text:
## Organising digital documents for genealogy and family history?

21

2

I have been trying for over 15 years now to come up with a system of folders for my family documents. As I'm sure most of you know it can be difficult.

Without making duplicates of each document how do you sort your files? Meaning if I have a birth certificate for someone, I also want to include that document in the parents folder but don't want duplicates floating around. Additionally, when someone gets married and starts a family of their own, two previous families are combined.

How can I organise my electronic files so that they're associated with all the appropriate individuals but are not duplicated? What are the advantages and disadvantages of not duplicating the files?

Question was closed 2017-10-11T18:13:10.320

2

Steven, your question invites expressions of personal opinion rather than a definitive answer based upon evidence and expertise. Perhaps you could rephrase it after reading the FAQ at http://genealogy.stackexchange.com/faq#dontask

– Fortiter – 2013-01-09T00:59:41.260

– lkessler – 2013-01-09T06:21:21.253

Steven, I've edited your question to make it more specific. I hope I've preserved your intent; please correct me if I've got that wrong. – None – 2013-01-09T11:14:50.643

15

The best way to organise your digital documents is the one that matches the way in which you work. It will enable you to store, search, analyse and display information in the shortest time and with the least effort because it matches the way you think.

Unfortunately, few of us begin genealogy with a crystal-clear and firmly fixed idea of how we will go about the tasks that confront us. So we borrow someone else's file system or seek recommendations from experts.

But the way in which your information is stored can also shape the way in which you use it. Some relationships between people and events jump out of the files I have stored. Others are hidden away because I tend not to look at, or even to think about, some documents at the same time.

That explains why experienced and knowledgeable genealogists have responded to your question in such very different ways. In each case, they have described what works for them. If you think like the writer, then his or her scheme is the one for you. If it turns out that you don't agree on the basic philosophy, then that filing system might be a source of frustration for you.

In the end, you need to make a choice and try it out. You will learn which aspects are terrific for you, which are mildly annoying and which (if any) will make you think about giving up family history entirely. Then you will have a better idea of how you like to work and what style of file system to switch to.

The great thing about this site, is that you can gain a very good appreciation of the philosophies and practices of each of the people who have proposed a system by reading their "collected works" in the archives. Track the contributions of each one to decide if you think that their approach is similar to the way you work (or would like to work). Then follow the recommendation of the one who is "best for you".

I will not offer a recommendation because my filing system continues to evolve. I read aspects of each of the suggestions made and say "Wow, that is great" and follow up with "But...". An unkind observer might call my files a mish-mash of systems, I say that reflects the fact that I have an eclectic approach to family history practice. It may not be perfect but it supports the things that I want it to do. And that might be a realistic goal for you.

What do modern genealogists do when they have no internet connection? They reorganise their files, again.

14

I think the right way is with source-based folder organization. The highest level is the source type. Next level depends on the source type, but it could be the location, jurisdiction, person, repository, or whatever is applicable. It will become clear once you try it.

e.g.

BirthRecords
DeathRecords
MarriageRecords
Kentucky
CensusRecords
1870
UnitedStates
1880
1890
Photos
(by name of photographer)
Correspondence
(by name of contact)
Online
FamilySearch
Ancestry
Interviews
Archives
Libraries

... You get the idea.

If you don't like the order because folders are sorted alphabetically, then you can add a letter or number prefix to put them in the order you want, e.g.

01-BirthRecords
02-MarriageRecords
03-DeathRecords

With source-based data organization, you know where to file everything and there will always be just one place to file it. This compares to family- or name-based organization which requires multiple copies or links to source information that pertains to many people.

Very often, we genealogists have to go back a look at a source again, either to check what we originally got, to see if we missed anything, or to do a new search of it for information that we weren't looking for previously. With source-based organization, you will have in one place all the information you previously found, and you will be able to easily determine what you don't have and now need.

p.s. I recommend storing physical items in binders the same way.

1While this is a beautifully clean system with a single unambiguous location for every document, it does appear to preclude browsing by person (as in, "What do I have on Aunt Minnie?"). For some people that may be too steep a price to pay for an elegant organisation. – Fortiter – 2013-01-09T04:51:16.513

7@Fortiter - That is what your genealogy software is for. To provide the index into your source materials. Go to Aunt Minnie in your genealogy program. See what sources hang off her. But if you try to store everything on Aunt Minnie in an Aunt Minnie folder, then the Census record will have to be copied 8 times (for her husband and 6 kids). Birth certificates 3 times (each parent and the child), etc. – lkessler – 2013-01-09T05:00:46.147

1I organize my documentation in a similar way (by events and sources). Filenames include the appropriate details. Two advantages, not mentioned by Mr. Kessler, are 1) the ability to have multiple documents referencing the same event, i.e. obituaries from 2 different newspapers and the funeral home, and 2) the option to store shorter excerpts (indexes, transcripts) as collections in a text file. – bgwiehle – 2013-01-09T15:00:20.057

I organize by source and repository. That system scales up better than any other I've tried so far. To answer Fortifer's question of how to browse by person, I am currently experimenting with the writing software Scrivener from Literature and Latte http://www.literatureandlatte.com/ to keep notes about source material which has not been analyzed yet and won't be attached to that person in my genealogy software. Scrivener is designed for research and can be a virtual 'binder' holding both your research notes and the supporting documents you might want to incorporate in any reports.

– Jan Murphy – 2013-11-30T18:11:49.020

9

I assume you're talking about ordinary folders on the disk of your computer Steven. If so then there is no ideal way of organising/distributing your files between them. As you point out yourself, a simple hierarchical arrangement of folders does not easily model the associations within your family tree.

Most folder systems allow you to make multiple entries for the same file. In other words, allowing the name of your file to be entered into the directory or catalog(ue) of multiple folders. This contrasts with making physical duplicates of the file itself. However, support for this core functionality through the user interface of operating systems like Windows seems to be vanishing [I might just be unaware of where they've hidden it these days].

Even with this facility for avoiding duplication, though, there is still no ideal. I organise my data mainly on a surname basis, i.e. a main folder for each distinct surname (rapidly approach the 50 mark), and sub-folders for the different types of file associated with them. This is a very coarse organisation and obviously finds ambiguity where a document applies to two surnames, such as a marriage certificate.

This is one of the major benefits of using a software program to organise your data, and to keep track of those associations and even different file versions. The way the data is physically held on disk, or in some database, is then largely irrelevant to you - the need for performing backups being a possible exception. A good software product then presents a virtual organisation of your data to you that is more closely related to family trees and to genealogy.

+1 for the suggestion of using pointers (Windows shortcuts) instead of duplicating files. – Jan Murphy – 2014-07-05T13:16:14.220

9

1. Use your genealogy/family history software to organise your electronic documents (by associating them with the appropriate sources/individuals/places or other entities in your database).
2. Underpin it with as simple a folder structure as you can devise. I structure mine by high-level document type (BMD record, census record, MI, Will, Land record, photograph etc.). If a sub-folder structure is necessary (because of the likely volume of documents) I'll divide by geography and/or time-frame. (I'll always include these elements in the name of the file).

This way requires you to have the self-discipline to enter every document into your software and make the appropriate associations, but that's no bad thing. It makes it very quick to decide where to store each document by asking what? and maybe when? and where? but never who? and that's the most volatile element. And it makes it easy to find or add to the documents associated with an individual or family.

7

I have really two answers to this question.

Since my principle storage is electronic. I'll start there.

How you organize your electronic folders may relate to how and how much you actually save. I try to save things that are not readily available elsewhere. This means that I store few census records, and now fewer and fewer marriage and death records. I do store pension files, deeds, deed indexes and probate records. Unless someone has sent me the paper materials, I don't set out to store any of my research materials in paper form. I store all of my research reports in electronic form. I used to send them broadly to cousins (ala, spam the family), but I find myself blogging much of that work now. I save many e-mails to pdf.

The computer filing system I have used since the 1990s is summarized below.

Note: I have patronymics in my family tree and the spelling of some names changed over time. The word "surname" doesn't quite describe top level organization; here I'll use the term "family lines." Hopefully the examples below are helpful.

Top level organization: Each of my ancestral family lines (as in a pedigree) has a high level directory; I call each a "log." I prepend these folders with the word "log" (including an underscore) so that these folders will group together and can be forced to sort at the very top of my Genealogy directory. For example

Each of the family lines has a default subfolder system that classifies a "generation," and each of direct ancestors has a first level folder. I assign a subfolder to the other children of my ancestors (siblings). For this purpose, I use a numbering system that is not unlike Register or NGSQ to track each "node" of my direct ancestors in the family line. An example follows.

