Tuesday, January 30, 2007

University of Bielefeld

Department of English

M.Ed. British and American Studies

Lecture: “How to Make a Dictionary”

BM 2: Introduction to English Linguistics

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Dafydd Gibbon

Contact: gibbon@uni-bielefeld.de

Tuesday: 8.00- 10.00, H 14

Winter term 2006/ 2007

Welcome to Melanie Zahn’s Web log

“How to Make a Dictionary”

Web Portfolio by: Melanie Zahn

-------------------------------------

Please Note: On a web log, the entries of a learner’s portfolio emerge in an inverse order. This means that the latest entries are to be found at the beginning of this portfolio, whereas the oldest entries emerge at the bottom of the web page. In order to have full access to all entries, please consult the ARCHIVES from October to January, because not every entry will be shown on the “Current Posts” site.

If you want to consult my Web log “Introduction to Linguistics”, please click on my profile and use the link called “Introduction to Linguistics” :-)

Contact: Melanze@web.de

Registration Number: 1666313

Internet Sources:

http://wwwhomes.uni-bielefeld.de/~gibbon/Classes/Classes2006WS/HTMD/

http://www.spectrum.uni-bielefeld.de/~ttrippel/htmd/index.html

http://www.sandtomatoes.com/tutorial/tutorial.html

www.wikipedia.com

http://www.etymonline.com/

http://dict.leo.org/

Further Reading:

Cruse, D. A.: Lexical semantics / D. A. Cruse . - Cambridge [u.a.] : Cambridge Univ. Press , 1986 .

Crystal, David: The Cambridge encyclopedia of the English language. - 2. ed. . - Cambridge [u.a.] : Cambridge Univ. Press , 2003 .

Eco, Umberto: Semiotics and the philosophy of language, London: Macmillan, 1984

Horst M. Müller (Hrsg.): Arbeitsbuch Linguistik. - Paderborn [u.a.] : Schöningh , 2002 .

Ilson, Robert (ed.):Lexicography : an emerging internat. profession. Manchester : Manchester Univ. Pr. [u.a.] , 1986 .

James R. Hurford and Brendan Heasley: Semantics : a coursebook. - Cambridge [u.a.] : Cambridge Univ. Pr. , 1983 .

Katamba, Francis: Morphology - New York : St. Martins Press , 1993 .

Landau, Sidney I.: Dictionaries : the art and craft of lexicography. - Reprint, orig. publ.: New York,

Scribner, 1984 . - Cambridge [u.a.] : Cambridge Univ. Pr. , 1989

Lyons, John: Semantics / John Lyons . - Cambridge

Matthews, Peter H.: Morphology / P. H. Matthews . - 2. ed. . - Cambridge [u.a.] : Cambridge Univ. Pr. , 1991 .

Mugglestone, Lynda (ed.): Lexicography and the OED : pioneers in the untrodden forest. - Oxford [u.a.] : Oxford Univ. Press , 2000 .

O'Grady, William and Michael Dobrobolsky: Contemporary linguistics : an introduction . - U.S. ed. / prepared by Mark Aronoff . - New York : St. Martin's Pr. , 1989 .

Ooi, Vincent B. Y.: Computer corpus lexicography. - Edinburgh : Edinburgh Univ. Press , 1998 .

Pinker, Steven: The language instinct. - London [u.a.] : Lane, Penguin Pr. , 1994 .

Saeed, John Ibrahim: Semantics - 2. ed. . - Oxford [u.a.] : Blackwell , 2003 .

Stephan Gramley and Kurt-Michael Pätzold: A survey of modern English . - 2. ed. . - London [u.a.] : Routledge , 2004 .

Van Eynde, Frank and Dafydd Gibbon(eds.): Lexicon Development for Speech and Language Processing, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, 2000

Walker, Donald E. (ed.):Automating the lexicon : research and practice in a multilingual environment. Oxford [u.a.] : Oxford Univ. Press , 1995.

Saturday, January 27, 2007

How to Make a Dictionary; Session 12, Tuesday, 2007-01-22

Computational Lexicography

Review of Lexicography Principles

It is imoprtant to know about the theroy and the funtion of computational lexicography in order to understand how lexical information is related to a larger context.

Linguists use computational lexicography in order to learn more about new vocabulary and their relation within a given context.

Words are located in a text corpus, isolated, regrouped and reintegrated into an immediate context.

The following summary is about how this is exactly done with KWIC (KeyWord In Context) and what the basic notion of concordance means.

Criteria for Good Lexicography

Quantity:
-Completeness of coverage:
--- extensional coverage: number of entries
-intentional coverage: number of lexical information

Quality:
-Correctness of information:
-Types of lexical information

Consistency of structure:
-Macrostructure
-Mesostructure
-Microstructure

Lexicographic workflow cycle:

Data acquisition- -----------→-------Lexicon construction
-Recordings --------------------------------- Metadata
-Text collection --------------------------- Information retrieval
-Concordance ----------------------------- Linguistic analyses
-Dictionaries
--------↑ -------------------------------------------------↓
Lexical evaluation: -----←---------Access to data:
Internal:---------------------------------- - Traditional print media
- consistency ----------------------------- Hyperlexicon: CD, internet
- completeness --------------------------- Software with lexicon component:
External ---------------------------------- word processing
- utility for users ----------------------- speech processing

1.) Lexical Data Acquisition

From Corpus to lexicon

----------------↑ Layer 4: LEXICON WITH GENERALISATION HIERARCHIES
--------------------------------(general type, default inheritance)
LEXICON ----↑ Layer 3: LEXOCON WITH SELECTED GENERALISATION
--------------------------------(procedurally optimised: semasiologically, onomasiologically)
----------------↑ Layer 2: LEXICON MATRIX
--------------------------------(entries x data categories, no generalisation)
----------------↑ Layer 1: CORPUS LEXICON
--------------------------------(wordlist, concordance, HMM, ...)
___________________________________________________________________________
CORPUS -----↑ Layer 2: SECONDARY DATA
-------------------------------(transcription, annotation, metadata)
----------------↑ Layer 1: PRIMARY DATA
------------------------- (audio/ video recording)

From Corpus to Lexicon...

Concordance

A KWIC (Key Word In Context) concordance is a special kind of preliminary, corpus- based dictionary: Each word in a text corpus is paired with its contexts of occurrence in this corpus!
(Google for instance is a very special form of KWIC concordance!)

