Resumo

VAN HUYSSTEEN, GB (Gerhard). The nature, goal, and scope of the Afrikaanse Woordelys en Spelreëls. Part 1. Tydskr. geesteswet. [online]. 2017, vol.57, n.2-1, pp.323-345. ISSN 2224-7912.  http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2224-7912/2017/v57n2-1a7.

When the first Afrikaanse woordelys en spelreëls (AWS) was conceived more than a hundred years ago, it was not yet standard practice to explicate the nature, goal and scope (for example with regard to inclusion and elimination criteria) of dictionaries explicitly in a dictionary conceptualisation plan. Through the years, the compilers of the AWS (i.e. the Language Commission ("Taalkommissie" (TK)) of the "Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns") provided in the respective forewords of each new edition of the AWS indications of their specific perspectives, goals and methodologies. Until 2006, no internal (or public) dictionary conceptualisation plan of the AWS existed. From 2006 onwards, the TK endeavoured to compile a style guide (addressing matters such as the sequence of dictionary tags, alphabetisation, sequence of disjunctively and conjunctively written forms, treatment of clippings, typography, etc.), as well as methodological guidelines for inclusion and elimination of lemmas in the word-list section of the AWS. None of these documents have been formally approved by the TK, or have been released in the public domain. The aim of this article is to organise and interpret some of the information contained in these documents, to construct an operationalisation framework, and to make this information available for scientific scrutiny. With regard to the nature of the AWS (as a so-called spelling or orthography dictionary), it is characterised within a broader dictionary typology as a limited, monolingual, synchronic, linguistic-encyclopaedic reference work. As such, it shares certain similarities with standard monolingual dictionaries, specifically regarding the normative character of some of these dictionaries. One can therefore also say that it is the primary goal of the AWS to set norms and standards for using present-day, written, formal Standard Afrikaans. Regarding the scope of the word-list section of the AWS, this article argues that lemmas in the AWS has a bipartite function, serving simultaneously as macro- and microstructural dictionary elements. Numerous inclusion and elimination criteria that determine the scope of the AWS are discussed and illustrated with examples from the AWS. Macrostructural criteria include: (1) lexical items that could present potential spelling problems and problems of style; (2) the status of lexical items (taking the distribution and frequency of a lexical item in corpora into account); (3) lexical items that should be included for the sake of completing certain paradigms in the AWS (e.g. derivations of language names); (4) illustration material in the rule section of the AWS; and (5) physical limitations in the scope of a to-be-published book, set by a publisher. Microstructural criteria include: (1) linguistic correctness/motivation of lexical items; (2) institutionalisation of lexical items in other dictionaries; (3) frequency of lexical items (and specifically variant lemmas) in a variety of corpora; and (4) the dictionary style and editorial policy of the AWS. A few statistical models and techniques that could be considered by the TK when analysing corpus data are also discussed. The article concludes with a summative table that could serve as an operationalised frame of reference for the AWS. A few topics for further future research are also included.

Palavras-chave : Afrikaans; elimination criteria; inclusion criteria; lexicography; normative linguistics; orthography; Suid-Afrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns (SAAWK); Taalkommissie (TK).

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