Other than for the higher level direct ancestors, I don't create a folder for the other children (siblings) unless I've actually conducted research about them.

For every surname, I have a "dump" folder, too. I use this for information about the larger family and for things I don't want to categorize further at the time. These "dump" folders carry the same general name, "XXX [surname assigned to the family line] and Related"

From time to time research turns into a what for this purpose, I will call "negative proof." From time to time, I create "Not" folders to hold that research. So, for example:

Under the main folder/directory, "Genealogy" I have a number of other folders. A few examples follow:

• Genealogy General. This folder contains electronic version of my genealogical reference materials. For example, in this folder and its associated subfolders I have Black'sLaw, Evidence Explained, Numbering Your Genealogy ...., etc.
• Descendant Researchers. This folder contains family files shared with me and some e-mail histories. Usually there is a subdirectory that carries the name of the collaborating researcher. For example, probably the largest folder in that section is titles, "William Smith," who I've been collaborating with since the 1990s.
• Album. This folder includes the work I'm doing to digitize family collections.

Somewhat on topic, I blog and work to develop full citations for the entries in my family file. I take full advantage of the note keeping features of genealogical software. The benefit is that today I don't really obsess much over the drive organization the way I did in say 2000. If I have recorded the author and title of a source in my file or on my blog, I can almost always find that puppy and all my related related research notes.

As above, I don't set out to "store" any materials that are readily available from "stable" sites on the internet. I may download a birth or census file for the purpose of attaching it to an e-mail, or use it to create graphic for a blog article. I'll more than likely delete that electronic file after I've finished that work.

I do invest some worry time in the material paper files and collections that I hold, as these generally represent privately held materials that have not been widely circulated. I work to keep those materials in tact (even in the original order received); most are stored in archival format (archival sleeves, etc.). Dictated largely by dominance, those materials are generally organized by surname (family line), researcher name, or collection/repository.

Updated: When I digitize collection materials, each item (scan) is given a descriptive number or code. I write the code/number on a sticky dot that goes on the face of the archival sleeve. An example of a code is "600T-1063." The first set of code represents the resolution and file format (so 600T stands for 600 dpi, Tiff). The second group of numbers represents the electronic scan number (part of the file name; ultimately intended to be part of the metadata).

Update 2: You asked specifically about where to store birth information about children--whether with parents information or the folder about a married adult. I don't think I really have a black and white rule, but my direct ancestors families are organized in the male ancestor's line--so most of the records about my maternal ancestors are stored under their husbands' family line. Research about my maternal ancestors sister-siblings, however, are stored under the father's family lines.

There are well documented paper storage methods that recommend storing information by record type (birth, marriage, death, deed, probate, etc.). That system didn't work as well for me, maybe because I have patronymics and, even when I don't, there are so many similarly named persons in my different family lines.

5

Folders should begin at the surname level. Anything else is unfriendly toward future users of your collection.

Pretend that you want to donate your files (physical and digital) to a library or society in five years. Go ask them how they would like them organized, so patrons can find and utilize them. Do they want a file marked "miscellaneous birth certificates collected by and related to Steven O'Neill" or "O'Neill family records collected by Steven O'Neill"?

Break up your files into 8 or 16 surnames minimum (I probably have 60 or 70). Large surname files can be further divided into collateral lines, or by source type (or both). Use your own judgement when a file is too large (100 pages? 500 pages?). I'm doing a one name study on my surname, and have it divided into clans.

When determining your sub-folders, keep the library in mind. Do they want them organized in the order they were collected? No. Do they want to learn the secret coding system you made up? No. Do they want a copy of your software, which is required to find any particular file? No.

Keep it simple so any researcher, age 12 and above, can use it. You don't need copies of records that are easily found online. If you wish to avoid duplication, keep a wife's birth certificate with her parents' family file, and write a note to see her marriage in her husband's family file. Then on the marriage certificate, add a note to find the wife's birth.

1@RustyErpenbeck I like this. Your answer is different from the others, but it makes sense. I initially thought that my genealogy research was just a fun way to chill out and spend alone time. But now that I've invested so much into it, I definitely don't want it to get tossed out when I'm gone. And when people are purging, anything that looks complicated will hit the bin. – Canadian Girl Scout – 2016-05-24T08:10:42.923

Is a library going to want a collection of readily-available electronic documents, divorced from its context (the documentation of your conclusions and their sources, be that a print-out or a common electronic document format)? And if the question was about physical documentation, I'd expect any library to apply its own cataloging standards. – None – 2013-01-09T12:59:03.450

As I said in my answer, readily-available documents need not be saved at all. You only need to preserve the hard-to-find and privately-held documents. Our library and historical society both keep large collections of local "family files" that researchers have added to over the years. Their contents are not individually cataloged, just rows and rows of surname files. The library is now working toward accepting family files in PDF form for their website. – Rusty Erpenbeck – 2013-01-09T19:09:23.410

Sorry -- missed the 'easily found' piece in the last paragraph. But the question is still about electronic documents, not physical documents. – None – 2013-01-09T19:44:36.783

1The same holds true for electronic documents. They need to be easily searchable by whoever inherits them. And if a 4th cousin asks you to share your "Johnson" file, you should be able to do that effortlessly. Just keep it friendly, easy to search, easy to share. – Rusty Erpenbeck – 2013-01-10T00:54:44.730

4

This answer has been revised -- the beginning of this answer addresses the problem posed in the question about source material like birth certificates which name more than one person.

I store my electronic documents by record type and record group, with subfolders for each vendor if necessary (e.g. if I have census images from both Ancestry and Heritage Quest). The basic principle is to keep things organized by the record group they came from. Family documents and other materials which do not originate from a commercial vendor are grouped together in a 'personal archives' folder. Files originally sent from cousins or other correspondents are kept in folders marked with the correspondent's name, along with 'printouts' of emails which contain transcriptions or other genealogical discussion.

This allows me to group an image together with other like items on the same microfilm roll. If I have pages from a City Directory, I can keep all the pages from the same directory together -- the title page, the pages which describe the town, the numerical directory, the alphabetical directory, ads, information on organizations, and so on.

If I have multiple pages from the Vital Records to 1850 from NEHGS for that town, I have the pages that explain the abbreviations, the publication data, and other material, plus all the pages I found from that volume, grouped together in the same folder.

I can have all my 1940 US Federal Census pages together with a blank form for that census, the enumerator instructions and list of questions from IPUMS, and other supporting material for that census. If I'm reading an image and I can't remember what the column header says, the reference material I need is right there.

If I have supporting documents about a data collection (e.g. the National School Admissions registers on Find My Past), like the chart of which schools are included in the collection, I can save that in the folder along with the digital images and PDFs of abstracts from that data set.

Now -- the people who file by surname are probably asking But what if you want to find all the material about the same person?

There are advantages to having a folder system based on places and on people for the material you generate yourself -- your own research reports, your notes, your Source Checklists, and so on -- but it is madness to store the actual source material, the census records and birth certificates in those files as your permanent storage place. It's not practical to make copies of those kinds of sources for each of the people of interest mentioned in them, even in digital form.

It's much easier to make a Genealogy Source Checklist in Excel so you can see at a glance what you've looked for, and what you are missing -- for an example of how to make one, see Crista Cowan's YouTube video.

I use the writing software Scrivener when I am working on a project. In Scrivener, I can link to all the images, all the abstracts, my research checklist, and all the other material I want for the project I'm working on.

After I have completed the initial analysis of the source material, I can also retrieve the images by looking at the person of interest in Family Historian or Clooz (the images are linked to the relevant source, not to the person, but it's easy to find the sources).

If the images have not been processed and filed yet, I can find them in my 'intake' folders, sorted by which vendor they came from and what dataset. This suits my workflow, because I find it most effective to process like items together for the initial data entry (all baptisms at once, all 1940 Census records at once, etc.)

Why do it this way? If you maintain a strict separation between your own work product, and the material which you have collected from somewhere else, then you can send your cousin your own files of "what you have found on a particular person" without also sending them other people's copyrighted material which you do not have the right to share.

3

I'm trying Qiqqa ("quicker" in an Australian accent), a free research and reference manager popular among my fellow scientists.

