Generate lexeme forms from citation forms

In this topic, Citation Form field content is copied into Lexeme Form field and then inflectional affixes are removed, leaving only the stem.

For additional information about the propose of this topic or when it may be of use to you, on the Help menu, point to Resources and then click Introduction to Lexicography.

1. In the Navigation Pane, click Lexicon, and then select Bulk Edit Entries.

2. Click the Bulk Copy tab.

3. Use the Configure Columns dialog box to hide/show/move columns (fields) and select writing systems, if permitted. Show the Citation Form and Lexeme Form fields.

4. Do the following:

   • Filter and sort the citation forms that you want to copy into the Lexeme Form field.

   • Examine the result of your filtering and sorting. Clear the check box at the end of each row you do not want to copy, or use the check box button as needed.

5. In the Source Field box, select Citation Form.

6. In the Target Field box, select Lexeme Form.

7. In the If the Target field is not empty area, you will most likely want Do nothing, the default selection. However, you may need to select Overwrite if the Lexeme Form fields contain incorrect content.

8. Click Preview and review the pending changes.

9. In the left column, select the rows you want to change.

10. Click Apply.

    The Lexeme Form fields contain a copy of the Citation Form fields for the selected entries. (Next, you will remove any inflectional affixes.)

11. Click the Bulk Replace tab, and then in the Target Field box, select Lexeme Form.

12. Filter for and sort the lexeme forms from which you will remove one or more affix. Consider changing groups of only closely related entries to minimize subsequent editing to achieve properly spelled lexeme forms.

    For example, in English, entries for which the lexeme form ends in the letter “e” but which is removed when a suffix is attached (wasting from waste, housing from house, and so on) should be done separately from entries for which the final consonant is doubled when an affix is added (rot from rotting, stop from stopping, and so on.)

13. Click Setup.

    The Bulk Replace Setup dialog box appears.

14. In the Search Options area, select Use Regular Expressions.

    For help with regular expressions, see About regular expressions.

15. In the Find what box, enter one of the following:

    • To delete a prefix, such as ‘un-‘ enter ^ followed by the prefix, such as ^un. (The caret ^ is the regular expression for beginning of line.)

    • To delete a suffix, such as “-ed” enter the suffix followed by $, such as ed$. (The dollar sign $ is the regular expression for end of line.)

16. If there is nothing to replace after the affix is removed, leave the Replace with box empty. However, if removing an affix requires the replacement of characters, enter those characters in the Replace with box.

    For example, in English, you would need to replace the letter “e” when removing the “ing” affix from the entries like wasting and housing.

17. Click OK.

18. It may be that you need to limit each “replace” operation to more specific sets of entries. So, select the rows you want to change.

19. Click Preview, review the pending changes, and then click Apply.

The entries with a check mark appear without their prefixes or suffixes.

20. Examine your lexeme forms and determine if your next step is to continue removing affixes or doing other editing to make sure each lexeme form is properly spelled.

 Tip

• In Bulk Edit Entries, the Lexeme Form field is editable, so you can make spelling edits on a per entry basis without going to Lexicon Edit.

• For additional information about the purpose of this topic or when it may be of use to you, on the Help menu, point to Resources and then click Introduction to Lexicography.

Related Topics

Bulk Edit overview

Lexicography Tasks overview

Using regular expressions assistance