[Lexicog] Digest Number 343

[Mike Maxwell]

Allan Johnson wrote:
> Yes, I think that's what I'm saying - not like a thesaurus, but arranged
> semantically just within each main entry - by meaning rather than by form.
> ...
> And a similar question - could a database be designed that would allow both
> a Standard MDF view and a PLB view (or Alternate MDF view) of the same
> data?

A rather belated reply--I think Mike Sangay covered the database theory
behind it.

When last I looked, the FieldWorks lex db structure will support
multiple way of viewing lexemes.  Specifically, lexemes are treated as
having a bunch of POSs (actually, the structure is considerably richer
than just POS) and a bunch of senses.  Each sub-part of a lex entry
would then be a combination of one of those POSs with one of those
senses.  That allows you to choose whichever way of grouping the
sub-parts you prefer: either group first by POS, and secondarily by sense:

    foobar 1. (noun) (a) left-handed monkey wrench.  (b) shore line.
    2. (verb) (a) to go on a wild goose chase.  (b) to send someone
    to look for a left-handed monkey wrench.

or vice versa.

However, I'm not certain I answered your original question, in which you
also talked about having multiple wordforms in the hierarchy.  I'm not
sure if these wordforms are irregular forms, or what.  Putting my
uncertainty more concretely, why do you want to have wordforms inside a
lex entry, if the citation form is itself a wordform?  Is it because you
want to include irregular forms, which will be relevant to one POS but
not another?  Maybe an example would help me understand...

--
	Mike Maxwell
	Linguistic Data Consortium
	maxwell at ldc.upenn.edu


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