3.1.1 Comparative overview of BNC editions

BNC-XML with XAIRA

BYU-BNC

BNCweb

Query options

• various query options
• powerful query builder for complex queries
• complex interface with lack of support

• limited options, not powerful enough for complex queries

• powerful query builder
• different query options

Query syntax

• automatic description of POS-tags shown in the query builder
• complicated syntax
• no sufficient built-in guidelines
• CQL syntax included

• limited and simplified, with automatic query building options, but not well introduced in guidelines

• two syntaxes (CQP and Simple Query Syntax) provide advanced options, but not easy to learn (no automatic query building options);

Partition (dividing up a corpus according to any criteria)

• sufficient
• easy to use

• confusing system (categories a bit mixed, e.g. “spoken” along with “academic”)
• combined with comparison function

• sufficient
• easy to use

Presenting query results

• “too many solutions” window
• line mode (switching to page mode with “Concordance” option)

• concordance/KWIC view/frequency breakdown - display options to be chosen when running a query

• concordance + basic frequency information

KWIC view (key-word-in-context)

• called “Line mode”

• a display option to be chosen when running the query

• a separate button

Showing POS-tags of the target word/phrase in the concordance

• XML option, presented in a complicated way

• colour-coded in the KWIC-display

• shown automatically (when pointing at the key node), clearly presented

Frequency and dispersion information

• available in “Analysis” function

• available in “List” function (frequency breakdown)

• shown at the Query result page, also available as further option

viewing the larger context and metadata

• yes

• yes (limited)

• yes

saving current set of hits

• yes

• yes (on the website)

• yes

access to full BNC text

• yes

• yes (limited)

• yes

Distribution (frequency according to partition criteria)

• presented as Analysis tool

• presented as Chart mode, limited

• distribution option, includes cross-tab option for various categories of annotation

sorting (reordering line mode display)

• yes, different criteria

• yes, different criteria

• yes, different criteria

frequency breakdown (listing of the different forms)

• no

• yes

• yes

collocation

(searching for common word combinations)

• yes, according to different criteria

• yes, comparison, filtering and statistical options

• many options: statistical measures frequency analysis, filtering options

thinning (reducing the number of displayed solutions in the result set)

• yes

• no

• yes

annotating concordance data

• yes, only header

• yes, only header

• yes, up to 6 categories

saving solutions to file

• yes

• no, saving customized word lists on the website

• yes

exporting solutions

• yes

• no

• yes

reimporting databases

• no

• no

• yes (limited set)

search for synonyms

• no

• yes (integrated thesaurus)

• no

advantages

disadvantages

BNC-XML

XAIRA

• Powerful query builder
• Complex queries
• Description of POS-tags in query builder

• Not user-friendly
• Difficult query design
• Slow
• No comparison function
• Limited categorization options
• Limited saving options

BYU-BNC

• Easily available
• Fast
• Easy comparison function
• Automatic combined functions

• Not very reliable
• Limited query options (due to automaticaly pre-categorized data)
• Limited plain text options
• Some terms and categories changed compared to other tools
• Simplified POS-list
• No descriptions of POS-tags in query mode

BNCweb

• User-friendly
• Powerful query builder
• Very fast
• Full distribution function
• Advanced categorization options
• Good “Practical Guide”

• Complicated query syntax
• No built-in support or commentaries
• Not easily available