TACT-Web Query: WHEN refinement
The WHEN refinement allows you to select positions in the text where a
particular structural condition is true, for example, when the speaker is
Romeo.
The following is a partial description of WHEN refinement syntax. For
more information, refer to the User's Guide for TACT.
An example of WHEN refinement in use is:
lov.* ; when speaker = romeo
Simple WHEN Selection Format
The general format of the basic WHEN selection is:
choose from ; WHEN Ref ID = selection list
The elements are:
- choose from
- This is the specification for the primary list
from which the WHEN specification will choose in order to create a
secondary list. The choose from specification is often a word, word
list, or regular expression, but it can be created in other ways.
- Ref ID
- This is the name of the piece of structural
information we want to use as the basis of our refinement selection.
- selection list
- This element tells TACT to include in the
resulting list a particular occurrence from the choose from list
when the occurrence is found in a context that has the given value(s) for
Ref ID.
The selection list format can be:
- A single name: ... ; WHEN speaker = juliet
- A list of names (separated by commas): ... ; WHEN speaker = romeo,
juliet
- A range of numbers (if reference is numeric): ... ; WHEN chapter =
10:15
- If reference is numeric, you can use "<", ">", "<=" and
">=": ... ; WHEN chapter < 15
- A regular expression: ... ; WHEN speaker = j.*
Web design Alex
Stevens, content Geoffrey
Rockwell or John
Bradley. March 7, 1997