In the beginning of 2018, CJVT UL published the Thesaurus of Modern Slovene. It is the most comprehensive open online collection of synonyms for Slovene that introduced a new type of language resource to the world: the responsive dictionary. Responsive dictionaries feature a completely automatically generated dictionary base that is developed step by step, with the collaboration of linguists and the interested public.

The Thesaurus of Modern Slovene is an important source of information for its users from the first step onward. However, being such a novelty, it is not well known to the public. The advantages and disadvantages of such dictionaries as well as the different collaboration possibilities during their development are virtually unknown. Thus, soon after its release, we prepared the project Thesaurus of Modern Slovene: from the community for the community that was financially supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia.

 

This project presented the dictionary to the general public: we prepared openly accessible educational material (presentations, subtitled videos), a series of ten podcasts about digital lexicography, we developed a methodology of tracking user involvement in the dictionary as well as conducted an extensive survey about the users’ attitude to the innovations introduced by the responsive dictionary concept. In collaboration with the project Promotion of Language Game for Mobile Devices we also developed the game Igra besed (Eng. Game of Words), where players compete in listing Slovene synonyms. More exact information and all project results are available at the project site.