Summary Details
| Query: |
SUM: dictionary software
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| Author: | Michal Lisecki | |
| Submitter Email: | click here to access email | |
| Linguistic LingField(s): |
Computational Linguistics
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| Summary: |
Dear all, Quite some time ago (September 15th) I submitted a query about software which could help translators in building their own dictionaries of uncommon vocabulary. I am very grateful to those who provided me with information on this, and I apologize for the very long delay in posting this summary: David K. Barnhart <Barnhart@highlands.com> John Beaven <JohnBeaven@compuserve.com> Michael Dunn <Michael.Dunn@anu.edu.au> Timothy Dunnigan <dunni001@maroon.tc.umn.edu> HOPPE Birgit <hoppe@uic.asso.fr> Robert A. Haas <rahaas@uncg.edu> Baden Hughes <bmhughes@ozemail.com.au> David J James <davidjj@kki.net.pl> Hanna Jankowska <hajanko@poczta.pdi.net> Vern M. Lindblad <vernml@u.washington.edu> Simon Musgrave <s.musgrave@linguistics.unimelb.edu.au> MARC PICARD <picard@vax2.concordia.ca> Mitar Pitzek <pitzek@EUnet.yu> Stuart Robinson <Stuart.Robinson@anu.edu.au> Ewa Sikorska <evva@plearn.edu.pl> Jean Quirion <Jean_Quirion@UQAH.UQuebec.CA> A. Vine <avine@Eng.Sun.COM> Ralf Vollmann <Ralf.Vollmann@kfunigraz.ac.at> January Weiner <jweiner1@ix.urz.uni-heidelberg.de> Twice as many people emailed me with a similar request which let me know I am not the only one looking for such a software. I shall give now a summary of responses I got. Unfortunatelly, I must say there is no perfect solution (at least I didn't come across one) to my problem. However, the best one seems to be to get some kind of dictionary to which we can add up entries. This seems to be the easiest and least time consuming. - ---------------------------- SHOEBOX SOLUTION - ------------------------------------ A perfect solution for those with some linguistic background aiming at building a more sophisticated dictionary seems to be Shoebox - a Windows based software with quite powerful dictionary making features available free from <http://www.sil.org> (currently available is version 4). SHOEBOX is a database management program, designed expressly to meet the needs of the field linguist. Using SHOEBOX, the linguist can easily enter, edit, and analyze lexical, textual, anthropological and other types of data. For example, with SHOEBOX, one can: + Maintain a simple dictionary, or a more complex lexicon, + Interlinearize text, where new words are automatically entered into the dictionary, + Do grammatical filing and analysis of text data, + Enter and file cultural notes, + Maintain nonlinguistic types of databases, such as address lists or library catalogs. - ------------------------------ DATABASE SOLUTION - ------------------------------- Some other respondents suggested using a simple database management system, , e.g. ms access, excel, lotus 123, etc. However, this has to be given futher considerations, i.e. in MS Excel "you can only have so many characters in one field (and sometimes this can be not enough for definitions). Access is easy to program but is getting slower and slower the more data you have. Anyways, if you want to write your own database, think twice about the data structure (the kind of fields you would want). It is a lot harder to add missing fields later on." (Birgit Hoppe) - ---------------------------- EXISTING DICTIONARY - -------------------------------- A good solutions is to build a database on a basis of existing dictionary software. For this purpose some Polish respondents suggested using "Leksykonia" which allows for adding entries. However, as it is not a very well known software (and afaik, not available online) we might encounter some problems with transfering the data outside the program - ---------------------------- OTHER SUGGESTED TOOLS/REFERENCES - -------------------- Ralf Vollman suggested using ASKSAM - "it allows context search and thus is very suitable for text data. and it is very fast. officially, it is not cheap, though. <http://www.asksam.com/>." In her reply, Birgit Hope wrote: "I have received your question on dictionary making from the Linguist List. I am working as a terminologist at the International Union of Railways (UIC) in Paris, France. UIC is editing a database with railway terminology in 15 languages which also includes Polish (and other Eastern European languages). The database is programmed in Foxpro (Dbase application). If your technical translations happen also to be in the railway field, you might consider buying our database and completing it with your own terminology. If you are interested, you may have a look at our web page at www.uic.asso.fr. The product is called RailLexic." I was also suggested to check Atril's DejaVU <http://www.atril.com> which I haven't tried yet (it's not cheap). A selection of interesting tools suggested by Jean Quirion can be found at < http://www.uhb.fr/~lemeur_a/inv94_c.htm> under Gestion terminologique. John Beaven suggested trying a commercial package MultiTerm from Trados. I was also told to try Filo (http://users.cybercity.dk/~bst3505/tools.htm) which I found completely useless...or at least I could not get the idea of it. Maybe some you will...let me know then. I did not have much time to look at it but it seemed to me that its purpose is just to change overall attributes of files. To me, it did not have even a sigle dictionary building/maintenance feature. I was even pointed to one book by Routledge, which covers this topic. It's called _Using Computers in Linguistics_ (eds. John Lawler and Helen Aristar Dry). It just came out this year. Some other suggested sites include (I only browsed through them]: http://www.surrey.ac.uk/LIS/Terminology/terminol.html http://www.who.int/pll/cat/cat_resources.html http://www.gy.com/mul/cat/cat.htm - -------------------------------------------------------------------------- - ------ Still, some other respondents claim to be using a very simple and versatile method of CRD labels (Windows 3.1 Card Files). Well, this seems to be a good solution for those wanting to create a very simple database but there may be some problems with transfering the data to other programs/formats. A general suggestions for those wanting to create a bilingual dictionary is to be aware of the fact that the software they are looking for should be capable of displaying extended diacritic signs (e.g. Polish, French, German, etc.)[ISO-8859-2]. A NOTE FOR NON-WINDOWS PLATFORMS I did not get many responses conceringn dictionary building software on other platforms. I myself am using Windows 95 and Linux (Debian) but was unable to find any software (or suggestions) which could run under Linux. As far as MAC users are concerned, I had only one suggestion of an organizer program for the Mac called InTouch, which is a very versatile and powerful and simple database. Basically it is a simple data management system but could as well help in building a simple lexical database. I could not locate its website, but InTough is marketed by Prarie Group software, and I'm fairly certain that the company offers the program for PCs. - -------------------------------------------------------------------------- - -------- GENERAL SUGGESTION I decided to use Shoebox ver 4 as it seems to offer all the features I need at present together with a possibility to extend it in future adding pronunciation and more complex entries. Providing you have some linguistic background this seems to be the best choice. Other benefits include : it's available online, it's free, comes with loads of documentation. Other solution could be to use database software but then we need to think of the limitations which result from such a choice. Even better solution (providing you have money) could be buing one of powerful dictionaries or some kind of specialized software which allows to add up entries. All the best, Michal Lisecki (waiting for any other suggestions...) tafn mike ____________________________________________________________ Michal Lisecki <magura@cz.top.pl> finger me 4 my pgp IRC [lisu] or [magura] http://www.cz.top.pl/~magura 'The limits of my language mean the limits of my world' L.W. |
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| LL Issue: | 9.1452 | |
| Date Posted: | 16-Oct-1998 | |
| Original Query: | Read original query | |
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