) or collapse (
) that set of fields. Typically, individual fields do not have these controls unless there are options such as Abbreviation or Name. The Configure Reversal Indexes dialog box and others are similar.To find a term in the glossary, click the letter that is the first letter in the word or phrase you want to look up.
Many terms are not found in this glossary. You can refer to other documentation available under Resources on the Help menu.
allomorph - (from LinguaLinks Help): An allomorph is one of two or more complementary morphs which manifest a morpheme in its different phonological or morphological environments. Therefore, when deciding between calling something an allomorph or a variant: Allomorphs if it is phonologically conditioned, otherwise make it a Variant for morphologically conditioned or lexically conditioned suppletion.
Analysis Candidates - A portion of the field label that is used has a header for wordform analyses for which the user opinion is set to Unknown. See also Test Case Analysis.
analysis writing system - See writing system, analysis.
analyze - In FieldWorks Language Explorer, the term "analyze" is understood to mean "manually parse" (words in a text). See parse and parser, and also gloss.
application - An "application" is another way to refer to computer program.
backup file - In FieldWorks, a backup file (*.fwbackup) is technically a zip file that contains project data. You need to back up FieldWorks projects regularly to protect the data. If necessary, you can restore the data from a backup file.
Bartholomew - a dictionary configuration for bilingual dictionaries. See: https://www-01.sil.org/mexico/ling/E007a-BilingualDictionaries.htm. The Bartholomew style has three distinctives: (1) focus on native speaker = simplify entry up front; (2) extensive use of illustrative sentences to discover and display meaning; (3) display of complex forms as both main entries and as subentries.
Based on style - See parent style.
Best analysis writing system - See writing system, analysis.
character style - A character style is a named set of formatting attributes. Character formatting attributes (that are applied on a per-character basis) include font, font size, and font style. When you apply a style to a word or phrase in the text, you identify what it is and determine how it looks. See also: paragraph style.
Chorus - Chorus is a version control system. It is the underlying code library that is used to merge the data in xml files (FieldWorks and WeSay store the data in xml files.) See also: repository. Chorus dialog boxes are discussed in the Chorus Help file.
complex form - a lexeme form consisting of two or more components, each of which may be a lexical entry in its own right. Examples of complex form types include compounds, derivatives, idioms, phrasal verbs and sayings.
complex rendering - See rendering.
component (of complex form) - an item that is part of a complex form. For example, black and bird are the components of the compound word blackbird. Similarly, kick and bucket are components of the idiom kick the bucket. See also: subentry.
Conflicting Opinions - a column available in Texts & Words which provides numerical values reflecting the number parser opinions (predicted analyses) as compared to user analyses. -1 means there are no analysis for the word at all. 0 means the parser and the user are in agreement regarding all analyses that exist. (There cannot be any analyses that are known to the parser, but that are not known to the user. If the user has any approved analyses, then the parser result is Successful. If the user has disapproved an analysis, then the parser will agree by not producing a parser failure). 1, 2, and so on, indicates the number of times that the parser and the user are not in agreement. Tip: Any number other than 0 (zero) in this column means there is additional work to do on that word.
criteria - In FieldWorks, criteria are specific tests that limit the data or text that is displayed (for example, filter criteria).
cursor - See insertion point and pointer.
database - A database is a file of related information that is organized in records and fields within the records.
declension class - See inflection class.
Default Paragraph Characters - Default Paragraph Characters represents the character formatting attributes of a paragraph style. To remove character styles and direct character formatting, you can apply Default Paragraph Characters to selected text. Character styles can be based on Default Paragraph Characters.
default writing system - See writing system, default.
docked toolbar - A docked toolbar is attached to one edge of the program window.
drop cap - A drop cap is a large capital letter at the beginning of a text block that occupies the vertical depth of two or more lines of regular text.
ELAN - a professional tool for the creation of complex annotations on video and audio resources. You can export interlinear data from FLEx for use in ELAN or interlinearize imported ELAN data in FLEx. See: https://www.philol.msu.ru/~languedoc/eng/help/flex2eaf.php.
Ethnologue - The Ethnologue is a publication that tries to bring together the best information available on the languages of the world.
Ethnologue code - An Ethnologue code is a unique three-letter code that identifies a language in the Ethnologue. (There was a one-time reassignment of hundreds of language codes in the 15th edition in 2005 to align with the ISO 639-2 standard.)
