Target Users' Expectations versus the Actual Compilation of a Shona Children's Dictionary

Abstract

This article considers and analyses Duramazwi reDudziramutauro neUvaranomwe (henceforth DRU), a 2007 product of the University of Zimbabwe's African Languages Research Institute (ALRI). It evaluates DRU which is the first terminological dictionary dealing with Shona literary and linguistic terms. Furthermore it traces the compilation process of this dictionary, describing the stages of collection, selection, entry and definition of terms. It also examines the microstructure and the macrostructure of DRU aimed at target users who are both students and teachers in high schools and tertiary institutions offering Shona as a subject or course.

Keywords: BILINGUAL, COLLECTION, COMPILATION, COMPUTATIONAL, CORPUS, DEFINITION, DEVELOPMENT, ENTRY, HEADWORD, LEXICOGRAPHY, LINGUISTIC, LIT-ERARY, MACROSTRUCTURE, MICROSTRUCTURE, MONOLINGUAL, SELECTION, TERMIN-OLOGY