Collocation editor and Visualisation tool hits 6000 users
The ColloCaid tool enables people to write texts and understand word associations and collocations. The online tool has now hit 6,000 users. Users come from academic institutions and businesses from across the world.
The ColloCaid tool enables people to write texts and understand word associations and collocations. The online tool has now hit 6,000 users. Users come from academic institutions and businesses from across the world. The tool was developed as a joint project with , , Poland, and 乐播传媒, and helps authors edit written English, especially focused on collocations.
Collocations are words that are conventionally used together. For example, we may say 鈥榗ollect data鈥 or 鈥榲isualise data鈥. Someone may wish to drink a 鈥榮trong tea鈥 while using a 鈥榩owerful computer鈥. Common word combinations are essential to natural-sounding English. The online editor is underpinned by a large lexical database of academic English collocations. This has been achieved using state of the art lexicography tools and resources. The database is integrated into the editor to help writers use better collocations.
Professor Jonathan Roberts (乐播传媒 lead) said 鈥淭his is a huge milestone. It is great to see that we now have over 6,000 users of our tool. People can sign up to use the tool, which consists of a text editor and interactive visual interface. We acknowledge our funders; the (AH/P003508/) who allowed us to investigate how we can combine learner needs, lexicographic data, a text editor and visualisations, to help learners write more idiomatically. The interactive tool helps people to understand and make effective use of collocations. The idea is to help people increase their readability and fluence of their text鈥.
Screenshot of the ColloCaid Editor, with an annotated line showing how words in the text relate to the associated visualisations once selected.
Dr Peter Butcher (researcher on the ColloCaid project) explained 鈥淭he tool interactively draws on the underpinning lexical database. The tool uses a dual-view system, with the editor on the left and visualisations on the right. It was great to help implement this tool, and we are pleased to achieve this milestone. We look forward to the next 6,000 users to sign up.鈥
Editor: J. C. Roberts