Simpler way of doing a search on Lexham Discourse Greek NT

David Novick
David Novick Member Posts: 43 ✭✭
edited November 2024 in English Forum

So, the holiday season has given me time to read Runge's Discourse Grammar. Wow, this combined with the LDGNT makes me feel like a kid with a new toy tool.

I'm doing searches on some of the constructs found in the grammar, such as "Forward-pointing interrogatives," and ran into a problem.

I setup a search on the LDGNT as follows - "<LDGNT = Forward-Pointing Ref.> ANDEQUALS <LogosMorph = BI>". This works great. Of course, I need to add interrogative pronouns. So, I had hoped to be able to use wildcards in the datatype spec - e.g. <LogosMorph = RI*>, so I don't have to specify all the combos of case, number, and gender, and found that this doesn't work. At this point, I'm left with a search that looks like:

(<LDGNT = Forward-Pointing Ref.> ANDEQUALS <LogosMorph = BI>) OR (<LDGNT = Forward-Pointing Ref.> ANDEQUALS <LogosMorph = RI-NSN>) OR (<LDGNT = Forward-Pointing Ref.> ANDEQUALS <LogosMorph = RI-ASN>) OR  (<LDGNT = Forward-Pointing Ref.> ANDEQUALS <LogosMorph = RI-GSN>) OR   (<LDGNT = Forward-Pointing Ref.> ANDEQUALS <LogosMorph = RI-DSN>)..which of course isn't complete.

I've tried different things, but can't seem to find a simpler way to get what I want. Am I missing something?

Thanks,

Dave

 

 

Comments

  • Dave Hooton
    Dave Hooton MVP Posts: 36,339

    Try a List:-

    <LDGNT = Forward-Pointing Ref.> ANDEQUALS (<LogosMorph = BI>, <LogosMorph = RI-NSN>, <LogosMorph = RI-ASN>, <LogosMorph = RI-GSN>, <LogosMorph = RI-DSN>)

    Dave
    ===

    Windows 11 & Android 13

  • David Novick
    David Novick Member Posts: 43 ✭✭

    Thanks for the response. I thought I had tried that...or at least something similar.

    So, that certainly does save a fair amount of typing (thank you). However, it still leaves me adding 45 permutations of case, number, and gender...or 24, if I'm efficient enough to check first and find out that there aren't any interrogative pronouns in the vocative case or dual number.

    Can I assume that your suggestion is as good as it gets? I guess I was hoping for some kind of wildcard syntax or [ADGNV] grouping, like there is in Morph searches.

  • Dave Hooton
    Dave Hooton MVP Posts: 36,339

    Ahh ...

    Stage 2:

    <LDGNT = Forward-Pointing Ref.> ANDEQUALS (<LogosMorph = BI>, <LogosMorph ~ RI??SN>)

    Note the use of wildcard ? and the tilde ~ operator, all explained in the wiki Search article.

    Beware you can't place the ? anywhere as you will get unpredictable results. Use a Morph Search starting with @ to see the string generated when you omit certain attributes of a particular part-of-speech.

    EDIT: you can also use the wildcard *   eg. <LogosMorph ~ RI*> is the same as <LogosMorph ~ RI?????>

    Dave
    ===

    Windows 11 & Android 13

  • David Novick
    David Novick Member Posts: 43 ✭✭

    An even longer Ahhhhh...

    Thank you. So I had done everything you suggested...except use the ~ (intersection) operator. I was using the "=" and getting nowhere.

    If I had noticed #10 (Morph search) on the search article you reference, and its use of ~, I would have figured it out without having to bug anybody. Thanks again.