Do dictionary users really look up frequent words? — on the overestimation of the value of corpus-based lexicography

Abstract

An innovative online Swahili–English dictionary project is presented. A careful study of some of the log files attached to this reference work reveals some hitherto unknown as-pects of true dictionary look-up behaviour, which results in the depreciation of the importance of corpora for dictionary making. Three lexicography software modules are advanced to further enhance the success of the online dictionary.

Keywords: lexicography, software, online, dictionary, log file, corpus, frequency, rank, correlation, swahili, english, tshwanelex