---
title: "The BLARK concept and BLARK for Arabic — Maegaard 2006"
description: "The authors build on the Dutch BLARK (Basic Language Resource Kit) effort, which linked application… 8 references, cited by 8 papers here."
authors: ["Bente Maegaard", "Steven Krauwer", "Khalid Choukri", "Lise Damsgaard Jørgensen"]
year: 2006
venue: "Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC'06)"
source: "https://aclanthology.org/L06-1314/"
licence: "CC BY-NC 4.0 (ELRA, LREC proceedings)"
licence_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/"
summary_licence: "Elamur Cosmic License"
canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/maegaard-2006-blark-concept-blark-arabic/"
---
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# The BLARK concept and BLARK for Arabic

**Authors:** [Bente Maegaard](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/bente-maegaard/), [Steven Krauwer](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/steven-krauwer/), [Khalid Choukri](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/authors/khalid-choukri/) and Lise Damsgaard Jørgensen · **Year:** 2006 · **Venue:** [Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC'06)](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/lrec/) ([LREC 2006](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/venues/lrec/2006/)) · **Publisher:** [European Language Resources Association (ELRA)](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/publishers/european-language-resources-association-elra/) · **Licence:** [CC BY-NC 4.0 (ELRA, LREC proceedings)](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)

**Links:** [Publisher's page](https://aclanthology.org/L06-1314/) · [PDF](https://aclanthology.org/L06-1314.pdf) · [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W2757400578)

**Citations:** 14 citations (OpenAlex, 2026-10-14) · [8](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/maegaard-2006-blark-concept-blark-arabic/cited-by/) in our library, of the 149,439 papers whose bibliographies we read

## Summary
The paper asks what minimal toolkit of data and software a language needs before serious language and speech technology research can start, and answers it for Arabic. It comes from the EU project NEMLAR, which surveyed the Arabic language resources (LRs) that exist in the Euro-Mediterranean region and what industry requires. The authors build on the Dutch BLARK (Basic Language Resource Kit) effort, which linked application types to the modules they depend on and those modules to the data they need. They refine that approach in several ways:
- Availability is scored on separate axes.
- Quality, size and standards criteria are added.
- The application list is revised.
- A general, language-independent definition is kept apart from a language-specific specification and an inventory of what actually exists.

For Arabic they built four importance-graded tables: written and spoken applications mapped to modules, and modules mapped to resources. Comparing these needs with the survey led NEMLAR to produce three missing resources, now distributed through ELRA. The work gives a reusable template for planning resources for under-equipped languages.

## Key points
- Availability is split into three factors, each numbered so that a higher number means a bigger penalty:
  - accessibility: company-internal only, free for research, or free for research and products;
  - affordability: four cost bands, from over 10,000 € down to under 100 € or free;
  - customizability: black box, glass box, or open/source.
- Quality is judged on four criteria: standard-compliance, soundness of the specifications, task-relevance, and interoperability with other LRs. For size, the paper cites a modest baseline from Cieri et al.: a corpus of 100,000 words and a lexicon of 10,000 entries.
- The Arabic tables cover two sides:
  - written: 11 applications linked to 13 HLT modules, including an Arabic-specific diacritizer (vowelizer);
  - spoken: 16 applications linked to 17 modules.
- Links are graded +++ (essential), ++ (very important) or + (important). Rule-based and statistical versions of a module get separate rows, because their resource needs differ.
- NEMLAR produced three resources:
  - a corpus of written text totalling roughly 500,000 words;
  - a TTS speech corpus of 2×5 hours;
  - a 40-hour Modern Standard Arabic broadcast news corpus.

## Interesting ideas
- Use a chain of two dependency matrices (application → module → resource), with graded importance, to see which components serve the most uses and so deserve priority.
- Score resources on independent axes (licence, cost, how modifiable they are) instead of a single opaque availability number, so the reasons behind each judgment stay visible.
- Keep a prescriptive list of what should exist apart from a descriptive record of what currently exists, with each requirement linked to the possibly empty set of items that fulfil it.
- Record resource needs separately for rule-based and statistical versions of the same module, since they rely on very different data.
- Include named language-specific modules (the Arabic diacritizer) in an otherwise generic module list, showing where a universal template has to bend for one language.

## For Mova

How these ideas could serve Mova, our small open language model — its files, stages and tests:

- **I1** (world): Map each answer task (fable QA, word problems, school tests) to the world-model pieces and knowledge sources it relies on, then fund the ones most tasks share.
- **I2** (learn): Tag every treebank, lexicon and teacher model with licence and modifiability classes, so training pipelines can automatically exclude black-box or non-redistributable inputs.
- **I3** (frames): Maintain a target inventory of frame and role types next to a coverage ledger of implemented ones, so empty slots show up as explicit gaps.
- **I4** (tree): Document what the perceptron parser, gparse and any rule-based UD conversion each require, so data collection matches the approach actually in use.
- **I5** (tokens): Keep a generic tokenizer/tagger/lemma template, plus a clearly marked slot for English-specific modules such as contraction splitting and special handling of possessives.

*Our summary of the paper, in our own words — not its text. The work belongs to its authors; read it at the links above.*

## Institutions

- [Utrecht University](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/universities/utrecht-university/) — University, Utrecht, Netherlands · 39 works · 1,603 citations

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🧭 Topics (1): [Semitic languages](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/topics/semitic-languages/) · 2,908 works

## Cite

Cite as: Bente Maegaard, Steven Krauwer, Khalid Choukri and Lise Damsgaard Jørgensen. 2006. The BLARK concept and BLARK for Arabic. Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC'06).

