Lexical Item Conflict

While importing a lexical item file it's possible that one of the items being imported is already contained in your lexicon. Two lexical items with the same item text and lexical type are not allowed to coexist in the same lexicon. If such an item is identified in the lexical item file then it will be flagged as a duplicate and the Duplicate Item dialog will be displayed. It presents you with the following 3 options.

• Merge the item in the file with the item in the lexicon.
• Replace the item in the lexicon with the item in the file.
• Skip importing this item, leaving the one in the lexicon as is.

Merging the two items means adding any data from the item in the file to the item in the lexicon. It's a safe operation in that no data in the existing lexical item will be overwritten. For example, if both lexical items are assigned a root then the existing item's root will be left alone and the import item's root will be discarded. Only when there's no root assignment will the import item's root be copied over to the existing item. The same is true for the pronunciation, the item's difficulty rating, any conjugations, and gender or lexical class assignments. The other lexical item fields are merged. For example, if the import item has synonyms that the existing item doesn't have then the extra synonyms will be added to it. The same is true for antonyms, phonetically similar items, related items, themes, and comments. Differences in definitions are also merged, but done so intelligently such that similar minor definitions are grouped together if possible. Any personal examples from the import item that aren't in the existing item will be added. When the same personal example exists in both items then it may get marked verified in the existing item if the example is marked verified in the import item. Lastly, the active status is never changed.

Replacing the item in the lexicon with the version in the file means just that. No information about the original item is retained. Links like synonyms, antonyms, etc. will no longer exist unless they are defined in the item being imported. Skipping the import of the item is also fairly intuitive. In this case, the item already in the lexicon will be left alone. The only impact of taking this action may be that lexical items being imported will no longer have links to the item that was skipped.

Whatever option you choose, if you want to apply the same solution to any remaining duplicate items then you can select the checkbox in the lower left corner of the dialog before actually clicking the appropriate option button. This will prevent you from having to take the same action with every additional duplicate item. However, multiple duplicate items may mean that you've imported this file before. The last thing to keep in mind is that you can cancel the import at any time by closing the dialog.¹ Doing this means that nothing will be imported or changed in your lexicon.