Theoretical and Computational Solutions for
Contents
1. Farg 2004 207 quotes a telephone conversation with one of the authors of this article Henning Bergenholtz who said the following I am not interested in linguistic idiom definitions only lexicographical ones To this Farg objects that he finds it extremely important to work out a really precise idiom definition both for the sake of the lexicographer who prepares the dictionary as for the dictionary user who will have to do lookups in it Farg s own definition is extremely sophisticated but we doubt whether it can be explained in a way that will make the users understand The following components are included e an idiom consists of more than one word e an idiom is semantically transformed i e what is usually called a figurative sense e an idiom is semantically speaking neither unequivocal nor precise e an idiom has an overall meaning but the meaning of the individual words also come into play ISSN 1615 3014 162 Linguistik online 27 23 06 e an idiom has an iconographic function which gives an outline of a metaphoric frame or situation Far 2004 considers the definition chosen for THE DANISH IDIOM DICTIONARY to be extremely vague A fixed word combination with the lemma as a core element which is used only in specific situations and which has a special meaning As opposed to collocations idioms are almost fixed in their use and unlike proverbs and familiar quotations an idiom is part of a sentence An idiom is identifie2. however be a herculean task for the editor to compile a sizeable list Even five keywords instead of the originally proposed three add a considerable time penalty in the editing process We are therefore considering an increase of the number of keywords in the database through user interaction This could be done in a simple way after all all search strings that are being entered will be logged evaluated and some of them added to the database by the editor Why not let the user himself add to the list every time he finds an idiom Over time the amount of keywords will increase which should facilitate its use for other users This would of course be optional but it is quite possible that many users might find it rewarding to add to a dictionary in this way which the Wiki projects clearly prove Not all these keywords will be equally helpful but the point is to combine keywords when conducting a search For example a large number of idioms are on the subject of responsibility how to obtain it and how to relinquish it They all share the associative keywords ansvar responsibility Suppose the idioms f aben literal translation be given the monkey sidde tilbage med aben be left with the monkey and have aben p sin skulder have the monkey on one s shoulder all three meaning be given an undesirable or disadvantageous responsibility are all labelled with the associative keywords ubehagelig unpleasant and embedsman
3. DICTIONARY I couldn t find the phrase Lige b rn leger bedst literal translation Equal children play the best English translation Like will to like in your dictionary That must be a mistake surely Our answer was The question is What is an idiom and What is a proverb Lige born leger bedst Like will to like is a proverb according to our definition In the user manual you will find a definition of both terms The phrase can be found in THE DANISH INTERNET DICIONARY as a proverb both under the entry barn child and under lige equal We have given similar answers to a number of similar questions like for instance g re sig selv en bj rnetjeneste literal translation do oneself a bear s service English idiom cut off one s nose to spite one s face and g fra sngvsen throw a fit or lose one s marbles These are collocations which one may find in a different internet dictionary We will maintain that this is not a bad answer for it does apply the methodical basis for the distinction made by the lexicographer of idioms on the one hand and collocations proverbs and quotations on the other which naturally are not seen as one and the same phraseme type but as different ones Unlike collocations idioms may not be understood as the sum of individual meanings of all the words of the phraseme and therefore it must be explained as a whole In the case of a collocation one only has to know the meaning of each
4. Lexicography Bergenholtz Henning Johnsen Mia 2005 Log files as a tool for improving Internet dictionaries Hermes 34 117 141 Bergenholtz Henning Tarp Sven 2002 Die moderne lexikographische Funktionslehre Diskussionsbeitrag zu neuen und alten Paradigmen die W rterb cher als Gebrauchsgegenst nde verstehen Lexicographica 21 253 263 Bergenholtz Henning Tarp Sven 2003 Two opposing theories On H E Wiegand s recent discovery of lexicographic functions Hermes 31 171 196 Bergenholtz Henning Tarp Sven 2005 W rterbuchfunktionen In Barz Irmhild Bergenholtz Henning Korhonen Jarmo eds Schreiben Verstehen bersetzen und Lernen Zu ein und zweisprachigen W rterb chern mit Deutsch Frankfurt a M etc 11 25 DICTIONARY OF DANISH PHRASEMES Bergenholtz Henning Vrang Vibeke Ordbogen over faste vendinger Database concept and design Richard Almind rhus www idiomordbogen dk in preparation ESL IDIOM PAGE 2005 ESL Idiom page www pacificnet sperling idioms cgi November 2005 Far Ken 2004 Idiomer pa nettet Den danske idiomordbog og fraseografien Hermes 32 201 235 Far Ken ed 2005 Fraseologi Thematic Section Hermes 35 11 181 GOENGLISH COM 2005 GoEnglish com www goenglish com Idioms asp November 2005 Tarp Sven 1992 Prolegomena til teknisk ordbog PhD dissertation Aarhus Department of Spanish Aarhus School of Business www Ing hha dk dml spa phd p
5. feel a ISSN 1615 3014 Richard Almind Henning Bergenholtz Vibeke Vrang Theoretical and Computational 177 Solutions for Phraseological Lexicography need to check and refine the lists but this is in no way necessary because of a peculiarity that distinguishes online dictionaries from printed ones a word does not exist in a database until it is being searched for metaphorically speaking that is The opposite of this is also interesting What if a word is searched for that does not exist in the database Is the database then in fact non existent Is the terminology that classifies it The idea that words do not exist before actually spoken or searched for is the same reason why online dictionaries have no upper boundary for lemmata nor need to constrain themselves to words from a given terminology Thus a fixed list of keywords can never be correct no matter how extensive This has been tried before and because some people never learn they still try There are not enough words to describe all words Please stop trying Apart from the futility of creating a fixed terminology for idioms let alone classifying them a closed list would prove counter intuitive to the user and hence would not be used He would simply give up trying to understand the system and search on a best guess basis There is however a weakness inherent in the proposed system of disorganised lists Others have failed to mention it or even see it but it exists The main
