11

Danie J. Prinsloo*

Electronic Dictionaries viewed from South Africa

Abstract
The aim of this article is to evaluate currently available electronic dictionaries from
a South African perspective for the eleven official languages of South Africa namely
English, Afrikaans and the nine Bantu languages Zulu, Xhosa, Swazi, Ndebele,
Northern Sotho, Southern Sotho, Tswana, Tsonga and Venda. A brief discussion of the
needs and status quo for English and Afrikaans will be followed by a more detailed
discussion of the unique nature and consequent electronic dictionary requirements of
the Bantu languages. In the latter category the focus will be on problematic aspects of
lemmatisation which can only be solved in the electronic dictionary dimension.

1. Introduction
Lexicographers increasingly acknowledge the enormous potential of
electronic dictionaries (EDs) and the piling up of such virtues dominat-
ed articles on this subject in the past decade. In a state-of-the-art article,
De Schryver (2003: 163-187) lists no less than 118 advantages of EDs
in terms of space and speed, graphics, audio, text corpora, multimedia
corpora, accessibility, user-friendliness, etc. and many of these issues
are discussed in detail by Prinsloo (2001), Bolinger (1990), Nesi (1999),
Atkins (1996), Geeraerts (2000), Dodd (1989) and Harley (2000) to
name but a few. The great capacity and speed characteristic of elec-
tronic products, combined with enhanced query and data retrieval tech-
nology, indeed pave the way to a new generation of dictionaries un-
imagined in the paper-dictionary era. It will not be attempted to discuss
the advantages of electronic dictionaries over paper dictionaries in de-
tail but rather to single out the typical innovative features listed in (1)
which are relevant from a South African perspective.

* D.J. Prinsloo
Department of African Languages
University of Pretoria
Pretoria
0002
South Africa
[email protected]

Hermes, Journal of Linguistics no 34-2005

12

(1) a. Pop-up access

b. Bringing together of related items
c. New routes to the data
d. Less dependency on alphabetical order
e. Fuzzy spelling
f. Intelligent extrapolation of characters keyed in
g. Audible pronunciation
Such typical innovative features will simply be referred to as ‘true’ or
‘real’ electronic features.

2. Electronic dictionaries for English

As far as EDs for English is concerned the dictionary user in South
Africa can benefit from the full range of electronic dictionaries interna-
tionally available such as Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced
Learners (MED), Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition (OED on
CD-ROM), Oxford English Dictionary (OED Online), Cambridge Ad-
vanced Learner’s Dictionary Online (CALD), Collins COBUILD on CD-
ROM, Merriam-Webster OnLine, etc. These dictionaries can be utilised
to their full capacity in terms of true electronic features such as those
given in (1). Whether online or on CD-ROM, such dictionaries present
a new world of exciting electronic features. The discussion will be limit-
ed to a few outstanding features in a single online dictionary, the CALD
and an ED on CD-ROM, the MED.
When MED is launched it immediately opens up on a random lemma
which is automatically pronounced in British English and clickable op-
tions for both British and American English are provided. Audible pro-
nunciation is an excellent example of how the ED has superseded the
paper dictionary. No phonetic transcription comes close to actually hear-
ing, especially problematic phonemes, such as the click sounds in Bantu
languages being pronounced. Furthermore the average dictionary user
in South Africa is not familiar with phonetic symbols and the IPA ortho-
graphy. Adding a feature such as the self-record function that can be
selected from the menu bar, MED offers the ultimate guidance in terms
of pronunciation that a dictionary can give to especially learners of the
language. The user’s pronunciation can be recorded, played back and
compared to the master recordings for British and American English.
When the user starts to type the first character(s) of the required
lemma in MED, continuous intelligent extrapolation of characters is
 13

attempted by the software. Say, for example, the user wants to look up
the meaning of intoxication. Typing i, brings up the clickable lemma
range i – Iberian, in triggers the range in – inaction while int returns
int. – integrity and finally for into, the range into – intoxication is pro-
duced and the desired lemma can be clicked upon. Thus typing only
25% of the characters was required.
All words in the definitions and examples of usage are clickable and
pop-up boxes appear with a definition, examples of usage and even
illustrations and collocations.

Figure 1: Results of query for wing in MED

So-called Smart searches and Sound searches can also be performed

from the menu bar, and represent excellent examples of what is referred
to in (1) as ‘new routes to the data’ and ‘bringing together of related
items. See Figures 2 to 4.
14

Figure 2: SmartSearch in MED

Figure 3: Result of query for musical instrument in MED

In Figure 3 the software response to the user’s search for the unspecified
item musical instrument is a list of musical instuments answering the
user selected specified criteria including definitions and illustrations.
 15

Figure 4: SoundSearch in MED

In Figure 4 the search is conducted on a ‘sounds like’ basis. As

for online dictionaries for English, a simple query for bank in the
Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary Online returned extensive
information neatly organised into 33 clickable items representing
senses, homonyms, etc. related to bank.

