Development of lexicography

Contents 
 

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………...8

1 Lexicography as a science of а dictionary compiling……………………………...10

1.1 The principal aspects of lexicography…………………...………………………11

1.2 The notion of a dictionary…………………………...…………………………..12

1.2.1 The principal functions of a dictionary………………………………………...12

1.2.2 The basic components of a dictionary…………………………...………....….13

1.3 Historical development of British lexicography…………………………………13

1.4 Historical development of American lexicography……………...………………17

1.5 The characteristics of Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learner.…..18

1.6 The basic types of English dictionaries and parameters of their classification….19

1.7 Some essential problems of lexicography………...……………………………..20

1.8 Prescription and description of dictionaries……………………………………..23 

1.9 Comparison between monolingual and multilingual dictionaries………...……..24

1.10 Modern trends in English lexicography……………....…………………….......25

1.10.1 Corpus-based linguistics in modern lexicography……………………………26

1.10.2 Computational linguistics in modern lexicography…………………………..27

1.10.3 The potential of an electronic dictionary……………………………...……...27

2 Development of lexicography……………………………………………………..28

2.1 Investigation of dictionary usage………………………………………………...28

2.2 The method of bilingual dictionary usage…………………………………...…..29

2.3 The method of bilingual phraseology dictionary usage………………………….31

2.4 The method of bilingual slang dictionary usage………………………………....31

Conclusion………………………………………………………………………...…32

Bibliography……………………...………………………………………………….34

Appendix……………………...…………………………………………………..…35 

    

   Normative references

    

   The present diploma work is relied upon references on the following normative documents: 

1 Послание Президента Республики Казахстан народу Казахстан – 2030. Казахстанская правда от 28.01.2011 

2 Закон Республики Казахстан об образовании. Казахстанская правда от 27.07.2007 №127. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

   Definitions 

   A thesaurus - a reference work that lists words grouped together according to similarity of meaning (containing synonyms and sometimes antonyms), in contrast to a dictionary, which contains definitions and pronunciations. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

     
 

  
 

   Abbreviations 
 

LGP – Language for Generic Purposes

LSP – Language for Specific Purposes

BC – Before Christ

NED – New English Dictionary

COD –Concise Oxford Dictionary

OED – Oxford English Dictionary

i.e. – id est

e.g. – example

IT – Information Technology

Jr. – Junior

Dr. – Doctor

USA – the United States of America

ITP – Idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura

etc. – Et cetera

PC – Personal Computer

PDA – Personal Digital Assistant

US – United States

adj. – adjective

Plc. – Power Line Communication

abs. – antilock brake system

cf. – confer (compare) 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

    
 

   Annotation 
 

   This course work deals with development of lexicography. Lexicography is an important branch of linguistics, which covers the theory and practice of compiling dictionaries. It represents the ways of using dictionaries, giving some information about history of dictionaries and contains graphic visualization.

Introduction includes actuality of the problem of the work on the basis of which the aim and tasks are defined, the object and the subject of the investigation are indicated and the proofs put forward. 

Theoretical part includes historical development of British and American lexicography are considered, the types of English dictionaries are given, the problems of lexicography are presented and modern trends in English lexicography are demonstrated.

Practical part comprises the ways of dictionaries usage, the method of bilingual dictionary usage, the method of bilingual phraseology dictionary usage and the method of bilingual slang dictionary usage.

Conclusion gives the main findings and recommendations on the dictionaries usage.  

    

           
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

  

  

   Introduction 
 

   Actuality of the problem. It’s well known that we can’t imagine studying any language in the world without such an important thing as a dictionary. It’s obvious that it plays the most leading role in studying a language. But there’s such a problem as what kind of a dictionary we must choose to improve our speech skills day by day. In these latter days the dictionaries are in great demand.

A dictionary is a reference work on the culture of speech. It usually answers the basic questions posed by the user before he looks into the dictionary: am I right in saying, whether I use the word or expression correctly, is it true that the word is translated into another language and so on. Also a dictionary is a product of history and culture of the people and achievement of science society in a particular period of historical development.

A dictionary is usually created with the new needs, new addressee and the actual linguistic views. Thus the lexicographic product is always relatively new.

It should be noted that development of dictionary-making is paid enough attention to both the British and American lexicography [1, 25].

This course work is devoted to lexicography as a science of dictionary-making. The pursuit of lexicography is divided into two related disciplines:

Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries.

Theoretical lexicography is the scholarly discipline of analyzing and describing the semantic relationships within the lexicon (vocabulary) of a language and developing theories of dictionary components and structures linking the data in dictionaries. This is sometimes referred to as met lexicography.

A person devoted to lexicography is called a lexicographer, famously defined in Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755) as «A writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words».

General lexicography focuses on the design, compilation, use and evaluation of general dictionaries, i.e. dictionaries that provide a description of the language in general use. Such a dictionary is usually called a general dictionary or LGP dictionary.

Specialized lexicography focuses on the design, compilation, use and evaluation of specialized dictionaries, i.e. dictionaries that are devoted to a (relatively restricted) set of linguistic and factual elements of one or more specialist subject fields, e.g. legal lexicography. Such a dictionary is usually called a specialized dictionary or LSP dictionary.

