Re: [edict-jmdict] Re: Example sentences 例文募集

["Jim Breen" <jimbreen@*********>]

2008/6/20 Dennis Schrader <jpnthailand@gmail.com>:
> ........ and Thanks All
> for taking this topic of P word selection seriously. I'm not asking for
> people to agree with me, just to re-examine the metrics methodology we are
> currently using. I think it is seriously flawed, especially based upon the
> entries I see that have earned a P marker. Many, many other members have
> shared my thoughts on this - but not in the forum. No reason not to. JIm is
> hardly an autocrat. At the same time he needs some kind of metric. And, for
> the time being, what he is using is every bit as valuable, ie convenient but
> flawed, as the seminal work of Ogden and his crew way back in the 1930's.

Of course the system for marking a P is flawed. Any system will have flaws. I'm
totally open to any alternative *implementable* and *verifiable*
system or system.

Before there were P markers a constant complaint from users was that they wanted
some indication of which words were the more common ones, so I scraped up what
information I could get. From the feedback I get from all over the place, the
P markers, warts and all, appear to be useful and appreciated. If I didn't think
their usefulness outweighed their defects, I'd remove them.

> ...... Example sentences are
> a complete waste of time.

Again, there was a stream of requests to have in-context examples of usage
available associated with the entries. The availability of the Tanaka corpus
made that possible. For all its flaws, many of which have been corrected
especially by Paul Blay, I think it is far better to have them than to offer
nothing at all. And certainly that is the overwhelming message I get in
feedback.

My approach over the years has been that it is far better to offer a less-than-
perfect product than to offer nothing at all. I am heartened by the almost
completely positive feedback I receive.

Cheers

Jim

-- 
Jim Breen
Honorary Senior Research Fellow
Clayton School of Information Technology,
Monash University, VIC 3800, Australia
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/