20. Some basic problems of dictionary compiling.

Problems:

1) Selections of words

nature (whether to include scientific, technical terms,

Shakespeare’s lg, slang, neologisms etc)

number (the biggest is of 600,000 words)

According to frequency of usage.

2) Arrangement of the entries:

- spelling

- pronunciation

- grammatical inform.

- definition (encyclopedic, synonyms, translation)

(in unilingual dictionary-to give the synonyms or to give encyclopedic definition)

Ways of arranging:

alphabetical

thematically

nests/clusters

3) Are derivatives worth separate entries; Where to put prepositions

4) From where to take the examples; do we need them at all?

15. Abbreviation. Other ways of word creation.

Abbr. – words formed by initial letters.

Shortenings are produced in two different ways:

1. To make a new word from a syllable of the original word. The word may lose its beginning (phone – from telephone) , it’s ending (hols – for holidays, vac – for vacation) or both the beginning and the ending (flu – from influenza, fridge – from refrigerator).

2. To make a new word from the initial letters of a word group: a) If the abbreviated written form tends itself to be read as though it were an ordinary English word and sounds like an English word, it will be read like one. The words thus formed are called acronyms,U.N.O. ['ju:neu] from the United Nations Organisation, NATO — the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation b) The other subgroup consists of initial abbreviation with the alphabetical reading retained, i.e. pronounced as a series of letters. B.B.C. from the British Broadcasting Corporation. This type is called initial shortenings. They are found not only among formal words, such as the ones above, but also among colloquialisms and slang. So, g. f. is a shortened word made from the compound girl-friend.

Minor ways of word formation:

• back formation is the process when a word structurally more complex served as the original element from which a simpler word was derived (editor –to edit, beggar – to beg).

• sound and stress interchange are means of distinguishing between dif. words, primarily between words of dif. parts of speech (to sing-song, ‘export-ex’port).

• sound imitation is the way of creating words out of the sounds we hear in nature and registering them (to buzz - жужжать).

• blending is the process of merging parts of words into one new word (smog=smoke+fog).

• clipping is the process of reduction of a word to one or two syllables (prof.=professor, mid=middle).

• reduplication. in reduplication new words are made by doubling a stem, either without any phonetic changes as in bye-bye or with a variation of the root-vowel or consonant as in ping-pong,chit-chat.

6. Polysemy in English

Polysemantic words - words possessing 2 or more meanings

Factors, determining the frequency of polysemy:

1) extra-linguistic

-the length of the period during which a word exists in the lg, the longer the word exists, the greater number of meanings. So, native words in English are the most polysemantic

-progress of civilizations

2) linguistic

- meaning of a word (generic words: get, take)

- frequency of usage

Sources of polysemy:

1) change in the semantic structure of a word (lexical-semantic meaning)

2) homonymy (ear: -a part of human body-upper part of plant)

Semantic structure of polysemantic words:

1) diachronic approach (its historical development, change of meaning becomes central)

-primary meaning (original) is placed in historical dictionaries first

-secondary meaning (derived) is placed after the primary one, may become major

(For example, the primary meaning of the adj sweet was <pleasant to the taste> and the meaning <one of 4 basic

sensations, like that of sugar> was its derivative, it has become central)

2) synchronic approach aims to register various meanings of Polysemantic words, their value and character of their relations.

It should be noted that whereas the basic meaning occurs in various and widely different contexts, minor meanings are observed only in certain contexts.

Lexical context - In lexical contexts of primary importance are the groups of lexical items combined with the polysemantic word under consideration.

Grammatical contexts it is the grammatical (mainly the syntactic) structure of the context that serves to determine various individual meanings of a polysemantic word.