Standards for Encoding Linguistic Data.

Martin Kay

Expert InsightsPublished 1967

Language processing is a special art that has accumulated considerable experience and technique, but few programmers are aware of it. Encoding conventions should be designed for the typist's or keypuncher's convenience. Given a simple formalized description of the input conventions used, computer programs of the Rand-Grenoble Catalog Input/Output System automatically convert the text into a standard internal coding scheme. The researcher can have his output printed in one style on a local machine and then have the same material printed for permanent use with other conventions on a more sophisticated machine. The change from six- to eight-bit magnetic tape with the IBM System 360 allows for 15 different alphabets with separate upper and lower case letters, and enough codes (128) to represent most syllabaries. Global symbols, the same in all alphabets, include numerals, punctuation marks, diacritics, and indicators of italics, boldface, etc. (Prepared for publication in [Computers] [and the Humanities].) 15 pp. Ref.

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Kay, Martin, Standards for Encoding Linguistic Data. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1967. https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P3575.html.
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