Adapting dictionary writing systems and other platforms to online dictionaries of idioms
Being an avid dictionary user herself, Jelena Parizoska wrote her PhD on the variability of verbal idioms in English and Croatian within the cognitive linguistic framework. She then began compiling the born-digital Online Dictionary of Croatian Idioms, which aims to have a built-in thesaurus and thematic organisation. To learn how to incorporate these features into her dictionary, Jelena Parizoska applied for a #travelgrant to visit the Jožef Stefan Institute in Slovenia and profit from the expertise of the Institute’s experts.
How did you learn about the ELEXIS travel grants?
I learned about the ELEXIS travel grants from my colleague Ivana Filipović Petrović, who was one of the winners in the first round. I learned about the project itself a few months prior, in April 2018, when it was announced that access to Sketch Engine for academic institutions would be funded through ELEXIS.
© by Ana Vujasić, 2020
Find out more about ELEXIS visiting grants:
What is your project about?
Together with Ivana Filipović Petrović I have been compiling the Online Dictionary of Croatian Idioms, which is a born-digital, corpus-driven, open-access dictionary of current Croatian idiomatic usage.
The dictionary is based on the Croatian web corpus hrWaC (alternative link here) and searched using Sketch Engine, the dictionary writing system (DWS) used to compile it is Lexonomy.
In addition to the standard features, the dictionary includes text boxes showing the ways in which speakers play with idioms and change them deliberately as well as providing additional cross-references to other idioms with similar and/or opposite meanings in some entries.
My project deals with how dictionary writing systems and other platforms can be adapted to online dictionaries of idioms. More specifically, my goal is to learn how the configuration of the entries in the Online Dictionary of Croatian Idioms could be improved, and to acquire knowledge of other digital tools which could be useful in creating monolingual and bilingual online dictionaries of idioms. The key features that we are looking to include in the Online Dictionary of Croatian Idioms are a built-in thesaurus and thematic organisation. This would allow users to find idioms with similar meanings grouped together by clicking on a single button at the end of an entry, which would show them how some concepts (e.g. anger, difficulty, understanding) are expressed using figurative language. Those features are gaining momentum since idiom dictionaries of different languages, including Croatian, are currently available in print only (- more general online dictionaries contain idioms though). In addition, none of the existing dictionaries of Croatian idioms (monolingual or bilingual) feature thematic organisation.
“My goal is to learn how the configuration of the entries in the Online Dictionary of Croatian Idioms could be improved, and to acquire knowledge of other digital tools which could be useful in creating monolingual and bilingual online dictionaries of idioms.”
What is your background that brought you up to this point?
I hold a PhD in linguistics from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. My thesis explores the variability of verbal idioms in English and Croatian within the cognitive linguistic framework.
For the past 15 years, I have been doing research on idioms in Croatian and several other European languages using data from large electronic corpora. My research interests focus on two areas:
1) conceptual motivation of idioms and how that is reflected in their grammatical structure and
2) the mechanisms underlying idiom variation as well as the relation between institutionalized variations and modifications.
Which hosting institution did you apply to and why?
I applied to the Jožef Stefan Institute in Slovenia. A research visit to JSI is relevant to my project for two reasons:
One is that some of the Institute’s experts are part of the teams that created two online dictionaries based on corpus data – the Collocations Dictionary of Modern Slovene and the Thesaurus of Modern Slovene. Their expertise and experience could help set up features in the Online Dictionary of Croatian Idioms which are particular to constructions and find solutions for semantic groupings of dictionary items.
The other reason is that Croatian and Slovene are similar languages. Therefore, solutions available for multi-word items in online dictionaries of Slovene can easily be applied to another Slavic language.
Where does your interest in languages/lexicography come from and what keeps you motivated?
Since I started teaching a course on figurative language at the Faculty of Teacher Education in Zagreb several years ago, I became interested in how native speakers and foreign language learners understand and learn idioms. This also led me to start thinking about how modern lexicographic resources could help to develop and to improve the users’ metaphoric competence.
My motivation comes not only from my love of linguistics, but also from the fact that I am a dictionary user myself. That is why I think it is best to put oneself in the users’ shoes when compiling a dictionary of idioms. I believe that only then can the lexicographer come up with the most effective ways of providing information about the meanings of idioms, their forms, variations and usage.
| Profile: Jelena Parizoska | ||
| Travel Grant | Call 4 | |
| Period of stay |
28.9. – 2.10.2020 (tentative dates) 13.5.2022 – focussed 1 day meeting |
|
| Project title |
Adapting dictionary writing systems and other platforms to online dictionaries of idioms |
|
| Home institution |
Faculty of Teacher Education, University of Zagreb |
#elexis_hr |
| Hosting institution | Jožef Stefan Institute (JSI, Slovenia) |
#elexis_sl |
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