DOCSLIB.ORG

Machine-Readable Dictionaries in Text-To-Speech Systems

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Machine-Readable Dictionaries in Text-To-Speech Systems Machine-Readable Dictionaries in Text-to-Speech Systems Judith L. Klavans~and Evclyne Tzoukcrmann * "~Colnmbia University, l)epartment of Computer Science, New York, New York 10027 [email protected] ~* A.T.&T. Bell Laboratories, 600 Monntain Avenue, Murray llill, N.J. 07974 [email protected] Abstract 2 Using MRDs in Text to This paper presents the results of an experiment Speech usiug machine-readable dictionaries (Mill)s) and Several problems are addressed in this paper; corpora for building concatenativc units for text one concerns tile subtle comple×itics and idiosyn- to speech (T'PS) systems. Theoretical questions crasies ilwolved iu parsing dictionaries and ex- concerning the nature of t)honemic data in dic- tracting data. Added to this is the lack of consis- tionaries are raised; phonemic dictionary data is tency both within the same dictionary and across viewed as a representative corpus over which to dictionaries which often requires ad hoc proce- extract n- gram phonemic frequencies in the lan- dures for each- resource. Another issue relates to guage. Dictionary data are compared to corpus tile structure of the modules of a TTS system, data, and phoneme inventories arc evaluated for specifically ill the grapheme-to-phoneme compo- coverage. A methodology is defined to compute nent; dictionary lookup depends on several factors I)honemic n-grams for incorporation into a TTS including size, machine power and storage, factors system. that have important consequences for the extrac- tion ofconcatenative nnits. Another consideration 1 Introduction concerns tile nature of the language itself: a lan- guage with irregular graphcme4o-phoneme map- The majority of speech synthesis systems use ping and lexically determined stress assignment two techniques: concatenation and formant- (such as English) benefits rnost from the large ex- synthesis. Building a comprehensive and intelli- ception list which a dictionary can provide, There gible concatenative-based speech synthesis system is also the practical issue of dictionary availabil- relies heavily on the successfid choice of concate- ity, and of pronunciation field accuracy within an native units. Our results contribute to the t~sk of available dictionary. Thus, decisions on the use developing an eificient and elfective methodology of MRD data depend on many factors, and can for reducing the potentially large set of concaten- significantly impact efficiency and accuracy of a live units to a manageable size, and to chosing the speech system. optimal set for recording and storage. Since a dictionary entry consists of several The paper is aimed primarily at two audiences: fields of information, naturally, each will bc use- one consists of those concerned with research on rid for different applications [1]. Among the stan- the automatic use of MR.D data; the other are dard fields are prommciation, etymology, sub- TTS system designers who require linguistic and jcct field notes, definition fields, synonym and lcxicographic resources to improve and streamline antonym cross references, semantic and syntactic system-building. Issues of morphological analysis comments, run-on forms, conjugational class and and generation, as well as stress assigmnent based inflectional information where relevant, and trans- on dictiona.ry data, are discussed. lation for the I)ilingual dictionaries. Each of these fields has proven usefifl for different applications, such as for building semantic taxouomies [3], [13] and machine translation [12]. The most directly useflfl for TTS is the pronunciation field [4], [11]. Equally usefifl for TTS, but less dir6ctly acces- 971 sible, are data from run-on fields, conjugational which has a rough ratio of eight morphologically class information, and part-of-speech. 1 inflected words for one baseform, Robert lists only To illustrate, the following partial entries from the non-inflected forms of the lexical entries. Itow- Webster's Seventh (W7) [15] illustrate typical pro- ever, if pronunciation varies during inflection of nunciation, definition, and run-on fields: nouns and adjectives, the pronunciation field re- flects that variation which makes the information (l) ha.yen/'h.