THE ART OF LEXICOGRAPHY

Dash, Niladri Sekhar (2007) “The art of lexicography”. In, Vesna Muhvic-Dimanovski and Lelija Sočanac (Eds.) (2007) Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems. Oxford: EOLSS Publishers. Pp. 225-276.

Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems

Editors:

Vesna Muhvic-Dimanovski

Lelija Sočanac

Oxford: EoLSS Publishers (2007) (On behalf of UNESCO,

SC/AP-1 rue Miollis, 75732 Paris, France).

THE ART OF LEXICOGRAPHY

Niladri Sekhar Dash

Linguistic Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India Email: [email protected]

Keywords: Lexicology, linguistics, grammar, encyclopedia, normative, reference, history, etymology, learner’s dictionary, electronic dictionary, planning, data collection, lexical extraction, lexical item, lexical selection, typology, headword, spelling, pronunciation,

etymology, morphology, meaning, illustration, example, citation Contents

1. Introduction 2. Definition

3. The History of Lexicography 4. Lexicography and Allied Fields

4.1. Lexicology and Lexicography 4.2. Linguistics and Lexicography 4.3. Grammar and Lexicography 4.4. Encyclopedia and lexicography

5. Typological Classification of Dictionary 5.1. General Dictionary 5.2. Normative Dictionary 5.3. Referential or Descriptive Dictionary 5.4. Historical Dictionary

5.5. Etymological Dictionary 5.6. Dictionary of Loanwords 5.7. Encyclopedic Dictionary 5.8. Learner's Dictionary 5.9. Monolingual Dictionary 5.10. Special Dictionaries

6. Electronic Dictionary 7. Tasks for Dictionary Making

7.1. Panning 7.2. Data Collection 7.3. Extraction of lexical items

The Art of Lexicography


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7.4. Selection of lexical items 7.5. Mode of lexical selection

8. Dictionary Making: General Dictionary

8.1. Headwords 8.2. Spelling 8.3. Pronunciation 8.4. Etymology 8.5. Morphology and grammar 8.6. Meaning

8.7. Illustrative examples and citations 9. Conclusion Summary

The art of dictionary making is as old as the field of linguistics. People started to cultivate this

field from the very early age of our civilization, probably seven to eight hundred years before the Christian era. Through a long historical course, the discipline has evolved as one of the areas of linguistic research with application both in mainstream linguistics and language technology. Keeping this in the background, in the first section, we attempt to provide a general idea of the rich treasure of lexicographic research both from theoretical and applied perspectives irrespective of any language or school. In the second section, we

define the term ‘dictionary’ from its etymological perspective focusing on its application potentials. In the third section, we describe briefly the history of lexicographic works in various countries, particularly in China, India, Persia, and Europe. In fourth section, we explore the relational interface of lexicography with other fields such as lexicology, grammar, linguistics, and encyclopedia. In the fifth section, we discussed the typological classification of dictionaries for various linguistic purposes. In the sixth section, we highlight the advantages of

a dictionary in electronic form. In the seventh section, we briefly describe the preparatory ground works required for developing a general dictionary. Finally, in the eighth section, we discuss the elements normally incorporated in a general monolingual dictionary. In essence, the description and information provided in this article will give a general basis for exploring the discipline in finer details.

1. Introduction

The importance of a dictionary in modern life is immense. Its functional relevance is further increased in semi-advanced and underdeveloped countries with perceptible growth of education. With the advancement of mass literacy in the new millennium, the referential

value of dictionary will increase further among the newly literate people across the world. From a simple point of view, we use a dictionary for several reasons. Normally, we use it to

check the correct spelling of words, find their correct pronunciations, or look up their meanings. In the case of advanced queries, we use a dictionary to look for synonyms, delve into the origin of words, or trace patterns of their usage. A dictionary is probably the only resource that can give us the best and most comprehensive information about words. The

general conviction is that the information provided in a dictionary is accurate, authentic, and reliable. 2. Definition

The term dictionary was first coined in Medieval Latin, probably in the 13th century, on the

basis of the Latin adjective dictionarius ‘of words’, a derivative of Latin dictio ‘saying’, or in Medieval Latin ‘word’. English picked it up comparatively late; the first known reference is in The Pilgrimage of Perfection (1526): “and so Peter Bercharius [Pierre Bercheur, a 15th century French lexicographer] in his dictionary describeth it”. Latin dictio (also the source of English diction (15th century) was a derivative of the verb dicere ‘say’. Its original meaning was ‘point

out’ rather than ‘utter’, as demonstrated by its derivative indicare (source of English indicate)



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and words in other languages, such as Greek deiknunai ‘show’, Sanskrit dic- ‘show’ (later ‘say’), and German zeihen “accuse”, which come from the same source (Ayto 1990: 170).

