[Lexicog] Re: Secondary entries (and) Query on how to deal with coined words)

Vincent `Bentong` S. Isles bentong.isles at GMAIL.COM
Tue Apr 10 07:58:48 UTC 2007


--- In lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com, <goodtracks at ...> wrote:
>
> Bentong:
> Your approach for secondary entries in your note (below), is how I
have listed my Baxoje Jiwere entries, namely, under an entry word and
then as subentries as you have indicated.  Again, I list them again in
consideration under the several words in the phrase.

[snip]

> You say that you are using Tool Box.  Initially, in my 1992
Dictionary edition, which was primarily a dictionary lexicon, rather
than a full unabridged edition on which I am now working, I compiled
it by using Shoe Box, the predecessor to tool box.  I attempted to
continue on with Tool Box, but found I spent too much time on how to
figure it out as to work for what I wanted it to do.  As such, I took
my original Shoe Box printout .doc(s), transferred them into
MicroSoft/Word .docs  and I have been at it alone without further use
of any preprogramed software, that used up more of my time to its
operation & comphrehension, in lieu of actually working on the
expanding and reediting of my entires.


Jim,

Thank you for your ideas. I had originally intended to follow the
first course of action (use of subentries) but because I have very
little time for this project (with Wikipedia, pro-federalism
campaigns, our struggle to have the Philippine national language
policy revised, writing stints, and, of course, my full-time job as a
physics teacher :)) I decided against that. The second approach
(separate entries) seem to me a much more efficient process since I
only have to update in one place win I need to update.

However I do not agree with you on the benefit of MS-Word vs. Toolbox
in managing dictionary data. Our group (myself, and two editors from
Bisaya Magasin, an institution of Cebuano literature) actually used
Word in the beginning, but when the file started getting bigger and
bigger as more words were added we found it hopelessly inadequate. We
used Excel for a while but then the same problem became apparent.
Obviously there is no substitute for a software program dedicated to
processing dictionaries. Thank God Toolbox is free :)

In fact, the hard-headedness in sticking to MS-Word of two of our more
senior "Bisayistas" (our local term for a scholar of our language) was
the primary reason why our group decided to continue this project
which we have left off in Nov. 2004, when we were informed that the
two Bisayistas I am referring two had obtained an okay from a national
publishing house for the production of their 20-years-in-the-making
dictionary. Two years and a few months later the dictionary has not
yet been finalized, thanks to the inefficiency of MS-Word. The entire
file now stands at 15 MB, and takes about 30 seconds to load in a
Pentium 3 PC (I'll just leave it at that. I had not edited that
dictionary and I do not intend to :)). We tried to convince the two to
use Toolbox - I even offered to convert it myself without payment -
but they refused. So now we're trying to beat them to publication (our
target year is 2009, and although we are finalizing the dictionary, we
have not approached yet any of the known publishing houses). We have
two advantages on our side, both products of SIL: the Toolbox/MDF
combo, and the Dictionary Development Program. (Toolbox/MDF allowed us
to be more efficient in the processing of the data, while DDP allowed
us to collect words which we never thought before to be existing - not
surprising considering that June 16 this year is still the 106th
anniversary of the publication of the first short story in Cebuano).

[snip]
> I hope the above is helpful.  If clarification is needed, let me know.
> Feliz Celebracíon de la Pascua
> To all your Friends & Family in the Philapines. 
> Jimm
>  
> 
[snip]


Your ideas had indeed been helpful. I still have a lot of things in my
mind which need clarification (for example, whether I committed a
criminal act when I interlinearized an award-winning short story which
we did not have written permission to use in our research but which I
"happened" to obtain an electronic copy of :)) but I think I will just
deal with those questions later.

--Bentong Isles



 
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