11–20 of 21 posts
How dictionaries work is this: - words are created, or existing words bent, mainly by non-users of dictionaries. - dictionaries cautiously track this process the benefit of dictionary users.
The article maybe just hints at another issue that’s at least as important. Dictionaries are mostly descriptivist rather than prescriptivist. Adding “deplatform” or whatever to the dictionary isn’t a statement about how proper it is as a word. It’s a statement that it’s a word in use, and so if you come across it, here’s what it means.
Yes, which leads to the other end of the cycle. They are removing obsolete words for the same reason.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, which leads to the other end of the cycle. They are removing obsolete words for the same reason.
That seems a bit silly, people read stuff that was written long ago.
Without removing things you end up with the Oxford dictionary which is currently 20 volumes long. And I'm pretty sure they still remove things once it's considered obsolete.
I've always wanted a program or set of tools that I can use to generate my own dictionaries - not just a glossary, but real dictionaries with multiple definitions for words, derivations, example sentences, and so on. And, one other very important feature I'd need, would be to be able to run the dictionary on itself , to find words that are used in the descriptions for which there isn't yet a definition. This would be…
There are a couple starting points you could take. I spent a weekend hacking out a program that generates fake word/definition pairs with a transformer model set against a dictionary: https://youtu.be/XnJ2TKAn-Vk?t=1547 . If you substitute fake words for real words and have a sufficiently accurate model you could quickly generate reasonable and novel definitions. There are more complete versions of this kind of thing…
>I think this would be how you would gauge success of the model.
Yes, exactly. I think there would definitely be edge-cases, but the general rule is that there should not be any undefined terms/words in the final dictionary. The degree to which this can be achieved is of course related to the cyclomatic complexity of the original materials. But this is why I want this tool - to see how effective it is for creating training materials that prepare students for obtuse subjects.
I've always wanted a program or set of tools that I can use to generate my own dictionaries - not just a glossary, but real dictionaries with multiple definitions for words, derivations, example sentences, and so on. And, one other very important feature I'd need, would be to be able to run the dictionary on itself , to find words that are used in the descriptions for which there isn't yet a definition. This would be…
https://alar.ink (Kannada-English dictionary) was built using https://github.com/knadh/dictmaker It addresses some of the things you’ve mentioned.
EDIT: after visiting your site, somehow my browser language has been switched to Kannada and I'm now finding myself highly amused at seeing Twitter threads in this script. Would love to know how you did that!
I've always wanted a program or set of tools that I can use to generate my own dictionaries - not just a glossary, but real dictionaries with multiple definitions for words, derivations, example sentences, and so on. And, one other very important feature I'd need, would be to be able to run the dictionary on itself , to find words that are used in the descriptions for which there isn't yet a definition. This would be…
The closest thing linguists have come up with, to my knowledge, are wordnets. They build definitions by the words, directly and indirectly, associated with them. You could then use those clusters to create individual definitions in some way. Have you looked at them? I think the biggest problem is that definitions are semantic which computers are terrible at. We’re at the infancy of being able to with transformers and…
I've always wanted a program or set of tools that I can use to generate my own dictionaries - not just a glossary, but real dictionaries with multiple definitions for words, derivations, example sentences, and so on. And, one other very important feature I'd need, would be to be able to run the dictionary on itself , to find words that are used in the descriptions for which there isn't yet a definition. This would be…
I run a popular dictionary website (mostly for translation dictionaries). I have no shortage of terms that need definition or translation, but I would be happy to work with you on something like what you suggest.
How dictionaries work is this: - words are created, or existing words bent, mainly by non-users of dictionaries. - dictionaries cautiously track this process the benefit of dictionary users.
Well, these days it is slightly different. We observe the terms that people search for. If there are many searches for a term that isn't in the dictionary, we add it. Pretty simple. (I make dictionaries.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I run a popular dictionary website (mostly for translation dictionaries). I have no shortage of terms that need definition or translation, but I would be happy to work with you on something like what you suggest.
Cool! This is only a hobby for me, as a technical documentation writer I find that a properly formed glossary/dictionary is key to the effort - but I'm very interested in the technology around this subject, so I'd be quite happy to see your website and get familiar with what you've done. Can you post a link here publically?