"I was one of the Field Methods students last Fall. I wanted to write a note to you and all those working on the Lingualinks tools. I've worked in the IT field for a few years and have actually come to question the "productivity enhancement" value of computers and their software. Only a few end-user products have ever proven to be really useful to me. Most just dissipate my efforts and waste my time. However, in this field methods class, as an aspiring linguist/translator, I have come to view Lingualinks as one such product. Having no previous background in linguistics and the related data management methods (cards, Shoebox, etc), I am coming at Lingualinks with a clean slate, and feel that it will truly be of benefit to me and my work. As complicated as your task has been in creating such a tool, I want to congratulate and encourage you and all those who have worked to make this a reality. Keep up the good work, and "don't grow weary in doing good."
"I just upgraded my LinguaLinks ... and it is getting better all the time. In other words, I really like it."
From a report on a consultation in Africa on the use of computers in applied linguistics projects:
"Jim D., a LinguaLinks consultant/trainer, made a presentation to a group of applied linguists and computer support staff in Africa. The highlight of this consultation for Jim was working with a Ron M., a participant and a linguistic consultant working in East Africa. On Tuesday morning of the consultation, Ron asked Jim if [LinguaLinks Lexical Database Manager] could present a dictionary with a 'root' emphasis rather than the more normal 'stem' format. ... [He] stated that most dictionaries are not arranged in a manner conducive to his research needs. Jim assured Ron that he was fairly confident that LinguaLinks could handle the problem. That Tuesday night they worked together for about an hour entering some English roots and derived sub-entries. When they called up the Dictionary layout view, Ron disappointedly said 'SEE, I didn't think it would do it; this is a regular dictionary format; each subentry is its own headword.' Jim told him to wait a second, while he selected the 'keep subentries with major entry' option. IMMEDIATELY upon seeing the refreshed view, Ron said 'I'm SOLD! Where do I buy?'
"Jim asked Ron if he thought anyone else would be interested in seeing what they had done. Ron thought all the language-type folks would definitely be interested. So, on Thursday morning, they quickly demonstrated what they had done, and then opened it up for questions. Ron launched into a several minute testimonial about the difficulties he had experienced trying to get ANY other software to do this, and the tedious method necessary to get Shoebox (an SIL software program) to approximate this function. He was now sold on LinguaLinks."
From a review of LinguaLinks written by a language project worker in Eurasia:
"I spend the majority of my time in the [LinguaLinks] Linguistics Workshop, using the Linguistic Tools and integrated helps and glossaries, etc. that it provides. I am at the stage in my language project where I write words phonemically with relative confidence. What that means practically is that I can pretty much spell words the same way each time I write them! That really helps in analysis, but it's not crucial. The study of any language is an iterative process: as my understanding of the language evolves to a deeper level, it's necessary to update information. The nice thing about LinguaLinks as my analysis platform is that I can do that updating relatively easily since it is fully integrated. Data is basically entered once; but it is available from a multitude of different aspects of analysis because of this integration an incomprehensible (to me!) system of esoteric pointers keeps track of the data and integrates it without duplicating it all over the place. So if I need to change the spelling, I change it in one place and the change is reflected everywhere. The individual wordforms that comprise a sentence in a text that I enter, are kept track of by what LinguaLinks calls the Wordform Inventory Editor. This shows the morphological analysis of that wordform and a concordance of all the contexts it occurs in. I can click on any of those 'concorded' sentences and presto! I'm pointed right back to the very sentence segment in the very text it originated in. Integrated is the word.
"These wordforms are broken down into morphemes by me in what LinguaLinks calls the Analysis Editor. The structured-ness of LinguaLinks helps me immensely in being consistent in my analysis, in breaking wordforms into morphemes, in labeling parts of speech, etc.As I discover morphemes, the analysis not only shows up in the Interlinearized Text, but the morphemes are also automatically entered into the Lexical Database. I then can work in that Database and develop the definitions of words, easily checking the context, for example, because these morphemes are still linked with the sentences in the text where they originated. Or I can make annotations about noun classes or points to be checked out or historical change. All the different categories of speech or annotation or domain or anything else are then easily analyzable through the Category Viewer or any filter I would want to make. Such a Viewer is also available for the Interlinear Text Editor.
