OntoProbe
A probe generation engine and structured probe sets for the mechanistic study of language.
v1.0 English released · CEFR / JLPT aligned · CC BY 4.0
Ontology scope
The underlying compiled ontology covers 16 vocabulary topics × 16 grammar functions, classified across CEFR and JLPT levels in parallel English and Japanese editions.
| Language | Vocabulary | Grammar patterns | Level standard |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | 6,713 | 1,205 | CEFR A1–C2 |
| Japanese | 13,589 | 751 | JLPT N5–N1 |
| Korean | in development | in development | TOPIK I–II |
The full compiled ontology is not redistributed. Public releases ship the probe generation engine plus a curated source pool sufficient to operate it.
Release
v1.0 — basic engine output · 2026-05-17
Download ontoprobe-en-v1.0.zip (55 KB)
Hosted on Zenodo · DOI
10.5281/zenodo.20259675
What is in v1.0
- · 272 probe sentences — 16 vocabulary topics × 12 + 16 grammar functions × 5
- · Top-level ontology schema (16 topic and 16 function definitions)
- · Probe generation engine (`build_probes.py`, Python ≥ 3.8, no external dependencies)
- · Bundled source pool (478 vocabulary entries + 160 grammar entries)
Cite as
Cynn, Y. (2026). OntoProbe English Probe Set v1.0 (basic engine output)
[Dataset]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20259675Roadmap
- v1.0 English basic engine output — released
- v1.x Larger source pool, additional templates, bi-axial probe enumerations
- v2.0 Japanese basic engine output (JLPT N5–N1)
- v3.0 Korean basic engine output (TOPIK I–II)
About
OntoProbe is built and maintained by River Bottega. The ontology design — the 16×16 matrix, the level alignment, the compilation across languages, the probe generation engine — is original work. Alignment philosophy is informed by the Cambridge English Profile project and the JLPT level system, neither of which is claimed or redistributed.
We invite the community to inform us of comparable prior work. As of 2026, no public release matches the combination of structural dimensions used here: a multilingual 2D ontology matrix with level grading, a runnable probe generation engine, and graded probe examples.