Compiling a lemma-sign list for a specific target user group: The Junior Dictionary as a case in point

Compiling a lemma-sign list for a specific target user group: TheJunior Dictionary as a case in point1 Gilles-Maurice de Schryver and D. J. Prinsloo ^he "user-perspective" has emerged as an all-important criterion in the selection and lexicographical treatment of lexical items in modern dictionary compilation. Starting with one of the early American advocates (Barnhart [1962]), the concept made its way into reference works (Hartmann and James [1998]) and is a recurrent theme of both the British (practical) and German (theoretical ) schools of lexicography (see e.g., Atkins [1998] and Wiegand [1998] respectively). In the words of Gouws and Prinsloo (1998, 18), The user-perspective, so prevalent in modern-day metalexicography , compels lexicographers to compile their dictionaries according to the needs and research skills ofwell-defined target user groups. The dominant role of the user has had a definite effect on the compilation of dictionaries as well as on the evaluation of their quality. Good dictionaries do not only display a linguistically sound treatment of a specific selection of lexical items. They are also products that can be used as linguistic instruments by their respective target user groups. The better they can be used, the better dictionaries they are. Modern dictionaries are thusjudged as good or bad on the basis of the users' success and ease in finding the information required. Viewed 1An earlier version of this article was presented by the authors at a seminar on learners' dictionaries organised by the African Association for Lexicography, University of Pretoria, 1 1-12 November 2002. Junior Dictionary is a revision in progress of the semi-bilingual Afrikaans Hersiene Uitgawe: Junior Verklärende Woordeboek (Combrink and others [1985]). The new edition will be published as Woordeboek Sonder Orense 'Dictionary without Borders/Boundaries'. Dictionaries:Journal oftheDictionary Society ofNorth America 24 (2003) Compiling a Lemma-Sign List for a Specific Target User Group 29 from the lexicographer's angle this means that the information most likely to be looked for must be anticipated and presented in a userfriendly way, possible, we argue here, only if the dictionary is aimed at a specific target user group. Indeed, if one studies the dictionary market, one finds either general (LGP 'language for general purpose') or special field (LSP 'language for special purpose') dictionaries. For commercial reasons, LGP dictionaries typically try to cover as many target user groups as possible. The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Third Edition (LDOCE3 [1995]), for example, not only covers British English but as many as ten other varieties of English (American, Australian, Canadian , etc.), as well. Hence, even the better general dictionaries for English are not really and exclusively designed for a specific target user group. When it comes to LSP dictionaries, it is clear that the subject field may be restricted but in the end the target user group is again as broad as possible. Furthermore, even tiiough target user groups may be narrowly defined as, say, "for primary school pupils" or "for upperintermediate learners," both LGP and LSP dictionaries remain aimed at as large a target user group as possible. The past 15 years have seen a fast proliferation of (electronic) corpus-based dictionaries. The Collins Cobuild English LanguageDictionary (CobuildI [1987]) led the way, with LDOCE3, the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English (OALD5 [1995]) and the Cambridge International Dictionary of English (CIDE [1995]), all joining in eight years later. The recent Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners (MEDAL [2002]) is but the fifth and latest in this series of British corpus-based learners' dictionaries, now the "Big Five." According to Moon, the use of corpora in lexicography "consolidated into standard dictionary praxis [...] over the period 1986-1996" (2000, 4). As a matter of fact, the European corpus wave also swept across Africa and Asia — examples being the New Sepedi Dictionary (Prinsloo and Sathekge [1996]) and the Yonsei hankuko sajón (Lee [1998]) respectively — with America expected to follow suit. Corpora are especially useful in the production of learners' dictionaries because they make it possible to separate the average from die one-offs — to distinguish the typical from the oddities. In a paper dictionary — where space is at a premium — frequency considerations are therefore instrumental...