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

[Ron Moe]

I’ve been using the Consistent Changes program for many years. But it is a
complex program and not easy to learn or use. It is a bit like computer
programming. It has a special syntax and rules. You have to think through
the logic of the changes you put into a table. But it can do amazing things
for you. It can make a lot of tedious changes very quickly. The print
process of MDF uses CC tables to radically transform a Toolbox database into
a printable Word document—and does so in seconds.

 

There are many tasks in lexicography which are repetitious and very time
consuming. This is why a number of years ago I started collecting a number
of CC tables that I was using frequently. They are available on the DDP
website.

 

But I also realized that many people would find it hard to learn how to use
CC and how to modify CC tables. This is why we decided to incorporate the
functionality of CC into FieldWorks (but without the programming-like
language). We tried to make the tools in FieldWorks just as powerful as CC,
but much easier to use. In fact I feel that the editing tools in FieldWorks
are one of its best features. I honestly feel that they will save months of
time in a dictionary project. These tools alone make it worth while
switching to FieldWorks. (FieldWorks also allows you to use Regular
Expressions and CC tables from within the program if you are an advanced
user. So it has both simple, easy to use tools and very powerful tools.) Of
course there are many other superb features of FieldWorks. But these tools
will take much of the tedium out of editing and expanding a dictionary
database. I simply can’t imagine producing a dictionary without a program
like CC or FieldWorks that can make mass changes to a database.

 

Ron Moe

 

   _____  

From: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
[mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Vincent `Bentong` S.
Isles
Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2007 1:12 AM
To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
Subject: Secondary entries (was Re: [Lexicog] Query on how to deal with
coined words)

 

Hi Ron,

Thanks for this information.

I've seen the description of FieldWorks in the website and I think I
do not need yet such a complex program :) Anyway my experience with
Net 2.0 in my workstation had not been that good so I'll keep on using
Toolbox.

I have read the MDF Guide to Lexicography esp. the one on the issue of
having only roots as main entries. Having had some informal training
myself on the derivational nature of Austronesian languages, I had
preferred a root-based approach at the start. But my co-editors, as
well as other writers, cautioned the me and the group against that,
because a lot of people do not know how to extract the root out of the
words they are using (although I am in the opinion that that is very
easy) - that is in fact the very reason why they keep on misspelling
Cebuano words when they write them. (Cebuano is not taught even in the
schools of Cebuano-speaking areas of the Philippines, and,
unfortunately, Tagalog - the one being taught as the national language
- have a very different orthographical system from Cebuano, and so
people always confuse Tagalog spelling rules for spelling Cebuano words.)

I would like to know that "complex procedure". I had spent half of
yesterday and the whole of today trying to understand the Consistent
Changes program, and I do very well think of CC when you wrote
"complex" :)

Thanks!

--Bentong Isles

--- In HYPERLINK
"mailto:lexicographylist%40yahoogroups.com"lexicographylist at -yahoogroups.-co
m, "Ron Moe" <ron_moe at ...-> wrote:
>
> It is very difficult to maintain two identical copies of a subentry.
It is
> too easy to make a change in one and forget to make it in the other.
So we
> don't recommend duplicating the entry in the database. It is best to
> maintain a single entry and duplicate it as necessary when you are
ready to
> print.
[snip]

 


--
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.25/745 - Release Date: 4/3/2007
12:48 PM



-- 
No virus found in this outgoing message.
Checked by AVG Free Edition.
Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.25/745 - Release Date: 4/3/2007
12:48 PM
 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lexicography/attachments/20070410/a21a85e9/attachment.htm>