The paper itself, not this page. BibTeX from the library's record of the work.

```bibtex
@inproceedings{maegaard2006blark,
  title = {{The BLARK concept and BLARK for Arabic}},
  author = {Bente Maegaard, Steven Krauwer, Khalid Choukri and Lise Damsgaard Jørgensen},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC'06)},
  year = {2006},
  doi = {10.63317/5kj4obgtz25k},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.63317/5kj4obgtz25k}
}
```

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## References

8 references, 2 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet.

1. Binnenpoorte, D., F. De Friend, J. Sturm, W. Daelemans, H. Strik, C. Cucchinari (2002) A Field Survey for Establishing Priorities in the Development of HLT Resources for Dutch, In: Proceedings LREC 2002, (Third International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Binnenpoorte%2C+D%2E%2C+F%2E+De+Friend%2C+J%2E+Sturm%2C+W%2E+Daelemans%2C+H%2E+Strik%2C+C%2E+Cucchinari+%282002%29+A+Field+Survey+for+Establishing+Priorities+in+the+Development+of+HLT+Resources+for+Dutch%2C+In%3A+Proceedings+LREC+20)
2. Cieri, C., M. Maxwell, S. Strassel (2003): Core Linguistic Resources for the World’s Languages. In: International Roadmap for Language Resources, Workshop Paris 2003, [http://www.enabler-network.org/documents/workshop/Cieri-Maxwell-Strassel.zip](http://www.enabler-network.org/documents/workshop/Cieri-Maxwell-Strassel.zip) [↗](http://www.enabler-network.org/documents/workshop/Cieri-Maxwell-Strassel.zip)
3. Daelemans, W & H. Strik eds (2002): Het Nederlands in taal- en spraaktechnologie: prioriteiten voor basisvoorzieningen, DLU, Den Haag Fersøe, H. (2004): Validation Manual for Lexica, ELRA, Paris Krauwer, Steven (1998): ELSNET and ELRA: A common past and a common future. In: The ELRA Newsletter, Vol. 3, n. 2, Paris Maegaard, B., L. Damsgaard Jørgensen, S. Krauwer, K. Choukri (2004): NEMLAR: Arabic Language Resources and Tools, In: K. Choukri and B. Maegaard (ed.): Proceedings of Arabic Language Resources and Tools Conference, p. 42-54, Cairo. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Daelemans%2C+W+%26+H%2E+Strik+eds+%282002%29%3A+Het+Nederlands+in+taal%2D+en+spraaktechnologie%3A+prioriteiten+voor+basisvoorzieningen%2C+DLU%2C+Den+Haag+Fers%C3%B8e%2C+H%2E+%282004%29%3A+Validation+Manual+for+Lexica%2C+ELRA%2C+Paris+Krauw)
4. Maegaard, B. (2004): [NEMLAR – an Arabic Language Resources project](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/maegaard-2004-nemlar-arabic-language-resources-project/). In: Fourth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation, Proceedings Vol I, p. 109-112, Lisboa.
5. Monachini, M., F. Bertagna, N. Calzolari, N. Underwood, C. Navarretta (2003): Towards a Standard for the Creation of Lexica, ELRA, Paris Nikkhou, M., K. Choukri (2004): Survey on the existing institutions and Language Resource using or developing Arabic, NEMLAR report, www.nemlar.org. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Monachini%2C+M%2E%2C+F%2E+Bertagna%2C+N%2E+Calzolari%2C+N%2E+Underwood%2C+C%2E+Navarretta+%282003%29%3A+Towards+a+Standard+for+the+Creation+of+Lexica%2C+ELRA%2C+Paris+Nikkhou%2C+M%2E%2C+K%2E+Choukri+%282004%29%3A+Survey+on+the+existing+institut)
6. Romary, L., N. Ide (2004): Towards a roadmap for standardization in language technology, In: Building the LR&E Roadmap Workshop at LREC2004, [http://www.elsnet.org/lrec2004-roadmap/Romary-Ide.ppt](http://www.elsnet.org/lrec2004-roadmap/Romary-Ide.ppt) [↗](http://www.elsnet.org/lrec2004-roadmap/Romary-Ide.ppt)
7. Van den Heuvel, H., Louis Boves, Eric Sanders (2000): Validation of Content and Quality of Existing SLR: Overview and Methodology, ELRA, Paris. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Van+den+Heuvel%2C+H%2E%2C+Louis+Boves%2C+Eric+Sanders+%282000%29%3A+Validation+of+Content+and+Quality+of+Existing+SLR%3A+Overview+and+Methodology%2C+ELRA%2C+Paris%2E)
8. Yaseen, M., M. Atiyya, C. Bendahman, B. Maegaard, K. Choukri, N. Paulsson, S. Haamid, H. Fersøe, S. Krauwer, M. Rashwan, B. Haddad, C. Mukbel, A. Mouradi, A. Al-Kufaishi, M. Shahin, A. Ragheb, Chenfour (2006): [Building Annotated Written and Spoken Arabic LRs in NEMLAR Project](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/en/papers/yaseen-2006-building-annotated-written-spoken-arabic/). In: LREC 2006 Proceedings, Genova.

*Updated 31 October 2026*