Memrise conventions

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This is a working draft for the Lojban topic on Memrise.

Current status: direct copy of the supplied conventions template. needs heavy editing to match how Lojban is structured.


Each "topic" on Memrise is a wiki.

This means that if you add a sample sentence, or edit a definition, or add audio to a word in one list, then that change will happen in every list where that word appears. So when anyone adds a bit of extra content to the wiki, everyone who is learning that wiki can benefit.

To create a wordlist you just need to paste a list of words into the "add words" box on the course creation page, and Memrise will find those words in the wiki and add them to your list.

The spreadsheet uploader should be used only when you want to add new items to the wiki.

If you just want to create a list using words from the wiki, the the normal "add words" function is probably the one for you.

CONVENTIONS TEMPLATE:

(These conventions should be adapted to fit the topic that you are learning. Please email ben@memrise.com for any help, and to put these live as the conventions for this topic.)

Everyone is invited and we'd love your help.

To make sure that everyone is pulling in the same direction, when a new wiki like this one is started, we draw up "conventions" that lay out the agreed ways that things should be done. In doing this we aim to foster a culture of inclusion. The conventions are always open for discussion, so leave a comment on the forums if you see something that needs changing. Discussion of the words, definitions and other content is an important part of the learning, so please do get involved!

1. Uploading a Spreadsheet

a). The "source language" and "target language" fields must be filled in for every row in the spreadsheet. Gaps will lead to the upload failing.

b). Part of speech, gender, special properties, pronunciation and alternatives should be added according to the conventions of the wiki. You don't need to add totally complete information before uploading, but the more complete you can make it, the better!

c). General note: 
don't use capital letters except for proper nouns. (unless the languages concerned require them).

2. Nouns

a). Add the Target Language Noun to the Target Language field with the definite article (particularly if the definite article helps to indicate gender etc)

b). Add the Source Language translation (with no article if the source language is English; other languages may vary) to the "Source language" field.

c). Add the Source Language with the article as an "alternative English," and prefix it with an underscore _ .

d) Add the Target Language Noun without the article to the "Alternative target Language" field, prefixed with and underscore _.

NOTE: The underscore, means that it will be accepted as a correct answer but will not be displayed as a meaning during a learning session

e). Add the gender in the gender field. (ie not in parenthesis after the word!)

f). For part of speech, write "noun"



3. Adjectives

a). Add the Target Language singular dictionary form.


b). Add the Source Language translation


c). For part of speech, write "adjective"



4. Verbs (infinitives only)

a). Add the Target Language infinitive

b). Add the Source Language infinitive (with the 'to')

c). Add the Source Language form without the 'to' in the English alternatives, prepended with and underscore _.

d). For part of speech, choose "verb"

5. Adverbs

a). Add the Target Language adverb into the Target Language field

b). Add the Source Language translation

c). For part of speech, choose adverb

6. Prepositions

a). Add the Target Language preposition

b). Add the Source Language translation(s)

c). Add the case(s) that the preposition may take into the "special properties" field (if relevant)

d). For part of speech, choose preposition

7. Phrases and Short Sentences

This section is meant for short prepositional phrases, which may help to give a better understanding of how prepositions are used.

a). Add the Target Language phrase or short sentence

b). Add the Source Language translation

c). For part of speech, write “phrase”

d). When adding phrases, it is useful to add similar, but different phrases at the same time, and to add them as "confusables" of each other. This will mean that the multiple choice tests for each sentence are made a bit harder.

e) Keep the phrases short. Testing will be done by typing the whole phrase, so if there are other correct translations of the source language to the target language, add those as "alternative source Language"

8. Parts of Speech

The terms for "parts of speech" that should be used in this topic are:

noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, conjunction, interjection, preposition, phrase

9. Audio recordings

a) always use native speakers to record audio samples of pronunciation

10. Other

This section is meant for anything which does not fit into parts 1 to 6, this would mostly mean one or 2 or so words, of a conjugated verb, noun, adjective etc... anything that you feel is needed to help learn this particular language. If in doubt, feel free to discuss on the forum for this language.

a). Add the Target Language entry

b). Add the Source Language translation

c.) For part of speech choose “conjugated”

How do we decide which fields to use when starting a new language wiki?

As well as the main "source language word" and "base language word" fields, there are several other fields that can be used to display and test information. Below are descriptions of each field together with example of how they can be used:

Pronunciation

Used primarily for languages that use a non-phonetic script, such as Mandarin, or Japanese Kanji.

It is displayed during learning, and it can also be tested on, with the scheduling calculated separately to the main scheduling on the word meaning.

It is displayed after a correct test on the "word meaning", helping to reinforce the information.

The name of the field can be changed so that it can be used in other ways. For example in German this field is called "plurals and inflected forms" and displays different grammatical forms of the word. It is not tested on in German at the moment, but it could be.

Gender

Used to display the gender of words, in languages that have genders

It is displayed during learning, but not during testing

The name of the field cannot be changed

This field is not tested on

Part of speech

Used to display the part of speech of the word. The terms used in each topic should be defined in the conventions.

This is displayed during learning, and during testing, so that the part of speech can help to disambiguate similar words that are different parts of speech

This field is not tested on

The name of this field cannot be changed

Special properties

This is used to display information about important features of the word. For example if the word takes a particular case.

This is displayed during learning, but not during testing

This field is not tested on

The name of this field cannot be changed