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

• Main Author: Esau Mangoya
• Format: Article
• Language: Afrikaans
• Published: Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal-WAT 2011-10-01
• Series: Lexikos
• Subjects: TARGET USERS; DIALECT REPRESENTATION; INTERNATIONAL WORDS; TABOO WORDS; TONE MARKING; BACK MATTER; DICTIONARY; LEXICOGRAPHY
• Online Access: http://lexikos.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/184

Abstract: The article discusses the challenges that confronted the team of compilers working on the monolingual Shona Children's Dictionary (henceforth SCD). It looks at the active involvement of the target users in shaping the project and discusses the considerations for the implementation of their recommenda-tions. Matters of concern include issues of headword selection, especially problems of dialect representation in the dictionary. The article also discusses the inclusion of grammatical information such as tone marking. The SCD is one of the many efforts to promote and raise the functions of the indigenous languages in Zim-babwe. Of special interest in this article is therefore the discussion on the inclusion of international words like those denoting weight, distance and mathematical and scientific concepts. The article also considers the treatment of taboo words in the SCD, which takes into account that society has to open up culturally to be able to unequivocally view some of the aspects of life with which present-day children are confronted. The article lastly discusses how a balance was reached for accommodating the target users' proposal for the inclusion of an elaborate back matter in view of the limited available scope and space of the SCD.