Naming

[Chris]

I open this as a thread to discuss the name of the database.
Here is Ray's recent entry. It is very strong, except I think
that "panglossia" is also a medical condition.

Chris

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Dear Chris,
I suggest

PanGlossia

with all of its Voltairian connotations and the
suggestion that it covers all 'sagesss' , as did Dr. Pangloss.

Given the propeties of Dr. Pangloss, anyone (Candide) that 'used' his
knowledge data base was wise to be wary and, while appreciating his
data, to snuff it with a grain of salt since 'data checking' is
somewhat less than complete.

[plirwin]

Finally I have a name for what happens when I drink too much coffee!!


Seriously, though, using the "gloss" root is a nice alternative to
"syn".

Tricia

[Michael]

Even though it is a "disorder"--it could be worse. At least it's
related to language.

I like it.

[Chris]

Contest entries from Rachel Walker:

LingThing
SynDATA
SinData
syntaxRULES!
worldsyntax
rulesofsyn
wor(l)drelationships
wor(l)dorder

[Chris]

Looks like somebody beat us to Pangloss:

http://www.checkout.org.cn/awardsearch/showAward.do?AwardNumber=0715246

Award Abstract #0715246
Pangloss: An Interlinear Glossing Tool within an Existing Application
Platform
NSF Org: BCS
Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences


Initial Amendment Date: September 7, 2007

Latest Amendment Date: September 7, 2007

Award Number: 0715246

Award Instrument: Standard Grant

Program Manager: Joan Maling
BCS Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences
SBE Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences


Start Date: September 1, 2007

Expires: August 31, 2008 (Estimated)

Awarded Amount to Date: $15625

Investigator(s): Jeffrey Good jcg...@buffalo.edu(Principal
Investigator)


Sponsor: The Long Now Foundation
Fort Mason Center
San Francisco, CA 94123 415/561-6582


NSF Program(s): LINGUISTICS

Field Application(s):

Program Reference Code(s): OTHR,0000

Program Element Code(s): 1311

ABSTRACT

Making language data available to a wide range of researchers and
language community members is an important goal for linguistics in the
computer age. Interlinear glossed text (IGT) is a data type which is
central to documentary and descriptive linguistic work. With NSF
funding, Jeffrey C. Good (Long Now Foundation) will launch the
Pangloss project to explore the possibility of extending the
functionality OpenOffice.org (an open source suite of office
productivity software) for work with IGT. This extension will allow
the annotation of texts for grammatical information and the linking of
those texts to a simple lexical database. This the allows the building
of a dictionary and a collection of annotated texts in a familiar,
word processor environment. Because OpenOffice.org?s native document
format is a variety of XML, resources produced using this system will
be ready for sharing and archiving. The products of this project will
not be limited to the tools themselves, but will also include
recommendations for standards for interlinear glossed texts and
lexicons, as well as recommendations regarding the utility of building
domain-specific tools on top of an existing office application suite.
This project has the potential to significantly enhance the
productivity of those working on linguistic documentation. Linguists
commonly rely on commercial software products to build grammars,
dictionaries, and texts, due to their relative ease of use. However,
these products have disadvantages with respect to the encoding and
archiving of linguistic data. The proposed research addresses the need
for easy-to-use software which does not have the disadvantages
inherent to closed-format, proprietary applications. This project will
also serve as a pilot study examining the feasibility of the "plug-in"
model of tool development for linguistic purposes, a method for
software design that significantly lowers the costs for the creation
of new tools. As such, it has the potential to impact not only
linguistics generally but also other academic fields that could use
the work done in this project as a model for the development of their
own tools.

[Chris]

From Amy Parker:

From Amy Clare Parker <apa...@nyu.edu>
Sent Sunday, May 25, 2008 10:28 pm
To sswl.lin...@nyu.edu
Subject entries
so far I have:

syntacticworld.com

aworldofsyntax.com

lngwrld.com or lingwrld.com

or something like arboldelmundo.com (tree of the world in spanish,
which is just the language that i happen to know. treeoftheworld.com
is taken.)


hopefully more to come!

best,
amy

[Michael]

but not panglossia, right?

[Chris]

Three from Inna:

synscape

synscope

syntax collector

[Chris]

My daughter suggested "Global Tongues".

Michelle McComb wrote:

Hi,

Alright, my name submission is "The Syngua Database"...Syngua coming
from
Syn- from Syntax (and meaning 'together' in Greek) and -gua from
Lingua. I
sort of liked the idea that it means languages together in a database.
Also, it's pronounced like Lingua with and S. I think Syngua sounds
better
as "The Syngua Database" as opposed to just Syngua. Best of luck with
the
name hunt!

Michelle

[Chris]

From Jason:

Syntactic Knowledge Agglomeration (SKA)
or e-Syntactic Knowledge Agglomeration (e-SKA), both in solidarity to
the prothesis inclined and on analogy to the booming industry of e-
words.

Notes:

In addition to its use in population dynamics, 'agglomeration' has a
life in the mining community referring to a family of processes which
can be used to concentrate valuable minerals based on adhesive
properties.

