sumer (version 1.3.0)

look_up: Look Up Sumerian Signs or Search for Translations

Description

Searches a Sumerian dictionary either by sign name (forward lookup) or by translation text (reverse lookup).

The function look_up computes the search results and returns an object of class "look_up". The print method displays formatted results with cuneiform representations, grammatical types, and translation counts.

Usage

look_up(x, dic, lang = "sumer", width = 70, mapping = NULL)
# S3 method for look_up
print(x, ...)

Value

look_up returns an object of class "look_up", which is a list containing:

search

The original search term.

lang

The language setting used for the search.

width

The text width for formatting.

cuneiform

The cuneiform representation (only for Sumerian searches).

sign_name

The canonical sign name (only for Sumerian searches).

translations

A data frame with translations for the exact sign combination (only for Sumerian searches).

substrings

A named list of data frames with translations for individual signs and substrings (only for Sumerian searches).

matches

A data frame with matching entries (only for non-Sumerian searches).

print.look_up prints formatted dictionary entries to the console and returns x invisibly.

Arguments

x

For look_up: A character string specifying the search term. Can be either:

• A Sumerian sign name (e.g., "AN", "AN.EN.ZU")

• A cuneiform character string

• A word or phrase to search in translations (e.g., "Gilgamesh", "heaven")

For print.look_up: An object of class "look_up" as returned by look_up.

dic

A dictionary data frame, typically created by make_dictionary or loaded with read_dictionary. Must contain columns sign_name, row_type, count, type, and meaning.

lang

Character string specifying whether x is a Sumerian expression ("sumer") or an English expression ("en").

width

Integer specifying the text width for line wrapping. Default is 70.

mapping

A data frame containing the sign mapping table with columns syllables, name, and cuneiform. If NULL (the default), the package's internal mapping file etcsl_mapping.txt is loaded.

...

Additional arguments passed to the print method (currently unused).

Details

Search Modes

The function operates in two modes depending on the input:

Forward Lookup (Sumerian input detected):

1. Converts the sign name to cuneiform

2. Retrieves all translations for the exact sign combination

3. Retrieves translations for all individual signs and substrings

Reverse Lookup (non-Sumerian input):

1. Searches for the term in all translation meanings

2. Retrieves matching entries with sign names and cuneiform

Output Format

The print method displays results with:

• Sign names with cuneiform representations

• Occurrence counts in brackets (e.g., [29])

• Grammatical type abbreviations (e.g., S, V)

• Translation meanings with automatic line wrapping

• Search term highlighting in blue for reverse lookups (only for ANSI-compatible terminals)

See Also

read_dictionary for loading dictionaries, make_dictionary for creating dictionaries, as.cuneiform for cuneiform conversion.

Examples

# Load dictionary
dic <- read_dictionary()

# Forward lookup: search by phonetic spelling
look_up("d-suen", dic)

# Forward lookup: search by Sumerian sign name
look_up("AN", dic)
look_up("AN.EN.ZU", dic)

# Forward lookup: search by cuneiform character string
AN.NA <- paste0(intToUtf8(0x1202D), intToUtf8(0x1223E))
AN.NA
look_up(AN.NA, dic)

# Reverse lookup: search in translations
look_up("Gilgamesh", dic, "en")

# Adjust output width for narrow terminals
look_up("water", dic, "en", width = 50)

# Store results for later use
result <- look_up("lugal", dic)
result$cuneiform
result$translations

# Print stored results
print(result)