Table 1: Information on bank in CALD

account (BANK) bank manager merchant bank
bank (ORGANIZATION) the Bank of England needle bank
bank (RAISED GROUND) bank rate piggy bank
bank (MASS) bank statement river bank
bank (MACHINES) blood bank savings bank
bank (TURN) bottle bank snow bank
state (EXPRESS) central bank sperm bank
bank account clearing bank the World Bank
bank balance cloud bank bank on sb/sth
bank charges data bank break the bank
bank holiday fog bank be laughing all the way to the
bank

Each of these items display extensive information. Likewise, the Merriam-

Webster OnLine offers 29 clickable entries in a pull-down menu for the
lemma bank.
16

What is additionally required, for English in the South African con-

text, however, are EDs reflecting South African English and most likely
in future what is called Black South African English.
Silva (2004) states that South African English developed into a
variety of English by assimilation of words and patterns from other
South African languages. Dictionaries, and also EDs for English aimed
at the South African market should reflect such borrowings and patterns.
A dictionary of South African English on Historical Principles Silva
(1996) represents a landmark in this regard and is a valuable source for
the compilation of a true ED of South African English.
Wade (1998) lists a number of typical characteristics of Black South
African English such as non-standard verb complementation, embed-
ded questions and pronoun copying. He defines pronoun copying as
instances where a noun phrase is followed immediately by a pronoun
with the same referent, e.g. the parents, they are supposed to pay ten
rands. For non-standard verb complementation he cites examples where
make is usually followed by a ‘to’ infinitive rather than a bare infinitive
as is illustrated in (2).
(2) Non-standard verb complementation (Wade 1998)
a. What makes them to stop that product if there are people who do
come to that shop and buy them.
b. So what will we… made you to come and buy.
c. That make the meaning to be different than other countries.
d. ELS makes the second language students to be able to adapt
themselves to the university.

3. True electronic dictionaries versus paper dictionaries

on computer that display some electronic features
Sharpe (1995: 48), and Atkins (1996: 515-516), caution against a situa-
tion where electronic dictionaries simply use the content of printed dic-
tionaries as their database thus not utilizing the potential of the elec-
tronic dictionary to the full.
… dictionaries of the present … may even come to you on a
CDROM rather than in book form, but underneath these superficial
modernizations lurks the same old dictionary. … Will the dictionary
of the future simply blip its little electronic way off into the sunset
dazzling its readers with the speed which it dishes up the same old
 17
facts on a technicolor screen? It is up to us to take up the real challenge
of the computer age, by asking not how the computer can help us to
produce old-style dictionaries better, but how it can help us to create
something new… Atkins (1996: 515-516)
Thus, in principle a clear decision should be made between EDs which
are merely ‘paper dictionaries on computer’ and ‘true electronic diction-
aries’ which utilise advanced computer technology to offer functions
such as those listed in (1) that is not possible in the paper dimension.
Electronic dictionaries, for Afrikaans and the Bantu languages unfor-
tunately fall to a large extent in the former category and much develop-
ment towards the latter is still required.
For Afrikaans four electronic dictionaries, Elektroniese WAT (Elec-
tronic version of the Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal) and Pharos
Woordeboeke Dictionaries 5-in-1 on CD-ROM and two online diction-
aries Travlangs and DDP Freeware will briefly be evaluated in terms of
true electronic features.
The Pharos Woordeboeke Dictionaries 5-in-1 offers Pharos’ Major
Dictionary, Bilingual Phrase Dictionary, New Words, Verklarende Afrikaanse
Woordeboek and the Groot Tesourus van Afrikaans on a single CD-ROM.
The virtues are maximally highlighted by the publisher as follows:
‘Whether you need guidance on spelling, meaning, synonyms, abbre-
viations, English and Afrikaans usage or translations, these authori-
tative reference sources can provide the answers. … Searches which
would be time-consuming or even impossible with the printed ver-
sions can be accomplished quickly and easily in the powerful Logos
Library System. … Do global searches across all five books and view
the results side by side on your screen. You can find any given word
in a matter of seconds. You can cross-reference easily, add your own
user notes and copy-and-paste sections into your word-processor docu-
ments. Use * and ? wildcards to extend the scope of your search, to
find that word on the tip of your tongue or missing from a crossword
puzzle, or when you are not sure how to spell a word.’
http://www.nb.co.za/Pharos/phCatalogueDisplay.asp
Even the fontsize is adjustable. All this is fine and surely offers added
value but still does not offer any significant electronic features. Even
the front page, title page, table of contents, etc. are exact images of
the paper version. The user might still prefer to rather use the paper
versions instead of ‘starting-up’ the computer simply to look up a few
words ‘on screen’.
18

