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Using the BNC Baby with Xaira

This sections contains a quick-guide to searching the BNC Baby with Xaira in the form of some sample queries. The intention is not to provide a comprehensive collection but mainly to illustrate how you, by using Xaira, can make use of some of the annotation in the BNC. Try the queries to get used to the program or use them as a starting point to finding the information you need. There is often more than one way to make a particular search. For more detailed information about the Xaira functions, see the Xaira manual Information about how to obtain and install Xaira can be found on a separate page.

Use the links to the left to access a particular example. You can also go through the list by clicking Next below.

Start using BNC Baby with Xaira

  • To start using BNC Baby with Xaira, insert your BNC Baby CD into your computer. You should see the Welcome to BNC Baby window (if it doesn't start up automatically, run the startup.exe on the CD or open the file welcome.htm). The Welcome document provides information about the CD, how to install it and important licence conditions.
  • When you have finished reading the document, close the window. If you accept the licencing conditions, click the YES button and a new window will open: Welcome to the Xaira Corpus Installer.
    • If you have not done so earlier, you first need to install Xaira. Just click the button Install Xaira and wait while the software is installed on your hard disk. Note that you must install Xaira before trying to access BNC Baby or any of the other corpora on the disk. Once installed, Xaira will access any of the corpora supplied directly from the CD. (Alternatively, you can copy one or more of the corpora from the CD to your hard disk, and access them from there, which will usually give better performance. Instructions are available on the CD).
  • To access the BNC-Baby from the CD, simply click on the Search BNC-Baby button. A window About Xaira appears briefly before the Xaira search window opens. If you have copied the corpus to your hard disk, use the File menu and choose Open
  • Follow the instructions below to make searches and post-process the results. Remember that you can always access the Xaira Help files by pressing the F1 key. Moving the mouse pointer over an item will also give you a short description of that item (also read more about Flybys in the help files).

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