~-v0n/ n 1: IIAnBOR, POLO' 2 : a difficult to extract automatically. For example, in place of safety : ASYLUM haven vt (5) and (6), one needs to know the nature of the (2) bi.son/'brs-on, 't>iz-/ n ... rule to apply in order to relate both forms of the (3) ho.m,,.ge.neous /-'j~-ne-0s,-ny0s/ ... adjective. (4) den.tic.u.late/den-'tik-y0-1~t/ or den.tic.u.lat.ed/-,lat-od/ adj (5) blanc, blanche/bl~, blbJ'/adj, et n. The entry for "haven" contains one fnll pronun- (6) vif, rive/vif, viv/adj, et n. ciation. The entry for "bison" has one alterna- In (5), the masculine/bl~/is obtained by remov- tive, but the user must figure out that the /on/ ing the phoneme /J'/ from the feminine /bl~,j'/ should be appended after 't)]z-/, as in the first pro- (blanche, "white" ). In (6), the form masculine mmciation, in order to obtain the correct varia- fornr/vif/("sharp, qnick") is formed by stripping tion. Correct pronunciation for "homogeneous" the affix /ve/ and substituting the phoneme /f/. relies on the pronunciation of the previous en- Notice that tile rules are different in nature, the try, "homogeneity" , and requires the user to sep- first being a addition/deletion relation, and the arate and bring the prefix "homo-" from one en- second being a substitution. try to another. To complicate matters, the alter- In this project, the dictionary pronunciation native pronunciation for the suffix /n6.-as/-nyas/ field was used to start building the phonetic inven- must also be correctly interpreted by the user. Fi- tory of a speech synthesis system. For the French nally, "dentieulate" has a morphologically related TTS system [?], the set of diphones was estab- run-on form "denticulated" in tile early part of lished by taking most of the thirty-flve phonemes the entry, and the pronunciation of that run-on is for French and coupling them with each other (352 related to the main entry, but the user must de- = 1225 pairs). Then, the diphones were extracted cide how to strip and append the given syllables. from the pronunciation field for headwords in the 2 While these types of reasoning are not difficult Robert dictionary. A program was written to for humans, for whom the dictionary was written, search through the dictionary phonetic field and they are quite difficult for programs, and thus are select the longest word where the phoneme pairs not straighforward to perform automatically. would be in mid-syllable position. For example, the phonemic pair/lo/was found in the pronun- 2.1 Using the MRD pronunciation ciation field/zoolo3ik/corresponding to the head- field word zoologiquc "zoologic." Out of 1225 phonemic pairs, 874 words were Extracting the prommciation field from an MRD is fonnd with at least one occurence of the pair. one of the most obvious uses of a dictionary. Nev- The pair [headword_orth, headword_phon] was ex- ertheless, parsing dictionaries in general can be a tracted and headword_orth was placed in a carrier very complex operation ([16]) and even the extrac- sentence for recording. For instance, the speaker tion of one field, such as prommciation, can pose would utter the following sentence: "C'est zo- problems. Similar to W7, in the Robert French ologique que je dis" where "C'est ... que je dis" dictionary [9], which contains about 89,000 entries, is the carrier sentence. Due to the lack of explicit several pronunciations can be given for a head- inflectional information for nmms and adjectives, word and the choice of one must be made. More- only the non-inflected forms of the entries were ex- over, because of the rich morphology of French tracted during dictionary lookup for building tile 1Notice, however, that the fifll Collins Spanish-English diphone table. Similarly for verbs, only the infini- dictionary [7], as opposed to the other bilinguals, does not tive forms were used since the dictionary does not contain any prommciatlon information. Although this is list the inflected forms as headwords. This exem- rather surprising taking into account that the smaller ver- plifies the most simple way to use pronunciation si...... h as the paperback and g.... ([8], [lO]) do 1..... phonetic field, it could be attributed to the fact that pro- field data, which we have completed. A pronun- mmciation miles in Spanish are relatively predictable. ciation list of around 85,796 phonetic words was [2] reports on the need to resyllablfy entries already syl- obtained from the original list of ahnost 89,000 en- labified in LDOCE [18], since syllable boundaries for writ- tries, i.e. 96% of the entries. The remaining 4% ten forms usually reflect hyphenation conventions, rather than phonologically motivated syllabification conventions consist primarily of prefixes and suffixes which are necessary for pronunciation. listed in the dictionary without pronunciations, 972 and which should not be used in isolation in arty 3 Methodology and Results ease. 3.1 Collecting Data 2.2 Using the MRD for morphology As stated al)ove, out of ahnost 89,000 headwords Even though an MRI) may not list complete in- in the dictionary, 874 phonemic pairs,which repre- tlectional paradigms, it contains useful inflectional sents 71% of the total, were found. This is due to information. For example in the Collins Spanish- the fact that (a) the lookup occurs only on non: English dictionary, verb entries are listed with an inflected words, thus a limited sample of the lan- index pointing to the conjugation chess and table, guage, (b) because the dictionary consists of a list listed at the end of the dictionary. Using this infer of isolated words, it does not aceonnt for inter: word boundary phenomena. Sitme French liaison mation, a finite-state transducer for morphological analysis and generation was built for Spanish [20].
