Abstract
Dictionaries have in the past used a word-based approach in which sublexical and multilexical items were not regarded as lemmata. Metalexicography as the theoretical component of lexicography requires that sublexical and multilexical items be lemmatized and treated as inde-pendent lemmata in the macrostructure of dictionaries. One of the greater challenges for compiling a better and user-oriented Northern Sotho monolingual dictionary is to treat sublexical and multi-lexical items as macrostructural elements. Treating these items, the lexicographer faces quite a number of challenges. This article proposes possible ways in which sublexical and multilexical elements could be successfully treated in a Northern Sotho monolingual dictionary. Taking stock of these challenges, the writer comes with suggestions that would assist lexicographers in the compi-lation of a user-friendly, lexicon-based monolingual dictionary that would lead users to successful information retrieval. Keywords: sublexical items, multilexical items, affixes, prefixal mor-phemes, suffixal morphemes, integrated microstructure, word-based approach, lemmatization, collocations, compounds, complexes, group prepositions, fixed expressions, morphemes, metalexicographical aspects, word-formation processes, word-internal function, user-oriented mono-lingual dictionary, grammar, homonymous lemma, polysemous lemma, decoding, encoding, semantic comment, semantic transparency
Highlights
During the last decades, before the publication of Zgusta's Manual of Lexicography in 1971 and F.J
Van Wyk (1995: 43) writes: "The morphology of the noun differs in crucial ways from that of the verb and the noun prefix is not mobile or freely exchangeable." Without this knowledge, the lexicographer of a monolingual dictionary cannot succeed in the treatment of the prefixal morphemes
If multiword lexical items such as compounds, collocations and fixed expressions are included in the microstructure or semantic comment of other lexical items, dictionary users would not be able to retrieve their meanings because they would regard any information presented after the definition of a lexical lemma as extralinguistic
Summary
Before the publication of Zgusta's Manual of Lexicography in 1971 and F.J. Northern Sotho dictionaries consisted of word-based macrostructures This approach has not assisted dictionary users to retrieve the required information. One of the greater challenges to compiling a better and user-oriented Northern Sotho monolingual dictionary is to treat sublexical and multilexical items as macrostructural elements. Northern Sotho has a substantial number of sublexical and multilexical items that should be treated in the articles of a dictionary (cf Mphahlele 2001). This article proposes possible ways in which sublexical and multilexical items could be treated in a Northern Sotho monolingual dictionary Taking stock of these challenges, the writer wishes to make suggestions that could assist lexicographers in the compilation of user-friendly, lexicon-based monolingual dictionaries that would lead users to successful information retrieval. A number of suggestions are made that could assist in the enhancement of the linguistic quality of a Northern Sotho monolingual dictionary
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