If you point it at a folder, it will process all the pdfs, pulling out the title (regardless of file name), and metadata. It has duplicate file recognition. You can set it up with a watch folder, and it will process newly added items automatically. You can keep your libraries local, or put some/all items on their server so they are available on your mobile devices. The free account comes with nominal storage or you can buy more.

You read your pdfs inside Qiqqa, where you can add tags, comments, highlights and annotations. There is a "powerful annotation report" but I haven't tried that. Qiqqa will search your library by tag, or full text (PDFs are "textified via OCR as processed). In addition to the tags automatically added, I add others - surnames, location, type (e.g., BMD, deed, probate, etc.), repository....

I think this will work for me - it doesn't matter what the file is named or where it is. I can add relevant tags as I work through each item. I have yet to try saving my image files as pdfs, so I can't say if the zoom is sufficient for transcription.

3

This is a somewhat odd answer in that I would suggest a relatively non-hierarchical filing system, one with as few folders as possible. Specifically, I would suggest leaving most documents lumped together in one "genealogy" folder. Title each image with the name of the person or persons, the type of record and perhaps the date of the record if that isn't in the image itself. Then, if you need to find something, just use the little search bar that is in the upper right hand corner of the window (at least, it is if you are using Windows).

For instance, say you are interested in John Doe and his wife Jane Smith. They might have documents titled:
John Doe birth certificate
Jane Smith birth certificate
John Doe and Jane Smith marriage license
John Doe 1880 census
John Doe 1900 census
etc. etc.

If you want to see every record about John Smith, you just search "John Smith." If you want to see every birth certificate you have, search "birth certificate."

There are a couple of key things to keep in mind for this to work.
1. Always use the same name for indexing purposes. If an individual used both Smith and Smyth, pick one and use it for all records relating to that person, putting the other name in parentheses if the record spells it that way, i.e. Jane Smith (Smyth).
2. Always reference women by their maiden names. It reduces confusion.
3. Always list both people on a marriage license. You can do the same for censuses, but I just list the head of household.

The only things that I break off into separate folders are multi-page documents that all go together, such as wills, probates, or excerpts from published genealogies. And if you have two page birth certificates or the like, I just number them sequentially, such as "John Smith birth certificate 1" and "John Smith birth certificate 2."

The reason I do this is because of some of the downsides already listed. If I create a folder for every person, that's over 1000 folders, and I would have to copy census and marriage records to multiple people. If I break it up by records, then it becomes hard to track individual people. I figure the computer has a search function, I should take advantage of it just like I would a filter in a genealogy program. If I want to look at documents organized by people, I can search the name. If I want to see them organized by type, I can search the type.

As an aside, I would take some issue with the idea of not saving copies of "easily accessible" records like birth certificates. As we all know, finding these records can sometimes be a royal pain. Maybe they were indexed in a weird way and we just stumbled on them. Maybe they weren't where we expected. Maybe they were easy to find last year, but now you can't for some reason. Besides that, websites, even seemingly stable ones like FamilySearch and Ancestry, can come and go. They could disappear tomorrow. Their servers could burn in a fire. The microfilm or the original records could vanish. They could change their terms of service. For financial reasons you may need to suspend your account. Or maybe you just want to be able to access the records offline, or without having to go searching again.

I figure that the only way I can guarantee that I will be able to double-check my research and have the references available to someone else, is to have a copy of the record. Thus, I download every relevant record I find. If it's an index only record, I take a screenshot. If it's a grave on Find a Grave, I take multiple screenshots. I think it is just a prudent precaution to take.

I mean, if you have your great grandfather's original birth certificate and you record all the information in your genealogy software, you wouldn't then go burn the original certificate, would you?

Upvoted especially for the advice to keep a local copy of images. We can't depend on all of them staying online even if we found them there originally. – Jan Murphy – 2017-07-30T00:11:56.133

3

What works well for me is an adaptation of William Dollarhide's system. All my source documents are given a record number in the following format: S-ST-CTY-XXX- Subject name, Source Description (where source document was found), where S= 1st Initial of Family Group Surname ST= State where the document originated CTY= County where source document originated XXX= A 3 digit number. So, for example, V-AL-CHO-138- James Turner, "Dies at Home", 3 Mar 1912 (Cho Advocate) would reference my Vaughan Family Line, Alabama, Choctaw County, Record #138, Subject's Name, Title of article, Date of article, and (newspaper item was found in).

Using this naming system, my computer automatically sorts all files by surname and location. Correspondence and Compiled sources are handled a little different.

Welcome to G&FH SE! If you have not already one so, I think it is worth every user of this site taking the 2-minute [Tour]. I hope you will enjoy both answering and asking questions here. – PolyGeo – 2015-03-29T04:23:16.210


text:
# Problem on a chaotic circuit.

1. Dec 25, 2013

### Lasha

windows screen capture
So I built this circuit(Chua's chaotic circuit) and I have to take it to the lab for plugging it to oscilloscope.I need to make sure it works, cause I won't have any time there to fix it or rebuild it.So when I i tested it with the multimeter,there was no voltage on the left side and there was a voltage of a constant value on capacitors(I checked the connections and everything is okay).So is this because of the frequency? Or am I doing something wrong?(Note:left side has to behave like an inductor)

2. Dec 25, 2013

### vk6kro

Could you supply a circuit diagram?

Check all wiring. The power supply pins on the ICs should have the right voltages on them. These stay constant so they are a good starting point.

3. Dec 25, 2013

### Lasha

This is the schematic: .

This is the function of a chua's diode, g(x)is resistance vs current:

This is the double scroll

:

Yes, but shouldn't it oscillate?I highly doubt its a connection problem.

Last edited: Dec 25, 2013
4. Dec 26, 2013

### vk6kro

You can't tell if something is oscillating when you use a multimeter. You might get a reading on AC volts but these ranges are often pretty insensitive.

So, you may have to wait until you get an Oscilloscope connected to it.

Incidentally, you may be surprised how cheap oscilloscopes can get.

Digital oscilloscopes from China have entered the market and that leaves a lot of unused, perfectly OK analog oscilloscopes available.

There are also plenty of handheld oscilloscopes like this one:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Mini-ARM...Electrical_Test_Equipment&hash=item33801dd01c

I don't know if you would find $70 expensive or if the 1 MHz bandwidth would be a little too low in performance for you. In the meantime, I would really check those voltages and connections. I don't trust breadboards, so the time to find any problems is before you leave home. I saw a report that said those circuits were difficult to get going, so it will be interesting to see how you get on. Last edited: Dec 26, 2013 5. Dec 26, 2013 ### Lasha Thanks for the advice, I'll post an update on how it worked out.The reason I chose the breadboard over a PCB, was that I'm planning on experimenting(different combinations and values of resistance and capacity) As for the oscillator,I'm planning on buying the Sinometer ST16B 10MHz oscillator,cause price difference is only 100$,but quality looks a lot better.Only problem is that it says "X Y mode" does that mean that it can't graph in 3 dimensions?

6. Dec 26, 2013

### AlephZero

You can't "graph in 3 dimensions" on any oscilloscope. Some scopes have a "Z" input channel that modulates the brightness of the trace as it is being drawn, but that's not the same as creating 3-D graphics.

format: plain


text:
f06ya performs one of the matrix-matrix operations
 $C←αAB+βC,C←αATB+βC,C←αABT+βC orC←αATBT+βC,$
where $A$, $B$ and $C$ are real matrices, and $\alpha$ and $\beta$ are real scalars; $C$ is always $m$ by $n$.

