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Abstract - Lexicography

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Abstract - Lexicography

Uploaded by

Walid Errachidi
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Lexicography

Simple abstract
@StudyCircle0
Q1. What is lexicography?
1- The practice of compiling dictionaries.
• This definition makes no provision for the theoretical component and gives no details
about the compilation process.
2- The process of dictionary making.
• This definition also ignores reference to a theoretical component.
3- Scholarly discipline that involves compiling, writing or editing dictionaries.
• A positive aspect of this definition is the distinction it makes between practical and
theoretical lexicography.
• A negative aspect is that it regards lexicography as a subfield within linguistics.

Q2. What is the purpose of lexicography?


The production of dictionaries and their deal among other things with the ever-changing
meanings of the words.

Q3. What is dictionary making?


A practical activity which is as old as man’s concern with the written communication. But to
compile a dictionary, one must have a notion of the ‘word’ and an understanding of how it is
used in interpersonal discourse.

Q4. What is the set of postulates having wide agreement among linguists? Or,
what are the main principles of lexicography?
1- Lexicography is concerned with the description and explanation of the vocabulary of a
language or language variety.
2- The basic unit in dictionary making is the lexeme, the close combination of form and
meaning.
3- Dictionary may describe the whole vocabulary of a language (variety). Or concentrate on
One or more of it aspects.
4- Dictionary making has to develop a metalanguage for handling and presenting the
information.
5- Ultimately all dictionaries are motivated by and judged against the lexical needs of the
language user whom they serve.
Lexicography | Abstract @StudyCircle0

Q5. What is the lexicographer’s task?


Describing vocabulary items and arrange them in a particular order.

Q6. What does the lexicographer need to do?


The lexicographer need to refine his conceptual tool to bring order into the diffuse mass of a
language’s vocabulary.

Q7/A. What is Ferdinand de Saussure’s two-sided model of the sign?


The word as a sign is said to have two related sides or aspects:
1- A formal shape or phonetic/graphic image.
2- A semantic content or meaning/sense.
B. What is the problem with this view?
Very often the relation between form and meaning is not one to one, there may be more than
one meaning expressed by one and the same word-form, or a similar meaning may be shared
by several different word forms.

Ex: bank (raised mass of earth), bank (financial institution), bank (row of objects).

Q8/A. What are dictionaries for?


Samuel Johnson gave a didactic answer to this question: 'The value of a work must be
estimated by its use. It is not enough that a dictionary delights the critics, unless at the same
time it instructs the learner'.

B. what are the situations of dictionary use?


1- Information: meaning, synonyms, pronunciation, syntax, spelling, etymology, names,
facts, etc.
2- Operations: finding meanings, finding words, translating, etc.
3- Users: child, pupil/trainee, teacher/critic, scientist/secretary, etc.
4- Purposes: extending knowledge of the mother tongue, learning foreign language, playing
word games, composing report, reading/decoding FL texts, etc.
Note: according to a survey looking for meanings and synonyms and checking spelling are
among the most frequent motives for dictionary use.

Q9/ What are the most useful findings of the survey that relate to the question
of what kind of information the users hoped and failed to find in the dictionaries
which they regularly consulted?
Looking for meanings and synonyms and checking spellings are among the most frequent
motives for dictionary use.

2
Lexicography | Abstract @StudyCircle0

Definitions
1- Practical lexicography: the act of writing, or editing dictionaries.
2- Theoretical lexicography (Meta-lexicography): the analysis or description of the
vocabulary of a particular language, and the meaning that links certain words to others in
a dictionary.
3- The dictionary: A reference book or list of words together with a guide to their meanings,
pronunciation, spelling or equivalents in other languages.
4- The metalanguage of lexicography: the dictionary making may be usefully guided by a
metalanguage, a way of talking about language, and for handling and presenting linguistic
information.
5- Lexemes: those basic units which have been characterized as composed of a phonetic
form and semantic content.
6- Morphology: the study of morphemes and their arrangements in forming words.
• Morphemes is the smallest meaningful units which may constitute words or parts of
words.
• Morphemes that can occur alone as individual words are 'free' morphemes. Those that
can occur only with another morpheme are Bound morpheme.
7- Lexicology: the study of lexis, understood as the stock of words in a given language.
• Relies on information derived from morphology.
• Lexicology must not be confused with lexicography, the writing or compilation of
dictionaries, which is a special technique rather than a level of language study.
8- Etymology: is the study of the whole history of words, not just of their origin.

Q10. Who coined the term 'etymology'?


It was coined by the stoics, a group of Greek philosophers and logicians who flourished from
about the beginning of the fourth century BC.

Q11. What are the difficulties faced by etymological studies?


1- Some words are not etymologically related to ancient forms. Therefore, it is difficult to
establish and indicate their origins.
2- It is impossible to say exactly when a form was dropped, especially since words can
disappear from use for various reasons.
3- There can be no 'true' or 'original' meaning, since human language stretches too far back
in history.

3
Lexicography | Abstract @StudyCircle0

Q12/ Write a comparison between: (by M. Nadeem – Class D):


1- Arabic and English lexicography.
2- Al-Farahidi and Samuel Johnson.

Arabic Lexicography English Lexicography


1. Emerged in the 17th century. 1. Emerged before the 17th and 18th
2. Intended to explain words in religious scriptures century.
such as the holy book of Islam, the Quran, and 2. Intended to teach Latin.
3. Several bilingual dictionaries were
the oral tradition, the Hadith.
published before the 17th and 18th
3. The Arabs were not active in bilingual century.
dictionaries. 4. Most of the English dictionaries were
4. The Arabs were the first to think of recording the collections of hard and rare words.
whole vocabulary of the language. 5. The founder of English lexicography
is Samuel Johnson. (A Dictionary of
5. The founder of Arabic lexicography is Al-Khalil
the English Language).
bin Ahmed Al-Farahidi. (Kitab Al-Ain) The Book of
the Letter Ain.

Al-Farahidi Samuel Johnson


1. Born in 718 and died in 786. 1. Born in 1709 and died in 1784.
2. The founder of Arabic lexicography. 2. The founder of English lexicography.
3. Famous for his dictionary, Kitab Al-Ain, The Book 3. Famous for his dictionary, A
of the Letter Ain. Dictionary of the English Language.
4. He was the first lexicographer to compile a 4. In compiling his dictionary, Johnson
dictionary and he had no sources but his memory consulted many printed sources that
and the people whom he used as informants. were available to him.
5. The first lexicographer to use phonological 5. Used illustrative examples for
arrangement of words. prescriptive purposes.
6. The first man to codify the complex meters of 6. He was a poet, critic, and essayist.
Arabic poetry. 7. His book, A Dictionary of the English
7. His dictionary is divided into 27 books, each book Language, is alphabetically ordered.
for a letter, then each book is divided into
chapters, according to the type of root.

Date: 25.5.2018

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