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Issues in Text-To-Speech for French
    ISSUES IN TEXT-TO-SPEECH FOR FRENCH Evelyne Tzoukermann AT&T Bell Laboratories 600 Mountain Avenue, Murray tlill, N.J. 07974 evelyne@rcsearch, art.corn Abstract in the standard International Phonetic Alphabi,t; the second column ASCII shows the ascii correspon- This paper reports the progress of the French dence of these characters for the text-to-speech text-to-speech system being developed at AT&T system, and the third column shows art example Bell Laboratories as part of a larger project for of the phoneme in a French word. multilingual text-to-speech systems, including lan- guages such as Spanish, Italian, German, Rus- Consonant s Vowels sian, and Chinese. These systems, based on di- IPA ASCII WORD IPA ASCII WORD phone and triphone concatenation, follow the gen- p p paix i i vive eral framework of the Bell Laboratories English t t tout e e the TTS system [?], [?]. This paper provides a de- k k eas e g aisc scription of the approach, the current status of the b b bas a a table French text-to-speech project, and some problems iI d dos u a time particular to French. g g gai 3 > homme m m mais o o tgt n n liOn u U boue 1 Introduction .p N gagner y y tour l 1 livre n ellX In this paper, the new French text-to-sIieech sys- f f faux ce @ seul tem being developed at AT&T is presented; sev- s s si o & peser eral steps have been already achieved while others f S chanter I bain are still in progress.
    [Show full text]
  • Multi-Disciplinary Lexicography
    Multi-disciplinary Lexicography Multi-disciplinary Lexicography: Traditions and Challenges of the XXIst Century Edited by Olga M. Karpova and Faina I. Kartashkova Multi-disciplinary Lexicography: Traditions and Challenges of the XXIst Century, Edited by Olga M. Karpova and Faina I. Kartashkova This book first published 2013 Cambridge Scholars Publishing 12 Back Chapman Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2XX, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2013 by Olga M. Karpova and Faina I. Kartashkova and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-4256-7, ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-4256-3 TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Illustrations ..................................................................................... ix List of Tables............................................................................................... x Editors’ Preface .......................................................................................... xi Olga M. Karpova and Faina I. Kartashkova Ivanovo Lexicographic School................................................................ xvii Ekaterina A. Shilova Part I: Dictionary as a Cross-road of Language and Culture Chapter One................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • The Art of Lexicography - Niladri Sekhar Dash
    LINGUISTICS - The Art of Lexicography - Niladri Sekhar Dash THE ART OF LEXICOGRAPHY Niladri Sekhar Dash Linguistic Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India Keywords: Lexicology, linguistics, grammar, encyclopedia, normative, reference, history, etymology, learner’s dictionary, electronic dictionary, planning, data collection, lexical extraction, lexical item, lexical selection, typology, headword, spelling, pronunciation, etymology, morphology, meaning, illustration, example, citation Contents 1. Introduction 2. Definition 3. The History of Lexicography 4. Lexicography and Allied Fields 4.1. Lexicology and Lexicography 4.2. Linguistics and Lexicography 4.3. Grammar and Lexicography 4.4. Encyclopedia and lexicography 5. Typological Classification of Dictionary 5.1. General Dictionary 5.2. Normative Dictionary 5.3. Referential or Descriptive Dictionary 5.4. Historical Dictionary 5.5. Etymological Dictionary 5.6. Dictionary of Loanwords 5.7. Encyclopedic Dictionary 5.8. Learner's Dictionary 5.9. Monolingual Dictionary 5.10. Special Dictionaries 6. Electronic Dictionary 7. Tasks for Dictionary Making 7.1. Panning 7.2. Data Collection 7.3. Extraction of lexical items 7.4. SelectionUNESCO of Lexical Items – EOLSS 7.5. Mode of Lexical Selection 8. Dictionary Making: General Dictionary 8.1. HeadwordsSAMPLE CHAPTERS 8.2. Spelling 8.3. Pronunciation 8.4. Etymology 8.5. Morphology and Grammar 8.6. Meaning 8.7. Illustrative Examples and Citations 9. Conclusion Acknowledgements ©Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS) LINGUISTICS - The Art of Lexicography - Niladri Sekhar Dash Glossary Bibliography Biographical Sketch Summary The art of dictionary making is as old as the field of linguistics. People started to cultivate this field from the very early age of our civilization, probably seven to eight hundred years before the Christian era.