According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English (1998), a dictionary is a

“book that deals with the individual words of a language (or certain specified class of them) so as to set forth their orthography, pronunciation, signification and use, their synonyms, derivation, and history, or at least some of these facts; for convenience of reference the words are arranged in some stated order, now in most languages, alphabetical, and in larger dictionaries the information given in illustrated by quotations from literature”. Similarly, Berg gives the definition of a dictionary in the following way: “A dictionary is a systematically

arranged list of socialized linguistic forms compiled from the speech habits of a given speech community and commented on by the author in such a way that the qualified reader understands the meaning … of each separate form, and is informed of the relevant facts concerning the function of that form in its community” (Zgusta 1971: 197).

Although a dictionary serves various practical needs, it is usually consulted for the following reasons:

(a) A dictionary is used as a useful reference book for different types of linguistic

information of various lexical items. The information is related to pronunciation, spelling, etymology, grammar, meaning, usage, etc. From this perspective, a dictionary performs the function of a ‘store house’ for a language or a variety.

(b) It is consulted as a guidebook for distinguishing good usages of words from bad usages.

From this perspective, a dictionary performs the function of ‘court house’ (legislative) for a language or variety.

Besides the functions stated above, a dictionary is also a source of information on life, language, and society. In order to perform this function satisfactorily, a dictionary needs to obtain systematically both linguistic and extralinguistic information from as many sources as

possible, since the information provided in a dictionary is always ‘tagged’ with invisible stickers of authenticity and reliability.

3. The History of Lexicography

Lexicography, the art, and craft of dictionary making, has an important place in the history of language study. We find that dictionaries and glossaries of various types (monolingual and bilingual, general and technical etc.) were compiled and used extensively from the early age of civilization in China, India, Middle East, Greece, and Rome. The earliest known prototypes of dictionary were the West Asian bilingual word lists, dating from the Second Millennium BC. The word lists contained the Sumerian and Akkadian words inscribed in

parallel columns on clay tablets in cuneiform writing. The contents were organized thematically, as thesauruses, for easy and quick reference.

After the invention of alphabet later in the same millennium, many centuries passed

before an alphabetic ordering system became a common tool for organizing information. The lists came into existence because the Akkadians (Babylonians) had inherited through

conquest the culture and traditions of the Sumerians and used the sets of signs as a means by which their scribes could learn what was, in effect, the classical language of writing. Over two thousand years later, in medieval Europe, the same principle was used when scribes who spoke vernacular languages learned to read and write in Latin.

The Chinese tradition of dictionary making is very old. The first known lexicographic work

in China is Shizhou, which dates back to the 9th century BC. Unfortunately, this work did not survive. After a gap of centuries, during the Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD), the art of lexicography was revived as a part of a resurgence in literature. At that time, dictionaries such as Shuōwén Jiězì and Erya were valuable reference works for understanding the ancient classics. In the later period, particularly during the Tang (618 AD-907 AD) and the



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Song (960 AD-1279 AD) dynasties, a few more dictionaries like Yupian, Qieyun, and Guangyun were compiled (Shiqi 1982).

An altogether different style of dictionary preparation flourished in ancient India. It started with the collection of obscure words as exemplified in the Nigahntus, continued with the formation of one of the bases of Nirukta and the Padapatha during the first millennium BC, and ended with a large group of Kosas composed during the past fifteen to seventeen hundred years after the Christian era began. Thus, a continuous activity of dictionary making in ancient India provided models for later lexicographical works in the Indo-Aryan and

Dravidian languages in India (Katre 1980). Both Nighantu and Nirukta are monumental examples of early Indian efforts in dictionary

making. Since then a large number of dictionaries and glossaries are prepared in Sanskrit as well as in Pali, Prakrit, and Apabhramsha. Some of them are general purpose dictionaries like Amarakosa, while some others are partial ones like Deshi Namamala, and still others like

Dhatupatha and Ganapatha fall under the category of technical glossaries. These dictionaries and glossaries follow different criteria and bases — semantic as well as alphabetic — in their structure and text representation.

