Abstract
During a keynote address at an international conference of AFRILEX articles from a bilingual dictionary with Afrikaans as one of the treated languages was presented. One of the articles was that of the lemma vuvuzela, which contained the example sentence Vuvuzelas maak 'n groot lawaai by sokkerwedstryde [± Vuvuzelas make a lot of noise at soccer matches]. A member of the audience criticised this example for apparently not reflecting the notion of festivity and celebration, with which the vuvuzela is also associated; instead, it seemed that the example focused only on a negative feature of the vuvuzela. From the ensuing discussion it became clear that there seemed to be no theoretical framework against which the criticism could be validated and productively dealt with, even though the lexicographer ultimately offered to review the example.This article introduces elements of the theory of lexicographical communication and applies them to scaffold such a framework. It is argued that indicators in dictionary articles can be regarded as lexicographic utterances that carry various types of lexicographic messages. These can be systematically and formally analysed to identify functional, non-functional and dysfunctional effects of lexicographical communication. Problems with lexicographical communication can then be diagnosed and addressed. This potential is illustrated by treating the above-mentioned occurrence as a case study. In conclusion, the value of the relevant elements of the theory for the evaluation of dictionaries is briefly outlined.Keywords: appeal, dictionary, dysfunctional effect, expressive, function, functional effect, information, lexicographer, lexicographic message, lexicographic utterance, lexicographical communication, lexicography, non-functional effect, referential, relational, target user
Highlights
This article was prompted by an occurrence during question time after one of the keynote addresses at the annual international conference of the African Association for Lexicography (AFRILEX) held in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, from 2 to 5 July 2013
Referential information can be described as the factual information encoded in a lexicographic message. (This seems to be what at least the function theory refers to as data, but data in the function theory are LUs in the TLC.6) Consider a dictionary article with the lemma vuvuzela
The analyses show that both actual user effects are dysfunctional effects, i.e. effects not intended by the lexicographer, but effects that have threatened successful lexicographical communication
Summary
This article was prompted by an occurrence during question time after one of the keynote addresses at the annual international conference of the African Association for Lexicography (AFRILEX) held in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, from 2 to 5 July 2013. It seemed regrettable to him that the vuvuzela is associated only with excessive noise in the dictionary article In response to this comment, the keynote speaker and some members of the audience argued that the example sentence was included due to the relatively high co-occurrence of the type vuvuzela with the type noise in the relevant corpus. Most of the formal representations are accompanied by natural language equivalents and the article can be read without having to interpret each formal representation It should be stated at this point that the purpose of this article and the theory presented in it is not to choose any side in the apparent disagreement between the lexicographer and the delegate, nor is it to resolve any issue surrounding the vuvuzela. The purpose of the study is to provide a scientific framework which, it is hoped, could facilitate fruitful discussion in addressing issues like the one raised above
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