[Lexicog] lexicography software

Tue Mar 3 22:29:29 UTC 2009

Yes, Ron, revisions can be made to the info on the website. Because I am so busy, I always appreciate it if others make the revisions and post them themselves. As a list subscriber you (or anyone else) has posting privileges on the list website.

Wayne Leman

  Periodically someone on the LexicographyList asks for advice on choosing a software package for their dictionary project. I’m not sure if we are all aware of the resources on our LexicographyList website. (I wasn’t.) There is a page on the website that contains links to quite a few software packages. The URL is:
  http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/lexicographylist/links/Software_001073452817/

  I’ve compiled the information I have into a Word document and have pasted the contents below. There is some overlap between my list and the list on the LexicographyList page. I would welcome any additions and corrections. It would be nice if we could expand our website page to include all the resources that we are aware of and if we could give a brief review and/or endorsement of those that we have used. [note to Wayne Leman: Wayne, can the information below be added to the website and modified as necessary?] Then we can merely refer future inquiries to that page.

  Ron Moe

  Lexicography Software
  Professional lexicography software
  Fieldworks Language Explorer (FLEx)
  Fieldworks is still being developed (as of 2009) but is perhaps the most well developed and complete system for investigating, managing, and formatting dictionary data. It is based on a well-thought through and sophisticated model of the lexicon and has very powerful tools for rapidly developing a dictionary. It is designed to describe a single language, and enables you to produce a monolingual, bilingual, or multilingual dictionary of that language. It has an active email user support group that is very good at answering user questions.
  Their website gives the following description:
  FieldWorks Language Explorer is the lexical and text tools component of SIL Fieldworks. It is an open source desktop application designed to help field linguists perform many common tasks. It can help you:
    a.. elicit and record lexical information 
    b.. create dictionaries 
    c.. interlinearize texts 
    d.. study morphology 
  FieldWorks was reviewed in vol 1 of Language Documentation & Conservation: http://hdl.handle.net/10125/1730 
  Website: http://www.sil.org/computIng/fieldworks/ 
  Cost: free
  Indiana Dictionary Database.
  Their website gives the following description:
  “A multimedia dictionary database program that has been created specifically for compiling dictionaries of American Indian languages. The program, now in its final stages of development, is designed to support standard textual linguistic material as well as sound data, graphical images, and video clips.”
  Website: http://www.indiana.edu/~aisri/software/index.shtml
  Cost: (unknown, password needed)
  Lexique Pro
  Lexique Pro was designed to display and publish a dictionary, both in print and electronically. It was not designed to facilitate the production of a dictionary and has limited editing capability. However some people have used it to edit a dictionary. It accepts files created by Toolbox (MDF), FieldWorks, and WeSay. Their website gives the following description:
  “Lexique Pro is an interactive lexicon viewer and editor, with hyperlinks between entries, category views, dictionary reversal, search, and export tools. It's designed to display your data in a user-friendly format so you can distribute it to others.”
  Website: http://www.lexiquepro.com/
  Cost: free
  Lexus
  Their website gives the following description:
  “Lexus is an [sic] web-based tool to create and edit lexical databases.
  “LEXUS is the web based lexicon tool currently being developed by the Technical Facilities Group at the MPI [Max Planck Institute].”
  Website: http://www.lat-mpi.eu/tools/lexus/ 
  Matapuna
  Their website gives the following description:
  “The Mātāpuna Dictionary Writing System is a free, easy to use, web-based, multi-user, multilingual dictionary writing system. It is currently being used to compile Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori / The Māori Language Commissions monolingual dictionary of the Māori language.
  “The system assists with many aspects of lexicography, including team collaboration, routine error and consistency checking, corpus searching, publishing, and progress monitoring in addition to the traditional headword and entry management.”
  Website: http://www.matapuna.org/ 
  Cost: free
  Multi-Dictionary Formatter (MDF)
  MDF is not essentially a software package, but a standardized list of database fields. It was designed to be used with the popular Shoebox (now called Toolbox) dictionary data management software. MDF includes software tools to print a Shoebox/Toolbox dictionary, but its primary contribution has been to provide a set of standard format markers. Other software such as Lexique Pro will accept MDF formatted files. MDF has a published user guide:
  Coward, David F., and Charles E. Grimes. 1995. Making dictionaries, a guide to lexicography and the Multi-Dictionary Formatter. Waxhaw: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
  You can download the user guide from the MDF website. The MDF website gives the following description:
  “Printing a dictionary frustrates many linguists and anthropologists. Converting lexical databases to formatted documents has been so difficult that—for some—it never gets done before editing is completed. The Multi-Dictionary Formatter (MDF) enables ordinary computer users to print a dictionary. Removing the difficulty from printing saves time; adding the ability to inspect fully formatted lexical entries throughout the dictionary-making process improves quality.
  “MDF is flexible enough to organize lexical data from all over the world for a variety of purposes and print it in several formats. It defines about 100 data field markers. The average dictionary compiler will use about 20 to 30 of them on a regular basis. The markers follow a mneumonic system for ease of learning and recall. Please note that Shoebox does not require you to use MDF. If you already have a well-organized set of markers for lexical data, you can continue to use them (by defining your own database type).
  “Shoebox includes MDF as a kind of export process in the Export command (on the File menu). If you use its system of data field markers, MDF can automatically format your lexical data as a dictionary or reversed index (finderlist).”
  Website: http://www.sil.org/computing/shoebox/MDF.html 
  Cost: free
  Shoebox/Toolbox
  The original Shoebox program was rewritten to support Unicode and renamed Toolbox. The greatest advantage of Toolbox is its extreme flexibility. It can be used to manage any sort of dictionary project. It has been around for a long time and has been used by hundreds of projects, perhaps as many as a thousand. However it is based on older technology and lacks features that newer programs have. Their website gives the following description:
  “Toolbox is a data management and analysis tool for field linguists. It is especially useful for maintaining lexical data, and for parsing and interlinearizing text, but it can be used to manage virtually any kind of data.”
  Website: http://www.sil.org/computIng/toolbox/ 
  Cost: free
  TshwaneLex Dictionary Compilation Software
  The TshwaneLex website gives the following description:
  “TshwaneLex is a professional commercial software application suite for the compilation of dictionaries ('dictionary writing system') or terminology lists. It contains many specialized features that allow any organisation producing dictionaries to dramatically reduce dictionary compilation time, increase the quality and consistency of their dictionaries, and manage larger projects with larger teams. These features include an integrated Corpus Query System, immediate article preview, full customisability, styles system, automatic cross-reference tracking, automated lemma reversal, online and electronic dictionary modules, export to MS Word and typesetting systems (such as InDesign and XPP), and teamwork (network / multi-user) support.”
  TshwaneLex was reviewed in vol 1 of Language Documentation & Conservation: http://hdl.handle.net/10125/1729 
  Website: http://tshwanedje.com/tshwanelex/ 
  Cost: 1900 Euro (commercial version), 150 Euro (academic license)
  WeSay
  WeSay is being designed as a tool for native speakers, rather than professional lexicographers. However lexicographers can use it to engage speakers of the language in the development of a dictionary for their language. It is designed to work on small inexpensive battery-operated machines that can be taken to remote areas. Their website gives the following description:
  “WeSay is an Open Source project aimed at providing computer tools to help communities perform several language development activities on their own. It is extremely simple, task oriented, and will be available on hardware that is appropriate to their environment.
  “Our first version helps people build a dictionary in their own language. It has various ways to help native speakers to think of words in their language and enter some basic data about them (no backslash codes, just forms to fill in).”
  Website: http://www.wesay.org/wiki/Main_Page
  Cost: free
  Other useful lexicography tools
  Dictionary Development Process (DDP)
  DDP is a method for rapidly collecting the lexemes of a previously undocumented language. It uses a list of 1800 semantic domains to help native speakers of a language to think of and write down the words and lexical phrases of their language. Each domain includes elicitation questions and sample words. Several hundred dictionary projects have used DDP to collect 10,000-25,000 lexemes in a two week workshop. The DDP materials have been incorporated into Fieldworks Language Explorer. Other software such as Toolbox and LexiquePro support DDP.
  Website: http://www.sil.org/computing/ddp/index.htm 
  Cost: free
  Wikis (online collaborative dictionary projects)
  DACCO
  DACCO is an online collaborative Catalan-English English-Catalan dictionary project.
  Website: http://www.catalandictionary.org/eng/ 
  Cost: free (online wiki)
  LingoZ
  LingoZ is an online collaborative dictionary of English with definitions in English and seven other major languages.
  Website: http://lingoz.com/en/ 
  Cost: free (online wiki)
  Wiktionary
  Wiktionary is an online collaborative project to support the development of a dictionary for any language in the world. Unfortunately it does not appear to be possible to upload an existing dictionary.
  Website: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Main_Page 
  Cost: free (online wiki)
  Leo
  Leo appears to be an online collaborative project to produce bilingual German dictionaries. They welcome additions and suggestions, but it appears that the content of each dictionary is managed by editors. Currently they have German-English, German-French, German-Spanish, German-Italian, and German-Chinese.
  Website: http://dict.leo.org/ 
  Cost: free (online wiki)

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