Extensible Markup Language - See XML.
Feature - In these User Helps, the term "feature" is used with Inflection Features, Phonological Features, Font Features and so on. It is also used to refer to functionality in Language Explorer, such as the features (columns, sorting, filtering, processors and so on) in Bulk Edit Entries.
field - A field in a Standard Format file consists of a marker and a text element. The text element can be empty. The text element can contain inline markers.
FieldWorks project - A FieldWorks project is a database that stores data and text related to a particular language and the people that speak it. All FieldWorks applications can store information in a project.
filter - A filter displays data or text that match the filter criteria and hides what does not match. You can use a filter to focus on particular books in the project.
Final – (Now called "Requires more derivation") In the context of affix template tables, a template is considered final when no derivational affixes need be attached in order for the associated words to be well-formed. If a derivation affix is required for the word to be well-formed, the associated template is considered non-final as it does not represent a fully inflected form.
FLExText - a FieldWorks XML format that is used for interlinear export. This is the format you need to use if the interlinear data will be imported by other FLEx users or you will import it back into FLEx.
floating toolbar - A floating toolbar is not attached to the edge of the program window. You can change the shape of some floating toolbars.
font - In typography, a font is a specific size of a specific typeface, but in word processing, a typeface family is known as a font (for example, Arial).
Font Features - On the Attributes tab of the Writing System Properties dialog box, the Font Features buttons access lists of certain alternately-designed glyphs that could be appropriate for use in certain contexts (available with Charis SIL or Doulos SIL fonts, and possibly other Graphite-enabled fonts).
formatting - Formatting determines the appearance of text. Character formatting attributes include font, font size, and font style. Paragraph formatting attributes include alignment, margin indents, and spacing.
full reduplication - see reduplication.
gloss/glossing - (verb) The task of manually entering word glosses. See parse and parser. See also analyze. As a noun, a gloss is a summary of the meaning of a morpheme or word, suitable for use in interlinear text displays.
glyph - A glyph is a shape that is the visual representation of a character. It is a graphic object in a font.
grapheme - anything that functions as a distinct unit within an orthography. A grapheme may be a single character, a multigraph, or a diacritic, but in all cases graphemes are defined in relation to the particular orthography.
Graphite - Graphite is a computer program that renders complex scripts using Graphite-enabled fonts.
Graphite-enabled font - A Graphite-enabled font can describe complex rules for choosing which glyph should be used to display a character according to context. It is also known as a smart font.
hyperlink - A hyperlink is a highlighted word or phrase that, when clicked, displays related resources (for example, an external file, a web page, or data in a FieldWorks project). Hyperlink text is usually underlined and in a color different from the rest of the text.
inflection class - In FieldWorks Language Explorer, an inflection class is ”r;a set of lexemes whose members each have the same type of inflectional forms.” They correspond to the traditional idea of declension classes or conjugation classes. (From A Conceptual Introduction to Morphological Parsing, which is available on the Help menu.)
inherited attribute - The value of an inherited attribute appears in gray. A style inherits unspecified attributes from the parent style. The parent style appears in the Based on box on the General tab of the Styles dialog box.
inline marker - A pair of beginning and ending inline markers identify a text element within a field in a Standard Format file.
insertion point - The insertion point is the blinking vertical line that appears in a view.
Keyman - Keyman (https://keyman.com/desktop/) is a computer program that allows you to enter text in other languages without changing your physical keyboard (or system keyboard).
legacy encoding - A legacy encoding is any non-Unicode encoding, including earlier international, national, and industry standards, as well as non-standard (custom) encodings.
