The document discusses the history and disadvantages of alphabetical ordering in dictionaries. It notes that early English dictionaries evolved from glossaries listing Latin-English word pairs, some alphabetically and some thematically. When modern monolingual dictionaries emerged in the 17th-19th centuries, lexicographers adopted alphabetical ordering for ease of lookup. However, alphabetical ordering separates morphologically related words and presents an isolated view of each word rather than their interconnections.

1. Abandoning the alphabet
If you look into the word dictionary in a word reference, you
will discover a definition along the lines: which is a book
that includes an in sequential order of words, with their
meanings, grammatical features, pronunciations,, historical
underpinnings.

2. Why are dictionaries in alphabetical
order?
We mention in our previous lessons about dictionaries
over time that the earliest form of the English dictionary
evolved from glossaries that listed Latin words and
their Old English translations. While some of
these glossaries listed words alphabetically, others did
so thematically.
When monolingual and bilingual dictionary-making came
into greater prominence in the 17th, 18th, and 19th
centuries, lexicographers carried over alphabetical
ordering, most likely so that people would have an easy
way to find the word and/or definition they are looking for.

3. What is the telephone dictionary?
A book listing the names, addresses, and
telephone numbers of the people in a
particular area.

4. ‘Dictionary order’ is synonymous with ‘alphabetical order’. We
expect dictionaries to use
alphabetical ordering of their headwords, just as we expect other
reference works to do so as
well, such as telephone directories, encyclopedias, and indexes of
all kinds.
As amanual, reference therefore, a dictionary’s headword list is
ideally arranged alphabetically, so that users can readily access
the item that they are seeking. And it is usually a single item that
Is being looked up However, we must ask, first, whether an
alphabetical ordering is best for presenting a description of the
vocabulary as a whole, and second, whether there are some
users’ needs that would be better served by an alternative
arrangement of words in a dictionary

6. What are the disadvantages of the alphabetical order in a
dictionary?
 One of the drawbacks of an alphabetical order is:
1. That some words that belong together morphologically become
separated.
This applies to two sorts of relations. To begin with, words that are derived
by prefixation are entered separately from their root, and there is generally
no sign at the section for the root that it has a prefixed derivative. Derived by
suffixation are entered either as separate headwords, yet near the root in the
alphabetical order, or as run-ons under the root; so the relationship between
the root and derivative is clear.
For example, courage and its derivative courageous come in close proximity
in the alphabetical list, but discourage and encourage are distant and the
connection is not made.

7.  2. The perspective that it presents on the
vocabulary as a whole. It presents an
atomistic view of the vocabulary, treating each
word in isolation, the headword with its entry,
and making few of the connections that exist
between words.
 What is the lexical field?
 Is a set of semantically related words whose
meanings delimit each other.

8.  -Semasiology - the branch of semantics that studies the
cognitive aspects of meaning. Cognitive semantics,
conceptual semantics.
 semantics - the study of language meaning.
 -Onomasiology is a branch of linguistics concerned with
the question "how do you express X?" It is in fact most
commonly understood as a branch of lexicology, the study
of words.

9. Abandoning the Alphabet
Supervised by:
Dr. Khaleel Al Bataineh
Department of English Language &
Translation
Done by:
Rahaf Eyad
Thaher
Rana
Maha Amireh