[Lexicog] Theoretical constructs vs. practical reference dictionaries

[Mike Maxwell]

'Lou Hohulin' wrote:
> There is a problem here regarding morphosyntactic features even in
> relation to native speakers as our audience. They have not studied
> the lexicon or morphosyntactic structures of their language in any
> formal way.

Just in case my original msg was unclear: I think morphosyntactic features,
as feature structures, are likely to be incomprehensible to nearly everyone.
(Those of you reading this msg are perhaps the exception that proves the
rule.)  For almost everyone, you want to substitute some approximate term
for the technically correct term or structure: [case genitive] becomes
"possessor", even though true possession may represent a small part of the
use ("today's weather" does not imply that today owns the weather!);
[number paucal] becomes "few", etc.

Even for the average linguist, feature structures may be overkill for a
number of purposes, such as interlinear text glossing.  Would the average
field linguist (or you) rather deal in glossing with
    [AGR [Ergative [+Speaker -Hearer -Plural]]]
or
    1 Singular Ergative (or abbreviated 1Sg.ERG)
?

>> Again, for languages with lots of messy morphology (particularly
>> prefixing morphology), the database might contain roots or stems;
>> but the user's view might be some less abstract citation form, or
>> (if it is an electronic publication) a way to do parsing and lookup
>> of fully inflected forms.
>
> Morphology in Austronesian, Philippine-type languages is very complex
> (messy, if you will). Almost all dictionaries are 'root'
> dictionaries; usually the patterning of inflected forms is put in a
> grammar sketch that is included in the dictionary.

And how many native speakers can make effective use of these root
dictionaries?  Maybe it's not too bad if the language is suffixing, but if
it's prefixing? (or has infixing, or reduplication--perhaps with opaque
phonology)

> I'd like to enjoy the preparation and baking, too!

That's why I'm a linguist: I enjoy cooking; the problem lies in finding
someone who enjoys eating my cooking.

    Mike Maxwell




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