Author: Heidi Goes

On Friday 5 April 2024, Gilles-Maurice de Schryver (BantUGent) gave a talk on “Generative Artificial Intelligence & Three Lexicographic Fs: FANTASTIC for monolingual English dictionaries, FAKE for translation dictionaries, FAIL for exotic dictionaries” at the Department of English of the University of Missouri, in Columbia, MO (USA).

The Department of English @ Mizzou is home to two Bantuist colleagues: Michael Marlo and Rebecca Grollemund, both of whom were in attendance.

Michael Marlo, Rebecca Grollemund and Gilles-Maurice de Schryver

On 29th of January 2024, BantUGent member Heidi Goes participated in a workshop at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, organized by Prof. Axel Fanego (African languages, Goethe Universität Frankfurt), Prof. David Paul Gerards (Romance languages), Prof. Nico Nassenstein (African languages), both at Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz and Prof. Alexander Cobbinah (African languages, Universidade de São Paulo).

Experts both in African and Romance languages from several countries attended to get to know each other and to discuss the language and linguistic situation in Angola, where Portuguese is the official language. The interesting insights and discussions are just a beginning. In late 2024 or early 2025, a bigger event will be organized with lectures on the topic, probably in Porto, Portugal. A call inviting contributions will be circulated in due time.

More information (in German): romanistik.de/aktuelles/7280

A new age, that of the successful application of generative AI in lexicography, has dawned. Gilles-Maurice de Schryver summarises the state of the art using ChatGPT. This new research was published in the International Journal of Lexicography under the Diamond Open Access model, and is thus available to all for free, here https://academic.oup.com/ijl/advance-article/doi/10.1093/ijl/ecad021/7288213. Noteworthy is that the Addendum to the article was prompt-engineered by Gilles-Maurice de Schryver, and entirely written by ChatGPT. Be amazed …

To commemorate 40 years since its inception, the European Association for Lexicography (EURALEX) is organising a two-week online lecture series. Presenters are past presidents of EURALEX. The first speaker in the series was Gilles-Maurice de Schryver, on Wednesday 4 October 2023.

More info here https://euralex.org/euralex-40th-anniversary-lecture-series/

Screenshots of the event, attended by close to 60 for the formal lecture, 25 for the after-party:

1. Q & A during the formal lecture (with messages from all over the world)

2. Q & A during the after-party (all in on ChatGPT)

At the 3rd Conference of the Language Association of Eastern Africa, which was held at Makerere University, in Kampala, Uganda, on 15 and 16 August 2023, Dr. Minah Nabirye presented a paper titled ‘Made in Uganda’, and Prof. Gilles-Maurice de Schryver dealt with its counterpart: ‘Broken in Uganda’. While Minah focused on solutions to overcome bottlenecks in producing language materials for Lusoga, Gilles-Maurice took a more critical stance with three Lusoga case studies to point out the rampant kleptocracy at Uganda’s National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC), which hampers any meaningful empowerment of the African languages.

Minah Nabirye: Made in Uganda

Gilles-Maurice de Schryver: Broken in Uganda

Menha Publishers at 3rd LAEA

On April 28, 2023, the Saint Augustin University of Kinshasa (USAKIN) will present a book titled “Promotion des langues locales et construction des identités culturelles” [Promotion of local languages and construction of cultural identities]. It consists of a compilation of chapters in honor of Professor Damase Ndembe Nsasi, Congolese priest and linguist.

The celebration and presentation can be watched again on Youtube (first part = holy mass; second part)

More information can be found here (in French).

BantUGent members Heidi Goes and Lorenzo Maselli participated as ‘witnesses’ or experts in a successful world record attempt in Schaarbeek on Sunday 26th of February 2023 for several African languages, together with UGent alumna Jocelyn Mulanga Kabeya. The Guinness World Record attempt for Reading aloud in multiple languages was an initiative of the local library and schools, as well as the Foyer charity that works with newcomers. Every sentence of the book by Leo Timmers’ ‘Magical Life of Mr Renny’ (Mijnheer René) was read aloud in another language. Most of the second reading of the book was done in Dutch by the author himself. Experts were present for 65 of the 74 languages used during the attempt, to verify that the correct language was used, so the Record was set at 65 languages, ten more than the previous record by the Museum of Islamic Culture in Qatar.

English: https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/en/2023/02/27/record-_reading-aloud-in-multiple-languages-set-in-schaarbeek/
French: https://www.lesoir.be/497543/article/2023-02-26/un-record-mondial-ete-battu-dans-une-bibliotheque-de-schaerbeek
Dutch: https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2023/02/26/wereldrecord-meertalig-voorlezen-gebroken-in-schaarbeekse-biblio/
Dutch with video: https://www.bruzz.be/samenleving/wereldrecord-meertalig-voorlezen-gebroken-schaarbeekse-bibliotheek-2023-02-26

[Gilles-Maurice de Schryver is on a lecture tour in Tokyo, presenting five papers on lexicography in a week, with a focus on Bantu languages and more generally for the field of (meta)lexicography as a whole. See for the other events the ‘News’ page as well as the ‘Activities’ page.]

What? The future of lexicography: Extrapolating from five decades of trends
Who? Gilles-Maurice de Schryver
When? Sat 4 March, 16:00-17:30 (Tokyo time)
Where? Hybrid (online and face-to-face at the Research Institute of Business Administration, School of Commerce, Waseda University)
Contact person: Professor YAMADA Shigeru

The future of lexicography: Extrapolating from five decades of trends

Monday 27 February, David Joffe and Gilles-Maurice de Schryver discussed the impact of ChatGPT on the field of lexicography. The seminar took place in Tokyo and kick-started a week in which Gilles-Maurice de Schryver talks on various lexicographic aspects of the future (see other ‘News’ items and the ‘Activities’ page).
For more information on this seminar, including theme, program, abstract, etc., see: http://codh.rois.ac.jp/seminar/lexicography-chatgpt-20230227/
The recording of this presentation can be found below the pictures.

What? The end of lexicography, welcome to the machine: On how ChatGPT can already take over all of the dictionary maker’s tasks
Who? Gilles-Maurice de Schryver & David Joffe
When? Mon 27 February 2023, 17:30-19:00 (Tokyo time)
Where? Hybrid (online and face-to-face at the National Institute of Informatics, Tokyo, room 2005)
Contact person: Professor KITAMOTO Asanobu

Presentation 20th CODH seminar: ‘On how ChatGPT can take over all of the dictionary maker’s tasks’