The Elektroniese WAT also offers certain advanced search functions

and a number of cross-references, such as oëbank in (3) which is conve-
niently hyperlinked to the reference address oogbank that is clickable
in the article of oëbank:
(3) Elektroniese WAT
a. oë s.nw. Selde ook, geselstaal, oge. Mv. van oog.
b. oëbank s.nw (ongewoon) Sien OOGBANK: Die oëbank het ‘n lys
van …
It is good that WAT, unlike some other Afrikaanse dictionaries, did lem-
matise oë ‘eyes’ which is an irregular plural for oog ‘eye’ and give a
cross-reference to oog, where sound and elaborate treatment is offered.
However, the reference address oog in the article of oë, even though
it is an implicit reference, should be clickable. Since it is not, the user
has to manually scroll to oog in some way which is not much better
than paging around in the paper version. In a true electronic dictionary
implicit references, in fact, all words, as in the case of MED mentioned
above, should be hyperlinked to the relevant lemma.
An excellent feature in the Elektroniese WAT is the ‘hitlist’ function
which generates concordance lines indicating the applicable lemma in
each case.

Figure 5: Concordance lines for besonderhede ‘particulars’ in

Elektroniese WAT

In Figure 5, besonderhede ‘particulars’ is given in context with 5 words

of co-text on either side and it indicates that besonderhede occurs in the
articles of lemmas such as algemeen ‘general’, afdaal ‘descend’, etc.
Elektroniese WAT overdid protection against copying by not allowing
the user to copy and paste even a single word. This is nullifying one of
the advantages of the electronic dictionary i.e. that users can copy and
paste small sections of, or even an entire article for academic writing
 19

purposes. Here MED is a textbook example of how it should be done

namely allowing the user not only to copy an entire article but also to
automatically add the source reference.
(4) electronic ... adjective ***
using electricity and extremely small electrical parts such as
MICROCHIPS and TRANSISTORS: …
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 2002
Elektroniese WAT also contains numerous untreated lemmas such as the
examples given in Figure 6 reminiscent of a paper dictionary on com-
puter. In an electronic dictionary treatment should be offered or at least
clickable rerouting to the relevant lemma that is treated.

Figure 6: Untreated lemmas in Elektroniese WAT

The fact that WAT is currently in either paper or electronic format only
completed up to the alphabetical stretch O in itself makes it less attrac-
tive than a full A-Z version would have been. Notwithstanding the
shortcomings expressed above in terms of real electronic features, Elek-
troniese WAT remains a valuable source of information for Afrikaans.
Online dictionaries for Afrikaans generally leaves much to be desired
since only a limited number of lemmas are offered and treatment is very
limited. Consider (5) and (6) as typical examples.
(5) Travlang’s Afrikaans-English On-line Dictionary
bank 1.bank
bankrekening 1. bank account, banking account

(6) DDP Freeware Afrikaans/English Dictionary online

English African
bank oewer, bank
Compared to CALD (Table 1) and Merriam-Webster online’s extensive
treatment (5) and (6) contains very limited information, not to mention
that in the latter example the name of the target language is consistently
misspelt as African instead of Afrikaans.
20

4. Electronic dictionaries for Bantu languages –

essentials or ‘nice-to-haves’?
The fact that compilers of dictionaries for Bantu languages increasingly
experiment with electronic and especially online dictionaries is encour-
aging. Unfortunately with a few exceptions, these dictionaries still offer
little more than their paper counterparts or source dictionaries. Com-
pare the following extract from the online Sesotho sa Leboa (Northern
Sotho) - English Dictionary.

Figure 7: Online Sesotho sa Leboa (Northern Sotho) -

English Dictionary

For the lemmas apea, buduša, moapei and tlokoma the dictionary of-
fers only a number of translation equivalent paradigms. Thus no true
electronic features such as those listed in (1) or added value to the pa-
per dictionary it is based upon. However, since the paper version is
mono-directional Northern Sotho Æ English, English words cannot be
looked up. In its electronic version, English lemmas can be looked up
since the software then merely collates, say, all entries containing the
translation equivalent cook in (8). Thus a rather peculiar way of add-
ing value, but significant for the following reasons. Firstly, the only
other Northern Sotho dictionary that contains more lemmas, the Groot
Noord-Sotho Woordeboek (Ziervogel and Mokgokong 1975) is mono-
directional Northern Sotho Æ English/Afrikaans. Secondly, this dic-
tionary as well as the New English Northern Sotho dictionary. (Kriel:
1985) is out of print for more than 10 years. Thus the online Sesotho sa
Leboa (Northern Sotho) - English Dictionary can be regarded as the big-
 21

gest available dictionary in the direction English Æ Northern Sotho, al-

though it is a simulated direction.
For a number of words like sepela, in the second column of Figure 7,
audible pronunciation is clickable. Ideally this option should be extend-
ed to all lemmas.
The Travlang Worldwide Travel Guides contain useful translation
equivalents and phrases and are clickable for pronunciation.

Figure 8: Travlang’s Worldwide Travel Guides

Consider also examples (7) and (8) for Tswana and Zulu respectively.
(7) Webster’s Online Dictionary
bua speak
rata enjoy, like
robonngwe nine

(8) Zulu-English/English-Zulu online dictionary.

