[Lexicog] polysynthetic languages and dictionaries

[Mike Maxwell]

phil cash cash wrote:

>  i too would like to address this problem someday soon and model nez
>perce verb morphology, but life is just too short and our languages are
>disappearing faster than i can compute.  still, i have a difficult time
>getting past the risk we take by substituting analysis and calculation
>(assumption: computers are faster than human thinkers) for
>understanding and meaning.
>
Don't forget, the dictionary _users_ have short lives, too.  To expect
them (whether native speakers or second language learners) to devote a
lot of time to learning the morphology of a language may not fit with
their goals, either.  They may want to just use the dictionary, and get
on with life without having to take a semester long college-level course
in morphology.

>...compound
>this with the fact that dictionaries by design have never been
>transparent or desirable for indigenous speech communities to begin
>with because they are almost always modeled from Indo-European sources.
>
>
This is simply not true.  There are lots of traditions of dictionary
making outside the IndoEuropean one (the Arabic one for example, or
Chinese).  And there has been extensive work in the last century by many
lexicographers on making printed dictionaries, and more recently
electronic ones, based on a non-IndoEuropean-centric understanding of
languages/ linguistics.

    Mike Maxwell


------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
Yahoo! Domains - Claim yours for only $14.70
http://us.click.yahoo.com/Z1wmxD/DREIAA/yQLSAA/HKE4lB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->


Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/lexicographylist/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
     lexicographylist-unsubscribe at yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
     http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/