ENGLISH

LEXICOGRAPHY
Camenev Zinaida
• Lexicography, the science of dictionary-
compiling, is closely connected with lexicology,
both dealing with the same problems – the
form, meaning, usage and origin of vocabulary
units – and making use of each other's
achievements.
• The principles of dictionary-making are always
based on linguistic fundamentals, and each
individual entry is made up in accordance with
the current knowledge and findings of scholars
in the various fields of language study.
 1. Main Types of English Dictionaries
• The term dictionary is used to denote a book listing
words of a language with their meanings and often with
data regarding pronunciation, usage and/or origin.
• There are many different types of English dictionaries.
First of all they may all be divided into two groups –
encyclopaedic and linguistic.
• The encyclopaedic dictionaries, the biggest of which are
sometimes called simply encyclopaedias, are books that
give information about the extra-linguistic world, they
deal with concepts (objects and phenomena), their
relations to other objects and phenomena, etc.
• The encyclopaedic dictionaries will enter
items such as names for substances, diseases,
plants and animals, institutions, terms of
science, some important events in history and
geographical and biographical entries.
• Some of the items included in the
encyclopaedic and linguistic dictionaries
coincide, such as the names of some diseases,
the information presented in them is
altogether different. The former gives much
more extensive information on these subjects.
• For example, the entry 'influenza' in a linguistic dictionary
presents the word's spelling and pronunciation, grammar
characteristics, synonyms, etc. In an encyclopedia the
entry "influenza' discloses the causes, symptoms,
characteristics and varieties of this disease, various
treatments of and remedies for it, ways of infection, etc.
• The most well-known encyclopaedias in English are 'The
Encyclopaedea Britanica' and 'The Encyclopaedia
Americana'. Very popular in Great Britain and the USA are
also 'Collier's Encyclopaedia' intended for students and
school teachers, 'Chamber's Encyclopaedia' which is a
family type reference book, and 'Everyman's
Encyclopaedia' designed for all-round use.
• Besides the general encyclopaedic dictionaries there are
reference books that are confined to definite fields of
knowledge, such as 'The Oxford Companion to English
Literature', 'Oxford Companion to Theatre', 'Cassell's
Encyclopaedia of World Literature', etc.
• There are also numerous dictionaries presenting
information about notable persons (scientists, writers,
kings, presidents, etc.) often called 'Who's Who
Dictionaries'.
• Encyclopaedias sometimes indicate the origin of the word,
which belongs to the domain of linguistics. On the other
hand, there are elements of encyclopaedic character in
many linguistic dictionaries. Some of these are
unavoidable.
• Some dictionary-compilers include in their word-
lists such elements of purely encyclopaedic nature
as names of famous people together with their
birth and death dates or the names of major cities
and towns, giving not only their correct spelling
and pronunciation, but also a brief description of
their population, location, etc.
• A linguistic dictionary is a book of words in a
language, usually listed alphabetically, with
definitions, pronunciations, etymologies and other
linguistic information or with their equivalents in
another language (or other languages).
• For dictionaries in which the words and their
definitions belong to the same language the
term monolingual or explanatory is used,
whereas bilingual or translation dictionaries
are those that explain words by giving their
equivalents in another language. Multilingual
or polyglot dictionaries are not numerous;
they serve chiefly the purpose of comparing
synonyms and terminology in various
languages.
Monolingual dictionaries are further subdivided.
Diachronic dictionaries, of which The Oxford
English Dictionary is the main example, reflects
development of the English vocabulary by
recording the history of form and meaning for
every word registered. They may be contrasted to
synchronic or descriptive dictionaries of current
English concerned with present-day meaning and
usage of words. Some synchronic dictionaries are at
the same time historical when they represent the
state of vocabulary at some past stage of its
development.
• According to the nature of their word-list, linguistic
dictionaries may be divided into general and specialized
dictionaries.
• General dictionaries represent the vocabulary as a whole
with a degree of completeness depending upon the scope and
bulk of the book in question. The group includes, for instance,
all the volumes of The Oxford English Dictionary alongside
with any miniature pocket dictionary.
• Some general dictionaries may have very specific aims and
still be considered general due to their coverage. They include
frequency dictionaries, i.e. lists of words, each of which is
followed by a record of its frequency of occurrence in one or
several sets of reading matter. A rhyming dictionary is also a
general dictionary, though arranged in inverse order, and so is
a thesaurus in spite of its unusual arrangement.
