[Lexicog] Using old dictionaries

[David Joffe]

> I've had a couple of queries from people I'm advising about using
> previously published dictionaries. These concern African languages
> where there is a published work which is old butstill in print. In
> both cases there are mother tongue speakers who wish to use the old
> dictionary as a basis for a new dictionary, which may also be
> published.
> 
> Firstly, what are the copyright issues? How much revision or
> enhancement is necessary for the new dictionary to be a different
> work?

IANAL, but generally it would have to be so massively different that 
one 'might as well' start from scratch. At best one could use the 
old dictionary as one of your references when doing a new one. 
Otherwise, better would be to approach the publisher and try get 
permission to do a new one or to use the old one, they might be 
willing to discuss options. It's not worth taking the risk when it 
comes to legal stuff ... you could waste years of effort and end up 
in a mess, better to make sure you do everything 'by the book', so 
to speak, from the start.

If the dictionary is very old it might have fallen out of copyright, 
as copyright expires after some (quite lengthy) time, and then it's 
'open game' - so it's worth checking if the copyright has expired. 
Probably doubtful though, especially if the dictionary is still in 
print, but worth checking into.


> Secondly, is this a good way of making a new dictionary? The older
> works may contain a fair number of inaccuracies or be based on a
> restricted set of texts. Would it be better to start from scratch?

There are *some* advantages to using old works - the main ones being 
(and in particular with African languages) that they tend to 
document a lot of the older and more traditional language and idioms 
and so on that are in many cases not well known or widely used 
anymore, so there are benfits with regard to it being a historical 
record and helping preserve culture etc. (providing it's a good 
quality older dictionary). Generally though, in most cases, I'd say 
it's better to start a new dictionary from scratch, using modern 
tools (e.g. concordance software, TLex etc.) and modern principles 
(corpus-driven). The starting point to any new modern dictionary 
should be compiling a corpus. Using proper modern tools/software 
also helps to ensure the data will be in a good shape to do other 
interesting things with it that are relevant these days, e.g. 
publish CD-ROM or cellphone dictionaries. But, it also all depends 
on the goals and preferences and resources and so on of the 
dictionary makers, of course.

 - David

---
TLex Dictionary Production Systems
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