[An-lang] Archiving dictionary files

[Hugh Paterson III]

I totally understand and endorse the primary motivation here. The question
is not meant to prevent or discourage submitters on the basis of categorial
natures of language resources. I merely ran into this terms definition
problem when I did my questionnaire several years ago which resulted in the
poster presentation at ICLDC on: if we, as a community of linguists were
archiving our lexical database resources. Part of what I struggled with in
that presentation was defining what was a lexical database (making the
assumption that a dictionary is a derivative product from a lexical
databased) actually was. So, looking at the holdings of archives and asking
if they had any dictionaries in their collections was a challenge because
they couldn't clearly answer the question. So, I'm asking if you have had
(or have) and thoughts which might help clarify things in this regard.

Note that I fully realize that some people choose to use MS word to type
set a dictionary. The internal structure of data set shouldn't limit our
assessment of a lexical database. For instance the dictionary in MS Word,
is still a database of ideas, just not as re-usable as other formats like
JSON or XML which might match up with the semantics of other derivative
products easier.

- all the best,
- Hugh

On Sun, Oct 14, 2018 at 3:43 PM Nick Thieberger <thien at unimelb.edu.au>
wrote:

> Hugh,
>
> Leaving aside your question for a moment, my request is for any records,
> be they wordlists, dictionaries, topical lists. This is aiming to ensure
> re-usability of the work (even by the creators themselves who may lose
> their primary files) in future.
>
> Nick
>
> On Mon, 15 Oct 2018 at 09:35, Hugh Paterson III <sil.linguist at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Nick,
>>
>> What is the difference between a dictionary and a wordlist? or put
>> another way, what is a dictionary?
>>
>> all the best,
>> -Hugh
>>
>> On Sat, Oct 13, 2018 at 7:32 PM Nick Thieberger <thien at unimelb.edu.au>
>> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> Dear Colleagues,
>>>
>>> PARADISEC is seeking to archive your digital files representing
>>> dictionaries created over the past generations. The availability of
>>> dictionaries in primary text files is particularly important, as it allows
>>> future re-use of the material without requiring laborious text recognition
>>> or retyping of the work.
>>>
>>> Such files can be held on restricted access, but keeping them in an
>>> archive will ensure that the files are findable in the future.
>>>
>>> Draft versions can also be held as safe copies with later versions added
>>> incrementally.
>>>
>>> PARADISEC currently holds a number of dictionaries, some examples of
>>> which are listed below. Some are image files that permit out of print
>>> dictionaries to be available more widely, and some are textual files.
>>> OE1-AmarasiDictionary (text)
>>> WS1-Namakir (text)
>>> TD2-KoitaEnglish (text)
>>> CHA1-dictionary Chamorro (text)
>>> ER1-dictionary Middle Wahgi Dictionary (text)
>>> JL2-anejom A dictionary of Anejom̃ (text)
>>> Kiwai Vocabulary John Harris (images only)
>>> JMJ1-KimDic Kimaragang Trilingual Dictionary: Kimaragang, Malay,
>>> English (text)
>>> KR1-pohnpeian Pohnpeian dictionary (images only)
>>> JW2-Azumeina Azumeina - English Dictionary (images only)
>>> NT8-TEXT Dictionary and texts in South Efate (text)
>>> JTJ1-dictionary Yapese dictionary (text)
>>> MFD1-HARDACRE_DICTIONARY Dictionary of Raga (North Pentecost) Language
>>> by Miss Hardacre (images only)
>>> AC2-VATC201 Atchin - English Dictionary (images only)
>>>
>>> (see more examples here:
>>> http://catalog.paradisec.org.au/items/advanced_search?data_category_ids=5&description=dictionary
>>> )
>>>
>>> Please contact me if you would like to deposit a copy of your dictionary
>>> files. There is no charge for this service.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Nick Thieberger
>>>
>>> ***********************
>>>
>>> Assoc.Prof. Nick Thieberger
>>>
>>> ARC Future Fellow
>>>
>>> School of Languages and Linguistics
>>>
>>> The University of Melbourne
>>>
>>> Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia
>>>
>>> +61 3 8344 8952
>>>
>>> *http://* <http://languages-linguistics.unimelb.edu.au/thieberger>*nthieberger.net
>>> <http://nthieberger.net>*
>>>
>>>
>>> Director, *Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in
>>> Endangered Cultures (PARADISEC)* <http://paradisec.org.au/>
>>>
>>> Editor, *Language Documentation & Conservation Journal *
>>> <http://www.nflrc.hawaii.edu/ldc/>
>>>
>>> CI in the  *Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language*
>>> <http://www.dynamicsoflanguage.edu.au/>
>>> [image: image.png]
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> An-lang mailing list
>>> An-lang at anu.edu.au
>>> http://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/an-lang
>>>
>>
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