Fixing FIXMEs
How to update basic level when you get FIXMEs in sparse_code.csv files.
Last updated
How to update basic level when you get FIXMEs in sparse_code.csv files.
Last updated
Use these instructions if you get FIXMEs after creating new sparse_code.csv(s) for one or all recordings.
You should have created a new .csv(s) using insturctions in Whole corpus or One recording depending on whether you are updating in batch or just a single file. This .csv (or .csvs) is the merged version of your checked audio or video file and the sparse_code.csv from Subject_Files/.../Analysis.
This is what your basic level will look like for an audio file:
The first thing you should always do is filter the whole sheet. Highlight the sheet by clicking the grey diagonal arrow in the top lefthand corner (between A and 1). Then find the Filter function in Excel and add filters to your sheet. Little dropdown arrows should show up on every column.
After you've filtered, for an audio, you should delete the "comments" column. Hover over column "H" with your mouse until you see an arrow pointing down. Then right-click and delete!
Video basic levels are slightly different. They have ordinal numbers instead of tiers, and comments show up as their own line, with %com: [comment] in the word column, and NA's in the other columns. The basic level for comments should be NA.
In videos, it's important to pay attention to the timestamps--none of the cells should be blank or "0". Point cells (comments, pho's) should have the same onset and offset timestamps. If a cell has "0" for onset or offset, you need to revisit the opf and set the onset or offset for that cell to the appropriate value, and then re-export and wordmerge it.
Wordmerge will put FIXME values in for the basic level for any new words that you added during annotation checks. These need to be replaced with whatever the basic level should be for those words. Remember that every new basic level word is added to the old words, so you'll need to check some words to see if the Most Common Form has changed, or whether you need to use the plural version in the basic level. Sort by "Ascending" in the word column so that you can see the FIXME's in relation to other forms of the word.
If you changed a coded word from upper to lower case or vice versa, wordmerge will add CASE to the basic level column. You need to check to be sure that the case of the original coded word is appropriate (one capital at the beginning if it's a character name or book title) and that the basic level matches the case of the coded word exactly.
Wordmerge also produces an error folder with a .csv that will tell you if there is an error in your codes. Check the lines that are listed in the error file in your wordmerged .csv--common errors are that one of your codes is upper case (check these carefully--they're hard to spot!) or you have an incorrect letter in one of the codes (n or y do not belong in the utterance type column, etc.) or a lower case letter in the speaker code, or any illegal characters. If you have an error that you can't decipher, ask a staff member for help.
Basic levels will never change the sounds of the word drastically (i.e. only collapse words if they're phonologically similar). E.g. 'tum-tum' becomes 'tummy' if tummy was used elsewhere in the file, but it wouldn't become 'belly'.
Use the singular forms of words for the basic level unless the word is a plural word (i.e. it's plural in the dictionary). Examples: pajamas, goggles, pants
If a word has two plural markers (which usually happens with diminutives such as "teethies" or "feeties"), change both to the singular versions (e.g. "toothy" or "footy").
Some objects don't have a basic level (e.g. story, animal). Put NA in the basic_level column (this stands for non-applicable). Don't spell, capitalize, or punctuate it any other way than just NA
Remove any descriptors in the basic level column (ex. purple+monkey becomes monkey) but keep this word in the original cex file and the object_word column.
When facing diminutives (ex. paci referring to pacifier, diapey referring to diaper), change all the basic level entries to the most frequent form. If equal usage, go with the simple nouns.
Change child phonology to the intended word ("ba" for ball goes to ball).
The exception to this rule is if it's the most common form the family uses. This most often occurs with "baba" for "bottle." If the parents say "baba", then keep a child utterance "baba" (don't change it to bottle if the parents don't say that).
Compound Words:
a. For compound words that code one object: reduce this to the basic noun if there were other versions of it (e.g. "dump+truck", "garbage+truck", and "truck" could all become truck). If only one form occurs (e.g. "dump+truck"), leave it as that form.
EXCEPTIONS: If it's very specific and imageable, the compound stays at basic level. ex: fire+truck, police+car. See the CWI for these cases.
If the compound is just a modifier+noun (e.g. "monkey+head" referring to a monkey's head), the basic level should be the object/noun ("head").
If the compound refers to two objects (e.g. "heart+button" that is both a heart and a button), listen to the stress of the compound word to determine which object word to leave in the basic level.
If you're still unsure, leave the basic level entry as the compound word.
Err on the side of not using NA in the basic level unless you cannot imagine how one would depict the item (e.g. drool, animal, toy). If it gets left in and counted and actually isn't imageable, that is better than excluding something that was potentially usable and a common word.
Food items: record the most frequent form for foods in the basic level (ex. if there are 10 "beans," and 2 "bean," all entries should be "beans" in the basic level).
Morphologically similar words that occur in proper and common forms (ex. a character named "Doggy" and the common form "doggy") should be recorded in the basic level column as the common form (in our example, "doggy"). In other words, if there are both upper-case and lower-case form of the same word, make the basic level form of the proper nouns into lower-case.
a. If a character name includes the animal or object that it is (ex. Daniel+tiger or Thomas+the+train), it becomes the animal or object (ex. tiger or train) at basic level.
When facing young (chick, fawn, duckling, etc.) and old animal forms (chicken, deer, duck, etc.):
a. If the two forms have different sounds (ex. fawn & deer), leave them as separate entries
b. If the two forms have the same sound (ex. chick & chicken, duckling & duck), change all of the words to the most frequent form (if the counts are equal, go with the adult form)
c. If the animal young is named with a compound (ex. bear+cub or horse+foal), go with the specific adult animal (ex. bear or horse).
When there are compound nouns (ex. dump+truck) and basic level form of the nouns that refer to a different object (ex. "truck" occurs but refers to a pick-up truck), change all the compound nouns to its basic form (in our example, change all dump+truck to "truck").
DO NOT put ANY extra spaces, or extra underscores in cells on the basic level sheets, or file names. literally, 'hat ' vs. 'hat' can make a script crash and is a hard kind of mistake to detect. BE VIGILANT.
Save the .csv to your Working File and check off your wordmerge task in Asana! You're done!