6. it Depending on hardware and bandwidth this potentially complex method causes delays that the user may find counter productive How long these delays are going to be cannot be assessed at current since no live prototype exists on the Web on which to conduct tests However programming both basic and extended searches and allowing the user to choose which ones to use is a small matter and could easily be implemented Nevertheless this should not be done until tests have been conducted on the speed penalty that a more complex search method implies The not so apparent advantage for the user is that although the search slows down the extended search has been programmed by someone who knows the precise conditions of how the data is entered and his algorithm although possibly overly precise has better chances of finding anything quickly than the user has through repeatedly entering variations of a search string ISSN 1615 3014 174 Linguistik online 27 23 06 The second search method search by context or association is more difficult to describe Calling the method associative or contextual is not quite precise but it is the best term we can give the method at current A given idiom can be seen as an image Each word alone has a given meaning but together they form a different one For instance the idiom have en kort lunte have a short fuse has nothing to do with explosives Nevertheless the idiom provides an image of a person s temper by
7. lookups that resulted in strings not found are caused by lemma lacunas the entry searched for is not found in the dictionary and the other half of the lookups resulting in strings not found are caused by spelling errors for more detailed information cf Bergenholtz Johnsen 2005 In THE DANISH IDIOM DICTIONARY things are quite different The number of spelling errors is more limited less than 3 of all lookups Searches for real idioms resulting in strings not found are also much more rare than searches for entry words in THE DANISH INTERNET DICTIONARY probably because it is an idiom dictionary with a particularly large number of lemmas more than 8 000 idioms which is more than twice the size of most idiom dictionaries In less than 1 of the cases the search was made for a lemma lacuna Here most searches are made for non lemmatised variants such as vogte sit skind literal translation watch one s skin English idiom save one s bacon which could not be found in the dictionary even though the variants hytte sit skind literal translation look after one s skin English idiom save one s bacon and vare sit skind literal translation take care of one s skin English idiom save one s bacon were found Most searches resulting in strings not found were cases in which the user searched for a phraseme which was not an idiom In this case the log files of the idiom dictionary show that afterwards many users find the desired phraseme in t
8. the designated field and starts the search The search string can be of any length containing any number of words ISSN 1615 3014 172 Linguistik online 27 23 06 2 The software will try to find a matching string in the lemma field where idioms collocations and proverbs are stored in all the records of the database At this point most search engines stop and the user will either be presented with all the found records be asked to enter a different search string in case no records were found or refine his search to reduce the number of found instances As follows however this may be done partly by the software instead 3 The search string is parsed by the program into its constituent units words 4 A number of searches are performed whereby the original search string is reduced to its parts and combinations hereof in order to find any record that contains the maximum number of units words entered in the search string I e the words entered by the user are re ordered to find any combination that matches the maximum combination possible of similar words in the lemma field of the dictionary The result may not be what the user was looking for but he will at least have a result and can deduce the software s overall function The prime concern is to find a method that allows a result even when the user is entering a string that only on very rare occasions completely matches the lemma field in the database For example the strin
9. weakness of the system is that the user will have expectations that cannot be met No editor can ever expect to guess the way others think or associate The axiom there are not enough words to describe all words works against this system too Combining monkeys with bureaucrats is a very subjective notion and it is doubtful that the user would have had the same train of thought as the editor However it is not a question of finding the right or wrong associative keywords In the end it is a simple question of resources do we want to finish the dictionary or not Five keywords are enough to start with Find them quickly do not try any harder and focus on the important part finish the dictionary In time categorisation will take place but not from a fixed terminology There are two main approaches to adding associative keywords an intuitive and an academic one or in other words association and categorisation The editor can work his way through the database line by line intuitively associating one with the next creating synonyms and antonyms as he finds them and adding keywords to groups of idioms This type of categorisation is no worse or better than most cataloguing of items Definitions that contain the word ansvar responsibility will most likely all end up with the keyword ansvar responsibility or a variation just as all idioms symbolising death will contain d d dead as a keyword Hence a certain categorisation is taking pla
10. If the user defines himself as I need help when reading a text only the lemma with its meaning item will be shown sling mud MEANING damage somebody s reputation by criticizing or saying bad things about them If he defines himself as I need help when writing a text he will be presented with every piece of information that relates to the lemma kaste med mudder sling mud with the exception of remarks and the list of associative words sling mud PHRASEME TYPE idiom STYLE neutral MEANING damage somebody s reputation by criticizing or saying bad things about them GRAMMATICAL COLLOCATION somebody slings mud at somebody somebody slings mud at something somebody slings mud against somebody somebody slings mud against something COLLOCATION never sling mud start slinging mud be quick to sling mud EXAMPLE But no matter what you have to be careful when slinging mud Even though you would like nothing more than to say bad things about the client you must remember that it may harm your company SYNONYM drag down into the mud drag down into the dirt blame not leave any honour fling mud at throw filth on besmirch somebody s good name drag somebody s name through the mud throw dirt on point the finger of scorn at ISSN 1615 3014 180 Linguistik online 27 23 06 put down run down throw mud at defame blacken smear somebody s name pull down into the mud pull down into the dirt If he defines himself
