Question: Replace Numbers and Capital Letters with Slot Tokens in AntConc (Mac)

[Xueqi Chen]

Hi everyone (and Professor Anthony),

While working with AntConc 4.3.1 on macOS, I encountered an issue during lexical bundle extraction. Some four-word bundles such as:

• table A in the

• a in the appendix

• in column of table

originate from expressions like:

• Table A1 in the; Table A7 in the; Table A4 in the

• A5 in the Appendix; A.4.1 in the Appendix; A7 in the Appendix

• in column 3 of Table 4; in column (4) of Table 5; in column (2) of Table 2

Because tokens like “3”, “A.4.1”, “A7”, and “(4)” are treated as distinct lexical items, structurally similar patterns are split and can’t be grouped into generalized bundles like:

• table # in the
• # in the appendix
• in column # of

Would it be possible in AntConc (version 4.3.1 for Mac) to automatically replace such numbers or capital letters with a slot token (e.g. #) when they occur adjacent to table, figure, appendix, or column?

Any suggestions or settings to achieve this in the Mac version would be greatly appreciated!

Best regards,

Xueqi