"[In the LinguaLinks Linguistics Workshop] I LOVE that little Analysis Editor window! I LOVE its live link! And I LOVE that morphology tool thing! I use it to search for all sorts of stuff in the interlinear texts! I've been wanting something like that since the beginning! And it taps right into that live link Analysis Editor, great!!
"New users would be wise to seek out a workshop or consultant help as they begin to use LinguaLinks [Linguistics Tools]. Because it is so all-encompassing, the task of learning to use LinguaLinks [Linguistics Tools] could be compared to learning six new computer programs all at once! There is plenty of opportunity for confusion or frustration to develop, especially for those less bold toward computers or with greater constraints on their time. However, with a little help from their friends in getting over the initial learning hurdles, there are great rewards in store for the user!
Linguistics course instructor, consultant:
I've ... been teaching Data Management to one student working in Mongolia. ... She has a special font and I thought I'd let you know that
"We were able to set up a new font and [custom keyboard] file in less than 2 hours."
"We were able to set up her LinguaLinks [language] project in less than half an hour (I was there helping her)."
"After entering just two entries in the lexical database, she was overjoyed at new things she was learning about her language - almost to the point of tears. We're organizing senses of lexemes by sociolinguistic populations in an effort to assist translation of [training] materials for different groups of people. We have 10 usage types and we are using the lexical relations tool and domain types to give some other perspectives on [specialized] terminology."
"Quite fun! She has also been using Shoebox to interlinearize a [text]. She has also found that quite helpful and revealing. And she understands the power of LINKING."
"What's really wonderful is that I can tell that both tools are causing her to grapple with the SEMANTICS of the ... LANGUAGE in a way she hadn't before. I see these light bulbs going on all over the place."
Chairman, SIL Computer Technical Conference:
"The LinguaLinks demonstrations [at the Computer Technical Conference] were very impressive. ... These live demos clearly showed that LinguaLinks will be a formidable linguistic environment for research well into the next century... . I salute the vision of the [LinguaLinks] team and what they have birthed so far."
From field-experienced applied linguists in LinguaLinks training courses:
"I think I'm getting hooked on LinguaLinks..."
"After only 2.5 days, I'm convinced. I just purchased my own copy of LinguaLinks."
"LinguaLinks is impressive. You can tell that a LOT of work has gone into this program. Everyone who worked on this is to be commended."
"LinguaLinks provides the consistency and structure that will allow us to produce high quality dictionaries."
"There's SO much in LinguaLinks! I like the linguistic help that it gives me, when I need it. I also like the way that everything is so well linked together so that I can do good analysis."
University Linguistics department head:
"... I really like what I see [in LinguaLinks]. The potential is very near to revolutionize language data processing. Invest your primary resources in making the set-up and get up to speed process easier, and in making the program run faster. When those two aspects are satisfactory, look at enhancements. Speaking personally, for our Language Project, and for field linguists in general, we want this product. ... Keep up the good work and move it forward."
Linguistic Field Methods course instructor:
"When we began using LinguaLinks in our course, we had to reinvent how to grade the students' projects! By all of our previous criteria, every student would have to get an 'A'. We have never seen language work of this quantity and quality from students before, and we the staff have to admit that these students did better research using LinguaLinks than we did when we were on the field as experienced [linguists]."
Linguistics consultant in East Africa:
"LinguaLinks is great and as a linguistics consultant I really enjoy following the development of the product through different versions."
Applied linguist in South America:
"[We took] two weeks of [LinguaLinks] training before returning to Colombia. It was an exciting time for us! Tasks that before have taken many hours of computer time are now possible in just minutes, right before your eyes! LinguaLinks ... is indeed a wonderful package of tools that will help us with the task of language analysis ... ."
..."I am enjoying and appreciating LinguaLinks. My language assistant loves looking at the dictionary and I think he is excited about it. The interlinearizing process has taught me about morphology and usage. It was great to study a natural text along with my formal elicitation."
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