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Articles |
Analytical Index for the Complete Works of Agnon: A Scholarly Tool in Preparation
Bar llan University, Ramat Gan Israel
Professor Hillel Weiss, The Joseph & Norman Berman Department of Literature of the Jewish People, Faculty of Jewish Studies, Bar-llan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel 52100
There are a number of limitations in the retrieval system which will be outlined here mainly because the ‘searches’ work according to Boolian logic. Thus the retrieval system is subject to the rigid formulations of the query and the formulations of key words.
Therefore it is difficult to deal with most of the meanings of poetic units In order to get more precise meanings we are continually eliminating certain meanings and storing them in files Currently we are trying to develop a software system which will complement and enlarge the existing search system
The main benefit of the Poetic, Linguistic and Analytical Index (PLAI) lies in the application to large and complex literary databases and it will help to define a semantic route through an hierarchical system of searching from the most general query down to the precise meaning, from main subjects to sub-subjects. On the other hand the researcher will be able to receive a variety of external information that is stored in separate files like summaries of literary texts, abstracts of literary criticism, and bibliographies that will be a further help in determining the exact meaning
Currently the database holds the complete works of S. Y. Agnon last edition 2,500,000 words that can be accessed online through a retrieval system. The access is through three main frames.
Frame A: Poetics. General typhology, genres; motifs sources, poetic functions
Frame B index of subjects, philosophy, history; society; psychology
Frame C indices of individual works according to A and B, index of place and names, index of synopses; abstracts of criticism; bibliography