This document discusses the field of lexicography, which involves both the theoretical and practical aspects of dictionary making. It defines lexicography and outlines its history, providing examples of early dictionaries. It also describes the types of lexicography as either practical (involving compilation and editing) or theoretical (analyzing semantic relations and developing dictionary structure theories). Finally, it discusses the various stages involved in practical lexicography, such as acquiring lexicon entries, structuring information, writing entries, and updating/archiving entries.
4. Definitions
Samuel Johnson(1755): first English lexicographer
“art or practice of writing dictionaries”
David Crystal (1987)
“the process of compiling dictionary”
“the art and science of dictionary-making”
Oxford Advanced Learner Dictionary
“the theory and practice of writing and
editing dictionary”
5. History of lexicography
not a new discipline
developed to the present stage by passing through
various phases
Earlier dictionaries had a practical aim
BILINGUAL OR POLYGLOT WORD-LISTS
to help travellers, missionaries, traders
GLOSSARIES
to help people understand dialectal, technical or rare
terms
6. History
Glossai
in 5th
BC to explain words in authors as Homer
Anglo-Saxon Glosses
in 8th
century, English words were written between
Latin lines.
only random word-lists were produced
7. HistoryPROLIFIC PERIODS
Compilation of Arabic dictionary in 8th
c
Invention of printing press
Dictionary by Academia Della Crusa in 1612
Polyglot dictionary appeared in 17th
c
Comparative philologists compiled historical
dictionaries in 18th
c
In 19th
c pictorial, specialized, dialectal etc.
encyclopedia
In 20th
c lexicography was developed as a scholarly
subject under the influence of linguistics
8. History of English lexicography
R. Cawdrey (1604): A Table alphabeticall
explains “hard words”
S. Johnson (1755): Dictionary
Citations from literature. Full vocabulary coverage.
N. Webster (1828): American Dictionary of the English Language
A nationalistic adventure. Webster’s debt to Johnson.
“consulting the opinions of some gentlemen in whose judgment I
had trust” (seeking agreement on definitions – convention)
J. A. H. Murray et al. (1884-1928): OED
Historical principles. Interaction with literary, medieval and Indo-
European scholarship.
Isaac Funk (1894): Funk and Wagnall’s Standard Dictionary of the
English Language.
put the “most important current definition” first.
Merriam Webster’s Second New International Dictionary (1933)
9. Lexicography is
accretive
One dictionary builds on another.
William Dwight Witney (1891): The Century Dictionary
“neither in meaning nor in form is language to be dominated by its past”
Clarence Barnhart (1947): American College Dictionary (1947)
Jess Stein and Laurence Urdang (1966): Random House Dictionary
Patrick Hanks (1971): Hamlyn Dictionary (UK)
Arthur Delbridge (1981): Macquarie Dictionary (Australia)
All these dictionaries attempt to “put the modern meaning first”.
(Without corpus evidence, it is hard to decide what is the “modern
meaning”.)
10. Some 20th-century
English dictionaries
W. Geddie (1901): Chambers 20th-Century Dictionary
A vast ragbag. Many rare Scottish dialect terms. Some witty
definitions, e.g.
“éclair, a confection long in shape but short in duration”
H. W. Fowler (1911): Concise Oxford Dictionary
A distillation of OED. Interesting approach to sense groupings.
P. Hanks (1979): Collins English Dictionary
Coverage of technical vocabulary and names. Guidance on usage.
P. Hanks and J. Pearsall (1998): New Oxford Dictionary of English
Corpus-based and citation-based. Distinguishes core senses from
subsenses. Major vocabulary surveys, e.g. of languages, flora and
fauna, technology etc. Syntactic information. Corpus-based
guidance on usage.
11. Lexicographer
Person devoted to lexicography
Dr. Samuel Johnson (1755) in the Dictionary of
English Language defines
“A writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge who
busies himself in tracing the original and
detailing the significance of words.”
15. Theoretical lexicography
A scholarly discipline
Focuses on analyzing and describing semantic
relations of lexicon of the dictionary
Developing theories of dictionary components and
structures
Linking data in the dictionaries
Also referred to as metalexicography and lexicology
A branch of linguistics pertaining to inventory (stock)
of words in a particular language
17. Lexical semantics
Semantics usually involved in lexicological work is
called lexical semantics
Studies semantical relations between words
Homonymy e.g band, bowl
Polysemy
Homograph e.g bow, conduct
Synonymy
Antonymy
Homophone
20. Practical lexicograpphy
involves several activities,
the compilation of really crafted dictionaries require
careful consideration of all or some of the following
aspects:
Need analysis
Profiling the intended users (i.e. linguistic and non-
linguistic competences)
identifying their needs
Defining the communicative and cognitive functions
of the dictionary
21. Lexicon acquisition Questionnaire
Corpus based
Building on existing dictionaries
Lexicography is accretive
Danger of mindlessly copying errors and out-of-date information
The reading program:
research to find millions of citations But not a balanced corpus
Directed reading research – specialist areas
Searching corpus data:
low yield for new words
high yield for phraseology, collocation, usage
Trawling the internet. Problems:
sorting the “new words” from the corpus
many “new words” are in fact multiword expressions
They are hard to find by web crawling programs
22. Structuring lexicon
information
Stating relation of data categories
Choosing lemma forms for each word or part of word
to be lemmatized
Collection of data categories may be language specific
or application specific
Selecting and organizing the components of the
dictionary
23. Structuring lexicon
information
Choosing the appropriate structures for presenting
the data in the dictionary (i.e. frame structure,
distribution structure, macro-structure, micro-
structure and cross-reference structure)
Selecting words and affixes for systematization as
entries
Selecting collocations, phrases and examples
Defining words
Organizing definitions
24. Structuring lexicon
information
Specifying pronunciations of words
Labeling definitions and pronunciations for register
and dialect, where appropriate
Selecting equivalents in bi- and polylingual
dictionaries
Translating collocations, phrases and examples in bi-
and polylingual dictionaries
Designing the best way in which users can access the
data in printed and electronic dictionaries
Table structure
Tree or graph structures
25. L1 dictionaries and their users
Words and their histories
Research: getting the words in
Macrostructure: the lexical item
Words, multiword expressions, idioms, affixes
Abbreviations? Names?