In the Nighuntu all the designations used for a particular word in Vedic literature were

included in the list. The ordering was known as Paryay, which was an essential part of the

practice of dictionary making in ancient India. There were another two phases known as Nanartha that contained the various meaning of words, and Linga that contained the gender information of words. Each paryay had a dictionary of various types. For instance, the Kalpadrumakos and the Abhidhana Chintamani belonged to Paryay group, Nanartha Shabdaratna, Nanartha Manjari, Anekartha Cintamani, and Nanartha Shabda belonged to Nanartha group, while Lingadi Sangraha fell in Linga group.

Although there were well-defined schemes of classification of words according to their

gender, meaning, and usage as well as the classified dictionaries, which would include words according to the predefined criteria, there were some dictionaries which included all three types of information of words within a single volume. The best examples of this kind are

Amarakosha that included all the three phases of words within three parts conglomerated within a single volume. Due to this fact, this dictionary is known as Trikanda (three parts). According to the historical evidence, it was compiled between 400 AD and 600 AD.

The most notable aspect of Sanskrit dictionaries is that these were composed in poetic

form and words were not arranged in alphabetical order. Among some of the working

principles that had been adopted in the construction of lexicons in verse forms may be mentioned the grouping of words according to the number of syllables, and in a few cases, on the basis of the final syllable. Words are most often divided into various classes or groups based on certain features that forced the words to be included in particular groups. This norm of compiling dictionaries in Sanskrit as well as in other vernaculars was practiced not only in ancient India but also in medieval India for a long period of time. The Sanskrit model

also provided the basis of similar works in some of the modern Indian languages, particularly for some Dravidian languages (Katre 1980).

Although there was a rich Indian tradition of lexicographical works, it was hardly ever

adopted for modern Indian languages. The opening of the ‘Western windows’ (i.e. the advent of European scholars - missionaries as well as non-missionaries) helped the Indian

scholars to adapt an altogether new method for dictionary compilation in modern India. In fact, the production of several bilingual and trilingual dictionaries in various Indian languages with the direct involvement of the Western missionaries had a lasting impact on Indian scholars who applied the westernized lexicographical tradition to the Indian languages. The format of presentation, ordering of lexical entries, and the composition of dictionaries were

more or less modeled after the dictionaries produced in the West.



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The lexicographic tradition in Iran dates back to the pre-Islamic period. The oldest dictionaries are the Qim and Pahlavic dictionaries, both of which were compiled during the Sassanian Dynasty between the first and seventh centuries. The first dictionaries of modern

Persian (or Farsi) were compiled in the 9th century due to the growth and spread of Persian literature (Nafisi 1999:180). The history of Persian lexicography is divided into three periods. In the first, prior to the 14th century, Iran and Central Asia were the main centers of dictionary making, and Persian dictionaries were compiled in Farsi-speaking regions. With the spread of Persian to neighboring countries and its acceptance as the language of the Royal court and literature in the subcontinent and Turkey, India became the major center of lexicographic

activity. This second period lasted from the 14th century to the 19th century. Since the second half of the 19th century, there has been the continuous growth of lexicographic work and research in Iran. Different kinds of dictionaries have been compiled and published, their main characteristic being a strong encyclopedic orientation. These efforts have resulted in the formation of hundreds of monolingual and bilingual dictionaries (Taherian 1998: 212-216).

In Europe, “the earliest ‘list of words’ that might be said to constitute the beginnings of English lexicography were the glossaries of Anglo-Saxon priests and schoolmen, compiled to enable those whose competence in Latin was lacking to read Latin manuscripts” (Jackson 1988: 111). These glossaries were essentially lists of Latin words with English glosses. The Promptorium Parvulorum (‘Storehouse [of words] for children’), published around 1440, was an English-Latin dictionary that contained around twelve thousand entries in alphabetical

order with verbs and nouns listed separately. One of the first printed English-Latin lexicons is known as John Withals’ Shorte Dictionarie for Young Begynners (1553) which had a thematic arrangement of words. The term ‘dictionary’ in the title of this book was a sixteenth-century borrowing from the Latin dictionarium (‘the collection of words’). It is in these English-Latin dictionaries of the Renaissance period that we should perhaps recognize the beginnings of the lexicography of English (Jackson 1988: 112).

