With their long and varied experience in dictionary publishing, and in specifying and using a wide range of computer programs for analyzing language and handling dictionary text, LexMC's directors are well placed to assess clients' needs and advise on sourcing the appropriate lexicographic software, whether corpus-query systems or dictionary writing systems.

Corpus Query Systems

A CQS is a software program that enables lexicographers to analyze a word or phrase by interrogating a corpus. Through our sister company Lexical Computing Ltd we can supply and customize the Sketch Engine, the most advanced CQS currently available.

The Sketch Engine is a state-of-the-art suite of software developed by Adam Kilgarriff and Pavel Rychly. It is available through a web-browser, so requires no installation or set-up, and the package includes:

  • a powerful high-speed concordancer
  • an automatic thesaurus generator
  • lexical profiling software producing 'Word Sketches' (corpus-derived summaries of a word's grammatical and collocational behaviour) and 'Sketch Differences' (specifying similarities and differences between near-synonyms or other related words)


For details of its functionality, see Kilgarriff et al.2004 'The Sketch Engine', EURALEX2004 Proceedings 105-115.

For a demonstration and details of prices and availability, go to http://www.sketchengine.co.uk/

Dictionary Writing Systems

A DWS is a piece of software that combines a lexicographer's interface (in which dictionary text is compiled and edited), a database (in which dictionary text is stored and manipulated), and a set of housekeeping tools (for managing the flow of text in a dictionary project). LexMC's directors have long experience both in working with software engineers to specify this type of software, and in using DWS in dictionary projects. For its Irish project, LexMC conducted detailed research into available systems, and has unrivalled knowledge of the market. A series of workshops devoted to DWS was established by Adam Kilgarriff in 2002, and the third of these ('DWS2004') was held in the Czech Republic in 2004 (http://nlp.fi.muni.cz/dws2004/).

LexMC has considerable experience in using DWS, and has close relationships with the major DWS suppliers. We can advise clients on the best software for them, and can liaise with suppliers if necessary.