Changes
What kinds of changes will we make?
ePSD2 is intended to provide a reasonably stable word list for
Sumerian with persistent IDs for the words, and as such we will
avoid making changes unless we consider them absolutely necessary.
At some point in the future we may review the lexicon holistically
based on the experience of using ePSD2 to annotate additional
texts and on the continually increasing understanding of Sumerian
phonology and syntax. When we do that we will either preserve
persistent IDs or document the changes clearly.
For the next several years our general approach will be as follows:
- We will most often merge words--we know that there are some
duplicates still in the word list; in this case, we will include
a cross-reference from the old word to one with which it is
merged and the persistent IDs will be redirected from the old
word to the new one
- We will occasionally create new words as we work on the
corpora; we will not create words when ePSD2 already provides a
reasonable alternative to annotating the terms in the
corpus. For example, we will not create a single word from two
separate words when we can annotate the separate words as a
compound or phrase. We will, in such cases, create new ePSD2
entries, but the constituent words will not disappear
- We will occasionally delete words when we determine they do
not exist. When we delete a word, we will leave the entry in
ePSD2 and mark it as deleted. Where possible, we will provide a
redirect and/or explanation of the deletion. The persistent ID
will continue to exist and will not be reused, but will be
marked as deleted.
- We will generally avoid splitting words into multiple parts
for now.
When will we make changes?
- We will add words when ePSD2 does not provide an adequate way to annotate the corpus
- We will merge words when we identify them as duplicates
- We will mark words as deleted when we specifically determine that the word's proposed existence is unfounded; we will not delete words simply because there are no instances in our current digital corpus
- We will change the Citation Form of words only in restricted circumstances:
- If we need to add or withdraw a genitive ending on a word
- When we are able to improve our understanding of the word's final consonant
- When we are able to correct a word which should or should not have 'ŋ'
- We will change the Guide Words when they are confusing or when we can move from 'unknown meaning' to something more meaningful; otherwise, our perspective on Guide Words is that they are simply labels for homonyms and do not necessarily need to be modified to align with known senses
- We will change the Sense of words only when we can make positive improvements
- We may add synonyms or hypernyms to senses to amplify the sense
- We will add, delete, and modify bases and equivalents as necessary; these changes will not be recorded