• They are contrasted to specialized dictionaries whose
stated aim is to cover only a certain specific part of the
depending on whether the words are chosen
according to the sphere of human activity in which
they are used (e.g. technical dictionaries,
phraseological dictionaries, dictionaries of synonyms,
etc.).
• The first subgroup embraces highly specialized
dictionaries of limited scope. They register and explain
technical terms for various branches of knowledge, art
and trade: linguistic, medical, technical, economical
terms, etc. Monolingual books of this type giving
definitions of terms are called glossaries.
• The second subgroup deals with specific language units, i.e.
with phraseology, abbreviations, neologisms, borrowings,
surnames, proverbs and sayings, etc.
• The third subgroup contains different synonymic
dictionaries of Americanisms, dialect and slang.
• Electronic Dictionaries. The need to store, sort, and retrieve
huge amounts of linguistic information drew publishers to
electronic methods. Thus, in the 1980's various publishers
have issued dictionaries in CD-ROM format (and later in DVD
format), taking advantage of this technology to increase the
speed of lookup and cross-reference, to extend methods of
searching for information, and to include recordings of
pronunciations, so that users can hear words or phrases
spoken aloud.
In the late 1990's dictionaries, old and new, have
made their way into the internet, and this form
of publication is likely to become more and
more usual. The online versions typically include
all the text of the print and electronic disc
versions, as well as much of the multimedia. The
new system frees readers from having to install
the products from CD-ROMs or DVDs and also
allows dictionary editors update their products
much more frequently than they could when
publishing on paper or on electronic disc.
• The Internet was essential to the creation of the
Encarta World English Dictionary (1999), which is the
most recently created dictionary of English. Based in
London it involves more than 300 lexicographers
around the world.
• In the 21st century a new type of online encyclopedia,
known as Wikipedia, enabled readers to create and edit
encyclopedia articles. A wiki is a type of server software
that enables users to create or alter content on a Web
page. Wikipedia was closely associated with the open
source software movement and rapidly expanded to
include hundreds of thousands of articles, many on
popular culture topics, in a number of languages.
 2. Some Basic Problems of Dictionary-Compiling
• The work on a dictionary consists of the
following main stages: the collection of material,
the selection of entries and their arrangement,
the setting of each entry.
• At different stages of his work the lexicographer
is confronted with different problems.
• The choice of lexical units for inclusion in the
prospective dictionary is one of the first
problems the lexicographer faces.
• First of all the type of lexical units to be chosen for
inclusion is to be decided upon. Then the number of
items to be recorded must be determined. Then there
is the basic problem of what to select and what leave
out in the dictionary. Which form of the language,
spoken or writ-ten or both, is the dictionary to reflect?
Should the dictionary contain obsolete and archaic
units, technical terms, dialectisms, colloquialisms, and
so forth?
• There is no general reply to any of these questions.
The choice among the different possible answers
depends upon the type, the aim, the size, the linguistic
conceptions of the dictionary-makers.
• Explanatory and translation dictionaries usually record
words and phraseological units, some of them also include
affixes as separate en tries. Synonym-books, pronouncing,
etymological dictionaries and some others deal only with
words.
• General explanatory dictionaries, for example, diachronic
and synchronic word-books differ greatly in their approach
to the problem. The diachronic embrace not only the
vocabulary of oral and written English, of the present day,
but also a considerable proportion of obsolete, archaic,
and dialectal words and uses. Synchronic explanatory
dictionaries include mainly common words in ordinary
present-day use with only some more important archaic
and technical words.
• The order of arrangement of the entries to be
included is different in different types of dictionaries
and even in the word-books of the same type. In most
dictionaries of various types entries are given in a
single alphabetical listing. In many others the units
entered are arranged in nests, based on this or that
principle.
• In some explanatory and translation dictionaries, for
example, entries are grouped in families of words of
the same root.
• In synonym-books words are arranged in synonymic
sets and its dominant member serves as the head-
word of the entry.
• In some phraseological dictionaries the phrases are arranged
in accordance with their pivotal words which are defined as
constant non- interchangeable elements or phrases.
