[Lexicog] Dictionary of a language with classifiers

Greg Aumann Greg_Aumann at SIL.ORG
Tue Jun 14 22:11:47 UTC 2005


I also am working on a dictionary of a language with classifiers. We
also have the issue that some nouns take multiple classifiers with
different resulting meanings of the phrase.

What we are doing is more like what Ron suggested but definitely not the
same.

\lx iyá
\ps n
\de rock
\lf Clf
\lv 'a'
\le stone
\lv kap
\le gravel

giving
iyá n. rock. Clf: 'a' 'stone'; kap 'gravel'.

I would suggest that possibly you don't have two senses and that the
basic meaning is something like rock (i.e. the substance). But when
classifiers are used they add information about quantity/shape and so
should be given different English glosses. The fact that the English
glosses are not morphologically related somewhat hides the real
relationship. In fact instead of single word glosses stone and gravel
perhaps you should use a longer explanation stone -> for large piece,
gravel - for piece smaller that a fingertip. Of course I am just
guessing at where the size boundary is.

Actually we have modified the mdf cc tables to use parentheses instead
of quotes around the le field and give an explanation rather than a
gloss generally beginning with for as I suggested in the above paragraph.

Greg


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