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Fundamentals of English Lexicography

Lexicography is an important branch of linguistics which covers the theory and practice of compiling dictionaries.

The history of lexicography of the English language goes as far back as the Old English period where its first traces are found in the form of glosses of religious books with interlinear translation from Latin. Regular bilingual English-Latin dictionaries already existed in the 15th century.

The First unilingual English dictionary, explaining words appeared in 1604. Its aim was to explain difficult words. Its title was "A Table Alphabetical, containing and teaching the true writing and understanding of hard usual English words borrowed from the Hebrew, Greece, Latin or French". The volume of 120 pages explaining about 3000 words was compiled by Robert Cawdrey, a schoolmaster.

The first attempt at a bigger dictionary including all the words of the language, not only the difficult ones, was made by Nathaniel Bailey. He published the first edition of Universal Etymological English Dictionary in 1721. It was the first to include pronunciation and etymology.

The first big explanatory dictionary "A Dictionary of the English Language in Which the Words are Deduced from Their Originals and Illustrated in Their General Significations by Examples from the Best Writers: In 2 vols." was complied by Dr Samuel Johnson and published in 1755. The most important innovation of S. Johnson's Dictionary was the introduction of illustrations of the meanings of the words by examples from the best writers.

Pronunciation was not marked, because S. Johnson was very touch sure of the wide variety of the English pronunciation and thought it impossible to set up a standard there; he paid attention only to those aspects of vocabulary where he believed he could improve linguistic usage. S. Johnson's influence was tremendous. He remained the unquestionable authority for more than 75 years.

As to pronunciation, the first pronouncing dictionary was published in 1780 by Thomas Sheridan, grandfather of the great dramatist. In 1791 appeared The Critical Pronouncing Dictionary and Expositor of the English Language by John Walker, an actor. The vogue of this second dictionary was very great, and in later publications Walker's pronunciations were inserted into S. Johnson's text - a further step to a unilingual dictionary in its present-day form.

The Golden Age of English lexicography began in the last quarter of the 19th century when the English Philological Society started work on compiling The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), which was originally named. New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (NED). It is still referred to as either OED or NED.

The objective of this colossal work was and still is to trace the develop-ment of English words from their form in Old English. Where they were not found in Old English, it was shown when they were introduced into the language. The development of each meaning and its historical relation to other meanings of the same word is as well displayed. For words and meanings which have ' become obsolete the date of the latest occurrence is provided. All this is done by means of dated quotations ranging from the oldest to recent appearances of the words in question. The English of G.Chaucer, of the "Bible" and of W. Shakespeare is given as much attention as that of the most modern authors. The dictionary includes spellings, pronunciations and detailed etymologies. The completion of the work required more than 75 years. The result is a kind of encyclopaedia of language used not only for reference purposes but also as a basis for lexicological research.

The First part of the Dictionary appeared in 1884 and the last in 1928. Later it was issued in twelve volumes and in order to hold new words a three volume Supplement was issued in 1933. These volumes were revised in the seventies. Nearly all the material of the original Supplement was retained and a large body of the most recent accessions to the English language added.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English was first published in 1911, i.e. before the work on the main version was completed. It is not a historical dictionary but one of current usage. A still shorter form is The Pocket Oxford Dictionary. The latest edition of OED was undertaken in 1905. The new enlarged version was issued in 22 volumes 1994. Two Russian borrowings glasnost and perestroika were included in it. This publication was followed by a two volume Supplement to hold new words.

Another big dictionary, also created by joined effort of enthusiasts, is Joseph Wright's "English Dialect Dictionary". Before this dictionary could be started upon, a thorough study of English dialects had to be completed. With this target in view W.W. Skeat, famous for his "Etymological English Dictionary" founded the English Dialect Society in 1873. Dialects are of great importance for the historical study of the language. In the 19th century they were very pronounced though now they are almost disappearing. The Society existed till 1896 and issued 80 publications.

Curiously enough, the first American dictionary of the English language was compiled by a man whose name was also Samuel Johnson. Samuel Johnson Jr., a Connecticut schoolmaster, published in 1798 a small book entitled "A School Dictionary". This book was followed in 1800 by another dictionary by the same author, which showed already some signs of Americanisation

It was Noah Webster, universally considered to be the father of American lexicography, who emphatically broke away from English tradition and embodied in his book the specifically American usage of his time. His great work, The American Dictionary of the English Language, appeared in two volumes in 1828 and later sustained numerous revised and enlarged editions. In many respect N. Webster follows the lead of Dr S. Johnson (the British lexicographer). But he has also improved and corrected many of S. Johnson's etymologies and his definitions are often more exact. N. Webster attempted to simplify the spelling and pronunciation that were current in the USA of the period He devoted many years to the collection of words and the preparation of more accurate definitions.