• In frequency dictionaries the items included are not arranged
alphabetically. In such dictionaries the entries follow each
other in the descending order of their frequency, items of the
same frequency value are grouped together.
• Each of the two modes of presentation, the alphabetical and
the cluster-type, has its own advantages. The former provides
for an easy finding of any word and establishing its meaning,
frequency value, etc. The latter requires less space and
presents a clearer picture of the relations of each unit under
consideration with some other units in the language system,
since words of the same root, the same denotational meaning
or close in their frequency value are grouped together.
• One of the most difficult problems nearly all lexicographers
face is recording the word-meanings and arranging them in
the most rational way, that is supposed to be of most help to
those who will use the dictionary.
• If one compares the general number of meanings of a word in
different dictionaries even those of the same type, one will
easily see that their number varies considerably. This depends
mainly on two factors: 1) on what aim the compilers set
themselves and 2) what decisions they make concerning the
extent to which obsolete, archaic, dialectal or highly
specialized meanings should be recorded, how the problem of
polysemy and homonymy is solved, how cases of conversion
are treated, how the segmentation of different meanings of a
polysemantic word is made, etc.
• Diachronic dictionaries list many more meanings than
synchronic dictionaries of current English, as they record
not only the meanings in present-day use, but also those
that have already become archaic or gone out of use.
• Definition of Meanings constitutes another problem in
compiling dictionaries. Meanings of words may be
defined in different ways: by means of definitions that are
characterized as encyclopaedic; by means of descriptive
definitions or paraphrases; with the help of synonymous
words and expressions; by means of cross-references.
• Encyclopaedic definitions as distinct from descriptive
definitions determine not only the word-meaning, but
also the underlying concept.
• Synonymous definitions consist of words or word-
groups with nearly equivalent meaning, as distinct
from descriptive definitions which are explanations
with the help of words not synonymous with the word
to be defined.
• Encyclopaedic definitions are typical of nouns,
especially proper nouns and terms. Synonyms are used
most often to define verbs and adjectives. Reference to
other words is resorted to define some derivatives,
abbreviations and variant forms.
• Frequency dictionaries, spelling books, etymological,
pronouncing, ideographic or reverse dictionaries,
provide illustrative examples.
• The purpose of these examples depends on the type
of the dictionary and on the aim the compilers set
themselves. They can illustrate the first and the last
known occurrences of the entry word, the successive
changes in its graphic and phonetic forms, as well as in
its meaning, the typical patterns and collocations, the
difference between synonymous words they place
words in a context to clarify their meanings and usage.
How much space should be devoted to illustrative
examples? Which examples should be chosen as
typical?
• Those are some of the questions to be considered by
the compilers.
• It is natural that the bigger the dictionary the more
examples it usually contains. Only very small
dictionaries, usually of low quality, do not include
examples at all.
• The form of the illustrative quotations can differ in
different dictionaries; the main variation can be
observed in the length of the quotation and in the
precision of the citation.
• Some dictionaries indicate the author, the work, the
page, verse, or line, and (in diachronic dictionaries) the
precise date of the publication, some indicate only the
author, because it gives at least basic orientation about
the time when the word occurs and the type of text.
• One of the major problems in compiling
translation dictionaries and other bi-lingual word-
books is to provide adequate translation of
vocabulary items or rather to choose an adequate
equivalent in the target language.
• Conveying the meaning of a lexical unit in the
target language is no easy task as the semantic
structures of related words in different languages
are never identical, which is observable in any pair
of languages. The lack of isomorphism is not
limited to the so-called "culture-bound words"
only but also to most other lexical units.
• The dictionary-maker is to give the most exact
equivalent in the target language. Very often
enumeration of equivalents alone does not
supply a complete picture of the semantic
volume of this or that word, so a combination of
different means of semantization is necessary.
• Different types of dictionaries differ in their aim,
in the information they provide, in their size, in
the structure and content of the entry.
• The most complicated type of entry is that
found in explanatory dictionaries.
• In explanatory dictionaries of the synchronic type the
entry usually presents the following data: accepted
spelling and pronunciation; grammatical characteristics
including the indication of the part of speech of each entry
word, the transitivity and intransitivity of verbs and
irregular grammatical forms; definitions of meanings;
modern currency; illustrative examples; derivatives;
phraseology; etymology; sometimes also synonyms and
antonyms.
