[Lexicog] field testing

[Chaz and Helga Mortensen]

The main problem we have is the citation form for verbs. One possibility is
the future tense, but some verbs would never be said in the future tense in
a natural context, so people don't recognize them. Then there's the past
tense, which is more natural and is the best context for showing verbs which
differ only by stress, but since the past tense suffix starts with S, the
main, simple form of the verb (without all the wonderful derivational
suffixes) would come almost last in the list of verbs related by initial
root. That is also the problem with the future, since it starts with Y.

The missionaries who gave us their word list as a base for the dictionary
used the irrealis form, which starts with I. That practically solves the
ordering problem in verbs related by initial root. The irrealis rarely
occurs as the only suffix on a verb, however, so we have the naturalness
problem again. My colleague suggested just using the bare verb root as the
citation form. That solves the ordering problem definitively but verbs
almost never occur without suffixation or as compound verbs.
So.................?

-Chaz




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