N. Webster realised the importance of language for the development of a nation, and devoted his energy to giving the American English the status of an independent language, distinct from British English. At that time the idea was progressive as it helped the unification of separate states into one federation. In the latest edition of Webster's International Dic-tionary of the English Language not Americanisms (words not used in America) but so called Britishisms were marked off.

N.Webster's dictionary enjoyed great popularity from its first editions. This popularity was due not only to the accuracy and clarity of defini-tions but also to the richness of additional information of encyclopaedic character, which had become a tradition in American lexicography.

Soon after N. Webster's death two publishers and booksellers of Massa-chusetts, George and Charles Merriam, acquired the rights of his diction-ary from his family and started the publication of revised single volume editions under the name Merriam-Webster (1864, 1890, 1909, 1934, 1961) . The staff working for the modern editions is a big institution numbering hundreds of specialists in different branches of human activity.

The other great American dictionaries are the Century Dictionary first completed in 1891; Funk and Wagnalls New Standard Dictionary first completed in 1895, the Random House Dictionary of the English Language, completed in 1967; The Heritage Illustrated Dictionary of the English Language first published in 1969, and C.L. Barnhart's The World Book Dictionary presenting a synchronic review of the language in the 20th century.

The main problems in lexicography.

The problems of lexicography are connected with the selection of head-words, the number, the structure and contents of the vocabulary entry (in different types of dictionaries).

The starting group of lexicographical problems deals with selection:

1) In the first place it is the problem of whether a general descriptive dictionary, whether unilingual or bilingual, should give the historical information about a word. ,

2) For the purpose of a dictionary, which must not be too massive, selection between scientific and technical terms is also a very important task.

3) It is a debatable point whether a unilingual explanatory dictionary should try to cover all the words of the language, including neologisms, nonce-word, slang, etc. and note with impartial accuracy all the words actually used by English people; or whether, as the great English lexicographer of the 18th century Samuel Johnson used to think, it should be preceptive, and (viewed from the other side) prohibitive. Dictionary-makers should attempt to improve and stabilise the English vocabulary according to the best classical samples and advise the readers on prefer-able usage. A distinctly modern criterion in selection of entries is the frequency of the words to be included. This is especially important for certain lines of practical work in preparing graded elementary textbooks.

The other problem which of the selected units have the right to a separate entry and which are to be included under one common head-word. These are, in other words, the issues of separateness and sameness of words. The first deals with syntagmalic boundaries of word-units and has to solve such questions as whether each other is a group of two separate words to be treated separately under the head-words each and other, or whether each other is a unit deserving a special entry (compare also: one another).

As to the sameness, this deals with paradigmatic boundaries. How many entries are justified for hound? Concise Oxford Dictionary has two one tot the noun, and the other for the verb: to chase (as) with hounds'; the verb and the noun are thus treated as homonyms. Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary combines them under one head-word, i.e. it takes them as variants of the same word (hence the term "sameness"). The problem is even more complicated with variants belonging to the same part of speech, This involves differentiation between polysemy and homonymy.

The second group of problems deals with the structure and content of a dictionary entry in different types of dictionaries.

A historical dictionary (the Oxford Dictionary, for instance) is primarily concerned with the development of the English vocabulary. It arranges various senses chronologically, first comes the etymology, then the earliest meanings marked by the label obs. - obsolete The etymologies are either comparative or confined to a single language. The development is illustrated by quotations, ranging from the oldest to recent usages of the word in question.

A descriptive dictionary dealing with current usage has to face its own specific problems. It has to give precedence to the most important meanings. But how is the most important meaning determined upon? So far each compiler was guided by his own personal opinion. An objective criterion would be statistical counts. But counting the frequency of different meanings of the same word is far more difficult than counting the frequency of its forms. It is therefore not by chance that up to now many counts have been undertaken only for word forms, irrespective of meaning. Also, the interdependence of meanings and their relative importance within the semantic structure of the word do not remain the same. They change almost incessantly, so that establishing their frequency would have to be repeated very often. The constant revisions necessary would make the publication of dictionaries very expensive. It may also be argued that an arrangement of meanings according to frequency would sometimes conceal the ties and relationship between various elements of the semantic structure.

