[Lexicog] bilingual dictionaries, indigenous semantic relations

[Jane Simpson]

1. Wayne Leman's request for indigenous semantic relations.

In Australia there has been some work on indigenous semantic relations.. A
classic is R M W Dixon's work on the way auxiliary languages reveal
semantic relations that seem like hyponymy:
Dixon, R.M.W. (1971). A method of semantic description. Semantics: An
Interdisciplinary Reader in Philosophy, Linguistics, and Psychology. D. D.
Steinberg and L. A. Jakobovits. Cambridge, U.K., Cambridge University
Press: 651-687.

There's also more recent work by David Wilkins looking at the way semantic
relations are revealed in different parts of the grammar:
Wilkins, David P. 2000. Chap. 5, Ant, ancestors and medicine: a semantic
and pragmatic account of  classifier constructions in Arrernte (Central
Australia), pp.147-216 in Systems of Nominal Classification (Language,
Culture and Cognition, 4) [Back to Basics in Nominal Classification], ed.
by Gunter Senft. Cambridge University Press.

Wilkins, David P. 1997. 'Handsigns and Hyperpolysemy: Exploring the
cultural foundations of semantic association'. in D. Tryon and M. Walsh
eds. Boundary rider: essays in honour of Geoffrey O'Grady, 413-444.
Pacific Linguistics, C-136 413-444.

Wilkins also undertook some work with Arrernte people on classification
tasks revealing relations betweenthings.

In a forthcoming article we comment on the difficulty some users had with
some semantic relations in discussing dictionaries, and we note an
observation of a locally salient relation 'countryman' (the relation
between cigarette and cigarette-lighter).

Corris, Miriam, Christopher Manning, Susan Poetsch and Jane Simpson (In
press). "How useful and usable are dictionaries for speakers of Australian
Indigenous languages?" International Journal of Lexicography.
we discuss some problems

2.  Mike Maxwell's and Mery Martinelli's comments on bilingual lexicography.
I agree with Mike that bilingual lexicography for
languages with small numbers of speakers and no long-term literacy
traditions involves different concerns from bilingual dictionaries of
world languages.  The latest edition of the International Journal of
Lexicography has an interesting article by Lichtenberk on some concerns in
bilingual dictionaries for small languages:
Lichtenberk, Frantisek (2003). "To list or not to list: writing a
dictionary of a language undergoing rapid and extensive lexical changes."
International Journal of Lexicography 16(4): 387-401.

An important case-study on producing a dictionary of an endangered
language is Tonya Stebbins' thesis now published as:

Stebbins, Tonya (2003). Fighting language endangerment: community directed
research on Sm'algyax (Coast Tsimshian). Osaka, Faculty of Informatics,
Osaka Gakuin University.

We have written three articles tackling some questions about bilingual
dictionaries for endangered languages, the one mentioned above and:

Corris, Miriam, Christopher Manning, Susan Poetsch and Jane Simpson
(2000). Bilingual dictionaries for Australian Aboriginal languages: user
studies on the place of paper and electronic dictionaries. Proceedings of
the ninth EURALEX International Congress, EURALEX 2000. U. Heid, S. Evert,
E. Lehmann and C. Rohrer. Stuttgart, EURALEX: 169-181.

Corris, Miriam, Christopher Manning, Susan Poetsch and Jane Simpson
(2002). Dictionaries and endangered languages. Language endangerment and
language maintenance. D. Bradley and M. Bradley. London, Curzon Press:
329-347.

Jane Simpson <jhs at mail.usyd.edu.au>
postal: Linguistics, Transient Building F12, Sydney University NSW 2006
phone: +61-2-9351-3655  fax: +61-2-9351-7572
http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/departs/linguistics/ling/people/Jane_Simpson.html





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