Inflectional features

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Pauline Linton

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Dec 9, 2016, 11:36:13 PM12/9/16
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Hello,

I wondering if it is possible to have two inflectional features assigned to a grammatical category but have only one appearing in the formatted dictionary?  I'm thinking specifically of Bantu noun classes. Currently in the project I work on
(Latege) all the nouns have an inflectional feature which shows the noun class pair (sg/pl) using traditional classes e.g. 1/2, 7/8, etc. Hence:

nyòní  [ɲoni] n 1/2  oiseau 
nyùngù  [ɲuŋɡu] n 9/6  marmite
ñàaní  [ŋa:ni] n 1/2  crocodile 
obá  [oba] n 1/8  palmier  

However, such numbers mean little to anyone who doesn't know about traditional ways of describing Bantu noun systems and since Latege has collapsed some of the classes and has unusual pairings, the numbers appear at best arbitrary, at times confusing. In the pedagogical grammar the numbers are replaced by the corresponding demonstrative pronouns, a system which local speakers seem able to relate to. Thus instead of being referred to as class 1/2, "okaari (pl: akaari) [woman]" is referred to as class "wu/ba", these being the sg and pl demonstrative pronouns of class 1/2. Similarly, "ongebe (pl: engebe) [child]" is class "wu/bi" instead of 1/8. It hasn't yet been decided if a future published dictionary will show any class information or not but if it does it would be preferable (for a local audience) to use the system with demonstrative pronouns. Of course, I could simply change the labels of the current inflectional feature. However, I would prefer to preserve the classic numbering
system within Flex along side the new one so that when information is needed for a specialist audience of linguists a different configuration can simply be created showing the traditional numbers rather than the demonstratives.
I've created a second Inflectional feature using the demonstrative pronouns as the values and I can get Flex to accept values from both features for any given word, but then both appear in the configured dictionary:
 
nyòní  [ɲoni] n 1/2 wu/ba  oiseau 
nyùngù  [ɲuŋɡu] n 9/6 yi/ma  marmite  
ñàaní  [ŋa:ni] n 1/2 wu/ba  crocodile 
obá  [oba] n 1/8 wu/bi  palmier

I can't find a way around this. In the Configure Dictionary view Inflectional feature is simply either turned on or off . Is there any way I can keep both Inflectional features in Flex but only have one appear in any given configured dictionary?

Thanks,
Pauline
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Jeff Shrum

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Dec 10, 2016, 10:09:13 AM12/10/16
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Pauline,

 

What you are asking for is impossible because the inflectional features are for the parser to use, and having two choices is an ambiguity that is not possible for the automatic parser.  All dictionaries are designed with an audience in mind.  Fieldworks does have several features that allow you to extract different data from the same database to make different kinds of dictionaries, but the automatic parser is not like that.

 

My best suggestion is that you create custom fields for one of sets of classifiers and enter  that data there.  In this way, you will have both ways of classifying the nouns in your database. If might ever want to use the parser or ask Paratext for a grammar sketch, then I would use the traditional noun class numbers in inflectional features field, and the demonstrative derived tags in custom fields.

 

Jeff Shrum

SIL

International Language Technology Consultant

Dallas, TX USA

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Beth-docs Bryson

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Dec 10, 2016, 12:38:53 PM12/10/16
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Pauline-

What version of FLEx are you using?  There are a few more capabilities in this area in FW 8.3.0 or 8.3.1 than in 8.2.8. 

Note: If you experiment with 8.3.0, you could take the same project back to 8.2.8 if you are not getting what you need.  However, once you open a project in 8.3.1, you will not be able to open it in 8.2.8 (or 8.3.0) after that.  You will only be able to use any backups you made with 8.2.8 (or 8.3.0).  Thus, when you make backups, make sure you can tell which ones you made with 8.2.8 or earlier, and which ones with 8.3.1.

What I discovered the other day as I was experimenting with some of this for a different user, is that you can get some of what you are looking for by means of the various “Gram Info.” options.

There are a few bugs in this area, and a couple improvements we are hoping to make, but if you experiment with it, you may get some idea of what is available, or what could be if we adjusted a few things.

Specifically:  Under “Grammatical Info”, there are at least three different ways to get part of speech information.  One is “Category Info”, and that is what is turned on by default.  But there is also “Gram Info (Name)” and “Gram Info (Abbr)”.  Both of these include the Inflectional Feature information, but in different ways.

If you set up your inflectional features so that the numbers are in, for instance Abbreviation, and the more intelligible labels are in Name, then you can switch back and forth, depending on the purpose.

I don’t have FLEx open right now, so I may have a few details off, and as I said, there are a few things we hope to improve there.  But I hope this gives you a pointer in terms of something to experiment with.

-Beth

Beth-docs Bryson

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Dec 10, 2016, 2:18:16 PM12/10/16
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Actually, I was wrong.  At the moment, there is no way to show the "Name" for an Inflection Feature, even with "Gram Info. (Name)".

It has been requested, and there is a Jira issue for it, and it has been in the list of things we might do as part of FW 8.3.   (LT-7522)

I can't guarantee that we will do it, but I will see what I can do.  It may fit naturally as part of the other bugfixes we already plan to do in this cluster.

If it were possible to show either Name or Abbreviation for Inflectional features, then you could put the "human readable" form in Name, and the numbers in "Abbreviation".  Then there would be two different ways to display the same feature, and the parser would be fine with that.

-Beth


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Pauline Linton

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Dec 15, 2016, 11:46:49 PM12/15/16
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Thanks Beth,
I originally tried what you suggested with the Gram Info (though in FW 8.2) and then discovered you can't choose which label in the Dictionary configuration. I'll go with a custom field for now and try to keep an eye out for any changes in the Gram Info section in future versions.
Pauline
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