Example of the process:

Bill Bryson: Notes from a Small Island

"My first sight of England was on a foggy March night in 1793 when I arrived on the midnight ferry from Calais."

ALPHABETICALLY ORDERED KWIC

Keywords with right- hand contexts

Alphabetic order ------Keywords in context
1973 -------------------.- -when i arrived
a -----------------------..--foggy march night
arrived...................................on the midnight
calais
england --------------------was on a
ferry -----------------------from calais
first ------------------------sight of england
foggy --------------.--------march
from -----------------------calais
i ----------------------.-----arrived on the
in --------------------------1973 when i
march ----------------------night in 1973
midnight -------------------ferry from calais
my -------------------------first sight
night -----------------------in 1973 when
of ------------------------ --england was on
on --------------------------a foggy march
on --------------------------the midnight ferry
sight -----------------------of england was
the -------------------------midnight
was ------------------------on a foggy
when----------------------- i arrived on

CONCRDANCING ON THE WEB:
The first:
--------- HyprLex
--------- VerbMobil HyprLex
Some more:
-------- General information on concording
-------- Corpus Linguistics

A KWIC CONCORDANCE ENGINE

KIWIC concordance construction

1. CORPUS CREATION ----→ ------2. TOKENISATION
-----------------------------------↓ -----------------------↓
------------------------------3. KEYWORDLIST -------4. CONTEXT
---------------------------------EXTRACTION -------------COLLATION
---------------------------------------------------------↓↓
.......................6. OUTPUT FORMATING ← 5. KEYWORD SEARCH

SIMPLEST KWIC PROCEDURE

1.)Corpus creation: make a corpus of texts in electronic format
2.)Tokenisation (re-process each text):
-----1.process punctuation marks
-----2.break the text into context units (lines/sentences)
3.)Keyword list extraction (all words in text)
4.)Context collation (for each keyword)
5.)Search for KWIC in corpus
6.)Store output and format (for printing, hypertext [CD, web])

SIMPLE KWIC CONCORDANCE

KWIC: 1. Corpus collation

My first sight of England was on a foggy March night in 1973 when I arrived on the midnight ferry from Calais.

KWIC procedure: 2. Tokenisation

In the text:
My first sight of England was on a foggy March night in 1973 when I arrived on the midnight ferry from Calais.

Process
- upper case (capital) letters
-punctuation marks

To produce:

my first sight of england was on a foggy march night in 1973 when i arrived on the midnight ferry from calais.

KWIC procedure: 3. Keyword List

-Replace each SP (space) sequence by a LF (linefeed) / NL (newline)
-Sort the list alphabetically
-Remove duplicate words

1.
my
first
sight
of
england
was
on
a
foggy
march
night
in
1973
when
i
arrived
on
the
midnight
ferry
from
calais

2.+ 3.
1973
a
arrived
calais
england
ferry
first
foggy
from
i
in
march
midnight
my
night
of
on
sight
the
was
when

KWIC procedure: 4. Contexts

-Pick context unit
- left and right contexts
- m words at beginning
- n words at end
-Add m boundary marks at beginning and n at end
-Split into units of length m + 1 + n

# my first
my first sight
first sight of
sight of england
of england was
england was on
was on a
on a foggy
a foggy
a foggy march
foggy march night
march night in

# my first ------------ night in 1973
my first sight ---------in 1973 when
first sight of ----------1973 when i
sight of england ------ when i arrived
of england was --------i arrived on
england was on -------arrived on the
was on a --------------on the midnight
on a foggy ------------the midnight ferry
a foggy march --------midnight ferry from
foggy march night ----ferry from calais
march night in ------ -from calais#

KWIC procedure: 5. Search

For example:

-on is found in the middle of the following context units:
------ was on a
------ arrived on the

-arrived is found in the middle of the following context units:
------i arrived on

KWIC procedure: 6. Output (which has to be stored under a professional layout)

1973: -----in ---------1973 ---------when
a: ---------on --------a -------------foggy
arrived: ---i ---------arrived ------on
calais: -----from -----calais ---------#
england: --of ---------england ----was
ferry: -----midnight -ferry ---------from
first: ------my -------first ---------sight
foggy: -----a ---------foggy --------march
from: -----ferry ----- from --------calais
i: ---------when ----- i -------------arrived
in: --------night ----- in -----------1973
march: ---foggy ----- march ------night
midnight: -the -------midnight ---ferry
my: -------# --------my -----------first
night: ----march ---- night --------in
of: -------sight ------ of ---------.--england
on: ------.arrived --- on -----------the
on: ------was ------- the ----------midnight
sight: ----first -------sight --------of
the: ------on ---------the -----.---midnight
was: -----england --- was ---------on
when: ---1973 -------when ----- --i

COMPUTING A KWIC CONCORDANCE

From Text Corpus to KWIC Concordance

NOW THE SAME PROCESS IN HTML !

KWIC procedure: 1. Preprocess

Swordlist = ""’
while (<>) {
chomp;
s/e\.g\./EG/ ;
s/M\.A\. /MA/ ;
tr/ [.,;: ""-) ( ] / / ;
tr/ [A-Z] / [a-z] / ;
tr/ \ t/ / ;
s/ */ /g ;
Swordlist = Swordlist . S_ ;
}

NORMALISED TEXT

KWIC procedure: 2. Contexts

Scontextlength = 5 ;
@contextlist = ( ) ;
for (Si = (@ wordlist – Scontextlength) ; Si++) {
print OUTPUT Swordlist [Si] ;
Scontextlist [Si] = Swordlist [Si] ;
for (Sj=1 ; Sjprint OUTPUT " " . Swordlist [Si + Sj] ;
Scontextlist [Si] = Scontextlist [Si] . " " .
Swordlist [Si + Sj] ;
}
print OUTPUT "\n" ;
}

CONTEXTS

KWIC procedure: 3. Keyword List

@wordlist = split (/ / ,Swordlist) ;
@sortedwordlist = sort { Sa cmp Sb } @wordlist ;
Sprev = " " ;
Scount = 0 ;
@uniquewordlist = ( ) ;
for ( Si=0 ; Si <@sortewordlist; Si++ ) {
Sa = Ssortedwortlist [Si] ;
if ( Sa ne Sprev ) { Sprev = Sa ; Print OUTPUT Sa . "\n" ; Suniquewordlist [Scount] = Sa ; Scount++ ; }

