Beyond definition: Organising semantic information in bilingual dictionaries

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

Towards Multilingual eLexicography by Means of Linked (Open) Data

Abstract. In this short paper, we document the current state of work consisting in mapping various lexicographic resources onto the OntoLex model, which is an OWL and RDF(s) based representation format. This model has been designed in the context of a W3C Community Group effort for supporting the publication of linguistic data in the Linked (Open) Data cloud. The deployment of OntoLex is currently being tested within the ISCH COST Action IS1305 European Network of e-Lexicography (ENeL), which is adapting to the field of digital lexicography guidelines that have been suggested by the LIDER FP7 Support Action

Models to represent linguistic linked data

As the interest of the Semantic Web and computational linguistics communities in linguistic linked data (LLD) keeps increasing and the number of contributions that dwell on LLD rapidly grows, scholars (and linguists in particular) interested in the development of LLD resources sometimes find it difficult to determine which mechanism is suitable for their needs and which challenges have already been addressed. This review seeks to present the state of the art on the models, ontologies and their extensions to represent language resources as LLD by focusing on the nature of the linguistic content they aim to encode. Four basic groups of models are distinguished in this work: models to represent the main elements of lexical resources (group 1), vocabularies developed as extensions to models in group 1 and ontologies that provide more granularity on specific levels of linguistic analysis (group 2), catalogues of linguistic data categories (group 3) and other models such as corpora models or service-oriented ones (group 4). Contributions encompassed in these four groups are described, highlighting their reuse by the community and the modelling challenges that are still to be faced

Proposals for upgrading the lexicographical treatment of prepositions in bilingual dictionaries for business translation

[Resumen] En este artículo partimos de la idea de que solo la existencia de una base lexicográfica adecuada puede ayudarnos a diseñar diccionarios de negocios capaces de ayudar a traducir textos comerciales. El tratamiento gramatical es un buen ejemplo de las diferentes posibilidades con las que cuenta el lexicógrafo. Si, como se propone en este artículo, el lexicógrafo utiliza un enfoque funcional, el tratamiento de los datos gramaticales debe basarse en el uso sistemático de dos estructuras lexicográficas: textos intermedios y sistema de referencias entre los textos intermedios y las entradas. Ilustramos nuestra propuesta partiendo del estudio del tratamiento de las preposiciones en dos diccionarios comerciales bilingües y bidireccionales (Inglés-Español) que creemos que no ofrecen un tratamiento lexicográfico adecuado de las preposicionesMinisterio de Ciencia e Innovación; FFI2008-01703Junta de Castilla y León; VA039A0

Феномен синкретизма в украинской лингвистике

У сучасній лінгвістиці вивчення складних системних зв’язків та динамізму мови навряд чи буде завершеним без урахування синкретизму. Традиційно явища транзитивності трактуються як поєднання різних типів утворень як результат процесів трансформації або відображення проміжних, синкретичних фактів, що характеризують мовну систему в синхронному аспекті.In modern linguistics, the study of complex systemic relations and language dynamism is unlikely to be complete without considering the transitivity. Traditionally, transitivity phenomena are treated as a combination of different types of entities, formed as a result of the transformation processes or the reflection of the intermediate, syncretic facts that characterize the language system in the synchronous aspect.В современной лингвистике изучение сложных системных отношений и языкового динамизма вряд ли будет полным без учета синкретизма. Традиционно явления транзитивности трактуются как совокупность различных типов сущностей, сформированных в результате процессов преобразования или отражения промежуточных синкретических фактов, которые характеризуют языковую систему в синхронном аспекте

Objectivity, prescription, harmlessness, and drudgery: reflections of lexicographers in Slovenia

This contribution reports on a study that set out to paint as complete a picture as pos-sible of the context and content of modern Slovenian lexicography. We aimed to discern the phi-losophical underpinnings, the most noteworthy accomplishments, and the main projects of Slovenian dictionary work as presented by our seven subjects, who are all prominent members of the lexico-graphic community. We sought specialists who work on synchronic topics and concentrate more on the standard language and terminology rather than on dialectal variation and other lexico-graphic topics that are of more interest to scholars than to educated lay persons. The interview script consisted of thirteen narrative questions, designed to allow the interviewees to reflect in as much depth as possible on their daily practice as well as on their underlying vision of what lexi-cography or terminography is. This article discusses the development and influences of Slovenian lexicographic theory and presents part 1 of the results of this study: the views of the practicing lexicographers on whether they perceive their lexicographic work as drudgery and what they see as the essential nature of their role in society — how the dictionary maker can be a force for good and avoid any potential for harm.Keywords: harmless drudge, drudgery, harm, harmlessness, interview, lexicographer, lexicographic philosophy, lexicographic principles, monotony, repetitiveness, tediu

