Rufus H. Gouws

Principles and practice of South African lexicography

CITATION: Gouws, R.H. & Prinsloo, D.J. 2005. Principles and practice of South African lexicography. Stellenbosch: AFRICAN SUN MeDIA. doi:10.18820/9781919980911.

Bilingual Dictionaries and Communicative Equivalence for a Multilingual Society

In a multilingual society dictionaries play an important role in assisting to achieve communicative success between the speakers of the different languages. Speakers in a multilingual society often employ a bilingual dictionary as the only instrument to meet their lexicographic needs. This implies that a bilingual dictionary becomes a polyfunctional instrument, presenting more information than just translation equivalents. This article focuses on the contents and the presentation of bilingual dictionaries. To achieve the optimal transfer of information for South African bilingual dictionaries, some general problems are identified and discussed. With the emphasis on the user perspective, metalexicographical criteria are used to investigate problems regarding the access structure and the addressing procedures in Afrikaans dictionaries. Suggestions are made to expand the outer access structure and to employ innovative methods, including the use of inserted inner texts, to improve the inner access structure. Changes in the addressing procedures to make provision for the more frequent use of nonlemmatic addressing procedures are also suggested.

Cross-referencing as a lexicographic device

The mediostructure, that is the system of cross-referencing, is a lexicographic device that can be used to establish relations among different components of a dictionary. This paper focuses on different mediostructural strategies and their practical application in general synchronic dictionaries. The structure of dictionaries is discussed from a metalexicographic perspective in order to explain the system of cross-referencing. It is shown how textual cohesion, achieved by the interaction of the various structural components, is promoted by the use of a system of cross-referencing and improved by an innovative approach towards a mediostructure-orientated lexicography.

Formulating a new dictionary convention for the lemmatization of verbs in Northern Sotho

The aim of this article is to formulate a new dictionary convention in order to satisfy the need for the inclusion and appropriate lexicographical treatment of Northern Sotho verbs ending in -e/-e. It will be argued that from a user perspective and on the basis of frequency of use, compilers of learners dictionaries, or restricted pocketsize dictionaries with Northern Sotho as the target language can no longer ignore or under-treat this important phenomenon.

Ostensiewe adressering in vertalende woordeboeke

Ostensive Addressing in Translation Dictionaries From a semantic perspective the inclusion of translation equivalents can be regarded as the most important component of the lexicographical treatment in translation dictionaries. One seldom finds a complete agreement in the semantic scope of lemma and translation equivalent. Consequently the lexicographer has to include additional entries to achieve a relation of communicative equivalence between source and target language. The need for this additional information is especially noticeable in articles with an equivalent relation of semantic divergence. The polysemous character of the lemma compels the inclusion of different translation equivalents for each polysemous sense of the lemma. To assist the dictionary user in his choice of equivalents it is imperative that the equivalents should be complemented by contextual information. Pictorial illustrations can be employed as a microstructural type to enhance semantic disambiguation. This ostensive addressing is not used properly in Afrikaans translation dictionaries. In contrast to the widely accepted point of view that pictorial illustrations only have an encyclopedic function this paper emphasizes their semantic importance, the extent of their lexicographical function and their range of application. Although the primary utilization of ostensive addressing is found in the differentiation of senses in equivalent relations of semantic divergence, it is also used extensively where a lemma has a low degree of translatability. The explicitness that can be achieved through the use of pictorial illustrations enhances the retrieval of information. This applies to both monolingual descriptive and translation dictionaries. Keywords: addressing, communicative equivalence, contextual information, convergence, divergence, encyclopedic information, equivalent relations, lexicography, meaning differentiation, ostensive addressing, pictorial illustrations, polysemy, pragmatic information, surrogate equivalent, transfer of information, transfer of meaning, translatability, translation dictionary

Toward a Lexicon-based Lexicography

To give a valid account of the complete lexical stock of a language, the selection of lexical items included in a dictionary should represent the typological variety of that language. Because words constitute the largest component of the lexicon, the tradition has been established to treat a large collection of headwords. This approach has led to word-based dictionaries, i.e., dictionaries displaying a word-bias by narrowly construing lemmas as words, even though words are not the only elements in the lexicon. Multiword units and morphemes also function as lexical items. To ensure a sound treatment of all these lexical items the traditional word-based lexicography should be replaced by a broader lexicon-based approach that offers a more comprehensive reflection of the lexicon by listing and treating multilexical and sublexical lemmas.

