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<Paper uid="P89-1012">
  <Title>DICTIONARIES, DICTIONARY GRAMMARS AND DICTIONARY ENTRY PARSING</Title>
  <Section position="2" start_page="0" end_page="0" type="abstr">
    <SectionTitle>
ABSTRACT
</SectionTitle>
    <Paragraph position="0"> We identify two complementary p.ro.cesses in. the conversion of machine-readable dmUonanes into lexical databases: recovery of the dictionary structure from the typographical markings which persist on the dictionary distribution tapes and embody the publishers' notational conventions; followed by making explicit all of the codified and ellided information packed into individual entries.</Paragraph>
    <Paragraph position="1"> We discuss notational conventions and tape formats, outline structural properties of dictionaries, observe a range of representational phenomena particularly relevant to dictionary parsing, and derive a set of minimal requirements for a dictionary grammar formalism. We present a general purpose dictionary entry parser which uses a formal notation designed to describe the structure of entries and performs a mapping from the flat character stream on the tape to a highly structured and fully instantiated representation of the dictionary. We demonstrate the power of the formalism by drawing examples from a range of dictionary sources which have been processedand converted into lexical databases.</Paragraph>
  </Section>
class="xml-element"></Paper>