KEYWORDLIST

KWIC procedure: 4. Search

for (Si=0 ; Si<@uniquewordlist; Si++) {
Sa = Suniquewordlist [Si] ;
for (Sj=0 ; Sj<@contextlist ; Sj++) { @context = split ( / / ,Scontextlist [Sj] ) ;
if (Sa eq Scontext [2] ) { Scontext = Scontext [0] . " " . Scontext [1] . " " . Scontext [2] : Scontext [3] . " " . Scontext [4] ; print OUTPUT Scontext ; ---
....}
-}
}

CONCORDANCE

KWIC procedure: 5. Format

1.)Design a page layout with text objects:
1.Title
2.Headings
3.Body Text
4.Tables
2.)Implement- to test the algorithm- in HTML

KWIC procedure: Source

-The Perl implementation follows the procedure exactly
-However, the code is for demonstration purposes only, because it does not allow:
----- flexible handing of contexts and filenames
----- treatment of more than one text
----- modularity of organisation
------ format scalability and search efficiency
Project: re-write the code to do these things

PERL SOURCE CODE

KWIC: Scaling UP

-The Iibido Concordance was made using exactly the same procedure, but:
----- using UNIX (Linux) shell sprinting, not Perl
→ because this is much more flexible
→ the Toolbox system uses the RDF format for output:
----- Multi-Dictionary Formatter (MDF), or
----- Lexique Pro
-Today one could also use XML stylesheets

IBIBIO CONCORDANCE

DICTIONARY MAKING: Why KWIC is used....

KWIC: Dictionary Making

-The function of a KWIC is:
To make searching for lexical information more efficient by putting context information about words in one place
for making "Word Sketches" (Adam Kilgarriff)
- grammatical descriptions: part of speech
- dictionaries: examples of use, collocations, ...
Project: Make concordances from your text corpora and use them to collect lexical information for your Toolbox lexical databases

THE STATUS OF DICTIONARIES

Remember that the dictionary is:
-one of the three main components of language documentation:
----→ corpus of recordings and texts
----→ dictionary
----→ sketch grammar
-the central component of any linguistic descriptions
-the most useful linguistic product for use by the speech community, or non- linguists in general

THE IBIBIO DICTIONARY

-The Ibibio Dictionary
--uses information from Elaine Kaufmann’s Ibibio Dictionary
-the information was re-typed into an Office table format
-this was converted into:
→ Toolbox format for further lexicographic extension
→ LaTeX for formatting (cf. the Ibibio Concordance)
-Project: extend the Ibibio corpus, concordance in scope and content

CONCLUSION!

-It is faster to do this way if you
----- have a large text corpus
----- want to make: - a detailed syntagmatic or morphological description
----------------------------- a large dictionary
-have little time to do this

Monday, January 22, 2007

How to Make a Dictionary; Session 11, Tuesday, 2007-01-16

TYPES OF LEXICAL INFORMATION:

FOCUS ON SEMANTICS, THE STUDY OF MEANING

SEMANTICS is the study of MEANING in the sense of linguistic forms and interpretation of signs.

Revision: Main types of a definition

A definition generally consists of two parts: a definiendum (which has to be defined) and a definiens (an actual definition that consists of genus proximum and differentia specifica)

Other types of definitions:

-Componential definition
splits the meaning of a lexical item into components
e.g. standard dictionary definition by genus proximum and differentia specifica

-Syntagmatic definition
contextual definition (illustrates the meaning in a larger context with similar and different words) : definition by text examples

-Paradigmatic definitions (typical of onomasiological dictionaries, Thesaurus)
present world fields (e.g. in a thesaurus, synonym dictionary)
and give semantic relations: - hyponyms, hyperonyms
------------------------------ co- hyponyms: synonyms, antonyms

ANALYSING A CORPUS

For example: on Poodles

A Poodle hybrid is a cross (hybrid) between a Poodle and some other breed of dog.
Poodle hybrids have become very popular as pets.
They play a big role in the current designer dog trend.
The Poodle’s nonshedding coat is the usual impetus behind such experimentation, where potential pet owners are looking for a nonsehdding version of a breed for health or hygienic reasons.
Some of these crosses have been developed deliberately, while others have happened accidentally.

Definitions for a small number of words from these texts:

Poodle: /’pu:dl/ n a breed of do with thick curling hair which is often cut into an elaborate patter.
hybrid: /’haIbrId/ n an animal or a plant that has parents of different species or varieties: A mule is a hybrid of a male donkey and a female horse.
breed: /bri:d/ n a particular type of animal or plant. Its members have a similar appearance and are usually developed by deliberate selection.
pet: --/pet/ n an animal or a bird kept as a companion and treated with care and affection.

Antonyms to a number of words from these texts:

Antonyms in the text: ------deliberately vs. accidentally
Supplementary antonyms: Poodle vs. Terrier
---------------------------------hybrid vs. pure bred
---------------------------------pet vs. beast/ brute

* Annotation on antonyms: there are different kinds of antonyms:
There are antonyms that have got opposite meanings: simple opposites of the scheme:
either...or
and complementary opposites where you cannot decide whether there is an either... or
relation!
You cannot say what is the opposite of a poodle, for instance, because there is a
whole set of possible opposites!

Inversive opposites are antonyms of the type of relation:
-parent/ child
-father/ son
-to buy/ to sell (one buys, the other sells)

Synonyms in the text: hybrid ↔ cross

Semantic word field: a set of related words
Related words: hybrid, cross, breed, designer dog

Poodle (specific term), dog (more general term), pet (most general term)
--↑--------------------------- ↑ ------------------------↑
hyponym ---------------hyperonym --------------hyperonym

REVISION: MICROSTRUCTURE

The lexicon microstructure contains the properties of lexical entries such as types of lexical information and lexical data categories (DATCATS).

Properties of words as lexical items are MODALITY/ APPEARANCE which can be realised orthographic (written language) and phonemic (spoken language, broad transcription), STRUCTURE that operates on an internal (morphology) and an external (syntax) level and last but not least:
MEANING (semantics: signified ↔ signifier).