Afrikaans Learner's Dictionaries for a Multilingual South Africa

Dictionaries have to be compiled in accordance with the specific needs and demands of a well-defined target user. Within the multilingual and multicultural South African society dictionaries should be aimed at the needs of the different groups of language learners. This article discusses aspects of Afrikaans learners dictionaries. The emphasis is on the need and criteria for such dictionaries, the typical target user and on the nature of the macro- and microstructural information to be included. In a learners dictionary the information should be presented in such a way that it can be retrieved without problems. Attention is given to various access structures employed to enhance the retrievability of information. It is argued that a restricted and simplified microstructure leads to a decrease in the density of information but to an increase in the explicitness and retrievability. The article proposes a different approach to the inclusion of certain types of encyclopedic information in learners dictionaries. Keywords: access structures, addressing, density of information, encyclopedic information, explicitness, illustrative examples, learners dictionary, macrostructure, metalexicography, microstructure, pictorial illustrations, retrievability, simplicity, target user, translation equivalents

DIE GEBRUIK VAN ETIKETTE AS LEKSIKOGRAFIESE HULPMIDDEL

OPSOMMING Etikette moet gebruik word om verskillende inligtingstipes in n woordeboek-artikel te merk. Hierdie artikel handel oor die gebruik van etikette as leksikografiese hulpmiddel en bespreek die verskillende etikettipes met n aanduiding van die aard en omvang van hulle leksikografiese funksie. Daar word veral gekyk na die taalkundige waarde van woordeboeketikette. n Parallel word getrek tussen die funksie van etikette en sekere deiktiese kategoriee. Die parallel dui daarop dat etikette ′n verband 1e tussen n lemma en sy optrede in gespreksverband. n Onderskeid word gemaak tussen linguistiese en referensiele etikettering. Etiketgebruik in Afrikaanse woordeboeke word ondersoek en voorstelle word gemaak ter verbetering van die linguistiese en leksikografiese gehalte van die inskrywingstipe. Aandag word ook gegee aan die wisselwerking tussen leksikografie en ander taalkundige dissiplines ter versekering van suksesvolle leksikografiese etikettering.

Article structures: Moving from printed to e-dictionaries

By means of an overview of certain aspects of article structures in printed dictionaries and with reference to some examples from e-dictionaries a number of features of article structures in e-dictionaries are discussed. Reference is made to the positioning of articles in article stretches and functional partial article stretches. Different structural components of articles, i.e. text segments, comments and search zones are distinguished. The increased role of data-identifying entries as a type of non-typographical structural indicator in e-dictionaries receives attention as well as the fact that the traditional division of an article in two comments, typically a comment on form and a comment on semantics, cannot merely be maintained. The value of the cohesion resulting from the use of comments in printed dictionaries is much more restricted in e-dictionaries. The use of search zones and rapid access to these zones have a much more important role in the article structure of e-dictionaries. In the planning of e-dictionaries provision needs to be made for a multi-layered article structure with screenshots that display the data in a variety of search zones. Access to these search zones goes via structural indicators in an opening or further screenshot. Provision needs to be made for one lemma to occur in a comprehensive article but also in a number of restricted articles that can be retrieved from the same database. Users should also have the opportunity to design their own user profile that will allow them to consult dictionary articles structured according to their specific needs. Keywords: article structure, comment, comprehensive article, data-identifying entry, e-dictionaries, item, multi-layered articles, non-typographical structural indicator, partial article stretch, restricted articles, screenshot, search zone, text segments, user profile

Lemmatisation of adjectives in Sepedi

One of the great challenges to compiling better dictionaries for the African languages is to develop sound strategies and procedures for planning the structure of the dictionaries. In this regard all the structural components of a dictionary, including the macrostructure, microstructure, mediostructure and access structure, come into play. Most dictionaries for African languages, including Sepedi dictionaries, fail even at this level. In this article the planning of especially the macrostructure in respect of one lexical category which has been unsatisfactorily treated in Sepedi dictionaries, namely the adjective, will be attempted. Secondly the lemmatisation of adjectives in six Sepedi dictionaries will be critically evaluated. This will be done with the emphasis on various metalexicographical aspects.