LIFT - Lexicon Interchange FormaT is an XML format for storing lexicons/dictionaries. LIFT allows you to move that data between programs (hence the term 'interchange'). The home page for LIFT is: https://code.google.com/p/lift-standard/.
link - See hyperlink.
lexeme - In Language Explorer, a lexeme is the minimal unit of language which has a semantic interpretation embodying a distinct cultural concept. A typical lexicon consists of lexemes when well-formed, otherwise a citation form is used as the headword. (In Language Explorer, the Lexicon view includes Lexicon Edit which is the detailed view of each lexical entry. Lexeme Form is typically the top-most field.)
main entry - An entry in a published dictionary that alphabetizes under its headword and fully describes the headword. See also: minor entry and subentry. (Refer to the main Help index for information about dictionary views.)
marker - A marker identifies a text element in a Standard Format file.
menu - A menu is a list of commands that appears when you click a menu name on a menu bar or other toolbar. See also: menu button under Symbols.
menu bar - The menu bar is the horizontal bar below the title bar that contains the names of menus.
metathesis - A sound change that alters the order of phonemes in a word, such as the reversal of the order of two adjacent phonemes.
minor entry - A short entry in a published dictionary that is used to refer the user to another entry where he will find a full description of the lexeme. In FLEx, variants are minor entries. For example, a dictionary of American English might have a minor entry for the British spelling variant colour that would refer the user to a main entry color where he will find a definition and other information about the word. Minor entries are usually short, but can sometimes include minimal information about the variant, such as its pronunciation, or an explanation of when it is used. Minor entries are also used for irregularly inflected forms to refer the user to the correct entry. In a root-based dictionary complex forms are presented as subentries under their root. In such a dictionary it is sometimes hard to find the root of a complex form. So a minor entry will be included to direct the user to the correct root. See also: main entry, subentry and minor subentry. (Refer to the main Help index for information about dictionary views.)
minor subentry - A short entry that appears under a main entry to refer the user to another entry. A compound or lexical phrase will generally only be presented as a subentry under one of the roots. So a minor subentry is placed under the other root (or roots) to refer the user to the main entry for the root where he will find the full subentry for the compound or lexical phrase. For example, the full subentry for the idiom beat around the bush might be placed under the root beat. In this case a minor subentry would be put under bush to tell the user that the full subentry for beat around the bush can be found under beat. See also: main entry and subentry. (Refer to the main Help index for information about dictionary views, and the Help menu resource called Introduction to Lexicography section 3.4 Types of entries in a published dictionary.)
morph- (From LinguaLinks Helps): A morph is the analyzed, surface form of a morpheme. When analyzed as a variant form of a morpheme, it is called an allomorph. In the Language Explorer's User Interface, Morph is used as an abbreviation for Morpheme.
morpheme- (From LinguaLinks Helps): A morpheme is the smallest meaningful unit in the grammar of a language. Said another way, the term 'morpheme' refers to the smallest part of a word that has meaning.
morphotactics – related to controlling the order of the morphemes in a well-formed word and controlling which morphemes can co-occur with which other morphemes. If correctly described, the XAmple parser in FieldWorks Language Explorer will provide correct parses and rule out false parses.
node - In the Configure Dictionary dialog box, a node is a set or collection of fields. Each node has controls so you can expand () or collapse () that set of fields. Typically, individual fields do not have these controls unless there are options such as Abbreviation or Name. The Configure Reversal Indexes dialog box and others are similar.
paragraph style - A paragraph style is a named set of formatting attributes. Paragraph formatting attributes (that apple to a whole paragraph) include alignment, margin indents, and spacing. A paragraph style also includes character formatting attributes (for example, font, font size, and font style). When you apply a style to a paragraph in the text, you identify what it is and determine how it looks. See also: character style.
parent style - A style inherits unspecified attributes from the parent style. The parent style appears in the Based on box on the General tab of the Styles dialog box.
parse - An analysis of a linguistic structure into its basic pieces. For instance, a parse of a word would be the set of morphemes that make up that word; a parse of a sentence (assuming a phrase structure grammar) would be the tree that constitutes the phrase structure of that sentence. ”r;To parse” means to create a parse. Language Explorer has two computational parsers, but you can also manually parse ("analyze") words on the Analyze tab.
parser - In FieldWorks Language Explorer, one of the two computational tools that parse words; the Default (XAmple) and Phonological Rules-based HermitCrab.
partial reduplication - see reduplication.
pointer - The pointer refers to the arrow or other shape that moves on the screen when the user moves the mouse or other pointing device.
Predicted Analyses - A column in Word Analyses that show the number of successful parses of the wordform. In other words, the numerical value corresponds to the number of analyses in the Wordform Analyses pane that contains Successful in the Parse result field, regardless of the user opinion. See also User Analyses. See also: Conflicting Opinions.
