[Lexicog] popular lexicography

[Koontz John E]

On Wed, 3 Nov 2004, Jimm GoodTracks wrote:
> What is the need to label such dictionaries?  Is it to boast one's
> professional linguistic sophistication?

I would certainly hope not!  That was certainly not the spirit in which I
contributed my own suggestions.  But if the lexicographers are slanging
anyone for their lack of sophistication, then I'm not sure they
necessarily associate lexicographical sophistication with linguists per
se.  It's true that lexicographers should ideally have a good linguistic
understanding of the languages they are working on, but I think there's a
lot more to it, which is one reason I am hanging around this list.  I
think of myself more as a linguist than a lexicographer, and I'm hoping to
learn something.  I think I am.

> There are "dictionary" word lists and phrases composed by the community
> Ioway, Otoe-Missouria elders.  Their contribitions to the community
> language literacy is noted and regarded.

I'm not familiar with the efforts Jimm mentions (though I do know of his
own Ioway-Otoe dictionary and one or two others), but I've seen similar
materials for other Siouan languages.  Materials prepared by members of a
community, even non-speakers or semi-speakers, are certainly always useful
for their content and insights, and any credit the authors get in the
communities or out of them are well-earned.  The honor of a prophet in his
home town is not always secure, of course, as the saying goes.

I think that calling a word list "naive lexicography" is like calling art
"naive."  It's intended to categorize the approach, not establish its
worth.  It's definitely the case that there is no particular association
between "naive lexicography" and being a community member.  I suppose the
Omaha Francis LaFlesche wasn't quite a member of the Osage community, but
some folks claim his Osage dictionary is more than halfway to being an
Omaha dictionary, and it definitely falls into the sophisticated range,
whith extensive information on inflection, examples, cross-references,
extended definitions, etc.

On the other hand, the very non-Winnebago and fairly sophisticated
linguist Ken Miner's Winnebago Field Lexicon is relatively
unsophisticated.  It is orthographically superb, and it does have some
limited, but very useful information on inflection plus various kinds of
cross-referencing (not always consistently applied), but is basically a
word-list glossed with simple word glosses.

No one working with either of these languages would want to be without
these dictionaries, of course, so lack of sophistication not the same
thing as lack of utility, though I think in most cases features that I
would regard as sophisticated significantly enhance utility.

Lexicographical sophistication also doesn't mean the a dictionary is
completely satisfactory and many general and specific traits of the
LaFlesche Osage dictionary, to use that example again, are criticized.

> Their notations have been incorporated in to a more standard orthography
> based on linguistic knowledge.  Yet, for many of the community members,
> the "unsophisticated"  writting systems can be a stepping stone for them
> into a more dignified and phonetically correct orthography.

Sophistication in lexicography or even linguistics also doesn't have to
imply any kind of orthographic sophistication.  These are more or less
independent factors, though they can influence each other.  I can think
of some Eskimo dictionaries that are pretty standard in lexicographical
approach and rely on the standard models of Eskimo grammar, but insist on
very unsatisfactory Roman orthographies.  (I'd prefer not to name names,
but I will state for the record that the lexicographers I have in mind
were definitely not members of any Eskimo community.)  I guess it would
also be fair to say that a lot of the lexicographic sophistication that
goes into preparation of a typical English dictionary is there precisely
to make up for the deficiencies in the orthography!

> Perhaps this need to label is simply a professional academic exercise
> ...

Specialists definitely like to label things!


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