• A typical entry in diachronic explanatory dictionaries will
have some specific features, word-meaning and quotation
that indicate the time of its first registration or, if the word
or one of its meanings is obsolete, the time of its last
registration.
• Sometimes the entries for the same word will look quite
different, depending upon the practical needs of the
intended users. Some word-books enumerate synonyms
to each meaning of the head-word to help the user
recall words close in meaning that may have been
forgotten. Other word-books provide discriminating
synonymes, i.e. they explain the difference in semantic
structure, use and style, and show how each synonym is
related to, yet differs from all the others in the same
group.
• In spite of the great variety of linguistic dictionaries their
composition has many features in common. Nearly all of
them may be roughly divided into three unequal parts.
• Apart from the dictionary proper, that make up the bulk of the
wordbook, every reference book contains some separate
sections which are to help the user in handling it – an
Introduction and Guide to the use of the dictionary. This
prefatory matter usually explains all the peculiarities of the
word-book, it also contains a key to pronunciation, the list of
abbreviations used and the like.
• In explanatory dictionaries the appendices of the first kind
usually include addenda or/and various word-lists:
geographical names, foreign words and expressions,
forenames, etc., record new meanings of words already
entered and words that have come into existence since the
compilation of the word-book.
• Translation dictionaries of the supplementary material contain
rules of pronunciation as well as brief outlines of grammar.
3. Learner's Dictionaries and Some Problems of
Their Compilation
• Nowadays practical and theoretical learner's
lexicography is given great attention to.
Lexicographers, linguists and methods
specialists discuss such problems as the
classification of learner's dictionaries, the
scope of the word-list for learners at different
stages of advancement, the principles of word
selection, etc.
In the broad sense of the word the term learner's
dictionaries might be applied to any word-book
designed as an aid to various users, both native and
foreign, studying a language from various angles.
Thus, we might refer to this group of word-books
such reference books as Student's Dictionary of
Anglo-Saxon by H. Sweet, the numerous school-level
or college-level dictionaries for native speakers, the
numerous spelling-books, etc. By tradition the term
is confined to dictionaries specially compiled to meet
the demands of the learners for whom English is not
their mother tongue.
• These dictionaries differ essentially from ordinary
academic dictionaries, on the one hand, and from word-
books compiled specially for English and American
schoolchildren and college students, on the other hand.
• The needs and problems of the two groups of dictionary
users are altogether different. A foreign adult student of
English even at a moderately advanced stage of learning
will have pitfalls and needs of his own: among the other
things he may have difficulties with the use of the most
"simple" words, he may not know the names for
commonest things in everyday life and he will
experience in this or that degree interference of his
mother tongue.
• The word-lists and the sort of directions for use for
the benefit of the foreign adult learners of English
must differ from those given to English or American
schoolchildren.
• Hence the word-books of this group are
characterized by the following features:
– by their strictly limited word-list, the selection of which is
based on carefully thought over scientific principles;
– the great attention given to the functioning of lexical units
in |speech;
– a strong prescriptive, normative character;
– by their compilation with the native linguistic background
in view.
• Learner's dictionaries may be classified in accordance
with different principles, the main of which are the
scope of the word-list and the nature of the
information afforded.
• From the point of view of the scope (volume) of the
word-list they fall into two groups. Those of the first
group contain all lexical units that the prospective user
may need, in the second group only the most essential
and important words are selected. To the first group
we can refer A Cambridge Advanced Learner's
Dictionary (170,000 lexical units); to the second group
– A Grammar of English Words by H. Palmer (1,000
words).
• As to the information they provide they may be divided
into two groups: those giving equal attention to the
word's semantic characteristics and the way it is used in
speech (these may be called learner's dictionaries
proper) and those concentrating on detailed treatment of
the word's lexical and grammatical valency (dictionaries
of collocations).
• To learner's dictionaries proper issued in English-speaking
countries we may refer, for example, The Progressive
English Dictionary and An English Reader's Dictionary by
A. S. Hornby and E. C. Parnwell designed for beginners, as
well as Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current
English by A. S. Hornby for more advanced students.
• To dictionaries of this kind we can refer, for
example, A. Reum's Dictionary of English Style
designed for the Germans, Kenkyusha's New
Dictionary of English Collocations, intended for
the Japanese, Verbal Collocations in Modern
English by R. Ginzburg, designed for Russian
people, etc.
