[CWB] Strange problem with a query

[Stefan Evert]

>>>> [pos="VV.*"][pos="DT."]? [pos="AV0"]? [pos="AJ.*"]* [pos="N.*"] [pos="AJ.*"][(pos="N.*")|(pos="PR.*")|(pos="TO0")]! within s;
>> Why did you put the exclamation mark if you're not running a subquery?
> 
> OK, I thought '!' was the boolean operator for NOT. 

It is, but you put it in the wrong place.  Outside the [...] you can only use regular expression operators, which don't include negation.  Inside the [...], you can use "!" to negate a Boolean expression.  What you wanted is

> [!(pos="N.*" | pos="PR.*" | pos="TO0")]


which is indeed equivalent to

> [(pos!="N.*")&(pos!="PR.*")&(pos!="TO0")]

I suppose the fastest and most elegant version would be

> [pos != "N.*|PR.*|TO0"]

Best,
Stefan