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Archiver > GENBOX > 2003-08 > 1060113151


From: "Paul J. Harris" <>
Subject: RE: [GENBOX] Events and Witnesses
Date: Tue, 5 Aug 2003 15:52:37 -0400
In-Reply-To: <LJECKLFMNLFFEIMDFGGDKEGEDKAA.w.prange@chello.nl>


And to all,

I had been wrestling with the subject/verb agreement issue in a primary
witness statement, and as Wim points out, about the only way to do it is
work backwards with the witness numbers. However, by making the list of
witnesses the object of the sentence, rather than the subject, verb
agreement is not an issue.

Beth, I think you can get what you want with a Forward Template such as:

[P] sent a letter to [O]<[D]><[L]>. <The letter mentioned [WW].>

which will produce something like:

Harry Cliff sent a letter to Ethel L. Ward on 25 January 1900 from 136
Washington Avenue, Albany, Albany County, New York. The letter mentioned
Paul Joseph Harris Jr., Jean Anne MacPherson, and Christopher Brill.

Apparently, any reference to a witness in the primary sentence will override
the default: "Witnesses: [WW]."

Good lessons, here.

Paul

-----Original Message-----
From: wim prange [mailto:]
Sent: Tuesday, August 05, 2003 3:04 PM
To:
Subject: RE: [GENBOX] Events and Witnesses


Hi All,

> Wim posted some very good instructions on how to include Witness code in
> the Principal's sentence in Event Templates, though I think since then the
> list of Event Template Codes has been increased considerably. Wim have you
> still got a copy on your computer?
>
> Sally

Hi Sally e.a.

We were discussing godparents as witnesses at the time. I found the
following "instructions":

You can solve you're plural/single godparent-witness with one template for
the principal sentence-template. I you want to include up to four godparents
do the following:
<. Godparent<s were [W4], [W3], [W2] and [W1]|s were [W3], [W2] and [W1]|s
were [W2] and [W1]| was [W1]>>
The trick with conditional templates is the following: you have to write the
least likely condition first, then the second least likely etc. Because,
when Genbox finds a match it will skip the rest of the condition. So, if
there were 5 witnesses to this event you would have to insert "s were [W5],
[W4], [W3], [W2] and [W1]|" just after the (second) opening bracket.

You can use this to write more elaborate sentences which include different
roles too but this can be quite tricky. The best way to do this is in an
event itself and choose (or create) the most complicated example and add and
delete several witnesses and roles to see how it works. Be carefull with the
closing ">" brackets. When you forget one, the template will 'bleed' into
subsequent events in reports, giving you the names from a previous event!
(maybe Bill has fixed this in the meantime?)

An easier method is to use just [WW] or [WWR]. This will produce a simple
list. If there are more roles it will produce something like "Name1, Role1;
Name2, Role2; etc.".

Also take notice that you might have to change the "reverse template" as
well.

Gr. Wim




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