6. Problems that lexicographers face compiling a dictionary

First problem — how far a general descriptive dictionary:

• monolingual or bilingual

• historical element

• cover all the words of the language (neologisms, nonce-words, slang, etc).

Second — which of the selected units have the right to a separate entry and which are to be included under one common headword.

Should mind be considered one word with several semantic variants, and take one entry? Or is it more convenient to represent it as several words?

Third — whether all entries should be defined or whether it is possible to have the so-called “run-ons” for derivative words in which the root-form is readily recognised (such as absolutely or resolutely).

Fourth — meanings in a monolingual dictionary.

It may be achieved by a group of synonyms which together give a fairly general idea; but one synonym is never sufficient for the purpose, because no absolute synonyms exist.

The meaning of the word may be also explained by examples (in context).

Other problems

Monolingual dictionaries may cause problems with the entries of polysemantic words — differentiation and the sequence of various meanings of a polysemantic word.

A descriptive dictionary has to apply a structural point of view and give precedence to the most important meanings.

But how is the most important meaning determined upon?

So, we may summarize that the choice of words in a dictionary is based upon texts analyses, colloquial speech, patterns study plus individual experience of lexicographers. The main problems of lexicography are dealt with the selection of headwords, the arrangement and contents of the vocabulary entry, the principles of sense definitions and the semantic and functional classification of words.

7. Corpora

Corpus is a reference system based on an electronic collection of texts composed in a certain language.

National corpus represents that language at a stage (or several stages) of its development in all the variety of genres, styles, territorial and social variants of usage, etc.

By analyzing the corpus and using special software, we can see words in context and find out how new words and senses are emerging, as well as spotting other trends in usage, spelling and so on.

The main purpose of the corpus is to facilitate academic research on the lexicon and grammar of a language, as well as the subtle but constant processes of language change within a relatively short period of time: from one to two centuries. 

Most of the major world languages have their own corpora. A well-recognized example is the British National Corpus, which is used as a model for many modern corpora. Among the Slavic languages, the Czech National Corpus (compiled at the Charles University of Prague) is notable.

The texts in the Corpus are interesting and useful for the study of language. Such texts might include not only great works of literature, but also works of a 'secondary' writer, or a transcription of an ordinary conversation.

A national corpus is distinguished by two features.