dictionary verb citations

[idiez at MAC.COM]

        Sooner or later I'm going to have to make a decision regarding 
headword entries in a monolingual nahuatl dictionary. There is 
obviously a long tradition of using the present tense as the citation 
form. Although the early dictionary makers didn't understand exactly 
how nahua verbs work, this system is very efficient as far as 
intuitively distinguishing between verb classes 1-4 or a-d, depending 
on the terminology one uses. Fran's dictionary is the prime example of 
this: parenthesis mark class 2 verbs, and the few class 4 verbs are 
rewritten in the preterite form. Class 1 and 3 are unmarked.
        It's pretty well known that if you ask a native speaker how to say 
"jump", for example, in nahuatl, he or she will answer, "nihuitoniz". 
In other works, the future tense in nahuatl serves as a kind of 
infinitive verb form. My questions is, why didn't Molina and his 
successors use this as the dictionary headword form? And what do you 
listeros think about incorporating this future based form into a 
monolingual dictionary? Obviously it would be followed by a number 
(1-4) to show verb class, and perhaps some kind of notation showing 
transitivity, causitive, applicative, etc.
        I'm not generally in favor of breaking with tradition, especially when 
it works, so I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has an opinion 
on the matter.
John

John Sullivan, Ph.D.
Profesor de lengua y cultura nahua
Unidad Académica de Idiomas
Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas
Director
Instituto de Docencia e Investigación Etnológica de Zacatecas, A.C.
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