Bulk edit noun classes

[Pauline Linton]

I have a field for noun class in my database but it isn't yet filled in for all the instances of nouns I have. Can this field be bulk edited? - I've been trying but the field isn't available as a target field even when it is displayed as a column. If it can't be bulk edited does anyone have a way of rapidly filling in such a field rather than tediously editing each entry?

Pauline
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Pauline Linton
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[Robert Hedinger]

Which kind of bulk edit are you trying to use? See tabs at the bottom.

 

Are you trying to edit a custom field? If not, which field?

 

Robert

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[Pauline Linton]

I was using the List Choice tab. It is a custom field, which may be the problem?
A related problem: for some reason my custom field Classe Nominale is under Sense when it really should be under Entry (I don't think I had any choice when I set it up). I've just created a new field under Entry in the hope of moving/bulk copying the contents from the old field to the new. This time I'm using Bulk Copy. The original (Classe nominale under sense) field can be selected as the Source Field, but the new field is not available as the Target Field. Any help with either problem is appreciated.
Pauline

[Robert Hedinger]

List choice only is available for fields which use a list like parts of speech (Grammatical category). You would have to use one of the other tabs.

 

Actually, I would leave the noun class field in the sense area as the part of speech (Grammatical information) is also in the sense area (assuming you want the noun class to display right after the POS in each entry. (Even better would be to use Inflection features for your noun classes, but a custom field also works.)

 

You should be able to bulk copy from a custom field in the entry area to a custom field in the sense are. However, it depends on which version of FLEx you are using. In older versions you could only bulk copy inside the entry or inside the sense area, not from one to the other. I am no longer sure whether you also could not bulk edit custom fields in the older versions. My recommendation would be to install the latest version of FLEx if you are with an older version. I am using Version 7.0.5. available from the Fieldworks website.

 

Hope this helps. If not, keep asking.

[Pauline Linton]

I am using V. 7.0.5 already but can't bulk copy between those fields. I suppose I'll leave it where it is for now. The important thing is the information is there somewhere. If I ever get round to publishing the dictionary I'll perhaps have to move it to the Inflection features as you suggest because currently in Dictionary view my custom field appears at the end of the entry not next to the POS and I can't see a way of configuring it differently.
Thanks for the help,
Pauline

[Ronald Moe]

Hi Pauline,

There is a problem with the logic of what you are trying to do. You can (probably) do what you want to do in FLEx, but it is complicated. The following entry illustrates the problem:

 

grain n. 1) (mass noun) seeds of crops such as wheat, corn, or rice 2) (count noun) a single, very small piece of something such as sand or salt

 

Notice that the word ‘grain’ belongs to two different noun classes (mass noun vs. count noun), depending on the sense. (Mass nouns and count nouns are handled as inflection classes in FLEx.) In some languages this might never be the case, or you might not have ever found and recorded any examples. So you might want to move the noun class to the entry level. But FLEx cannot tell which of the two noun classes should be copied. The programmers had to decide if the program should allow you to potentially mess up your data, or if it should prevent you from doing so. (I think it would be possible for the program to work either way.) If it allowed you to use Bulk Copy from a sense level field to an entry level field, you might end up doing something like the following:

 

grain n. (mass noun) 1) seeds of crops such as wheat, corn, or rice 2) a single, very small piece of something such as sand or salt

 

Notice that now ‘grain’ is only a mass noun for all the senses. This is actually wrong. What happened? We copied the noun class to an entry level field and FLEx decided to keep the first noun class and ignore the second. It could have kept the second and ignored the first:

 

grain n. (count noun) 1) seeds of crops such as wheat, corn, or rice 2) a single, very small piece of something such as sand or salt

 

Or it could have kept both:

 

grain n. (mass noun, count noun) 1) seeds of crops such as wheat, corn, or rice 2) a single, very small piece of something such as sand or salt

 

The program would have to (1) choose one of these options, or (2) require you to make the choice. The first option risks losing valuable data. The programmers decided it was too dangerous to allow this. So FLEx prevents you from using Bulk Copy to copy from a sense level field to an entry level field. The second option makes the program more complex and risks confusing the user with complex logic. FLEx is already a very complicated program.

 

There is a way to accomplish each of the three options for ‘grain’. (But you need to follow the instructions carefully.)

 

Option #1—Copy one instance of a sense level field into an entry level field.

1. Filter the sense level field for one of the noun classes (e.g. ‘mass noun’).

2. Use Bulk Replace to replace <nothing> with ‘mass noun’ in the entry level field. (Don’t put anything in the “Find what:” box.)

3. Filter the sense level field for a second noun class (e.g. ‘count noun’).

4. Use Bulk Replace to replace <nothing> with ‘count noun’ and choose the option ‘Overwrite’

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 as needed.

 

For this option you will have to order the field contents. For instance if you always want to overwrite ‘mass noun’ with ‘count noun’, you will have to filter for ‘count noun’ last.

 

Option #2—Copy all instances of a sense level field into an entry level field and append each.

1. Filter the sense level field for one of the noun classes (e.g. ‘mass noun’).

2. Use Bulk Replace to replace <nothing> with ‘mass noun’ in the entry level field. (Don’t put anything in the “Find what:” box.)

3. Filter the sense level field for a second noun class (e.g. ‘count noun’).

4. Use Bulk Replace to replace <nothing> with ‘count noun’ and choose the option ‘Append, separated by:’ <comma> <space>.

5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 as needed.

 

None of this is necessary if you only have one grammatical category per entry and if each entry (e.g. noun) only belongs to one (noun) class. In such a case the noun class should be handled by an inflection feature or inflection class. FLEx allows you to display the grammatical class on the entry level if there is only one grammatical class in the entry:

 

hope v. 1) to want something good to happen…

hope n. (uncounted) 1) the desire that something good will happen… 2) something that you hope will happen…

 

Notice that we can have FLEx display the inflection class “uncounted” on the entry level. This wouldn’t work if you have more than one grammatical class in an entry:

 

hope 1) v. to want something good to happen… 2) n. (uncounted) the desire that something good will happen… 3) n. (uncounted) something that you hope will happen…

 

In this case your only option is to display the inflection class with each grammatical class.

 

For more on handling inflection features and inflection classes, see Andy Black’s paper ‘Introduction to Parsing’ and my paper ‘Introduction to Lexicography’ under Help-Resources. For more on configuring your dictionary, see ‘Configuring a dictionary view’ under Help-Language Explorer.

 

Ron Moe

 

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From: flex...@googlegroups.com [mailto:flex...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Pauline Linton
Sent: Monday, August 08, 2011 3:39 AM
To: flex...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [FLEx] Bulk edit noun classes

 

I am using V. 7.0.5 already but can't bulk copy between those fields. I suppose I'll leave it where it is for now. The important thing is the information is there somewhere. If I ever get round to publishing the dictionary I'll perhaps have to move it to the Inflection features as you suggest because currently in Dictionary view my custom field appears at the end of the entry not next to the POS and I can't see a way of configuring it differently.

Thanks for the help,
Pauline

[Robert Hedinger]

You should be able to move the custom field POS to after the Grammatical Category in Configure dictionary, but you need to open the Sense area (click on the plus besides Sense).

Hope this helps.