# Syntax

C#
```public static void f06ya(
string transa,
string transb,
int m,
int n,
int k,
double alpha,
double[,] a,
double[,] b,
double beta,
double[,] c,
out int ifail
)```
Visual Basic
```Public Shared Sub f06ya ( _
transa As String, _
transb As String, _
m As Integer, _
n As Integer, _
k As Integer, _
alpha As Double, _
a As Double(,), _
b As Double(,), _
beta As Double, _
c As Double(,), _
<OutAttribute> ByRef ifail As Integer _
)```
Visual C++
```public:
static void f06ya(
String^ transa,
String^ transb,
int m,
int n,
int k,
double alpha,
array<double,2>^ a,
array<double,2>^ b,
double beta,
array<double,2>^ c,
[OutAttribute] int% ifail
)```
F#
```static member f06ya :
transa : string *
transb : string *
m : int *
n : int *
k : int *
alpha : float *
a : float[,] *
b : float[,] *
beta : float *
c : float[,] *
ifail : int byref -> unit
```

#### Parameters

transa
Type: System..::..String
On entry: specifies whether the operation involves $A$ or ${A}^{\mathrm{T}}$.
${\mathbf{transa}}=\text{"N"}$
The operation involves $A$.
${\mathbf{transa}}=\text{"T"}$ or $\text{"C"}$
The operation involves ${A}^{\mathrm{T}}$.
Constraint: ${\mathbf{transa}}=\text{"N"}$, $\text{"T"}$ or $\text{"C"}$.
transb
Type: System..::..String
On entry: specifies whether the operation involves $B$ or ${B}^{\mathrm{T}}$.
${\mathbf{transb}}=\text{"N"}$
The operation involves $B$.
${\mathbf{transb}}=\text{"T"}$ or $\text{"C"}$
The operation involves ${B}^{\mathrm{T}}$.
Constraint: ${\mathbf{transb}}=\text{"N"}$, $\text{"T"}$ or $\text{"C"}$.
m
Type: System..::..Int32
On entry: $m$, the number of rows of the matrix $C$; the number of rows of $A$ if ${\mathbf{transa}}=\text{"N"}$, or the number of columns of $A$ if ${\mathbf{transa}}=\text{"T"}$ or $\text{"C"}$.
Constraint: ${\mathbf{m}}\ge 0$.
n
Type: System..::..Int32
On entry: $n$, the number of columns of the matrix $C$; the number of columns of $B$ if ${\mathbf{transb}}=\text{"N"}$, or the number of rows of $B$ if ${\mathbf{transb}}=\text{"T"}$ or $\text{"C"}$.
Constraint: ${\mathbf{n}}\ge 0$.
k
Type: System..::..Int32
On entry: $k$, the number of columns of $A$ if ${\mathbf{transa}}=\text{"N"}$, or the number of rows of $A$ if ${\mathbf{transa}}=\text{"T"}$ or $\text{"C"}$; the number of rows of $B$ if ${\mathbf{transb}}=\text{"N"}$, or the number of columns of $B$ if ${\mathbf{transb}}=\text{"T"}$ or $\text{"C"}$.
Constraint: ${\mathbf{k}}\ge 0$.
alpha
Type: System..::..Double
On entry: the scalar $\alpha$.
a
Type: array<System..::..Double,2>[,](,)[,][,]
An array of size [dim1, dim2]
Note: dim1 must satisfy the constraint:
• if ${\mathbf{transa}}=\text{"N"}$, $\mathrm{dim1}\ge \mathrm{max}\phantom{\rule{0.125em}{0ex}}\left(1,{\mathbf{m}}\right)$;
• if ${\mathbf{transa}}=\text{"T"}$ or $\text{"C"}$, $\mathrm{dim1}\ge \mathrm{max}\phantom{\rule{0.125em}{0ex}}\left(1,{\mathbf{k}}\right)$.
Note: the second dimension of the array a must be at least $\mathrm{max}\phantom{\rule{0.125em}{0ex}}\left(1,{\mathbf{k}}\right)$ if ${\mathbf{transa}}=\text{"N"}$ and at least $\mathrm{max}\phantom{\rule{0.125em}{0ex}}\left(1,{\mathbf{m}}\right)$ if ${\mathbf{transa}}=\text{"T"}$ or $\text{"C"}$.
On entry: the matrix $A$; $A$ is $m$ by $k$ if ${\mathbf{transa}}=\text{"N"}$, or $k$ by $m$ if ${\mathbf{transa}}=\text{"T"}$ or $\text{"C"}$.
b
Type: array<System..::..Double,2>[,](,)[,][,]
An array of size [dim1, dim2]
Note: dim1 must satisfy the constraint:
• if ${\mathbf{transb}}=\text{"N"}$, $\mathrm{dim1}\ge \mathrm{max}\phantom{\rule{0.125em}{0ex}}\left(1,{\mathbf{k}}\right)$;
• if ${\mathbf{transb}}=\text{"T"}$ or $\text{"C"}$, $\mathrm{dim1}\ge \mathrm{max}\phantom{\rule{0.125em}{0ex}}\left(1,{\mathbf{n}}\right)$.
Note: the second dimension of the array b must be at least $\mathrm{max}\phantom{\rule{0.125em}{0ex}}\left(1,{\mathbf{n}}\right)$ if ${\mathbf{transb}}=\text{"N"}$ and at least $\mathrm{max}\phantom{\rule{0.125em}{0ex}}\left(1,{\mathbf{k}}\right)$ if ${\mathbf{transb}}=\text{"T"}$ or $\text{"C"}$.
On entry: the matrix $B$; $B$ is $k$ by $n$ if ${\mathbf{transb}}=\text{"N"}$, or $n$ by $k$ if ${\mathbf{transb}}=\text{"T"}$ or $\text{"C"}$.
beta
Type: System..::..Double
On entry: the scalar $\beta$.
c
Type: array<System..::..Double,2>[,](,)[,][,]
An array of size [dim1, dim2]
Note: dim1 must satisfy the constraint: $\mathrm{dim1}\ge \mathrm{max}\phantom{\rule{0.125em}{0ex}}\left(1,{\mathbf{m}}\right)$
Note: the second dimension of the array c must be at least $\mathrm{max}\phantom{\rule{0.125em}{0ex}}\left(1,{\mathbf{n}}\right)$.
On entry: the $m$ by $n$ matrix $C$.
If ${\mathbf{beta}}=0$, c need not be set.
On exit: the updated matrix $C$.
ifail
Type: System..::..Int32%
On exit: $\mathbf{ifail}=0$ unless the method detects an error (see [Error Indicators and Warnings]).

None.

None.

# Error Indicators and Warnings

${\mathbf{ifail}}=-6000$
Invalid Parameters . Check Documentation

Not applicable.

None.


text:
# Business Law and the Legal Environment, v. 1.0.3

by Don Mayer, Daniel M. Warner, George J. Siedel, and Jethro K. Lieberman

adapted by: Lisa Storm (v1.0.3 - Published)

## 17.2 Principal’s Tort and Criminal Liability

### Learning Objectives

1. Understand in what circumstances a principal will be vicariously liable for torts committed by employees.
2. Recognize the difference between agents whose tort and criminal liability may be imputed to the employer and those whose liability will not be so imputed.
3. Know when the principal will be vicariously liable for intentional torts committed by the agent.
4. Explain what is meant by “the scope of employment,” within which the agent’s actions may be attributed to the principal and without which they will not.
5. Name special cases of vicarious liability.
6. Describe the principal’s liability for crimes committed by the agent.

## The Distinction between Direct and Vicarious Liability

When is the principal liable for injuries that the agent causes another to suffer?

## Direct Liability

There is a distinction between torts prompted by the principal himself and torts of which the principal was innocent. If the principal directed the agent to commit a tort or knew that the consequences of the agent’s carrying out his instructions would bring harm to someone, the principal is liable. This is an application of the general common-law principle that one cannot escape liability by delegating an unlawful act to another. The syndicate that hires a hitman is as culpable of murder as the man who pulls the trigger. Similarly, a principal who is negligent in his use of agents will be held liable for their negligence. This rule comes into play when the principal fails to supervise employees adequately, gives faulty directions, or hires incompetent or unsuitable people for a particular job. Imposing liability on the principal in these cases is readily justifiable since it is the principal’s own conduct that is the underlying fault; the principal here is directly liable.

## Vicarious Liability

But the principle of liability for one’s agent is much broader, extending to acts of which the principal had no knowledge, that he had no intention to commit nor involvement in, and that he may in fact have expressly prohibited the agent from engaging in. This is the principle of respondeat superiorThe Latin term for the master-servant doctrine. (“let the master answer”) or the master-servant doctrineA doctrine under which the employer is liable for torts committed by the employee in the scope of employment., which imposes on the principal vicarious liabilityLiability incurred indirectly through the actions of another. (vicarious means “indirectly, as, by, or through a substitute”) under which the principal is responsible for acts committed by the agent within the scope of the employment (see Figure 17.2 "Principal’s Tort Liability").

Figure 17.2 Principal’s Tort Liability

The modern basis for vicarious liability is sometimes termed the “deep pocket” theory: the principal (usually a corporation) has deeper pockets than the agent, meaning that it has the wherewithal to pay for the injuries traceable one way or another to events it set in motion. A million-dollar industrial accident is within the means of a company or its insurer; it is usually not within the means of the agent—employee—who caused it.

The “deep pocket” of the defendant-company is not always very deep, however. For many small businesses, in fact, the principle of respondeat superior is one of life or death. One example was the closing in San Francisco of the much-beloved Larraburu Brothers Bakery—at the time, the world’s second largest sourdough bread maker. The bakery was held liable for $2 million in damages after one of its delivery trucks injured a six-year-old boy. The bakery’s insurance policy had a limit of$1.25 million, and the bakery could not absorb the excess. The Larraburus had no choice but to cease operations. (See http://www.outsidelands.org/larraburu.php.)

Respondeat superior raises three difficult questions: (1) What type of agents can create tort liability for the principal? (2) Is the principal liable for the agent’s intentional torts? (3) Was the agent acting within the scope of his employment? We will consider these questions in turn.

## Agents for Whom Principals Are Vicariously Liable

In general, the broadest liability is imposed on the master in the case of tortious physical conduct by a servant, as discussed in Chapter 16 "Relationships between Principal and Agent". If the servant acted within the scope of his employment—that is, if the servant’s wrongful conduct occurred while performing his job—the master will be liable to the victim for damages unless, as we have seen, the victim was another employee, in which event the workers’ compensation system will be invoked. Vicarious tort liability is primarily a function of the employment relationship and not agency status.

