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Dictionaries contain lexicographic data whose occurrence is restricted to certain geo-graphical areas, subject fields, professions, etc. It is part of the duties of the lexicographer to give an account of such deviations to ensure a successful retrieval of the information on the part of the user. This contribution presents a discussion on labelling issues in the Dictionnaire Français–Mpongwé. Although the main focus is on the presentation of different types of labelling as well as problems in labelling, textual condensation procedures and mediostructural representations (to-gether with some aspects of the user perspective) are also critically evaluated. It is shown that these procedures reveal some inconsistencies which are not accounted for in the outer texts (front matter and back matter texts) of the dictionary. Finally suggestions are made for the improvement of the access structure of this dictionary.
This paper traces the historical development of lexicography in Gabon. Gabon, like most African countries, is multilingual. The recent inventories of languages spoken in Gabon are those established by Jacquot (1978) and Kwenzi-Mikala (1998). According to Kwenzi-Mikala (1997), there are 62 speech forms divided into 10 language groups or language-units in Gabon. These speech forms co-exist with French, the official language. In fact, in article 2 of paragraph 8 of the revised Constitution of 1994 the following can be read: "The Gabonese Republic adopts French as the official language. Furthermore, she endeavours to protect and promote the national languages." This constitutional arrangement naturally makes French the language used in education, administration and the media. The survey of lexicography in Gabon that is presented here includes the linguistic situation in and the language policy of Gabon, the lexicographic survey itself, as well as the lexicographic needs of the different speech forms (including languages and dialects). Initially, the pioneers of Gabonese lexicography were missionaries or colonial administrators. Very little was done in this field by the Gabonese themselves. Although credit is to be given to these early works, there are a number of shortcomings regarding the linguistic as well as the metalexicographic contents of dictionaries and lexicons produced during this period. In fact, the main weak point of those studies was the lack of tones in the written transcription of oral productions and orthographic problems. Furthermore, in those contributions, the theory of lexicography is largely unknown and lexico-graphic works are hardly ever based on authentic data corpora of the languages being described.
The reproduction of culture in dictionaries constitutes one of the fundamental prob-lems of lexicographers today. What is the nature of cultural data in dictionaries? To what extent should cultural aspects be transferred from one language to another? How should this transfer take place? This article attempts to discuss the relevance of the reproduction of Gabonese cultural aspects in dictionaries in French and the Gabonese languages. One of the main problems the compilers of these dictionaries encountered was the transfer and the translation of some cultural aspects. In order to discuss the nature and extent of cultural information in Gabonese dictionaries, this article will restrict itself to the following points: — The translation of different realities — The role of culture in the change of meaning — Dictionaries and cultural activities — Dictionaries and cultural ethics — Dictionaries and language registers — Dictionaries and culture maintenance — Dictionaries and the standardization of culture Prior to a discussion of the above-mentioned points, a brief description of the dictionaries investi-gated will be given. After a description of the influence of cultural contexts on lexicographers in the choice of macrostructural elements and their treatment, cultural differences between source and target languages in the dictionaries of Gabonese languages are discussed. The article concludes with the observation that the majority of existing lexicographic works tend to survey the full vocabulary of the language. The lexicographic treatment of some words is satisfactory because an account of the underlying worldview of the people is given. For example, in this article, the fol-lowing themes are considered: dietary practices, sexuality, mythology, traditional pharmacopoeia, the kinship system, hospitality, and respect for traditional authority and elders. However, to be used in the most efficient way, these lexicographic publications need to be revised.
All the works in Mazuna lexicography have a common denominator: they are translation dictionaries biased towards French and were compiled by Catholic and Protestant missionaries or colonial administrators. These dictionaries have both strong and weak points. The macrostructure although it does not display features of sophistication, i.e. the use of niching and nesting procedures, tends to survey the full lexicon of the language which make these dictionaries real reservoirs of knowledge. The microstructure contains a lot of useful entries. However, no metalexicographic discussion is provided in the user's guide to make it accessible to the target reader. There are also some shortcomings especially in the areas of suprasegmental phonology (absence of tonal indications) and orthography.
In this article, an account is given of the planning of a trilingual dictionary Yilumbu– French–English. The focus is on the target user, the purpose, nature and typology of the planned dictionary. Attention is also paid to some macro- and microstructural issues. For example, all types of lexical items, including multiword lexical items, are given lemma status. Moreover all items are included according to the word tradition and on account of their usage frequency in the corpus. Apart from these aspects, types of dialectal forms as well as the type of special-field lexical items are also discussed. From a microstructural point of view, this article investigates different kinds of data types to be considered for inclusion in complex articles in particular. User-friendliness parameters and innovative access structure procedures also come into play.
A distinction is often drawn between single articles and synopsis articles. A single article is the so-called default article. It does not deviate from the traditional microstructural approach of the dictionary because it presents the minimum data for each lemma sign treated, while a synopsis article gives additional data for each treated lemma. The classical conception of the synopsis article originates with Bergenholtz, Tarp and Wiegand (1999). In their view, synopsis articles which were devised for language for special purposes (LSP) dictionaries have to make provision for the treatment of lemma signs functioning as superordinate terms (general lemmata or topics) as well as their hyponyms. The aim of this article is to present a new lexicographic approach to the study of synopsis articles against the background of a planned trilingual dictionary. It will be shown that synopsis articles have a more general use than its restricted application in LSP dictionaries. In fact, the focus will not be on the treatment of technical or scientific vocabulary but rather on cultural terms. This article also raises among other things, questions about the purpose of the planned dictionary, its target users, different types of microstructures as well as different data categories to be included in synopsis articles.
