Webminar overview
This webminar provides general introduction to bilingual lexicography. Through lectures and practical collaborative activites, the participants will become familiar with key componentso of lexicographic work: the interaction between the dictionary and its social environment, the organization of lexicographic work, lexical selection, lexical equivalency, and the elements of the dictionary microstructure and microstructure.
Introduction to Bilingual Lexicography
Instructor: Danko.Sipka@asu.edu (responds to e-mail messages before they are sent)
Venue and Time:
Zoom https://asu.zoom.us/j/3809217540?pwd=Qlk2enBZbWNHeXZIbEJ4RVdMa0xiQT09
10-12 a.m. and 1-2 p.m. on Fridays: 1/14/22, 1/21/22, and 2/4/22
Session 1: Dictionary in its Social Setting, Lexicographic Teamwork, Lexical Selection
Topics Covered:
From Society to Lexicography and Back: dictionaries in their social settings
The Compilers and the User: how to make it a two-way street
The Two Views: the development and the production
Lexicographic Teamwork: can too many cooks not spoil the broth
Lexicographic Planning: expecting to be late
Lexical Sources and Selection: the rejection rubric vs. the how-do-I & what-does-it qualifiers
Activities:
Discussing prospective users
Designing user surveys
Determining roles in a collaborative project
Working on the project schedule
Verifying sources
Selecting and rejecting words from a list
Learning Outcomes:
Understanding the relationship between the society and the dictionary making process
Recognizing the needs of prospective users
Understanding the limits of various roles in the dictionary making process
Being able to make realistic plans for lexicographic projects
Being able to apply the strategies of collecting materials
Being able to apply the criteria of lexical selection
Session 2: Lexical Equivalence
Topics Covered:
Lexical Equivalence: the missing, the too many, and the not exactly
Zero Equivalence: filling the gap
Multiple Equivalence: keeping them apart
Partial Equivalence: explaining the difference
Equivalency in the Database: one messy field vs. too many fields
Activities:
Discussing the issues in establishing equivalence
Defining culture-bound words
Working with multiple equivalents
Signaling differences between the equivalents
Designing equivalent fields in the database
Learning Outcomes:
Understanding the complexity of various types of lexical equivalence
The ability to define culture-bound words
The ability to separate multiple equivalents
The ability to mark peculiar features of target language equivalents
The ability to tailor the fields in the database to the parameters of the project
Session 3: Dictionary/Database Macrostructure and Microstructure
Topics Covered:
The Macrostructure: corralling the chaos with alphabetical and other orders
The Entry Word: the customer is always right
The Grammatical Group: pleasing linguists while not disturbing non-linguists
The Meaning and Etymology Group: untangling the cobweb
The Labels: sorting and qualifying
The Database: the stage and the backstage
Activities:
Discussing the lists of words users may need
Determining what needs to be cross-referenced
Determining what forms should be headwords
Determining the level of grammatical information
Assigning various usage labels
Drafting full entries
Learning Outcomes:
Understanding how the dictionary microstructure relates to the users’ needs
Being familiar with the criteria in establishing headwords
Being able to tailor the grammatical group to the users’ needs
Being able to consistently assign various labels
Being able to design the database to fit the needs of the project
Resources
Readigs and PowerPoints for each session are available here:
Danko Šipka (Danko.Sipka@asu.edu) is a professor of Slavic languages and head of the Linguistic Faculty at Arizona State University. He also holds a titular professorship conferred upon him by the president of the Republic of Poland. Dr. Šipka served as a senior linguist or consultant to numerous language industry companies. He holds a Ph.D. in linguistics from the U. of Belgrade, a doctorate in psychology from the Polish Academy of Sciences, and an M.A. in Russian from the University of Poznan. Prof. Šipka is a regular evaluator for various agencies. He is currently immediate past president of the National Federation of Modern Language Teachers Association. Danko Šipka's research interests include lexicography, lexicology, lexical and cross-cultural linguistics. His publications encompass over 150 papers and reviews as well as 30 books, including: Lexical Conflict: Theory and practice. (Cambridge University Press, 2015, paperback 2019) and Lexical Layers of Identity (Cambridge University Press, 2019, paperback 2021), The Geogrpahy of Words (Cambridge University Press, 2021), various other monographs and bilingual dictionaries. He was a recipient of various fellowships, most notably from the Fulbright Program, Humboldt Foundation, American Council of Learned Societies, the Australian National University and Hokkaido University. In spring semester 2021 he was István Deák visiting professor at Columbia University and it spring 2022 he will be a Fulbright Scholar at University of Belgrade, Serbia.