HEADWORDS AND CROSS-REFERENCES IN AN UZBEK–GERMAN VERB DICTIONARY

This article examines how an Uzbek–German verb dictionary can guide readers from the form they look up to the entry that explains its meaning and use. Drawing on the selection described in Sativoldiyeva (2025), it distinguishes two editorial decisions: whether the evidence supports a bilingual description and where readers should find that description. Regional verbs illustrate the need for attested meanings and contexts. Reflexive, reciprocal, and passive forms raise a different question: can readers recover the relevant German construction from the base entry, or does the derived form require a description of its own? Multiword verbs illustrate how alphabetical placement affects access. Where German expresses a meaning through a phrase, the phrase can serve as the equivalent if the entry also shows how to use it. The resulting model relates the choice between a full entry and a cross-reference to semantic autonomy, valency, and the reader’s lookup task.