Dictionary Development Process
Overview: Adding fields to each record
Stage 2 of the DDP method involves adding fields such as pronunciation, part-of-speech, inflected forms, and reversal entries. Many of these steps can be automated to various degrees. For instance, many languages have derivational or inflectional affixes that indicate the part of speech of the word. In English the suffixes -ment and -tion are used to derive nouns from verbs. So it is possible to use a computer to mark each of these words as nouns.
DDP versions 2 and 3 used Consistent Changes to automate the addition of fields to a dictionary database. For those who use The Linguist's Shoebox and The Field Linguist’s Toolbox, the Consistent Changes program can save you a great deal of time. The DDP materials include a step-by-step procedure for turning a word list into a dictionary. Each step is described. When a step can be automated, a Consistent Changes table has been written to do that step. Although many linguists are not familiar with the Consistent Changes program, learning to use it can save weeks or months of tedious typing. The program can be downloaded from the SIL Software Catalog.
However, DDP version 4 has been integrated into SIL FieldWorks. This is a vast improvement over the Consistent Changes method of adding fields. Each field is built in to FieldWorks, so there is no need to add them or organize the entry. In addition tools have been designed to facilitate filling in each field. These tools are very powerful and user-friendly. FieldWorks will greatly simplify Stage 2 and enable it to be accomplished in an efficient way.
- Get Consistent Changes program.
- Download Consistent Changes tables.