…..

dictionaries are a beautiful reflection of the changing society

that produces and consumes them.
(Rober Ilson, 1990)

LEXICOGRAPH
Y

Ilson, R. F. (1990). "Present day British Lexicography" in WDD 5.2

 What is it?
AGENDA
 Mapping Lexicography
 What is a Dictionary

 Dictionary Research

 Perspectives on Dictionary Research

 Methods of Dictionary Research

 MAPPING LEXICOGRAPHY
 Lexicography is a growing field with a practical branch
(dictionary making) and theoretical branch (dictionary
research) (Hartmann, 2001).

Dictionary
Making
Lexicography
Dictionary
Research

Hartmann, R. R. K. (2001). Teaching and researching lexicography. Malaysia: Longman

 REFERENCE SCIENCE

Dictionary

Lexicographic
Dictionary Meta-
Reference
Research lexicography
Work

Thesaurus
Reference
Science
Directory
Encyclopaedia
Non
Lexicographic
Atlas
Reference
Work

Other
LEXICOGRAPHY AS PRACTICE:
DICTIONARY MAKING
As definitions claim, Lexicography is

 Practice of compiling dictionaries (NOxfordDE, 1998)

 The art or practice of writing dictionaries (NSOxfordED,
1993)
 The process or profession of writing compiling
dictionaries (CollinsED2, 1986)
 The process of work of writing or compiling dictionaries
(American Heritage D of Eng, 1992)
LEXICOGRAPHIC PROCESS Ref: Hartmann, 2001

Preliminary Plan: Preparation of

Project, including Market Survey

Description: Editing Presentation:

the text Publishing the final
Field Work: Gathering and project
recording of data * Word List
* Formatting
* *Text Corpus * Instruction
* Printing
** Consultants Manual
* Proofreading
**Database *Information
--------------
Categories
Revision including
abridgement
WHAT IS A DICTIONARY
 It is a book about language (Jackson, 2002)
 Book that list the words of a language in alphabetical order and
gives their meaning, or equivalent words in another language
(NODE, 1998)
 A book explaining or translating usually in alphabetical order,
word of language or languages giving their pronunciations,
spelling, meaning, part of speech and etymology or one or
some of these (NSODE, 1993)
 A reference book that consists of an alphabetical list of words
with their meanings and parts of speech, and often a guide to
accepted pronunciation and syllabification, irregular inflections
of the words, derivations, and etymologies (CED, 1986)
Dictionary Structure Ref. Hartmann, 2001
-----------------------Mega Structure----------------------
Macrostructure

Front
Matter Entry 1
Outside Middle
Matter Matter
Back Entry N
Matter
Head Word
Microstructure
Left Core Right Core
(Formal) (Semantic)
Comment Comment
 FORMAL AND SEMANTIC COMMENT

Lemma Gender

Formal
Comment
Morphology Declension Number

Pronunciation Class etc

Entry
Usage Label
Pragmatic-
Semantic
Information Meaning
Paraphrase
Semantic
Comment
Ex. 1
Example
Ex 2
 History of
Introduction
Language

World
Preface
Languages

List of
Guide
Abbreviations
Front Matter

Edition Details

Picture
What’s where

Transcription
System
 Musical
Abbreviations
Instruments

Foreign Words Greek

and Phrases Alphabets

Ranks in the
Flowers
Back Matter armed forces
Appendices/
Middle Matter
Counties of UK Punctuation

States of US
Works of
Shakespeare

Weights and
Measures
 Body

Alphabetical list
of headword
accompanied by
a number of
pieces of
information

Printed in Presented in
Bold face Two columns
 MICROSTRUCTURE
• the headword indicates the normal
Spelling spelling,
• any variations will follow

• within rounded ( ) or slash // brackets,

Pronunciations • Any variations will be explained

• if these are formed irregularly. on

occasion, some spelling adjustment such as
Inflections doubling of consonants, dropping of ‘e’ or
changing ‘y’ to ‘i’
 MICROSTRUCTURE
• Usually indicated by conventional abbreviations,
‘n’ for noun, ‘adj’ for adjective, etc.;
Word Class • verbs are also marked for ‘transitive’ (vt) or
‘intransitive’ (vi).

• Where a lexeme has more than one meaning, each

sense is usually numbered;
Senses • where a sense, or group of senses belong to a
different word class or subclass, this is indicated
before the sense(s) concerned.

Definition • each sense is given a definition, which is an

explanation of its meaning
 MICROSTRUCTURE
• Examples are given where the elucidation of
a sense benefits from an illustrative phrase or
Examples sentence,
• Usually given in italic type.