MODEL: TYPES OF LEXICAL INFORMATION

------------------------------------------MEANING
------------------------------------------CONTENT
------------------------------------------(Semantics, Pragmatics)
-----------------------------------↔
STRUCTURE ---------------------------------↨
(Organisation, syntax)------------------------
-------------------------------------------MODALITY
-----------------------------------↔ -----APPEARANCE
-------------------------------------------RENDERING

MICROSTRUCTURE: INFORMATION TYPES

Modality, appearance, ---Structure --------------------------Meaning
form
___________-- ________________ --------___________________________________________
Spelling ---------Pronun---Internal -----External ----.-Components ------------Word fields,
--------------------Ciation ---(Morphology) -(POS) ----------------------------------relations
_____ ---------____---- ---_____ -------______ -----_______________ -----________________
Poodle --------pu:dl -------------- ----------noun --------dog with a haircut ------antonym: terrier...
----------------------------------------------------↓ -------------------------↓
------------------------------------------------LEXICAL --------------SEMANTICS

REVISION: Define definition

A standard dictionary definition consists of two main elements:

→ X is a Y kind of Z

Definitio per genus proximum and differentia specifica, which means: definition by the nearest kind and specific differences!

The definition consists of two parts: the definiendum and the definiens!
The definiendum is the word that has to be defined. The definiens is some kind of explanation that consists of a definition via genus proximum and differentia specifica.

The definiens can emerge in the form of a list of examples, a sample text corpus, a model (picture: ostensive definition) or a real example.

Examples (DCE 1987)

babble: so say or talk quickly and foolishly or in a way that is hard to understand.
→ Definiendum: babble
→ Definiens: definition via genus proximum and differentia specifica

baby: a very young child, especially one who has not yet learned to speak or walk
→ Definiendum: baby
→ Definiens: definition via genus proximum and differentia specifica

bad: not good; unpleasant, unwanted, or unacceptable
→ Definiendum: bad
→ Definiens: by giving a list co- hyponyms, specifically of synonyms

blue: of the colour of the sky or of the deep sea on a fine day
→ Definiendum: blue
→ Definiens: an example of several objects of the defined colour

The genus proximum is also a superordinate term to the definiendum.
It can therefore be defined as a hyperonym.

The definiendum is a subordinate term, a hyponym.

Hyperonyms and hyponyms can be arranged in a hierarchy, a tree structure of terms.
Such a tree structure is called a TAXONOMY.
It contains a generalisation- specialisation relation, paradigmatic relation.
In semasiological dictionaries paradigmatic relations are often expressed in terms of hyponym- hyperonym relations (definiendum and its genus proximum), but they also work with
CO- HYPONYMS (synonyms or antonyms).
The whole part relation of the previous possible syntagmatic relations is called MERONOMY. A meronomy defines a syntagmatic hierarchy, how to built up larger units from smaller units.

Example of a TAXONOMY (relations of hyponyms and hyperonyms)

....
↑
living creature
↑
animal
↑
dog
↑
poodle

Conclusion from this specific kind of taxonomy: a poodle is an animal/ a living creature

Taxonomies are used in many contexts:

In traditional lexicography they are:
-cross- references in standard definitions
-thesaurus construction

In Artificial Intelligence and Text Technology they are used in:
ISA hierarchies (inheritance hierarchies)
Ontologies

In theories of the lexicon they define:
-type hierarchies (e.g. Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar [HPSG]
-default hierarchies (e.g. ILEX theory; DATR implementations)

Example of a text that contains semantic components, relations, fields and 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).

Semantic/ paradigmatic relations:
Co- hyponyms: Synonyms: Saccharomyces cerevisiar ↔ fungus
----------------------------Raising, fermenting, brewing, rise
Hyperonym, hyponym: ----Fungus ← yeast

Semantic fields (co- hyponyms): wine, beer, champagne, alcohol, product, beverages

Definitions
Fermentation: ---Sugar is converted into alcohol through the process of fermentation.
Product: ---------A thing that is grown or produced, usually for sale.
Fungus, pl. fungi: any of various types of plant without leaves or flowers and containing no ------------------green colouring. Fungi usually grow on other plants or on decaying matter. ------------------Mildew and mushrooms are examples of fungi.
Bubble: ----------A floating ball formed of liquid and containing air or gas.
Carbon dioxide: -The gas breathed out by people and animals from the lungs or produced by ------------------burning carbon.
Yeast: -----------A type of fungus used in making beer or wine, or to make bread rise.

Saturday, January 20, 2007

How to Make a Dictionary, Session 10, Tuesday 2006-12-19

Types of lexical information: grammar
(Parts of speech categories & subcategories)

Types of lexical information: Focus on SYNTAX

Types of lexical information are given in the microstructure of a dictionary!
Whereas Grammar is about the order of words in a sentence, syntax is about the structure of single words (word syntax: morphology), sentences (phrasal syntax which is generally analysed, texts (text syntax) and dialogues.
Syntactic categories can therefore be parts of speech (f.ex. lexical words [nouns, verbs, adjectives] vs. function words), subcategories and phrasal categories.

The structure of language

Language consists of constitutive relations which can be both structural or semiotic.
Structural relations are meant to be syntagmatic or paradigmatic.
Semiotic relations can be defined as interpretation relations and realisation relations.

SYNTAX
Start off with SENTENCE SYNTAX!

A sentence consists of words that are in relation to each other. Words therefore do not only have an internal structure, but also an external, context bound structure.
Words can occur in contexts like this:

Mr. Bush accepted Mr Rumsfeld’s resignation after November mid-elections in which the Republicans lost control of both the House of Representatives and the State.

Public discontent over the conduct of the Iraq war was seen as a major factor in the defeat.

The single words which occur in this context belong to very different parts of speech. Only a variety of words from different POS can provide a coherent text.

Examples of words that belong to different POS categories:

Mr. Bush: noun, subject of the main clause, proper noun: name
Accepted: verb in past tense form (the tense is marked by the suffix morpheme –ed)
Resignation: noun (in object position, being part of the to the predicate)
After: temporal adverb
In: Preposition
Which: Demonstrative pronoun: proximal
The: definite article (POS: determiners)
Lost: adjective
Of: (multifunctional) preposition
Both: dual (quantifier: pronoun category)
Over: preposition
Was seen: irregular pas form of the verbe "to be" which serves as an auxiliary and past participle form of the verbe "to see" which form together the aspect "passive past perfect".
A: indefinite article (POS: determiners)

PART OF SPEECH
The different word categories!

I) NOUNS CATEGORIES

1.) DETERMINERS

-Articles
definite article: the
indefinite article: a

● Possessives
- my, your, his, her, its, our, their

● Demonstratives
proximal (to the speaker): this
distal (to the speaker): that

● Quantifiers
cardinal numbers: one, two, etc.
existential: some, several, few, many, etc.
dual: both
universal: each, every, all, etc.