11. In terms of quality the dictionary is in line with most printed idiom dictionaries and the best online dictionaries in other words not very impressive An explanation is given to each idiom but no examples no information on the grammatical arguments of the idioms no indication of synonymous or antonymous idioms no references to idioms with a similar meaning in other words no systematic approach Only a very rudimentary search engine is provided One can search for the entire idiom e g g i gulvet be out for the count which results in ga i gulvet BETYDNING besvime eller falde om fx af overraskelse ANDRE IDIOMER gulv ga literal translation go to the floor English idiom be out for the count MEANING faint or fall down on the ground or floor e g by surprise OTHER IDIOM floor go A search can also be performed for part of an idiom e g dans dance which gives a total of 8 idioms including ga bag af dansen BETYDNING ikke kunne f lge med mere ANDRE IDIOMER ga dans bag ISSN 1615 3014 Richard Almind Henning Bergenholtz Vibeke Vrang Theoretical and Computational 161 Solutions for Phraseological Lexicography literal translation walk behind the dance English phraseme fall behind MEANING not being able to keep up the pace OTHER IDIOMS walk dance behind The links can also be used for jumping to other idioms here for instance the link g walk which brings one to 166 idioms containing the w
12. SN 1615 3014 Richard Almind Henning Bergenholtz Vibeke Vrang Theoretical and Computational 175 Solutions for Phraseological Lexicography this is an enrichment Taking the above idiom have en kort lunte have a short fuse one person might describe it with the Danish equivalents of the words temper bomb arguing while another might add taxi driver discussions and so on The use of associative keywords to assist a search is meant as a help in a text production situation A user who is in the middle of writing a speech may at some point wish to use an idiom Maybe he knows it already either partially or in context but he is not sure of its proper orthography or meaning In this case a basic search is enough But sometimes a user wishes to find an idiom with a certain meaning that fits the context of his text So far users looking for help here have been let down The option to search for a number of keywords optionally combined with a basic search can result in a number of idioms that share common ground Searching for the keyword d d dead in order to find all idioms concerning such a grave matter would result in a great number of idioms none of which contain any orthographic form of the word d d dead which by the way is the very point of an idiom So far the number of associative keywords per idiom is limited to five This is a random limit and five keywords per idiom are far from enough to be of any practical value It would
13. Theoretical and Computational Solutions for Phraseological Lexicography Richard Almind Henning Bergenholtz Vibeke Vrang Aarhus Abstract THE DANISH IDIOM DICTIONARY has been criticized by Ken Far to use a less than optimal theory in the description of what a phraseme really is A closer examination of that theory however shows that this is not the case due to the hitherto neglected role of the common non academic user who has little need for an in depth classification The current article describes how THE DANISH IDIOM DICTIONARY puts the simplified theory into use and how a new and improved version currently under way improves on the theory by focusing on the user s needs thereby reducing the necessity for complicated classifications THE DANISH IDIOM DICTIONARY including its search capabilities is described in full 1 Phraseological Online Dictionaries The exact number of phraseological online dictionaries in existence and the languages for which they are made cannot be established with certainty but to our knowledge the number is not impressive Most online dictionaries are designed in exactly the same way as printed dictionaries often in order to promote the printed version cf GOENGLISH COM 2005 which gives an example for each proverb but no explanation e g A Bird In The Hand Is Worth Two In The Bush Dan has asked me to go to a party with him What if my boyfriend finds out Reply Don t go A bird in the hand is wort
14. aning of the individual words THE DANISH IDIOM DICTIONARY User Guide In our opinion this definition is rather clear We understand Farg s 2004 suggestion to search a different dictionary as being helpful to the user not an admission of failure which may not be what Far intended He does say though that the definition is quite inadequate Of major theoretical interest to future phraseography is the fact that the idiom concept of the dictionary is neither completely clear to the user nor to the editors themselves which naturally leads to a rather casual lemma selection The editors however are partly aware of the fact that the idiom concept is so vague that it becomes practically difficult to use as a criterion but to simply make a reference that says if you cannot find the idiom in one place try in another is unsufficient It must be up to the editors to draw up a suitable and clear idiom concept Far 2004 233 our translation RA HB VV We actually do believe that we have an extremely suitable idiom concept but we do not believe that all users can or may understand it or know how to use it cf Bergenholtz 2006 The question is to which extent dictionary users may be presumed to have the necessary knowledge of linguistic phraseological or lexicographical theory ISSN 1615 3014 Richard Almind Henning Bergenholtz Vibeke Vrang Theoretical and Computational 163 Solutions for Phraseological Lexicography 2 Phraseology and Lex
15. as I want to know more about idioms he will be presented with every piece of information that relates to the lemma kaste med mudder sling mud In this case all of the above plus commentaries if any and all associative keywords sling mud PHRASEME TYPE idiom STYLE neutral MEANING damage somebody s reputation by criticizing or saying bad things about them GRAMMATICAL COLLOCATION somebody slings mud at somebody somebody COLLOCATION never sling mud start EXAMPLE But no matter what you have to be careful when slinging mud Even though you would like nothing more than to say bad things about the client you must remember that it may harm your company SYNONYM drag down into the mud drag ASSOCIATIVE KEYWORDS smear attack noun attack verb slander mudslinging We plan to finish the new online phraseological dictionary by mid 2007 It will be called DICTIONARY OF DANISH PHRASEMES References Bergenholtz Henning 2000 Lexikographie und Wortbildungsforschung In Barz Irmhild Fix Ula eds Praxis und Integrationsfelder der Wortbildungsforschung Heidelberg 19 30 Bergenholtz Henning 2006 Idiomw rterb cher und ihre Benutzer In Breuer Ulrich Hyv rinen Irma eds W rter Verbindungen Festschrift f r Jarmo Korhonen Frankfurt a M etc 19 30 ISSN 1615 3014 Richard Almind Henning Bergenholtz Vibeke Vrang Theoretical and Computational 181 Solutions for Phraseological
