[Lexicog] Online WRITTEN dictionaries

[Thapelo Otlogetswe]

Thanks very much Koontz for your detailed response. I
would look into your suggestion with a lot of care.

In my earlier response to Guy I had noted that

"It does seem to be able to do cross
references and word class markups." what I had wanted
to say was that it DOES NOT seem to be able to do
cross references and wordclass markups. I thank
Maurice for spotting this typo.

Thanks again

Thapelo


--- Koontz John E <john.koontz at colorado.edu> wrote:
> On Mon, 29 Mar 2004, Thapelo Otlogetswe wrote:
> > We are aware of online collaborations like:
> http://wiktionary.org/ which
> > appear unregulated.  We would like to know of
> similar projects
> > elsewhere.
>
> You might want to search the Web for references on
> something called
> faq-o-matic, which is designed to handle
> hierarchically regulated
> collegial editing of FAQ documents (frequently asked
> question lists).
> FOM is available at no charge.  I know of some
> commercial products for
> somewhat similar purposes.  I am not aware of any
> collaborative dictionary
> writing software, but there have certainly been a
> number of web-based
> colalborative composition tools, moderated and
> unmoderated.
>
> In connection with the idea of collaborative
> composition, one of the
> things I regret about the Comparative Siouan
> Dictionary project is that we
> were not able to use a shared database approach.  We
> had certain not very
> elaborate conventions - what could be deleted or
> modified, provisional
> fields that were rendered accepted when all had
> signed them, keeping logs
> fields in records, etc.- but no way to edit the
> database at the same time.
> We relied on circulating the database among the
> editors like a serial
> letter, but this was not very effective.  It would
> be somewhat more
> effective now that email is generally available.
> (One of our editors had
> no email at first, and several of them have never
> paid it much attention
> when they had it.)  In this sense, however, standard
> database record
> locking can be used to prevent simultaneous editing
> of the same "atomic
> element," or sets of them though not of cross-record
> conventions, etc.
>
> Another approach that has occurred to me involves
> use of one the tools
> available for collaborative editing of program
> source code, e.g., SCCS or
> CVS (the current standard in open source projects).
> CVS has more explicit
> modelling of the collaborative process, albeit no
> management of authority
> or an editorial approval process that I am aware of.
>  CVS is available
> with Web interfaces I think.
>
> > Our intention is that the dictionary be both
> monolingual and bilingual.
> > That is, entries should be made in both English
> and Setswana and users
> > should be able to search for English Setswana,
> Setswana English and
> > Setswana Setswana. Has such a project been done
> for any language? What
> > kind of software[s] would be best suited for such
> a project?
>
> The late Ken Hale was a big believer in the process
> of native speakers
> writing definitions for terms in the target
> language, even for bilingual
> dictionaries, and I believe this would have been a
> feature in any of the
> projects he was involved with.  Among other things,
> I recall, he believed
> that this was in itself an extremely valuable
> elicitation procedure.  The
> one example of such a dictionary that I know best
> was Dr. Josephine White
> Eagle's Winnebago Lexicon, which was published
> before her death, through
> MIT, but is now out of print and, as far as I know,
> unobtainable. I do not
> have a copy myself.  I did see a presentation on the
> process by Josie and
> Ken.  Josie herself was particularly interested in
> linguistic analysis of
> the target language in the language as a means of
> teaching things like
> scientific method, and of consolidating education of
> and education in the
> language, and this was the topic of her
> dissertation.
>
> > We are aware of many online [monolingual and
> bilingual] dictionaries but
> > most of them have been written "offline" and then
> put online. I would
> > appreciate feedback on this matter.
>
> I believe Josie and prepared her dictionary using
> word processing
> software, effectively offline, though computerized.
>
>
>
>
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=====
Thapelo Otlogetswe
Information Technology Research Institute
University of Brighton
Lewes Road, Brighton
BN2 4GJ, England
Tel: (+44) 1273 642912  (office)
      (+44) 1273 682529  (home)
      (+44) 1273 642908  (fax)
http://www.itri.brighton.ac.uk/~Thapelo.Otlogetswe/

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