Лексикология

1) 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.

 

2) The work at 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. Some of these refer to any type of dictionary, others are

specific of only some or even one type. The most important of the former

are 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.

 

3,4,5) 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 to leave

out in the dictionary. Which form of the language, spoken or written 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 to which the dictionary

will belong, the aim the compilers pursue, the prospective user of the

dictionary, its size, the linguistic conceptions of the dictionary-makers and

some other considerations.

It would be a mistake to think that there are big academic dictionaries that list everything

and that the shorter variants are mere quantitative reductions from their basis. In reality only a dictionary of a dead language or a certain historical period of a living language or a word-book presenting the language of some author (called concordance) can be complete. As to living languages with new texts constantly coming into existence, with an endless number of spoken utterances, no dictionary of reasonable size could possibly register all occasional applications of a lexical unit, nor is it possible to present all really occurring lexical items.

 

7,8) 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, e.g. in prof. Koonin’s dictionary, the phrases are arranged in accordance with their pivotal words which are defined as constant non-interchangeable elements of phrases. A variation of the cluster-type arrangement can be found in the few frequency dictionaries in which the items included are not arranged alphabetically.

 

10) Meanings of words may be defined in different ways: 1) by means of definitions that are characterised

as encyclopaedic, 2) by means of descriptive definitions or paraphrases, 3) with the help of synonymous words and expressions, 4) by means of cross-references.

 

11) Apart from the nature of the word to be defined the type of definitions given preference depends on the aim of the dictionary and its size. For instance encyclopaedic definitions play a very important role in unabridged dictionaries (especially those published in America); in middle-size dictionaries they are used for the most part to define ethnographic and historical concepts. Synonymous definitions play a secondary role in unabridged dictionaries where they are used as an addition to descriptive or encyclopaedic definitions, and are much more important in shorter dictionaries, probably because they are a convenient means to economise space.

 

12) There are at least three different ways in which the word meanings are arranged: in the sequence of their historical development (called historical order ) , in conformity with frequency of use that is with the most common meaning first ( e m p i r i c a l  or  a c t u a l  o r d e r ) , and in their logical connection ( l o g i c a l o r d e r ) . In different dictionaries the problem of arrangement is solved in different ways. It is well-accepted practice in Soviet lexicography to follow the historical order in diachronic dictionaries and to adhere to the empirical and logical order in synchronic word-books. As to dictionaries published in English-speaking countries, they are not so consistent in this respect. It is natural that diachronic dictionaries are based on the principle of historical sequence, but the same principle is also

followed by some synchronic dictionaries as well (e.g. by NID and some other Webster’s dictionaries). In many other dictionaries meanings are generally organised by frequency of use, but sometimes the primary meaning comes first if this is considered essential to a correct understanding of derived meanings.

 

13) In synonym-books words are arranged in synonymic sets and its dominant member serves as the head-word of the entry.

 

14) In some phraseological dictionaries, e.g. in prof. Koonin’s dictionary, the phrases are arranged in accordance with their pivotal words which are defined as constant non-interchangeable elements of phrases.

 

15) A variation of the cluster-type arrangement can be found in the few frequency dictionaries in which 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 grouped together.

 

16) In some explanatory and translation dictionaries, for example, entries are grouped in families of words of the same root. In this case the basic units are given as main entries that appear in alphabetical order while the derivatives and the phrases which the word enters are given either as subentries or in the same entry, as run-ons that are also alphabetised. The difference between subentries and run-ons is that the former do include definitions and usage labels, whereas run-on words are not defined as meaning is clear from the main entry (most often because they are built after productive patterns).

 

17) If the order of arrangement is not strictly alphabetical in synonymbooks and phraseological dictionaries, very often an alphabetical index is supplied to ensure easy handling of the dictionary.

 

18) the bulk of the word-book, an Introduction and Guide to the use’, supplementary material.

 

19) 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.

 

20) Appended to the dictionary proper there is some supplementary material valuable for language learners and language teachers. This material may be divided into one of linguistic nature, pertaining to vocabulary, its development and use, and the other pertaining to matters distinctly encyclopaedic.

In explanatory dictionaries the appendixes 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. The educational material may include a list of colleges and universities, special signs and symbols used in various branches of science, tables of weights and measures, etc. In translation dictionaries supplementary material is in some respects different from that in explanatory dictionaries, e.g. the Russian-English dictionary referred to above does not only include a list of geographical names, standard abbreviations pertaining to the public, political, economic and industrial life, but also contains the rules of English and Russian pronunciation as well as brief outlines of English and Russian grammar.

 

21) It is common knowledge that all dictionaries save those of a narrowly restricted purpose, such as, e.g., 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. When are illustrative examples to be used? Which words may be listed without illustrations? Should illustrative sentences be made up, or should they always be quotations of some authors? 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.

 

22, 23) There are many different types of English dictionaries. First of all they may all be

roughly divided into two groups — e n c y c l o p a e d i c and l i n -g u i s t i c . The two groups of reference books differ essentially in the choice of items included and in the sort of information given about them. Linguistic d i c t i o n a r i e s are wоrd-books, their subject’ matter is lexical units and their linguistic properties such as pronunciation, meaning, peculiarities of use, etc. T h e e n c y c l o p a e d i c d i c t i o n a r i e s , the biggest of which are sometimes called simply encyclopaedias are t h i n g - books, that give information about the extra-linguistic world, they deal with concepts (objects and phenomena), their relations to other objects and phenomena, etc.

