45
Wikitionary is vastly underrated and underutilized
(sh.itjust.works)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 22 Mar 2024
45 points (89.5% liked)
General Discussion
11932 readers
4 users here now
Welcome to Lemmy.World General!
This is a community for general discussion where you can get your bearings in the fediverse. Discuss topics & ask questions that don't seem to fit in any other community, or don't have an active community yet.
🪆 About Lemmy World
🧭 Finding Communities
Feel free to ask here or over in: !lemmy411@lemmy.ca!
Also keep an eye on:
- !newcommunities@lemmy.world
- !communitypromo@lemmy.ca
- !new_communities@mander.xyz
- !communityspotlight@lemmy.world
- !wowthislemmyexists@lemmy.ca!
For more involved tools to find communities to join: check out Lemmyverse and Feddit Lemmy Community Browser!
💬 Additional Discussion Focused Communities:
- !actual_discussion@lemmy.ca - Note this is for more serious discussions.
- !casualconversation@lemm.ee - The opposite of the above, for more laidback chat!
- !letstalkaboutgames@feddit.uk - Into video games? Here's a place to discuss them!
- !movies@lemm.ee - Watched a movie and wanna talk to others about it? Here's a place to do so!
Rules
Remember, Lemmy World rules also apply here.
0. See: Rules for Users.
- No bigotry: including racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, or xenophobia.
- Be respectful. Everyone should feel welcome here.
- Be thoughtful and helpful: even with ‘silly’ questions. The world won’t be made better by dismissive comments to others on Lemmy.
- Link posts should include some context/opinion in the body text when the title is unaltered, or be titled to encourage discussion.
- Posts concerning other instances' activity/decisions are better suited to !fediverse@lemmy.world or !lemmydrama@lemmy.world communities.
- No Ads/Spamming.
- No NSFW content.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
Language is not controlled by dictionary writers. Dictionaries are descriptive only, they just list what words people are already using. In some countries, central organizations do try to be prescriptive and decide how the languages should be spoken, but that doesn't usually work.
/me laughs in French
I reckon nobody takes the Academy seriously anyway so we're safe 😏
Try not to fall into any pièges à clics while you listen to your audio à la demande...
Perhaps "controlled" was too strong of a word. Such central dictionaries do possess some level of authority, though. I think such authority should be spread over the many who contribute to an open dictionary, rather than a select few who curate a private one.
Eh, that's got flaws too.
It isn't like you don't end up with some degree of centralized organization, or at least with a central core of contributors. That in itself isn't a nice I obstacle, but if that core group ends up being core because they're willing, rather than capable and good at the job, that becomes a giant problem.
At least the OED can be said to be handled by people that know language, and English in specific.
Besides, as soon as any dictionary becomes used by enough people, it becomes an authority. That's unavoidable. Open sourcing doesn't prevent that, and then you'll still have people treating it like the dictionary is the authority rather than being a repository of language as it exists and changes.
English doesn't have regulatory body proscribing what is and isn't allowed. Every major document dictionary, including the ones mentioned here, follow the changes, they don't force them. The reason they're authorities is the long time they've followed language successfully and in timely fashion.
The real importance of a dictionary isn't private vs open, it's the skill involved in writing the definitions. That takes a good bit of work to develop.
Oh, for sure. It isn't perfect, but it begs the question of what the end-goal is that one desires. A similar argument could be made for open source software. One could argue that it is less efficient, and you potentially get people that don't know what they are doing contributing. But, to me, the end goal is about ensuring openness rather than perfection. The openness, itself, is the end to the means.
To be fair, though, nothing is stopping such types of people from also contributing to something like Wikitionary.
That's a fair point, but I would ask if one would prefer an oligarchy, or a democracy.
That's a fair point.
Technologically, it is also worth mentioning that, often, open services come with the added benefit of an open API. This allows people to make their own dictionary apps and services rather than having to pay for private API access to some proprietary dictionary service.