
This file is a test of the kind of operation which is known
in linguistics and philology as normalisation. By this is meant
that different variants forms, typically various elements of a
verbal paradigm, are replaced by standardised ones. Here is
a simple example. The verb 'have' used to show two forms in the
third person singular in the period of transition at the end
of the Middle English period. Normalising these would consist
of replacing both forms by a single one, namely the later
standard one as in:

;	hath, has -> has :

	hath, has

Normalising can involve morphological variants such as the
above or orthographical variation as in the following case:

;	haue, have -> have :

	haue, have

;	hadde, had -> had :

	hadde, had

These simple examples could be greatly expanded. The advantage
of a programme like DbTrans for the compilers of corpora is
that they could supply users with original files and matching
databases in which the substitutions necessary to normalise 
texts are included. This normalisation can then be done by
users as and when they wish.

