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| The HONYAKU Archive Full-Text Search |
The Full-Text database allows you to make a case-insensitive query of the HONYAKU Archive. You can search for any text string(s) in the header (Date, From, To, Subject) and the article itself, either in English or in Japanese. You may use English and Japanese keywords in a single search query.
Displaying Titles and Full Text
[Displaying Titles]
After you run a search, you will see a list of all of the titles of the articles that match your search conditions. The titles appear in groups of 100. Clicking on a title will call up the corresponding article. You can also click on the "Full text" line to display the articles in groups of 20.
Hits 1 through 100 [Next 100 Hits]
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 >>
Full text: [1-20] [21-40] [41-60] [61-80] [81-100] ←Click here to display the full text.
[Displaying Full Text]
In the full text display, articles appear in groups of 20. To return from this page to the list of titles, either click on "Title list" in the upper left-hand corner of the page or on "Back to title list" in the lower left-hand corner of the page.
Highlighting Search Terms
If JavaScript and style sheets are enabled in your browser, then the words you searched for will be highlighted in the full text display. (You can still use the search engine if you have either JavaScript or style sheets switched off, but the highlighting will not work.)
Boolean Operators
| Meaning | Example | |
| AND | contain all words | patent AND translation This would return articles containing both patent and translation. |
| OR | contain any one of words | patent OR translation This would return articles containing either patent or translation. |
| NOT | contain the left-hand word but not the right-hand word | patent NOT translation This would return articles which contain patent but not translation. |
| wildcards | See descriptions below. | |
When you input more than one word in the search box, the database will return articles containing all of the words you enter (Boolean AND).
Combining Boolean Operators
You may combine the Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) in a single query. AND and NOT are interpreted from the left but OR is interpreted later. Accordingly, patent OR translation AND translator means patent OR (translation AND translator). This query would return articles containing either the word patent OR both the words translation AND translator. If you want to search for an article containing patent or translation and translator, use a query like (patent OR translation) AND translator.
Looking Up a Word or a Phrase
To look up a word, simply type it in a search box and click on SEARCH. To indicate a phrase, enclose it within double quotation marks.
Example 1
patent
Searching on this word will return all articles which contain the word patent.
Example 2
"patent translation"
Searching on this phrase will return all articles which contain the phrase patent translation.
NOTE:
Example 3
patent translation
This query will return articles which contain both the terms patent and translation.
Example 4
特許 patent
This query will return articles which contain both the terms 特許 and patent.
Example 5
特許 "patent translation"
This query would return articles which contain both the terms 特許 and patent translation.
Wildcard Searches
The full-text database supports wildcard characters in queries. This allows you to search for words when you don't know all the letters in them.
The wildcard symbol "*" means any character, any sequence of characters, or no character. The wildcard symbol "?" means any single character.
Example 1
pat*
This will match articles that contain a word beginning with pat, such as pat, patent, and patch.
Example 2
*at*
A query like this returns thousands of results, that is, all pages that contain a word that includes at. For example, at, atom, cat, catalog, patent, etc., all match the query.
Example 3
p*nt
This will match articles containing a word beginning with p and ending with nt, such as patent, plant, and paint.
Example 4
"patent transl*"
This will match articles that contain a phrase beginning with patent transl, such as patent translation, patent translating, and patent translators.
Example 5
pa?
A search for this will find words beginning with pa followed by any one letter, such as pat, pan, paw, etc.
Example 6
pa??
A search for this will find words beginning with pa followed by any two letters, such as path, pack, page, etc.
Example 7
pa?e
A search for this will find pale, pace, page, etc.
Example 8
?at
A search for this will find three-letter words ending with at, such as cat, eat, fat, etc.
NOTES:
Example 9
"ca* foo?"
A search for this will find cat food, cat's food, canned food, etc.
Example 10
特許*
A query like this returns only the exact match including the wildcard symbol(s), such as 特許* in this case. The symbols "*" and "?" do not work as a wildcard.
Example 11
OS2
A query like this returns only the exact match with OS2. Typing only the number 2 or only the OS does not return articles containing OS2. See Example 12.
Example 12
OS*
This returns articles with OS2, OS2/, etc.
Looking Up Words Used as Boolean Operands
To look up the word "and", "or" or "not" or a parenthesis "(" or ")", enclose it within double quotation marks.
Example 1
"and" AND "or"
A query like this returns articles with both and and or somewhere.
Searching by Date
If you want to narrow your search to a particular month or year, add the date information to your search string with an AND operator. While this may result in some extraneous hits when dates appear in quoted sections or elsewhere in the article, you can usually narrow the search to a particular time period.
Example 1
1999 AND patent AND translator
This string will find all articles that contain patent and translator and 1999. Most of those articles will date from 1999.
Example 2
1999 AND Apr AND translator
This string will find all articles that contain translator and 1999 and Apr. Most of those articles will date from April 1999.