Sir Thomas Elyot compiled the first Latin-English Dictionary entitled Bibliotheca Eliotae in

1538. It was followed by a French-English dictionary, Thesaurus Linguae Romanae et Britannicae which was published in 1556 by Thomas Cooper. Other dictionaries followed, such as Richard Mulcaster’s Elementarie (1582), John Florio’s A Worlde of Wordes (1598),

Randle Cotgrave’s A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues (1611), and John Kinshieu’s Ductor in Lingus… The Guide into the Tongues (1617).

The first monolingual English dictionary is attributed to Robert Cawdrey, the author of A

Table Alphabeticall (1604). It contained nearly 3,000 lexical items with short definitions. Other monolingual dictionaries followed, including John Bulloker’s An English Expositor (1616), Henry

Cockerman’s The English Dictionary (1623), Thomas Blount’s Glossographia (1656), Edward Phillips’s The New World of English Words (1658), John Kersey’s A New English Dictionary (1702), and Nathan Bailey’s Dictionarium Britannicum (1730).

The credit for the first most comprehensive, reliable and exemplary dictionary in English

always goes to Samuel Johnson’s The Dictionary of The English Language (1755). It was

followed by a series of dictionaries published in English during the 18th and the 19th century. Some of the most notable examples were James Buchanan’s Linguae Britannicae (1757), William Johnston’s Pronouncing and Spelling Dictionary (1764), John Entick’s Spelling Dictionary (1764), and Thomas Sheridan’s A General Dictionary of the English Language (1780). This history of English lexicography took a completely new turn with the publication of the Oxford English Dictionary (1882) under the competent editorship of John Murray. Detailed

information on the history and the diversity of English lexicography are available in McDavid and Duckert (1973), Hartmann (1983), Ilson (1986), Hausmann et al. (1989-91), Béjoint (1994), Béjoint (2000), Jackson (2002), Hartmann (2003), and others.



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4. Lexicography and Allied Fields 4.1. Lexicology and Lexicography

Lexicography is closely related to lexicology. Both words are derived from Greek lexikos, an adjective derived from noun lexis meaning “speech” or “word”. While lexicology means ‘science of words’ (< lexicos ‘of word’ + logos ‘science’), lexicography means ‘writing of words’ (< lexicos ‘of words’ + graphē ‘writing’). Although both the fields are closely related due to their common concerns for words or lexical units, lexicography depends heavily on lexicology in many ways.

Words and their features are studied by both lexicology and lexicography. The sum total

of all the words available in a language forms the vocabulary or the lexical stock of that language. Although each word is an independent linguistic entity, it is indirectly related to other lexical items both paradigmatically and syntagmatically. While paradigmatic relation is based on the interdependence of words within the lexical system, syntagmatic relations

show words in their patterns of arrangement. The vocabulary of a language is not an arbitrary frame of diversified phenomena; it is a well-defined system that consists of elements which, although independent, are interrelated in some ways or other.

As a phonological, grammatical and semantic unit, a word is made of by a particular

group of sounds, and it has grammatical and semantic functions. Lexicology studies a word

in all these aspects exploring the patterns of its phonological, morphological and contextual behavior as well as its semantic relationships. A word often undergoes changes in its form and meaning with respect to its origin resulting from its development and current usage. Since a word does not occur in isolation, its combinatory possibilities are also studied in lexicology including its phrasal, idiomatic and proverbial functions.

The domain of lexicology is both diachronic (i.e. historical) and synchronic (i.e. descriptive). From the diachronic viewpoint, it deals with the origin and development of the form and meaning of lexical units in a particular language across the time scale. From the synchronic perspective, it studies various aspects of the vocabulary of a language at a particular point in time. This implies that in lexicology words cannot be studied in isolation

without close reference to other fields. From another point of view, the lexicological study of words can be general and special.

