Tasks

1. Give detailed examples, from at least 3 different kinds of dictionary, of:
• metadata
• types of lexical information
2. Create definitions by nearest kind and specific differences for
• hip-hop
• love
• lasagna
3. Describe in detail what is the reality and what are artefacts in
• 3 of the models discussed in the section on models

1. See the following table: html_tabelle_longterm_hw (html, 2 KB)
2. hip-hop: A kind of a youth lifestyle
love: A deep adoring feeling for a person
lasagna: An Italian dish made of layers of large pasta pieces, chopped meat/vegetables and a sauce.

3. Models like a model train, a picture in a dictionary or a photo only represent reality, but are not "real" themselves. A person showed on a photo is only a image, a model train might look like a real train with all its details, but it can't be used the way a real train is used.

The topic of the lecture was computational lexicography and how to create a dictionary. During the lecture we also came across concordances and the KWIC concordance.

Quiz

1. What is a KWIC concordance?
2. Which are the two main components of lexicon construction based on empirical data?

1. KWIC concordance is aspecial kind of corpus-based dictionary. For each word of a corpus is given its context of occurrence (e.g. left/right contexts)
2. Data acquisition (especially if it is a dictionary or a database of a hardly explored language or of a special dialect) and external lexical evaluation (you have to evaluate the utility for the user)

This lecture dealt with semantics. First, the main types of definition (e.g. syntagmatical and paradigmatical definitions) and microstructure were revised again, then we went on to standard dictionary definitions and semantic relations.

Homework

• semantic components
• semantic relations
• semantic fields
• definitions

Ginger Beer

Fermentation has been used by mankind for thousands of years for raising bread, fermenting wine and brewing beer.
The products of the fermentation of sugar by baker's yeast
Saccharomyces cerevisiae (a fungus) are ethyl alcohol and
carbon dioxide.
Carbon dioxide causes bread to rise and gives effervescent
drinks their bubbles.
This action of yeast on sugar is used to 'carbonate'
beverages, as in the addition of bubbles to champagne.

examples for semantic components:

• Saccharomyces cerevisiae (a fungus)

• "champagne", "wine" and "beer" are co-hyponyms of the hyperonym "beverage"
• Saccharomyces cerevisiae is a synonym to "fungus"

• "fermentation", "fermentation of sugar", "fermenting""products of fermentation", "beer", "wine", "champagne", "beverage", "brewing", "ethyl alcohol"
• "carbon dioxide", "to carbonate"
• "effervescent", "bubbles"

• "Fermentation has been used (...) for raising bread, fermenting wine,and brewing beer"
• "Carbon dioxide causes bread to rise and gives effervescent drinks their bubbles"

The contents of this session were all referring to the major topic of syntax: syntactic categories (e.g. parts of speech), structural and semiotic relations and text structure on examples of various texttypes (recipe, website,...)

On December, 12 a guest lecturer did a lecture about Toolbox, which is a kind of a database designed for field work purposes. "Toolbox" analyses and stores text and converts it into an ordered dictionary.

The lecture was dedicated to pronunciation, representation and description of sounds.

Homework

• List
• consonants of German which do not occur in English
• consonants of English which do not occur in German
• vowels of German which do not occur in English
• vowels of English which do not occur in German
• List
• characters of German which do not occur in English
• characters of English which do not occur in German
• 5 English graphemes containing more than one character
• 5 German graphemes containing more than one character

• German consonants not occurring in English:
• sch
• ch (pronounced like in "Chemie")
• English consonants not occurring in German:
• the "th"-sound
• the English "r"-sound
• vowels of German not occurring in English:
• "ö", "ä", "ü"
• "eu"
• "ei"
• vowels of English not occurring in German:
• "ou" (like in "our")
• "a" (as in "fat")
• "au" (as in "laugh")
• German characters not occurring in English:
• "ä", "ü", "ö"
• "ß"
• English graphemes with more than one character:
• "th"
• "ch"
• "ea" (--> "head")
• "gh" (--> "laugh")
• "ti" (--> "exception")
• German graphemes with more than one character:
• "sch"
• "ch"
• "eu"
• "ie"
• "tsch"

The lecture dealt with the surface and deep structure of dictionaries. Since semasiological dictionaries have a table as a basic form (with rows represented by lexical entries and columns representing lexical information) the next topic was dedicated to tables and how to make and format them in word processors and HTML.

The lecture's topic was morphology and word formation.