Glagolski prefiks o(b)- u hrvatskome i bugarskome: semantička mreža i izazovi korpusno utemeljena istraživanja

This study compares the verbal prefix o(b)– in two South Slavic languages, Croatian and Bulgarian, from a cognitive linguistic perspective. We focus on the problems arising when constructing the semantic network of this polysemous prefix, particularly on 1) isolating the prefix’s meaning from the meaning of the base verb and 2) identifying core/dominant sub–meanings for all verbs and giving them corresponding semantic labels. Our approach to morphology is based on extensive databases of verbs collected from dictionaries and a few corpora. However, our work with corpora led to a number of challenges. This study thus has two aims: a) presenting challenges encountered in working out semantic networks of prefixes, and b) presenting challenges related to obtaining reliable (quantitative) results from the corpora.U analizi se iz komparativne perspektive razmatra glagolski prefiks o(b)– u hrvatskome i bugarskome jeziku. Teorijski je okvir kognitivna lingvistika. Prva je tema na koju se osvrćemo značenjska mreža ovoga prefiksa u svjetlu polisemije. U tom sklopu posebno razmatramo sljedeća pitanja: 1) kako odvojiti značenje prefiksa od značenja osnovnih glagola, 2) kako identificirati središnje značenje i osnovna podznačenja i kako ih imenovati. Analiza se temelji na opsežnom inventaru prefigiranih glagola prikupljenom u rječnicima i korpusima. U radu s korpusima bilo je nekih izazova, pa se analiza stoga (uz spomenutu problematiku povezanu s razradom semantičke mreže) osvrće i na pitanje kako doći do kvantitativno relevantnih rezultata na temelju korpusa koji su ili ograničena opsega ili imaju druge vrste ograničenja

Planning non existent dictionaries

In 2013, a conference entitled Planning non-existent dictionaries was held at the University of Lisbon. Scholars and lexicographers were invited to present and submit for discussion their research and practices, focusing on aspects that are traditionally perceived as shortcomings by dictionary makers and dictionary users. This book contains a collection of papers divided in three sections. The first section is devoted to heritage dictionaries, referring to lexicographic projects that aim to register all the documented words in a language, particularly those that can be described as early linguistic evidence. The second section is devoted to dictionaries for special purposes and it gathers papers that describe innovative lexicographic projects. The last section in this volume provides an overview of contemporary e- lexicography projects.publishe

Sources for the investigation of meaning in the Hebrew Bible

Many linguistic tools and methods are applied to Biblical texts to gain meaning from them. Such applications do not always take into account the perspective of the investigators, the presuppositions of the method being used, and the nature of the material to which it is applied. These factors all influence the meaning obtained from the text. It is vital therefore to consider the available data in Hebrew, the development and transmission of the Masoretic Text, and the nature of the language contained therein (Chapter 1). The main section of the thesis provides a critical survey of the application of various tools and methods. Chapter 2 provides a summary of the Comparative Method with its presuppositions, a brief overview of Barr’s criticisms of its application to Biblical texts, and guidelines for its use. Chapter 3 looks at the Versions, the influence of the language, theology and motivation of the translators on their production, and the validity of using translations for obtaining meaning from Hebrew. Chapter 4 examines the presuppositions of Lexical Semantics and surveys some applications of this method to Classical Hebrew. Chapter 5 examines Text Linguistics and some applications of Tagmemics to Hebrew narratives, assessing its contribution to the investigation of meaning. The text is like a multi-faceted diamond which can be viewed from any number of angles, both synchronically and diachronically, reflecting potentially innumerable meanings. Each of the tools and methods surveyed here approaches the text from a different perspective and when appropriately applied can be combined to gain as much meaning as possible from the Hebrew Bible. This results in illustration of an integrated approach to the investigation of meaning in Classical Hebrew. Nonetheless, it remains possible to construct a complete linguistic analysis of the text at every level and still not quite understand what it means