Assists users with understanding and using the stemming feature in Concord.
What is Stemming?
Stemming is a method by which computers attempt to discover related words based upon given input. A stemming search instructs Concord to look for related words in your search terms. And it does this in a way that doesn’t overwhelm you with too many results. For those of you familiar with Concord’s wildcard search (using the asterisk) capabilities, think of stemming as a smarter (but not perfect) wildcard search.
Stemming allows Concord to take your input and expand your search to include words that are close to the words you typed in. It is often able to discover plurals and different adverb and verb-tenses for the keyword word entered. It is a more pointed form of the wildcard search - which can often return too many search results.
Why is it useful?
Using Concord's stemming option will enable you to easily find pluralizations, alternative word endings, or words that might be similar in spelling. We think you will love this feature so much we made it a major part of the search experience.
Here's an example to illustrate better how stemming functions: let’s do a search on the verb ‘create’ with no search options turned on. We find a modest number of results including the wonderful passage from Psalms 51:
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Let’s say that inspires us to expand our search into other ways in which the word ‘create’ is used across the books. We could do this with a stemming search. Just place a checkmark in the stemming box and re-run your search. This time the results will include a list of found words within each book. Click on a book and chapter (or book of the Bible) to see the additional stemming results:
create, created, creates, creating
If you want to narrow your search on any of those words, you can click them and Concord will run a search on only the selected word. Let’s say we click on ‘creates’ and return only these results. We find the search results include this passage from Science and Health, page 472, line 25:
That which He creates is good, and He makes all that is made.
Which pairs well with another of the stemming results on the word ‘created’. From Gen 1:27:
So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
How is it different from a wildcard search using an asterisk * ?
If we compare this with a traditional * wildcard search in Concord, we will find quite a difference. Make sure stemming is unselected and type in ‘creat*’.
This time our found words lists for each book/chapter includes 16 unique words:
create, created, creates, createth, creating, creation, creation's, creations, creative, creativeness, creator, creator's, creators, creature, creature's, creatures
This is a truly exhaustive list, and it includes some helpful words that our stemming search didn’t initially find.
For example: seeing ‘createth’ was helpful. But it also includes many words that may not have been related to our study. And we have significantly increased the number of citations we have to work through.
For example, we now have results that include ‘creation’, ‘creative’, ‘creator’, ‘creature’ and some of their variants. These are perfectly fine words to study, but they also may burden your study with too many unrelated words.
Any new search feature takes some getting used to, but we have found the stemming option is a wonderful compliment to the other search tools.
Using Stemming in the Search Options Menu
When Case Sensitive is toggled on, your search results will be limited to include only those words which match the case (uppercase or lowercase) of the term(s) in the search bar.
For example, if you type “Truth” into the search bar with Case Sensitive toggled on, your search results will show only listings for “Truth” and not “truth.”
Overview of Search Options Menu
The new Search Options menu makes it easier to use Concord’s advanced search functionality. Use the options within the new menu to refine your search results and more-easily find passages of interest.
Using the Search Options menu, you can conduct stemming, case sensitive, range, and proximity searches (or a combination of those searches); these options can guide your search to be broader or narrower, depending on the need.
Accessing the Search Options Menu
The Search Options menu is located just below the search bar. To open the Search Options menu, click (or tap for iPad/mobile) on the words “Search Options” and the menu will appear under the search bar.
Activating a Search Option within the Menu
Toggle on a search option by clicking or tapping the gray button next to the option you would like to activate. When you do so, the button will turn blue. After activating the last two options, a corresponding box will appear where you can enter additional information.
Conducting a Search
Enter a word(s) in the search bar, click or tap on “Search Options” to open the menu, toggle on any options you are interested in applying to your search, and click/tap the magnifying glass icon or hit “Enter” on your keyboard. The results shown will be based on on the word(s) you search for and the search options you applied. Steps 1-4 in the image below walk you through the process.
If you type a new word(s) into the search bar, the same search options will be applied to your new search unless you remove the previously selected options.
Removing Search Options
To remove a particular search option, open the search options menu and click or tap on the toggle next to the search option you would like to deactivate. The toggle should turn from blue to gray.
To remove all previously selected search features/filters at once, click the X located on the inside of the right-hand side of the search bar or click the blue “Reset” button in the bottom right-hand corner of the Search Options menu.
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