[Lexicog] online publishing

[Ronald Moe]

[Note: Thanks for the contributions to this discussion from several of you.
This is a followup posting in which I would like to present a few general
observations about online publishing. I also posted what follows on the FLEx
users list. My apologies to those of you on both lists. I am compiling a
list of publication options which I will post in a later email. RM]

 

All Martin Diprose wants is a website where he can (at least temporarily)
publish his dictionaries. Apparently SIL is working on a place within the
SIL website where he can publish them, but it may take some time before it
is ready. Martin is going to run the dictionaries through Lexique Pro. The
question then is, where does he post the files? We've got Toolbox and MDF
and Lexique Pro. We've got FLEx and WeSay and Pathways. We can produce these
beautiful dictionaries. But we have no easy way to publish them.

 

Currently if you want to publish a dictionary, it appears that you have two
choices. You either have to find an existing website (e.g. a university
website) that will permit you to publish your dictionary under their
auspices, or you have to buy a website and get someone to develop it for
you. It seems to me that the smartest and most efficient thing to do is for
the linguistic (or lexicographic) world to pool their resources and just
develop one big site.

 

So I think the real need is for a website where people can post dictionaries
(and other linguistic descriptions) for the world to see. Such a website
could simply be a means of publishing electronically. But it could also be a
place for people to post dictionaries that are "in process". We need to
create a climate in which dictionaries are seen as "incremental
approximations" of an exhaustive unabridged dictionary. No dictionary is
complete or perfect. So those of us who are building dictionaries,
especially first time dictionaries, of minority languages ought to feel OK
about posting an imperfect dictionary. As it is, people are afraid that
their scholarly reputations will be hurt if they post something that isn't
perfect. But dictionaries are such massive undertakings that we need to view
them differently.

 

Once a dictionary is posted, others can benefit from our work and/or
contribute to it. So I would like a website where every language has a page
devoted just to it. Anyone working on that language can post a dictionary,
word list, grammar, text, or article about it. Ideally someone could run a
query and search all the dictionaries on the website. Ideally other
linguists and especially speakers of the language could contribute to the
dictionary in a wiki environment. But at least we need a place to post
dictionaries and an easy way to upload our databases. Minimally the public
should be able to search it for a language and see what is there. The
website should be free. A person who wants to post a dictionary should not
have to be a programmer or have to set up the webpage. It should already be
set up with easy to follow instructions on how to post something.

 

Ron Moe

 

 

  _____  

From: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
[mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Ronald Moe
Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2011 3:04 PM
To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Lexicog] online publishing

 

  

Does anyone know of a website where a dictionary can be published? A
colleague of mine, Martin Diprose, has been working on dictionaries for four
Ugandan languages. He needs to find a place to publish them.
Thanks,
Ron Moe



  _____  

size=1 width="100%" noshade color="#a0a0a0" align=center> 

No virus found in this message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 10.0.1209 / Virus Database: 1500/3585 - Release Date: 04/20/11

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lexicography/attachments/20110422/6ffd68cf/attachment.htm>