[Lexicog] Using old dictionaries

Crockett asigwan at YAHOO.COM
Sat Dec 19 03:44:34 UTC 2009


Right now I'm taking a dictionary from the 40's and going through it page by
page checking out all the verbs. First, I ask a couple of guys from my
target dialect if they know the verbs. If they do, I enter them into the
database along with a preliminary gloss. Next I explore the meaning with
these guys and others and try to get accurate glosses and definitions. I
then do other things to fill out a more complete entry. It's been a good
experience. I think I've found a lot of verbs this way that I would never
have found on my own.

 

Previously, I have gone through the whole dictionary entry by entry marking
names of fish, animals, birds, plants, etc. I then check them and enter them
if they prove accurate. I am also entering many of my own discoveries as I
go along. If there are any fake entries, then they won't make it past the
"checking" stage. I'm also finding some poor/inaccurate definitions and
glosses. I'm getting rid of those as I go along. My entries do not look
anything like the entries in the old dictionaries. Once I finish this
dictionary (which may be awhile), then I have lots of other resources
waiting in the wings for their turn to be scrutinized in this fashion.

 

I think this is a way to use previous dictionaries without infringing on any
copyrights. It's not the same as starting from scratch and you are still
doing your own research. Like others have said, nobody can copyright the
words of a language. You can use the words in the dictionary but come up
with your own definitions and such. It has saved me tons of time to do it
this way rather than having to start from scratch.

 

It really helps to have speakers of the language who are educated but who
know their language well. I have found the best people for this to be people
who have grown up in the countryside or in the mountains but have studied at
university. They haven't been away from their language long enough to hurt
it much. Or they are back in their language area now and using it regularly.

 

Crockett

 

From: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
[mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Richard Gravina
Sent: Friday, December 18, 2009 11:34 AM
To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Lexicog] Using old dictionaries

 

  

Thanks to everyone for their contributions.

 

Does anyone have positive experiences on how they built on the work of
previous researchers? Any pitfalls to avoid?

 

As with other areas of linguistics, it is good to benefit from earlier work,
though the earlier work can be expected to be flawed.

 

The context is working with minority languages. 

 

Richard Gravina



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