While general lexicology is concerned with general features of words common to all languages, special lexicology studies words with reference to a particular language. Furthermore, lexicological studies can be comparative and contrastive, based on the lexical

systems of any two languages. Functionally, lexicology fulfills the needs of different branches of applied linguistics such as lexicography, stylistics, language teaching, etc.

Lexicography also studies lexicon but from a different angle. While lexicology

concentrates on the general properties and features that can be viewed as systematic, lexicography typically deals with the individuality of each lexical unit (Zgusta 1973: 14).

Lexicography is thus defined as the art of writing a dictionary or the science of compiling a dictionary. While lexicology studies words as elements of a system, lexicography approaches words as individual units with respect to their meaning and usage. We use a dictionary in order to learn about words in the process of language learning, comprehending a text in a better way or checking correct spellings and pronunciations of words, etc.

A word may have varied sets of the characteristic feature, all of which may not be needed to a dictionary maker since his work is mostly guided by the purpose of the dictionary and the type of users. Words are presented in a dictionary in such a way that they can be accessed in real life situations. For instance, whatever theoretical basis for enumerating different meanings of polysemous words is accepted, meanings are arranged

and presented keeping in mind the practical utility of dictionary of different users. While a



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lexicologist presents materials according to his view of the study of vocabulary, a lexicographer is guided by the principle of convenience in the retrieval of data.

In principle, lexicology provides a theoretical basis to lexicography. A dictionary maker may know all the semantic details of a lexical unit, but he has to decide which details to include in the definition. Lexicological study of words is governed by theories of semantics and word formation. Therefore, there is no scope for individual aberrations. In lexicography, on the other hand, definitions are often subjective and are not free from the bias of a dictionary maker (cf. meaning of oats in Johnson's Dictionary).

Lexicology is not language-specific since it deals with universal features of words.

Lexicography is more or less language specific in spite of its universal theoretical background. Lexicography has no other relevance except for its practical applicability. Lexicology is more theory oriented, lexicography is more concrete in the application of theories. In a certain sense, “lexicography may be considered a superior discipline to

lexicology, for results, are more important than intentions and the value of theoretical principles must be estimated according to results” (Doroszewski 1973: 36).

Lexicology usually covers a wide range of interests and approaches to lexical study. It

includes reconstruction of meaning and semantic change of words, lexical variation and change across time scale, evolution of vocabulary over centuries, neologism and word-loss

within languages, lexical borrowing and derivation over time, structural and etymological analysis of lexical items, etc. with close interface between semantics, syntax, and pragmatics (Coleman and Kay 2000, Vera 2002). Lexicography, on the other hand, serves simply as a storehouse of information. In order perform this task adequately, it collects information from different sources and presents them within the scope of the dictionary users.

4.2. Linguistics and Lexicography

The primary concern of lexicography is ‘word’, which is one of the important areas of study for the other branches (e.g. phonology, morphology, stylistics, semantics, etc.) of linguistics. Lexicography, as one of the applied branches of linguistics, tends to solve the practical

problems of the language users by way of supplying linguistic insights acquired from other branches of linguistics. Since the work of a dictionary maker consists of organizing entries, selecting headwords, the phrasing of definitions, arranging meanings, etc., he needs to have information and recourses from different branches of linguistics.

One of the most widely accepted criteria for selection of entries in a dictionary is word

frequency. The canonical form or the most frequent form is usually selected as the headword. Information about the frequency of words is obtained from a statistical study of language. In the case of written languages with established grammatical tradition selection of headwords is not a difficult task. In the case of unwritten languages, speech databases are needed to be accessed to procure the necessary lexical units and their information. In this case, speech databases are collected by fieldwork and descriptive linguistic methods

are used for analyzing databases. Also, methods of sociolinguistics and ethnolinguistics are used to elicit and define words related to flora, fauna, artifacts, and culture.