Private Use Area - The Private Use Area of Unicode includes 6400 code values in the basic 16-bit encoding for characters that are not already defined in the Unicode Standard. You must define the properties of a private use character so that FieldWorks can process it correctly.
project - See FieldWorks project.
publication - a particular set of lexical data that is available to be displayed in a Dictionary view; if that view is configured to display the lexical data, that data can be printed or exported.
In FieldWorks, you can create a new publication, and then specify which lexical data it should contain. Publications you create are stored in the Publications list. The Help topic "What is a publication?" has more information.
reduplication - is a morphological process by which the entire root or stem of a word is repeated (full reduplication), or only part of it is repeated (partial reduplication). Reduplication may be initial (prefixal), final (suffixal) or internal (infixal).
rendering - Rendering is the process of displaying text on an output device (for example, a computer screen or printed page). The input text is unaffected by rendering. In standard rendering, there is a one-for-one correlation between characters in the input text and characters on the output device. In complex rendering, a process applies transformation rules to sequential input text to produce the characters on the output device.
repository - In general, a repository is a central file storage location. In the context of Send/Receive, a repository is a location on a device that stores a copy of a language project data or only lexical data. Because each copy is made at specific points of time, it contains a history of the language project. A roll-back to a previous version is possible. See also: Chorus.
There is a personal repository on your computer with a copy of your language project.
There is a shared repository at the location where you and those collaborating with you have chosen to store it. This could be on a USB flash drive that is shared, on the Internet, or in the ChorusHub folder.
Each collaborator syncs their data with this common repository so the copy of the language project on each computer has each others changes.
It is true that actually only the last collaborator to sync has everybody's changes. Therefore, to fully synchronize all changes, more than one Send/Receive cycle is necessary and that presumes no data is changed by anyone between those cycles. The more collaborators there are, the more cycles are necessary.
Requires more derivation - See Final.
Root - A root is the morpheme that is the primary or basic part of the word. Roots can sometimes occur by themselves as full words.
script — a maximal collection of characters used for writing languages or for transcribing linguistic data that share common characteristics of appearance, share a common set of typical behaviors, have a common history of development, and that would be identified as being related by some community of users. Examples: Roman (or Latin) script, Arabic script, Cyrillic script, Thai script, Devanagari script, Chinese script, etc.
search criteria Search criteria are specific tests that limit the matching between text in the view and the search text in the Find what box. Accurate search criteria are especially important when you replace text.
shortcut menu - The shortcut menu appears when you right-click an item. It lists commands that pertain to the item.
side bar - The side bar displays lists of commands on the left side of the window.
Standard Format Marker (SFM) - This is a format for text files that contain language and culture data. You can import and export FieldWorks data in SFM so that you can open it in other programs. It is a SIL proprietary format. It is possible (and even probable) that SFMs in a single document have different character encodings. When converting to one encoding (Unicode) these must be converted with different mapping files. A standard format marker begins with a backslash (\). For example, \p would represent a paragraph tag.
standard rendering - See rendering.
stem - A stem is a grammatical form that is part of a word. If a word can be inflected, the stem is the part left behind after the inflectional affixes are subtracted. So an inflected word is composed of a stem and one or more inflectional affixes. A stem can be a bare root, a derivation, or a compound.
style - A style is a named set of formatting attributes. Formatting attributes include font, font size, font style, alignment, margin indents, and spacing. When you apply a style to selected text, you identify what it is and determine how it looks.
style formatting - Style formatting determines the appearance of text with a style.
subentry - An entry in a published dictionary that is placed under a main entry. Subentries are used to place the entry for a complex form under the entry for the root. So the headword in a subentry is always a complex form. The subentry fully describes the complex form. A subentry is usually formatted as a separate paragraph and indented slightly from the left margin. Sometimes the headword for the subentry is in a smaller typeface than the headword for the main entry. See also: main entry, minor entry and minor subentry. (Refer to the main Help index for information about dictionary views.)
suppletion - The use of an unrelated form to complete a paradigm, as the past tense went of the verb go, goes, going, gone. (Extreme cases of allomorphy, where two forms related by a morphological rule cannot be explained as being related on a phonological basis: for example, the past of go is went, which is a suppletive form.)
swap - (verb) to exchange one thing for another.
