Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!ysub!psuvm!awiwuw11!gonter From: GONTER@awiwuw11.wu-wien.ac.at (Gerhard Gonter) Newsgroups: comp.text Subject: Re: Public Domain Dictionary Message-ID: <91156.144339GONTER@awiwuw11.wu-wien.ac.at> Date: 6 Jun 91 23:20:54 GMT References: <1991Jun2.015314.5771@wlbr.imsd.contel.com> <3797@naucse.cse.nau.edu> Organization: Wirtschaftsuniversitaet Wien, Vienna, Austria Lines: 38 There's clearly a need for a public domain online dictionary system and there are already a lot of such things available on various ftp sites etc.... Most of them are word lists, some of the contain part-of-speech or other information as well. Before we start compiling yet another one, we should sit back and consider an encoding scheme which is flexible enough to meet a wide variety of needs and applications. It's also a good idea to think about a possible way to expand such an encoding scheme for applications we don't even have an idea about now. In the last few months I've collected all sorts of dictionary material from virtually all over the world. This stuff was used then to create an experimental lexicon which currently has more than 384000 entries, mostly english words. Many entries have part-of-speech information and data from a so called psycholinguistic database included. Yet there are some more files to be processed. My problem about this lexicon is, that it's already too large for my processing capabilities (== hard disk storage space). I'm very interested in a `public lexicon project' and I'm willing to share the material that I've accumulated. I'm especially interested in an encoding scheme, powerfull enough to meet whatever the needs of interested users are. - Such an encoding scheme would/should possibly be based on SGML. Any comments/ideas? p.s. Douglas Adam's Hitchhikers Guide could be a nice metaphor for such a project. p.p.s: what about comp.text.lexicon ? best wishes, Gerhard Gonter +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ Gerhard Gonter Tel: +43/1/31336/4578 +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+