Second
report on an ongoing LUA project
The
compilation of an electronic Sepedi reference package within the framework of
Fuzzy SF
LUA recipient: Mr.
Gilles-Maurice de Schryver
This
is the second report on the above-mentioned LUA project. On the whole, the project
is still on track and even gaining momentum. Expressed in blunt figures, the
lexicographers now defined the frequent senses of well over 5,000 lemma signs
and provided corpus-based examples for each of these. Furthermore, English
translation equivalents were written for roughly 30,000 Sepedi lemma signs. The
corpus itself was not substantially enlarged, yet a thorough study was
undertaken on how to approach the morphological analysis of the data in the
corpus. Following a workshop on Computational Morphological Analysis in
Pretoria, and a Xerox Finite-State Programming course in Grenoble, both
by Ken Beesley (Principal Scientist at XRCE), I decided to try my hand at a
prototype morphological analyser for Sepedi. The resulting Finite-State
Transducer was presented and well received at the 7th International
Conference of Afrilex (Grahamstown, South Africa, 8-10 July 2002).
As Lexilogik, the company who designed
the Onoma Lexical Workbench, was disbanded, we began the construction of our
own local dictionary compilation system. It is our aim to create a generic
package that could be useable by all South African National Lexicography
Units, as well as beyond. At the time of writing we are close to a beta
version.
A publication / release of the
lexicographic data is expected in the near future, and this in various media.
Traditional hardcopies are planned, as well as CD-ROMs, an adaptive version accessible
on the University of Pretoria intranet, and a (basic) pop-up electronic
dictionary available over the Internet.
The Laurence Urdang Award has been
acknowledged in written documents, and the recipient expresses his sincere
gratitude to the Sponsor, Laurence Urdang, and the LUA Selection Panel.
Gilles-Maurice de
Schryver
Department of African
Languages and Cultures,
Ghent University,
Belgium