[Lexicog] citation forms and how to 'file'

[David Frank]

In an attempted answer to your first question, what I would do is list the reduplicated forms as subentries under the base form. Not as senses of the included stem.

I should leave part of your second question about citation forms to someone who has worked with synthetic languages. I think we have discussed that before, and as I recall, the answer depends on what type of dictionary you are making, and for what audience. But if you fill out your dictionary entries with enough information, including subentries and examples of usage, then I think the user of the dictionary will get the necessary information.

-- David Frank


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "lengosi" <pcunger at msn.com>
To: <lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, October 24, 2008 4:06 PM
Subject: [Lexicog] citation forms and how to 'file'


Since this is my first post, a bit of an introduction might be in
order. I work with Lengo (lgr), a Southeast Solomonic language of NE
Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. I've written up a bit of a grammar and
am now tackling the lexicon (in greater earnest). I have used
FieldWorks to organise my data. But it's organising my data that
brings me here . . . so on to my questions, with a bit of background
to set things up.

Lengo is a derivation-rich language. Nouns can be derived from verbs
and verbs from nouns by means of initial CV reduplication. For example:

/vothe/ n. 'a paddle'
/vo-vothe/ vt. 'someone paddles a canoe' 
/digi/ vi. 'something is closed'
/di-digi/ n. 'a door'

This is quite productive in the language.

Further, transitive verbs can be derived from intransitive verbs by
means of the addition of -Ci, where the consonant C seems quite
unpredictable (and even changes for the same stem depending on the
following object suffix). For example:

/bere/ vi. 'someone sees'
/bere-ngi-a/ vt. 'someone sees / looks at something'
/bere-ni-gho/ vt. 'someone sees / looks at you (sg)'

[/ng/ is, in Lengo, a single consonant ('eng')]

This is very productive in the language. But it is not the only way to
make a transitive verb. There are some intransitive forms that merely
take an object suffix; they do not go through the vi -> vt process of
adding -Ci. For example:

/gharasu/ vi. 'someone moves'
/gharasu-a/ vt. 'someone moves something'

So there's some background; now for the questions.

1. should the nouns derived from verbs (and vice versa) be entered as
main entries (and subentries of the included stem)? or senses of the
included stem?
2. how best to file the transitive forms? and what do I use for a
citation form? It seems I could get away without an object suffix for
those verbs that take transitivising suffix -Ci, but it is difficult
to distinguish transitive /gharasu/ from intransitive /gharasu/
without an object suffix . . . And if I have to include an object
suffix, do I just go with 3sg /-a/?

Well, I think that's enough for now. I'd appreciate any guidance I
could get with this! Thanks,

Paul


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