Information from phonetics becomes indispensable to deal with spelling and

pronunciation of words while morphological analysis becomes necessary for providing grammatical information. Both historical linguistics and etymology become useful for

determining the central meaning of words. They also contribute to determining the number of meanings and their interrelationships, collocations, valency, lexical selections, etc. Psycholinguistics contributes in the selection of vocabulary for grade dictionaries. Sociolinguistics and stylistics provide help to tag words with various labels (e.g. slang, jargon, taboo, figurative, formal, vulgar, cant, code, etc). Dialectology provides rudimentary

information for building dialect dictionaries. Finally, contrastive linguistics supplies the basic



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prerequisites for compiling bilingual dictionaries. Thus, we find that the work of dictionary making is heavily dependent on the findings of various branches of linguistics.

It is, however, not a one-way traffic. Various lexicographical findings equally contribute to other branches of linguistics. Most lexicographical problems are practical in nature that requires immediate solutions. Since a dictionary maker cannot wait for long to acquire necessary findings from other fields, he has to find his own way. He is primarily guided by several practical considerations of the dictionary users. Although linguistic theories are quite important, the practical utility is the ultimate priority. This shows that “lexicography, in

practice, is a form of applied linguistics and although more theoreticians would be a welcome addition to the field, they must remember that their theories should be interpretable above all in terms of practicality” (Urdang 1963: 594). 4.3. Grammar and Lexicography

The inter-relation between a dictionary and a grammar is viewed from various angles. Bloomfield considers grammar and dictionary as two parts of linguistic description: “lexicon is really an appendix of the grammar, a list of basic irregularities” (Bloomfield 1933: 274). This statement is motivated by the fact that grammar presents regular and predictable forms of a language, while the dictionary deals with irregular and unpredictable forms and meanings. In other words, dictionary deals with individual idiosyncrasies of language. It gives irregular

plurals, irregular forms of verbs and other unpredictable forms in the paradigm of the lexical unit since it aims to present all the lexical units and the relation between forms and meaning of which forms are not predictable from the general rules of grammar. It is in this sense Bloomfield refers to the dictionary as an appendix to grammar and as a list of basic irregularities.

As a matter of fact, there is no strict line dividing the two, since the dictionary is concerned with words and their meanings, while a grammar is concerned with forms of words (Gleason 1967: 90). While grammatical rules give meanings of the constructions, a dictionary gives details about the different grammatical categories of lexical items along with their meanings and usages. The basic difference between a dictionary and a grammar

lies in the fact that a dictionary is ‘open-ended’ while a grammar is ‘close-ended’. The relationship between a grammar and a dictionary is that of class and member. While a grammar sets up classes and studies relationship between them, a dictionary deals with individual isolated items, words and morphemes called members and identifies the class to which a member belongs (Gleason 1967: 93-94).

Grammatical rules of a language are normally internalized by an individual at an early age and little is added to grammatical structures later. In that sense, acquisition of grammatical rules is close-ended. On the other hand, acquisition of vocabulary is ‘open-ended’, since it is an ongoing and continuous process. An individual can add new lexical items to his mental lexicon (i.e. inbuilt dictionary) from the language(s) he is exposed to. Similarly, he can delete the items from his mental stock if these are not required. This implies

that in the mental vocabulary processing new words are added, old words are dropped while some existing words are modified to perform different functions. Thus, the mental lexicon of an individual is in the process of constant upgrading, modification, and growth.

To distinguish between dictionary and grammar it is said that, “a grammar is concerned

with the general rules affecting the classes of items in a language. A dictionary is concerned

with the operation of individual lexical items. That is to put the distinction at its crudest. More precisely, a grammar describes the syntactic arrangements of classes of items; it describes the kinds of grammatical ‘meanings’ (e.g. plurality, tense, etc.) that may be realized in a language, and the formal means (e.g. inflectional endings, etc.) by which those meanings are realized. A dictionary aims to list the lexical items (i.e. words, idioms, other fixed

expressions, etc.) in a language and give a description of their meanings and usage; within



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‘usage’ will be included the part that a lexical item plays in the grammatical system of a language” (Jackson 1985).

