Re: Corpora: Corpus Linguistics User Needs

James L. Fidelholtz (jfidel@siu.buap.mx)
Tue, 4 Aug 1998 16:40:15 -0500 (CDT)

I've been following the discussion on corpus workers' needs with
interest. I am interested in processing easily a huge Spanish corpus.
Unfortunately, I don't fit into any one of the four suggested categories
of 'corpus freaks', with the two binary categories of [+/- know
programming] and [+/- think it's necessary]. I learned programming by
the seat of the pants method: 2 days of Fortran (I finally solved a
quadratic equation); much later, PDP-1 assembly language; after that,
Commodore64 Basic and Machine languages; a lecture or 2 on Lisp. Also,
I'm basically a 'program and let somebody else worry about the modules'
type, although I recognize the use of modules. Anyway, I think I am
basically a pretty good programmer, although I haven't done any in over
10 years. I think Kenneth is on the right track with his comments, but
I still don't think anybody would hire me now to program (luckily, I
have a job I like doing research and teaching).
I have especially appreciated the suggestions for books which
give somewhat of a 'how-to' approach to corpus work, including naming
names of programs which are useful. I strongly suspect, however, that
the definitive work (even temporarily) here has yet to be done. Maybe
such a tome could be the outcome of this discussion.
After seeing my son on the computer, I now realize that I have
turned from a computer whiz into a virtual (no pun intended to be
missed) computer illiterate, although not yet an ignoramus. Perhaps
what we need, then, is a book aimed at 'intelligent laymen' like me.
Jim

James L. Fidelholtz e-mail: jfidel@cen.buap.mx
Maestri'a en Ciencias del Lenguaje
Instituto de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades
Beneme'rita Universidad Auto'noma de Puebla, ME'XICO