Data processing: speech signal processing – linguistics – language – Linguistics – Dictionary building – modification – or prioritization
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-08
2001-07-03
Thomas, Joseph (Department: 2644)
Data processing: speech signal processing, linguistics, language
Linguistics
Dictionary building, modification, or prioritization
C704S001000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C434S169000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06256605
ABSTRACT:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
Not Applicable
BACKGROUND
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to etymology, the study of the history and origin of words.
BACKGROUND
2. Description of Prior Art
Dictionaries usually include a section of etymological information for each entry, tracing the history of a given word from its origins to the modern day. For example, a typical entry in a dictionary would be:
authentic . Middle English autentik, from Old French autentique, from Late Latin authenticus, from Greek authentikos, from authent{overscore (e)}s, one acting on one's own authority (aut- stem of autos self+-hent{overscore (e)}s doer, worker)
Etymological information is useful to adults, since it often gives new insights into the meanings of everyday words. It is also useful to children and adolescents learning English as well as to non-English speaking foreigners trying to unravel the mysteries of the language.
However, the average person seldom consults the dictionary for etymological information. Perhaps he or she feels it is too complicated to plow through a whole long explanation of a word's history to get at the original or literal meaning of a word. It is indeed sometimes a daunting task to look up a word, to read through the etymology (sometimes getting referred to additional words, prefixes, and suffixes elsewhere in the dictionary), and to come away with the most essential information about the history and origin of a word.
Moreover, the etymology of words is not strongly emphasized in schools. Fifty years ago, students routinely learned Latin and sometimes even Greek in junior high and high school. Those lucky people who had such training begin to appreciate, oftentimes much later in life, the insight that etymology gives them into everyday words.
There are alternative ways of presenting etymology information so as to make it more accessible to the average person.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention, for each analyzed word only the primary language or languages of origin are given for the etymology. Additionally, this information is presented in only one line of text.
OBJECTS AND ADVANTAGES
Accordingly, several objects and advantages of the present invention are:
(a) to provide a complementary method of presenting etymological information; that is, a method not meant to substitute for the traditional dictionary approach but rather to be a useful alternative;
(b) to provide only the most important etymological information for a given word, thus making that information immediately apparent to the user;
(c) to provide a method conveniently adaptable to the personal computer; making possible easy to use searches for and easy to read printouts for:
(i) a single word to be analyzed.
(ii) several words or an entire paragraph to be analyzed
(d) to provide the method for yet additional ways to present etymology on the personal computer; for example:
(i) one can easily print out a list of English words originating from the Greek
(ii) one can access a thesaurus database and print out a list of medical terms relating to surgery; the difference from the usual thesaurus being that the short one line of etymological information is included for each word in that list.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4674066 (1987-06-01), Kucera
patent: 5056021 (1991-10-01), Ausborn
patent: 5541836 (1996-07-01), Church et al.
“User Defined Dictionary”, IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, vol. 35, No. 1B, p. 256, Acc No. NB9206256, Jun. 1992.*
Flanders: “Random House Webster's Electronic Dictionary . . . ”, Computers in Libraries, vol. 12, No. 8, pp. 46-48, Dialog File 233, Acc No. 00289058, Sep. 1992.*
“Lexical Part of Speech Labeling without a Lexion for Use in Natural Language Parsing”, IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, vol. 35, No. 5, pp. 465-467, Acc No.: NN9210465, Oct. 1992.
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