This article gives a critical evaluation of the paradigm approach of the Groot Noord-Sotho Woordeboek to the lemmatisation of verbs and nouns derived from verbs. The verb stem -roba 'break' with its complicated system of derivations will be taken as a case in point. The paradigm presented for -roba will be evaluated in terms of structure, occurrence in Sepedi corpora and dictionaries, actual use by mother-tongue speakers, user-friendliness, contextualisation versus decontextualisation in relation to the cross-referencing system and space utilisation. Bringing together, and lexicographically treating all these forms for a single verb surely is a lexicographic achievement. The question, however, is to what extent such an approach is useful in respect of forms likely to be looked up by dictionary users, whether all of these forms actually exist, how user-friendly the approach and presentation is, if comment on semantics is sufficient and consistent and whether such a lumping approach actually saves space in contrast to entering derivations as main lemmas in a splitting approach.Hierdie artikel gee 'n kritiese evaluering van die paradigmabenadering tot die Groot Noord-Sotho Woordeboek tot die lemmatisering van werkwoorde en naamwoorde wat van werkwoorde afgelei is. Die werkwoordstam -roba 'breek' met sy komplekse sisteem van afleidings word as voorbeeld geneem. Die paradigma wat vir -roba aangebied word, sal in terme van struktuur, werklike gebruik deur moedertaalsprekers, voorkoms in Sepedikorpusse, gebruikersvriendelikheid, kontekstualisering versus dekontekstualisering ten opsigte van die kruisverwysingstelsel en ruimtebenutting geëvalueer word. Die byeenbring, en leksikografiese bewerking van al hierdie vorme vir 'n enkele werkwoord is sonder twyfel 'n leksikografiese prestasie. Die vraag is egter tot watter mate dit nuttig is ten opsigte van vorme wat waarskynlik deur woordeboekgebruikers opgesoek sal word, of al hierdie vorme werklik bestaan, hoe gebruikersvriendelik die benadering en aanbieding is, of semantiese kommentaar voldoende en konsekwent is, en of so 'n saamgevoegde benadering werklik ruimte bespaar in teenstelling met die aanbieding van afleidings as afsonderlike hooflemmas in 'n opgedeelde benadering.This article was the basis of a shortened version presented as a paper at the Nineteenth Annual International Conference of the African Association for Lexicography (AFRILEX), which was hosted by the Research Unit for Language and Literature in the SA Context, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, Potchefstroom, South Africa, 1–3 July 2014.Grant from the German Ministry for Education and Research, administered by the DAAD and (b) supported in part by the National Research Foundation of South Africa (grant specific unique reference number (UID) 85763).http://lexikos.journals.ac.zaam201
