Лексикология / Семинар 7 СГАУ

SEMINAR VII

Lexicography as Theory and Practice of Compiling Dictionaries.

1. Types of dictionaries.

2. Problems the lexicographer is confronted with.

3. History for dictionary making for the English language.

4. Macrostructure of the dictionary and the structure of the dictionary entry.

TASKS

1. Match the terms with their definitions.

Lexicography	a. a dictionary that explains words by giving their equivalents in another language
Dictionary	b. a dictionary in which words are grouped by the concepts expressed
Unilingual (explanatory) dictionary	c. a dictionary recording the complete vocabulary of some author
Bilingual (translation) dictionaries	d. dictionaries which register and explain scientific and other special terms for various branches of knowledge, art, etc.
Frequency dictionary	e. a unilingual dictionary usually applied to some text and explaining special, for example, technical, obsolete, etc. words from that text
Rhyming (reverse) dictionary	f. a dictionary in which the word is followed by a record of its frequency of occurrence
Technical dictionaries	g. a dictionary, in which the words and their definitions belong to the same language
Glossary	h. a book listing words of a language with their meanings, and often pronunciation, usage, origin, etc.
Concordance	i. the theory and practice of compiling dictionaries
Idiographic dictionary (thesaurus)	j. a dictionary in which words are arranged in alphabetical order starting with their final letter

2. Read the passage given below. Explain the difference between the terms ‘dictionary’ and ‘encyclopedia’. List the criteria used to classify dictionaries.

The field of modern lexicography presents a great number and variety of dictionaries of all types. Within English lexicography alone there are unilingual and bilingual general dictionaries, etymological and present-day English dictionaries, those which deal with jargon, dialects and slang.

Things are further complicated by the fact the name dictionary is regularly used in the titles of books which are not dictionaries in the proper sense of the word, but encyclopedias. As distinct from encyclopedia, a dictionary presents a systematic description of the vocabulary of a given language highlighting the special features of lexical items: their orthography, pronunciation, etymology, grammar as well as semantic and pragmatic characteristics. All these aspects of representation are discoverable in dictionaries where words, their differences and similarities, become the priority. For example, a dictionary distinguishes between neutral and stylistically coloured (emotive) vocabulary and uses a special set of labels indicating the stylistic values of words: archaic, colloquial, dated, derogatory, euphemistic, slang, formal, literary, jocular, etc.

The tradition of English lexicography goes back to A Dictionary of the English Language by Samuel Johnson published in 1755. From the 17^th century the necessity of a general all-inclusive dictionary had become a must for lexicographers who started to expand the scope of their works, making reference books for a wide range of people.

Unilingual dictionaries for general use, like the Oxford English Dictionary (1859-1933), were characterized by “global coverage” aiming at including every word occurring in the literature of the language. The learner’s dictionaries, by contrast, quite properly, imply a certain degree of selection and intervention in presenting and interpreting raw language data for the benefit of language learners. They select that part of language vocabulary which is judged to be of value to its users.

The question of how to classify the enormous diversity of existing dictionaries into types or genres has a long history of its own and can be satisfactorily looked into if we take into account all the various factors, such as intended functions, target users, informational content, and so on. Ladislav Zgusta in his Manual of Lexicography proposes the following criteria. First of all he divides dictionaries into diachronic (which are primarily concerned with the history of the language and the development of words in the course of time) and synchronic (which deal with language vocabulary at one stage of its development). From the point of view of language coverage dictionaries can be general, if the standard language or its core is described, and restricted. The information contained in the dictionary can be confined to a given type or variety of words, for example, there are dictionaries of dialects, synonyms, idioms, specialized vocabularies, and professional terminologies. The next division is made on the basis of the number of languages used in the dictionary. In monolingual (or unilingual) dictionaries only one language is presented (in other words, the lexicon of a language is described and defined by means of the same language). Two languages are represented in bilingual dictionaries (in recent works the term interlingual is even more often used) [18].

3. Choose one of the dictionaries from the given list.

• Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture

• Cambridge International Dictionary of English

• The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language

• Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage

• Webster’s Dictionary of Synonyms

• Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

• American Idioms Dictionary

• Technical Dictionary

• Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners

Make a presentation of the dictionary along the following lines. You may find it useful to study the introduction to the dictionary.

• selection of lexical units,

• arrangement of entries,

• selection and arrangement of meanings,

• definition of meanings,

• illustrative examples,

• setting of the entry.

4. Choose one of the Dictionaries enlisted above. Make a copy and provide analysis for the structure of the entries for the following words: mouse, house, hand, rush, square. Special attention should be paid to the number of word-meanings and their definitions. Be ready to present the results of your research to the group.

5. The following text contains numerous vocabulary errors which are marked in italics. Correct them and write a new version. Explain how (and what kind of) dictionaries can help students of English to avoid such mistakes.

Expensive Mary

Expensive Mary,

The postman helped at the birth of your letter this morning.

In this place is the prescription for doing tarts. First confuse some butter and some flour. Increase two eggs to the confusion. Hit the confusion with the spoon of wood. Inflame your furnace and abandon him until he has 25 grades. Insert your confused tart in the furnace. Abandon her for 20 moments. If your tart has a brown head take her from the furnace. Rest your tart until she is frigid. She will look pretty if you cover her head with impalpable sugar.

RECOMMENDED TEXTBOOKS

1. Минаева Л.В. Лексикология и лексикография современного английского языка. М., Изд-во Ступени, 2003

2. Морозова А.Н., Мишина Ю.Е. Лексикология английского языка. Самара, Изд-во СГПУ, 2003

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