[tsunoda: Software]

[tsunoda at TOOYOO.L.U-TOKYO.AC.JP]

Date: Mon, 2 Mar 1998 13:28:49 +0900 (JST)
From: tsunoda
To: tsunoda
Subject: Software

   Would someone help me, please ? I need advice/information
on software for writing up texts.
   But warning first: I am hopeless with computers. The
computer I use is 'Power Macintosh 8100/80'. (People say that
a Mac is to me what a pearl is for a pig. Pigs would be
offended.)

   I have heard about marvelous software that transfers all
the words (or morphemes) that have been written up from texts
into a dictionary.
   I have bought a diskette for the following software:
      IT
      Interlinear Text
      Linguist's Software, Inc.
I have never used this software. But I believe it has the
function described above. Unfortunately, the diskette was not
accompanied by a manual. (Even if I had the manual, I would
have no clue how to use the software.)

   I am planning to write up the texts I recorded in the
Wanyjirra language of Northern Territory, Australia. The texts
were given by four speakers: NP, LT, DI and MS.

   Specifically, what I hope to do is the following:
to specify, for every entry in the dictionary, the speaker
from whom the entry was obtained.
   (Incidentally, the reason why I want to specify the source
speakers is that such information is indispensable for
dialectology, sociolinguistics, historical linguistics, etc.
Unfortunately, currently available dictionaries/vocabularies
of Australian languages do not include such information.)

   Therefore, I need software that transfers the words and
morphemes from the texts into the dictionary and that indicates
the source speakers for each item.

   I would appreciate advice/information on the following two
points.

   [1] Is there any such software ? (I believe the software I
have does not have such a function.)

   [2] If there is no such software, is there any way to modify
a currently available software to serve this purpose ?
   What I have thought of is something like the following.
   Before I start writing up a text given by the speaker NP, I
instruct the computer to put
        (NP)
after every entry from this particular text. When I have
written up this text, I remove this instruction. Similarly for
the next text.
   I presume this will work, but I do not know how to modify the
software.

   I thank you in advance for your kind help.

Best wishes,

Tasaku Tsunoda
Faculty of Letters,
University of Tokyo,
Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-0033,
Japan

Phone:  +81-3-5800-5790
Fax:      +81-3-5800-3740