All TACTweb selection queries start with some type of initial selection
called a source. Some also contain refinements or
filters that modify the initial selection.
The general form is:
<sources> ; <refinements>
Note that the refinement section is optional, but, if used, must be
preceded by a semicolon.
Selection Sources
The source can consist of several selection items separated by commas:
source 1 , source 2 , ...
The following are legal sources:
Vocabulary Words: Any vocabulary word can be given. If the word
is reserved within the TACTweb query language, precede it with an
(unmatched) '"', e.g. "when.
Regular Expressions: Regular expressions allow you to select
word forms based on letter patterns within that word. To see information
on how to formulate regular expressions, click here.
Frequency: The FREQ selection criteria can be used as a
source or a refinement to select words according to frequency of
occurrence. For more information about it click here.
SIMIL: The SIMIL selector selects word types based on their
similarity to a given pattern, e.g.: "SIMIL love 70%". This selects
words with letter sequences that are more than 70% similar to "love".
Phrase Selection: Any of the above selection tools can be
combined into phrases by joining them with the "|" operator, e.g.
"my | lov.*" chooses phrases beginning with the word "my" and
followed immediately by any word starting with "lov". The ">"
character can be used to select positions other than the first word in the
phrase: e.g. "my | > lov.*" will save the "lov" words. The
">" character may be placed by itself before or after the phrase:
"> | my | lov.*" chooses all word immediately before the phrase;
"my | > | lov.*" chooses all phrases beginning with the word
"my", followed by any word, and then followed by a "lov" word. The middle,
unspecified, word is saved in the resulting list.
Co-occurrence Selection: Any of the above selection tools can be
combined into expressions involving the co-occurrence operators "&",
"~". For more information about the co-occurrence syntax, click here.
Exclusion: The "-" operator can be used: -
produces a list of items that are in but are not in
.
Selection Refinements
A refinement can follow any source or source group. It begins with a
semicolon. More than one refinement can be given -- in which case separate
each by a semi-colon:
<sources> ; <refinement> ; <refinement> ...
There are several different refinement operators to choose from. All
refinement operators begin with a name, and some are followed by some
further specification information.
FREQ: The FREQ operator can be used as a refinement. For more
information about it, click here.
POS: The POS operator needs no further specification
information. It transforms each word (type) entry it is given into a list
of positions where that word occurs: e.g: "earth; pos"
REGEXP: Regular expressions can be used as a refinement, e.g.:
"freq 1; REGEXP a.*" chooses all word forms occurring once that
start with the letter "a". For more information on regular expression
syntax, click here.
WHEN: Can be used to select positions based on structural
information in the text. For more information, click
here.
SIMIL: The SIMIL operator (described above) can also act as a
refinement, e.g.: "l.*; simil love 75%" will select all words
beginning with "l" that are more than 75% similar to "love".
SPAN: The SPAN operator creates a resulting list that consists
of all word tokens "near" to the given inputted positions ("near" is
defined by the Context associated with the query). If the configuration
context was 5 words on either side, for example, the selection "love;
span" would select all words that occur within 5 words of "love" in the
text.