Tab-delimited file - A tab delimited file is a special kind of plain text file that has a tab between each column. When you import the file, the tabs allow the columns to line up properly.
Test Case Analyses - A portion of the field label that is used has a header for wordform analyses for which the user opinion is set to Disapproved. See also Analysis Candidates.
toolbar - A toolbar is a row of buttons (icons), boxes, and lists that provides fast access to commands.
typeface - A typeface is a named design of a set of characters (for example, Arial Bold Italic). A typeface family is a group of related typefaces (for example, Arial, Arial Italic, Arial Bold, Arial Bold Italic). In typography, a font is a specific size of a specific typeface, but in word processing, a typeface family is known as a font (for example, Arial).
Unicode - FieldWorks uses the Unicode character encoding. The Unicode Standard is the universal character encoding scheme for written characters and text. It defines a consistent way of encoding multilingual text that enables the exchange of text data internationally and creates the foundation for global software.
unspecified attribute - See inherited attribute.
URL - Uniform Resource Locator - an address that specifies the location of a file on the Internet.
User Analyses - A column in Word Analyses that shows the number of analyses for which you have set the User Opinion to Approve.
User Opinion - In Word Analyses, you can specify your opinion of each analysis, whether approved, unknown, or disapproved. Note: In Texts & Words, you can approve an analysis as you choose the method of moving away from a word focus box. See also Predicted Analysis and Conflicting Opinions.
UTF-8 - A variable length character encoding of the Unicode Standard that uses 8-bit sequences.
variant - A term used in linguistics to refer to a linguistic form which is one of a set of alternatives in a given context (Crystal, 1997). Examples include spelling variants, inflectional variants and dialectal variants. In FLEx, variants are minor entries.
vernacular writing system - See writing system, vernacular.
wizard - A wizard is an interactive utility within an application that guides you through each step of a particular task.
word - In Language Explorer, the terms 'word' and 'wordform' are used synonymously. Both refer to a orthographic word in a text. For example, in the interlinear display the first line is called the 'Word' line and contains the word. See also: stem, root, wordform inventory.
wordform - This term refers to the form of the word, irrespective of whether it has variant pronunciations or multiple meanings. Homographs share the same wordform, even though we would say they are different lexemes.
wordform inventory - (obsolete - now called word list) In Language Explorer, the list of all words used in your texts. This list is not the same as the list of lexemes in the lexicon. While interlinearizing text you choose the lexical entry that describes the word.
WorldPad - WorldPad is a simple word processor that uses the SIL-developed Graphite program to display complex scripts.
writing system - In FieldWorks, a writing system is the combination of a specify language and the script in which it is written.
writing system, analysis - You use an analysis writing system to enter your notes, back translations, glosses, definitions, analysis, descriptions, discussions, conclusions, and so on. It is typically for a language like English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese. The Best analysis writing system is a program feature which attempts to first to use content from the associated single-line text field entered using the default writing system. If none is found, then content entered using the next analysis writing system is used.
writing system, default - In a FieldWorks project, there is a default analysis writing system and a default vernacular writing system. These are the top-most writing systems listed in the Writing Systems tab of the Project Properties dialog box.
writing system, vernacular - You use a vernacular writing system to enter lexeme forms, citation forms, texts, lexical headwords, example sentences, people, location names, and so on. It is typically for the language that you are studying.
XLingPaper - (previously XLingPap) a package designed to aid the linguist in writing linguistics papers using XML. You can use it in various ways, such as with your grammar sketch and Language Explorer has four different options for exporting interlinear text data into XLingPaper. For more information, on the Help menu point to Resources and then click Editing Linguistics Papers Using XLingPaper.
XML - Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a simple, very flexible text format. Originally designed to meet the challenges of large-scale electronic publishing, XML is also playing an important role in the exchange of data on the Web and elsewhere.
ZEdit - A text editor, particularly handy for working with large SFM or XML files word processor. It was installed on your hard drive when you installed SIL FieldWorks. On the Internet, see https://software.sil.org/fieldworks/support/technical-documents/.
Zip files - Zip files are single files (also known as archives) that contain one or more compressed files. In FieldWorks, project backup files are Zip files.
The various icons, buttons and pointers can appear differently. This may be due to your display properties settings. Most of the symbols used in the FieldWorks Language Explorer are included in the relevant topics.