2.3 Concordances

One of the most interesting aspects of examining literary texts is the question of how lexemes are distributed in sentences and phrases. In particular, how does their use in literature differ from what could be expected to occur in general, non-literary use of the written language.

In order to examine the environment of a word or group of words, text analysis has relied on computers to produce various types of concordances such as KWIC index (key word in context index). di-lemmata offers the user a broad palette of tools and utilities.

The user can (via the word list) select one or more lexemes or even a complete list as a key on which to base the analysis. Using filters it is possible to further specify environment and content that will be produced around the key word or phrase. One could request that a context is produced only when a noun is preceded by an adjective or even where only a specific adjective appears. The user is able to determine what, if anything, precedes or follows the key word (or phrase whether this be several types of word forms or lexemes). The result of this search produces a concordance tailored to the user's requirements and available for more intensive study.