D5. All About Notes

This lesson provides a detailed guide on notes and comments in FLEx, explaining their purpose, types, and how to enter them correctly. Here’s a summary:

Objective:

• Understand the different note fields in FLEx and their uses.

• Learn to add, edit, and manage notes at both the entry level and sense level.

• Distinguish between publishable notes and internal notes for lexicographers.

Key Topics:

1. Importance of Notes in FLEx

• Notes help document grammatical, phonological, and cultural details.

• They serve as reminders for lexicographers or explanatory content for dictionary users.

• Careful planning is needed to separate publishable and non-publishable notes.

2. Problems with Improper Note Use

• Inconsistent Publishing Objectives: If the same field contains both public and private notes, they all get published or none do.

• Multiple Note Types in One Field: Makes filtering and formatting difficult.

3. Types of Notes in FLEx

FLEx offers three main types of note fields:

1. Notes – Used for entry-level and sense-level notes.

2. Extended Notes – Contain structured explanations with examples.

3. Comments – Used in collaborative projects (covered in a later lesson).

4. Entry-Level Notes

• General Note: Stores miscellaneous information about an entry.

• Usage:

  • Can be configured to appear in published dictionaries.

  • Used for internal comments (e.g., "Check archaic vs. current usage").

  • If both publishable and private notes are needed, create a custom field.

Activity:

• Add a note to the entry advenir ("to happen") and mark it as a reminder for further research.

5. Sense-Level Notes

Sense-level notes document specific meanings of a word.

Types of Sense-Level Notes:

• Anthropology Note: Describes cultural or traditional aspects.

• Discourse Note: Highlights textual or conversational use.

• General Note: Stores miscellaneous information.

• Grammar Note: Records morphosyntactic details.

• Phonology Note: Captures pronunciation or sound changes.

• Semantics Note: Explains meaning-related observations.

• Sociolinguistics Note: Documents social and pragmatic language use.

Example Uses:

• Grammar Note: "This adjective can only be used attributively."

• Sociolinguistics Note: "Used to describe someone who skips meetings but claims importance."

Activity:

• Add a Discourse Note to bon ("good"), observing its use as an interjection.

6. Extended Notes

• Unlike standard notes, Extended Notes allow embedded example sentences.

• Can be categorized into:

  • Collocation

  • Cultural

  • Discourse

  • Grammar

  • Semantic

• Fields in an Extended Note:

  • Type – Categorization (e.g., Discourse).

  • Discussion – Explanation of the note.

  • Example – Vernacular example sentence.

  • Translation – Free translation of the example.

Activity:

• Add an Extended Note to bon, explaining its use as an interjection.

• Insert two examples:

  • Bon, on y va! ("Okay, let's go.")

  • Bon, ce n’est pas tout à fait ce que je voulais dire. ("Well, that’s not exactly what I meant.")

7. Managing Notes

• Reordering Notes: Change note order for consistency.

• Deleting Notes: Remove unwanted or outdated notes.

• Configuring for Publication:

  • Some notes are hidden by default.

  • Users can choose to publish only certain notes (e.g., cultural notes but not phonology notes).

Completion:

• Includes hands-on exercises for adding and managing notes.

• A quiz (80% passing score) reinforces understanding.

• Encourages backing up FLEx projects regularly.

OpenAI. (2025). ChatGPT [Large language model]. https://chatgpt.com