Electronic Polish-English-Polish dictionary

[mlk18+ at PITT.EDU]

>From Oscar Swan:

Dear SEELANGS,

I've asked Michelle Kuhn to  bring the beta version of my student's 
electronic Polish-English-Polish dictionary to people's attention. I'm 
still working on the data base, but the mechanics are in place, and it is 
already a workable tool, adequate for most student use. I use it myself,
so  it's got not to be too bad. My students at all levels have adopted it
and  use it pretty much exclusively for class work. It's free and can be
found  at:

http://polish.slavic.pitt.edu/~swan/beta/

The dictionary supports whole and partial word searches, left-anchored 
string searches, right-anchored string searches, and can also look for
best  left-hand matches. It is Polish-to-English oriented, but searches
can be  set for either one language or the other or for both at the same
time, and  also restricted for part of speech.

Boolean searches can be used for compiling grammatical sets - for example,
 nouns of the <imiE> type, verbs taking the dative, and so on. Entering a 
word like 'film', in addition to 'film' itself, gives a list of around 50 
film-studies words. I am continuing to work on enhancing the search 
possibilities, hence the 'beta' designation.

A user can compile custom vocabulary lists which are saved from session to
 session. Texts can be pasted into a notepad that can hold up to a 
small-sized book, with words instantly clickable for fast reading. I've 
found that for intermediate students this speeds up reading by a factor of
 at least five, probably more. The need for glossed readers for all
intents  and purposes is eliminated, although an instructor, if he or she
wishes,  can use the notepad in combination with the list-maker to quickly
assemble  a vocabulary list for some electronic text, like an on-line
newspaper or  Wikipedia article.

There is a feedback option for bringing comments and corrections to my 
attention, which I urge people to use. So far I haven't gotten any 
feedback, although I see that users from more than 30 countries have used 
the dictionary already, probably because someone entered it on Wikipedia, 
which is why I concluded I might as well officially announce the
dictionary  to the AATSEEL membership in its still beta state.

O. Swan
University of Pittsburgh

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