Chapter 3 lexicography

1 CLASSIFICATION AND TYPES OF DICTIONARIES

2 PROBLEMS OF LEXICOGRAPHY

1. the selection of lexical units for inclusion,

2. their arrangement,

3. the setting of the entries

4. the selection and arrangement (grouping) of word-meanings,

5. the definition of meanings,

6. illustrative material,

7) supplementary material

3 THE DEVELOPMENT OF ENGLISH AND AMERICAN DICTIONARY

1 CLASSIFICATION AND TYPES OF DICTIONARIES

Lexicography, that is the theory and practice of compiling dictionaries, is an important branch of applied linguistics. It has a common object of study with lexicology as both describe the vocabulary of a language.

The term 'dictionary' is used to denote a book that lists the words of a language in a certain order (usually alphabetical) and gives their meanings, or that gives the equivalent words in a different language. Dictionaries may be classified under different heads. According to the choice of items included and the sort of information given about these items dictionaries may be divided into two big groups — encyclopaedic and linguistic.

Encyclopaedic dictionaries are scientific reference books dealing with every branch of knowledge, or with one particular branch, usually in alphabetical order, e.g. the Oxford Paperback Encyclopaedia, Random House Webster's Biographical Dictionary. Encyclopaedic dictionaries are thing-books that give information about the extra- linguistic world; they deal with facts and concepts. The best-known encyclopaedias of the English-speaking world are the Encyclopaedia Britannica and the Encyclopaedia Americana.

Linguistic dictionaries are wordbooks the subject matter of which is lexical units and their linguistic properties such as pronunciation, meaning, origin, peculiarities of use, and other linguistic information. Linguistic dictionaries can be further divided into different categories if different criteria.

1. According to the scope of their word-list linguistic dictionaries are divided into general and restricted.

General dictionaries represent the vocabulary as a whole with a degree of completeness depending upon the scope and the bulk of the book in question. Some general dictionaries may have very specific aims and still be considered general due to their coverage. They include frequency dictionary, a rhyming dictionary, a Thesaurus, etc., e.g. the Collins COBUILD Thesaurus.

Restricted dictionaries cover only a certain specific part of the vocabulary. Restricted dictionaries can be subdivided depending on whether the words are chosen according to the sphere of human activity in which they are used (1), the type of the units themselves (2) or the relations existing between them (3).

The first subgroup registers and explains technical terms for various branches of knowledge (medical, linguistic, economical terms, etc.), e.g. the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law. The second subgroup deals with specific language units, i.e. with phraseological units, abbreviations, neologisms, borrowings, toponyms, dialectal words, proverbs and sayings, e.g. the Oxford Concise Dictionary of Proverbs. The third subgroup contains a formidable array of synonymic dictionaries, e.g. the Merriam-Webster's Pocket Guide to Syno­nyms.