[Lexicog] part of speech in E-V

[Ron Moe]

Jan sent me (offline) a PDF file with some sample English-Lakota finder list
entries. I wish you could all see it as a very interesting example of a
vernacular-English dictionary. Because the samples were formatted, it was
much easier to see what he was trying to accomplish. A straight text file
(such as these emails) don’t quite capture it. Anyway, I was quite impressed
and wish you could see what he has come up with. The format is very nice and
I believe it would be very easy to use. It is actually a finder list and
would work like one. But the structure and formatting looks more like a
classified dictionary. Since each vernacular word is followed by the part of
speech and a brief gloss, the user can more quickly determine which
vernacular word he is interested in. He may need nothing more than the form
of the word, the part of speech and the gloss. If he needs more information,
he can look the word up in the Lakota-English section.

 

Ron Moe

 

   _____  

From: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
[mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Jan F. Ullrich
Sent: Saturday, March 24, 2007 2:33 AM
To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [Lexicog] part of speech in E-V

 

Ron

Thank you for the thoughtful reply. I have send you some examples in a PDF
attachment off-list (since I don't know if Yahoo groups allows
attachements)-, but I want to make another comment here:

> black
> black (adj.) sapa
> black (n.), the color black (Lakota word)
> black (v.), to black sth. (Lakota word)

I understand your reasoning.
But Lakota lacs a noun and an adjective for "black" and on the other hand it
has other words for "black" that fall into other part of speech categories.
So it makes me think, wouldn't it be more "emic" to indicate the Lakota part
of speech, rather than that of the English headword:

black
sapa vs. to be black
asapa vs. to be black on the surface
sapsapa vs-red. to black in each case (inanimate plural)
sabyA vt. to paint sth black
sabic'iya vrefl. to blacken oneself
sabkicichiya vben. to blacken smth for sb
sabya adv. in a black condition

I think that such reflecting of the Lakota part of speech inventory for
'black', rather than the English inventory might be of advantage for the
language learner or dictionary user, to make them think in grammatical terms
of the Lakota language, which is the language of the primary concern in the
dictionary.

I agree this strategy might get more complicated to implement in complex
entries, but I don't think it is impossible to keep this approach
consistent. The question is - are there other disadvantages for such
strategy? Does it for instance make the English-Lakota section less user
friendly or less clear?

Jan

 


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