The Culturally Authentic Pictorial Lexicon (CAPL) was conceived in 2003 by Michael Shaughnessy and Jason Parkhill at Washington & Jefferson College in Washington, PA. The initial pilot project created a dictionary database of over 1,000 unique entries for the German language through a grant from W&J College.
In 2008, CAPL started expansion of its offerings. The contents of subsequent CAPL databases were developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and does not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.
CAPL in the classroom
Our usage policy is simple:
The pictures in this database may be viewed, downloaded, linked, manipulated, copied, displayed, and redistributed free of charge for educational, non-commercial purposes as specified by the following 
Creative Commons license. Please cite capl@washjeff.edu as the source.
Principles of CAPL
Several principles are behind the creation and growth of CAPL. These principles make CAPL unique and more applicable in language acquisition than other visual dictionaries.
Authenticity: The pictures in CAPL are authentic primary sources, taken within the language specific context they are found. The pictures are neither staged nor manipulated to suit.
Language Specific Source Dictionary: CAPL is unique to other picture collections because the pictures are not merely "street scenes." Each picture represents a dictionary entry. This entry must originate in the source language. The translation is secondary to the source and sometimes may not officially exist according to standard orthographic authorities.
Objective Depiction: The object depicted must be easily understood without a caption. In doing this, mostly nouns will constitute this database. The subjectivity of a visual representation for adjectives such as "beautiful" creates linguistic, political, racial, economic, philosophical, etc. : problems that the creators of CAPL would like to avoid. Also, no derogatory nouns will be depicted in CAPL.
No absolute representative visual depiction possible: We do not argue that there can be one picture of a German “Markt” that totally encompasses the platonic ideal of German "Market-ness" Nevertheless, if one picture in one context can assist in understanding of what a German market is, then it should be included. If a different picture in a different context adds to another understanding, we are interested in adding it.
For the construction and expansion of CAPL, the following principles apply:
Representative Samples: A minimum representative sample is necessary for the inclusion of a category. Orphan words might not be added to the database.
Context is crucial: New additions should be provided with a context. For example, a picture of a ticket machine for busses should be a ticket machine within a bus. This allows for cultural comparison that may appear at a later date.
Monitored expansion: Expansion is important, especially to include regional cultural items, out of the way places or unique cultural entries that may not be in the database. CAPL gladly adds pictures that are not represented, but all submissions undergo an editorial process. We are not interested in thirty depictions of one item / place unless warranted.
Contact:
Project Administration
CAPL Project Director
Michael Shaughnessy, Ph.D.
Washington & Jefferson College
60 South Lincoln St.
Washington, PA 15301
724-223-6170
capl@washjeff.edu
Technical Developer, Programming
Jason M. Pergola, W&J College
Technical Developer, Programming
Bradley Kita, W&J College
Website Design
Gigi Wiltanger, W&J College
Technical Advisor
Charles Hannon, Ph.D.
Many thanks go out to Mr. Jason Parkhill, one of the initial designers of the project. Without him, this project would not exist. Thanks, Jason!
Image Totals for Currently Available Languages
- German currently contains 2650 active images.
- ESL (North America) currently contains 2074 active images.
- French currently contains 1000 active images.
- Chinese currently contains 1852 active images.
- Arabic currently contains 200 active images.
- Spanish (Southern Cone) currently contains 1013 active images.
- Russian currently contains 68 active images.
- Spanish (Mexico) currently contains 133 active images.
- Spanish (Central America & Caribbean) currently contains 872 active images.
- Ukrainian currently contains 59 active images.
Language Collection Editors and Contributors
Arabic
Editor in Chief
Nabeel Yaseen, Ph.D.
Photo Contributor
John Nowak
Chinese
Editor in Chief
Mei-Yu Yang
Photo Contributors
Simon Setcavage
Brad Kita
ESL (Great Britain)
In Development:
Contact if you are interested in contributing or editing: capl@washjeff.edu
ESL (North America)
Editor in Chief
Michael Shaughnessy, Ph.D., Washington & Jefferson College
Associate Editor and CAPL Project Assistant
Lauren Novak
French
Editor in Chief
Katrine Pflanze, Ph.D., Washington & Jefferson College
kpflanze@washjeff.edu
German
Editor in Chief
Michael Shaughnessy, Ph.D., Washington & Jefferson College
60 South Lincoln Street
Washington, PA 15301
(724) 223-6170
german@washjeff.edu
Associate Editor
Nikhil Sathe, Ph.D., Ohio University
Italian
Photo Contributor
Jason M. Pergola
Japanese
Editor in Chief
Christopher Tebbe
Thanks to the following significant contributors: Leslie Huddart
Portuguese (Brazil)
Photo Contributor
Matt North
Portuguese (Portuagal)
In Development:
Contact if you are interested in contributing or editing: capl@washjeff.edu
Russian
Editor in Chief
Irina Mikhailova
Spanish (Andean)
In Development:
Contact if you are interested in contributing or editing: capl@washjeff.edu
Spanish (Central America & Caribbean)
Editor in Chief
Maribel Manzari
Photo Contributors
HJ Manzari
Erin Lowry
Spanish (Mexico)
Photo Contributor
Maria Contreras
Spanish (Peninsular)
In Development:
Contact if you are interested in contributing or editing: capl@washjeff.edu
Spanish (Southern Cone)
Editor in Chief
Dr. Christy P. Shaughnessy, Washington & Jefferson College
Ukrainian
Editor in Chief
Marina Lysun
Photo Contributor
Megan Thornburg
Citation Guideline
You are welcome to cite this project in research work. Consult your particular style sheet and include the following information:
Shaughnessy, Michael, ed. CAPL: The Culturally Authentic Pictorial Lexicon. Retrieved (current date). http://capl.washjeff.edu/(additional file location information here if needed)
Multilingual Licensing Information for CAPL
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