-thenga v. buy; purchase
njenga- prefix foll. by noun like; just as
eThekwini loc. of iTheku in/at/to/from Durban…
There is no doubt that the Bantu languages will benefit from all the
innovative true electronic dictionary features such as those mentioned
in (1) and illustrated by means of English electronic dictionaries such
as MED. The real challenge for Bantu-language EDs, however, lies in a
number of problematic lexicographic aspects characteristic of these lan-
guages mainly revolving around lemmatisation problems and very com-
plicated grammatical systems. The core of the lemmatisation problem
lies in a complicated derivational system in Bantu and such difficulties
are multiplied if the language has a conjunctive orthography. Verbs in
Bantu languages combine with numerous affixes. Van Wyk (1985: 87)
calculates that a single verb in Zulu for example can have up to 18 x
22

19 x 6 x 2 = 4,104 combinations. Compare the following extract from

a set of derivations for the verb sebenza (verbal root = -sebenz-) ‘work’
in Table 2 generated from the Pretoria Zulu-Corpus (PZC) and a typical
example of concordance lines for Zulu verbs occurring with the prefixal
cluster wayesezo- ‘he/she would have’ in Table 3.

Table 2: Derivations for the verb sebenza in PZC in the alphabetical

sub-category a-aba
ababesebenza abasebenzayo abawusebenzelayo
ababesebenzisa abasebenzela abawusebenzisayo
ababewasebenzisa abasebenzelayo abayisebenzayo
ababezisebenzisa abasebenzi abayisebenze
abakusebenzayo abasebenzisa abayisebenzelayo
abalisebenzisa abasebenzisi abayisebenzisa
abalisebenzise abasemsebenzini abayisebenzisayo
abalusebenzisayo abasisebenzisayo abayisebenzelayo
abangasebenzi abawasebenzisayo abayisebenzisa
abasebenza abawusebenzayo abayisebenzisayo

Table 2 lists the first 30 occurences of the alphabetically sorted deriva-

tions of the verbal root -sebenz- in PZC. Note that this list does not even
go beyond the first section, Aba, in the alphabetical stretch A.

Table 3: Concordance lines for Zulu verbs occurring with the prefixal
cluster wayesezo-
Lachamusela isu likaMjike-Joe wayesezofika ekhaya Bambuyisela eGoli
Umona usuka esweni He would have Leyonsebe
Mjike-Joe’s plan hatched. Jealousy arrived at home but they let him go
lies in the eye of the beholder back to Johannesburg
khona ePrince of Wales Training wayesezothola izincwadi zokufundisa
College. UJabulani Would have received ekupheleni
there at Prince of Wales Training his study material at the end
College. Jabulani of
Sathi sehlukana noDolly wayesezoqala ukumemezela ukuthi
wayengitshela ukuthi she now began uphethwe yisisu
Just when we said goodbye to Dolly to proclaim that she was
she told me that pregnant
UDlaba akafundanga okutheni, wayesezosebenza kwaVukusebenze. Ufike
wayeka phakathi He would by now have exova udaga
He did not learn much and gave up worked at Vukusebenze. He then
in the middle started mixing mortar
 23

nje ukuthi okwakuyikhona wayesezolahlekelwa ngabantu labo ababeza kuye

kumphethe kabi yikuthi He would have lost those people who had come
in this manner, that which existed to him
made him bad, it is because.
umuntu wayephumelele yini wayesezoqala nje uNhlolanja. Ngazo
eLuhlolweni njengoba He would have begun lezozinsuku ng
someone was successful or not in the in January. In those specific
adjudication since days

Verb stems in Zulu for example almost always occur with one or more
affixes. Traditionally Zulu dictionaries follow a stem lemmatisation
strategy. This means that the lemmasign for all words in Table 2 for
example will be -sebenza and the stems indicated in boldface in Table
3 i.e. fika, thola, qala, sebenza and lahla. The target users of a Zulu dic-
tionary, especially learners of the language, are confronted with such
long orthographic words and cannot look them up in Zulu dictionaries
unless they know what the stem is. Isolating the stem often requires ad-
vanced knowledge of the morphological system of the language and the
problem becomes critical in cases where neither the lexicographer nor
the user is able to identify the stem! See Van Wyk (1985) for a detailed
discussion.
Lexicographers have struggled for many decades to solve this prob-
lem by means of a variety of lemmatisation strategies. Ziervogel and
Mokgokong (1975) took an approach which can be labelled an enter-
them-all-strategy according to which they physically tried to enter all
derivations of verbs. Consider the following example of the derivations
actually lemmatised by them for the Northern Sotho verb aga ‘build’
which reflects 16 of the more than 30 possible suffixal clusters/deriva-
tion modules.

