Browsing by Author "Frazier, Jeffrey Brent"

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    A corpus-based theory and lexicographic process for the inclusion of neologisms, archaisms and foreign loanwords in lexicons of Qeqchi Mayan
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2024-03) Frazier, Jeffrey Brent; Gouws, Rufus H.; Gouws, R. H.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Afrikaans and Dutch.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: All languages employ the processes of lexicogenesis to create new lexical items. Some of these lexical innovations successfully navigate the phases of lexical emergence and become stable words—initially gaining purchase in the mental lexicon before ultimately becoming eligible for lemmatization in print or digital lexicographic works. In the case of minority and indigenous languages there is often an acute need for the natural processes of lexicogenesis to be supplemented with coordinated programs of planned neology in order to fill lexical gaps and supply the languages with the vocabulary necessary to function in the modern world. Little research has been undertaken to systematically study these officially proposed lexical items and the degree to which they have become established in their speech communities and meet the criteria for inclusion in dictionaries of the language. In the present work I elaborate a lexicographic theory and decision-making process for the systematic inclusion, exclusion, and/or qualification of a variety of proposed lexical items with a particular focus on neologisms, archaisms, and loanwords from foreign languages. In addressing each of these topics I use Q’eqchi’, a member of the Mayan language family, as a model and living language laboratory to systematically analyze three distinct sets of officially proposed lexical items produced over the course of the past thirty years. Using the tools and methods of corpus linguistics, along with a multistage heuristic for determining lexical status and a multivariate model for assessing lexicographic value, I illustrate how the principles of cognitive linguistics and lexicographic theory can be used to produce better lexicographic data and an improved lexicographic process in pursuit of advancing indigenous language lexicography.