2.) NOUNS

● Proper nouns
names:
-personal
-place
-product, etc.

● Common nouns
countable nouns such as: knife, fork, spoon, etc.

● Mass nouns (uncountable nouns)
bread (a slice of bread)
butter (a piece of butter)
jam (a spoonful of jam)

3.) ADJECTIVES

● There are different types of adjectives:
-Scalar adjectives:
Can be arranged on a kind of scale: → small... big
→ cold... hot
→ hairless... hairy
→ Special feature of scalar adjectives:
They can emerge with different adverbs of degree, whereas polar adjectives don’t!
For instance: very, highly, extremely, incredibly

-Polar adjectives
Cannot emerge in combination with adverbs of degree. They describe whether one feature or the other!
→ alive vs. dead
→ married vs. unmarried
→ pregnant vs. not pregnant
Appraisive adjectives
→ good, great, wonderful, etc.

-Ordinal adjectives
→ first, second, etc.

3.) PRONOUNS

● Personal Pronouns
I/ me, you, he/him, she/her, we/us, they

● Possessive Pronouns
mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs

● Demonstrative pronouns
proximal: this
distal: that, yonder (an archaic form)

● Quantifier pronouns
cardinal numbers: one, two, etc.
existential: some, several, few, many, etc.
dual: both
universal: each, every, all, etc.

● Relative pronouns
→ are more like conjunctions!

II) VERB CATEGORIES

1.) VERBS

● Main verbs:
-finite forms:
person (1st, 2nd, 3rd)
number (singular, plural)
tense (The English language has two tenses: present, past)
-non- finite forms
infinitive
participle: present, perfect

● Periphrastic verbs (auxiliary verb + non- finite main verb):
-modal: can, may, will, shall, ought, etc.
-aspectual: be + present (continuous)
have + past participle (perfect)
-passive: be + past participle

Example: It might........ have...... been .......being ......repaired
...................modal .......perfect.. continuous ..passive ....main verb

Adverbs

● Deictic
here, there; now, then

● Time
soon

● Place
source
path
goal

● Direction
into, etc.
towards

● Manner

● Degree
→ better dealt in connection with adjectives

III) GLUE CATEGORIES/ FUNCTION WORDS

1.) PREPOSITIONS

● Glue categories basically make nominal expressions into adverbial expressions
→ they transform many categories into adverbs, except of the "all purpose preposition" of
The meaning of the preposition of is in fact very large and differenciated:

For example: - a bottle of water (relation)
.....................- because of... (of in relation with a certain conjunction)
.....................- to think of... (fixed expression: a verb is employed in combination with a
.......................certain preposition in order to express a certain idea)
.....................- in front of... (of is part of a fixed expression: preposition which indicates a
.......................certain direction)

2.) CONJUNCTIONS

● Co-ordinating conjunctions
and, but

● Subordinating conjunctions
conjunction- like relative pronouns: make sentences (clauses) into adjective- like noun modifiers
basically: make sentences (clauses) into adverb- like verb modifiers

3.) INTERJECTIONS

● Interjections link parts together
Examples: "Hi!", "er", "huh?"

● They may also be expressions of subjective reactions
"Ouch!", "Wow!"

Examples:
-"yeah"
-"mmmm" (delicious)
-"mhm?"

THE STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE
The sign hierarchy: RANKS

Signs are structured in terms of their position in a size hierarchy; the positions in the hierarchy are sometimes referred to as RANKS.

The MAIN RANKS are:
-dialogue
-monologue/ text
-sentence
-word
-morpheme
-phoneme

Signs at each of these ranks have got an internal and an external structure and possess semiotic relations (functions and realisations).

RANKS

SIGN rank Internal Structure External Structure Interpretation Realisation

Dialogue: turns, texts social interaction communication prosody, gesture

↑
Text: sentences dialogue components speech acts prosody, gesture

↑
Sentence: phrases, words parts of narrative, propositions prosody, gesture
Argumentative texts

↑
Word: stems, affixes functional parts of complex states, Phonemes:
sentences properties, word prosody
events

↑
Morpheme: phonemes, syllables parts of words simple states

↑
Phoneme: distinctive features syllables encoding of Phonetic segments
morphemes allophones
into sounds

STRUCTURE AND CONSTITUTIVE RELATIONS

What is structure?

Language structure is determined by following kinds of constitutive relations:

● Structural relations:
syntactic relations
→ Function words are the "glue" between lexical words
→ Combinatory relations which create larger signs (and their realisations and
interpretations) from smaller signs (and their realisations and interpretations)

● Paradigmatic relations
there is a choice of words
classificatory relations of similarity and difference between signs.

● Semiotic relations
realisation: the visual appearance or acoustic representation of signs (other senses may also be involved)
interpretation: the assignment of meaning to a sign

SYNTAGMATIC RELATIONS

Syntagmatic relations can be defined as linguistic "glue":
-combinatory relations which create larger signs (and their realisations and interpretations) from smaller signs (and their realisations and interpretations)

Examples of relations on different ranks:
Phonology:
- Consonants and vowels are glued together as core and periphery of syllables.
Morphology:
- lexical morphemes and affixes are glued together into stems
- stems are glued together into compound stems
- stems and inflections are glued together into words
Syntax:
- nouns and verbs are glued together as the subjects and verbs of sentences

STRUCTURES AND SYNTAGMATIC RELATIONS

Phonological rank:

..............------..............SYLLABLE
_______________________________________

.............................................------------.........RHYME
..............................------------.....____________________

...............ONSET ...........--------NUCLEUS ......-----..CODA
_________________ -----_________ -----____________
/ s t r ...........................ε ŋ .............=0 s /

OTHER SYNTAGMATIC REALTIONS

Syntagmatic relations are very often hierarchical.
Therefore to some extent, structures in phonology, morphology and syntax can be similar, if they are hierarchical.