16. ce Furthermore having THE DANISH INTERNET DICTIONARY at our disposal makes it a given to try and match both synonyms and antonyms to keywords so that a user searching for afd d deceased will automatically be led to idioms marked d d dead Technically this will be part of a last resort search and has to be considered very carefully Including synonyms and synonyms of synonyms in a search can cause serious congestion in any database system because every search will be repeated continuously and in the worst case perpetually ISSN 1615 3014 178 Linguistik online 27 23 06 User added associative keywords are important because they have the possibility of being truly associative Users can never see more than a few of all idioms recorded For them all keywords are given to ungrouped idioms They may expect categorisation like ansvar responsibility and d d dead but they will not and cannot by themselves without proper insight into the database be able to categorise large groups of idioms And even if they did the classification might only be of use to themselves since no classifications or keywords are listed openly anywhere in the dictionary Naturally a certain amount of sabotage including addition of senseless associative keywords must be expected but such activity will have to be planned quite carefully on the part of the saboteur Nevertheless to discourage this type of activity a method will be implemented that require
17. d civil servant The user searches for an idiom with the following parameters The idiom must contain the word abe monkey Associative keywords required are ansvar responsibility embedsmand civil servant and frasige relinquish The search would then take on the following steps ISSN 1615 3014 176 Linguistik online 27 23 06 Search algorithm Result Step 1 Search for idiom containing any form of the 3 found records string abe that also contains the keyword ansvar Step 2 Select from these 3 those with keywords ansvar 3 found records AND embedsmand Step 3 Select from these 3 those with keywords ansvar 0 found records AND embedsmand AND frasige Step 4 Return to last found set of idioms Step 5 Tell the user that his search has given partial results List the 3 idioms in step 2 As an option it should be possible to choose other parameters to help refine the search for instance Show all records where 2 or more of the associative keywords are present where 2 is a user choice The results of the example may seem as if the algorithm has been less than helpful In reality two very important results have come from the search First there are no idioms in the database that relate to monkeys and relinquish which should trigger the notion that monkey idioms are all about responsibilities taken and or given and second three idioms however do contain some of th
18. d by means of the following rule If the sum of the meaning of the individual words in a word formation does not correspond with the meaning of the entire word formation we have en idiom For example the phrase put somebody in the shade does not mean placing somebody in a place without sunshine The real meaning is sometimes called the transferred or figurative meaning in this case be very superior to somebody or overshadow somebody When on the other hand we have a phrase which does not have a clear meaning we do not have an idiom e g gd fra snovsen throw a fit or lose one s marbles since the Danish phrase means both be outraged and go crazy Sngvs in Danish means the upper part of a tied up sack When tying a sack you make a sngvs by folding the open end of the sack and tying it in a specific way If the sack is not properly tied the sngvs will slip and the sack will open It has lost its sn vs and the contents will be spilt Here sn vsen does not have a singular clear meaning nor can it be understood as either the mind or the temper If a specific idiom cannot be found in the idiom dictionary it may be found in THE DANISH INTERNET DICTIONARY as a fixed word formation According to the definition that we used in order to identify idioms g fra snovsen throw a fit or lose one s marbles is not an idiom This on the other hand is a phrase where the meaning of the entire word formation equals the sum of the me
19. d formations called collocations and special word formations called idioms To these must be added proverbs sayings and quotations which differ from idioms by always making up an entire sentence It may also be said that an idiom is a word formation in which the meaning of the entire word formation does not correspond with the sum of the meaning of the individual words We have used this methodical basic consideration acting on the meaning items and the synonyms in THE DANISH INTERNET DICTIONARY The distinction between the broader concept of fixed word formation and idiom is not entirely clear But according to the definition that we have used gd fra snovsen throw a fit or lose one s marbles is not an idiom What we have here is a phrase where the meaning of the entire phrase may be understood as the sum of the meaning of the individual words since the meaning of sngvsen is unclear but must be seen as something like the mind or the temper If you have any doubts you should also check THE DANISH INTERNET DICTIONARY Yours sincerely Centre for Lexicography Despite every effort to help the users we may conclude based on a log file analysis of the use of THE DANISH INTERNET DICIONARY and THE DANISH IDIOM DICTIONARY that a classificatory question from the users like the one quoted above is an absolute exception The typical question will often refer to an assumed lemma lacuna cf the following email from a user of THE DANISH IDIOM
20. df November 2005 Tarp Sven 1998 Leksikografi pa egne ben Fordelingsstrukturer og byggedele i et brugerorienteret perspektiv Hermes 21 121 137 THE DANISH IDIOM DICTIONARY 2003 2005 Vibeke Vrang with contributions by Henning Bergenholtz and Lena Lund Den danske Idiomordbog Database and design Richard Almind www idiomordbogen dk November 2005 THE DANISH INTERNET DICTIONARY 2002 2005 Henning Bergenholtz with contributions by Vibeke Vrang Lena Lund Helle Gr nborg Maria Bruun Jensen Signe Rixen Larsen Rikke Refslund and Mia Johnsen Den Danske Netordbog Database and design Richard Almind www dendanskenetordbog dk August 2005 Wiegand Herbert Ernst 1989 Der gegenw rtige Status der Lexikographie und ihr Verh ltnis zu anderen Disziplinen In Hausmann Franz Josef et al eds W rterb cher Dictionaries Dictionnaires Ein internationales Handbuch zur Lexikographie An International Encyclopedia of Lexicography Encyclopedie internationale de lexicographie Erster Teilband Berlin New York 246 280 Wiegand Herbert Ernst 2005 quivalentpr sentation und W rterbuchfunktion in zweisprachigen Printw rterb chern Mit einem Seitenblick auf die so genannte moderne lexikographische Funktionslehre Germanistische Linguistik 179 1 38 Wotjak Barbara Heine Antje 2005 Zur Abgrenzung und Beschreibung verbonominaler Wortverbindungen Wortidiome Funktionsverbgef ge Kollokationen Deutsch als Fremd
21. e e Is there a different idiom with the opposite meaning of this idiom so that I may vary my usage e Are there any variations which have the same basic stem as this idiom e Which collocations does the relevant idiom form part of ISSN 1615 3014 Richard Almind Henning Bergenholtz Vibeke Vrang Theoretical and Computational 165 Solutions for Phraseological Lexicography In the case of cognitive functions it may be a question of curiosity of acquiring sporadic knowledge of random or specific idioms This may be in the form of entertainment the so called lexicotainment The other basic cognitive function consists in a wish for new or more systematic knowledge of idioms For this purpose consulting the user manual or the theoretical outside matter of a dictionary would be advisable When this division is transferred to the phraseological classification problem it becomes obvious that the user may benefit greatly from and perhaps even wish to gain information on the status of a phraseme cf the message of this email which was sent to the authors of THE DANISH INTERNET DICTIONARY Hi First of all thank you for a really great dictionary I have searched your dictionary repeatedly trying to find out whether the phrase dreje sig om literal translation turn about English translation be about is an idiom or a collocation Can you possibly help me with this Best regards NN To this question we gave the following answer Acco