There is some disagreement on the definition of lexicology, as distinct from lexicography. Some use «lexicology» as a synonym for theoretical lexicography; others use it to mean a branch of linguistics pertaining to the inventory of words in a particular language.

It is now widely accepted that lexicography is a scholarly discipline in its own right and not a sub-branch of linguistics [2, 25].

The theme of the course work is actual because any pupil, student and even experienced teacher whose activity is closely connected with studying or teaching a language constantly needs a good dictionary which can always help at any time.

The Object of the investigation is lexicography as a science.

The Subject of investigation is development of lexicography.

The Aim is to reveal the importance of dictionary-making in modern linguistics.

The tasks:

1. to become acquainted with the history of British and American lexicography.
2. to study the variety of dictionaries of different types.
3. to analyze modern trends in English lexicography.
4. to develop recommendation strategy for working with dictionary.

The methods of the research: In the process of work is used the following methods of the research:

1. in search of new and new principles of constructing of dictionaries;
2. a further development and improvement of existing types of dictionaries;
3. the preparation of new and refill already existing file cabinets reference to dictionaries;
4. the establishment of machine foundations of languages.

The approbation. During the traineeship at the airport I collided with the problems of translating some technique and business words. I translated invoices, articles, contract, some business letters into Russian from the foreign airline and baggage allowance. I used different dictionaries: bilingual dictionary and Macmillan English Dictionary. Besides, I used an electronic dictionary. It is helped me a lot.

The structure. My course work consists of introduction, theoretical part, practical part, conclusion, bibliography and appendix.

In introduction I presented the actuality of the problem, the object of the investigation, the subject of the investigation, the aim, the tasks and the methods of lexicography.

Theoretical part is devoted to lexicography as a science. It is also presented the functions, the components of lexicography, the principal aspects of lexicography, background of lexicography, the basic types of English dictionaries and the main problems of lexicography. I also show the differences between dictionaries, comparison between bilingual and multilingual dictionaries and modern trends in English lexicography.

Practical part deals with my investigation of using dictionaries and also is considered the method of using bilingual and different dictionaries.

In conclusion is contained by outputs conducted on material. 
 

    
 
 
 
 

   1 Lexicography as a science of compiling a dictionary 
 

    The word «dictionary» comes from neoclassical Latin «dictio» meaning simply «word». The theory and practice of compiling dictionaries is called lexicography. In other words it is the art and craft of writing dictionaries.

    Perhaps the simplest explanation of lexicography is that it is a scholarly discipline that involves compiling, writing, or editing dictionaries. Lexicography is widely considered an independent scholarly discipline, though it is a subfield within linguistics.

    Many consider lexicography to be divided into two related areas. The act of writing, or editing dictionaries is known as Practical Lexicography. The analysis or description of the vocabulary of a particular language, and the meaning that links certain words to others in a dictionary, is known as Theoretical Lexicography. Theoretical Lexicography is particularly concerned with developing theories regarding the structural and semantic relationships among words in the dictionary. Since it involves theoretical analysis of the lexicon, Theoretical Lexicography is also known as Metalexicography [3, 102].

    In order to better understand lexicography, it may help to know what a lexicon is. Lexicon is a term used in linguistics to indicate the archive of lexemes. Lexemes are abstract, minimal units in a language that link related forms of a word together. For example, the words fly, flight, flew, flying, and so on, are all morphologic variations of the lexeme fly. Fly is the lexeme because it is the base from which these word variations arise.

    Lexemes, then, make up a lexicon which is the collection of word meanings in a given language. In a dictionary, the lexemes, sometimes loosely referred to as word stems, are provided first and followed by variations of the base word. As we can see when we read a dictionary, the lexicon also deals with the area of linguistics known as semantics. Semantics refers to the aspects of meaning that are expressed in a language, and of course, in the vocabulary items of which a language is comprised.

    In addition to providing data on the morphology and semantics of a lexeme, the dictionary also provides structural information regarding the root of the word, and historical information regarding the evolution of the word into its modern-day form. This is known as etymology.

    A lexicographer is concerned with what words are, what they mean, how the vocabulary of a language is structured, how speakers of the language use and understand the words, how the words evolved, and what relationships exist between words. This is the information a lexicographer compiles when creating a dictionary.

    So, a lexicographer is a linguist whose specific expertise is in writing dictionaries. Lexicography, with all its interrelated concepts, and its links to other areas of linguistics, is the specific area of scholarly work devoted to these concepts [4, 56].  
 

   1.1 The principal aspects of lexicography

    Practical lexicographic work involves several activities, and the compilation of well crafted dictionaries requires careful consideration of all or some of the following aspects:

• Profiling the intended users (i.e. linguistic and non-linguistic competences) and identifying their needs
• Defining the communicative and cognitive functions of the dictionary
• Selecting and organizing the components of the dictionary
• 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
• Choosing lemma forms for each word or part of word to be lemmatized
• Defining words
• Organizing definitions
• 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 [5, 28].