[Lexicog] Cheyenne dictionary: the jury's verdict

[Wayne Leman]

John Koontz responded:

> On Sat, 27 Mar 2004, Wayne Leman wrote:
> > Marie-Odile, the CD release is experimental so far. We are looking for
ways
> > to improve it. If we can make it easier for Cheyennes to locate
headwords
> > (and, hopefully, also retain display of semantic closeness by dictionary
> > location closeness), we want to do that. There is no search engine on
the
> > CD. The dictionary is just a Microsoft Word document exported from
Shoebox.
> > The user searches the dictionary just as they do any printed dictionary.
>
> It seems to me that one way to get this effect is to publish in HTML or
> XML format instead of *.doc format.

John, recent versions of MS Word include hyperlink and easy conversion from
.doc format to HTML format, as well as direct editing of HTML files. The
Cheyenne dictionary has thousands of hyperlinks as one of its main features
for accessing the sound files to hear the pronunciations of words. It is a
simple matter to add links to related semantic forms. We already have the
relationships stated in the .doc file, but can also link those
relationships. I do know if Shoebox or Toolbox (I assume LinguaLinks has it)
currently has a way to program those hyperlinks, but it is a feature which
would be extremely useful for a dictionary.

> I guess *.pdf format also allows
> links.

Yes

>  Any format that allows links permits easy connections among forms
> with the same stem and indices by stems are easy to provide separately or
> intermingled with the "word form" list.  Linking means that closeness is
> no longer defined only by physical proximity.
>
> Would Guy Gambil's Wordnet suggestion be a way of automating this sort of
> thing?

I am not familiar with WordNet but would like to learn more, just as I would
like to learn more about any program that will display lexical relationships
nicely, and will produce output which is user-friendly to native speakers of
those languages. I hope that those on this list using programs besides the
ones that the list Poll (still available for further voting) shows most
commonly used can describe the programs they are using, their helpful
features, etc.

Wayne
-----
Wayne Leman
Cheyenne website: http://www.geocities.com/cheyenne_language

>
> Of course, even extensive linking is not a complete replacement for
> searching facilities.
>
> John Koontz




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