22. e associative keywords list supplied and these are all about taking and or giving responsibilities Further the user is given two hints the purpose of which is to tell the user what his result is on associative keywords alone e Each idiom is supplied with a list of matching associative keywords After each a number in parentheses reveals how many other idioms are associated with the same keyword A click on the keyword will list these other idioms e A list of idioms containing all of these three associative keywords regardless of other parameters entered by the user It would be preferable if this were a list of all possible combinations but in cases of more than five keywords the number of possible combinations could pose serious limitations depending on hard and software It is worth looking into the possibility though The notion of randomly assigning associative keywords to idioms has been criticized for not being sufficiently rigorous and for being impossible to manage Linguists would prefer to have closed lists of systematic keywords that clearly classify idioms into a fixed terminology like PONS WORTERBUCH DEUTSCHE IDIOMATIK Schemann 1993 has done The opposite a randomly created and disorganised list disturbs the notion of academia requiring lists to be managed controlled and systematised The question is whether managing a list any list is even necessary when publishing any given database The editor will without a doubt
23. found in the dictionary is entered in an amputated form For instance anmode om nogens hand ask for somebody s hand in marriage is reduced to anmode om hand ask for hand in marriage The full idiom is then entered into grammar fields example fields etc The reason for this is that few if any users will enter a search string that exactly matches the corresponding idiom in the database The word nogens somebody s might as well be entered as pigens the girl s and a basic search will return a string not found error message which in this case would be right from a technical point of view and wrong from a lexico graphical point of view Hence the decision to amputate idioms into core strings The following explains how this solved a crucial problem to guess what the user is looking for Basic searches like the ones found in THE DANISH INTERNET DICTIONARY that only searches in one specific location in the database are of little value when considering the user needs in an idiom dictionary like the proposed DICTIONARY OF DANISH PHRASEMES This dictionary must provide the user with optional search tools The current solution proposes to search both for strings that are related directly i e based on orthography similar to traditional dictionary searches and indirectly based on context i e based on association A search based on orthography in the dictionary will take the following path 1 The user enters his search string into
24. g anholde om en piges h nd ask for a girl s hand in marriage would be impossible to find in the database since it is not lemmatised because the string en piges a girl s is replaceable by a name or similar attribute What is lemmatised however is anholde om hand ask for hand in marriage A search for anholde om en piges h nd ask for a girl s hand in marriage would therefore be futile which the user has no chance of knowing Traditionally the user would be asked to repeat refine relinquish his search without further ado Such a strategy is pure laziness on the part of the programmer It is relatively simple to let the software do some of the work a user would be forced to do by hand Our proposal is to search for each unit word by itself in the order of which it was entered and to try to eliminate replaceable parts through repeated searches following a fixed pattern ISSN 1615 3014 Richard Almind Henning Bergenholtz Vibeke Vrang Theoretical and Computational 173 Solutions for Phraseological Lexicography Search algorithm Result Step 1 Search for any string that starts with the string anholde om hand anholde Step 2 Is the string anholde om present in the found Yes set Step 3 Is the string anholde om pigens present in the No found set Step 4 Remove pigens Is the string anholde om hand Yes present in the found set Step 5 Show article This is a very crude way of helping to find a given
25. h two in the bush Other dictionaries give an explanation as well as an example of how the idiom is used cf esl idiom page 2005 keep one s chin up remain brave and confident in a difficult situation don t despair or worry too much I know that things have been difficult for you recently but keep your chin up Everything will be better soon Linguistik online 27 222 06 160 Linguistik online 27 23 06 Both dictionaries mentioned here but also all other phraseological dictionaries that we found on the Internet are characterised by using the mindset so typical of printed dictionaries which only allows searches for the entire lemma most often on the basis of an alphabetic list of all phrasemes in the dictionary in question Searches for parts of a phraseme the meaning of the phraseme or parts thereof or an example or parts thereof are not possible The objective here is not to criticize or to make a survey of available phraseological dictionaries which like other online dictionaries seem to be of average quality a little or somewhat below that of printed dictionaries This article is based on a Danish online dictionary of idioms which was prepared by us and which has been freely available since 2003 THE DANISH IDIOM DICTIONARY 2003 2005 The dictionary is fairly comprehensive comprising a total of 8 728 entries i e a dictionary which in terms of quantity is considerably above the size of most printed idiom dictionaries
26. he common language dictionary THE DANISH INTERNET DICTIONARY The result is not satisfactory though If more than 25 of all lookups in an idiom dictionary involve searches for phrasemes which are not idioms our conclusion is not that we must find a new and better definition of the idiom concept Instead the dictionary must take into account the fact that the user when needing help with text reception and text production i e with communicative dictionary functions wishes to get information on a phraseme but he is not particularly interested in the status of this phraseme When it comes to cognitive needs ISSN 1615 3014 168 Linguistik online 27 23 06 also known as knowledge related needs it is a different case Here the gaining of information on the classificatory status of the phrasemes is important to the user 3 Conception of an Entirely New Form of Phraseological Online Dictionary Most idiomatic printed dictionaries are polyfunctional but in practise an electronic dictionary can be used as a monofunctional dictionary Here one can predict that the user will define his user situation by choosing one of the three following user types 1 Ineed help when reading a text 2 Ineed help when writing a text 3 I want to know more about idioms According to choice the user will get different types of information when using the dictionary more in the last chapter The dictionary includes 2 662 collocations which in our opinion
