[Lexicog] Digest Number 343

[Mike Maxwell]

Claire Bowern wrote:
> Coming up with a good database structure early on is really important
> (I've learnt this the hard way, several times actually!)

I can't speak for others on this list, but personally I'd like to hear
more about that.  When I worked on SIL's LinguaLinks (and later on the
model for FieldWorks), one thing we noticed was that we had considerable
trouble coming up with a good data model.  And "we" include field
linguists, computational linguists, lexicographers, database people etc.
(and some people with skills in all those fields, so it wasn't an issue
of not being able to understand each other).  My thought at the
time--and still--was that if we had trouble coming up with a good
design, pity the field linguist who did not have experience in all those
fields.  (Of course, we were trying to come up with a model that would
work for any language, whereas the field linguist is usually working
with only a single language, or at most a few related languages.)

MDF is intended to solve some of these issues, but of course there are
some design issues there that come from the original set of languages it
was intended for.  And many people have hacked the MDF design, with
better or worse results.

In sum, I'd like to hear about experiences Claire and others have had in
this area--both successes and "if we had it to do over again, we
would..." stories.
--
	Mike Maxwell
	Linguistic Data Consortium
	maxwell at ldc.upenn.edu


------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
What would our lives be like without music, dance, and theater?
Donate or volunteer in the arts today at Network for Good!
http://us.click.yahoo.com/TzSHvD/SOnJAA/79vVAA/HKE4lB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->


Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lexicographylist/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    lexicographylist-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/