Table 4: Derivations of the Northern Sotho verb aga

1 VR aga VRRevtCauRecPer agollišane
VRPer agile VRRevtCauRecPas agollišanwa
VRPas agwa VRRevtCauRecPerPas agollišanwe
VRPerPas agilwe 19 VRAppApp agelela
5 VRNeu-Pas agega VRAppAppPer ageletše
VRNeu-PasPer agegile VRAppAppPas agelelwa
6 VRApp agela VRAppAppPerPas ageletšwe
VRAppPer agetše 20 VRAppAppRec agelelana
VRAppPas agelwa VRAppAppRecPer agelelane
24

VRAppPerPas agetšwe VRAppAppRecPas agelelanwa

7 VRAppRec agelana VRAppAppRecPerPas agelelanwe
VRAppRecPer agelane 21 VRRevit agologa
VRAppRecPas agelanwa VRRevitPer agologile
VRAppRecPerPas agelanwe VRRevitPer agologwa
8 VRCau agiša VRRevitPer agologilwe
VRCauPer agišitše 28 VRAppAppCau agelediša
VRCauPas agišwa VRAppAppCauPer ageledišitše
VRCauPerPas agišitšwe VRAppAppCauPas ageledišwa
9 VRCauRec agišana VRAppAppCauPerPas ageledišitšwe
VRCauRecPer agišane 29 VRAppAppCauRec ageledišana
VRCauRecPas agišanwa VRAppAppCauRecPer ageledišane
VRCauRecPerPas agišanwe VRAppAppCauRecPas ageledišanwa
13 VRRevt agolla VRAppAppCauRecPerPas ageledišanwe
VRRevtPer agolotše 30 VRAppAppAlt-Cau ageletša
VRRevtPas agollwa VRAppAppAlt-CauPer ageleditše
VRRevtPerPas agolotšwe VRAppAppAlt-CauPas ageletšwa
17 VRRevtCau agolliša VRAppAppAlt-CauPerPas ageleditšwe
VRRevtCauPer agollišitše 31 VRAppAppAlt-CaurRec ageletšana
VRRevtCauPas agollišwa VRAppAppAlt-CauRecPer ageletšane
VRRevtCauPerPas agollišitšwe VRAppAppAlt-CauRecPas ageletšanwa
18 VRRevtCauRec agollišana VRAppAppAlt- ageletšanwe
CauRecPerPas
VR=verbal root; Per=perfect; Pas=passive; Neu-Pas=neutro-passive; App=applicative;
Rec=reciprocal; Cau=causative; Revt=reversive transitive; Revit=reversive intransitive; Alt-
Cau=alternative causative

Although successful in terms of entering ‘all’ the derivations, finding

the meaning of the word remains a problem for the user as is illustrated
by means of dikagollišano in Table 5. Here the user firstly has to strip
the suffixes in order to find the verb stem and its meaning and then to
‘add’ the semantic connotations in a cumulative way in order to find the
meaning – thus up to 12 steps in total:
 25

Table 5: Information retrieval process for dikagollišano in Groot

Noord-Sotho Woordeboek
1 dikagollišano ↓ plural deverbative consisting of root + reversive transitive +
causative + reciprocal + ending
2 kagollišano ↓ singular deverbative consisting of root + reversive transitive
+ causative + reciprocal + ending
3 agollišana ↓ verb root + reversive transitive + causative + reciprocal +
ending
4 agolliša ↓ verb root + reversive transitive + causative + ending
5 agolla ↓ verb root + reversive transitive + ending
6 aga ↓ verb (stem)
7 build ↓ meaning of the verb
8 break down ↓ reverse or opposite meaning ‘un-build’
9 cause to break down ↓ add causative sense of ‘let/force’
10 cause each other to ↓ add reciprocal sense of ‘each other’
break down
11 the process of causing ↓ nominalise: ‘the process of …’ (singular)
each other to break
down
12 the processes of change ‘the process of …’ to the plural
causing each other to
break down

In step 12 the user concudes that dikagollišano means ‘the processes of

causing each other to break down’ – but it is an artificially constructed
meaning and (s)he is still not sure that it is the right conclusion.

A second strategy employed by Kriel and Van Wyk (1989) can be label-
led the regulate-them-in approach. Following this approach only verb
stems are lemmatised and a complicated set of rules is designed and
given in the users’ guide to the dictionary. In theory it means that all
derivations are catered for but in practice it boils down to exactly the
same process as illustrated for dikagollišano in Table 5. Other efforts
include so-called left-expanded article structures, where an article
displaying a left-expanded structure can still maintain an undisturbed
alignment of the lemma sign in the vertical macrostructural ordering,
as in Table 6.
26

Table 6:
ngingahamba I may go
ukuhamba to go/walk
ngangilihamba I was traveling it
ayengasahambeli they no longer visited
ekuhambeni during their journey/traveling

The Zulu words in Table 6 are thus still lemmatised according to the
stem principle, i.e. the root -hamb- in this example, but the full ortho-
graphic forms are given with vertical alignment on h-, within the alpha-
betical stretch H in the dictionary. Although this approach has certain
advantages over strict stem lemmatisation, it does not exempt the user
from the obligation to identify the stem.
Similar problematic circumstances exist for the lemmatisation of
nouns. As in the case of verbs, nouns occur with affixes.

