clarke@utcsri.UUCP (Jim Clarke) (12/20/85)
COLLOQUIUM, Tuesday, January 7, 11 am, SF 1105
(SF = Sandford Fleming Building, 10 King's College Road)
Professor Frank Tompa
University of Waterloo
"Computerizing the Oxford English Dictionary"
In 1984, the University of Waterloo entered into a partnership with
Oxford University Press to produce an updated, computerized version of the
Oxford English Dictionary. The University of Waterloo Centre for the new
Oxford English Dictionary has been created to support study which might
benefit from the New OED database and the associated software and, in time,
to support the design and utilization of other textual reference materials.
After briefly reviewing the role of Waterloo in the project, the sem-
inar will concentrate on some of the technical questions that must be faced
in the next few years. Particular attention will be devoted to the prob-
lems and solutions associated with parsing the coded data to reveal the
structure of the dictionary entries and to the role this activity plays in
integrating the 12 volumes of the OED with the 4 volumes of Supplement.
After that, the question of database design will be examined: some of the
problems in modelling the OED will be illustrated; an exploratory, interac-
tive query language will be introduced; and some preliminary thoughts on
end-user access will be outlined.
--
Jim Clarke -- Dept. of Computer Science, Univ. of Toronto, Canada M5S 1A4
(416) 978-4058
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