LEXICONORDICA 8 - Nordisk Sprogkoordination

20
FIGURE 14. The entry for gagna (ÍO 2000)
FIGURE 15. Last part of gagna with transcriptions
As the entry for gagna in figure 14 shows, the actual descriptions of
individual verbs can be quite complex when it comes to giving all and
only the constructions the ordinary user can expect to find in more or
less ordinary texts. In comparizon the entry for gagna in the first two
editions of Íslensk or›abók is very simple, and the same can be said for
the entries for the verb in some bilingual Icelandic dictionaries shown
in figure 16 in the appendix. A common denominator for these entries is
that constructions are only shown in examples, and the choice of
examples seems to be rather the sketchy, only showing a part of the
range of constructions. Complexity on par with the entry shown in
figure 15 may not be everyone’s idea of clarity, but the choice seems to
be between the simplicity of the older dictionaries and the detailed
description made possible by the new format. The task at hand at the
moment is finding out what kind of description is suitable for the new
Icelandic-Danish dictionary in preparation at Edda.