The lemmatisation of lexically variable idioms: The case of Italian-English dictionaries

• Autores: Chris Mulhall
• Localización: Proceedings of the XIII EURALEX International Congress (Barcelona, 15-19 July 2008) / coord. por Janet Ann DeCesaris, Elisenda Bernal, 2008, ISBN 978-84-96742-67-3, págs. 1373-1378
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The choice of a suitable point of entry for an idiomatic expression is one of the most complex tasks a lexicographer faces throughout the compilation of a dictionary. This is further exacerbated by the possibility of lexical variation in certain expressions. This paper analyses twenty idioms with variable verbs (ten English / ten Italian) and twenty idioms with variable nouns (ten English / ten Italian) across six bilingual Italian-English dictionaries, Il Ragazzini (ZIR) (2006), Hoepli Grande Dizionario di Inglese (HGDI) (2003), Collins Sansoni Italian Dictionary (CSID) (2003), Oxford-Paravia Italian Dictionary (OXID) (2001), Il Sansoni Inglese (ISI) (2006) and Hazon Garzanti Inglese (HGI) (2006). The analysis highlights a number of problems in the treatment of lexically variable idioms. Firstly, bilingual Italian-English dictionaries do not have a definitive approach to dealing with the problem of lexical variation. Secondly, the consistency and comprehensiveness in the coverage of lexical alternatives varies significantly both within and across the Italian-English and English-Italian sections of dictionaries. The totality of such differences suggests that a more systematic approach is required in order to achieve a greater consistency in the recording of the variable constituents of idioms.