Abstract
This article introduces a prototype of a writing (and learning) assistant for verbal relative clauses of the African language Sepedi, accessible from within a dictionary or from a word processor. It is an example of how a user support tool for complicated grammatical structures in a scarcely resourced language can be compiled. We describe a dynamic light-weight tool aimed at combining user-knowledge with text production support, i.e., user-involved interactive text production of the complicated verbal relative in Sepedi. In this article, the focus is on access in a dictionary use situation. Although the tool is intended as a writing assistant to support users in text production; it also satisfies text reception and cognitive needs, but its focus is on solving text production issues related with the interaction between lexical items and complex grammatical structures in the African (Bantu) languages and for learning by users and/or training users in this interaction.
Highlights
Over the last ten years, several writing aid tools have been developed
In the remainder of this introduction, we recall the main lines of the state of the art in writing aids; in section 2, we present the concept of direct user
User support through direct guidance for complex grammatical structures allows the user to navigate via the shortest route to the information (s)he is looking for in an e-dictionary without having to work through long and often complicated grammar-type representations of complex grammatical structures
Summary
Over the last ten years, several writing aid tools have been developed (see below for an overview). Be/inlato/), Writing assistants and automatic lexical error correction: word combinatories (Wanner et al 2013), A collocation writing assistant for learners of Spanish (Alonso Ramos et al 2014), user driven task and problem-oriented multifunctional leximats (Verlinde et al 2010), online data-driven lexicographic instruments on foreign language learning (Buyse and Verlinde 2013), the work of Bertels and Verlinde on lexicography and corpus analysis (Bertels and Verlinde 2011), etc All such techniques can be embedded in an e-dictionary and are intended to give information on demand, i.e., the user has the option to consult the tool if the "standard" dictionary article does not provide sufficient data to solve the user's specific information need. The user consults the dictionary, in the current case about the translation of the English word "who" into Sepedi (i.e., a translation/text production information need), and upon finding that (s)he needs more help than is available in the "standard" dictionary article, accesses the Sepedihelper on demand
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