We use RDBMS alongside straight text files to store the Cambridge
International Corpus. RDBMS do not help (rather the reverse in our
investigations to date) with the bulk of the corpus text and the main
indexes, but are ideal for:
(1) storing the links into the main indexes, e.g. give me the main index
entry for "word" or "[noun]"
(2) storing the "header" information, the detailed categorising of each
citation
Andrew Harley
Systems Development Manager - ELT Reference
Cambridge University Press
Direct line: (01223)325880
Fax: (01223)325984
Try Cambridge International Dictionaries online at:
http://www.cup.cam.ac.uk/elt/dictionary
We have just published the Cambridge Dictionary of American English (book
and CD-ROM combined for only $20.95): see http://www.cup.org/esl/cdae for
more details and to order online.