Search for Words in Tagged Text
The words as they appear in the text are known as inflected forms. The word as it appears in a dictionary is known as the lexical form The canonical (dictionary) form of a word or lemma The canonical (dictionary) form of a word. In both Greek and Hebrew, many different inflected forms can be derived from a single lemma, and several lemmas can be traced to one root A root is a unit of a language that cannot be further divided, from which words are derived by modification. The root does not necessarily survive as a word in itself. The Accordance roots may combine homographs and therefore a single root may include roots with different etymologies and meanings. In Hebrew, by convention, the lexical form (lemma) of a verb is the same as the root. word.
An example in English might be "approving" as the inflected form The word as it appears in the original text, which may be modified from its base dictionary form of the lexical form, "approve" from the root "prove," with other forms derived from that root including "proof," "probably," etc.
All the symbols and commands can be combined with these types of words, in order to define almost any search. Complex searches are often easier to define in the Construct tab.
If you simply copy or type a word in the Search Entry box for a tagged text, the word is treated as a lexical form, so it finds all occurrences of words that come from that lexical form.
Thus a search for the Greek lexical form (biblos) finds all the forms of this word.
The easiest way to enter words in the Search Entry box is via the Select Lexical Forms dialog box (Search>Enter Lexical Forms or
Enclosing the word in plain quotation marks (' or ") specifies that it is an inflected form so that only words matching the entry are found.
Thus a search for the Greek inflected form "biblos" finds only this form of the word.
You can automatically enter these forms in quotes via the Select Inflected Forms dialog box (Search>Enter Inflected Forms or
The plus sign (+) before a word specifies that it is a root so Accordance finds all occurrences of words that come from that root.
Thus a search for the Greek root (+biblos) finds all the words derived from this root.
You can automatically enter these forms with the plus sign by pressing the option key as you select Enter Lexical Forms (Search menu or
Searching for roots cannot be combined with the exact form (=) sign. In Greek there are homograph markers to distinguish, for example, eis from heis.
In the roots, if there is no Hebrew root lamed-lamed is used for loan words from other languages, and nun-nun for not known.
Accordance normally ignores any accents or vowel points, upper case, and ending forms. Adding an equal sign (=) immediately before a lemma or inflected form specifies that all of these should be included in the search. Cantillation marks are always ignored except with a character search (see below).
Select Use exact form in the Select Lexical Form or Select Inflected form dialog box, or select Use exact lemma in the Select Lexical Forms dialog box to enter the chosen words exactly as they appear, with an equal sign in the Search Entry box.
Selecting a single word in a tagged text and amplifying to a tagged text automatically adds an equal sign to a lemma or inflected search.
The period symbol is used to search for any single character, including punctuation and cantillation marks.
Examples: finds any atnah, while finds mlk with an atnah.