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dictionary-making</title></head><body>
<div><font size="-1" color="#000000"><b>PANEL ON DICTIONARIES,
DICTIONARY-MAKING AND LEXICAL SEMANTICS AT 10-ICAL</b></font></div>
<div><font size="-1" color="#000000"><b><br></b></font></div>
<div><font size="-1" color="#000000">I invite offers of papers for a
panel at 10-ICAL devoted to dictionaries, dictionary-making and
lexical semantics.</font></div>
<div><font size="-1" color="#000000">The aim of the panel is to
contribute in a small way to raising the profile and standard of
lexicography and semantic analysis in Austronesian. Lexical analysis
presents exciting intellectual challenges but has long been the
Cindarella of linguistics and has not received the kind of attention
given to phonology and grammar. It is therefore not surprising that
the quality of most dictionaries leaves much to be desired, especially
in regard to the handling of definitions, sense discriminations,
lexical relations and completeness. Contributions to the panel should
address issues of analysis, method or theory, with reference to
Austronesian languages. If you are interested in presenting a
paper let me know the topic you have in mind and send an abstract of
100 words or so.</font> </div>
<div><br></div>
<div>Please reply to <andrew.pawley@anu.edu.au></div>
<div><font size="-1" color="#000000"><br>
Andrew Pawley</font></div>
<div><font size="-1" color="#000000">Department of Linguistics<br>
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies<br>
Australian National University<br>
<br>
<br>
<b>SOME POSSIBLE TOPICS<br>
</b>The following are some topics that might be addressed, either in
relation to particular Austronesian languages or to generalisations
across a group of languages. The list is not exhaustive.<br>
<br>
<b>Lexical semantics<br>
</b>1. Sense discriminations. (Polysemy is arguably the most difficult
aspect of lexical semantics and the weakest part of dictionary entries
in most dictionaries. The question arises whether there are types of
polysemies that are characteristic of Austronesian languages in
general or of particular regions or subgroups.)<br>
2. The structure of folk taxonomies ('X is a kind of Y' relations),
e.g. in terminologies for fauna and flora, kinds of buildings, kind of
boats, etc.</font></div>
<div><font size="-1" color="#000000">3. The structure of partonymies
('X is a part of Y' relations), e.g. body-parts, house-arts, months of
the year.</font></div>
<div><font size="-1" color="#000000">4. Gradience in lexical
relations, as between partial synonyms, and antonyms, or between
senses in a sense spectrum.</font></div>
<div><font size="-1" color="#000000">5. Characteristics of classes
that form a sequence or chain, e.g. colour terms,<i> hand, wrist,
forearm, elbow, bicep, shoulder</i>; or<i> mound, hillock, hill,
mountain</i>.</font></div>
<div><font size="-1" color="#000000">6. Converse relations:<i>
doctor-patient</i>,<i> husband-wife</i>,<i> precede-follow</i>,<i>
buy-sell</i>.</font></div>
<div><font size="-1" color="#000000">7. Types of selectional
restrictions on verbs, e.g. semantic constraints on subjects and
direct objects.<br>
<br>
<b>Organising information in lexical entries and dictionaries<br>
</b>8. Grouping sense units (minimal lexical units) into lexemes
(families of lexical units).<br>
9. Handling redundancies or generalisations in the lexicon, arising
e.g. from highly productive derivational patterns, or from productive
metaphors for creating new senses.<br>
10. Escaping the tyranny of the alphabet, e.g. using semantic features
to order lexical units into thesauruses or for cross-referencing.<br>
<br>
<b>Boundaries and completeness of the lexicon<br>
</b>11. Discovery procedures for collecting lexical units.<br>
12. The boundary between dictionary and encyclopaedia or ethnography.
Principles for including or excluding particular kinds of semantic and
cultural information from definitions.<br>
13. Criteria for including/omitting loanwords in dictionaries of
languages spoken by bilinguals.<br>
14. The gradience between simple lexical units and constructions.<br>
<br>
<b>Usage and variation in the language community<br>
</b>15. Corpus-based analysis of expressions, frequency of usage,
frequency of senses, etc.<br>
16. Writing lexical entries that reflect variation in the speech
community in e.g. what words mean or in their grammar.<br>
<br>
<b>Software<br>
</b>This panel is chiefly about the content of dictionaries, not about
mechanical aids to making them. However, modern technology is our
ally. It has made some aspects of lexicography much easier and made it
possible to improve the content of dictionaries. Contributors are
welcome to inform the panel about relevant innovations in
dictionary-making software and it may be possible to arrange
demonstrations.</font></div>
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