[Lexicog] Re: [euralex] Jos=?iso-8859-1?Q?=C3=A9_?=Aguirre's metalexicography

[Michael Beijer]

Hi Gilles-Maurice,
I am fully in the digital corner myself.
I am a translator, and the sooner we move everything to digital the
better. You have no idea how I wish I could somehow get my entire
bookshelf of quickly aging specialist bilingual dictionaries into my CAT
tool (translation software). I have piles of dictionaries that still
contain very good content, but which is basically locked away in their
paper pages and will soon just be lost. I am thinking of, e.g., my 4
volume Dutch-English 'Jansonius' from the 70s, my Dictionary of Building
and Civil Engineering by S.N. Korchomkin et al. (Kluwer, 1985), and my
Illustrated Dictionary of Mechanical Engineering by V.V. Schwartz et al.
(1984) – all of which I hardly use because they aren't as readily
accessible as my computer resources.
On the other hand, I am subscribed to several online dictionaries, and
this is where the future of lexicography should be headed if you ask me
as a translator. Graham P Oxtoby's amazing Comprehensive Dictionary of
Industry & Technology <http://translex.co.uk/GWIT.html> , and Aart van
den End's Juridisch-Economisch Lexicon
<http://gatewaywoordenboeken.nl/184.html>  & Onroerend Goed Lexicon
<http://gatewaywoordenboeken.nl/onroerend-goed-lexicon.html>  can be
seen as examples of how to successfully operate a dictionary in the
digital age. They are full of great content, are updated daily, and you
can email their authors term questions and will almost always receive an
answer within 20 minutes. Another success story is the Oxford
Dictionaries Pro <http://english.oxforddictionaries.com/>  (formerly
Oxford Dictionaries Online). This is another dictionary I am more than
happy to pay my annual subscription for, as it has become a one-stop
shop for all of my English-language dictionary needs. Incidentally, I
might be buying myself a hard copy of Graham's Comprehensive Dictionary
of Industry & Technology as a Christmas present when it comes out in
December 2012 (2volumes, 3600 pages!!!), but mostly just for fun. On a
daily basis, I will be accessing it online as I translate.
There are also various interesting free online multilingual dictionaries
popping up like mushrooms, which allow users to add words, such as Leo
<http://dict.leo.org/> , Dict.cc <http://ennl.dict.cc/?s=h.o.h.> ,
bab.la <http://en.bab.la/user_ranking.php> , interglot
<http://www.interglot.com/> , and the Proz.com KudoZ glossaries/term
forums <http://www.proz.com/about/overview/terminology/> , but what I am
waiting for is a site that manages to engender the feeling of community
of the Proz.com term forums with the professional approach of say the
Oxford Dictionaries Pro site. Now that would be a truly modern
dictionary!
Michael
Michael BeijerTranslator & Terminologist(Dutch/Flemish into English)
46 Priory Street, Lewes, East Sussex BN7 1HJ, United Kingdom.Tel. +44
(0)1273 483881Mob.+44 (0)797 093 5608michael at wordbook.nl
<http://wordbook.nl/> Skype/Twitter: michaelbeijer
--- In lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com, "Gilles-Maurice de Schryver"
<gillesmaurice.deschryver at ...> wrote:
>
> Thanks David -- perhaps we ought to declare interest here: we're
(also) in the language technology business (but not for CJK, yet) ...
>
>
>
> So, based on the video at the link below, I'd say the contest has been
won by the dictionary of the future already (unless José Aguirre's
handwriting is that of a medical doctor: sorry wanted a lighter note
;-).
>
>
>
> Perhaps I should also point out that more than just single Kanji
characters are recognized at a time here (which was the initial
challenge): the dictionary of the future recognizes full meaningful
chunks, to take one from the videoé—ªå
‰ ‘flash’.
>
>
>
> That's thus 10 for the electronic dictionary, zero for the paper
dictionary.
>
>
>
> Let's bring on the next challenge, please!
>
>
>
> This is not a joke, this is not about techies having fun, colleagues,
what we mean when we say that the "second revolution" in our field has
arrived, is exactly examples like this. Leave the paper world behind,
and start viewing lexicography in the digital age. Coming up with new
solutions to the age-old look-up problems in Chinese and Japanese
dictionaries is one of them.
>
>
>
> All best,
>
> Gilles-Maurice.
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Joffe [mailto:david.joffe at ...]
> Sent: donderdag 8 november 2012 22:39
> To: 'José Aguirre'; gillesmaurice.deschryver at ...
> Cc: euralex at ...; asialex at ...; afrilex at ...; DSNA at yahoogroups.com;
lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com; ishll at ...;
lexicografie at googlegroups.com
> Subject: Re: [euralex] José Aguirre's metalexicography
>
>
>
> On 8 Nov 2012 at 21:52, Gilles-Maurice de Schryver wrote:
>
>
>
> >     > if I jot down a random Chinese character on a piece of paper
for both of us to look up, 10 times
>
> >     out of 10 I will find it in a paper dictionary before you do in
your digital dictionary.
>
>
>
> >     So here's a nice challenge for the CJK gurus! If Jack Halpern's
>
> > tools can't already beat you on this, let this be the Deep Blue
>
> > lexicographic equivalent. Jack!?
>
>
>
> If I am not mistaken, digital solutions for this problem have already
begun to be implemented, e.g.:
>
>
>
>  <http://www.techinasia.com/pleco-dictionary-android/>
http://www.techinasia.com/pleco-dictionary-android/
>
>
>
> Basically, point your smartphone camera at a character, it runs it
through OCR, and performs a dictionary search for you. I'm sure it's not
perfect, but it's first-generation technology ... I don't know how this
particular implementation would perform in a '10 attempts'
>
> 'paper vs electronic' contest, but I expect these methods would
improve a lot in the next 10 years:
>
>
>
>
>
> ".. the Android iteration of Pleco dictionary has today gone gold, and
now finds a home in the Android Market. It comes with OCR abilities so
that it can scan and ‘read’ Chinese characters using your
smartphone’s camera, handwriting support, voice recognition, and
numerous dictionary options.
>
>
>
> Its range of features means that it can be used by the most casual of
tourists who might want to scan a menu whilst visiting China, to the
most studious of students of the Chinese language who might need to add
specialist dictionaries and make flashcards"
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> - David
>

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