[Lexicog] Dictionary of a language with classifiers

[Nilson Gabas Junior]

Hi, everyone!
I am a Brazilian linguist who work with Brazilian Indigenous languages.
I am currently in the process of writing a Karo-Portuguese dictionary,
using Toolbox, but am faced with the following problem.
Karo is a language which makes use of a classifier system. Classifiers
occur (most of the times) optionally, after a noun, and is (usually)
related to its shape.
So, for my dictionary entry (\lx) I am just putting the bare noun, and
for the citation form (\lc) I am putting the noun plus the classifier.
Now, the problem I am facing is that some nouns have different
referents if the classifier which occurs after them change.
For instance, the noun /iyá/ 'stone' may occur with a couple of
classifiers, and, in each occurrence, /iyá + CL/ will mean something
different. Eg. /iyá 'a'/, where 'a' is the classifier for round
objects means 'stone', whereas /iyá kap/, where 'kap' is the
classifier for things which occur in bunches, means 'gravel'.
So, in these cases, for the words which have different meanings
depending on the classifier they occur with, I suppose I CANNOT put in
the lexical entry just the bare noun root, but the root with the
classifier, but I run the risk of being inconsistent in my dictionary
writing. 
How can I solve this problem? Any ideas?
Thanks in advance,
Gabas Jr.




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