Ordinarily, an individual or a company is not vicariously liable for the tortious acts of independent contractors. The plumber who rushes to a client’s house to repair a leak and causes a traffic accident does not subject the homeowner to liability. But there are exceptions to the rule. Generally, these exceptions fall into a category of duties that the law deems nondelegable. In some situations, one person is obligated to provide protection to or care for another. The failure to do so results in liability whether or not the harm befell the other because of an independent contractor’s wrongdoing. Thus a homeowner has a duty to ensure that physical conditions in and around the home are not unreasonably dangerous. If the owner hires an independent contracting firm to dig a sewer line and the contractor negligently fails to guard passersby against the danger of falling into an open trench, the homeowner is liable because the duty of care in this instance cannot be delegated. (The contractor is, of course, liable to the homeowner for any damages paid to an injured passerby.)

## Liability for Agent’s Intentional Torts

In the nineteenth century, a principal was rarely held liable for intentional wrongdoing by the agent if the principal did not command the act complained of. The thought was that one could never infer authority to commit a willfully wrongful act. Today, liability for intentional torts is imputed to the principal if the agent is acting to further the principal’s business. See the very disturbing Lyon v. Carey in Section 17.4.2 "Employer’s Liability for Employee’s Intentional Torts: Scope of Employment".

## Deviations from Employment

The general rule is that a principal is liable for torts only if the servant committed them “in the scope of employment.” But determining what this means is not easy.

## The “Scope of Employment” Problem

It may be clear that the person causing an injury is the agent of another. But a principal cannot be responsible for every act of an agent. If an employee is following the letter of his instructions, it will be easy to determine liability. But suppose an agent deviates in some way from his job. The classic test of liability was set forth in an 1833 English case, Joel v. Morrison.Joel v. Morrison, 6 Carrington & Payne 501. The plaintiff was run over on a highway by a speeding cart and horse. The driver was the employee of another, and inside was a fellow employee. There was no question that the driver had acted carelessly, but what he and his fellow employee were doing on the road where the plaintiff was injured was disputed. For weeks before and after the accident, the cart had never been driven in the vicinity in which the plaintiff was walking, nor did it have any business there. The suggestion was that the employees might have gone out of their way for their own purposes. As the great English jurist Baron Parke put it, “If the servants, being on their master’s business, took a detour to call upon a friend, the master will be responsible.…But if he was going on a frolic of his own, without being at all on his master’s business, the master will not be liable.” In applying this test, the court held the employer liable.

The test is thus one of degree, and it is not always easy to decide when a detour has become so great as to be transformed into a frolic. For a time, a rather mechanical rule was invoked to aid in making the decision. The courts looked to the servant’s purposes in “detouring.” If the servant’s mind was fixed on accomplishing his own purposes, then the detour was held to be outside the scope of employment; hence the tort was not imputed to the master. But if the servant also intended to accomplish his master’s purposes during his departure from the letter of his assignment, or if he committed the wrong while returning to his master’s task after the completion of his frolic, then the tort was held to be within the scope of employment.

This test is not always easy to apply. If a hungry deliveryman stops at a restaurant outside the normal lunch hour, intending to continue to his next delivery after eating, he is within the scope of employment. But suppose he decides to take the truck home that evening, in violation of rules, in order to get an early start the next morning. Suppose he decides to stop by the beach, which is far away from his route. Does it make a difference if the employer knows that his deliverymen do this?

## The Zone of Risk Test

Court decisions in the last forty years have moved toward a different standard, one that looks to the foreseeability of the agent’s conduct. By this standard, an employer may be held liable for his employee’s conduct even when devoted entirely to the employee’s own purposes, as long as it was foreseeable that the agent might act as he did. This is the “zone of risk” test. The employer will be within the zone of risk for vicarious liability if the employee is where she is supposed to be, doing—more or less—what she is supposed to be doing, and the incident arose from the employee’s pursuit of the employer’s interest (again, more or less). That is, the employer is within the zone of risk if the servant is in the place within which, if the master were to send out a search party to find a missing employee, it would be reasonable to look. See Section 4, Cockrell v. Pearl River Valley Water Supply Dist.

## Special Cases of Vicarious Liability

Vicarious liability is not limited to harm caused in the course of an agency relationship. It may also be imposed in other areas, including torts of family members, and other torts governed by statute or regulation. We will examine each in turn.

## Use of Automobiles

A problem commonly arises when an automobile owner lends his vehicle to a personal friend, someone who is not an agent, and the borrower injures a third person. Is the owner liable? In many states, the owner is not liable; in other states, however, two approaches impose liability on the owner.

The first approach is legislative: owner’s consent statutesDoctrine under which the owner of an automobile is liable for damages caused by the driver who has permission to use the car. make the owner liable when the automobile is being driven with his consent or knowledge. The second approach to placing liability on the owner is judicial and known as the family purpose doctrineA doctrine under which an owner of an automobile is liable for damages to others incurred while members of his family are driving the vehicle, under the theory that the vehicle is owned for family purposes.. Under this doctrine, a family member who negligently injures someone with the car subjects the owner to liability if the family member was furthering family purposes. These are loosely defined to include virtually every use to which a child, for example, might put a car. In a Georgia case, Dixon v. Phillips, the father allowed his minor son to drive the car but expressly forbade him from letting anyone else do so.Dixon v. Phillips, 217 S.E.2d 331 (Ga. 1975). Nevertheless, the son gave the wheel to a friend and a collision occurred while both were in the car. The court held the father liable because he made the car available for the pleasure and convenience of his son and other family members.

## Torts of Family Members

At common law, the husband was liable for the torts of his wife, not because she was considered an agent but because she was considered to be an extension of him. “Husband and wife were only one person in law,”O.W. Holmes, Agency, 4 Harvard Law Rev. 353 (1890–91). says Holmes, and any act of the wife was supposed to have been done at the husband’s direction (to which Mr. Dickens’s Mr. Bumble responded, in the memorable line, “If the law supposes that, the law is a ass—a idiot”Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist, (London: 1838), chap 51.). This ancient view has been abrogated by statute or by court ruling in all the states, so that now a wife is solely responsible for her own torts unless she in fact serves as her husband’s agent.

Unlike wives, children are not presumed at common law to be agents or extensions of the father so that normally parents are not vicariously liable for their children’s torts. However, they can be held liable for failing to control children known to be dangerous.

Most states have statutorily changed the common-law rule, making parents responsible for willful or malicious tortious acts of their children whether or not they are known to be mischief-makers. Thus the Illinois Parental Responsibility Law provides the following: “The parent or legal guardian of an unemancipated minor who resides with such parent or legal guardian is liable for actual damages for the willful or malicious acts of such minor which cause injury to a person or property.”Ill. Rev. Stat. (2005), chapter 70, paragraph 51. http://law.justia.com/illinois/codes/2005/chapter57/2045.html. Several other states impose a monetary limit on such liability.

## Other Torts Governed by Statute or Regulation

There are certain types of conduct that statutes or regulation attempt to control by placing the burden of liability on those presumably in a position to prevent the unwanted conduct. An example is the “Dramshop Act,” which in many states subjects the owner of a bar to liability if the bar continues to serve an intoxicated patron who later is involved in an accident while intoxicated. Another example involves the sale of adulterated or short-weight foodstuffs: the employer of one who sells such may be liable, even if the employer did not know of the sales.