27. heory creation and proposals for new lexicographical concepts for phraseological dictionaries The main reason is first of all the lack of incorporating and not taking into account the functions of dictionaries including user prerequisites i e linguistic and cultural previous knowledge and actual needs ISSN 1615 3014 164 Linguistik online 27 23 06 In the modern lexicographical theory of functions cf Tarp 1992 Bergenholtz Tarp 2002 2003 2005 the following lexicographical functions are assumed i e functions which a dictionary must comply with in order to meet the needs of the expected users communicative functions text production reception translation cognitive functions systematic wish for knowledge sporadic wish for knowledge By communicative needs is meant help in solving a problem which may arise in relation to reading producing or translating a text By cognitive needs is meant help in achieving actual or systematic knowledge of something which may be a linguistic phenomenon or a non linguistic phenomenon or context The context of cognitive needs may be illustrated by the following sequence of events which tells nothing about why or in which context the user needs to know more dictionary user gt dictionary gt dictionary user If the dictionary use is communication related we have a completely different sequence of events The user is reading hearing correcting writing or translating a text and he has n
28. icography Strikingly many if not all phraseological contributions are based on available dictionaries or lexicographical needs which the phraseological theories in question are trying their best to solve Here in a little unfriendly fashion perhaps we would like to refer to the well known maxim May God defend me from my friends I can defend myself from my enemies The great majority of the phraseological friends of lexicography are characterised by having sophisticated concerns about phraseological classifications and the description of a number of phraseological types They see it as their mission to help lexicographers whom they apparently all seem to believe are in dire need of help e g Die Phraseologen sind aufgerufen den Lexikographen nachvollziehbare Ordnungs und Einordnungsprinzipien an die Hand zu geben Wotjak Heine 2005 143 There is an apparent wish among phraseologists to find the solution to any sort of phraseological classification once and for all However as lexicographers we wish to draw attention to two significant aspects which on one hand do not tell against every sort of phraselogical classification but on the other hand do nothing to help their general usefulness in lexicography 1 Lexicography is not a form of applied lexicology or applied phraseology cf Wiegand 1989 Tarp 1998 and Bergenholtz 2000 19ff 2 Like terminologists most phraseologists do not distinctly consider dictionaries to be a tool
29. individual word Then the user can find the explanation in a major common language dictionary for every single word of the collocation When a common language dictionary contains a meaning item for bj rnetjeneste ISSN 1615 3014 Richard Almind Henning Bergenholtz Vibeke Vrang Theoretical and Computational 167 Solutions for Phraseological Lexicography which also corresponds with the use of this word in the phraseme g re sig selv en bj rnetjeneste cut off one s nose to spite one s face we have a collocation and not an idiom Do the users understand this definition however The answer is yes to a certain degree Within the first year of the idiom dictionary being in existence two out of three searches made by the users resulted in the desired idiom the number of users for 2005 is more than three times as high Use of The Danish Idiom Dictionary Number of lookups 42 749 stating one or more idioms 30 085 70 4 string not found 12 664 29 6 With a share of 30 of the lookups the number resulting in strings not found is somewhat larger than the corresponding number in the common language dictionary where the following numbers represent the log files of the exact same period of time Use of The Danish Internet Dictionary Number of lookups 1 016 960 stating one or more dictionary entries 818 613 80 5 string not found 198 347 19 5 In this common language dictionary THE DANISH INTERNET DICTIONARY about half of the
30. liking him to a bomb that is easily set off Idioms are similar to images and describing them causes the same type of problems that image databases have tried to solve for over a decade Image databases specialised databases for multimedia data have dealt with the problem of how to find a particular image in various ways Amongst the methods tried have been attempts to analyse an image for its parts by pattern recognition in order to automatically classify images into orders of people mountain clouds etc None of these often semi automatic methods proved valid Two manual methods however have proven moderately successful In one the administrator of the database builds a list of topics The user who imports and edits the images is then given the task of applying this limited set of keywords to the images he imports into the database The problem is that when he imports an image for which there is no keyword he has to ask the administrator to create one The user on the other hand has to know the precise terminology in the database and usually consulted the list before searching for an image The method is cumbersome and has since been relinquished in favour of the alternative method The alternative to rigid topic lists is that each user enters the keywords that he finds to be appropriate as needed in other words keywords by association This data is often supplemented with metadata such as in which publication or article the material has bee
31. n used date and timestamps photographer s name copyright information etc The method may seem haphazard and confusing but has been quite successful since its introduction This in part because image databases are primarily in use amongst photographers and PR houses i e among creative users who find rigid lists impractical The primary advantage in open uncensored lists is that you never run out of keywords and each addition to the list makes it easier to find a given image In the dictionary of idioms the same method will be used to add keywords by association To begin with the editor enters a maximum of five associative keywords that he finds appropriate for the idiom in question Preferably these keywords are entered intuitively without long considerations The essence here is not which keyword best describes the idiom but what images the idiom brings into the editor s mind Needless to say different editors will supply different keywords at different times Unlike images taken with a camera where keywords are based on either or both motif water summer beach people or emotions happy relaxed idioms provoke purely emotional keywords along the lines of how and what you feel by reading it However since the idioms are taken out of context they can provoke a number of associations depending on who and when they are read simply because each reader will supply his own context a context that might vary from day to day For an idiom IS
