Function Theory Of Lexicography Research Articles

Free Institutional Internet References and the Language of Covid-19

The present paper is concerned with the inclusion in free English-language institutional internet reference works of terms used to discuss health, disease, treatments and medical breakthroughs in the context of COVID-19. The focus is on the glossaries that are available on the websites of the UK Parliament and UK Government, i.e. on credible and authoritative platforms that are in various ways intended to serve as seats for asymmetrical transfer and mediation of knowledge about their operations and services (Engberg & Luttermann, 2014): Coronavirus (Covid-19) Definitions is the online interactive glossary published by the Office of National Statistics in 2022; the COVID-19 glossary is published by the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST). Cross-verification of wordlists and lexicographical treatment in selected dictionary entries is carried out vis-à-vis free and unlocked content from the Oxford Reference platform and the English Wiktionary. Integrating insights from the Function Theory of Lexicography (Bergenholtz & Tarp, 1995), and Wiegand’s (1977 ff.) Actional-Semantic Theory of Dictionary Form, we are able to demonstrate that Coronavirus (Covid-19) Definitions and the COVID-19 Glossary provide basic answers to the queries of lay users – which is in line with the government’s social responsibility to pursue health promotion, prevention of ill health and health protection.

Towards a specialised digital monolingual Igbo dictionary on crop cultivation

The monolingual dictionary as an essential language compendium preserved culture specific ideas. In a technologically driven society where visual platform enhanced comprehension, monolingual dictionary presents careful and detailed information on the usage patterns of a given language. This promotes longevity of historic peculiarities for generational connect. Yet, there is a dearth of such dictionaries in the Igbo language. Therefore, this study sets to explore an e- monolingual dictionary model for the Igbo language on crop cultivation. Data were primarily sourced from field work whereas published literature and internet materials comprised the secondary sources of information. While the Function Theory of Lexicography was adopted for the pre-data compilation and presentation, the lexiquepro was used for the post compilation stage of the dictionary. This model avails researchers and learners the opportunity to globally access appropriate lexemes within the Igbo crop cultivation domain. Furthermore, Igbo children (at home and in diaspora) would have been provided with a visual platform to acquaint with specialised traditional Igbo farming practices, values and systems. Consequently, the longevity of the use of Igbo terms associated with traditional farming practices is revitalised among the younger ones. This study suggested that such platforms be provided for other areas of Igbo cultural practices such as pottery, health, blacksmithing, and performances to aid Translators, Terminologists and text writers appropriately convey their messages as well.

Studying Dictionary Use Among the Law Graduates in Pakistan: A Lexicographic Inquiry

Specialized Lexicography as it stands today owes much to the user’s centred approach while dictionary making. The present study empirically investigates the use of law dictionaries by the law graduates in Pakistan. The study has taken account of dictionary usage among the Pakistani law graduates within the framework of Function Theory of Lexicography. The study being descriptive qualitative research is placed within pragmatic paradigm. A sample of six hundred law students, who were non-native learners of English and learning this language in ESP context, was drawn and responses were recorded through data tools i.e., questionnaire, semi-structured protocols and observation as favoured in other studies of the similar nature mostly outside Pakistan. Data were analysed through SPSS and presented in tables and graphs. The analysis of qualitative data, however, is based on thematic approach. The study revealed that that existing law dictionaries do not cater to the decoding as well as encoding language needs of the learners although they were found more in need to consult lexicographical resources in law studies because of the complex nature of legal discourse. The study also revealed that the law graduates sadly lacked in awareness regarding both the right choice of law dictionaries best suited to address their potential needs and skills to exploit the dictionary (ies) in order to retrieve the required information successfully. They preferred to use monolingual, bilingual law dictionaries, general purpose dictionaries (hard copy and digital) along with the online resources as a good combination to solve their language problems. Moreover, their reference skills were found weak which may be improved through explicit instructions on dictionary use. The study is part of a doctoral research.

A taxonomy of user guidance devices for e-lexicography

AbstractThe aim of this article is to give an overview of the nature of current lexicographic user guidance devices and to suggest a possible classification or taxonomy to serve as a guideline for future compilations of such tools to assist users in communicative and cognitive situations, especially in text production, text reception and computer assisted vocabulary learning. The higher levels of the taxonomy are broadly based on the Function Theory of Lexicography. The lower level of tools that support the communicative function describes the nature of the interaction of the user with the tool – interactive, automated linking/checking and automated translation. The lower level of the tools that describe the cognitive function can be further expanded, based on the nature of the cognition e.g. into self-study of corpus-based analyses and computer-aided learning. We expect this work to provide a broader basis for the discussion of this dispersed set of tools, and for a more principled design and development of new ones.

