International Journal of Lexicography - recent issues

Suffixes vs Final Combining Forms in English: A Lexicographic Perspective

Prcic, T. — 2008-03-27

The aims of this paper are twofold: firstly, to offer one method of drawing a systematic dividing line between suffixes and final combining forms (FCFs), by applying the ordered set of shared and distinguishing criteria, based on the formal, functional, semantic and pragmatic properties of both suffixes and FCFs, which was originally proposed in the paper ‘Prefixes vs Initial Combining Forms in English: a Lexicographic Perspective’ (Prcic 2005); and secondly, to define the categories of prototypical suffix and prototypical FCF, which would, consequently, help to assign each bound final lexical element to one of the two categories in a synchronically more appropriate way. By filling the current descriptive gap in lexicological theory, this paper especially hopes to contribute to lexicographic methodology and practice with concrete pointers for a more consistent labelling of all bound final lexical elements in dictionaries, both pedagogical and native-speaker ones, where present solutions are to a large extent inconsistent, unexplained and hence confusing for the user.

Rethinking Burchfield and World Englishes

Ogilvie, S. — 2008-03-27

This paper challenges the widespread assumption that Robert Burchfield (1923–2004), the editor of the four-volume Supplement to the OED (1972–1986), included more World Englishes than his predecessors did. It compares Burchfield's Supplement with the text upon which it was based: the 1933 OED Supplement edited by Charles Onions and Sir William Craigie. The case study examines in detail over nine thousand dictionary entries (10% of each dictionary) across nineteen parameters, in order to reveal that Burchfield's lexicographic practice did not always match his stated policies on World Englishes. The results will offer an alternative perspective, and will introduce a different editor, Charles Onions, as the true champion of World Englishes in the OED.

Pronunciation of Acronyms and Abbreviations in e-LDOCE and e-MEDAL

Sobkowiak, W. — 2008-03-27

CD-ROM versions of Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners (MEDAL2) and Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDOCE4) are compared in terms of their phonetic treatment of acronyms and abbreviations. A-onset acronyms are extracted from both dictionaries as a sample. Fifty-four of these appear in both dictionaries. Only twenty-seven are represented both graphically (phonetic transcription) and audially (recording) in both dictionaries. As many as one-fourth have no phonetic representation of either type. Twelve are recorded in LDOCE4 with no phonetic transcription. Neither dictionary offers an easy way to reliably search specifically for acronyms and abbreviations, although both feature rather sophisticated search menus. A number of errors are observed, both in the graphic and audio representation, as well as in their alignment. This is a striking weakness of the two cutting-edge electronic dictionaries in representing such a linguistically and culturally salient phenomenon.

Beyond Definition: Organising Semantic Information in Bilingual Dictionaries

Fraser, B. L. — 2008-03-27

This paper considers the process of organising semantic information in bilingual dictionaries with diachronic coverage, from selecting the textual source-material to designing the entries. The discussion centres on practical aspects of ancient Greek lexicography. First, the traditional semantic frameworks are described. Then, more recent approaches are noted, notably those of Adrados and of Chadwick, both of which aim to integrate contextual data within a semantic framework. Since the relevance of contextual information varies with lemma part of speech, different configurations are required for entries describing nouns, adjectives, and verbs. These are illustrated by three entries from a Greek-English dictionary currently being written at Cambridge. In order to organise data to this level of specificity, stylistic templates are indispensable, and digital software provides a means of providing them. However, systems designed for writing new dictionaries require different features from those designed for encoding pre-existing texts. A description is given of how the lexicographic requirements of the Cambridge dictionary were met by a user-designed system.¹

Lynne Bowker (ed.). Lexicography, Terminology, and Translation. Text-based studies in honour of Ingrid Meyer.

Humbley, J. — 2008-03-27

Elisenda Bernal, Janet DeCesaris (ed.). Palabra por palabra: estudios ofrecidos a Paz Battaner

Alonso Ramos, M. — 2008-03-27

Publications Received

2008-03-27

EURALEX Newsletter

Bogaards, P. — 2008-03-27

The Architecture of Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary: Preparing the Computerised Version

Markus, M., Heuberger, R. — 2007-12-18

In a recent paper (Markus 2007), a first general introduction to the Innsbruck project SPEED (Spoken English in Early Dialects) was given. The project, started on 1 July 2006, concerns itself with the digitisation and philological investigation of Joseph Wright's English Dialect Dictionary (1898–1905). The present paper describes the current tasks and problems faced by the project, mainly in view of the entry structure of the EDD and the difficulties ensuing from its digitisation.

