[Lexicog] English homonyms

[Thapelo Otlogetswe]

> Language learners need a pronunciation
> guide unless the orthography is fully phonemic (and
> I don't know one that
> is).

I don't know how accurate this claim is. By "language
learners" do you mean 'learners of a different
language' as in a Zulu child learning English, or you
refer to persons who learn their own language? The
challenges are certainly different. As far as I know
even when I learnt the English language, I never used
any of the phonemic transcriptions in a dictionary.
Many language teachers themselves could not read
phonemic transcription and did not attempt to teach
them to students. I only could phonemic transcriptions
as an linguistics undergraduate. I can boldly say that
most of the phonemic entries in many dictionaries for
learners of English are never used by both learners
and the teachers of English.

> So a tonal language must mark tone in the
> dictionary. It is a cop out
> to say, "Our orthography doesn't mark it, so we
> won't in the dictionary."
> The only exception would be if tone was only
> grammatical and not lexical.

It depends on which dictionary you refer to [whether
bilingual or monolingual] and to which purpose it has
been compiled. Foreign learners of a tonal language
may indeed be keen on finding out tone in a
dictionary. But for Zulu speakers who are learning
their language, such information may not be crucial
and the dictionary writers who are trying to preserve
space may strongly feel there isn't a strong case for
including tonal marks.


=====
Thapelo Otlogetswe
Information Technology Research Institute
University of Brighton
Lewes Road, Brighton
BN2 4GJ, England
Tel: (+44) 1273 642912 (office)
      (+44) 1273 642908 (fax)
http://www.itri.brighton.ac.uk/~Thapelo.Otlogetswe/





	
		
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs
http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover


------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark
Printer at MyInks.com.  Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada.
http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511
http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/HKE4lB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->


Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lexicographylist/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
     lexicographylist-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
     http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/