Lexicographica : series maior
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164
Research into dictionary use
(2024)
As a rule, dictionaries are compiled to facilitate communication between people speaking different languages or language varieties as well as to provide information on individual linguistic phenomena when there is a need to look things up. In this way, dictionaries count as functional objects; in other words, their actual purpose is to be used to deal with language tasks. Research into dictionary use, which is the topic of this chapter, is concerned with the practice of using lexicographic reference works and also, more generally, with the solving of linguistic problems with the help of reference works. The goal of research into dictionary use is to discover more accurately in which situations, in what way, to what success, etc. lexicographic tools are used. This knowledge can then serve to adapt future dictionaries better to the needs of users.
This chapter is structured as follows. In the first part, we provide an introduction to the topic. User research concerns itself with actual user activity or, to put it more generally, with the experience and observations of dictionary use and is, as such, empirically oriented. As a result, user research has to look to methods from empirical social research, and the foundations of this are the subject of the second section. The third part is devoted to user research in relation to Internet dictionaries, the subject which stands at the heart of this volume.
164
Design can be so much more than creating something pleasing to the eye. The right choice of design tools can support the essential functions of a product. In the case of dictionaries, with their overwhelming number of word entries and sometimes confusing internal article structure, good design can create a “guiding thread” through the maze of information, allowing users to orient themselves and not lose sight of their path.
This chapter will provide an overview of the essential role played by design in both the form of dictionaries and their usability and will also examine the different traditions that exist in the design of (print and electronic) dictionaries (→Section 6.2.1). The development of dictionary design depends on the intended context in which the dictionary will be used, its potential users, and its data modelling (→Section 6.2.2). Usage studies (→Section 6.3) can help delve deeper into user needs concerning dictionary design. Design practice is dependent on a number of elements that are not unique to dictionaries but also on many dictionary-specific factors, for example whether the dictionary is a retrospective digitalisation project or whether the design takes the content of the dictionary or its intended users as its starting point (→Section 6.4). Search functionality is what provides access to an Internet dictionary, so the design of this functionality also has to be planned carefully (→Section 6.5). Finally,the role of established design guidelines and frameworks will be considered, including how templates are employed and how the lexicographic process should be informed by the interconnected development of content and design (→Section 6.6).
164
Lexicographic content interlinked within and between Internet dictionaries can be thought of as a network of streets. The streets connect different pieces of content in Internet dictionaries, thus forming the digital street network between different dictionary entries. The links in the user interface of a dictionary, from one headword to its associated synonyms for example, play an important role here as the main signposts by which users arrive, ideally, directly at their destination. Admittedly, this is not quite the same as reading a signpost in a street (cf. also Blumenthal et al. 1988). If you want to look up a place in an atlas, this can be done very conveniently online nowadays with the search function in digital maps. Direct access to dictionary content works in the same way. Here, there is a wide range of options for dictionary users to access individual pieces of lexicographic content.
This chapter is intended to provide insights into the whole field of linking and access structures. In the process, our aim is not to provide an exhaustive overview but rather to demonstrate, by way of example, which basic possibilities exist. In the first section, we explain what can be understood by linking in Internet dictionaries and how the level of data management differs from the presentational level. In the second part, we present the options for both semasiological (→ Section 5.3.1) and onomasiological access structures (→ Section 5.3.2). Finally, in → Section 5.4, we show what new impulses electronic cross-linking and access structure can offer for modern dictionary research.
164
Data modelling
(2024)
In this chapter, we will first discuss different data formats in which structured content can be formally represented, explaining their respective advantages and disadvantages, and how suitable query languages can be used to retrieve information from these data structures. The third section covers the core issues of data modelling – how to describe the structure of specific lexicographical content, e.g. which “boxes” the lexicographic content should be put in – both in abstract terms and with reference to the data structures introduced before. put in, including the associated advantages and disadvantages. There are many lexicographic projects that face largely similar challenges. For this reason, initiatives have been launched oriented towards developing standardised solutions for modelling lexicographic data, similar to a set of guidelines for sorting Lego bricks. We report on these in the fourth section.
164
There used to be a time when an expert could still easily distinguish a spelling dictionary from a frequency dictionary, a collocation dictionary from a valency dictionary, and a thesaurus from an illustrated dictionary. Rightly enough differentiating between a dictionary, a corpus, an atlas, and a frequency list would have posed not the slightest difficulty. The combination of lexicography and the Internet have made these tasks more difficult: Internet dictionaries are able to bring together many different types of information in new ways and present them in a way that adapts to the user. Networks of dictionaries, blended with corpora, multimedia extensions, and automatic language analysis tools create new types of lexical information systems and dictionary portals.
In this section, we shall attempt to shine a little light in the gloom of different types of dictionaries, dictionary portals, and lexical information systems. In the process, we aim to demonstrate that the disorder brought to the classification of the animal kingdom by a “sniraffion” can be worthwhile.
164
Computer technology is becoming ever smaller and cheaper, both to acquire and operate, and its processing and storage performance is increasing exponentially. This is one of the technological requirements for making dictionaries available online, but so too is the infrastructure of the Internet, which makes it possible to exchange information and data simply and reliably between billions of interconnected computers. This chapter is devoted to the fundamental technological preconditions for present-day Internet lexicography. First, we outline what actually happens “behind” the user interfaces that are visible on the screen when a user accesses a dictionary online and how these processes can be recorded in log data for the purposes of documenting them. Second, we discuss how the identity and long-term availability of content can be maintained in view of the possibility of online material being constantly updated.
166
Dictionary use and dictionary teaching. New challenges in a multilingual, digital and global world
(2024)
Foreign language learners often use electronic dictionaries or other information from the Internet to solve language problems. However, they seem to have great difficulty using dictionaries and online resources appropriately, profitably and successfully. Their teachers also seem unfamiliar with the current dictionary landscape and sometimes insist on using a single (monolingual) print dictionary in class. As a result, dictionaries are often banned from the classroom altogether.
However, in today’s digital, global and multilingual world, appropriate competence in the use of dictionaries is an essential communicative strategy. Dictionary didactics should thus be integrated into foreign language teaching. Against this background, the contributions in this volume discuss how dictionary use can be promoted and integrated into the classroom. They also consider how modern lexical resources and dictionaries should be designed to support learners. Last but not least, they present ideas for educational policies that could promote the use of dictionaries and lexicographic online resources.
This volume offers important insights to language teachers, authors of language teaching materials, practical lexicographers and other applied linguists.