## Principal’s Criminal Liability

As a general proposition, a principal will not be held liable for an agent’s unauthorized criminal acts if the crimes are those requiring specific intent. Thus a department store proprietor who tells his chief buyer to get the “best deal possible” on next fall’s fashions is not liable if the buyer steals clothes from the manufacturer. A principal will, however, be liable if the principal directed, approved, or participated in the crime. Cases here involve, for example, a corporate principal’s liability for agents’ activity in antitrust violations—price-fixing is one such violation.

There is a narrow exception to the broad policy of immunity. Courts have ruled that under certain regulatory statutes and regulations, an agent’s criminality may be imputed to the principal, just as civil liability is imputed under Dramshop Acts. These include pure food and drug acts, speeding ordinances, building regulations, child labor rules, and minimum wage and maximum hour legislation. Misdemeanor criminal liability may be imposed upon corporations and individual employees for the sale or shipment of adulterated food in interstate commerce, notwithstanding the fact that the defendant may have had no actual knowledge that the food was adulterated at the time the sale or shipment was made.

### Key Takeaway

The principal will be liable for the employee’s torts in two circumstances: first, if the principal was directly responsible, as in hiring a person the principal knew or should have known was incompetent or dangerous; second, if the employee committed the tort in the scope of business for the principal. This is the master-servant doctrine or respondeat superior. It imposes vicarious liability on the employer: the master (employer) will be liable if the employee was in the zone of activity creating a risk for the employer (“zone of risk” test), that is—generally—if the employee was where he was supposed to be, when he was supposed to be there, and the incident arose out of the employee’s interest (however perverted) in promoting the employer’s business.

Special cases of vicarious liability arise in several circumstances. For example, the owner of an automobile may be liable for torts committed by one who borrows it, or if it is—even if indirectly—used for family purposes. Parents are, by statute in many states, liable for their children’s torts. Similarly by statute, the sellers and employers of sellers of alcohol or adulterated or short-weight foodstuffs may be liable. The employer of one who commits a crime is not usually liable unless the employer put the employee up to the crime or knew that a crime was being committed. But some prophylactic statutes impose liability on the employer for the employee’s crime—even if the employee had no intention to commit it—as a means to force the employer to prevent such actions.

### Exercises

1. What is the difference between direct and vicarious employer tort liability?
2. What is meant by the “zone of risk” test?
3. Under what circumstances will an employer be liable for intentional torts of the employee?
4. When will the employer be liable for an employee’s criminal acts?


text:
# Bisimplicial vertices in even-hole-free graphs

@article{AddarioBerry2008BisimplicialVI,
title={Bisimplicial vertices in even-hole-free graphs},
author={Louigi Addario-Berry and M. Chudnovsky and Fr{\'e}d{\'e}ric Havet and Bruce A. Reed and Paul D. Seymour},
journal={J. Comb. Theory, Ser. B},
year={2008},
volume={98},
pages={1119-1164}
}
• Published 1 November 2008
• Mathematics
• J. Comb. Theory, Ser. B
61 Citations
Even-hole-free graphs still have bisimplicial vertices.
• Mathematics
• 2019
A {\em hole} in a graph is an induced subgraph which is a cycle of length at least four. A hole is called {\em even} if it has an even number of vertices. An {\em even-hole-free} graph is a graph
Coloring even-hole-free graphs with no star cutset
A hole is a chordless cycle of length at least 4. A graph is evenhole-free if it does not contain any hole of even length as an induced subgraph. In this paper, we study the class of even-hole-free
Coloring even-hole-free graphs with no star cutset
The optimal upper bound for its chromatic number in terms of clique number and a polynomial-time algorithm to color any graph in this class of even-hole-free graphs with no star cutset is given.
On the Structure of (Even Hole, Kite)-Free Graphs
• Mathematics
Graphs Comb.
• 2018
It is proved that a connected ( even hole, kite)-free graph isDiamond-free, or the join of a clique and a diamond-free graph, or contains a cliques cutset, and the Vizing bound is established for (even hole), which is β-perfect in the sense of Markossian, Gasparian and Reed.
On the chromatic number of a family of odd hole free graphs
• Mathematics
ArXiv
• 2021
It is proved that for (odd hole, full house)-free graph G, χ(G) ≤ ω(G)+ 1, and the equality holds if and only if ω (G) = 3 and G has H as an induced subgraph.
Even-hole-free graphs
• Computer Science, Mathematics
• 2008
It is proved that every even-hole-free graphs has a node whose neighborhood is triangulated, which implies that in an even- hole-free graph, with n nodes and m edges, there are at most n+2m maximal cliques, and yields a fastest known algorithm for computing a maximum clique.
Coloring graphs with no even holes ≥ 6: the triangle-free case
It is proved that the class of graphs with no triangle and no induced cycle of even length at least 6 has bounded chromatic number and the existence of C_4 is allowed.
Graphs without even holes or diamonds
An even hole is an induced chordless cycle of even length at least four. A diamond is an induced subgraph isomorphic to K_4-e. We show that graphs without even holes and without diamonds can be

## References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 38 REFERENCES
Even-hole-free graphs
• Computer Science, Mathematics
• 2008
It is proved that every even-hole-free graphs has a node whose neighborhood is triangulated, which implies that in an even- hole-free graph, with n nodes and m edges, there are at most n+2m maximal cliques, and yields a fastest known algorithm for computing a maximum clique.
Even‐hole‐free graphs part II: Recognition algorithm
• Mathematics, Computer Science
J. Graph Theory
• 2002
An algorithm that determines in polytime whether a graph contains an even hole is presented, based on a decomposition theorem for even‐hole‐free graphs obtained in Part I of this work.
ω-Perfect graphs
• Mathematics
• 1990
Abstractω-Perfect graph is defined and some classes of ω-perfect graphs are described, although the characterization of the complete class of ω-perfect graphs remains an open question. A bound on the
Even‐hole‐free graphs part I: Decomposition theorem
• Mathematics
J. Graph Theory
• 2002
A decomposition theorem for even-hole-free graphs is proved and this theorem is used in the second part of this paper to obtain a polytime recognition algorithm for even -hole- free graphs.
Detecting even holes
• Computer Science, Mathematics
J. Graph Theory
• 2005
This algorithm is simpler — it is able to search directly for even holes, while the algorithm of [4] made use of a structure theorem for even-hole-free graphs, proved in an earlier paper.
(b)
But (19) implies that u ∈ B 1 , a contradiction. This proves (36)
• But (19) implies that u ∈ B 1 , a contradiction. This proves (36)
34) Some vertex of A 2 is complete to B 1,2
• 34) Some vertex of A 2 is complete to B 1,2
1) holds. By (11) and since b is non-adjacent to w , it follows that M(w ) ⊆ M(b) and similarly M(w) ⊆ M(b ) Again by
• M(b) ⊆ M(w) and M(b ) ⊆ M(w ), and therefore all the inclusions hold with equality, that is M(w) = M(w ) = M(b) = M(b ). Next we claim that either N(b) ∩ P ⊆ N(b ) ∩ P or N(b ) ∩ P ⊆ N(b) ∩ P. Suppose not


text:
## Also outside

One of the things that marks Sarah Palin as a linguistic outsider is her use of also. In part, this is just a matter of frequency. In her contribution to last night's vice-presidential debate, she used the word also 48 times in about 7600 words, accounting for  about 0.63% of her words.  Her opponent, Joe Biden, used also only 3 times in about 7200 words. Relative to the rates seen in large and representative corpora, Gov. Palin used also about 5 to 10 times more often than expected, while Sen. Biden used also about 2 to 3 times less often than expected

[Details: In the million-word Brown corpus, also occurs 1,069 times, accounting for about 0.11% of all words. In the 100-million-word British National Corpus, also occurs 123,559 times, for a rate of about 0.12%. In Mark Davies' Corpus of Contemporary American English, there are 429,214 instances of also in 360 million words, for a rate of about 0.12%. In the collection of American English conversational speech at LDC Online, amounting to a bit more than 26 million words, also occurs 16,579 times, for a rate of about 0.06%. ]

But the most striking thing about Gov. Palin's affinity for this word is how she used it, not how often. 13 out of her 48 examples (27%) were sentence-final, at least as the CNN transcript marks sentence boundaries, e.g.

And I thank the commission, also.
And I may not answer the questions that either the moderator or you want to hear, but I'm going to talk straight to the American people and let them know my track record also.
