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Introduction to Flex

Introduction

FieldWorks Language Explorer (FLEx) is a database designed to facilitate the entry and analysis of linguistic and anthropological information. The central user task is keyboard entry of lexical and textual data through the use of a well-ordered set of database fields. FLEx is intended to automate the following tasks in an effort to make analysis both accurate and efficient.

  • Bulk entry of words that were collected at a semantic domain word elicitation workshop.
  • Charting of grammatical structure of texts assisted with charting feature.
  • Automatically generate concordance of words within text corpus.
  • Automatically generate a grammar sketch.
  • Assisted morphological parsing of text.
  • Assisted data entry of lexical data collected at a semantic domain word elicitation workshop.
  • Automatically generate dictionary formatted from the lexical entries.
  • Automatically generate grammar sketch based on grammar rules.
  • Automated interlinearizing of text corpus with morphological parser.
  • Automatically generate a concordance of words within the text corpus.

Understanding the FLEx Screen

Aside from the conventional Windows™ menu bar, toolbar, status bar, etc. The FLEx screen is divided into two main panes.  The far left pane is the Navigation Pane. At the bottom of this pane you choose the kind of data to be displayed.. At the top of the pane you choose the tool you wish to use with the data.  Panes on the right of the screen display the data you have chosen to view.

Here are the kinds of data FLEx manages. The bottom of the Navigation pane provides access to these parts of the FLEx database.

  • Lexicon: Contains the lexemes of a language upon which the dictionary is published.
  • Texts & Words: Facilitates interlinearizing and charting text data.
  • Grammar: Tools such as inflection templates and grammatical categories are available.
  • Notebook: Anthropological data records.
  • Lists: Allows editing of list choices for certain fields in the database.

Getting help

Flex has several ways you can learn about the program and how to use it.

  • Help > Language Explorer  goes to the general help file system, where you can browse topics or the index, or search for topics you want assistance for.
  • Help > Demo Movies leads you to a number of informative videos of how to use the program, showing step by step how you perform certain tasks. These videos are also available on Vimeo. http://vimeo.com/channels/fieldworks
  • Help > Training  leads you to a web page with a number of training documents that guide you step by step, with exercises you can follow along with. These have not been updated since Flex version 7, but they still may be helpful.
  • Help > Resources leads you to a list of technical papers about lexicography, parsing, or technical notes about writing systems or the different import/export options. 

Contributors to this page: sewhite .
Page last modified on Thursday January 22, 2015 16:50:14 GMT-0000 by sewhite.

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