Lexical and Semantic Data

Abstract

In the previous chapters we have discussed sentences, morphology and grammar. However, we should also talk about the documentation of the lexicon of a language. Lexical documentation can be something done in conjunction with other work on the language, however dictionary making is also an extensive enterprise in its own right. You could just wait for lexical items to appear in the course of your other work (e.g., in text collection); however, the returns on this method diminish rapidly as you gain familiarity with the language (i.e., the number of new words in texts drop off rapidly).