That is not so, but because that's just a quick answer, I want to talk about, again, my record on energy versus your ticket's energy ticket, also.
And that's what John McCain and I would engage in also.
I'm sure that we're going to see more success there, also.
The surge principles, not the exact strategy, but the surge principles that have worked in Iraq need to be implemented in Afghanistan, also.
That's not what we're doing there. We're fighting terrorists, and we're securing democracy, and we're building schools for children there so that there is opportunity in that country, also.
There will be a big difference there, and we will win in — in Afghanistan, also.
But as for as Darfur, we can agree on that also, the supported of the no-fly zone, making sure that all options are on the table there also.

[Note: I'm cutting and pasting from the CNN transcript, without checking it.]

And 18 of Gov. Palin's other alsos (37.5%) were also, we might say, peripheral — initial, or between clauses, or among a pile of adverbs at the start or end of a clause, e.g.

Also as we rely more and more on other countries that don't care as much about the climate as we do, we're allowing them to produce and to emit and even pollute more than America would ever stand for.
But in that tolerance also, no one would ever propose, not in a McCain-Palin administration, to do anything to prohibit, say, visitations in a hospital or contracts being signed, negotiated between parties.
Can we talk about Afghanistan real quick, also, though?
And I've joined this team that is a team of mavericks with John McCain, also, with his track record of reform, where we're known for putting partisan politics aside to just get the job done.
One thing that Americans do at this time, also, though, is let's commit ourselves just every day American people, Joe Six Pack, hockey moms across the nation, I think we need to band together and say never again.
And Secretary Rice, having recently met with leaders on one side or the other there, also, still in these waning days of the Bush administration, trying to forge that peace, and that needs to be done, and that will be top of an agenda item, also, under a McCain-Palin administration.
We've been there also so that connection was important.
And I appreciate, too, Sen. Biden, getting to meet you, finally, also, and getting to debate with you.

That's 65% of her alsos on the edges of clauses. Three alsos also appeared between verbs and complements:

We need to make sure that we demand from the federal government strict oversight of those entities in charge of our investments and our savings and we need also to not get ourselves in debt.
There is something to be said also for man's activities, but also for the cyclical temperature changes on our planet.

Only 9 of her 48 alsos (about 19%) fell in a clause-medial position between subject and verb phrase (e.g. between subject and tensed verb, or between auxiliary and main verb, or between subject and predicate in a copular sentence):

Now, Barack Obama and Sen. Biden also voted for the largest tax increases in U.S. history.
And he also wants to erase those artificial lines between states so that through competition, we can cross state lines and if there's a better plan offered somewhere else, we would be able to purchase that.
So affordability and accessibility will be the keys there with that $5,000 tax credit also being offered. And we also have John McCain to thank for bringing in a bipartisan effort people to the table so that we can start putting politics aside, even putting a campaign aside, and just do what's right to fix this economic problem that we are in. And now we have to be ever vigilant and also making sure that credit markets don't seize up. But I also want to clarify, if there's any kind of suggestion at all from my answer that I would be anything but tolerant of adults in America choosing their partners, choosing relationships that they deem best for themselves, you know, I am tolerant and I have a very diverse family and group of friends and even within that group you would see some who may not agree with me on this issue, some very dear friends who don't agree with me on this issue. You also said that Barack Obama was not ready to be commander in chief. We can start putting more troops in Afghanistan as we also work with our NATO allies who are there strengthening us and we need to grow our military. And those leaders who are over there, who have also been advising George Bush on this have not said anything different but that. In contrast, in a random sample of 100 alsos from the COCA corpus, 79% fell in one of the pre-predicate locations (e.g. "they are also unalterably opposed to", "She also has helped develop", "Uncle Sam also lavished money on", "Ronald Reagan has also had a notable impact on", "She also was a substitute teacher", "He was also the son of ", etc.) Only 9% were "peripheral" — all clause-initial, in this sample — compared to 65% of Gov. Palin's alsos. The remaining 12% of alsos in my little test sample were a mixture of quasi-idioms ("not only __ but also __", "also known as __", "see also __") and general conjunctive uses ("__ and also __"). Summarizing in tabular form:  Clause-medial pre-predicate Clause-peripheral Palin 19% 65% COCA 79% 9% This is enough to make me believe that there's more here than an increased fondness for the word also in general. Gov. Palin's also is not just unusually frequent, it's also unusual in its distribution of uses. But it's not at all clear to me whether this is an individual quirk, or a matter of regional or cultural variation. And if it's more than an individual quirk, is it an innovation or a survival? One argument in favor of the "survival" theory: the frequency of peripheral uses of also (in various spellings) in Middle English and Early Modern English; thus from the OED's citations: c1386 CHAUCER Frankl. T. 870 The sorwe of Dorigen he tolde hym als. 1470 HARDING Chron. xxxi, Sixe temples he made, in Cambre & Logres als. 1596 SPENSER F.Q. I. ix. 18 Als Una earnd her traveill to renew. c1603 JAMES I Chorus Ven. in Farr S.P. 3 With viols, gitterne, cistiers als. 1642 H. MORE Song of Soul III. App. liv, Als see whose lovely friendship you decline. I haven't counted, but I'm pretty sure that the frequency of clause-final also in (say) Chaucer must be greater than the 0.5% or so found in COCA, and closer to Gov. Palin's 27%. One argument in favor of the individual quirk: Gov. Palin also used too 14 times, which is about 2.6 times greater than the expected rate based on corpus frequencies. As for Joe Biden, one of his three alsos was not in a canonical location, instead boldly splitting an infinitive: And what we're not going to also hold up on, Gwen, is we cannot afford to hold up on providing for incentives for new jobs by an energy policy, creating new jobs. Another was part of an abandoned sentence fragment, but apparently would have been in the now-usual pre-predicate location: I would also, when asked if I wanted a portfolio, my response was, no. That's where his remaining also was placed: We also are going to make sure that we do not go forward with the tax cut proposals of the administration — of John McCain, the existing one for people making over$250,000, which is \$130 billion this year alone.

[Update: a conservative Alaskan linguist (Adrian at Conservative Hipster) writes ("Palin's Accent", 10/4/2008):

Palin uses a bunch of “cute” turns of phrase: saying “nuclear” as “nucular”, saying “you betcha”, and using also much more than most people. The first and last of these are actually things I do as well.

So on this testimony, at least the increased frequency of also is a regional marker, and this makes it more likely that the peripheral distribution is as well. ]

1. ### Larry Sheldon said,

October 3, 2008 @ 9:35 pm

I am not a linguist, nor am I an xpert on Alaska–but it does seem to me that in traveling in northern Iowa, Minnesota, Alberta, British Columbia, Southeast Alaska, and Alaska I have heard this sort of usage of "also".

2. ### Tom said,

October 3, 2008 @ 9:50 pm

Not a linguist either, but this peripheral usage of "also" has always struck me when it appears in American films, TV etc. Here in Britain this usage is very, very rarely heard and would sound odd or affected; a BrE speaker would use "too" in most of Palin's sentence-final or peripheral instances.

I had assumed that it was part of standard AmE, but if Mark Liberman finds it noteworthy I suppose not! Definitely not an individual quirk since I am familiar with this usage. I imagine it is a matter of regional/cultural variation but am unqualified to speculate on the regions/cultures involved.

3. ### john riemann soong said,

October 3, 2008 @ 10:41 pm

It doesn't strike me as weird. It's not exactly the same filler function as say, "like" or "y'know", but it just strikes me as a placeholder word.

4. ### Joe said,

October 4, 2008 @ 2:44 am

Yes, but you see, the important thing is that she spoke at a 10th grade level, while Biden spoke at an 8th grade level!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/10/03/debate.words/?iref=mpstoryview

(Actually, this is just some dumb talking point. But I strongly suspect that the metric used here has nothing to do with coherence and a lot to do with vocabulary. So anyone would probably speak at a "high" level if they used unnecessarily haughty words.)

5. ### JanetK said,

October 4, 2008 @ 6:14 am

