[Lexicog] online dictionaries

Ronald Moe ron_moe at SIL.ORG
Tue Jan 20 19:56:04 UTC 2009


Heather Souter wrote:

"if you were to list some of the top online dictionaries for minority
languages, what would they be?"

 

This all depends on what you mean by "online dictionary". If you just mean a
normal dictionary that happens to be posted on the web, then you can
probably find lots of "good" ones-meaning that they are good normal
dictionaries. You could start by going to the Lexique Pro website and
looking at the list of dictionaries that have been published using Lexique
Pro. I haven't looked closely at any of them, but suspect that Wayne Leman's
Cheyenne dictionary is excellent. If you are interested in creative
approaches to online lexicography, then there are several attempts at
innovation. Wiktionary is an attempt at community participation, but is
severely limited in what it permits. For instance as far as I know, you
can't upload an existing dictionary. For a long time I have been trying to
set up a website where we could post dictionaries that are "in process".
Unfortunately I'm not a web designer. My dream is that all of us could
upload our dictionaries in some standard format, allow our language
community to work on the dictionary (and/or make suggestions that would then
be accepted by an editor), and allow the public (and researchers) to search
all the dictionaries on the site. One of the best ways to get the community
involved would be to include the DDP word collection method, much as
FieldWorks Language Explorer has. This would make it fun and efficient to
develop dictionaries online. This could be done. SIL is developing a website
where people can upload a standardized wordlist (e.g. Swadesh) for a
language, which could then be compared to other word lists for historical
and comparative purposes. So the technology is there. All we need is some
programmers. I've got some friends and coworkers who are working on
designing such a site for lexicography. But they are in the initial stages.

There are other innovative approaches. For instance Visual Thesaurus has
attempted to display a thesaurus entry using a "hub and spoke" technique:

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/landing/?ad=google.visualdictionary
<http://www.visualthesaurus.com/landing/?ad=google.visualdictionary&gclid=CJ
LR8uPvnZgCFRYiagodDXDYng> &gclid=CJLR8uPvnZgCFRYiagodDXDYng

Luke Schroeder recently worked out a way to make a dictionary available on
cell phones in the Philippines.

What we don't yet have is a group of us who are working out what an online
dictionary *could* be. In other words, given current technology and given
what users are used to or capable of, what kind of user interface and
functions could make using a dictionary fun and informative? There is always
a lag between the development of a new technology and the creative
implementation of new processes for making use of the technology.
Lexicography is so steeped in the tradition of paper books that it is taking
us a while to rethink what a dictionary could and should be in electronic
form. Our lexicography software is still designed to help us produce
traditional looking dictionaries, whether they are published on paper or
online. Off the top of my head I can think of four ways an online dictionary
could be an improvement over a paper dictionary:

1.	sound files,
2.	interactive photos (e.g. you click on a part of the photo (such as a
car) and the program plays a sound file of the word),
3.	links (or pop up boxes displaying a thesaurus entry or semantic
domain) that enable you to navigate to other related words,
4.	search function with "guess" mode (you type "ther" and the program
suggests "there", "their", or "they're").

If we put our minds to it, we could probably come up with lots of great
ideas for a dictionary of the twenty-first century.

Ron Moe

 

  _____  

From: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
[mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Heather Souter
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 10:30 AM
To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Lexicog] Newbie

 

Taanshi, hello!

What a great post!  I really wanted to know similar info but just never
asked.  Thank-you both for posting to the list!

Here is an additional question for Ron Moe (and/or any others who would like
to respond), if you were to list some of the top online dictionaries for
minority languages, what would they be?  I am especially interested if there
are any good models that are not only sound from a linguistic and archival
perspective but also for community participation in creation and end use.   

If this is a touchy subject for any reason, please feel free to contact me
in a private email.  Thanks!

Eekoshi pitamaa.  That is it for now!
Heather
Metis, emerging Michif-speaker, Community Linguist and Grad Student 

On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 11:12 AM, Ronald Moe <ron_moe at sil.
<mailto:ron_moe at sil.org> org> wrote:

Dear "Newbie"

As far as I know there are no online classes in lexicography. I teach
lexicography workshops and have a full set of PowerPoint presentations to go
with each lecture. The problem is that there is no script to go with them. I
am going to be working over the next few weeks/months to write out the
script for each lecture. I could send them to you as I complete them.

The best background for a lexicographer is a degree in linguistics. You
would need a good all-round program with courses in phonetics, phonology,
morphology, syntax, discourse grammar, socio-linguistics, historical
linguistics, and semantics. Lexicography draws on all of the sub-fields of
linguistics. You should concentrate on semantics and anything you can get on
corpus studies.

The other thing you can do is to read books on lexicography. I would start
with the following:

Atkins, B. T. Sue, and Michael Rundell. 2008. The Oxford guide to practical
lexicography. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Fontenelle, Thierry. 2008. Practical lexicography: a reader. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.

Goddard, Cliff. 1998. Semantic analysis: a practical introduction. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.

If you are interested in minority languages, you will also need a slightly
different perspective. A good perspective would be:

Newell, Leonard E. 1995. Handbook on lexicography for Philippine and other
languages. Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines.

The last thing I would recommend is that you start investigating words.
There are online text corpuses (or more properly corpora) such as:

http://www.collins. <http://www.collins.co.uk/Corpus/CorpusSearch.aspx>
co.uk/Corpus/CorpusSearch.aspx

Perhaps someone else could recommend a better site.

Ron Moe

 

  _____  

From: lexicographylist@ <mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com>
yahoogroups.com [mailto:lexicographylist@
<mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com> yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of
kozmikcallie
Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2009 1:52 PM
To: lexicographylist@ <mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com>
yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Lexicog] Newbie

 

Hello! I'm a new member of the group and I have a few questions about 
lexicography. I'm very interested in working as a lexicographer but I 
have no idea how to get started. It helps that I live in the same city 
where Merriam-Webster is based, but I have some general questions that 
I hope someone can help me out with.

What are the general education requirements for a lexicographer? I have 
my Bachelor's in English, and also a teaching degree.

Also, are there any good online classes in lexicography? There aren't 
any available at the school I go to.

Thank you!

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