14.2. Some of the main problems of lexicography

The most burning issues of LG: selection of head-Ws, the arrangement & contents of the vocabulary entry; principles of sense definitions; the semantic & functional classification of Ws.

1. a) The problem of how far a general descriptive unilingual / bilingual D should admit the historical element. The term current usage is elastic, may include all Ws used by W. Shakespeare / only Ws kept in set expressions & familiar quotations.

b) Selection between scientific & technical terms.

c) Whether a unilingual explanatory D should cover all the Ws, including neologisms, nonce-Ws, slang & note all the Ws actually used by E people / as S. Johnson said, it should be prescriptive & prohibitive.

d) A modern criterion in selection of entries – the frequency of the Ws. Especially important for preparing graded elementary textbooks.

2. a) Which of the selected units have the right to a separate entry – questions of separateness & sameness of Ws (each other; one another, boiling point, carbon paper, department store, phone box – separateness). COD has 2 entries for hound – the N & the V treated as Homs. Chambers’s 20^th C. D combines them under 1 head-W, as variants of the same W (sameness). The problem is more complicated with variants belonging to the same part of speech. The pun: Mind you, I don’t mind minding the children if the children mind me (Understand, I don’t object to taking care of the children if the children obey me).

b) The difference in the number of entries for an equal bulk of vocabulary also depends on an approach to the derivatives with -er, -ing, -ness, -ly, similar to grammatical endings in combining possibilities & semantic regularity. The meaning & class of these derivatives are easily deduced, sometimes considered not worth an entry.

c) The arrangement of the vocabulary entry, problems: the most important are differentiation & sequence of various meanings of a polysemantic W. A historical D is primarily concerned with the development of the vocabulary. It arranges various senses chronologically, 1^st is the etymology, then the earliest meanings marked by the label obs. The etymologies are either comparative / confined to 1 language. The development is documented by illustrative quotations, ranging from the oldest to recent appearances of the W.

A descriptive D: a structural point of view, precedence to the most important meanings. Each compiler is guided by his personal preference. An objective procedure is to obtain data of statistical counts. Counting the frequency of different meanings of the same W is more difficult than of its forms. The interdependence of meanings & their relative importance within the semantic structure of the W change. Constant revisions → very expensive publication.

Lexicographers have to sample the reading of the public for whom the D is meant. This textual reference is scrupulously examined to account for new Ws & meanings. Quantitative criteria must be established. W / meaning occurs in several different sources over a wide range of magazines & books during a considerable period of time → it is worth including into a D. A synchronic D should show the distribution of Ws. It is done by labelling Ws as belonging to a certain part of speech, & by noting some special cases of grammatically / lexically bound meanings.

Many Ds indicate the different stylistic levels of Ws: colloquial, technical, poetical, rhetorical, archaic, familiar, vulgar / slang, & expressive colouring: emphatic, ironical, diminutive, facetious. Thus D-makers indicate the context in which the W may occur.

3. Definitions in a unilingual D. The explanation of meaning may be achieved by a group of Syns which together give a general idea. 1 Syn is never sufficient, no absolute Syns exist. Definitions are much better. 2 main types: linguistic definition concerned with Ws as speech material; encyclopaedic concerned with things for which the Ws are names. Am Ds are traditionally encyclopaedic, much attention paid to graphic illustration. Br Ds are more fundamentally occupied with purely lexical data (contrasted to realia), grammatical properties, components, stylistic features of Ws. Opinions differ upon the optimum proportion of linguistic & encyclopaedic material.

The meaning of the W may be also explained contextually. The term and its definition are fused. Diagonal is explained by the context where only this term can occur: A square has two diagonals, and each of them divides the square into two right-angled isosceles triangles.