columns??
Carol Slater
The current program manual does not include columns, which, in the past, I have happily used to create more easily readable output from, for example, GARVEY. (True enough, the new files were not by along shot in CHAT format, but it was still possible to use the original files for analysis.)
I wonder: what is now the best way to do what columns used to do?
Should we rely on a word processing program to reformat speaker utterances after taking out unwanted dependent tiers with kwal -t? Will +h take out speaker identifications in a kwal command?
Suggestions will be gratefully received.
Carol Slater
Department of Psychology
Alma Collet
Alma, MI
Sue Blackwell
Carol I'm surprised to read this - I am still using "columns" and it
works fine on the corpora I'm using. Is there a new version of the
manual, or the software, that I don't know about?
Sue Blackwell
Birmingham
Brian MacWhinney
I had thought that people had largely stopped using the columns-
type display, so it is interesting to know that you still find this
useful. The problem with the CLAN COLUMNS program was that it was
rather inflexible. We figured that something fancier, like an Excel
display would eventually be better. But we never got around to
implementing anything, I am afraid. Without a program, I have no idea
how one could get a display of the COLUMNS type.
It would help if you could tell me what aspect of the Columns-type
display you find most useful. For example, it is now possible to
convert CHAT files into EXMARaLDA format and from EXMARaLDA it may be
possible to get some types of displays that you like. ELAN is also
possible, but I think EXMARaLDA is closer to what you might want. But
it is not a real Columns display. Instead, it is in the Partiture
format.
Regarding your second question about a +h switch, I am confused.
There is no +h switch in KWAL. If you want to remove dependent tiers,
the best method is just with -t in KWAL, as you say.
--Brian
Brian MacWhinney
Yes, Carol is right. The current version of CLAN has COLUMNS
removed and the description has also been removed from the electronic
version of the manual. As I noted, I didn't think people were really
using it.
--Brian
Sue Blackwell
It's a nice simple program to get students going with CLAN,
and it's good for producing handouts for teaching purposes.
Is the new manual only out in electronic form or is there
a hard copy version? I had been meaning to send you a list of
the errors I found in the third edition - am I too late? (But
perhaps you had already found and fixed them all anyway ...)
;-)
Sue
Carol Slater
It is, as ever, very generous of you to be thinking of solutions to our problems! My hunch is that if columns is gone, my best bet is to fall back on a clunky (but mercifully familiar) combination of kwal -t and Tables in Word. (We wouldn't, in that case, need an equivalent of +h in the columns command: we maintain speakers' identifications until their utterances had been assigned to the appropriate column, and then select and delete IDs. (For all I know, there may even be a Word command that will delete a string everywhere it appears.)
It is sad to think of having to do it this way, though, because the charm of columns was its astonishing ease of application--one simple command and behold, there was a read-ready print out. Admittedly, columns did not have a lot of tunes, but I must confess to having been really fond of the one it knew how to play.
Thanks again.
Cheers,
Carol
Brian MacWhinney
I would like to ask anyone else who is currently using COLUMNS to send
me a note. Please don't post to the bboard, just send a note to ma...@cmu.edu
. I will take the final count, multiply by 10 and that will give me
an estimate of the interest in resurrecting it or coming up with some
alternative.
-Brian