Search query

How to make a search query?

Examples:

DT NN
DT NN{1} VB
"the" "Aesir"NNP
TO "produce" "thunder"NN{1}
"The"{0} NNP{0} "are" NN{3}

In order to use nn_search2 you need to know how to write a search query. The syntax is simple, by default nn_search2 assumes that you are searching for part-of-speech tags (POS-tags). Make sure you know at least the most basic ones. nn_search2 uses your query to search only within one sentence. So, NNP VB will be searched within the limits of a single sentence not a paragraph or a whole text.

If you want to search for occurrences of nouns you enter NN, that’s it! Say, you want to find only nouns that appear in a range of 5 words from the beginning of the sentence, you type NN{5}. Range syntax is NN{number} where number means the number of words before the current tag. So, you can as well create chain queries like NN RB{2} VB{1}, which basically will attempt to find occurences of a noun, an adverb with 2 words before the adverb and a verb with one word before the verb. Again, the number stands for the number of words before the query tag (RB) after the last successful match (NN), so if NN is not matched RB and VB will never be matched as well. If you try DT NN query without any numbers, nn_search2 will attempt to find the longest match within a sentence, therefore it’s a good practice to use word ranges.

That’s nice but can I just search for some words? To do this, type a word and surround it with double quotes "viking". If you want to specify a range "viking"{3}, "merry" "viking"{1}. Pretty simple. You can as well combine POS-tags, words and ranges "Valhalla"NNP VBZ{0} DT{0} "place"NN{2}. If your search query is incorrect and can not be processed nn_search2 will display a warning message. That’s it, now you know the query syntax. .