According to Hartman & James(1998), the dictionary is "[t]the most common type of reference work." The term 'work' is an inclusive term and it denotes both a 'writing', an abstract entity and a 'publication', a concrete object. Therefore, it would b...
According to Hartman & James(1998), the dictionary is "[t]the most common type of reference work." The term 'work' is an inclusive term and it denotes both a 'writing', an abstract entity and a 'publication', a concrete object. Therefore, it would be fare to say that 'lexicography' which explores the academic and practical issues regarding the dictionary should equally give its attention to the both aspects of the dictionary.
This paper deals with the often neglected matter of dictionary typesetting. Specifically, we outline the necessity of the automation of the dictionary typesetting process in order to overcome the various obstacles which arises from the current labour-intensive dictionary typesetting method.
As an eligible candidate of an automatic dictionary typesetting system, we propose a system which utilizes the TeX, a typesetting language originally developed for typesetting mathematical texts, as a typesetting engine. We argue that the flexibility and the openness of the TeX are the features required for an automatic dictionary typesetting system for highly dynamic dictionary production environments.
As a showcase, we present an experimental implementation of an typesetting system for dictionary texts represented in structured document format. Although this system is very simple and has limited features, it clearly demonstrates the capacity of TeX as a typesetting engine for a complete automatic dictionary typesetting system.