Das Akademieworterbuch lebt! Die monolinguale Lexikographie in Ungarn von den Anfangen bis zur Gegenwart unter besonderer Berucksichtigung des neuen Akademieworterbuchs

Palfi, L.-L., Pajzs, J. — 2007-12-18

This paper seeks to give an overview of Hungarian lexicography throughout the 19th, 20th and the beginning of the 21st century. The aim is to give a historiographical-lexicographical survey dealing with the vernacular, monolingual, explanatory dictionaries of Hungarian. However the main emphasis will be laid on the new flagship of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences: A magyar nyelv nagyszótára ‘Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’ (Ittzés et al. 2006ff), of which this paper proposes to give an account regarding background and process of formation.

Innovation and Continuity in English Learners' Dictionaries: The Single-clause When-definition

Osselton, N. E. — 2007-12-18

The recent innovative use of single-clause when-definitions for nouns entered in English learners’ dictionaries is shown to be paralleled in the seventeenth-century dictionary of Elisha Coles, a self-styled ‘Teacher of the Tongue to Forreigners’. It is uncertain whether the modern use of non-analytical word explanations for the benefit of learners derives from ‘folk-definition’, but in Coles the origin is clear. Most of the when-definitions in his compact octavo dictionary are truncated versions of more expansive and grammatically explicit entries taken from his main source-book, the dictionary of Edward Phillips, or from contemporary legal dictionaries and glossaries of nautical terms, dialect, etc. The Coles dictionary abounds in other unorthodox space-saving defining devices and the prime motive may therefore have been concision rather than a desire to help the learner by using ‘easy language’. Continuity of lexicographical tradition in the use of this definition pattern between Coles and the present day merits further investigation.

Herbert Andreas Welker. O Uso de dicionarios: Panorama geral das pesquisas empiricas

Lew, R. — 2007-12-18

D. Gary Miller. Latin Suffixal Derivatives in English and their Indo-European Ancestry

ten Hacken, P. — 2007-12-18

Daniel Molina Garcia. Fraseologia Bilingue: Un Enfoque Lexicografico-Pedagogico

Fernandez de la Torre Madueno, M. D. — 2007-12-18

Malgorzata Fabiszak (ed.). Language and Meaning: Cognitive and Functional Perspectives.

Aitchison, J. — 2007-12-18

Marie-Eva de Villers. Profession lexicographe.

De Surmont, J. N. — 2007-12-18

Publications Received

2007-12-18

EURALEX Newsletter: Winter 2007

Bogaards, P. — 2007-12-18

Prologue

Martin, W. — 2007-09-12

Government Policy and the Planning and Production of Bilingual Dictionaries: The 'Dutch' Approach as a Case in Point

Martin, W. — 2007-09-12

In 1993 the Ministers of Education in the Netherlands and Flanders decided to install a binational committee of experts in order to co-ordinate, streamline, improve and stimulate the production of bilingual dictionaries and lexical databases with Dutch as a source or target language. This committee, called Commissie voor Lexicografische Vertaalvoorzieningen (Committee for Interlingual Lexicographical Resources) or CLVV, has, under the presidency of W. Martin, set up Action Plans involving some twenty dictionary projects which have been finished or are nearly finished by now. In this article the general policy lines of the CLVV are presented next to the criteria for the selection of language pairs, the infrastructure used, the results obtained and the lessons to be drawn from this ‘Dutch’ approach. The article also serves as a framework in which to situate the articles that follow.

The Referentiebestand Nederlands as a Multi-Purpose Lexical Database

van der Vliet, H. — 2007-09-12

The Referentiebestand Nederlands (RBN) is a lexical database for the Dutch language. Although its main objective is to function as a lexical resource for the production of bilingual dictionaries with Dutch as either source or target language, the RBN is designed as a multi-purpose lexical database. As such, the RBN is successfully used for the production of bilingual dictionaries as well as in the domain of language technology. Being a multi-purpose lexical database the RBN has a flexible structure and it contains more information about the entries than is strictly needed for the production of bilingual dictionaries. In this paper we describe the lexical information in the database and some of the principles and choices underlying its design. We will discuss some aspects of the macrostructure and we will elaborate on the microstructure by describing the lexical information about nouns and verbs. Special attention will be given to some of the characteristic properties of the RBN: the handling (of polysemy by using meaning shifts, the minute description of complementation patterns for verbs and the description of the many examples of combinations, like idioms and collocations.

