[Lexicog] entry creation

[Ronald Moe]

I’ve never seen such an entry. I’ve had to create an entry for a diacritic, but fortunately I could use a naturally occurring word (consisting of a single letter with diacritic) as a citation form. But that’s different.

 

If the dictionary is for linguists, the null symbol ∅ would work fine. If it is for non-linguists, I’m not so sure. The only other option I can think of is to give a description in parentheses:

 

(third singular pronoun) pro. He/she; sometimes the third singular pronoun is not expressed by any word…

 

Here are a few considerations that I can think of: 

 

1) Where will it alphabetize? Will it need a new alphabetic section? Will the software handle it?

 

2) Will any user ever know to look for it or will it only ever be found by accident?

 

3) Will the user understand the article as it is presented? 

 

4) If the users aren’t linguists, will they understand the null symbol or a description such as “null morpheme” or “zero morpheme”?

 

5) Are there other null morphemes that also need to be described? If so, what will the citation form look like (∅²)? If you want a cross-reference, what will it look like (see ∅²)? (Sounds like a chemical formula for carbon dioxide.)

 

I would be tempted to omit the dictionary article and put the discussion in a grammar sketch where I had the space to adequately explain it, for instance by including a pronoun chart to show the system.

 

Ron Moe

 

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From: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com [mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Bill Poser
Sent: Tuesday, May 29, 2012 9:04 AM
To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Lexicog] entry creation

 

  

That's an interesting question. Off the top of my head, perhaps the null symbol: ∅ (U+2205)?

On Tue, May 29, 2012 at 8:57 AM, Lou Hohulin <lou_hohulin at sil.org> wrote:


Have any of you on this list created an entry form for a null/zero morpheme? If so, what did you use as a canonical form?

The third person, singular pronoun in Tuwali Ifugao clearly functions as a pronoun but has no evident form. The 'reference' of the zero pronoun can be cross-referenced by affixes, have either a subject or object grammatical relation with the verb and is in contrast to the use of other third person, singular pronouns. This information should be put within an entry, along with illustrative sentences so who on this list can give me suggestions as to what would be a logical, practical entry form.

Lou Hohulin


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