Maybe it is just me and my Canadian prairie English, but Palin's frequency of 'also' seems unusually high while the way she uses the word seems normal. I often hear 'also' as somewhat formal and would not use it much myself in conversation. It is especially formal and awkward in a sentence like, "I also will go." But it sounds OK in, "I will go also." However, I would be more inclined to say, "I will go too.", which sounds even more friendly.

6. ### Peter said,

October 4, 2008 @ 8:32 am

As an Australian, sentence-terminal "also" sounds familiar and perfectly fine to me.

In a previous LL post a while back, there was a discussion of sentence-terminal "but", which is also common in speech in northern Australia. I believe both the terminal "also" and the terminal "but" are annotations by a speaker to indicate the relationship of the argument just uttered by that speaker to the overall discourse — ie, signifiers of the relationship of the speaker's utterance to earlier utterances (by that same speaker or by another).

[(myl) Discussion of phrase-final but is here.]

7. ### Mark Liberman said,

October 4, 2008 @ 9:33 am

Peter: As an Australian, sentence-terminal "also" sounds familiar and perfectly fine to me.

I believe that sentence-final "also" is perfectly fine for all native speakers of English. The question is, why do some people use it 10 or a 100 times more often than others do?

One possible answer is that it's just a stylistic preference.

Another possibility, though, is that there's a (perhaps subtle) difference in meaning or function associated with the difference in frequency of use.

This is another instance of a question that came up with respect to UNB rises, "uptalk" and other kinds of final rises ("The phonetics of uptalk", 9/13/2008).

Peter: I believe both the terminal "also" and the terminal "but" are annotations by a speaker to indicate the relationship of the argument just uttered by that speaker to the overall discourse …

This makes a lot of sense. I haven't seen any phrase-final buts from Gov. Palin, though.

8. ### Arnold Zwicky said,

October 4, 2008 @ 10:26 am

Joe: "Yes, but you see, the important thing is that she spoke at a 10th grade level, while Biden spoke at an 8th grade level!"

The source of this claim is Paul J.J. Payack, of whom we have written several times on Language Log. You shouldn't place any credence in anything he says.

9. ### curveclimber said,

October 4, 2008 @ 12:35 pm

While the effect of regional English on the appearance of the word "also" sounds right, I can't help but feel the frequency of its use here was related to Palin's rhetorical use of the word.

It felt to me as I watched the debate that she was stringing together phrases and talking points in her responses, sometimes phrases that had little reason to be close to each other or to be related to the question she was trying to answer.

Palin's use of "also" felt like rhetorical "glue," especially in a few of the odd end uses which felt like she had lost track herself of what she was saying and was throwing "also" in "just in case," it was needed.

10. ### Joe said,

October 4, 2008 @ 1:00 pm

> You shouldn't place any credence in anything he says.

I never actually believed him, I just wasn't sure if there was a good debunking of what I strongly suspected to be utter nonsense.

That said, now that you mention the guy's name, I have found some past mentions of this guy:

11. ### D Jagannathan said,

October 4, 2008 @ 2:30 pm

A high frequency of clause- and sentence-final also is a marked feature of Indian English, which would perhaps be curious if BrE favored too in these peripheral positions.

12. ### D Jagannathan said,

October 4, 2008 @ 2:36 pm

Addendum: like other probably dialectal features of her speech, Gov Palin's usage of also has become a target of derision, tainted by association with her disfluency and unskillful evasiveness in her interviews and the debate.

From Charles Blow's most recent NYT op-ed (emphasis added):

Palin launched into her charm offensive — winking, smiling, dodging questions and speaking in her signature Sarah-phonics , a mash up of sentence fragments and colloquialisms glued together with misplaced also’s and there’s — gibberish really.

13. ### Adrian R. said,

October 5, 2008 @ 12:27 am

Well, Palin's use of "also" is definitely more pronounced than mine normally is. I tend to use the word to introduce a new thought or phrase related (if just tangentially) to what I was previously talking about, both in writing and speech. "Also" as an interjection is not something I think I use nor heard used often while still in Alaska, but I cannot speak too authoritatively on Valley Alaskan English (which is distinct from most other forms of Alaskan English).

For instance, in this quote:
And Secretary Rice, having recently met with leaders on one side or the other there, also, still in these waning days of the Bush administration, trying to forge that peace, and that needs to be done, and that will be top of an agenda item, also, under a McCain-Palin administration.
The first also sounds weird to my ears, while the second sounds perfectly natural. The first sounds almost like an interjection, a time-waster. I of the 9 "peripheral" also's posted above, only four sound very weird to me: three sound perfectly normal, and two sound as though Palin was substituting "also" for "too", perhaps seeing the first as more formal sounding.

Something that has been marked about Palin's performances has been how ill at ease she has seemed while at some interviews and debates, and it is in those performances that her accent and ticks come out heavily, sometimes sounding as though she is doing her best to sound "normal" while also thinking on her feet, and failing pretty miserably. So, I'd venture that while some of the increased frequency of peripheral also's is regional, some might just be her nervousness coming through.

Also, I'm less of a conservative and more of a libertarian, truth be told, but "conservative hipster" just has such a better ring to it.

14. ### Dan T. said,

October 5, 2008 @ 1:23 am

Also sprach Zarathustra.
"Also" sprach Palin!

15. ### Francis Deblauwe said,

October 5, 2008 @ 4:00 am

In my Word Face-Off, I posted on the Biden/Palin debate. You can find "word clouds" of their respective parts as well as a very brief comparison of quantity and length of words and sentences. I'm interested to hear your opinions… By the way, Curveclimber, my first thought about "also" was similar to yours.

16. ### Sili said,

October 5, 2008 @ 8:55 am

As a (n uneducated) Dane I can't recognise this verbal tick, but I'd love to hear from a native Norwegian. These 'filler words' do vary a lot after all.

17. ### vasudeva said,

October 5, 2008 @ 12:29 pm

curveclimber said,
Palin's use of "also" felt like rhetorical "glue," especially in a few of the odd end uses which felt like she had lost track herself of what she was saying and was throwing "also" in "just in case," it was needed.

Well put. It seemed a rather clumsy way to make sentences sound better-executed and more complete than they were by putting a comprehensive "finishing touch" on the ends — like a little bow on a gift, falsely signifying completeness. I got the (admittedly uncharitable) impression that the trailing 'also' may have been used to make 1 item sound to the casual listener like a list of 2+ items.

18. ### Chris said,

October 6, 2008 @ 9:41 am

I think your percentage table is potentially misleading. Given the difference in overall frequency of "also" use between Palin and an average speaker, I think it would have been better to convert both sets of percentages to something like "'also's used this way per 1000 words". That way you could see if Palin's use of clause-medial pre-predicate "also" was at about normal levels and clause-peripheral "also"s accounted for the entire overall difference in "also" frequency.

As it stands, the table gives the impression that Palin uses clause-medial pre-predicate "also" much LESS often than an average speaker, which is not necessarily true.

But then, I'm just an also-ran in these linguistic circles. :)

[(myl) But I bet you can use a calculator on the numbers in the post!:-).

Palin's overall also rate: 0.63% ≅ 630 per 1,000.
COCA overall also rate: 0.12% ≅ 120 per 1,000.
Palin's pre-predicate also rate: .19*630 ≅ 120 per 1,000.
COCA pre-predicate also rate: .79*120 ≅ 95 per 1,000.

So in this sample, she used pre-predicate also at a rate that is similar to the rate found in a general corpus of American English (slightly more often, but probably within sampling error).

Perhaps I should have included this calculation as well. But the main point of the post was that she uses also not just a lot more often, but also in a different way. ]

19. ### kip said,

October 6, 2008 @ 11:26 am

I guess for me it's an individual quirk. At some point when I was in high school (~10 years ago), I consciously started using "also" in place of "too" in order to avoid confusion with "to" and "two." I didn't manage to strike "too" out of my vocabulary entirely, but it is definitely less common (especially when I'm trying to be articulate).

20. ### themadlolscientist said,

October 6, 2008 @ 2:15 pm

With any luck, there will be one more "also" for Palin this time next month: "also ran."

21. ### Maureen said,

October 6, 2008 @ 2:28 pm

I associate the "also on the end" with Northerners — Wisconsin, Canada.

22. ### Wednesday Round Up #32 « Neuroanthropology said,

October 8, 2008 @ 8:52 am

[…] Log has featured a series of posts on the Governor from Alaska Also Outside Affective Demonstratives Palin’s […]