example sentences in a dictionary

[Ruth Singer]

Hi Laura,

I'd have to agree with Eva. I find that its only by adding example
sentences to my dictionary of Mawng (Australia) that it becomes clear
just how many different uses each word can have. So the collection of
example sentences motivate the structure of entries in terms of how
many senses a more 'lexical' word has or how many functions a more
grammatical word has.

Ruth

On Fri, Oct 22, 2010 at 6:47 PM, Eva Schultze-Berndt
<Eva.Schultze-Berndt at manchester.ac.uk> wrote:
> Hi Laura,
> Thanks for the preview! I think example sentences are actually very helpful
> for illustration of the meaning and collocational use of lexical entries
> too, not just grammatical morphemes - though there are obviously issues of
> time (in preparing the dictionary) and printing costs to be considered.
> Best wishes
> Eva
>
> Quoting lcrobinson at alaska.edu:
>
>> Thanks, everyone.  What I am hearing (both on and off the list) is
>> that, for linguists, the more information the better.  So I will fully
>> parse the example sentences and consider some of the other suggestions
>> as well.
>>
>> If folks are interested, I've attached a PDF of the dictionary with
>> only those entries that have example sentences.  These have now been
>> broken down.  You will see that the majority of the entries with
>> example sentences are grammatical morphemes because I believe those
>> are the most important to illustrate with examples, and I don't want
>> to clutter the dictionary with example sentences that don't actually
>> provide further information to elucidate the entry.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Laura
>> --
>> Laura C. Robinson
>> Postdoctoral Researcher
>> Department of Linguistics
>> University of Alaska, Fairbanks
>> http://go.alaska.edu/lcrobinson
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Oct 20, 2010 at 11:51 PM, Dorothee Beermann
>> <dorothee.beermann at hf.ntnu.no> wrote:
>>> Dear Laura, Hi all,
>>>
>>> I do not know what the best will be in your case, but I
>>> would like to report on our experience with the integration of
>>> annotated examples into a Bono (Abron) dictionary.
>>> (Bono is a dialect of Akan spoken in Ghana).
>>>
>>> We combined a Toolbox dictionary and Interlinear glosses edited
>>> in TypeCraft.
>>>
>>> The 1500 word dictionary of Akan produced at the University of Ghana
>>> in Legon features example sentences, yet these examples were not
>>> annotated,
>>> and  we found them less helpful for learners of Akan and for linguists
>>> which
>>> are the target group of the Legon Akan lexicon.
>>>
>>> I have sent you a sample of the dictionary in a separate mail.
>>>
>>> If you are interested in the example sentences you might want to look at
>>> them
>>> online by going to www.typeCraft.org.
>>>
>>> Use one of the browsers listed on the TypeCraft main page. Go to *Text
>>> search* in the navigation bar on the left of your browser window and
>>> specify'Abron' as language. The annotator and the author of the Bono
>>> lexicon
>>> is Bright Amoah. He did this work for his master's thesis.
>>>
>>> Best
>>>
>>> Dorothee
>>>>
>>>> Hello all,
>>>>
>>>> I am wondering about formatting example sentences in a dictionary.
>>>> This dictionary is aimed at linguistic audiences (it will be bundled
>>>> with the grammar, and it is written in English, which no Agta people
>>>> speak yet).  In the grammar section, I used - for a morpheme boundary
>>>> and = for a clitic boundary.  So, should the example sentences in the
>>>> dictionary be broken down in the same way?  Or not at all?  Or some
>>>> other way (although I would like to do something that isn't too
>>>> inconsistent with the grammar section)?
>>>>
>>>> abad
>>>> iabad v. tie something around waist
>>>>
>>>> Obus pag-man, ni-abad=na i arikawat=na
>>>>
>>>> OR
>>>>
>>>> Obus pagman, niabadna i arikawatna.
>>>> 'After chewing betel, he tied his betel nut pack around his waist.'
>>>>
>>>> This sentence has a very typical amount of morphology.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Laura
>>>> --
>>>> Laura C. Robinson
>>>> Postdoctoral Researcher
>>>> Department of Linguistics
>>>> University of Alaska, Fairbanks
>>>> http://go.alaska.edu/lcrobinson
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Dr. Dorothee Beermann, assoc. prof.
>>> Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU)
>>> Dept. of Language and Communication Studies (ISK)
>>>
>>> Surface mail to: NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway/Norge
>>>
>>> Visit:   Dragvoll, Bldg. 4, Floor 5, Room 4504, NO-7049
>>>
>>> Tel.:    +47 73 596525
>>>
>>> E-mail:  dorothee.beermann at hf.ntnu.no
>>>
>>> Homepage:
>>> http://www.hf.ntnu.no/hf/isk/Ansatte/dorothee.beermann/personInfo.html
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
> ------------------------
> Prof. Eva Schultze-Berndt
> Head of Discipline, Linguistics and English Language
> School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures
> University of Manchester
> Oxford Road
> Manchester M13 9PL, UK
> E-mail: eva.schultze-berndt at manchester.ac.uk
> http://www.llc.manchester.ac.uk/subjects/lel/staff/eva-schultze-berndt/

-- 
Ruth Singer
Linguistics Program
School of Communication, Arts and Critical Enquiry
La Trobe University 3086
03 9479 3297

http://www.linguistics.unimelb.edu.au/about/staff/profiles/singer/