[Lexicog] Online WRITTEN dictionaries

[Koontz John E]

On Mon, 29 Mar 2004, Thapelo Otlogetswe wrote:
> We are aware of online collaborations like: http://wiktionary.org/ which
> appear unregulated.  We would like to know of similar projects
> elsewhere.

You might want to search the Web for references on something called
faq-o-matic, which is designed to handle hierarchically regulated
collegial editing of FAQ documents (frequently asked question lists).
FOM is available at no charge.  I know of some commercial products for
somewhat similar purposes.  I am not aware of any collaborative dictionary
writing software, but there have certainly been a number of web-based
colalborative composition tools, moderated and unmoderated.

In connection with the idea of collaborative composition, one of the
things I regret about the Comparative Siouan Dictionary project is that we
were not able to use a shared database approach.  We had certain not very
elaborate conventions - what could be deleted or modified, provisional
fields that were rendered accepted when all had signed them, keeping logs
fields in records, etc.- but no way to edit the database at the same time.
We relied on circulating the database among the editors like a serial
letter, but this was not very effective.  It would be somewhat more
effective now that email is generally available.  (One of our editors had
no email at first, and several of them have never paid it much attention
when they had it.)  In this sense, however, standard database record
locking can be used to prevent simultaneous editing of the same "atomic
element," or sets of them though not of cross-record conventions, etc.

Another approach that has occurred to me involves use of one the tools
available for collaborative editing of program source code, e.g., SCCS or
CVS (the current standard in open source projects).  CVS has more explicit
modelling of the collaborative process, albeit no management of authority
or an editorial approval process that I am aware of.  CVS is available
with Web interfaces I think.

> Our intention is that the dictionary be both monolingual and bilingual.
> That is, entries should be made in both English and Setswana and users
> should be able to search for English Setswana, Setswana English and
> Setswana Setswana. Has such a project been done for any language? What
> kind of software[s] would be best suited for such a project?

The late Ken Hale was a big believer in the process of native speakers
writing definitions for terms in the target language, even for bilingual
dictionaries, and I believe this would have been a feature in any of the
projects he was involved with.  Among other things, I recall, he believed
that this was in itself an extremely valuable elicitation procedure.  The
one example of such a dictionary that I know best was Dr. Josephine White
Eagle's Winnebago Lexicon, which was published before her death, through
MIT, but is now out of print and, as far as I know, unobtainable. I do not
have a copy myself.  I did see a presentation on the process by Josie and
Ken.  Josie herself was particularly interested in linguistic analysis of
the target language in the language as a means of teaching things like
scientific method, and of consolidating education of and education in the
language, and this was the topic of her dissertation.

> We are aware of many online [monolingual and bilingual] dictionaries but
> most of them have been written "offline" and then put online. I would
> appreciate feedback on this matter.

I believe Josie and prepared her dictionary using word processing
software, effectively offline, though computerized.




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