32. nce here a phraseme which has a related meaning without being a synonym or an antonym may be stated 13 associative words here words that the lexicographer associates with the phraseme may be stated the users themselves may add further associative words here The following example shows how the systematics are applied kaste med mudder FRASEMTYPE idiom STIL neutral BETYDNING nedg re ved at komme med neds ttende eller kritiserende bem rkninger GRAMMATISK KOLLOKATION nogen kaster med mudder efter nogen nogen kaster med mudder efter noget nogen kaster med mudder mod nogen nogen kaster med mudder mod noget KOLLOKATION aldrig kaste med mudder begynde at kaste med mudder vere hurtig til at kaste med mudder EKSEMPEL Men uansat hvad skal du vere varsom med at kaste med mudder Selv om du mest har lyst til at svine kunden til skal du t nke pa at det kan skade dit firma SYNONYM drage ned i mudderet drage ned i smudset henge ud ikke levne for to skilling re kaste skarn pa kaste skidt pa ISSN 1615 3014 170 Linguistik online 27 23 06 kaste smuds p kaste snavs p k re pa pege fingre ad rakke ned sable ned smide med mudder sudle til svine til sveerte til s le nogens navn til tr kke ned i mudderet tr kke ned i smudset ASSOCIATIONSORD tilsvine angreb angribe bagtale mudderkastning sling mud PHRASEME TYPE idiom STYLE neutral MEANING damage somebody s reputation by criticizing or
33. ord gd walk or an inflexional form of g walk Compared to other online idiom dictionaries this is an improvement albeit a small one One can search for the entire idiom or parts of it but not within its meaning Since there is no systematic way to approach the available meaning items one cannot search for idioms with a specific partial meaning If for instance one wishes to find an idiom corresponding with tired and afterwards one has no chance of getting to fall behind if one does not already know the idiom and can also remember it This dictionary was reviewed by Far 2004 among others In his review he points at a number of explanations to a fairly large amount of idioms which are clearly ambiguous or even incorrect He specifically criticizes the dictionary for lacking grammatical information valency items and information on variants and also the lack of examples featuring the idioms in question He is also not pleased with the fact that the dictionary does not allow searches of meaning items Based on his criticism we have corrected the errors and inaccuracies Furthermore his criticism has been a contributive factor in our decision to work out an entirely new concept for a phraseological dictionary only contributive though since the most important motivation for the new concept presented in this article are log file analyses of user searches performed in the online dictionary of idioms We will come back to that later
34. ow come across a specific problem He does not know how to understand correct produce or translate a certain part of the text for which reason he turns to a dictionary for help user gt text part gt user gt dictionary gt user gt text part This does not mean that there cannot be a cognitive gain through a communication related use of a dictionary this may be the case but is not the intention of the dictionary use As far as phrasemes are concerned this division into three basic types of communicative dictionary functions and at least two basic types of cognitive functions can be further divided into several sub types all of which could form the basis of a mono functional phraseological dictionary in its own right The actual preparation of a fair amount of mono functional dictionaries is not realistic and so one must try to compile multi functional dictionaries which can fulfill several functions at the same time As for reception one can make a distinction between meaning items for different user types e g native speakers non native speakers pupils etc etc As for production one can also distinguish between different user types but in addition to this and first and foremost between many sorts of production problems cf Far 2004 205 e Is there a good idiom connected to this word e Is there an idiom to be used in this context e Is there a different idiom with almost the same meaning so that I may vary my usag
35. r the opposite problem reception of a text where the user cannot find an idiom in the dictionary and wishes to supplement or vent grievances about this apparent lack The concept has been tested successfully in THE DANISH INTERNET DICTIONARY more by accident than by thought where users often submitted words for entry into the dictionary simply because they could not find them These words are gifts and must be taken seriously and again nothing is lost nor is the quality of the dictionary diminished by doing so since a word not searched for does not exist Therefore even if the entry only exists in the user s mind and only will be searched and found once no harm is done Even if it is a phrase that some may consider slang 5 Results A user will be presented with different results depending on how he predefines his user situation He will be given the choice between three possibilities either of which will ISSN 1615 3014 Richard Almind Henning Bergenholtz Vibeke Vrang Theoretical and Computational 179 Solutions for Phraseological Lexicography influence the amount of data that he will be presented with For instance in a given situation the user defines any or all of the following search criteria e search for the lemma kaste med mudder sling mud e search for parts of the meaning item damage somebody s reputation by criticizing or saying bad things about them e search for the associative keywords slander mudslinging attack
36. rding to our standard definition of idioms dreje sig om be about is a collocation The explanation can be found under dreje turn in the sub article dreje sig om be about dreje 5 dreje sig om BET vere et sp rgsm l om anbelange anga ber re g lde handle om vedr re vere tale om KOL dreje sig om nogen dreje sig om noget EKS Hvad drejer det sig om Han tror alting drejer sig om ham Det drejer sig om minutter turn 5 be about MEANING be a question of have to do with concern be relevant to refer pertain relate to deal with COLLOCATION be about somebody be about something EXAMPLE What is this about He thinks everything is about him It is a question of minutes An idiom consists of at least two individual words that each have their own clear meaning when they appear individually This is not the case with dreje sig om be about but it is true that the entire phrase dreje sig om be about must be explained as a whole Therefore a different definition type than the one we have chosen might bring about a different classification Cf the user manual of THE DANISH IDIOM DICTIONARY ISSN 1615 3014 166 Linguistik online 27 23 06 But what is an idiom really In THE DANISH INTERNET DICTIONARY the following explanation is briefly mentioned fixed word formation with a special meaning It is this meaning which forms the basis of the distinction between normal wor
