Consolidating Dictionary Entries
By Miller Prosser, May 2017
This article explains how to move attested forms and/or grammatical forms from one dictionary lemma to another.
To review, a dictionary lemma is composed of grammatical forms which contain attested forms. So, the hierarchical arrangement is: Lemma > Grammatical form > Attested form. Grammatical forms are defined by parse properties. Attested forms represent the specific orthographic attestations of a word, i.e. the various spellings.
Moving an Entire Grammatical Form (including the associated attested forms)
In this example, a project has inadvertently created a second lemma where one had existed already. Notice in the list that there are two entries for Takmabara. We would like to consolidate these into a single lemma.
Duplicate Glossary Entries
The second name in the list has more forms than the first name, so we will consider the second name the destination.
The first name has one grammatical form, so we will consider this the duplicate. We will move this form to the destination above.
Navigate to the Forms tab of the destination lemma. Then, in the link manager, navigate to the duplicate entry and select the grammatical form.
In this case, we are going to move the entire grammatical form [n. ~PN] to the destination. I have selected the grammatical form in the link manager (on the right). On the left, I have not selected a form on the Forms tab.
When I click the MOVE button, OCHRE will (1) add the grammatical form with its associated attested forms to the destination, (2) update the words in texts that link to this grammatical form, and (3) remove the grammatical form from the old location.
Once the grammatical form is moved, we can delete the duplicate lemma, which now contains no forms.
The MOVE button is the one with the double-headed, right-angled arrow with shadow, just below "Forms".
NOTE: if the same exact grammatical form exists in the destination lemma, OCHRE will warn you. In this case, you should select the attested forms from the duplicate lemma and move them into the correct grammatical form of the destination lemma. (By "same exact grammatical form" we mean the same Parse properties, regardless of whether the Phonemic transcriptions are identical.)
Moving and Merging Attested Forms
If a grammatical form already exists in the destination lemma, then you can simply move the attested form(s) from the duplicate lemma. OCHRE will check to see if an exact match of the attested form already exists (here meaning the same exact spelling). If it does, it will give you the option of merging the attested forms. When your list of attested forms is quite long, it would be difficult to perform this sort of check on your own. So, OCHRE does it for you. If there is no exact match of attested forms, OCHRE will move the form and add it as a new attested form.
Tell OCHRE which grammatical form will be the destination of the moved attested form. Select the grammatical form on the Forms tab by clicking on the heading that contains the transcription and parsing data.
Then you would perform a similar procedure as above. Instead of selecting the grammatical form in the link manager (on the right), you would select the attested form that you wish to move. Note the pop-up box confirming that you want to merge the two attested forms.
Continue as needed until all the attested forms are relocated.