Specialised Dictionaries of Economics and Translation

This article describes the “Dictionary of Economics” in terms of the Function Theory of Lexicography. It defends the thesis that such information tools must be designed for assisting specific users to solve the specific needs they have in a translation situation. In particular, I will focus on the solutions offered for individualising data retrieval, which will in turn eliminate the so-called information stress or information death produced when users retrieve so much data that they cannot cope with it. This process is illustrated in two recent online dictionaries, the Diccionario Inglés-Español de Contabilidad: Traducción (Fuertes-Olivera et al. 2012a) and the Diccionario Inglés-Español de Contabilidad: Traducción de Frases y Expresiones (Fuertes-Olivera et al. 2012b). They are especially suitable when translating English accounting texts into Spanish. These two dictionaries are considered high quality 21st Century dictionaries, e.g., as candidates for assisting in the training of professional translators within the field of Economics, one of the topics discussed in this Special Issue of Hermes.

A Usability Evaluation of the Prototype Afrikaanse idiome-woordeboek

The Afrikaanse idiome-woordeboek is a prototype e-dictionary of Afrikaans fixed expressions developed with the intention to test the functionalities of the e-dictionary. This dictionary is based on the function theory of lexicography. The e-dictionary makes use of various technologies. When digital tools are developed it is important to consider the usability of the tool. Usability evaluation was done on the Afrikaanse idiome-woordeboek to determine with what success it can be used. Discount usability methods, viz. heuristic evaluation and usability testing were used. This article reports on the findings from the usability tests which are discussed under the categories of content, information architecture, navigation, access (searching and browsing), help, customisation and the use of innovative technologies to manage data in e-dictionaries for search and display. The usability evaluation showed that the users did not always use the e-dictionary as the designers intended. Various recommendations are made to the designers of the Afrikaanse idiome-woordeboek , as well as for the design of e-dictionaries in general. Recommendations appropriate to e-dictionaries in general are made regarding usability evaluation, information architecture, searching in e-dictionaries, the data that can be included in e-dictionaries and training of users of e-dictionaries.

A taxonomy of user guidance devices for e-lexicography

Abstract The aim of this article is to give an overview of the nature of current lexicographic user guidance devices and to suggest a possible classification or taxonomy to serve as a guideline for future compilations of such tools to assist users in communicative and cognitive situations, especially in text production, text reception and computer assisted vocabulary learning. The higher levels of the taxonomy are broadly based on the Function Theory of Lexicography. The lower level of tools that support the communicative function describes the nature of the interaction of the user with the tool - interactive, automated linking/checking and automated translation. The lower level of the tools that describe the cognitive function can be further expanded, based on the nature of the cognition e.g. into self-study of corpus-based analyses and computer-aided learning. We expect this work to provide a broader basis for the discussion of this dispersed set of tools, and for a more principled design and development of new ones.

Specialised Lexicography for Learners: Specific Proposals for the Construction of Pedagogically-oriented Printed Business Dictionaries

The function theory of lexicography argues that specialised lexicographical products must help learners to transform their information needs into aspects of knowledge of the discipline, and of its discursive properties. Lexicographers, then, must combine information and data access with the user’s need for information and knowledge. To achieve this aim they need to devise theories providing solutions to different lexicographical problems. One such theory has recently been proposed by Tarp (2008), who claims that there are four categories which are central to a general theory of learner’s lexicography: users, user situation, user needs, and dictionary assistance. This paper focuses on dictionary assistance and addresses several lexicographical issues connected with polysemy: the selection of the lemmata of some printed English-Spanish/Spanish-English business dictionaries, their entry structures, sense differentiation, and sense ordering. The analysis leads the author to discuss some proposals with the aim of making business dictionaries more pedagogically oriented, and to include a set of principles pedagogically-oriented business dictionaries must have. They are illustrated in a model entry which has been compiled by rearranging one of the entries studied according to the proposals and principles previously discussed.

