International Journal of Lexicography Advance Access originally published online on June 9, 2006
International Journal of Lexicography 2006 19(3):243-256; doi:10.1093/ijl/ecl012
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Word Formation in an Electronic Learners' Dictionary: ELDIT
Swansea University, School of Arts (Translation)
European Academy Bolzano
p.ten-hacken{at}swansea.ac.uk
andrea.abel{at}eurac.edu
judith.knapp{at}eurac.edu
New words are formed when new concepts need to be named. Word formation is one of the major mechanisms for the expansion of the vocabulary. In second language acquisition, word formation is important for the decoding of words the learner does not know, for the production of regular new words when the learner has not acquired the standard word, and for the creation of a tighter network structure in the mental lexicon, which facilitates vocabulary acquisition. In existing learners' dictionaries, the treatment of word formation does not support the acquisition of word formation rules in a way that would exploit these possible advantages. Optimizing the support of the acquisition of word formation in electronic learners' dictionaries requires a reconceptualization of the task of the dictionary. ELDIT, an electronic German and Italian learners' dictionary of a non-traditional type, takes up the challenge of representing word formation in such a way that its potential for the second language learner can be fully exploited. The implementation of word formation is based on collaboration with Word Manager, a system for morphological dictionaries.
1 Ten Hacken and Smyk (2003) discuss the competition between different mechanisms for the coinage of new words in more detail, concentrating on the opposition between analogical and rule-based mechanisms. They conclude that analogical formation is of limited importance and we will not consider it here.
2 The terms procedural and declarative originally refer to two programming styles. In a procedural style, the computer is told which steps to follow to reach a solution. In a declarative style, it is only given the information to be used for finding a solution. The choice between the two is largely determined by the programming language (e.g. Pascal vs. Prolog).
3 A description of the database structure and the search algorithm involved in bringing about the information presented by the interface would go beyond the scope of this article. The design of the underlying system and its implementation are described concisely by Gamper and Knapp (2003) and in more detail by Knapp (2004).
4 The ELDIT interface uses colours to enhance clarity in the presentation of information. As they are not represented in the printed screen view, the interested reader is referred to http://www.eurac.edu/eldit for this feature.