Parameters & coding

Texts are classified according to category (topic, sub-topic) and according to interactive function (question, answer).

Information on the authors is provided where available. This includes the name under which they operate on the Yahoo site and their score at the time of posting their question/answer. The score is attributed on the basis of the number of answers a particular author has posted before and the quality of those answers, as determined by voting by other users. The score thus gives an idea of the 'seriousness' of a particular author.

Annotation

The following are two excerpts from the corpus, one in English, one in French, that give an idea of how the corpus is annotated, of the question-answer genre, and of the characteristic informal style:

English

<category>
Pets
Birds
</category>

<question from>
Abby P
Member since: 06 September 2008
Total points: 338 (Level 2)
</question from>

<question>
How do owls turn their heads?
i mean they hav necks like us but can twist it alllll the way round why ?!
</question>

<answer from>
Charlotte Gabriella Vine
Member since: 17 September 2008
Total points: 111 (Level 1)
</answer from>

<answer>
Owls have fourteen vertebrae bones in their necks.This gives their neck greater flexibility so they can turn it around to 270 degrees. They have to do this because, unlike us, they cannot see to the sides very well so this helps the birds.
</answer>

<answer from>
K30GH
Member since: 16 September 2008
Total points: 119 (Level 1)
</answer from>

<answer>
humans can do it too, just do it really fast. =]
</answer>

<answer from>
Aquila
Member since: 01 October 2006
Total points: 3112 (Level 4)
</answer from>

<answer>
They have a different spinal system to us, there vertebrae is almost double jointed and they can turn their heads over 280 degrees, from the front, in either direction, on a horizontal plane. they can even turn their heads upside down. This is partially to do with the fact that they can't move their eyes around like we can because their eyes are mushroom shaped (we can see the bottom of the mushroom stalk when we look at them). also an owl uses stealth to find it's prey so you don't want to make a load of noise turning around in a tree to find out what is behind you.
</answer>

French

<category>
Musique, ciné, tv, loisirs
Cinéma
</category>

<question>
Comment communique hannibal lecteur dans le film dragon rouge?
J'ai pas compris comment hannibal lecteur en prison communique avec son complice à l'éxterieur et surtout comment lui répond-t-il ?
</question>

<answer from>
Azzura
Membre depuis : 03 septembre 2006
Total des points : 1029 (niveau 3)
</answer from>

<answer>
Le meurtrier prend contact avec Hannibal via un message dans le rouleau de papier toilette et il lui dit de répondre via les petites annonces du journal (le Tetler je crois).
Le surnom que donne Hannibal au meurtrier est "le Pelerin"
</answer>

<answer from>
.NinaH
Membre depuis : 05 février 2008
Total des points : 23793 (niveau 6)
</answer from>

<answer>
Très beau film n'est-ce pas!
Avec un rouleau de PQ et ensuite via des petites annonces dans un journal!
</answer>

<answer from>
marilou7...
Membre depuis : 12 janvier 2009
Total des points : 105 (niveau 1)
</answer from>

<answer>
j'avoue il est terrible ce film; Hannibal est un personnage franchement fascinant, rien qu'à voir l'intelligence et la perspicacité qu'il peut démontrer en étant enfermé, la preuve donc par cette communication avec son complice alors qu'il est quand même vachement surveillé
</answer>