The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : `Dictionaries should reflect contemporary usage'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Mar 22, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

`Dictionaries should reflect contemporary usage'

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, MARCH 21 . Efforts should be made to produce dictionaries of Indian languages that reflect their contemporary use, Gregory James, Professor and Director, Language Centre, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, said today.

"I know there are problems in encoding and script. But that is a challenge for lexicographers. The modern dictionaries (of Indian languages) should reflect how languages are used, spoken and written. The dictionaries should be dynamic and vibrant," he said, declaring open the second international conference on Indian lexicography.

Huge corpora

Earlier, a corpus of one million words in lexicography was considered great. But now even 10 million words were not sufficient. "A huge corpora of 100 million words would be in tune with the present times."

Calling for the internationalisation of Indian lexicography, Prof. James said Indian language dictionaries should adopt the universal transcript system. At present, they were accessible only to those who knew English but not to those who knew only Spanish or French or Germans.

S. Agesthialingom, former Vice-Chancellor, Tamil University, said the study of words or vocabulary was as important as studying language structure. This theory was followed in the classical Tamil work, Tolkappiyam. On electronic dictionaries, he said the new form overcame the constraints of space and information evident in the print form.

Tamil lexicon

S.P. Thyagarajan, Vice-Chancellor, Madras University, said the university's landmark work, Tamil Lexicon, prepared in 1924-39, was being revised. The three-year project would cost Rs. 23.5 lakhs. Two works, `Tolkappiya Akarati' and `Cattachol Akarati,' (a dictionary of Tolkappiyam and a dictionary of legal terms), would be released soon. The Union Planning Commission was approached for an assistance of Rs. 1 crore, as the duration and funds allocated were inadequate. A multi-lingual dictionary of Indian languages was under preparation.

B.C. Balakrishnan, founder, Lexicographical Society of India, who received the first copy of a document on the proceedings of the conference, said the deliberations should be followed up with action.

V. Jayadevan, head, Department of Tamil Language, Madras University, which, along with the Central Institute of Indian Languages, organised the meet, said 185 delegates from India and abroad were attending the three-day conference.

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