37. s users to accept responsibility This could be done simply by requiring an email address to which a conformation is sent If the email is rejected by the attended recipient the submitted form is neglected Although it is important to let the user supplement the dictionary with associative keywords it is more important to let him provide new idioms or other dictionary entries This will be accomplished through a standard input form with fields for idiom description examples etc The user will submit this form and the data will be reviewed and edited by the editor in case the idiom gets accepted The advantage of this possibility is not to be neglected There are two primary gains by involving the user in the process of editing the dictionary First as users of THE DANISH INTERNET DICTIONARY have proven many users feel a need to enrich a dictionary with their own findings thus creating a solid and loyal user base Such a user base might even recommend the dictionary to other potential users In part they are endorsing their own work further legitimising the dictionary s content This may seem cynical but the dictionary gains more by user involvement which leads to the other prime reason for doing so Second no matter how vigilant the editor may be and how many hours he spends editing the dictionary many idioms and variations thereof will not be found Users producing a text find idioms in other contexts simply because they are missing them Conside
38. saying bad things about them GRAMMATICAL COLLOCATION somebody slings mud at somebody somebody slings mud at something somebody slings mud against somebody somebody slings mud against something COLLOCATION never sling mud start slinging mud be quick to sling mud EXAMPLE But no matter what you have to be careful when slinging mud Even though you would like nothing more than to say bad things about the client you must remember that it may harm your company SYNONYM drag down into the mud drag down into the dirt blame not leave any honour fling mud at throw filth on ISSN 1615 3014 Richard Almind Henning Bergenholtz Vibeke Vrang Theoretical and Computational 171 Solutions for Phraseological Lexicography besmirch somebody s good name drag somebody s name through the mud throw dirt on point the finger of scorn at put down run down throw mud at defame blacken smear somebody s name pull down into the mud pull down into the dirt ASSOCIATIVE WORDS smear attack noun attack verb slander mudslinging 4 Searching the Dictionary Basically an electronic dictionary consists of two parts the search interface and the result For a search to be successful the data to be searched needs to be properly structured In this case the intended technical possibilities of the database and the implications of its design had an influence larger than usual on lexicographical decisions in that the idiom the main type of data
39. sprache 42 143 153 ISSN 1615 3014
40. string and the method will be developed further but it shows the principle at hand The lexicographer should be able to foresee a certain behaviour on the side of the user in order to anticipate his next move when presented with the problem of finding a given string in a dictionary Further refinement is possible and could even be elaborated upon by including the user s participation creating a system assisted search In the dictionary at hand that would be a bit excessive though The above example is very simple since at current there are no other lemmas that contain the word anholde ask for The word h nd hand however is much better represented A search for that string results in 86 records The point is that a standard search like the ones performed in THE DANISH INTERNET DICTIONARY and THE DANISH ACCOUNTING DICTIONARIES that require precise partial or complete orthographic matches allowing only for grammatical variations is too rigid to be of any real value when trying to find a particular idiom Also adding to the dictionary all possible word forms and variations of a given idiom is a never ending task A basic search will remain being the starting point of the search since in principle one could be lucky and the precise string entered is actually in the database which would speed up a search considerably More often than not this is not the case and automatic refinement will take place The draw back is speed or the lack of
41. which has been made to help dictionary users cover their needs It does look as if they believe a certain classification to be relevant for each dictionary type Here we are not talking about the many borderline and problem cases discussed in relation with phraseological classifications Nicht selten geht es bedingt durch bestimmte Randbereichsunsch rfen um Entscheidungen die ebenso gut zugunsten der einen wie auch zugunsten der anderen M glichkeit h tten getroffen werden k nnen Das enthebt die Linguisten und Lexikographen aber nicht der Notwendigkeit Grenzziehungen vorzunehmen und diese zu begr nden Wotjak Heine 2005 144 Contrary to the theory of a generally valid phraseological classification both in terms of linguistics and lexicography we wish to emphasize that different dictionary types for different user groups and different user needs most certainly need different classifications To this thesis must be added however that there is a possibility of having different classifications for lexicography and for the user This criticism of the phraseological literature does not only apply to the article quoted here but also to the latest phraseological contributions in general cf Farg 2005 We do not wish to take a position on the internal phraseological discussion here but we will say that most contributions are useless to us as lexicographers both empirically and theoretically i e seen from the point of view of lexicographical t
42. will need to be explained e g g re sig selv en bj rnetjeneste cut off one s nose to spite one s face 1 472 proverbs and 8 728 idioms The lexicographer must fill in most of the fields himself others will automatically be added by the program synonyms A typical article will have the following filled in fields 1 a field stating the core of the phraseme i e lemma 2 a field stating the type of phraseme idiom collocation proverb 3 a field stating style level high neutral low If the lexicographer does nothing the style will automatically be stated as neutral 4 meaning item explanation 5 grammatical collocation by this is meant valency items using keywords 6 note here etymological information and perhaps encyclopedic information which goes beyond the meaning item 7 internet address if there is a text about or with special relevance to this particular phraseme a reference to this can be made here 8 collocation here collocations which include the phraseme may be stated ISSN 1615 3014 Richard Almind Henning Bergenholtz Vibeke Vrang Theoretical and Computational 169 Solutions for Phraseological Lexicography 9 example here an example which includes the phraseme may be stated 10 synonym these synonyms are made automatically by the program if two phrasemes have the same meaning item 11 antonym here phrasemes with a meaning item which can be called opposite may be stated 12 refere
Download Pdf Manuals
Related Search