Homework

The answers to these questions are here

"Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll as an example for word creation

original
Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!
He chortled in his joy.
Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

German translation (found on Wikipedia)
Verdaustig war's und glasse Wieben
rotterten gorkicht im Gemank;
Gar elump war der Pluckerwank,
Und die gabben Schweisel frieben.
»Hab acht vorm Zipferlak, mein Kind!
Sein Maul ist beiß, sein Griff ist bohr!
Vorm Fliegelflagel sieh dich vor,
Dem mampfen Schnatterrind!«
Er zückt' sein scharfbefifftes Schwert,
Den Feind zu futzen ohne Saum;
Und lehnt' sich an den Dudelbaum,
Und stand da lang in sich gekehrt.
In sich gekeimt, so stand er hier,
Da kam verschnoff der Zipferlak
Mit Flammenlefze angewackt
Und gurgt in seiner Gier!
Mit eins! Mit zwei! und bis aufs Bein!
Die biffe Klinge ritscheropf!
Trennt er vom Hals den toten Kopf,
Und wichernd springt er heim.
»Vom Zipferlak hast uns befreit?
Komm an mein Herz, aromer Sohn!
O blumer Tag! O schlusse Fron!«
So kröpfte er vor Freud.
Verdaustig war's und glasse Wieben
rotterten gorkicht im Gemank;
Gar elump war der Pluckerwank,
Und die gabben Schweisel frieben.

This session was dedicated to the structure of a dictionary.

Quiz 1

What is the megastructure?
klick

What is the macrostructure?
klick

What is a semasiological dictionary?
klick

What is an onomasiological dictionary?
klick

Quiz 2 (microstructure)

How many types of lexical information can you find?

• spelling
• pronunciation
• definition
• examples
• genus information for substantives

Is the microstructure of a semasiological dictionary typically a list, a tree or a network?
a list

What kind of structure do the combined macrostructure and microstructure of a semasiological dictionary have?
The structure is a table.

Quiz 3

What is the microstructure of a dictionary?
klick

What kind of lexical information is contained in a dictionary's microstructure?

lexical information within lexical entries:
• meaning: pragmatics and semantics --> definition, examples
• structure: syntax and morphology --> words' construction, place within a sentence
• appearance: orthography and pronunciation

Describe the two dimensions of tyoes of lexical information
These are microstructure and macrostructure.

Quiz 4 (mesostructure)

How do lexical entries relate to each other?
Often entries are linked with each other, e.g. when a word that is defined in one entry appears in another.

How do lexical entries relate to text corpora?
Sometimes an example sentence is given in the definition of a particular word. This example might be an invented one but it can also be an literature example taken from a different book. So there are not only relations between different entries within the same dictionary but also relations between the dictionary and other literature.

Quiz 5

What is the mesostructure of a dictionary?
klick

Give examples of mesostructural elements concerning

• linguistic description references:

• cross-references between related entries
• hump Höcker m, Buckel m, ~back --> hunchback
  (from Langenscheidts Universal-Wörterbuch Englisch-Deutsch Deutsch-Englisch, Langenscheidt KG, Berlin und München, 1997)

• corpus references:
• hunchback (...) "One day, when the tailor was hard at work, a little hunchback came and sat at the entrance of the shop, and began to sing and play his tambourine."
  (taken from thefreedictionary.com)

Homework:

Take one of your dictionaries and describe in as much detail as possible its megastructure, macrostructure, microstructure and mesostructure.

Dictionary used: Langenscheidts Universal-Wörterbuch Englisch-Deutsch Deutsch-Englisch, Langenscheidt KG, Berlin und München, 1997

Megastructure:

• cover
• short list of the most important abbreviations
• table of contents (ordered according to letters, e.g. "A ------ pp. 11-26")
• title page
• table of contents (for the entire dictionary)
• information on how pronunciation, orthography differences between BrE and AmE, etc. are marked within the entries
• list of abbreviations
• entries
• appendix containing numerals, measures of length/temperature/currency, list of irregular words
• table of contents (again according to letters)
• explanation of IPA-characters

• spelling
• pronunciation
• translation
• genus/numerus
• examples for use

• links between entries
• links between entry and mini-grammar (e.g. use of abbreviations)

Quiz & tasks

• metadata (date of publishing, abbreviations,...)
• lexical information

• form information: spelling, pronunciation,...
• structure information: words' construction, word order in a sentence,...
• content information: definition, examples,...