Lecture 8

Lexicography

1, L. as a brunch of linguistics
2. Types of English dictionary compilimg

L. is a brunch of applied linguistics which deals with the theory and practice of compiling dictionaries.

The object of study: the vocabulary of a language (cf. lexicology: diff in degree of systematisation and completeness).

The aim: semantic, formal and functional description of all individual words.Dictionary - a book listing words of language with their meanings and reference information.

Lexicology is a theory and lexicography is the practice of describing words.


TYPES OF ENGLISH DICTIONARIES
differ inthe choice of items and information about them.

Encyclopaedic: concepts (objects and phenomena), their relation to other objects and phenomena.

Linguistic (or philological): lexical units and their linguistic properties.

THe encyclopaedicdictionaries enter items of designations such as: names of substances, deseases, plants and animals, institutions, terms of science, some important events in history, geographical and biographical entries.

A linguistic dictionary is a book of words of a language, usually listed alphabetically, with definitions, pronunciations, etymologies and other linguistic information or with their equivalents in another language (or other language).

American dictionaries include scientific, technical, geographical and bibliographical items.

British dictionaries devote maximum space to the linguistic properties of words.


CLASSIFICATIONS

1. According to the nature of word-list:
- general
- restricted dictionaries (terminological, phraseological, dialectal word-books, dictionaries of new words, etc.)

2. As to the information they provide:
- explanatory
- special dictionaries (only some characteristics)
* sphere of human activity (technical dictionaries)
* type of units (of idioms)
* relationships b/w units (of synonyms)

Associative dictionaries (the lexical entry is a stimulus word with a list of response words either in an alphabetical order or according to their frequency).

3. As to the number of languages used (except for translation ones)
- monolingual
- bilingual
- multilingual

4. According to the medium used:
- paper d.
- computerized d.
* computerized versions of paper dictionaries
* proper electronic dictionaries
+ for human use
] + machine dictionaries for text processing (syntactic, semantic, (pseudo-) morphemic, diphone, etc.)

A dictionary is qualified according to:
1. nature of the word-list;
2. the information supplied;
3. the language ofthe explanations;
4. the prospective user.

Explanatory dictionaries provide info on all aspects of the lexical units enteres: graphical, phonetic, grammatical, semantic, stylistic, etymological, etc.

- diachronic
- synchronic

Translation (parallel) dictionaries - a list of vocabulary items in one language and their equivalents in (an)other language(s).

Phraseological dictionaries - idiomatic or colloquial phrases, proverbs and other, usually with illustrations.

Dictionaries of neologisms (neologism - <20 years). The new items are collected from the reading of newspaper, magazines and - rarely - books.

Dictionaries of slang (substandard speech such as vulgarisms, jargonisms, taboo words, curse-words, colloquialisms).

Usage dictionaries (usage problems of all kind - for native speakers: the difference in meaning of synonyms, the proper pronunciation, etc.)

Dictionaries of word fequency (frequency of occurence of lexical units in speech for teaching purposes, the basic vocabulary, forthe machine translation systems to choose a better - more frequent - variant of a word).

Reverse dictionaries (the entry words are arrangesin an alphabeticla order starting with the final letter - e.g. for rhyming purpose).

Pronouncing dictionaries (contemporary variation of pronunciation).

Etymological dictionaries.

Ideographic dictionaries.


PROBLEMS OF DICTIONARY COMPILING

Stages:
- collection of material
- selection of entries and their arrangement
- setting of each entry

1) selection of lexicalunits for inclusion
2) arrangement of entries (alphabetical, clusters, frequency)
3) setting of the entry (structure and content)
4) selection and arrangement of meanings (historical, empirical / actual / frequency, logical order)
5) definition of meanings (encyclopaedic, descriptive, synonymous, cross-referential)
6) illustrative examples (quotes, corpus e.g.'s)