MORPHOLOGICAL SYNTAGMATIC RELATIONS

..........................................................stem
___________________________________________________________________________
.............................................--------------...........predicate
..........................-----......_______________________________________
c-stem .........................-----------..verbal ..............................object
______________ .-------.._____________ ........____________
day to day ...............bath.. room .......clean ..er

SYNTACTIC SYNTAGMATIC REALTIONS

.................................................................sentence
____________________________________________________________________
........................................................-..................predicate
........................................................________________________
............subject .......................----........verbal ..............................object
__________________ ...........________ ......---.........____________
The loud smoker .........is being ...........a nuiscance

PARADIGMATIC RELATIONS

Paradigmatic relations can be defined as classificatory relations of similarity and difference between signs.
The similarity and difference concerns the:
-internal structure
-external structure
-meaning
-appearance

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

How to Make a Dictionary, Session 9, Tuesday 2006-12-12

Introduction to a Field Linguists Toolbox
Guest Lecturer: Sascha Griffiths

The linguistic association SIL (compare: www.sil.org) is documenting unknown languages all over the world with the help of a specific system called TOOLBOX.
TOOLBOX was developed in order to help linguists to generate their field work studies of foreign languages. With TOOLBOX, new vocabulary, grammar, morphology, syntax and phonology can be registered and used to create new dictionaries.

The term toolbox is derived from the word "shoebox", the ancient method of gaining foreign language information: in times when modern computer systems have not been available, linguists had to carry their information on foreign languages in ordinary shoeboxes. During their field work studies, they noted the information they got from several interviews with native foreign language speakers on cards they collected in ordinary boxes.
Since modern computer systems, laptops, hardware and software are available and easily transportable, the old shoeboxes have been replaced by computer toolboxes that provide modern (dictionary) databases.

Toolbox is a computer program that allows us to enter and review (new) lexical entries easily. The main page consists of two windows whereof the left one contains the ordinary dictionary microstructure. The right window shows the specific dictionary entry.

Concordance
An important aspect a linguist has to consider, is the concordance of new terms/ new lexical entries entered into toolbox.
This means for instance, that the linguist has to count the amount of times a new word occurs.
When it appears very often, it must be an important lexical of functional word. It may be part of the basic vocabulary of a specific language (fundamental vocabulary) or may be essential to grammar or syntax (for instance: it may be essential to the creation of a time and act as an auxiliary, modus or aspect).
A part from the frequency of a word, the linguist also has to consider its environment or context. Therefore, it is important to know where a specific word "normally" appears.
Are there any preferences of appearance, or are there even specific conditions that have to be given in order for a specific word to appear?
The answer to these questions can tell a lot about the usage of words, their importance and their relation to larger contexts in general.
Since spoken (and written) language consists of the combination of words on the basis of specific grammatical rules and usage limitations, unknown languages can be observed, described and finally explored by the previous methods of concordance.

The recorded data can easily be exported via toolbox. One time entered into the database system, it is relatively easy to create a dictionary data base.

Inflection and Compounding

Inflection
A word consists of a stem and an inflection (a stem is whether a root or a derived stem!).
The inflection is related to the external structure, to the syntax of the phrase/ utterance. The inflection a word takes has to fit to the environment of the word, it has to be embedded into the context. Even if an inflection is totally missing, this absence carries an information on morphology: a stem + a zero inflection can mean singular or indefinite form of word!

In Latin and in German the inflection system is even more complicated than in English. English does not differ between different case- forms of nouns. The first noun within a sentence has to be the subject, while supplementary nouns that follow the verb of the sentence have to take the function of the object(s).
In Latin and German the sentence structure is less stable and static. Objects can be differentiated from the subject by their inflection form and can therefore also emerge at the beginning of the sentence. In English this is not possible without changing the meaning or aspect (f. ex.: active vs. passive) of the utterance.

Example:

German

Ich sehe den Mann. (Accusative)

English

I see the man. (No inflection, the subject has to be in first position)

German

Den Mann sehe ich. (Possible sentence/ variation)

English

*The man I see. (This sentence is grammatically incorrect)

Whereas German uses inflection in many cases only in combination with its articles (determiners), Latin even possesses a very complex noun-bound inflection in 6 cases (Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, Ablative, Vocative).

For example:

ara, arae (Nom., sing., pl.)
arae, ararum (Gen., sing., pl.)
arae, aris (Dat., sing., pl.)
aram, aras (Acc., sing., pl.)
ara, aris (Abl., sing., pl.)

With the help of derivation, words can even change their part of speech:

Example:
to run (verb) → runner (noun)

In a view cases, even zero derivation (the absence of a suffix) can lead to a POS shift of words:

Example:
to run (verb) → a run (noun)

Compounding

Compounds normally consist of a binary division (2 items that can be identified by drawing an internal tree structure).
But very long compounds can also consist of more than just two items (divisions).
A compound stem can consist of a derived stem which can consist of a root.

Finally, there are only three possible ways of creating new words in a particular language:
1.) Creating words by the invention of new forms of roots.
2.) Creating words by deriving already existing linguistic material.
3.) Creating new words by compounding two or more already existing terms.

Monday, January 08, 2007

How to Make a Dictionary, Session 8, Tuesday 2006-12-05

Types of lexical information: MORPHOLOGY
Introduction to Inflection and Word Formation

New word formation
New concepts, objects and inventions require new words/ new vocabulary.
New words can be invented or derived from already existing linguistic material.
New words can potentially be invented by everybody.
But they are more likely to be spread out within a speech community, if they are invented/ used by people who own political power or enjoy a certain popularity/ celebrity such as scientists, engineers, product branding companies or poets.

The poem "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice Through the Looking Glass, is a famous poem in which the author mainly uses terms he invented himself. It is a poem full of vocabulary that does not exist in English, but have been derived from English language material. Because of this, the reader is able to understand the broad contend of the poem.
The poem has been translated into German by Christian Enzensberger who calls it "Der Zipferlake".
It is famous for its interesting word- building phenomenon. The author invents new roots and morphemes which leads to the creation of new POS and meanings. Lewis Carroll forms new words by putting different parts of two or more existing stems together f.ex.: chortle, galumph. He also creates compound words from at least two existing stems, f.ex.: snicker-snack

Original version by Lewis Carroll:

Jabberwocky
by Lewis Carroll

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 of the "Jabberwocky" by Christian Enzensberger

Der Zipferlake
von Christian Enzensberger

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.

Morphological Structure
Branches of Morphology

Morphology deals with:

..............MORPHOLOGY
................↓............... ↓
INFLECTION .......WORD FORMATION
............................↓ ................↓
...................DERIVATION ....COMPOUNDING

The process of inflection and derivation have in common that one stem is used and that certain affixes, mainly in form of suffixes, but also in form of prefixes, infixes or circonfixes are added. But the main difference between inflection and derivation is defined by its linguistic valence. While inflection is used in order to expand paradigmatic creativity in the sense of providing the creation of syntagmatic adaptation to the text, the external function of word formation in terms of derivation consists of paradigmatic creativity in terms of inventing new language material and expand vocabulary.
The process of compouning, in contrast, consists of putting two existing stems together and create one new word meaning.

