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Abstract : |
Computerist:... But, great Scott, what about structure? You can't just bang that lot into a machine without structure. Half a gigabyte of sequential file... Lexicographer: Oh, we know all about structure. Take this entry for example. You see here italics as the typical ambiguous structural element marker, being apparently used as an undefined phrase-entry lemrna, but in fact being the subordinate entry headword address preceding the small-cap cross-reference headword address which is nested within the gloss to a defined phrase entry, itself nested within a subordinate (bold lower-case letter) sense section in the second branch of a forked multiple part of speech main entry. Now that's typical of the kind of structural re-lationship that must be made crystal-clear in the eventual database. We identify two complementary p.ro.cesses in. the conversion of machine-readable dmUonanes into lexical databases: recovery of the dictionary structure from the typographical markings which persist on the dictionary distribution tapes and, |