Table 7: Concordance lines for Zulu nominal cluster nanjengomuntu

3. (a) USean. (b) UAda. (c) nanjengomuntu nje. (d) UGarrick. Sebenzisa
UWaite njengobaba, and also as a mere igama
3. (a) Sean. (b) Ada. (c) Waite as person Garrick. Use the name
the father
obusezandleni zamaphoyisa. nanjengomuntu engimethembayo ngithe
Kodwa njengeNkosazane and also as somebody angikuvezele ka
which was in the hands of the who I must trust. I thought that
police. But as the Princess I should disclose it.
kubafundi lokho akucabangile. nanjengomuntu othuka inhlamba
Sekumfikele wakuloba; and as somebody emkhandlwini. k
to the students that he had in mind. who uses obscene language in
It occurred to him to wite it down the assembly.
be nguGumede onokuchaza loko nanjengomuntu obona omahlalela efika
njengenhloko yomuzi. and even as a person who sees people who don’t
It is Gumede who is able to explain want to work
that as the head of the village

Here the Zulu noun umuntu ‘a human being’ is preceded by na- ‘and’
plus ngenga ‘as, like’ and a sound change a+u Æ o has occurred. The
user has to know that the na, and njenga should be stripped, the sound
change reversed and to remove the class prefix (u)mu- of the noun, in
order to look it up under -ntu and add the semantic connotations back
on similar to the process in Table 5 for dikagollišano.
 27

Furthermore, apart from the problem of stem identification, singular-

ity and plurality in Bantu is indicated by prefixes. This complicates lem-
matisation in alphabetically ordered dictionaries since it is extremely
redundant to lemmatise each noun twice, on singular and on plural in
the dictionary.
A variety of lemmatisation strategies have been attempted for nouns
such as stem lemmatisation, lemmatising singular forms supplemented
by rules given in the front matter of how to convert plural to singular,
lemmatising both singular and plural forms, lemmatising on the third
letter of the word in an attempt to avoid the noun prefix, etc. All these
strategies have major disadvantages and are discussed in great detail in
Prinsloo and De Schryver (1999) and De Schryver and Prinsloo (2000a
and 2000b).
As a final example of a major lexicographic problem, this time on
the level of complicated grammatical structures, the lemmatisation of
copulatives in Northern Sotho can be cited. The English words is, am,
are and be literally have hundreds of equivalents in Northern Sotho.
Consider (9) as a tiny extract from the rules determining the formation
of copulatives (Poulos and Louwrens 1994: 320-326) and Table 8 as
an example driven table of real examples formed on the basis of such
rules.
(9) The indicative series The present tense Principal Identifying pos
lst and 2nd persons: SC - CB Classes: CP - CB neg. 1st and 2nd
persons: ga - SC - CB Classes: ga - se - CB Participial pos. 1 st
and 2nd person: SC - le - CB Classes: CP - le - CB neg. lst and
2nd person: SC - se - CB Classes: CP - se - CB The future tense
Principal pos. 1st and 2nd person: SC - tlô/tla - ba + CB Classes:
CP - tlô/tla - ba + CB neg. 1st and 2nd person: SC - ka - se -bê +
CB SC Classes: CP - ka - se -bê + CB Participial pos 1st and 2nd
person: SC - tlô/tla - ba + CB Classes: CP - tlo/tla - ba + CB neg
1st and 2nd person: SC - ka - se-bê + CB Classes: CP - ka se - be +
CB The past tense Principal pos 1st and 2nd person: SC - bilê + CB
Classes: CP - bilê + CB neg 1st and 2nd person: ga - se - SC - be +
CB ga - se - SC2 - a - ba + CB ga - SC2 - a - ba + CB Classes: ga
- se - CP - be + CB ga - se - SC2 - a - ba + CB1 ga - SC2 -a - ba -
CB Participial pos lst and 2nd person: SC - bilê + CB Classes: CP
- bilê + CB neg. lst and 2nd person: SC - sa - ba + CB Classes: CP
- sa - ba + CB
28

Table 8: Dynamic Copulatives

Column 1: MD. = MOOD, IND. = INDICATIVE, SIT. = SITUATIVE, REL. = RELATIVE, SUB.
= SUBJUNCTIVE, CON. = CONSECUTIVE, INF. = INFINITIVE, IMP. = IMPERATIVE, HAB. =
HABITUAL
Column 2: PRES. = PRESENT, FUT. = FUTURE, PAS. = PAST +Pot. = containing the Potential
Column3: ACT. = ACTUALITY (p. = positive, n. = negative)

