Sample searches in CQPweb
The CQPweb search engine is very fast and, at least for simple text searches, intuitive. (See the Text search page for an introduction.) The range of possible search queries is wide. Some sample queries are given in the table below as models that could be adapted or combined as needed.
| search for | type of search | finds | does not find | notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| offered | Simple | offered, offerd, offer'd | Concordance only shows offered; the variants offerd, offer'd appear in the alternative context view. | |
| my sisters | Simple | my Sisters are at Matlock | my Sister's confinement | |
| my sister 's | Simple 1 | my Sister's confinement | my Sisters are at Matlock | A search for my sister's [no space before apostrophe] finds nothing. |
| (will not|wo n't|would not|would n't) | Simple 2 | will not, won't, would not, wouldn't | Use round brackets around alternatives separated by |. | |
| {be} | Simple 3 | am, is, are, was, were, 'm, 's, 're, be, being, been | Use curly brackets for a lemma search, i.e. all forms of an inflected word, such as a verb (as here) or noun. | |
| {good} | Simple | good, better, best | A lemma search gives positive, comparative and superlative forms of an adjective. | |
| [original="shew.*"%cd] | CQP syntax 4 | shew, shews, shewing, shewed, shew'd, shewd, shewn | Forms of show, etc. with stem-vowel o. | Searches index of words as written, adjusted for intra-word deletions and additions but ignoring formatting. Original form is displayed in alternative view of individual examples, though concordance lines are normalised. |
| [original="Dickinson.*"] | CQP syntax | Misspelled Dickinson, Dickinson's, Dickinsons | Correctly spelled Dickenson, etc. | 84 hits. A Simple search would have found 81 of those, missing 3 that -- contrary to our usual practice with proper names -- had been corrected to Dickenson, but finding 2 additional cases where an abbreviated D had been expanded editorially as Dickinson! |
| [original=".*expreſs.*"%c] | CQP syntax | expreſs, Expreſs, expreſs'd, expreſsed, expreſsion, expreſsions, expreſsive, expreſsly, inexpreſsible, etc. | express, express'd, inexpressable, expression, also mistranscribed expresſ'd | 335 hits with the then-normal ſs spelling of the doubled consonant. |
| [original=".*express.*"%c] | CQP syntax | express, express'd, inexpressable, expression | expreſs, Expreſs, expreſs'd, expreſsed, expreſsion, expreſsions, expreſsive, expreſsly, inexpreſsible, etc. | 19 hits, 8 genuinely with the then-rare double ss spelling. 11 apparent ss hits, however, are actually reassembled and normalised versions of spelling expreſs split across lines in ms. |
| [abbr="1" & word="would"%cd] | CQP syntax 4 | wd, wd., wou'd, wld.., etc. | would written out in full | Concordance only shows normalised would, but alternative view of individual examples shows abbreviated form. |
| [reg="1" & word=".*ed"%cd & POS="VVN"] | CQP syntax 4 | Past participles pasſ'd, pass'd, paſsd, paſst, past, shock'd, shock't, shockt, wish'd, wishd, etc. | passed, shocked, wished, etc. written as in standard Present-day English | Concordance only shows regularised passed, shocked, wished, etc.; for original form, see alternative view of individual examples. |
| [placeName="1" & word="Bri.*"%cd] | CQP syntax 4 | Bristol, Britain, Brighton, Brighthelmstone, etc. | bring, bridle, brilliant, etc. | Variant spellings of place-names are also found. |
| [foreign="it"] | CQP syntax | Marito, cosi, va, Addio, Inghilterra, etc. | 87 hits for words coded as Italian, taken individually. | |
| (?longest)[foreign="it"]+; | CQP syntax5 | Marito, Cosi va il Mondo !, addio mia Cara Amicia, Addio Mia molto cara Sposa Io sono vostre Affettuosamente, Inghilterra, etc. | 34 hits for whole phrases coded as Italian. | |
| (?longest)[persName contains "MD"|rs contains "MD"]+; | CQP syntax5 | Mrs Delany, Mrs. Delany, Mrs. D., Mary Delany, the friend, Our dear Friend, the dear old woman, her good Aunt, Miʃs Granville, my Dear Madam, Mrs. Pendarves, Mrs. D: (when Widow to Mr. Pendarves), the good Dowagers Friend, etc. Also combined with other referents: these amiable women, your affectionate Friends at Bulstrode, etc. | The tag <persName> is for reference by a person's proper name, while <rs> ['referencing string'] is for mentions headed by a common noun. MD is Mary Delany's project ID. See here to find the ID assigned to any individual. | |
| [word="(Bona.*|Buona.*|Napo.*)"%cd & persName contains "[^0].*"] | CQP syntax | Bonaparte, Buonapartè, Napoleon, Bonaparte's | Napoli | Searches for words with suitable beginnings that are also inside <persName>. |
