The query builder helps you to make a query in the form of the Corpus Query Language (CQL) to your text. You can use the CQL to filter out various types of text parameters, for example, a specific word, a lemma, or you can set part-of-speech tags (pos) that indicate the type of word you are looking for (a noun, an adjective, etc.). In addition, you can also search for structural attributes, or specify your query for a token (word, lemma, pos) via entity typing. And of course everything can be combined. You can find examples for different queries under the tab "Examples".

Add new token to your Query

If you are only looking for a specific token, you can click on the left button and select the type of token you are looking for from the drop-down menu. By default "Word" is selected.

Word and Lemma

If you want to search for a specific word or lemma and the respective category is selected in the drop-down menu, you can type in the word or lemma of your choice in the input field. You can confirm your entry by clicking the Submit button on the right. You can also use the options below to modify your token request before pressing the submit button. These options are explained further here.

English pos, german pos or simple_pos

You can choose between the options "english pos", "german pos" and "simple_pos" to search for different parts-of-speech. You can find an overview of all tags under the "Tagsets" tab.

Empty Token

Here you can search for an empty token. This selection should never stand alone and should always be extended with an incidence modifier or stand in a larger query, because otherwise all possible tokens would be searched for and the program would crash.

Options to edit your token

You have the possibility to extend or specify your searched token with certain factors. For this the query builder offers some fixed options. You can find more information about the options in the Corpus Query Language Tutorial.

Wildcard Character

A wildcard character replaces any character and is represented in the form of a dot.

Option Group

With an option group you can search for different variants of a token. The variants are not limited, so you can manually enter more options in the same format. "Option1" and "option2" must be replaced accordingly.

Incidence Modifiers

With the Incidence Modifiers you can determine the occurrence of single tokens. For example you can use "?" to indicate that the token occurs either not at all or once:
[word = "is"] [word="it"] [word="your"] [word="litte"]? [word = "dog"]
Here the word "little" should occur either once or not at all. With [word="dogs?"] the search is for "dog "or "dogs".

Ignore Case

With the check mark at Ignore Case the upper and lower case is ignored. This is marked with a "%c". By default (if not checked) it is case sensitive.

"or" & "and"

"Or" ( | ) and "and" ( & ) are conditions you can put on a token. With "or" one of the two conditions must be fulfilled, with "and" both conditions must be fulfilled. For example, the word must be called "will" AND be a verb, only then it will be displayed. Note that "and" is not responsible for lining up tokens in this case. For this you can simply string them together:
[word="I"] [word="will" & simple_pos="VERB"] [word="go"].

Add structural attributes to your query

You can use structural attributes to search specifically for structures in the text or to further narrow down your previous search query.

Sentence

With "Sentence" () you can search for sentences within your text. This search can of course be specified if you search for particular tokens or entities between the sentence tags (). For example, you can search for sentences that contain only a noun, verb, and adjective.
After clicking on Sentence you will see a

Sentence Start

. When you are done with your query or the content between the Sentence tags, you have to click the Sentence button one more time to close it. The corresponding button is called

Sentence End

Entities

With entities, i.e. units of meaning, you search for text sections that follow a certain code. For example, persons, dates, certain events. You can select the codes using the drop-down menus. You can find an explanation of the respective abbreviations under the tab "Tagsets".
You can also search for unspecified entities by selecting "Add entity of any type".

To close the entity query you started, you have to click the entity button one more time. This will make the

Entity End

element appear in your query. entity explanation

Meta Data

With the meta data you can annotate your text and add specific conditions. You can select a category on the left and enter your desired value on the right. The selected metadata will apply to your entire request and will be added at the end.

General Options of the query builder

You have several options to edit your query after adding it to the preview.

Deleting the elements

You can delete the added elements from the query by clicking the X behind the respective content.

Move the elements of your query

You can drag and drop elements to customize your query.

Query Builder Tutorial

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