How to visually parse words and text?

November 7, 2007 4:47 AM

I would like to develop a visual dictionary, web-based, which would allow me to visually parse words the reader is looking at, much like balloons over the word in question.

I have been learning Kazak, a language based on a root word to which suffixes are added to change meaning.

Is there a solution out there which would let me take text, then within some fancy balloon shape, etc., show how the words breaks down with explanations for each suffix?, floating over the word/text, with a nice colour code too for each type of suffix, etc.?

A definition in English would also be useful as a pop-up balloon.

Perhaps much like Drupal or Moodle are pre-developed solutions for online education, is there a pre-developed visual dictionary I can work with?

posted by steppe to Writing & Language (1 answer total)

To be clear, what you're describing is not a visual dictionary (which is a bunch of pictures with descriptions), it's a lexical analyzer. For example, here's a Java implementation of a lexical analyzer.

The bear is, I think you still need to define all the lexical elements for it to parse. That's not much, but it's something to chew on.
posted by adamrice at 7:58 AM on November 7, 2007