4. Future Direction

"Aller Anfang ist schwer", is a popular saying. Hesse reminds us that "Allem Anfang wohnt ein Zauber inne". The gospel of St. John in German translation begins "Im Anfang war das Wort". In our opinion di-lemmata has made a new beginning, a new way to approach the subject of computer-assisted literary text analysis.

The example used in the previous chapter demonstrates some of the possibilities opened up to users of di-lemmata. It represents only a very small selection of possible uses. More extensive analyses are planned or currently being undertaken e.g. the vocabulary used in Goethe's poems.

The main difficulty does not lie in obtaining the texts, but in their organisation and administration. There is always the danger that one won't be able to see the wood for the trees - i.e. to lose one's way in a labyrinth of statistics, word lists etc. Completeness and accuracy are worthy objectives, but clarity and manageable presentation are more important. This has resulted in a division of the material such as in the example shown of Trakl's use of the adjective "blau".

Every user of di-lemmata is cordially invited to begin their own analysis and research into the vocabulary of the authors currently contained in the corpus.

We should be delighted to receive your articles, suggestions for improvements, notification of any errors and last, not least, your critical appraisal.