Microstructure:
Lemma, pronunciation, meaning, use, ...
The future of L1 dictionaries
Print? CD-Rom? On-line? Hypertext links?
26. Writing lexicon entries
Writing systems
Time Method
Ancient Type writer
Old Text processor
More recent Database, tables
Recent Toolbox
Advanced Graph editors
27. Sorting lexicon entries
Purpose
Rhyming
Radicals e.g homonym, synonym
Building on existing dictionaries
Lexicography is accretive
Danger of mindlessly copying errors and out-of-date information
The Oxford reading program:
150 years of research to find millions of citations
But not a balanced corpus
Directed reading research – specialist areas
Searching corpus data:
low yield for new words
28. Johnson (1755)
ALCHYMY,
1. the more sublime and occult part of chymystry, which proposes, for its
object, the transmutation of metals, and other important operations.
There is nothing more dangerous than this licentious and
deluding art, which changeth the meaning of words, as alchymy doth,
or would do, the substance of metals, maketh of anything what it listeth,
and bringeth, in the end, all truth to nothing.
Hooker.
O he sits high in all the people’s hearts;
And that which would appear offence in us,
His countenance, like richest alchymy,
Will change to virtue, and to worthiness. Shakesp. J. Caesar.
Princes do but play us; compared to this,
All honours mimick, all wealth alchymy. Donne.
29. Johnson (1755)
ALCHYMY,
2. A kind of mixed metal used for spoons, and kitchen utensils.
The golden colour may be some mixture of orpiment, such
as they use to brass in the yellow alchymy.
Bacon.
White alchymy is made of pan-brass one pound, and arsenicum
three ounces; or alchymy is made of copper and auripigmentum
. Bacon’s Physical Remains
They bid cry,
With trumpets regal found, the great result:
Tow’rds the four winds, four speedy cherubim
Put to their mouth the sounding alchymy,
By herald’s voice explained. Milton’s Paradise Lost, book 2
30. New Oxford Dictionary of
English (1998)
alchemy … the medieval forerunner of chemistry,
based on the supposed transformation of matter.
It was concerned particularly with attempts to
convert base metals into gold or find a universal
elixir.
figurative A process by which paradoxical results
are achieved or incompatible elements combined
with no obvious rational explanation: his
conducting managed by some alchemy to give a
sense of fire and ice.
31. Oxford Advanced Learner’s
Dictionary, 6th edition (2000)
alchemy noun [U]
1 a form of chemistry studied in the Middle Ages which
involved trying to discover how to change ordinary metals
into gold. 2 (literary) a mysterious power or magic that can
change things.
32. Comparison
In Johnson Literary style of definition writing
Citations from literature, especially poets
Reliance on scientific and technical authority
Very full coverage of the vocabulary
Few concessions to make things easier for the reader
In modern A verbless phrase or a full sentence
Defining the ‘essence’ of something, or characterizing what it typically
is.
How much technical detail to put in, and how to present it?
The role of examples.
How to express changing beliefs, scepticism (e.g. about alchemy).
How to relate figurative extensions to the ‘literal’ meaning (e.g.
alchemy = a former science, but also apparent magic; alcohol = strong
drink as well as a chemical)
33. Updating lexicon entries
New words are added
New meanings of existing lexicon
Narrowing of meaning
Broadening of meanings
34. Archiving lexicon entries
Historical principles place the earliest meaning of a word
first
camera, noun [Latin camera ‘vaulted room’] 1686. 1. a small room.
2. the treasury of the papal curia. 3. a darkened box or room with a
screen in it, onto which an image is projected (camera
obscura).... 4. an apparatus for taking photographs or making
films. …
Synchronic principles place the current meaning first.
camera, noun. an apparatus for taking photographs or making
films. [from Latin camera ‘small room’]
camera obscura, noun. a darkened box or room with a screen in
it, onto which an image is projected. ... [Latin: ‘dark room’]
35. Archiving lexicon entries
• The synchronic/historical distinction affects many words.
field: enclosed land. [Old English feld ‘open country’]
kind: considerate and friendly. [Old English: ‘noble, well-bred’]
magazine: 1. periodical publication. 2. holder for cartridges on a
gun or revolver. [Arabic: ‘storehouse’ ]
sock. [Latin soccus ‘light shoe worn by a comic actor’]
size: dimension, magnitude. [from assizes ‘session of a local law
court’: a size loaf was a loaf of court-approved dimensions]
• Today’s exploitation may become tomorrow’s norm.
37. Conclusion
Lexicography involves theory and practice of dictionary
making
The purpose is to answer all of everbody’s questions
about words, without knowing in advance what the
questions are going to be.
The lexicographer must consider the needs,
expectations, and limitations of the dictionary user.
Coverage (in addition to core vocabulary)
slang and neologisms (journalists love them!)
technical vocabulary for a technological world
names of famous people and places
A dictionary entry can tell a story.