An Analysis of the <i>Oxford Bilingual School Dictionary: Northern Sotho and English</i> (De Schryver 2007)

Abstract

The Oxford Bilingual School Dictionary: Northern Sotho and English (De Schryver 2007) isa welcome addition to dictionaries that have been compiled for school use in particular. Its novelty and appeal lie in the fact that the lemmas and Northern Sotho mini-grammar are based on a corpus of general language usage and school textbooks. It reflects current language usage and concerns in the modern world that learners can easily relate to, making it a popular alternative to the more traditional dictionaries. This bidirectional, bilingual dictionary is equally useful to native speakers of Northern Sotho learning English and to English-speakers acquiring Northern Sotho. Though the number of lemmas is restricted to 5 000 in the lemma lists for Northern Sotho and English respectively, the compilers nevertheless succeeded in meeting the basic lexicographic and grammatical needs of the learner. This review article aims to take a critical look at various features of the dictionary.Keywords: SESOTHO SA LEBOA, CORPUS, SCHOOL DICTIONARY, DICTIONARY CUL-TURE, LEMMATISATION, ACCESS ALPHABET, CROSS-REFERENCES, LEMMA, MINI-GRAMMAR, MODERNITY Samevatting: Die Oxford Bilingual School Dictionary: Northern Sotho and English (De Schryver 2007) is 'n welkome toevoeging tot woordeboeke wat spesifiek vir skoolgebruik saamgestel is. Wat die woordeboek oorspronklik en aantreklik maak is die feit dat die lemmata en Noord-Sotho minigrammatika op 'n korpus van algemene taal en skooltekste gebaseer is. Dit weerspieël hedendaagse taalgebruik en sake van belang in die moderne leefwêreld waarmee die leerder maklik kan assosieer en wat die woordeboek 'n gewilde keuse maak bo ander meer tradisionele woordeboeke. Hierdie tweerigting-, tweetalige woordeboek voorsien in die behoeftes van Noord-Sotho moedertaalsprekers wat Engels aanleer sowel as aan dié van Engelssprekendes wat Noord-Sotho leer. Ten spyte daarvan dat die lemmata beperk is tot 5 000 vir elk van die twee tale, het die samestellers nogtans daarin geslaag om aan die basiese leksikografiese en grammatiese behoeftes van die leerder te voldoen. Hierdie resensieartikel neem die kenmerke van die woordeboek krities in oënskou.Sleutelwoorde: SESOTHO 2007). Errors that are noted should not be seen as criticism, but as contributions to the improvement of this work in a future revision cycle. Fit for purposeGouws and Prinsloo (2005: 39) emphasize that "[t]he user-perspective, so prevalent in modern-day metalexicography, compels lexicographers to compile their dictionaries according to the needs and research skills of well-defined target user groups". In the case of school dictionaries it is particularly important to pitch dictionaries at the level of learners and not to produce scaled down versions of more comprehensive dictionaries as these "seldom meet the needs of the target users and often are more of a hindrance than a help" (Potgieter 2012: 262). The dictionary under review is a perfect example of a reference work inspired and driven by the needs and dictionary consultation skil...

Türkçe, İngi̇li̇zce, Almanca Ve Fransizca Okul Sözlükleri̇ni̇n Karşilaştirmali Anali̇zi̇

“…Hazırlanan okul sözlüğünün albenisinin olması ve kuralcı, sıkıcı ifadelerden uzak olması bu sözlükleri kullanan öğrencileri olumlu yönde etkilemektedir (Kosch, 2013). Bu bağlamda okul sözlüğünü eline alan bir öğrencinin sözlüğü sevmesi, sözlüğün cildinin sağlam, renkli ve kabartmalı olması bu sözlükleri kullanacak olan öğrencilerin sözlük ile ilgili varsa ön yargılarını ortadan kaldıracaktır.…”

A Corpus-Based List of Frequently Used Words in Sesotho

“…For instance, the English word 'provinces' is written using four varying spellings in the corpora, that is, diporofense, diporofensi, diporovense, and diprovense. Inconsistencies like this can be expected when there is flexibility when forming loan words (Kosch, 2013). Although Sesotho words typically do not contain the letter 'v', it is used in loan words that originally contain 'v' letters such as thelevishene 'television'.…”

Corpus-driven Bantu Lexicography Part 3: Mapping Meaning onto Use in Lusoga

“…It has furthermore been noted that the distinction between the macrostructural and microstructural levels tends to disappear in a digital dictionary environment, as has also been illustrated abundantly for Northern Sotho (Prinsloo 2005, Prinsloo et al 2014, Prinsloo et al 2017. Lastly, dictionary reviews, of for instance the corpus-based Oxford Bilingual School Dictionary: Northern Sotho and English (de Schryver 2007), likewise tend to focus on microstructural aspects (Prinsloo 2009, Chabata and Nkomo 2010, Faaß 2010, Klein 2010a, b, Madiba and Nkomo 2010, Kosch 2013.…”