    [Show full text]
  • Towards Building a Multilingual Sememe Knowledge Base
    Towards Building a Multilingual Sememe Knowledge Base: Predicting Sememes for BabelNet Synsets Fanchao Qi1∗, Liang Chang2∗y, Maosong Sun13z, Sicong Ouyang2y, Zhiyuan Liu1 1Department of Computer Science and Technology, Tsinghua University Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Tsinghua University Beijing National Research Center for Information Science and Technology 2Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications 3Jiangsu Collaborative Innovation Center for Language Ability, Jiangsu Normal University [email protected], [email protected] fsms, [email protected], [email protected] Abstract word husband A sememe is defined as the minimum semantic unit of human languages. Sememe knowledge bases (KBs), which contain sense "married man" "carefully use" words annotated with sememes, have been successfully ap- plied to many NLP tasks. However, existing sememe KBs are built on only a few languages, which hinders their widespread human economize utilization. To address the issue, we propose to build a uni- sememe fied sememe KB for multiple languages based on BabelNet, a family male spouse multilingual encyclopedic dictionary. We first build a dataset serving as the seed of the multilingual sememe KB. It man- ually annotates sememes for over 15 thousand synsets (the entries of BabelNet). Then, we present a novel task of auto- Figure 1: Sememe annotation of the word “husband” in matic sememe prediction for synsets, aiming to expand the HowNet. seed dataset into a usable KB. We also propose two simple and effective models, which exploit different information of synsets. Finally, we conduct quantitative and qualitative anal- sememes to annotate senses of over 100 thousand Chinese yses to explore important factors and difficulties in the task.
    [Show full text]
  • Kernerman Kdictionaries.Com/Kdn DICTIONARY News
    Number 19 y July 2011 Kernerman kdictionaries.com/kdn DICTIONARY News Integrating phonetic transcription in a Brazilian Portuguese dictionary Luiz Carlos Cagliari 1. The dictionary in everyday work. It is always common for a phonetician to K Dictionaries has developed a series of dictionaries for learners transcribe his or her own language. When doing that, all kinds of various languages, including Portuguese/French. This of sound variation are registered, according to the speakers’ dictionary was based on European Portuguese, whose words pronunciation. On the other hand, when doing phonology, the had a phonetic transcription with European pronunciation. A sound patterns are interpreted following theories in order to group of lexicographers from the University of São Paulo, under get an abstract sound system of the language. In this case, the the supervision of Ieda Maria Alves, adapted the Portuguese phonetic variation is accommodated into their phonemes. The entries to Brazilian vocabulary, and another team from UNESP phonological transcription does not represent a pronunciation (São Paulo State University) at São José do Rio Preto, under of the language, in the same sense as phonetic transcription the supervision of Claudia Xatara, adapted to Brazilian the does. Moreover, phonological transcription does not relate to Poruguese translations of the French entries. language in the same way as orthography does. According In line with the change from European to Brazilian to the rules of writing systems, orthography has the function Portuguese, I gathered a group of students to be involved in of neutralizing the phonetic variation of a language on the modifying the phonetic transcription. The collaborators were word pronunciation level, allowing all speakers to read.
    [Show full text]
  • Producing an Encyclopedic Dictionary Using Patent Documents
    Producing an Encyclopedic Dictionary Using Patent Documents Atsushi Fujii Graduate School of Library, Information and Media Studies University of Tsukuba 1-2 Kasuga, Tsukuba, 305-8550, Japan [email protected] Abstract Although the World Wide Web has of late become an important source to consult for the meaning of words, a number of technical terms related to high technology are not found on the Web. This paper describes a method to produce an encyclopedic dictionary for high-tech terms from patent information. We used a collection of unexamined patent applications published by the Japanese Patent Office as a source corpus. Given this collection, we extracted terms as headword candidates and retrieved applications including those headwords. Then, we extracted paragraph-style descriptions and categorized them into technical domains. We also extracted related terms for each headword. We have produced a dictionary including approximately 400 000 Japanese terms as headwords. We have also implemented an interface with which users can explore our dictionary by reading text descriptions and viewing a related-term graph. 1. Introduction CLONE has been used for various research purposes. Term descriptions that have been carefully organized At the same time, we have identified that descriptions of in hand-compiled dictionaries and encyclopedias pro- technical terms associated with high technology are not vide valuable linguistic knowledge for human use and necessarily found on the Web. Example terms are “pho- knowledge-intensive computer systems, developed in the tosensitive lithographic printing plate”, “tracking error sig- human language technology community. However, as with nal”, and “magenta coupler”. Even in Wikipedia, which other types of linguistic knowledge relying on human intro- is a large encyclopedia on the Web, a number of high-tech spection and supervision, compiling encyclopedias is ex- terms are not explained.