Issues and Perspectives in Bilingual Phraseography

Abstract In this article, we consider the problems normally associated with bilingual phraseography and the paradigm that should be used to guide its development. We first present the fundamental aspects that should be taken into account in the characterization of bilingual phraseography. Secondly, we give a general overview of both theoretical and practical bilingual phraseography, paying special attention to the main problems existing in this area. Thirdly, we consider the factors that can determine the development of bilingual phraseography, starting from the notion of the “user needs paradigm” and the contributions from the Function Theory of Lexicography. Finally, we make a brief summary of the main ideas dealt with in the article.

Lexicographical storing: a key lexicographical task in the era of the internet / Lexikographische Speicherung: Eine zentrale Aufgabe der Lexikographie im Internet-Zeitalter / Stockage de données en lexicographie: una tâche centrale de la lexicographie à l’ère d’internet

Abstract A user-driven approach in lexicography - e.g. the function theory of lexicography (Bergenholtz & Tarp 2002, 2003, 2004; Fuertes-Olivera & Tarp 2014; Tarp 2008) - compels lexicographers to use all possible means at their disposal to improve the quality of dictionary use and to ensure an optimal retrieval of information from the lexicographical data. For instance, the advent of the internet has substantially modified the design and compilation of dictionaries in two ways. First, online dictionaries are dynamic tools, which makes them more suitable for meeting user needs in different user situations. Second, thinking in terms of static lexicographic structures is erroneous as these are ill-suited for benefiting from existing and potential internet technologies, for complying with the tenets of the user needs paradigm, and for analysing the merits of lexicographical tasks such as lexicographical storing. This article follows Bergenholtz & Agerbo’s concept of lexicographical structuring, which supports the main tenets of the user needs paradigm and the necessity of analysing the process of storing lexicographical data in a lexicographical database. This analysis supports my belief that lexicographical storing is a new lexicographical task which must be better understood, especially when working with the large amount of data being stored in lexicographical databases such as the one on which we are currently compiling the UNIVERSIDAD DE VALLADOLID INTERNET DICTIONARIES OF SPANISH.

The Design of Morphological/ Linguistic Data in L1 and L2 Monolingual, Explanatory Dictionaries: A Functional and/or Linguistic Approach?

The contributions in Klosa (2013a) provide information on various aspects of the design of morphological data for (German) language dictionaries. Bergenholtz and Gouws (2013), however, reject most of these contributions as sources lexicographers could use for the design of language dictionaries because they are guided by linguistic theory (cf. their critique of Klosa 2013b), instead of Function Theory, and by a misguided application of methods for user research, (cf. their critique of Topel's 2013 use of the questionnaire as method for user research). The first goal of this article is to provide a critical discussion of Bergenholtz and Gouws's (2013) views on the approach of Function Theory to the theoretical, methodological and practical aspects of the design of morphological/linguistic data in L1/L2 (language) dictionaries. It is argued that the approach of Function Theory provides lexicographers only with a usable overview of the design trends in printed and electronic dictionaries for the selection and presentation of morphological/ linguistic data in dictionaries, but that the theoretical, methodological and practical approach of Function Theory is fraught with difficulties. The strategy Bergenholtz and Gouws (2013) use to debunk the linguistic approach to lexicography is not new; it is a well-known strategy used in the rhetoric of Function Theory. The second goal of this article is therefore to point out some of the general problems with a Function Theory of lexicography for the planning, production and publishing of language dictionaries. Given the problems with the theoretical, methodological and practical aspects of Function Theory, it does not offer a viable alternative to the linguistic approach to the design of morphological/linguistic data in L1/L2 (language) dictionaries. It is argued that linguistic lexicography provides lexicographers with access to a vast body of theoretical, methodological and practical research to support the design of morphological data in L1/L2 (language) dictionaries. Furthermore, it is argued that Function Theory has established the importance of functional variables in the design of (language) dictionaries, but that what lexicography needs now is a truly multidisciplinary approach to lexicography, and not an approach that reduces lexicography to the status of a hand-maiden of another discipline, for example, information science, or of a reductionist Function Theory of lexicography.

Classifying Different Definitional Styles for Different Users

This paper proposes an approach to classify definitions as they appear in popularizing texts. Following the function theory of lexicography, we propose a user-centered classification that breaks down definitions according to the way they are deployed in the text and the information they encode. We hypothesize that different types of users can benefit from this classification, which covers a range of definitional styles, from the classic genus et differentia model to function-oriented definitions. The corpus used for this task consists of 50 transcripts from The Science Magazine Podcast (around 400k words), where 570 snippets containing definitional information have been manually annotated and classified.