[Lexicog] Re: Citation forms in Prefixing Languages

[Peter Kirk]

On 20/01/2004 13:07, Mike Maxwell wrote:

> Ron Moe wrote:
> > <snip> ...For a printed dictionary there is
> > simply no good solution.
>
> There is a history of this kind of problem with Semitic languages.  I
> believe the standard Arabic dictionaries use a root-based approach.  I
> also
> believe they are hard for the average Arabic speaker to use, to put it
> mildly.
>
Older biblical Hebrew dictionaries also used a root-based approach, but
these are hard to use even for linguists like myself, because the root
letters tend to disappear in the derived forms. Many of the words listed
under H, Y or N don't contain that letter at all because the root
initial letter disappears when there is a derivational prefix, and you
can only guess which letter has been dropped.

Newer biblical Hebrew dictionaries sort by the surface form of nouns
etc, which means a large section of M which is the commonest prefix
letter (vowels points are ignored in sorting), but verbs are still
sorted by a form which has only the root consonants although that basic
conjugation doesn't always actually occur. The disadvantage of this is
that derived forms are separated from the verb or noun they are derived
from. But this system is much easier to use for most purposes.

--
Peter Kirk
peter at qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk at qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/





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