    [Show full text]
  • A Method of Automatic Hypertext Construction from an Encyclopedic Dictionary of a Specific Field
    A Method of Automatic Hypertext Construction from an Encyclopedic Dictionary of a Specific Field Sadao Kurohashi, Makoto Nagao, Satoshi Sato and Masahiko Murakami Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Kyoto University Yoshida-honmachi, Sakyo, Kyoto, 606, Japan 1 Introduction (ii) s-link (by synonym) is set up from a defined word to defining words by synonym relation. Nowadays, very large volume of texts are created and stored in computer, and as a result the retrieval of texts Typical sentential styles of intensional definition are: which fits to a user's demand has become a difficult prob- (i) A is defined as B. A is regarded as B. lem. Hypertext is a typical system to answer this prob- (ii) A means B. A connotes B. A is B. lem, whose primary objective is to establish flexible as- sociative links between relevant text parts and to allow (iii) A is a {kind, form, way, branch, method, ...) of B. users to select and trace links to see relevant text con- (iv) A is regarded as B, so C as D. tents which are connected by links. A difficult problem here is how to construct automatically a network struc- By identifying these patterns in a term description part, ture in a given set of text data. This paper is concerned the relation between the defined word (A) and the defi- with (1) automatic conversion of a plain text set into nition sentences is established as: a hypertext structure, and (2) construction of flexible (i) p-link is set up from the defined word to the human interface for the hypertext system.
    [Show full text]
  • A Lexicographic Approach to Language Policy and Recommen
    A Lexicographic Approach to Language Policy and Recommen- dations for Future Dictionaries Sven Tarp, Centre for Lexicography, Aarhus School of Business, University of Aarhus, Aarhus, Denmark ([email protected]) and Rufus H. Gouws, Department of Afrikaans and Dutch, University of Stellenbosch, Stellenbosch, Republic of South Africa ([email protected]) Abstract: Language policy prevails at different levels and its formulation typically results in a prescriptive presentation of data. In their dictionaries, lexicographers have to respond to the deci- sions of language policy makers. In this regard dictionaries can adhere to a strict prescriptive policy by including only the prescribed forms. Dictionaries can also give a descriptive account of lan- guage use without making any recommendations or claims of correctness. Thirdly, dictionaries can be proscriptive by recommending certain forms, even if such a recommendation goes against the prescribed forms. This article offers an overview of different levels of language policy and the prin- ciples of prescription, description and proscription. Examples are given to illustrate certain lexico- graphic applications of prescription. It is emphasised that access to relevant data is important to dictionary users. Consequently the lexicographic application of proscription is discussed as a viable alternative to prescription. It is suggested that proscription, in its different possible applications, can lead to a lexicographic presentation that benefits the user and that contributes to the satisfac- tion of the functions
    [Show full text]
  • Doctor-Patient Communication As a Linguistic Model
    Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 331 1st International Scientific Practical Conference "The Individual and Society in the Modern Geopolitical Environment" (ISMGE 2019) Doctor-patient communication as a linguistic model Lyubov Kasimtseva Lilya Kiseleva Sara Dzhabrailova Astrakhan State Medical University, Astrakhan State Medical University, Astrakhan State Medical University Chair of Latin and Foreign Languages Chair of Latin and Foreign Languages Chair of Latin and Foregn Languages Astrakhan, Russia Astrakhan, Russia Astrakhan,Russia [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2987-4217 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0251-8324 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9050- 6635 Abstract — This article is devoted to the study of oral broad sense of the word, a complex unity of a language medical discourse in doctor-patient communication, which practice and extralinguistic factors, necessary for many scientists consider as a linguistic model. The relationship understanding the text, i.e. giving an idea about the between the doctor and the patient is one of the actual participants of communication, their settings and goals, problems in modern society. The relationship between the conditions of production and perception of the message [2]. doctor and the patient has evolved that is why it became necessary to inform and obtain the patient's consent to this or II. MATERIALS AND METHODS (MODEL) that medical intervention. The doctor has the task to decide which information is the medical secrecy and which is open for Medical discourse has attracted the attention of many the patient. One of the main tasks of the medical discourse is to scientists, such as V.I.Karasik, V.V.
