Search Oral Tradition by keyword
Advanced Search Instructions
Phrase Queries
1. A phrase query is a string of terms surrounded by double quotation marks; for example,
"quick brown fox"
2. But if a "fast" fox is just as good as a quick one, use the | character to specify alternate terms:
"quick|speedy|fast brown fox"
3. If the particular color of the fox is unimportant, use the <> brackets to specify a place-setter:
"quick|speedy|fast <> fox"
This will generate a match no matter what word occurs between quick and fox.
4. Alternatively, variability can be set by specifying how many positions the terms can be moved in order to register a match. To set the variability factor for a phrase, type, for example,
"big house"~2
This search term would enable matches with "big house," "big red house," "big red brick house," and even "house big." There is no need to place the terms in order if you allow some variability in your phrases.
Boolean Queries
There are several ways of writing Boolean queries. First, you can specify which terms are required, optional, or required not to exist:
- either '+' or 'REQ' can be used to indicate a required query. 'REQ' must be surrounded by white space.
- either '-', '!', or 'NOT' are used to indicate a query that is required to be false. 'NOT' must be surrounded by white space.
Examples include the following:
+oral +performance !poetry
You may also use the boolean operators 'AND', '&&', 'OR' and '||'.
epic AND tradition NOT greek