MD. TENSE ACT. Common verb Identifying Descriptive Associative

IND. PRES. p. mosadi o reka e ba morutiši o ba bohlale o ba le mpša
dipuku
n. mosadi ga a reke ga e be ga a be ga a be le mpša
dipuku morutiši bohlale
+Pot. p. mosadi a ka reka e ka ba a ka ba a ka ba le mpša
dipuku morutiši bohlale
n. mosadi a ka se reke e ka se be a ka se be a ka se be le
dipuku morutiši bohlale mpša
FUT. p. mosadi o tlo/tla reka e tlo/tla ba o tlo/tla ba o tlo/tla ba le
dipuku morutiši bohlale mpša
n. mosadi a ka se reke e ka se be a ka se be a ka se be le
dipuku morutiši bohlale mpša
PAS. p. mosadi o rekile e bile morutiši o bile o bile le mpša
dipuku bohlale
n. mosadi ga se a reka ga se ya ba ga se a ba ga se a ba le
dipuku morutiši bohlale mpša
SIT. PRES. p. ge mosadi a reka e eba morutiši a eba a eba le mpša
dipuku bohlale
n. ge mosadi a sa reke e sa be morutiši a sa be a sa be le mpša
dipuku bohlale
+Pot. p. ge mosadi a ka reka e ka ba a ka ba a ka ba le mpša
dipuku morutiši bohlale
n. ge mosadi a ka se e ka se be a ka se be a ka se be le
reke dipuku morutiši bohlale mpša
FUT. p. ge mosadi a tlo/tla e tlo/tla ba a tlo/tla ba a tlo/tla ba le
reka dipuku morutiši bohlale mpša
n. ge mosadi a ka se e ka se be a ka se be a ka se be le
reke dipuku morutiši bohlale mpša
PAS. p. ge mosadi a rekile e bile morutiši a bile a bile le mpša
dipuku bohlale
n. ge mosadi a sa reka e sa ba morutiši a sa ba a sa ba le mpša
dipuku bohlale
REL. PRES. p. mosadi yo a rekago e bago morutiši a bago a bago le mpša
dipuku bohlale
n. mosadi yo a sa e sa bego a sa bego a sa bego le
rekego dipuku morutiši bohlale mpša
+Pot. p. mosadi yo a ka e ka bago a ka bago a ka bago le
rekago dipuku morutiši bohlale mpša
 29

n. mosadi yo a ka se e ka se bego a ka se bego a ka se bego le

rekego dipuku morutiši bohlale mpša
FUT. p. mosadi yo a tlo/tla e tlo/tla bago a tlo/tla a tlo/tla bago
rekago dipuku morutiši bago le mpša
bohlale
n. mosadi yo a ka se e ka se bego a ka se bego a ka se bego le
rekego dipuku morutiši bohlale mpša
PAS. p. mosadi yo a rekilego e bilego a bilego a bilego le
dipuku morutiši bohlale mpša
n. mosadi yo a sa e sa bago a sa bago a sa bago le
rekago dipuku morutiši bohlale mpša
SUB. p. (gore) mosadi a reke e be morutiši a be bohlale a be le mpša
dipuku
n. (gore) mosadi a se e se be morutiši a se be a se be le mpša
reke dipuku bohlale
CON. p. mosadi a reka ya ba morutiši a ba bohlale a ba le mpša
dipuku
n. mosadi a se reke ya se be a se be a se be le mpša
dipuku morutiši bohlale
INF. p. go reka dipuku go ba morutiši go ba go ba le mpša
bohlale
n. go se reke dipuku go se be go se be go se be le
morutiši bohlale mpša
IMP. p. reka dipiku! eba morutiši! eba bohlale! eba le mpša!
n. se reke dipuku! se be morutiši! se be se be le mpša!
bohlale!
HAB. p. mosadi a reke dipuku e be morutiši a be bohlale a be le mpša
n. mosadi a se reke e se be morutiši a se be a se be le mpša
dipuku bohlale

In Table 8 not less than 34 copulative forms for 3 different copulative

relations were given, covering only class 1. Multiplied by the roughly 20
different sets of concords for persons and classes in Table 1, this means
roughly 34 x 3 x 20 = 2,040 possible candidates for lemmatisation of the
dynamic copulative.
In a good Northern Sotho dictionary the lexicographer tries to maxi-
mally utilise all available strategies and structures such as sound treat-
ment in dictionary articles, cross-references to the back matter and even
cross-references to outside sources such as grammar books in order to
assist the user to understand this complicated issue in Northern Sotho.
One cannot but conclude that lemmatisation of especially nouns,
verbs and copulatives cannot be solved for Bantu languages in the pa-
per dimension especially if an accessible, user-friendly dictionary for
30

inexperienced learners of the language is the objective. The question is

how can these lemmatisation problems in respect of e.g. verbs, nouns
and complicated linguistic systems like the copulative be solved? The
solution lies in the electronic dictionary dimension. Utilising a com-
bination of, especially the electronic features listed in (1), i.e. pop-
up access, bringing together of related items, new routes to the data,
less dependency on alphabetical order, intelligent extrapolation, etc.
can be the answer. In practical terms, detailed morphological analysis
and parsing of nouns and verbs, annotated corpora, huge frequency
lists, etc. will be the required building blocks. Hundreds of thousands
of words will have to be hyperlinked to their lemma signs in order to
allow intelligent extrapolation as has been illustrated above for intoxi-
cation in MED. Stratified/layered pop-up boxes in the case of com-
plicated grammatical systems will have to be built as well as a com-
plicated network of cross-referencing. Consider Figures 9 – 11 for ty-
pical suggested solutions for the lemmatisation of nouns, verbs and
copulatives respectively.