Reminder: What are linguistic SIGNS?

DIALOGUE → Intonation → Social relations
↑
TEXT → Intonation → Description
↑
SENTENCE → Accent/ Intonation → State/ Event
↑
WORD → Phonemes/ Stress → Entity/ Prop

Morphology sketch
The function of Inflection

Inflection has got an internal structure and an external function. Its external function is to mark the relation of words to their contend. In this sense it does not provide any change in the basic meaning of words.
The internal structure of morphology is due to the form words can take. Affixes (prefix, suffix, infix) and superfixes can be added to stems. Stems can also underlie a vowel change.
In word formation, morphology has slightly different functions. It aims at creating new words, shifting words within their part of speech or creating new meanings. In principle there is an infinite extendability of the lexicon.
On the basis of its internal structure, word forms can be created by inventing new roots or morphemes (blending, abbreviation,...). But, inventing new roots or morphology is very difficult and rather unlikely to occur in everyday’s live (unless scientists or companies for instance are searching deliberately). A more common technique is derivation, meaning that a common stem underlies a vowel change or receives a new affix in form of a prefix, suffix or infix.
Compounding is also a very popular mechanism of creating new vocabulary. Two stems are put together, eventually with an interfix or an inflection-like affix.

The internal structure of words

MORPHEMES are the smallest meaningful parts of words!

There are two main morpheme types:

Lexical morphemes (content morphemes, roots) which have got an open set of possible words (f. ex.: girl, boy, car, box, spoon, grass, sky)

Grammatical morphemes (structural morphemes) which can be defined as a closed set of words. There are free grammatical which are independent words (prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs) and bound morphemes which emerge in word formation and inflection (affixes; most often in form of suffixes).

Morphemes and allomorphs
Morphemes can be realised differently in different contexts (environment of the phoneme in question). Variant pronunciations are called ALLOMORPHS.

The function of morphemes
How are words built?

Inflection marks the syntagmatic relation of words to their contexts. Syntactic agreements can therefore be in person, number and case. In English there is only subject- verb agreement, whereas there is subject-verb, determiner- adjective- noun and preposition- nominals agreement in German.
Inflection can also depend on situational contexts. Verbs correlate to time and space. Nominals to quantity and definiteness relations.

The internal structure of words

English words consist of a stem and an inflection. Stems carry a lexical meaning and inflections have got grammatical meanings. Inflections relate words to their syntactic (person, case, number agreement) and semantic (tense/time, quantity, speaker-addressee) context.

For example: cats
....................↓. ↓
..............stem .inflection

STEMS of English words can be SIMPLE (i.e. ROOTS, lexical morphemes) such as red, table, run, car etc. or COMPLEX.
Complex stems can be derivations (a stem and a derivational affix; f.ex.: beauty + ful = beautiful), compounds (the combination of at least two different stems written together or separated by a hyphen; f.ex.: armchair, red-head).
There is also the possibility of using both, a derivation and a stem whose combination is called synthetic compounding (f.ex.: bus-driver, steam-roller).

A hierarchy of words and their parts

WORDS consist of 1 STEM and an INFLECTION
↓ ..................................................↓
STEM/ BASE ............................INFLECTION: affix
↓ .................................................................prefix
COMPOUND STEM: 2 stems........................... suffix
↓................................................................. infix
DERIVED STEM: 1 stem + affix .................x...circumfix .
?..................................................................superfix
ROOT (lexical morpheme) .............................ablaut

Remember: Words as signs
....................................... Phrase semantics
Inflected Words
....................................→ Stress
↑
....................................→ Lexical semantics
Compound Word
...................................→ Stress
↑
...................................→ Lexical semantics
Derived Word
...................................→ Stress
↑
..................................→ Lexical semantics
Morpheme
..................................→ Phonemes, Stress

WHAT IS...?

A WORD is: .......................a stem + an inflection
An INFLECTION is: ...........a suffix or an ablaut
A STEM is: ........................either a ROOT (lexical morpheme)
.........................................or a DERIVED STEM (i.e. stem + affix)
.........................................or a COMPOUND STEM (stem + stem)
A DERIVED STEM is: .......either a ROOT (zero derivation)
.........................................or a DERIVED STEM with an affix
A COMPOUND STEM is: ...a derived stem/ word + a derived stem/ word
.........................................or a compound stem + a compound stem

Simple and complex words

Simple words are short words consisting of one syllable:
f. ex.: car, star, cat

Complex words can be:
-blends and abbreviations (based on simplex roots consisting of more than one stem):
such as: brunch; NATO
-derivations (based on one root):
f.ex.: unable, impossible, happiness, antidisestablishmentarianism
-compounds (based on more than one root/ stem):
f.ex.: tatpurusa (endocentric): jam-jar, honeypot, harddisk, bus-stop
........dvandva (bicentric): whisky-soda, gentleman- farmer
........bahavrihi (exocentric): red-head, redskin, blue-stocking

Questions???

What is SANSKRIT?
Sanskrit is a classical language of India, a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and one of the 23 official languages of India.
Dating back to at least 1500 B.C., its position in the cultures of South and Southeast Asia is akin to that of Latin and Greek in Europe. It appears in pre-Classical form as Vedic Sanskrit (appearing in the Vedas), with the language of the Rigveda being the oldest and most archaic stage preserved. This fact and comparative studies in historical linguistics show that it is one of the earliest attested members of the Indo-European language family.
Today, Sanskrit is spoken by a very small group of people, but continues to be widely used as a ceremonial language in Hindu religious rituals in the forms of hymns and mantras. The vast literary tradition of Sanskrit in the form of the Hindu scriptures and the philosophical writings are also studied. Scholarly discussions on various topics in Indian philosophy continue to be held in the Sanskrit language in a few traditional institutions in India. The corpus of Sanskrit literature encompasses a rich tradition of poetry and literature, as well as scientific, technical, philosophical and religious texts.
The scope of this article is the Classical Sanskrit language as laid out in the grammar of Panini, around 500 BC.
(Source: http://www.wikipedia.com/)

