Geographical Regions

Geographic regions can be attached to definition entries to track how a lexical item is used in different parts of the world. Sometimes a lexical item is only used in a particular country or region. Other times a lexical item means one thing in one country or region and something else in a different part of the world. A common example in English is the word chips. In the United States and Canada, chips, when referring to food, means potato chips or corn chips, but in Great Britain it means French fries. In most of the Spanish-speaking world, mango is a type of fruit, but in parts of Argentina it's also slang for money.

You can define regions when you create a lexicon or you can define them as needed when entering or editing a lexicon item. Each region is made up of a name and an abbreviation, which is often used in place of the name. To attach a region to a definition entry, click the regions button while editing a lexicon item. In the subsequent dialog, select a definition entry from the dropdown. Then click the checkbox (or checkboxes) of the region (or regions) that apply to the definition entry. If the region you're looking for isn't defined yet then click the New Region button. This action prompts you to input a new region name and abbreviation. Once done, the new region will be added to the list of regions, at which point you should put a check next to it.

After you've linked regions to definition entries and clicked Ok, you'll see the lexical item's definition text change. Each definition entry that was assigned a region now shows the region abbreviation inside curly brackets. If a definition entry was assigned multiple regions then the region abbreviations are separated by commas. Note that you can insert this text into a lexical item's definition yourself if you choose, but using the Region Assignment dialog ensures that there aren't any syntax errors and that you don't accidentally type the wrong region abbreviation.

Lastly, if you want to edit or delete a region that was previously defined then you need to do this using the Lexicon Properties dialog. See Reconfiguring a lexicon for more.