Die Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal (WAT), 'n omvattende sinchroniese woordeboek waarvan die eerste deel in 1951 verskyn, stel hom ten doel om die woordeskat van Afrikaans in sy wydste omvang, van vandag tot sowat honderd jaar gelede, te bewerk. Nes soortgelyke woordeboeke van ander tale is die WAT vir sy totstandkoming in hoë mate afhanklik van poëme en sitate wat gewone taalgebruikers in die laaste dekades van die vorige millennium per gewone pos na die woordeboek gestuur het. Vir byna elke trefwoord van U tot Z, wat nog gedefinieer en toegelig moet word, bly hierdie versameling van sowat 4,5 miljoen handgeskrewe en getikte kaartjies die beginpunt. Maar sedert die koms van die rekenaar, in die 1980's, het nuwe tegnologieë die maniere waarop woordeboekmakers werk, ingrypend verander. In die era van korpusleksikografie word kaartversamelings stelselmatig aangevul deur elektroniese korpusse van werklike taalgebruik waarin woorde onmiddellik en op verskillende maniere gesorteer en ondersoek word. Hoe groter, omvattender en gebalanseerder die korpus, hoe minder hoef redakteurs op persoonlike indrukke terug te val. Tog het van die WAT se eweknieë, soos die (veel groter) Oxford English Dictionary (OED), in dié tyd van aanlyn teksversamelings ou leesprogramme voortgesit en selfs etlike nuwes begin. Groot korpusse bevat dikwels teks uit koerante, tydskrifte, romans en dergelike, waarin die hedendaagse, algemene, geskrewe variëteit van die taal die botoon voer en ander variëteite (streektaal, vaktaal, geselstaal, woorde en uitdrukkings van vorige geslagte) minder goed verteenwoordig is. Deur vir vrywillige en betaalde lesers spesifieke tekste te kies, probeer leesprogrambestuurders dié leemtes aanvul. Deur 'n semi-outomatiese ontleding van een so 'n uit-gesoekte teks, die roman Draaijakkals (1999) deur George Weideman, illustreer hierdie artikel, met aanbevelings ten slotte, hoe 'n leesprogram in 'n hersieningsfase tot nuwe en bygewerkte artikels in die WAT kan bydra.
The Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal (WAT) is a comprehensive, synchronic dictionary, the first volume of which was published in 1951. Its aim has been to treat the vocabulary of Afrikaans in its broadest scope, from today back to about one hundred years ago. Like similar dictionaries for other languages, the WAT originally came into existence dependent to a large degree on the phrases and citations ordinary language users sent to the dictionary by surface mail during the last decades of the previous millennium. For almost every headword from U to Z that still needs to be defined and elucidated, this collection of more than 4,5 million hand-written or typed cards has remained the starting point. However, since the arrival of computers in the 1980s, new technologies have fundamentally changed the way dictionary makers work. In the era of corpus lexicography, card collections have been systematically supplemented by electronic corpuses reflecting real language use, in which words can be sorted and analysed directly and with the use of various criteria. The larger, more comprehensive and more balanced the corpus, the less editors have to rely on personal impressions. Yet, in these days of online text collection, some of the WAT's peers, such as the (much more extensive) Oxford English Dictionary (OED), have maintained established reading programmes and even initiated several new ones. Large corpuses contain mostly texts from newspapers, magazines, novels and such like, in which the current, general and written varieties of the language dominate and other varieties (regional language, technical language, colloquial language, words and expressions of previous generations) are less well represented. By selecting specific texts for volunteer and paid readers, reading-programme managers have attempted to fill these gaps. Through a semi-automatic analysis of such a selected text, the novel Draaijakkals (1999) by George Weideman, this article demonstrates and subsequently recommends how a reading programme in a reviewing phase may contribute to new and augmented entries in the WAT.