Who was PANINI?
Panini was an ancient Indian grammarian from Gandhara (traditionally 520- 460 BC, but estimates range from the 7 th to 5 th centuries BC). He is most famous for his Sanskrit grammar, particularly for his formulation of the 3,959 rules of Sanskrit morphology in the grammar known as Aadhyayi (meaning "eight chapters"). It is the earliest known grammar of Sanskrit (though scholars agree it likely built on earlier works), and the earliest known work on descriptive linguistics, generative linguistics, and perhaps linguistics as a whole. Panini's comprehensive and scientific theory of grammar is conventionally taken to mark the end of the period of Vedic Sanskrit, by definition introducing Classical Sanskrit.
(Source: http://www.wikipedia.com/)

The internal structure of words

Examples:

1.) Bus-driver

Bus-driver
↓ ........↓
bus driver
.........↓ ..↓
....drive .-er

2.) Bata- base

Data- base
↓........ ↓
data ..base

3.) Newspaperman

Newspaperman
↓ .........↓ .......↓
news paper man

4.) Newsreader

Newsreader
↓ ..........↓
news reader
........↓..... ↓
......read ..-er

5.) Nevertheless

Nevertheless
↓....... ↓..... ↓
never the less

Sunday, January 07, 2007

How to Make a Dictionary, Session 7

Types of Lexical Information: PRONUNCIATION

Dictionaries are written in metalanguage which is a language used to talk about language itself.
One item of metalanguage a dictionary contains is a broad or phonemic transcription of the terms listed in the lexicon database. Phonemic transcriptions provide information about the correct pronunciation of a word, it is written in square brackets.
For example: eddy → visual surface structure
................../‘edi / → pronunciation: another type of surface structure

eddy .............................vs. ............/‘edi /
Orthography ↔ Spelling ....Pronunciation ↔ Phonology

Whereas the idea of written words is relatively stable, speech sounds are often shortened, reduced or left out in order to provide faster speaking.

Nevertheless the precedent example of a phonemic transcription, there are two possibilities of representing speech sounds in dictionaries:

Phonology and phonemics is the study of phonemes, of abstract speech sounds which serve as a symbol, whereas phonetics comprehends the study of phones, meaning concrete speech sounds in concrete utterances.
A PHONEME can be defined as the smallest word distinguishing sign of oral speech.

In Phonetics, each phoneme has got its own INTERNAL STRUCTURE, meaning that different phonemes have got distinctive features concerning their place of articulation, the manner of articulation and a differentialization concerning the dichotomy voiced versus voiceless.

A PHONEME has also got an EXTERNAL STRUCTURE, because it is related to other phonemes with which it forms larger syllables and words. In Phonology, a vowel normally forms the nucleus of a syllable, whereas consonants can be found at the margins of syllables.

Phonemes underlie certain rendering rules such as:
Pronunciation rules (acoustic modality)
Spelling (visual modality)
Sound-spelling rules (inter-modality conversion)

Representation of sounds in dictionaries

Sounds are represented by phonemic symbols and written in IPA. They have got an internal structure (configurations of distinctive features) and an external structure (syllables). Larger combinations of phonemes are called syllables. Syllables also have got an internal and an external structure. Their internal structure can be defined as "configurations of sequential features" (consonantal, vocalic; voiced, unvoiced etc.) and simultaneous features (f.ex.: tone, accent). Their external structure can be defined as a combination of syllables which leads to the construction of words.
The basic English syllable structure is: CCCVVCCC, having vowels as its nucleus an consonants at its margins. Nevertheless the fact that affricates consist of two phonetic parts (a plosive and a fricative) they only count as one phoneme.
Syllable structures can be illustrated in some kind of map that is called transition network or state diagramme. When transcribing words, each phoneme can be integrated in this network and is represented by one circle, node or state. The position of the circle within the diagram describes the correct position of the phoneme within the syllable/ word (f. ex.: for consonants: place of articulation/ position of the tongue or the vocal tract obstruction in general; and for vowels: position of the tongue measured in frontness or backness).

Trying to define the term "PHONEME"

There are several ways of defining phonemes, depending on which of the four sign components the linguist focuses:

THE CONTRASTIVE FUNCTION OF PHONEMES: In this sense, a phoneme can be defined as the smallest word-distinguishing sound segment

THE EXTERNAL SOUND STRUCTURE: A phoneme is the smallest unit of a syllable

THE INTERNAL SOUND STRUCTURE: A phoneme incorporates distinctive features

THE RENDERING OF PHONEMES: Phonemes provide a set of allophones

Description of sounds

As we already said, transcriptions can be phonetic or phonemic. In dictionaries and lexicons word transcriptions are nearly always phonemic because they refer to a broad symbol of how the word normally has to be pronounced in the standard language.
Nevertheless, if the linguist aims at representing actual speech sounds/ speech pronunciation in detail, he can also use a phonetic transcription. Then he enters the field work and considers he knowledge on articulatory phonetics, a branch of phonetics that deals with the production of speech sounds. There are also two other dimensions to the description of speech in phonetics: acoustic phonetics is about how speech waves are transferred from the mouth to the ear by sound waves that travel the air in terms of time, amplitude and frequency and the third branch of auditory phonetics is about how speech sounds are perceived and transformed in the ear (from sound waves in the outer ear to mechanical movements in the middle ear (transformed by: hammer, anvil, stirrup) and to neural signals by passing through the oval window to the cochlea situated in the inner ear.

English and German

English and German are different in pronunciation and spelling rules. There are some phonemes in German that does nor exist in English and vice versa.

Some examples of German VOWELS that do not occur in standard English:
The rounded close-mid back vowel: [o]
The rounded open front vowel: [oe]
The rounded close-mid front vowel: [Ø]
The rounded close/close-mid front vowel: [Y]

Example of an English VOWEL that do not occur in standard German:
The unrounded open-mid/ open vowel: [æ]

Some examples of German CONSONANTS that do not occur in standard English:
The palatal fricative [ç]
The velar fricative [x]

Some examples of English CONSONANTS that do not occur in standard German:
The voiced dental fricative: [ð]
The unvoiced dental fricative: [o ]

Spelling

Nevertheless the fact that the Latin alphabet used in many languages all over the world is originally meant to be phonographic, our spelling often does not have anything to do with how words are really pronounced.
To express the phoneme [∫] for instance, German normally uses the graphical letter combination sch, whereas English uses sh.

There are even some German letters that do not exist in standard English orthography, like the German "Umlaute":
ö, ü and ä and the German "Scharfes S": ß

Welcome to Melanie's e Portfolio "How to Make a Dictionary"!