Collocations and Grammatical Patterns in a Multilingual Online Term Bank

Abstract

Abstract:This article considers the importance of including various types of collocations in a terminological database, with the aim of making this information available to the user via the user interface. We refer specifically to the inclusion of empirical and phraseological collocations, and information on grammatical patterning. Attention is also given to provision of information on semantic prosody and semantic preferences -aspects which have been rather neglected in South African terminological databanks and language for special purposes (LSP) dictionaries. Various strategies for the effective semi-automatic extraction of collocational data from specialized corpora are explored. Possibilities regarding access to and presentation of collocational information to the user are briefly considered. It is argued that users should have direct access to collocational information, and that collocations should not only be accessible via the lemmatic address of the term appearing as part of the collocation. The research is done within the context of the establishment of an Open Access Resource Term Bank, which is developed as a pedagogical tool to support students whose language of learning and teaching is not the L1. Keywords: COLLOCATIONS, GRAMMATICAL PATTERNING, MULTILINGUAL TERMI-NOLOGY DATABASE, SEMANTIC PROSODY, SEMANTIC PREFERENCE, OPEN ACCESS RESOURCE TERM BANK, CORPUS-BASED TERMINOLOGYOpsomming: Kollokasies en grammatikale patrone in 'n veeltalige aanlyntermbank. Hierdie artikel ondersoek die belangrikheid van die insluiting van verskillende tipes kollokatiewe inligting in 'n veeltalige terminologiese databank met die oog daarop om hierdie inligting aan die gebruiker via die gebruikerskoppelvlak beskikbaar te stel. Ons verwys spesifiek na die insluiting van emipriese en fraseologiese kollokasies, en ook na inligting oor grammatiese patrone. Aandag word ook gegee aan die verskaffing van inligting oor semantiese prosodie en semantiese voorkeur -aspekte wat nie veel aandag in Suid-Afrikaanse terminologiese databanke en vakwoordeboeke geniet nie. Verskeie strategieë vir die effektiewe semi-outomatiese onttrekking van kollokatiewe data uit vakgerigte korpora word ondersoek. Verskillende moontlikhede met betrekking tot die toegang tot en aanbieding van kollokatiewe inligting aan die gebruiker word oorweeg. Daar word geargumenteer dat gebruikers direkte toegang tot kollokatiewe inligting moet hê, en nie alleenlik via die lemmatiese adres van die term wat as deel van die kollokasie optree nie. Die navorsing word gedoen teen die agtergrond van die daarstel van 'n terminologiese hulpbron met vrye toegang, wat as opvoedkundige hulpmiddel ontwerp word ter ondersteuning van studente wat nie deur middel van hul L1 studeer en/of onderrig word nie.

Scaffolding for content knowledge of home language learning by collaborative online dictionaries

“…The pedagogical value of electronic dictionaries is acknowledged widely (Gouws, 2016;Lew, 2010;Nkomo & Madiba, 2011;Taljard, 2015). According to Lew (2010: 291), research provides evidence that the main consultation needs of dictionary users, be they on different levels of language proficiency, of different mother tongues or nationality, would still relate to the meaning of words.…”

Multimodal Exemplification:The Expansion of Meaning in Electronic Dictionaries

“…So multimodality plays an important role in meaning representation in (e-)dictionaries. Examples serve as a basic constituent of the dictionary microstructure, reinforcing meaning explanations, illustrating collocations and colligations, and contextualizing for cultural, stylistic and pragmatic implications (Xu 2009: 12, 26-29;see also Nielsen 2014;Prinsloo 2015;Taljard 2015). In e-dictionaries, the different semiotic modes can be employed to develop this potential to a much greater extent than in print dictionaries.…”