 

24) – general

- 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.

 

25) Thus to characterise a dictionary one must qualify it at least from the four angles mentioned above: 1) the nature of the word-list, 2) the information supplied, 3) the language of the explanations, 4) the prospective user.

 

26) What is meant is that general d. contain lexical units in ordinary use with this or that proportion

of items from various spheres of life

 

27) To r e s t r i c t e d  d i c t i o n a r i e s belong terminological, phraseological, dialectal word-books, dictionaries of new words, of foreign words, of abbreviations, etc.

 

28) In the broad sense of the word the term l e a r n e r ’ s d i c t i o n a r i e s 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 schoollevel 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. It is in this sense that we shall use the term further on.

 

29) Hence the word-books of this group are characterised by the following

features:

1) by their strictly limited word-list, the selection of which is based on

carefully thought over scientific principles;

2) the great attention given to the functioning of lexical units in speech;

3) a strong prescriptive, normative character;

4) by their compilation with the native linguistic background in view.

 

30) Learner’s dictionaries may be classified in accordance with different principles, the main of which are: 1) the scope of the word-list and 2) 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. As to the information afforded by learner’s dictionaries lexicographers and methodologists seem to have agreed that there should be a whole series of them. There must be a group of dictionaries presenting different aspects of the vocabulary: showing mainly the semantic structure of words (explanatory), presenting the syntagmatic relations between words (dictionaries of collocations), providing information: about the word’s structure (derivational), supplying synonymous and antonymous words, etc.

 

31) As to the information they provide all linguistic dictionaries fall into those presenting a wide range of data, especially with regard to the ’semantic aspect of the vocabulary items entered (they are called explanatory) and those dealing with lexical units only in relation to some of their characteristics, e.g. only in relation to their etymology or frequency or pronunciation. These are termed specialised dictionaries

 

32) Explanatory d. These dictionaries provide information on all aspects of the lexical units entered: graphical, phonetical, grammatical, semantic, stylistic, etymological, etc. Most of these dictionaries deal with the form, usage and meaning of lexical units in Modern English, regarding it as a stabilised system and taking no account of its past development. They are synchronic in their presentation of words as distinct from diachronic, those concerned with the development of words occurring within the written history of the language.

 

33,34) N e w W o r d s d i c t i o n a r i e s have it as their aim adequate reflection of the continuous growth of the English language. There are three dictionaries of neologisms for Modern English. Two of

these (Berg P. A Dictionary of New Words in English, 1953; Reifer M. Dictionary of New Words, N. Y., 1955) came out in the middle of the 50s and are somewhat out-of-date. The third (A Dictionary of New English. A Barnhart Dictionary, L., 1973) is more up-to-date. The Barnhart Dictionary of New English covers words, phrases, meanings and abbreviations which came into the vocabulary of the English language during the period 1963 — 1972. The new items were collected from the reading of over half a million running words from US, British and Canadian sources — newspapers, magazines and books.

 

35) D i c t i o n a r i e s of w o r d - f r e q u e n c y inform the user as to the frequency of occurrence of lexical units in speech, to be more exact in the “corpus of the reading matter or in the stretch of oral speech on which the word-counts are based. Most frequency dictionaries and tables of word frequencies published in English-speaking countries were constructed to make up lists of words considered suitable as the basis for teaching English as a foreign language, the so-called basic vocabulary.

 

36) A R e v e r s e d i c t i o n a r y is a list of words in which the entry words are arranged in alphabetical order starting with their final letters. The original aim of such dictionaries was to indicate words which form rhymes (in those days the composition of verse was popular as a very delicate pastime). It is for this reason that one of the most well-known reverse dictionaries of the English language, that compiled by John Walker, is called Rhyming Dictionary of the English Language. Nowadays the fields of application of the dictionaries based on the reverse order (back-to-front dictionaries) have become much wider. These word-books are indispensable for those studying the frequency and productivity of certain wordforming elements and other problems of word-formation, since they record, in systematic and successive arrangement, all words with the same suffixes and all compounds with the same terminal components.

 

37) P r o n o u n c i n g d i c t i o n a r i e s record contemporary pronunciation. As compared with the phonetic characteristics of words given by other dictionaries the information provided by pronouncing dictionaries is much more detailed: they indicate variant pronunciations(which are numerous in some cases), as well as the pronunciation of different grammatical forms.

 

38) E t y m o l o g i c a l d i c t i o n a r i e s trace present-day words to the oldest forms available, establish their primary meanings and give the parent form reconstructed by means of the comparative-historical method. In case of borrowings they point out the immediate source of borrowing, its origin, and parallel forms in cognate languages.

 

39) 31 q.

P h r a s e o l o g i c a l  d i c t i o n a r i e s

N e w  W o r d s  d i c t i o n a r i e s

D i c t i o n a r i e s  of  s l a n g

U s a g e  d i c t i o n a r i e s

D i c t i o n a r i e s  of  w o r d - f r e q u e n c y

A  R e v e r s e  d i c t i o n a r y

P r o n o u n c i n g  d i c t i o n a r i e s

E t y m o l o g i c a l  d i c t i o n a r i e s