(e-)SKA is easily verbalized.
(a) You make a good point but have you SKAed it against other
languages.
(b) John read the data that Mary SKAed.

Jason

Jason Shaw
Linguistics Dept.
New York University
http://homepages.nyu.edu/~jas745/

[Michael]

Once upon a time I thought 'Open Tree" was a cool name. But all the
domains are taken up. Bah.

re: Jason's entry, it makes me think of the music genre:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ska
Not a bad thing--just kind of makes me giggle.

[sangeeta vishwanath]

I like Global Tongues :)

Regards,
Sangeeta

[plirwin]

I think the connection with the music genre is cool.

But words with "glom" in them always make me think the thing they're
talking about is disorganized.

At this point, I think I like "Syngua database" or "Global
tongues" ...

Did someone already suggest "Syn-Struc database"?

Tricia

[plirwin]

Also, I like Mike's suggestion of having "Open" in the name (even
though we can't use "OpenTree") -- since that's a cool and important
aspect of the database.

[plirwin]

How about "the GLOT database"?

GLOT == GLobal Open Tree

I don't think GLOT is a journal anymore, so maybe the acronym is up
for grabs.

Also, glotdatabase.com is not taken.

[oana]

I like Global Open Tree, but GLOT is taken... I think they still issue
GLOT INternational...

[Chris]

From Daniel:

How about "Syntaxis Universalis"? The domain is available.

Dan

[Chris]

Deadline for the Naming Context is June 5
(tomorrow) at midnight!!!

If you have any more names, please add. Remember, each
person can submit more than once. Also, notice that
there are not that many clever acronyms yet.

Chris


SynTerra
TerraSyntax
terrasyn
UniSyn
PanGlossia
Pangloss

LingThing
SynDATA
SinData
syntaxRULES!
worldsyntax
rulesofsyn
wor(l)drelationships
wor(l)dorder

syntacticworld.com
aworldofsyntax.com
lngwrld.com
lingwrld.com
arboldelmundo.com
treeoftheworld.com
synscape
synscope
syntax collector
Global Tongues
The Syngua Database
Syntactic Knowledge Agglomeration (SKA)
e-Syntactic Knowledge Agglomeration (e-SKA)
Syn-Struc database
The GLOT Database (GLobal Open Tree)
Syntaxis Universalis

[Chris]

Some from Stephen:

From Stephen Mayeaux <sjm...@nyu.edu>
Sent Wednesday, June 4, 2008 12:53 pm
To sswl.lin...@nyu.edu
Subject naming contest

LASSO (Linguistic Archive of Syntactic Structures Online)
GLASS (Global Linguistic Archive of Syntactic Structures)
CLASS (Collaborative Linguistic Archive of Syntactic Structures)
GOSLING (Global Open Source...ling)
GODLING (Global online database....ling)

[Chris]

Some from Michal that I forgot to add before:

From Michal Novemsky <mn...@nyu.edu>
Sent Sunday, June 1, 2008 1:42 pm
To sswl.lin...@nyu.edu
Cc
Bcc
Subject Database Naming Contest
Dear Chris and/or other linguists:

I am not sure if one is allowed to submit more than one entry for this
contest, but if so, I have a couple of suggestions:

1) LISP = Linguistic(s) International Syntax Page ("language,"
"internet," and "pool" [closest i could come up with as a synonym for
"database"] are also possibilities for the first, second, and fourth
words respectively)

Unfortunately, the domain name for this is taken, which is
understandable, as it is a short, common enough word.

1.5) So for a domain name, maybe WikiLISP.com? This is available, and
from my understanding anyone can add data to the site, which would
make it a wiki.

2) Suntaxis, which is the original Greek word from which our English
word "syntax" derives. The good thing about this is that the domain
name is only taken for .com (a taxi rental page!), but is actually up
for sale. It is also not taken for .net or anything else.

Thank you for your consideration,
Michal Novemsky

[Chris]

From Txuss.

Here's my proposal

The Syntax Road Map

tx

[Chris]

More entries, from Sonja, Tom and Andrew.

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This may be a little after the fact but what about BABELSyn
(The) Basic Accumulation Body of Every Language's Syntax
Either way, I'd love to take a look at your database. Good to hear
from you. Hope the project is going well.
- Sonja Harpstead

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Hi,
I have a suggestion:

SynWorld

Cheers,
Tom

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here are my entries, good luck with the launch!
Andrew Condon


Global Array of Syntactic Structures (GLASS)

TerrALinguistiK (TALK)

The DIAL Database (The Dialects and Languages Database)

The World Array of Grammatical Structures (WAGS)

[Chris]

From Danny and Margarita,

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'GLOSS' for Global List Of Syntactic Structures (or Giant List of
Syntactic Structures, or Global Listing of Syntactic Structures, if
you like)

All the best with your decision making,
Danny

----------------------------------------------------
Hi!
How about:
Syndex
SynS Database
Syntructure
WOLSS (World of Linguistic Syntactic Structures)
SSLEW (Syntactic Structural Linguistics of the Entire World)
SSEW (Syntactic Structures of the Existing Word)
Hope it helps!
- Margarita Zeitlin