OMBI: The Practice of Reversing Dictionaries

Maks, I. — 2007-09-12

In this paper we present a quantitative analysis of a bilingual lexical database which has been produced with OMBI, a tool for creating and editing bilingual dictionaries. OMBI has proven to be a valuable tool in the creation of rich bilingual multi-purpose lexical databases. One of the most distinctive features of the tool is reversal of source language and target language in order to create bilingual dictionaries in an economic and accurate way. We will focus on OMBI's reversal function, its initial concept and its results in practice.

The Dutch-Indonesian Dictionary Project

Moeimam, S., Steinhauer, H. — 2007-09-12

The importance of Indonesian as the national language of Indonesia uniting over 700 different ethnic groups with as many languages cannot be underestimated. As the continuation of pre-independence Malay, it has a long history, which is briefly summarized. Since independence Indonesian is developing rapidly, notably by planned and unplanned extension of its lexicon. After two decades of strained relations, contacts between the Netherlands and Indonesia were renewed, and the need for up-to-date lexicographical products became apparent. The Dutch-Indonesian Dictionary project (DIDIC) resulted in two of those: a productive and a receptive version of the dictionary. Illustrations are presented of the differences between these two versions, followed by a discussion of some of the lexicographical challenges caused by the typological differences between the two languages and the natural and cultural differences of the communities of their speakers. The paper ends with some prospects for the lexicographical future.

Optimizing Procedures for the Making of Bilingual Dictionaries and the Concept of Linking Contrastive Lexical Databases

Laureys, G. — 2007-09-12

This article is based on experience gained from working with three bilingual dictionaries within the framework of the CLVV. It aims at describing the editorial processes from a meta-lexicographic perspective and at showing in what respect the elaboration of the contrastive lexical databases underlying the dictionaries has developed and in what way an optimisation of the procedures has been attained. The article focuses on the re-use of existing lexical databases and the reversal function seen in the light of the principle of bi-directionality. In all three projects much attention has been paid to the reversal function: to what extent are the results of an automatic reversion of the L1-L2-part usable for the production of the L2-L1 dictionary? Finally the possibility of linking lexical units from two L2-bases, Finnish and Danish, is demonstrated in order to generate automatically a pre-version of a third bilingual dictionary in line with the hub-and-spoke model.

On the Development of Bilingual Dictionaries in South Africa: Aspects of Dictionary Culture and Government Policy

Gouws, R. H. — 2007-09-12

Looking at the development of bilingual dictionaries in South Africa this article discusses the change from an externally to an internally motivated process. It is shown how the lexicographers of some of the early bilingual dictionaries with Afrikaans as one of the treated languages had aims that included more than a mere linguistic description. The role of bilingual dictionaries in the standardisation of Afrikaans and in the establishment of a dictionary culture within the Afrikaans speech community is discussed and special attention is given to the early dominance of bilingual dictionaries. Reference is made to the ongoing influence of bilingual dictionaries, in spite of an often insufficient planning. New projects and innovative lexicographic endeavours are discussed with the focus on official government involvement in the lexicographic process. Emphasis is also placed on the importance of future lexicographic links between Afrikaans and the indigenous African languages and the influence of government policy on recent lexicographic developments.

Epilogue: Back to the Future

Martin, W. — 2007-09-12

Gacic, Milica. English-Croatian Dictionary of Law, International Relations, Criminal Investigation and Justice, Criminology and Security (Englesko-hrvatski rjecnik prava, medunarodnih odnosa, kriminalistike, kriminologije i forenzicnih znanosti).

Bratanic, M. — 2007-09-12

Wenke Muckel. ,,Trubners Deutsches W orterbuch" (Band 1 4) ein Worterbuch aus der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus. Eine lexikographische Analyse der ersten vier Bande (erschienen 1939 1943).

Lipczuk, R. — 2007-09-12

Publications Received

2007-09-12

EURALEX Newsletter

Bogaards, P. — 2007-09-12