[Lexicog] Query on how to deal with coined words

[Ron Moe]

The etymology section of a dictionary article is the place for all
information on a word’s history, including (1) words that have a continuous
history in the language straight from the original proto language, (2) words
that have been borrowed, both from related languages and unrelated
languages, (3) words that were coined, either by adapting existing words or
by making up a completely new word. The history of a word can be very
involved with numerous attested archaic forms and with a history of
borrowings from language to language. Sometimes it is possible to determine
the approximate date at which a word was borrowed. Sometimes the history of
a word is uncertain. Consequently it is sometimes necessary to discuss the
history of a word in sentence format. Unfortunately the database structure
of Toolbox and the fields used by MDF do not facilitate involved
discussions. Instead they were designed to handle specific pieces of
information. These are the fields available:

 

\bw Borrowed word. Used for denoting the source language of a borrowed word.

\et Etymology. The etymology for the lexeme is put here, e.g.: \et *babuy

\eg Etymology gloss. The published gloss for the etymological reference is
given here.

\ec Etymology comment. Any comments the researcher needs to add concerning
the etymology of the lexeme can be given here. Not intended for printing.

\es Etymology source. The reference or source abbreviation for etymology of
the lexeme is given here. Use a Range Set.

 

This system works OK if all you want to do is indicate the source language
of a borrowed word or the proto form of an inherited word. But there are
problems with the system:

 

\bw This is only designed for the language name. If you want to also
indicate the form, there is no easy way to do this. You can combine the
language name and form in the same field, but you may have to use different
fonts for the two. It is difficult (but not impossible) to combine two fonts
in the same field. If you want to record a succession of borrowings, you
would have to put everything into this one field. To produce an article like
the following would be difficult:

 

grace n. Seemingly effortless beauty or charm of movement, form, or
proportion. [Middle English, from Old French, from Latin gra:tia, from
gra:tus, pleasing. See gwere- in Appendix].

 

If you are using the same font for the source language name and the form of
the word, you can combine them in the \bw field:

 

\lx siyudad

\bw Spanish: ciudad

 

\et This field is designed for just the reconstructed proto form. It would
normally be used for the form in the proto-language. The field was not
designed for indicating successive stages in a word’s history. If you want
to use the field for just the proto form, you can’t also use it for a
discussion of successive stages. For instance in English we often want to
indicate the form of the word in Middle English, Old English,
proto-Germanic, and proto-Indo-European. We would want to reserve the \et
field only for the proto-Indo-European form. So there is no field for the
other forms. To produce an article like the following would be very
difficult:

 

yearn v. To have a strong, often melancholy desire. [Middle English yernen,
from Old English geornan, giernan. See gher- in Appendix.]

 

(Examples adapted from the American Heritage Dictionary.]

 

There is no place at all in the system for recording the history of coined
words. All that I can suggest is that you use the \et field for all
discussions of the history of the word. This way the MDF system will allow
you to print the information. If you want specific fields for particular
pieces of information, such as the proto form, then you can set up a custom
field for it. Unfortunately you won’t be able to print these fields with the
MDF system. Here is how I would record the information for your example:

 

\lx dakbayan

…

\et Coined in the 1930s from fv:DAKong fv:BAYAN ‘big town’.

 

You have to put “fv:” before each word that uses the vernacular font. If you
don’t have a special vernacular font, then you wouldn’t need the “fv:”. The
MDF manual tells how to change the font or character style within a field.

 

Ron Moe

 

 

   _____  

From: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
[mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Vincent `Bentong` S.
Isles
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2007 2:57 PM
To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Lexicog] Query on how to deal with coined words

 

Hello,

I am Bentong Isles, and I am part of a group compiling a dictionary of
the Cebuano language (ISO 632 code ceb). We are using ToolBox to
compile our data. In the 1930's Cebuano received a lot of "coined
words" as "real Cebuano" equivalents for Spanish and English words
used at that time. For example, instead of "siyudad" for city (from
Sp. ciudad), Cebuano writers during that time invented "dakbayan",
from "DAKong BAYAN", which literally means "big town". My question is,
how do I encode this information in my data file? Does it go into \et?

Thanks for any help that you can offer.

--Bentong Isles

 


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