[bnc] A Simple Search - How to search the BNC using SARA

A Simple Search

Look for a string (word/phrase)

Start the program. If you are connecting to a server, you will be prompted for a username and password. If you are using a copy of the BNC installed on your PC/laptop, you will not need a username/password.
In the SARA/Xaira window there is a search box towards the top of the window. Type in your word/phrase there. Press the enter key. Please note that items such as isn't, can't, gonna, he's are treated as two words. Enter a space between the components (gon na) and a \ before any apostrophe (is n\'t). Alternatively, you can use the Phrase Query option (icon with an A).
You will get one of three results:
- The results of your search are displayed in the window
- A box labelled Too many solutions pops up. This means the number of hits found is larger than what is automatically displayed (you can change this default). By ticking the relevant radio buttons you can choose whether you want to display all instances or a limited number, and how you want a limited number to be generated. When you click OK the solutions are displayed in the Xaira window.
- A box with no solutions pops up. This means the search did not find any matches in the corpus (check the spelling!)
You can now choose whether to display the hits one by one or all at once. You can also post-process the results, for example remove unwanted instances, see more context or bibliographic data, or save the instances.