English

Lexicography
• Historical development of
Lexicography as a linguistic
science
• Some debatable problems of
lexicography
• Types of Dictionaries
 Lexicography
• is the theory and practice of
compiling dictionaries
• a branch of applied linguistics
 Dictionary
• a book listing words of a language
with their meanings and often with
data regarding pronunciation, usage
and/or origin
 Metalanguage
• a language used to make statements
about other languages.
• it can refer to any terminology or
language used to discuss language
itself - a written grammar, for
example, or a discussion about
language use.
 Historical development
of English lexicography
• Old English period – glosses of
religious books with translation
from Latin
• the 15th century – regular
bilingual English-Latin
dictionaries
 Historical development
of English lexicography
• 1604 – “A Table Alphabeticall, containing
and teaching the true writing and
understanding of hard usuall English
words borrowed from the Hebrew, Greeke,
Latine, and French”
• first unilingual dictionary explaining 3000
words by English equivalents (Robert
Cawdrey)
 Historical development
of English lexicography
• 1721 – “Universal Etymological
Dictionary”
• first etymological dictionary,
explained etymology of words and
included pronunciation (Nathaniel
Bailey)
 Historical development
of English lexicography
• 1775 – explanatory dictionary by Dr
Samuel Johnson
• words were illustrated by examples
from English literature
• pronunciation was not included
• helped to preserve the English
spelling in its conservative form
 Historical development
of English lexicography
• 1780 – first pronouncing dictionary
(Thomas Sheridan)
• 1791 – “The Critical Pronouncing
Dictionary and Expositor of the
English Language” (John Walker)
 Historical development
of English lexicography
• 1858-1928 – New English Dictionary
(NED), 12 volumes, included all words
existing in the language
• 1933 – Oxford English Dictionary
(OED), 13 volumes
• includes spellings, pronunciations,
detailed etymologies, quotations
 Historical development
of English lexicography
• “A Shorter Oxford Dictionary”, 2
volumes, smaller number of
quotations
• 1911 – “The Concise Oxford
Dictionary of Current English”,
contained only word of current usage,
no quotations
 Historical development
of English lexicography
• “English Dialect Dictionary” by
Joseph Wright
 Historical development of
American lexicography
• 1798 – “A School Dictionary” (Samuel
Johnson Jr.)
• 1828 – “American Dictionary of the
English Language” (Noah Webster)
• attempts to simplify the spelling and
pronunciation
• provides definitions, etymology,
explanations about things named
Historical development of
American lexicography
• 1891 - “Century Dictionary”
• 1895 – “Funk and Wagnalls New
Standard Dictionary”
• 1967 – “Random House Dictionary of
the English Language”
 Main Problems of
Lexicography
• number of dictionary entries
• selection of head words
• arrangement and contents of the
vocabulary entry
• definitions in a unilingual dictionary
 Number of dictionary
entries and selection of
head words
• phraseological units (e.g. It is the
early bird that catches the worm, at
length)
• homonyms (e.g. to work – work)
• occasional or nonce words (e.g.
footballer)
 Arrangement of the
vocabulary entry
• sequence of meanings of a
polysemantic word
 Contents of the
vocabulary entries
• distribution of a word: part of
speech, grammatical peculiarities,
syntactical distribution
• stylistical reference and emotive
colouring
 Definitions in a
unilingual dictionary
• synonyms
• linguistic definitions – concerned with
words as speech material (lexical data) –
British dictionaries
• encyclopedic definitions – concerned with
things for which the words are names
(realia) – American dictionaries
• examples (context)
 Types of English
Dictionaries
• Encyclopedic – thing-books dealing
with concepts (objects and
phenomena, their origin and
development, etc.)
• e.g. influenza – causes, symptoms,
treatments and remedies, etc.
 Types of English
Dictionaries
• Linguistic – word-books dealing with
vocabulary units (semantic structure,
usage, etc.)
• e.g. influenza – spelling,
pronunciation, grammar
characteristics, derivatives,
synonyms, etc.
 Types of Linguistic
Dictionaries
linguistic
linguistic

general
specialized
dictionaries
dictionaries
synonyms and
explanatory
parallel, antonyms
collocations
or translation
phraseological
slang
General Dictionaries
• present a wide range of data about
the vocabulary items in ordinary use
• Webster’s New International
Dictionary, The Concise Oxford
Dictionary of the Current English
 Explanatory
(Unilingual) Dictionary
• spelling and pronunciation
• grammatical characteristics (part of
speech, (in)transitivity(the ability of a
verb to attach a direct complement),
irregular forms)
• meanings (extended definitions or
synonyms)
•
 Explanatory
(Unilingual) Dictionary
• illustrative examples (citations from
literary sources, sentences invented
by compilers)
• derivatives (grouped in one entry or
in separate)
• phraseology, etymology, synonyms
and antonyms
 Translation (Bilingual)
Dictionary
• contain vocabulary items in one
language and their equivalents in
another language
• main problem – to ensure adequate
translation
 Special Dictionaries
• cover only a specific part of the
vocabulary (synonyms, antonyms,
phraseology, neologisms, terms, etc.)
• provide information limited to one
particular aspect (collocability, word-
frequency, etymology, pronunciation,
etc.)
 Dictionaries of
Synonyms
• A Dictionary of English Synonyms and
Synonymous Expressions (R. Soule)
• Webster’s Dictionary of Synonyms
 Phraseological
Dictionaries
• The Oxford Dictionary of English
Proverbs
• Book of English Idioms (V.H. Collins)
• An Anglo-Russian Phraseological
Dictionary (A.V. Koonin)
Ideological Dictionary
• words are arranged not alphabetically
• words are grouped according to their
semantic fields
• designed for English-speaking writes,
translators
• Thesaurus of English Words and
Phrases (P.M. Roget)
 Exercise 1
• 1. Analyse V. Muller's Anglo-Russian
Dictionary, state what type it
belongs to; comment on the principles
of selection of words, structure of
dictionary entry, what information
about a word can be deduced from
the dictionary entry.
 Exercise 2
• 2. Analyse I.R.Galperin's Big Anglo-
Russian Dictionary, state what type it
belongs to; comment on the principles
of selection of words, structure of
dictionary entry; what information
about a word can be deduced from
the dictionary entry.
 Exercise 2.

• Choose one word out of the following

list: head, hand, arm, body, thing, to
go, to take, to be and analyse its
dictionary entry and its semantic
structure as presented in the
following dictionaries:
• 1. V.Muller's Anglo-Russian Dictionary;
• 2. The Concise Oxford English
Dictionary;
• 3. The Shorter Oxford English
Dictionary on Historical Principles
• 4. The Advanced Learner's Dictionary
of Current English by L.S.Hornby