    [Show full text]
  • Dictionary of Lexicography
    Dictionary of Lexicography Anyone who has ever handled a dictionary will have wondered how it was put together, where the information has come from, and how and why it can benefit so many of its users. The Dictionary of Lexicography addresses all these issues. The Dictionary of Lexicography examines both the theoretical and practical aspects of its subject, and how they are related. In the realm of dictionary research the authors highlight the history, criticism, typology, structures and use of dictionaries. They consider the subjects of data-collection and corpus technology, definition-writing and editing, presentation and publishing in relation to dictionary-making. English lexicography is the main focus of the work, but the wide range of lexicographical compilations in other cultures also features. The Dictionary gives a comprehensive overview of the current state of lexicography and all its possibilities in an interdisciplinary context. The representative literature has been included and an alphabetically arranged appendix lists all bibliographical references given in the more than 2,000 entries, which also provide examples of relevant dictionaries and other reference works. The authors have specialised in various aspects of the field and have contributed significantly to its astonishing development in recent years. Dr R.R.K.Hartmann is Director of the Dictionary Research Centre at the University of Exeter, and has founded the European Association for Lexicography and pioneered postgraduate training in the field. Dr Gregory James is Director of the Language Centre at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, where he has done research into what separates and unites European and Asian lexicography.
    [Show full text]
  • Normalizing Headwords of Cologne Digital Dictionaries
    Normalizing headwords of Cologne digital dictionaries Dr. Dhaval Patel A/8, Gokul Flats, Nava Vadaj, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India, Pin - 380013 [email protected] Abstract 1 Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries site maintains 36 Sanskrit related dictionaries as on th 2 31 October 2016. In Sanskrit NLP, these dictionaries are the main source for lexical 3 data. Discounting 3 English – Sanskrit dictionaries, there are 33 dictionaries in total which 4 have headwords in Sanskrit. As these dictionaries are compiled over a vast period of time, 5 different conventions were followed by their authors. When we want to align these digital 6 lexica, we need to understand these conventions and arrive at a standard convention, so that 7 these different databases can communicate to one another. 8 Examples would make it more evident. Some dictionaries tend to use first inflected form of 9 the headword e.g. धमः , whereas some tend to use the uninflected form of the headword e.g. 10 धम. Similarly some dictionaries have tendency to use ‘अर ’् for words ending with ऋ e.g. िपतर ,् 11 whereas some have tendency to use ‘ऋ’ e.g. िपतृ and some others have tendency to use आ e.g. 12 िपता. The data referred to by headwords धमः / धम or िपतर /् िपतृ / िपता are the same. When we 13 want these dictionaries to communicate seamlessly with one another, such differences need to 14 be ironed out. Greater consonance can be brought between these dictionaries by some form 15 of standardization in this regards. Present paper tries to analyse the different conventions 16 followed by these authors / editors and come out with a standardized convention, so that 17 the headwords list is in standard format.
    [Show full text]
  • 8 Word Meaning
    8 Word Meaning KEY CONCEPTS Dictionary entries Sense relations Models of word meaning Mental dictionaries INTRODUCTION In this chapter we discuss word meaning. While it’s uncontroversial that words mean, it is far from clear how they mean, or indeed what meaning is. Because dictionaries are so familiar, we begin our discussion from the point of view of dictionary entries, which are designed primarily to describe the meanings of words, though they do much else besides. We discuss two ap- proaches to modeling word meaning, and then move to a discussion of the meanings of words as they might be stored in human minds and of the ways in which book and mental dictionaries are alike and different. We would be surprised if anyone reading this book had never consulted a dictionary; however, our experience over several decades of teaching about language is that very few people read the introductions (front matter) of dic- tionaries they may have had for many years. Indeed, our experience strongly suggests that most people believe in the myth of “The Dictionary,” a unique, authoritative, and accurate source of information on words, their spellings, meanings, and histories, of which actual dictionaries are merely longer or shorter versions. Everyone, especially teachers, should be aware that dictionaries are not all cut from the same cloth. Rather, they differ in substantial ways, which their users ignore at the cost of misinterpreting what they read. The goals of the exercise just below are to raise your awareness of the differences among dictionaries, to show you that it is essential to adopt as critical a stance toward dictionaries as you would toward any other commercial product, and to encourage you to examine dictionaries carefully as you buy them for yourselves, have them bought for your schools, or recommend them to your students.
    [Show full text]