13. Lexicography

1. Would you agree or disagree with these statesments?

Explain your answers.

• Lexicography is a systemic description of the lexis of a given language.

• Lexicography is the art and science of dictionary making.

• Lexicography is applied Lexicology.

• Lexicology is necessary in so far as there is lexicography.

• Language is embodied and codified first and foremost in the dictionary.

• Lexicography is a component of culture.

2. Complete the definition.

A dictionary is …

3. Answer the following questions.

1. What are the main tasks and aims of lexicography?

2. What are the basic problems of lexicography?

3. What is the difference between dictionaries and encyclopedias?

4. What information do dictionaries usually provide?

5. What are the essential features of a new generation of “computer-corpus-based” dictionaries?

What are the advantages of using so-called corpora (e.g. The British National Corpus; the Bank of English, containing 200,000,000 words including 15 million words of Spoken English; the Longman Corpus Network) ?

6. What is the role of “frequency of occurrence” in compiling modern dictionaries? Give examples from a number of dictionaries.

7. What makes learner’s dictionaries different from all others?

What innovations have been introduced in the latest editions of learner’s dictionaries (e.g. Macmillan English Dictionary for advanced learners, 2002)?

4. Can you explain the meaning of these terms?

The defining vocabulary, the headword, a dictionary entry, an electronic dictionary, an online dictionary/web dictionary, a prescriptive/descriptive dictionary, a thesaurus, a glossary, an interactive dictionary, a multimedia dictionary, a bilingual dictionary.

5. What criteria are used to classify dictionaries into the following types?

1. diachronic-synchronic

2. monolingual/unilingual-interlingual

3. general-restricted

4. general-special-purpose/specialized

5. general-scholarly-learner’s

6. explanatory-translation

7. traditional-computer-corpus-based

8. extensive/comprehensive/unabridged - selective/abridged

6. These are the descriptions of some reference books for learners of English. Below are the entries taken from them. Match each entry (1-6) with the reference book (A-F) it is taken from.

1. English Pronouncing Dictionary- a major new edition of Daniel Jones’ classic pronunciation guide.

• Over 80,000 entries

• Full coverage of North American pronunciation

• Stress patterns of compounds and idioms

• All pronunciations use the International Phonetic Alphabet

As well as general vocabulary the dictionary includes

• Encyclopedic: religions, philosophies, historic events

• People: from ancient times to people in the news today

2. Longman Idioms Dictionary- Tearing your hair out over idioms?

Feel like you are always in the dark? Don’t worry- you can’t go wrong with the Longman Idioms Dictionary- a brand-new, up to the minute dictionary that will help you stay ahead of the game.

• Wide coverage of both American and British English

• More than 6000 idioms from spoken and written English, like go postal, it’s all gone pear-shaped, and be on the same page.