| (?longest)[persName contains "NaB"|rs contains "NaB"]+; | CQP syntax5 | Bonaparte, Buonapartè, Napoleon, Bonaparte's, the Emperor, Mr: Bonaparte | Napoli, Emperor Charlemagne | Correctly includes Mr: B—— in reference to Napoleon under <persName>, and the Emperor under <rs>. |
| the | Restriction | the | Only 11 hits if EP: Palfrey, Elizabeth is selected. A Restriction search is confined to one author. | |
| letter | Restricted | letter | Only 4 hits if DBl: Blosset, Dorothy and RFG: Greville, Robert Fulke are ticked as receivers, 1797 and 1798 as years, Leighton Buzzard as place of receiver. A Restricted search allows various filters to be combined. | |
| Delany<<20>>flatter* | Simple | That my Conduct shd. be approved of by Mrs Delany, is not only very flattering [...] Mrs. Delany flatters herself with the hopes of [...] & full of the flattering encomiums &c Mrs . D: said [...], etc. | 9 hits for Delany within 20 words either side of flatter, flatters, flattering, etc. | |
| *_JJ* behaviour* | Simple6 | affectionate, amiable, charming, improper, riotous, etc. | his, whose, the, etc. | 25 hits for general adjective before behaviour(s). Sorting reveals 19 different adjectives. |
| [simple_semtag="K2"] | CQP syntax6 | Concert, sing(ing)/sang, Opera, Song, Medley, Violoncello, Anthem, Piano, harmonious, Violin, Chorus, bass, Duet, Cornet, Oratorio, ostentation, etc. | 539 matches for semantic tag K2 (Music and related activities). | |
| [simple_semtag="(B2|B3)"] | CQP syntax6 | health, well, ill, Pain(ful), illness, recover(y/ed/ing), Cold, Fever, hurt, Gout, cough, fatigue(d), disorder, sick, indisposed, etc. | 3,767 matches for semantic tags B2 (Health and disease) or B3 (Medicines and medical treatment). | |
| [POS="(VVN|VVG)"][simple_semtag = "(B2|B3)"]; | CQP syntax6 | taken ill, tired out, begun nursing, catching colds, fainting fits, feeling recovered, gaining health, grown weary, looking Ill, etc., but also continued painfully, taken pains, etc.! | 36 hits for past or present participle of verb followed by semantic tags B2 or B3. | |
| [semtag contains "(C1|K1|K2|K4|Q4.1)" & persName contains "\w+"]+ | CQP syntax6 | Only Cervantes, Cicero, (Mr:) Garrick, Handel, Pliny, Rousseau, Voltaire; mostly namesakes of modern musicians, songs, (parts of) instruments, etc.! | 392 hits for personal names coinciding with semantic tags C1 (Arts and crafts), K1 (Entertainment generally), K2 (Music and related activities), K3 (Recorded sound), K4 (Drama, the theatre and show business) or Q4.1 (The Media: Books). |
Notes to table
1 In the tagging process, apostrophes have been used (or not) as in standard present-day English and the words then ‘tokenised’. In principle, a possessive 's is tagged as a separate token, hence the space, while a possessive plural is tagged with the s attached to its noun and the apostrophe as a separate token. A simple non-possessive plural noun is tagged as a single token. However, inconsistent use of apostrophes in the manuscripts makes it a challenge to distinguish with 100% accuracy between plural and possessive in My Sisters are both well, news of my Sister 's confinement, at my Sister 's, you are loved by my Sisters ' Governess, etc.
2 Contracted negatives (wo n't, did n't, etc.) and contracted verbs (she 's, you 'd, etc.) must be searched for with the contracted part as a separate token.
3 Unfortunately, irrelevant examples of possessive s are unavoidably mixed in among the hits for contracted is.
4 You can make CQP syntax queries ignore case by adding the switch %c after the search term; add %cd to ignore diacritics as well. Simple searches are case-insensitive by default.
5 By default, a standard CQPweb search looks for individual words or tokens, so that a personal name tag <persName> or <rs> ['reference string'] could give four separate hits for Mrs, <period>, Mary and Delany, for example, even if that name was the only one enclosed in the tag. To avoid this, surround your search string with (?longest) before and +; after, or if Match strategy is available, just choose Longest-available match.
6 Part-of-speech (POS) tagging is generally over 90% accurate, while semantic tagging is inevitably patchier. Many different semantic tags are assigned to a single word like dressed, their relative probabilities varying according to context. The search [semtag contains "(B2|B3)"] will match all words tagged for Health or Medicines (3605 hits), whereas [simple_semtag = "(B2|B3)"] selects those where that meaning is very probable (3767). For a list of POS-tags see here. For a list of semantic tags see here and here.