Figure 9: The noun serurubele in an ED for Northern Sotho

serurubêlê butterfly, moth

i structure; pronunciation; combination; frequency; concords; idioms; expressions

Class 1 monna Class 7 serurubele

Class 2 banna Class 8 dilepe
Class 3 moswe Class 9 nku
Class 4 meswe Class 10 dinku
Class 5 lesogana Class 14 bogobe
Class 6 masogana

In the case of nouns, the noun class system could be presented in an

innovative but simplistic way. In Figure 9 the user looks up the word
serurubele and finds the translation equivalents ‘butterfly, moth’. If
(s)he now puts the cursor on structure in the information bar, a text box
opens, not only reflecting the total scope of the noun class system, but
also putting the word itself within its appropriate position in the noun
class system, namely class seven.
 31

Figure 10: The verb reka in an ED for Northern Sotho

reka, ‘buy’
rekile, ‘bought’
rekwa, ‘be bought’
rekilwe, ‘was bought’

rêka buy, ~go who buys ………………………………………….

n example; combination; deverbative; morphology; mini-grammar; idiom; picture

moreki, ‘one who buys’ root - verbal ending Nku e rekwa mosela ‘A lady
sereki, ‘expert buyer’ -rek - -a with a good figure easily
direki, ‘expert buyers’ attracts young men’
theko, ‘price’ Reka o lebeletše godimo ‘Buy a
ditheko, ‘prices’ pig in a poke’
Reka polasa (Buy a farm) ‘Live
in comfort’

In the first pop-up box the user can find useful information regarding the
verbal derivations of the lemma. In the left bottom box, (s)he can find
all nominalizations arranged according to their nominal classification.
In the right bottom box, typical occurrences of the lemma and its
derivations in idioms and proverbs can be studied.
Keep in mind that all this is achieved by simply moving the mouse
over different sections of the navigation bar. Thus, information boxes
only appear if the user wants to see them.
32

Figure 11: The copulative ga se in an ED for Northern Sotho

Indicative: Identifying ga se phošo ya gago it is not your

1ps (Nna) ke morutiši ga ke morutiši
fault; he/she/it is not, Satsope ga se
+prog. (Nna) ke sa le morutiši ga ke sa le morutiši morutiši, ke mongwaledi Satsope is
1pp-2pp ----- ----- not a teacher, she is a writer; they are
1 Monna ke morutiši ga se morutiši not, dingaka ga se mahodu doctors
+prog. Monna e sa le morutiši ga e sa le morutiši are not thieves
2-18----- -----
Click here for Complete Table

ga se... [cop. part. Neg.] it is not, n structure; examples; pronunciation; combination; frequency; concords
expressions; picture; copulative relations; ŶŶŶŶƑ

A Identifying copulative: The relation is one of identification/equality, i.e.

subject = complement
Click here for Complete Table
B Descriptive copulative: The relation is one of description, i.e.
complement describes subject
Click here for Complete Table
C Associative copulative: The relation is one of association, i.e.
subject is associated with complement
Click here for Complete Table

For the copulative, layered, clickable options should be provided, thus

presenting the user digestible sections while outlining the full scope of
the complicated system.

5. Conclusion
It has been attempted in this article to give a perspective on electronic
dictionaries from a South African point of view. As far as English is
concerned one could conclude that South African users have the ad-
vantage of the availability of sophisticated internationally developed
Eds, both on CD-ROM and online and that future developments
should focus on extending the same level of sophistication to Eds ca-
tering for South African English and also for Black South African
English. For Afrikaans progress has been made towards the compila-
tion of true electronic dictionaries and it is expected that a new gen-
eration of Afrikaans Eds would include more advanced true electro-
nic dictionary features. For the Bantu languages interest in the com-
pilation of electronic dictionaries is picking up and the fact that suc-
cessful information retrieval is so heavily dependant on the electronic
dimension, provides extra motivation for the compilation of Eds for
 33

these languages. The rate of development of Eds will also be influenced

by external factors both internationally and locally. It remains to be
seen how fast the presumed gradual swing from paper dictionary to
electronic dictionary often advocated in publications on Eds will take
place. In an African context the development and use of Eds will also
be influenced by the rate of development of a dictionary culture, com-
putational skills and access to computers and the internet. In the long
run it is reasonable to expect that also in South Africa the electronic dic-
tionary will overshadow the paper dictionary in the same way as the
computer has superseded the typewriter.

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36