• Where a sense is restricted in its contexts of use,

Usage an appropriate label precedes the sense concerned;
• if the restriction applies to all the senses of a
lexeme, the label precedes any of the senses

• Undefined derivatives (with a word class

label), idioms, phrasal verbs (if they are not
Run-ons included as headwords),
• Usually given in bold type
 MICROSTRUCTURE

• conventionally in
square brackets as
Etymology
the final item in
the entry
PERSPECTIVES ON DICTIONARY
RESEARCH

Historical &
Critical

Perspectives Structural

User
 DICTIONARY HISTORY

 The history of lexicography is neither

chronologically linear nor regionally uniform;
the various traditions depend on the state of
technology (as well as other constraints) and
vary by language and culture.
INTELLECTUAL HISTORY
 The way humankind has transmitted information
throughout history
 Human development has passed from non-verbal
to verbal communication to writing to printing to
computing in a long time,
 Reference Science developed with the
technology from oral to script-based to printed to
electronic.
LANGUAGE HISTORY
 The second perspective of research on history of
lexicography is associated with efforts to document the
(mainly lexical) changes from one stage in the
diachronic development of a language to another.
 Historical Dictionaries chart the whole history of the
language.
 Period dictionaries concentrate on a particular
chronological segment of the language. They are also
called chronolect or histeriolect etc.
CULTURAL HISTORY
 This perspective relates the work and product of
practicing lexicographers to the cultural context
of time, thus placing the compiler and their
dictionaries into a particular tradition.
 James (1991) has documented the evolution of
Tamil Lexicography from early palm leaf
metrical formats to computerized lexicography.

James, G. (1991). Tamil Lexicography. Tubingen: M. Niemeyer

G E N R E - S P E C I F I C H I S TO RY
 This perspective focuses on the historical development
of a specific type or genre of a dictionary in a language.
 Steiner (1991) notes following tendencies:

 The frequent dependence of one dictionary on its

predecessors
 The publication of dictionaries as a reflection of the
social and political needs of the time.
 The accelerating rate of publication

Steiner, R.J. (1991). Bilingual lexicography: English-Spanish and

Spanish-English in WDD 5.3: 2949-56
G E N E A L O G I C A L H I S TO RY
 Filiational (or family-tree) relations between universities
 Are Subsequent Dictionaries Just a variation?

 Is that Plagiarism?

 Are such similarities evidence of criminality by

commercial publishers?
QUESTIONS RAISED BY
HISTORICAL RESEARCH

 How many dictionaries have survived and why?

 Where are the archives that store them?

 What has happened to the ones that are not in the

archive?
 Has progress in a particular dictionary been steady, and
if not, why?
 How original can a lexicographer be?

 How much can we learn from the past to improve the

future of lexicography?
Bergenholtz, PC, 27.5. 1998 cited in Hartmann 2001
DICTIONARY CRITICISM
 “Systematic and internationally agreed criteria for
assessing dictionaries and other reference works (in
terms of standard features such as coverage, format,
scope, size, title and authorship) are an urgent
desideratum.
 Critical Critically analyzing
dictionaries for
Reviews standard

One or two
Product Tests dictionaries are tested
against a criteria

List of reference
works with their
Buying Guides suitability for certain
Perspectives on tasks
Dictionary
Criticism Detailed Assessment of
Critical design features of a
Monographs dictionary or dictionary
type in book form

Analysis of different
Meta-criticism reviews

General The elaboration from

Guidelines all the above
STRUCTURAL & TYPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON
RESEARCH
 The structural perspective in dictionary research
investigates the design features of reference works and
results in profiles of their formats and component parts.
 There are different types and objectives of dictionaries.
The classification of dictionaries based on their features,
coverage, size, and like is called typology of
dictionaries.
 Where the information
Text Structure in question can be
located?

Overall sequence of
Macro structure dictionary

Micro structure Structure of an entry

Research
Perspectives on
Dictionary
Structure Cross Reference in a
Medio structure dictionary

Indicators to help
Access Structure users find an
information

Distribution Distribution of
information in a
Structure dictionary
 Dictionary for language learners

For adult or young learners

For native speakers or foreign learners

Types of
Dictionaries
Monolingual or Interlingual

Bilingualised

LSP
THE USER PERSPECTIVE
 The condition of dictionary use can only be determined
by accurate empirical observation. Among the
parameters be investigated are (various types of)
activities requiring (various types of) strategies.

 Who owns which dictionary?

 Is ownership a sufficient condition for successful use?
 What information categories do dictionaries provide, and how do users get
at them?
 What are requirements of successful consultation?
 Can the appropriate skills be taught?
 How user-friendly are various reference works?
 Pedagogical Issues relating to
language learning
Lexicography and teaching

Dictionary Awareness of
dictionary types and
Awareness their use

Dictionary user as a
User Sociology complex entity
Research
Perspectives on
Dictionary Use Reference Needs of a certain
user through needs
Needs analysis

Strategies needed for

Reference Skills dictionary
consultation

Teaching dictionary
User Training use
ISSUES IN DICTIONARY RESEARCH

Is lexicography Do we have lists of

dependent on other dictionary making
disciplines projects?

What do we know about

Do we have directories of
working professionals and
lexicography?
their working methods?

How is dictionary use

What are working tools of
under a certain objective
lexicographer?
different from the other?