International Journal of Lexicography Advance Access published online on August 12, 2008
International Journal of Lexicography, doi:10.1093/ijl/ecn024
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Why does Africa need Sinclair?
Department of African Languages and Cultures, Ghent University; Xhosa Department, University of the Western Cape; and TshwaneDJe HLT (gillesmaurice.deschryver{at}UGent.be)
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Abstract |
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John Sinclair's impact on lexicography in English as well as his pioneering work in corpus linguistics is well known. What is less widely known is his impact on dictionary making for languages other than English. In this article it is shown how Sinclair's revolutionary insights are being adopted and developed in the production of bilingual dictionaries for Bantu languages. This work has proceeded from a Cilubà–Dutch learner's dictionary ten years ago to an online Swahili–English work and a Northern Sotho–English school dictionary. The latter has features that transcend the monolingual level, as corpus-based analyses in different languages have to be mapped onto one another. New questions arise as a result, which focus on the need to show idiomatic bilingual example sentences. A frequency-based approach to lexical and grammatical gaps is adopted, with a seamlessly integrated ‘corpus-based dictionary mini-grammar’. Not all problems have been solved, but the compilers find time and again that analysis of real data provides insights unavailable in an ‘armchair-linguistics’ approach. It is exciting to join those riding the wave that was set in motion by Sinclair.
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  D.J. Prinsloo Current Lexicography Practice in Bantu with Specific Reference to the Oxford Northern Sotho School Dictionary Int J Lexicography, June 1, 2009; 22(2): 151 - 178. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
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