[Lexicog] folk taxonomies and universal semantic domains within lexical software

[Allan Johnson]

Yes, this sounds good – enabling a FLEx lexical database to simultaneously support two independent systems of semantic domains.

 

Allan J

 

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From: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com [mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Ron Moe
Sent: Thursday, November 09, 2006 2:48 PM
To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Lexicog] folk taxonomies and universal semantic domains within lexical software

 

… … …One easy way to maintain both an etic and emic list of domains would be to allow the user to add an emic number for each domain and sort on either the etic number or the emic number. The user could then choose which domains are relevant for his language, organize/renumber them according to his world view, and export the emic list for publication. But the etic numbers would still be in the database for reference purposes… … …

 

Ron Moe

 

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From: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com [mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Wayne Leman
Sent: Thursday, November 09, 2006 8:19 AM
To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Lexicog] folk taxonomies and universal semantic domains within lexical software

 

  

Following is a slightly revised copy of a message I just sent to a colleague who is on the FieldWorks (FW) team. The issues are relevant to each of us who attempt to discover indigenous semantic domains:

 

___, after you skimmed my database before attempting import to FW FLex, you mentioned that my semantic domains did not exactly fit Ron Moe's list. Here is why: As Ken Pike used to emphasize, there are etic and emic approaches to language data. Ron Moe's approach to lexical research is one of the best I have ever seen. His approach can gather lexical data in a short period of time what many people used to take years to collect. (Of course, one can also benefit greatly from other traditional approaches to lexical data gathering, including text collection and gleaning those texts for new lexical items.) It is appropriate that language software be keyed to the good semantic domains that Ron has developed after careful research of his own, in consultation with others working in lexicography. (I've had helpful exchanges with Ron, whose work I appreciate very much.)

 

But for any dictionary, we need to ask who the audience for it is and whether we want etic or emic categories to be displayed. *IF* a dictionary is intended to be used by the native speakers of a language, it is wise to shift from using any universal etic semantic domain list to the semantic folk taxonomies of those native speakers. As you probably know, different people in different cultures have differents semantic domains. So, for display, such as in Lexique Pro (a fantastic program for use by native speakers for displaying dictionary data), there is wisdom in using native (emic) semantic domains, rather than those of a more universal etic set of domains such as those in Ron's DDP (http://www.sil. <http://www.sil.org/computing/ddp/> org/computing/ddp/).

 

FLex (part of FW) should allow for using Ron's domains for guiding semantic category discovery, but it should also allow for converting semantic domains to those actually used by a language/culture group.

 

We have tried hard over the past 30 years to work toward using Cheyenne semantic domains so that Cheyennes can locate lexical items within the semantic domains that they actually use.

 

Wayne

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Wayne Leman
Cheyenne dictionary online:
http://www11. <http://www11.asphost4free.com/cheyennedictionary/default.htm> asphost4free.com/cheyennedictionary/default.htm

 


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