WordSpinner: Developing a tool to convert plain-text lexicon files into dictionary webpages
| dc.contributor.author | Jones, Caroline | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Tran, Jesse | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Jorgensen, Eleanor | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Hill, Romi | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Ellis, Patricia | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Simpson, Jane | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Meakins, Felicity | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Foley, Ben | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Reverter-Rambaldi, Marcel | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Tudor-Smith, Gari | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Williams, Paul | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Hill, Clair | en |
| dc.contributor.author | Richards, Mark | en |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-02-05T10:40:33Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-02-05T10:40:33Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2024 | en |
| dc.description.abstract | Dictionaries for under-resourced languages are, like other dictionaries, traditionally in hard-copy form. Electronic online formats can improve access to dictionaries for under-resourced languages. To make it easier to create online dictionaries with linked sound and image files, starting from a Toolbox file or similar backslash-formatted dictionary text file, a new online tool, WordSpinner, was created. It was used and iteratively improved over several years in order to convert backslash lexicon text files into formatted dictionary output pages, with five Indigenous languages of Australia. In various stages of dictionary creation, checking, and formatting, the online tool was revised to meet user needs. The resulting version of WordSpinner is another free option now available to users for creating online dictionaries. | en |
| dc.description.sponsorship | The authors acknowledge the following people for their participation as follows: Tula Wynyard (for feedback trialling WordSpinner for Dharug), Lucy Pedwell, Mikayla Friday-Shaw, Sharon Macmillan (for use of an early version for Ngarinyman), Lesley Woods, and Isabel O’Keeffe (for feedback on current use of WordSpinner for Ngiyampaa Wangaaypuwan). The research received human ethics approval from Western Sydney University (H11190, H14183). This research was supported by funding from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language – ARC CoEDL (CE140100041), an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship awarded to the first author (FT120100777), an Australian National University summer research program (2018–2019), and two University of Queensland Summer and Winter Research programs (2020–2021). Projects for electronic dictionaries in the region began in 1966–1968 with the Nyungic project at the University of Ha-waiʻi, which entered vocabularies of many Australian languages on punch cards (project led by Geoffrey O’Grady, funded by the National Science Foundation). For the transition of the Warlpiri dictionary through software systems from 1981 to the present, see Nash (2022). Since the late twentieth century, many such dictionary projects have produced plain-text files, where backslash codes are used to organise the contents of each lexical entry (e.g., \lx and \ps for the headword and part-of-speech fields, respectively). This approach has been popular among linguists and supported by software developed by SIL (Summer Institute of Linguistics), including Shoebox or Toolbox, Lexique Pro, and, more recently, FLEx and WeSay (for more details, see the Multi-Dictionary Formatter (MDF) guide by Coward & Grimes 1995). Some resulting lexicon files have been archived as well-structured, plain-text files (e.g., in Australia at ASEDA, AIATSIS, and PARADISEC2). Others have been converted into Word documents and printed out as working-draft dictionaries, to be used, edited, and improved, often over the decades of collaborative work that it can take to produce a dictionary. 1 The authors acknowledge the following people for their participation as follows: Tula Wynyard (for feedback trialling WordSpinner for Dharug), Lucy Pedwell, Mikayla Friday-Shaw, Sharon Macmillan (for use of an early version for Ngarinyman), Lesley Woods, and Isabel O’Keeffe (for feedback on current use of WordSpinner for Ngiyampaa Wangaaypuwan). The research received human ethics approval from Western Sydney University (H11190, H14183). This research was supported by funding from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language – ARC CoEDL (CE140100041), an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship awarded to the first author (FT120100777), an Australian National University summer research program (2018–2019), and two University of Queensland Summer and Winter Research programs (2020–2021). | en |
| dc.description.status | Peer-reviewed | en |
| dc.format.extent | 23 | en |
| dc.identifier.issn | 1934-5275 | en |
| dc.identifier.other | ORCID:/0000-0002-7487-1234/work/204508951 | en |
| dc.identifier.scopus | 105021057455 | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1885/733805297 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en |
| dc.provenance | Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International | en |
| dc.rights | ©2024 The authors | en |
| dc.source | Language Documentation and Conservation | en |
| dc.title | WordSpinner: Developing a tool to convert plain-text lexicon files into dictionary webpages | en |
| dc.type | Journal article | en |
| dspace.entity.type | Publication | en |
| local.bibliographicCitation.lastpage | 131 | en |
| local.bibliographicCitation.startpage | 109 | en |
| local.contributor.affiliation | Jones, Caroline; Western Sydney University | en |
| local.contributor.affiliation | Tran, Jesse; Western Sydney University | en |
| local.contributor.affiliation | Jorgensen, Eleanor; ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, School of Culture, History & Language, ANU College of Asia & the Pacific, The Australian National University | en |
| local.contributor.affiliation | Hill, Romi; ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, School of Culture, History & Language, ANU College of Asia & the Pacific, The Australian National University | en |
| local.contributor.affiliation | Ellis, Patricia; Minga Aboriginal Cultural Services | en |
| local.contributor.affiliation | Simpson, Jane; School of Literature, Languages & Linguistics, Research School of Humanities & the Arts, ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences, The Australian National University | en |
| local.contributor.affiliation | Meakins, Felicity; University of Queensland | en |
| local.contributor.affiliation | Foley, Ben; University of Queensland | en |
| local.contributor.affiliation | Reverter-Rambaldi, Marcel; University of Queensland | en |
| local.contributor.affiliation | Tudor-Smith, Gari; University of Queensland | en |
| local.contributor.affiliation | Williams, Paul; University of Queensland | en |
| local.contributor.affiliation | Hill, Clair; Western Sydney University | en |
| local.contributor.affiliation | Richards, Mark; Western Sydney University | en |
| local.identifier.citationvolume | 18 | en |
| local.identifier.pure | 2601339e-8a03-45b6-9b3b-e8d3e1e1a4c1 | en |
| local.identifier.url | https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105021057455 | en |
| local.type.status | Published | en |
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