[Lexicog] A method for gathering names of flora

Tue Apr 27 21:10:11 UTC 2004

I would suggest you begin a kind of picture book of as many plants,
flowers and trees that you can gather information on from those areas. I
have mine on computer in digital form. There should be books or other
resources about what flora, in general, is found in the Congo or other
nearby or similar areas. It wouldn´t have to be the exact area you are
targeting. You can find a good picture of just about any plant or tree
on the Internet now. Find the scientific name of flora that occurs in
your area, look them up on the internet, and then make a good printout
of  them (or store them on your computer). You can use these pictures to
help people identify what the name of that plant is. These could be
speakers of the language who visit you from those areas or who are
visited in those areas. I imagine you could also use them as part of a
DDP workshop.

You´d still have to do good research to make sure you get the right
names. People will give you the wrong names for plants. I have found
that when several people agree on the name of a plant, then usually you
can be pretty sure it is correct (not always, though). I never take one
or two people’s opinions of what a plant is called. I have over 400
plant names and 300 pictures in my database. I’d say I’m pretty sure
about the names of 200 of them. Each time I have an opportunity to do
more research, either on visits to those areas, or if someone visits me,
then I am able to add to and/or clarify these names. I just took a trip
to a new area a few days ago and got thirty new names and clarified
several I had had doubts about. I also have doubts about one name I was
pretty sure about before. That’s the way it goes in my research.

You may only end up knowing the names for that general kind of plant and
not the exact name for each species. That would still be better than
what it seems you have now.

Hope that helps,
Crockett

-----Original Message-----
From: Cami Borza [mailto:camiborza at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Monday, April 26, 2004 9:25 AM
To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Lexicog] Lacunae-what should then go in the dictionary?

Chaz,
When you mentioned there is no difference between tree and wood, I
remembered a problem that I have on what to enter in a dictionary and I
would like to ask you all your opinions on this. Let me explain:

I'm working with 8 Congolese languages and the lexicography work was
very slow so far, collecting even as little as 2000 words in 20 years.
Now we have decided that I would help all the teams put together a very
small, basic dictionary (without definitions or much explanation,
basically the word and it's equivalent in French). To do this we are
using Ron Moe's DDP.

The problem that I have encountered is that the natives came up with
lots of words for plants and animals (and not only) that they don't know
what it is in French. So, I ended up with a long, long lists of "sort
of...(plant, animal etc.)". Now that is more or less OK for now, for
this little dictionary. But what about a bigger, broader dictionary?
There might be plants or animals that have not even been discovered yet
by "westerners" or botanists or zoologists!? 

But even if we don't go that far, what would you guys do with this kind
of words that the natives do not know what it is in the national
language or language of broader circulation? For example: one of our
project gave me about 10 different words for different kinds of "manioc"
(a plant they eat in Congo). Their national language is French and I'm
sure they have no idea what those words would be in French. So, what is
a lexicographer supposed to do in this case? 

Thanks for the input,
Cami Borza
SIL-ECG

Chaz and Helga Mortensen <chaz_mortensen at sil.org> wrote:
Wayne wrote:

> In your research, what (apparent) lexical lacunae have you
encountered,
> where there is lack of lexicalization for concepts which seem to be
part
of
> the culture of the language speakers?

It's not a lack of lexicalization, but it has always struck me as odd
that
the Emberas, who live in the jungle, don't differentiate between "tree"
and
"wood".

-Chaz
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