SIL FieldWorks Language

Explorer (FLEx):
Digitization of Field Data
MAYANK JAIN
JNU, NEW DELHI
Tool (software) for managing data
After data collection, there comes an immediate requirement of a good software to digitally
record, store and manage the data collected during the field.

FLEx is one such software which is a suitable for the required purpose.
FLEx: What is it?
FieldWorks Language Explorer helps to manage cultural and linguistic data from initial stage of
collection of data through submission for publication.
It is a data management program that helps in recording, organizing and analysis of linguistic
data.
FLEx is a specialized software with built-in capability for the kind of data linguists need to store
and manage.
Various components of FLEx interact together to help in managing data.
Accessing the software
FLEx is developed by an organisation named SIL International. This software can be freely
downloadable from the link given below:
Available for free download from http://fieldworks.sil.org/download/
What does FLEx does?
Creates dictionaries (including multilingual support (for example, English, Hindi, Tamil) and
multiple scripts (for example, Roman, Devanagari, Bengali etc.))
For example: Great Andamanese dictionary is a tri-lingual (Great Andamanese, English, Hindi)
and tri-scriptal (IPA, roman, devanagari) dictionary with pictorial illustrations and audio files (in
digital version).
What does FLEx does?

Collects words based on semantic domains (such as Animal, Body parts, Food)
What does FLEx does?
Stores sentences and helps in their morphological analysis.
Shows concordance (details of occurrence of words, sentences in the database).
Create a grammar sketch
Record anthropological field notes
And much More…..
How does it looks!
Screens are typically divided into two or more panes.
The far left pane is the Navigation pane (modules and sub-areas of modules)
Other panes that displayed depend on the choice selected in the Navigation pane.
5 Modules (areas) of FLEx:
• Lexicon: dictionary
• Texts & Words: interlinear analysis
• Grammar: grammar sketch
• Notebook: store cultural and other research notes
• Lists: semantically categorized word lists
 Integration among different areas

The Lexicon, Texts, and Grammar areas have the same database on which they work.
Lexicon area: work on Lexicon.
In the Texts & Words area, sentences are glossed , new lexical entries are created
directly from Text.
In the Grammar area, helps in getting grammar of the language.
Opening an existing project
1. Choose ‘Open a project’
2. Select the desired project from ‘Choose a project’
Lexicon Module
The Lexicon area is where we can create, edit, and manage dictionary.
Multilingual support - Multiple languages can be included in the dictionary to make multilingual
dictionaries e.g. English, Hindi, Tamil
Multiple orthographies – Different scripts can be used e.g. Roman, Devanagari, IPA, Perso-Arabic
Creating a new project
1. Choose ‘Create a new project’
2. New FieldWorks Project
◦ Name the project – It is usually name of the language e.g. Toto
◦ Choose Ethnologue code of the language
◦ Vernacular language writing system – choose the script used for the language.
◦ Analysis language writing system – choose a analysis language

3. Click OK
4. Follow the instructions in the following dialogue box till the installation process gets
completed.
Doing Lexicon
Entering lexical items
Insert – New Entry (ctrl + e)
◦ type word in Lexeme Form
◦ type of morpheme in Morpheme Type
◦ give meaning in Gloss
◦ Select grammatical category (POS) from Category dropdown menu
◦ Click on create
Lexicon: Basic Fields
Lexeme, Gloss, POS, Semantic Domain, Lexical relation, variant
Example
Culturally relevant information,
Source,
cross reference
Multimedia information
others
Source
A possible format of the source could be as follows:
Language-helper/Investigator/Date/Place/Original-Audio&Video-Recording-Detail/Notebook
information
Insert Sound
1. Insert ---- sound or movie
2. Browse to the sound file.
3. Select the audio file.

Note: Audio files should preferably in WAV.

preferrably < 1MB
Picture insertion
Go to sense area --- Insert --- Picture --- Browse to the Picture folder---- select picture ----- click
OK.

Note: Image files should preferably in JPG/JPEG.

preferably < 1MB
Sub-areas of Lexicon
Lexicon Edit: create and edit particular lexemes.
Browse: In this view, dictionary entries are arranged in rows. Each row has consist of one
dictionary entry.
Dictionary: presents your lexicon formatted as an alphabetized dictionary.
Collecting words through Semantic
domains
Semantic domain are used to group words on the basis of their meaning.
Collect Words: allows to collect words based on semantic domains. Each domain consists of a
short description and a series of elicitation questions with example words in English.
Classified Dictionary: Displays the lexicon as a semantically classified dictionary using the list of
semantic domains in the Semantic Domain field.
Working on Lexicon

Sorting
Filtering
Bulk Edit
Texts & Words
The Texts & Words module is designed to help in morphemic analysis.
Sub-areas of Texts & Words
The several sub-areas/ views in the Text & Words display data in various ways and help to
accomplish specific tasks.
Interlinear Texts: morphological analysis of text.
Concordance: gives a concordance of wordforms (words, morphemes) from the text corpus.
Complex Concordance: concordance on basis of complex criteria.
Word List Concordance
Word Analysis
Statistics: Statistics of the words and sentences.
 Text and Words ---Interlinear Texts
Info:
Metadata regarding text
Title, Abbreviation, Source, date etc

Baseline
Sentences are entered here. Each sentence is typed in a separate line.
 Gloss and Analyze
The gloss and analyze tabs are where the interlinearisation is carried out.
You can break up a word into morphemes, and associate each of those with a lexical entry
(CREATE A NEW LEXICAL ENTRY).
The interlinear tool will suggest an analysis you have previously made for a word when you
encounter it again.
Print view
Print view is a read-only view of the data. This independent view is useful for configuring which
lines are shown merely for the purposes of exporting.
Texts and Words
Concordance
Complex Concordance
Word List Concordance
Word Analysis
Statistics
Back up
To save the loss of data, FLEx projects should be backed up regularly.
File -- Project Management – Back up this project --- select the check boxes and browse to
select a location to save the project- project is saved with a date and time stamp
 Collaboration among multiple partners
Send/Receive Project allows users to collaborate with different colleagues who are working on
the same project.
 Interaction with other Language
documentation tools
FLEx can interact with various language documentation tools such as Lexique Pro, ELAN, WeSay
etc so that these softwares can work together to achieve various language documentation goals.
◦ Dictionary – digital and print
◦ Audio and video annotation
◦ Interlinear glosses
Assignment
Assignment 1:
Lexicon:
Minimum 20 words with lexeme, POS, gloss (meaning), semantic domain, source
Provide pictures for 5 words
Assignment
Assignment 2:
Texts and Words:
◦ Minimum 10 sentences in Baseline, Gloss and Analyze tabs
Thank you