2: Dictionaries - tools or theories?

Lecture:

• Paper dictionaries
• `Lingware': electronic dictionaries
• Dictionaries in software (e.g. word processors, dictation programmes)
• The lexicon as a database
• The lexicon as a component of language descriptions
• Lexical representation and lexical processing
• The `mental lexicon'

Practical:

• Make a list of the dictionaries you own, find on the web, or are otherwise familiar with, and comment on their macrostructure, their microstructure, what kinds of task they are most useful for.
• Look for my `HyprLex' web site, and summarise the structure and functionality of what you find there.
• Look for Steven Bird's `Hyperlex', try it out, and summarise the structure and functionality of this web site.
• What information can you find about `the mental lexicon'?
• Discuss how to put your discussion notes and the `microlexica' which you develop in class into a form which could be presented on a web site.

Further discussion: In what sense could a dictionary or lexicon or encyclopaedia be regarded as a theory?

At this point we will discuss concepts such as the following:

• formalism
• notation
• theory
• model

Don't worry, they are not as hairy as they are sometimes made out to be :)