3.1223 translation (glossing) software (51)
Willard McCarty (MCCARTY@vm.epas.utoronto.ca)
Tue, 27 Mar 90 20:01:48 EST
Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 3, No. 1223. Tuesday, 27 Mar 1990.
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 90 13:09:00 MST
From: koontz@alpha.bldr.nist.gov
Subject: Translation Software (specifically, Glossing Software)
The two preeminent PC programs for working texts that are or are to be
glossed interlinearly are the Summer Institute of Linguistics's software
programs:
IT [Interlinear Text], $60.00
IT is specifically aimed at working with interlinear glossing, and has
facilities for multi-level glossing and inserting and extracting
dictionaries. IT supports an interactive glossing process in which the
program automatically inserts the gloss, if it has one on record, or prompts
for the gloss otherwise. It is possible to correct glosses after the fact,
or to provide alternative glosses for particular source tokens. In the
latter case IT prompts for the gloss to use. The dictionary is updated as
glossing proceeds. One can prime the dictionary or start with nothing.
Shoebox, $13.75
Shoebox is a program to support maintenance of slip or card files. These
are traditionally kept in shoeboxes or pasteboard boxes, hence the name. In
essence it is a textbase system that supports records with fields that are
not fixed in length. The selection of fields, other than the key field, is
also not fixed. Shoebox has some "limited" (compared to IT) facilities for
doing interlinear glossing. Although Shoebox is intended to be used with
linguistic fieldnotes, you could presumably keep any kind of information in
it that you wanted to. For linguists this package definitely gives
commercial packages like AskSAM or Notebook II a run for the money. The
price is right, too.
Address, from memory:
Summer Institute of Linguistics
International Academic Bookstore
7500 Camp Wisdom Road
Dallas, TX [zip?]
You might be able to get this address out of Books in Print.
[Or I can supply it later.]