Synopsis articles in the planning of a trilingual dictionary: Yilumbu– French–English

Abstract

A distinction is often drawn between single articles and synopsis articles. A single article is the so-called default article. It does not deviate from the traditional microstructural approach of the dictionary because it presents the minimum data for each lemma sign treated, while a synopsis article gives additional data for each treated lemma. The classical conception of the synopsis article originates with Bergenholtz, Tarp and Wiegand (1999). In their view, synopsis articles which were devised for language for special purposes (LSP) dictionaries have to make provision for the treatment of lemma signs functioning as superordinate terms (general lemmata or topics) as well as their hyponyms. The aim of this article is to present a new lexicographic approach to the study of synopsis articles against the background of a planned trilingual dictionary. It will be shown that synopsis articles have a more general use than its restricted application in LSP dictionaries. In fact, the focus will not be on the treatment of technical or scientific vocabulary but rather on cultural terms. This article also raises among other things, questions about the purpose of the planned dictionary, its target users, different types of microstructures as well as different data categories
to be included in synopsis articles.

Keywords: synopsis article, single article, different types of microstructures, lemma sign, linguistic and extra-linguistic aspects, lsp dictionaries, target group, data categories, culture-bound lexical items, specialfield terms