ENGLISH LEXICOGRAPHY

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'.

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 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.).

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 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.

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 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.

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 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.

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 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.

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 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.

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 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.

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 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

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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.).

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