A synchronic dictionary should also show the distribution of every word. It has been traditionally done by labelling words as belonging to a certain part of speech, and by noting some special cases of grammatically or lexically bound meanings. Thus, the word spin is labelled in The Concise Oxford Dictionary as v.t. & i, which gives a general idea of its distribution; its various senses are shown in connection with words that may serve as subject or object, e. g.: 2. (of spider, silkworm, etc.) make (web, gossamer, cocoon, or abs.) by extrusion of fine viscous thread... 10. spun glass (spun when heated into filaments that remain pliant when cold); spun gold, silver (gold, silver thread prepared for weaving...) This technique is gradually being improved upon, and compilers strive to provide more detailed information on these points. The Advanced Learner's Dictionary ... by A.S. Hornby, E.V. Gatenby and H. Wakefield supplies information on the syntactical distribution of each verb. In their Notes on Syntax the compilers state that one who is learning English as a foreign language is apt to form sentences by analogy, which at times may lead him into error. For instance, the student must be warned against taking the use of the verb tell in the sentence Please tell me the meaning as a model for the word explain, because Please, explain me the meaning would be ungrammatical. For this purpose they provide a table of 25 verb patterns and supply the numerical indications in each verb entry. This gives the student the necessary guidance. Indications are also supplied as to which nouns and which semantic varieties of nouns may be used in the plural. This helps the student to avoid mistakes like interesting informations.

The third group of lexicographic problems is the problem of definitions in a unilingual dictionary. The explanation of meaning may be achieved by a group of synonyms which together give a fairly general idea; but one synonym is never sufficient for the purpose, because no absolute synonyms exist. Besides, if synonyms are the only type of explanation used, the reader will be placed in a vicious circle of synonymic references, with not a single word actually explained. Definitions serve the purpose much better. These are of two main types. If they are only concerned with words as speech material, the definition is called lіnguіstіc. If they are concerned with things for which the words are names, they are termed encyclopaedic. American dictionaries are for the most part traditionally encyclopaedic, which accounts for so much attention paid to graphic illustration. They furnish their readers with far more information about facts and things than their British counterparts, which are more linguistic and more fundamentally occupied with purely lexical data (as contrasted to realіa), with the grammatical properties of words, their components, their stylistic features, etc. Opinions differ upon the optimum proportion of linguistic and encyclopaedic material.

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 also dictionaries that concentrate their attention upon only one of these aspects: pronouncing (phonetical) dictionaries (by Daniel Jones) and etymological dictionaries (by Walter Skeat, by Erik Partridge, The Oxford English Dictionary).

For dictionaries in which the words and their definitions belong to the same language the term unilingual or explanatory is used, whereas bilingual or translation dictionaries are those that explain words by giving their equivalents in another language.

Unilingual dictionaries are further subdivided with regard to the time. Diachronic dictionaries, of which The Oxford English Dictionary is the main example, reflect the 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 meaning and usage of words.

Both bilingual and unilingual dictionaries can be general and special. General dictionaries represent the vocabulary as a whole. The group includes the thirteen 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, for instance, 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. General dictionaries are contrasted to special dictionaries whose stated aim is to cover only a certain specific part of the vocabulary.

Special dictionaries may be further subdivided depending on whether the words are chosen according to the sphere of human activity in which they are used (technical dictionaries), the type of the units themselves (e. g. phraseological dictionaries) or the relationships existing between them (e.g. dictionaries of synonyms).

The first subgroup embraces specialised dictionaries which register and explain technical terms for various branches of knowledge, art and trade: linguistic, medical, technical, economical terms, etc. Unilingual 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, toponyms, proverbs and sayings, etc.

The third subgroup contains synonymic dictionaries. Dictionaries re-cording the complete vocabulary of some author are called poncordances they should be distinguished from those that deal only with difficult words, i.e. glossaries. To this group are also referred dialect dictionaries and dictionaries of Americanisms. The main types of dictionaries are represented in the following table.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

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.

3. According to the above suggested pattern (see the table) analyse the dictionaries: The Concise Oxford Dictionary, Webster's New World Dictionary.

 

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

 

Exercise 3.

Answer the following questions:

How are the dictionary entries (for the word under analysis) built in these dictionaries? What information is contained in the dictionary entry?

How many meanings constitute the semantic structure of the word? How are they explained?

What meaning comes first in different dictionaries? Explain the difference, if any.

What shapes of meanings are registered by the dictionary (main/derived, primary/secondary, direct/figurative, general/special).