• Compilers of learner's dictionaries have to tackle
the same cardinal problems as those of ordinary
explanatory and translation dictionaries, but
they often solve them in their own way.
• The common purpose of learner's dictionaries is
to give information on what is currently accepted
usage, besides most compilers seek to choose the
lexical units that foreign learners of English are
likely to need. Colloquial and slang words as well
as foreign words of common occurrence in English
are included only if they are of the sort likely to be
met by students either in reading or in
conversation. Moreover some of the common
words may be omitted if they are not often
encountered in books, newspapers, etc. or heard
over the radio and in conversation.
• Space is further saved by omitting certain
derivatives and compounds the meaning of which
can be easily inferred.
• Alternative spellings and pronunciations are
avoided, only the more accepted forms are listed.
• In the first place the selection of words is based on
the frequency principle.
• Frequency value, an important characteristic of
lexical units, is closely connected with their other
properties. That is why the word-counts enable the
compiler to choose the most important, the most
frequently used words.
• The order of arrangement of meanings followed in
learner's dictionaries is usually empiric, the
following principles of arrangement are considered
proper for language learners: literal uses before
figurative, general uses before special, common
uses before rare and easily understandable uses.
• It would be wrong to think however that the
definitions in learner's dictionaries are always less
complete than in the dictionaries designed for
native users.
• In learner's dictionaries cross-references are for
the most part reduced to a minimum.
• In some learner's dictionaries pictorial material is widely
used as a means of semantization of the words listed.
Pictures cannot only define meanings of such nouns, but
sometimes also of adjectives, verbs and adverbs.
• Chief among these is marked attention to the ways
words are used in speech, e.g. Oxford Advanced
Learner's Dictionary points out which nouns, and in
which of their meanings, can be used with the indefinite
articles (the symbols [C] and [U] stand for "countable"
and "uncountable"). Sets of words with which the head-
word may combine as well as illustrative examples taken
from everyday language are given.
• For instance, Oxford Advanced Learner's
Dictionary includes not only lists of irregular
verbs, common abbreviations, geographical
names, etc., but also common forenames
listed with their pet names, numerical
expressions giving help in the reading,
speaking and writing of numbers and
expressions which contain them, the works of
William Shakespeare and even ranks in the
Armed Forces of GB and US.
Each language has its own difficulties and they
differ depending on the language it is compared
with. There are innumerable facts about English
which are known to every native speaker but
must be explained to a foreigner. Moreover the
English part of the English-Spanish dictionary
may be different from that in the English-Russian
dictionary. Different languages are self-
contained specific systems showing only little
isomorphism with one another.
A bilingual dictionary is not equivalent to a unilingual
dictionary The English speaking user of a unilingual
dictionary knows the meaning of all words in the
explanatory part and should therefore be able to find the
appropriate meaning for his context. The Russian-speaking
user of a Russian-English dictionary would refer to its
entries in order to express himself in English and he will
need to know how (the English words he finds there are
used. He will also need additional information about the
difference in meaning between the English words in the
entry, when there are several of them. The Russian-speaking
user of an English-Russian dictionary, on the one hand, will
use it to translate written or spoken English into its native
Russian.
• He may know the main Russian equivalent and the
difference in the semantic structure of the foreign
word as compared to its equivalent in his native
language. The information on grammatical usage is not
necessary or is very limited. A good knowledge of
word-formational principles of the foreign language is
essential because it can compensate the absence of
some entries (which is impossible in the native-foreign
dictionary). Therefore an appendix with data on word-
formation can be very helpful.
• To sum up: the native-to-foreign and foreign-to-native
dictionaries have to meet different requirements as
they supply information to different types of work.
• Lexicography uses many methods but not all of them
have been consistently and scientifically explained as
far as American linguistics is concerned. Later on the
problems of lexicographic theory have been explored
which was demonstrated to the doctoral thesis of
V.M.Berkov (Вопросы двуязычной лексикографии,
Л., 1971) and other articles and candidate dissertation.
• Those who are interested in lexicography will find
much valuable material in special literature (JI.B.
Щepбa, Опыт общей теории лексикографии; Х.
Касарес, Введение в современную лексикографию;
J.R. Hulbert, Dictionaries British and Americans,
London, first ed., 1955, etc.).