4.4. Encyclopedia and lexicography

The word encyclopedia is derived from Greek word egkukliospaideia ‘all-round education’. According to the Oxford Illustrated Dictionary (1998), an encyclopedia is a book often made in several volumes to give information on many subjects, or on many aspects of one subject, usually arranged in alphabetical order. Landau differentiates between a dictionary and an

encyclopedia in the following way: “a dictionary is a text that describes the meanings of words, often illustrates how they are used in context, and usually indicates how they are pronounced. Dictionaries, in the traditional form of books, usually have their words listed in alphabetic order. Modern dictionaries often include information about spelling, etymology (word derivation), usage, synonyms, and grammar, and sometimes include illustrations as well. An encyclopedia is a collection of articles about every branch of knowledge. Although

some articles include definitions, their descriptions go far beyond the information given in a dictionary” (Landau 2001: 6).

In essence, an encyclopedia is more concerned with concepts and objects from the

extralinguistic world. Therefore, in a narrow sense, it may be called ‘a book of things’. Information presented in the encyclopedia is arranged under a number of general topics,

and it is provided in far more details providing an interface with history and geography. The aim of an encyclopedia is to present information on all aspects of human knowledge. The items presented include names, formation, nature, features, functions, etc. It also gives information about historical facts and events, geographical objects and phenomena, and biographical sketches of important personalities. Linguistic information of various types related to lexical items (e.g. functional roles of words, sense variation, verbal forms, structural

varieties, etc), which are available in a dictionary, are not usually found in an encyclopedia.

5. Typological Classification of Dictionary

Typological classification of the dictionary is an important aspect of lexicography since it is

directly related to several practical aspects of compiling dictionaries. In fact, the entire work of dictionary preparation - starting from the planning to the collection of texts, selection of lexical items, setting and arrangement of main and sub-entries, providing meanings and usage, etc. — is governed by the type of a dictionary a lexicographer is planning to develop.

In general, dictionaries are open to classification from various angles based on several linguistic and non-linguistic criteria. Dictionaries may vary with regard to their nature of lexical

entry, the pattern of lexical description, level and load of information, to prospective users. Adopting the criteria proposed by Malkiel (1967) we can classify dictionaries in the following manners: (1) Axis of time: a dictionary can either be diachronic (historical or dynamic) or synchronic

(static) with regard to the collection of language data and language representation.

(2) Nature of entries: a dictionary can contain either lexical information only or full encyclopedic information if required. Moreover, the degree of concentration on lexical data may vary depending on the consideration of the dictionary.

(3) The density of entries: This refers to the list of vocabulary to be considered for inclusion. The list may include words from general, restricted as well as specialized domains. If necessary, it can also cover words from regional and social dialects, jargon, slang, and

archaisms. (4) A number of languages: a dictionary may be either monolingual or bilingual or

multilingual depending on the target users for whom the dictionary is being made. (5) The arrangement of entries: Normally, lexical items are arranged in simple alphabetical

order, although words can also be arranged according to their semantic or sense

relations.



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(6) The purpose of the dictionary: This related to the basic function of a dictionary. A dictionary can either be a general, normative, pedagogic, referential, or a descriptive one depending on the goal of dictionary compilation.

(7) The Prospective users: a dictionary is meant for general readers who want to find out the general linguistic information of the lexical items or for the special users who are interested in special aspects of lexical items.

In a recently published work (Shcherba 1995) an entirely new scheme of dictionary

classification is proposed the adoption of which may appear far more systematic and

scientific for some dictionary makers. Although typological classification is essential, it is practically impossible to delimit the types into a strict watertight frame, since there is always some chances for overlapping of lexical information across dictionary types. For instance, although the Oxford English Dictionary aims at giving synchronic details about the English words, it presents their diachronic history too.

This implies that dictionaries are usually classified according to their primary focus on some major aspects of the language. Keeping the above-mentioned criteria in view we briefly describe here some notable types of dictionary made so far in various languages.

5.1. General Dictionary

A general dictionary aims at covering most, if not all, words of a language. It contains words, which are of general use and which represent various spheres of life. A dictionary of any size may be general if it is designed to cover all the regular aspects of words. Although in principle, it is supposed to contain words from all the spheres of human activities and all areas of life, in reality, it fails to encompass the entire lexical stock of a language, since no dictionary, except that of a dead language, aspires to include all words of a language. The

goal of a general dictionary is to serve the general linguistic queries of the general users.

5.2. Normative Dictionary

A normative dictionary desires to cover the words that are considered standard in a

language. For this, lexical entries are usually selected from the works of contemporary literature, science, arts and humanities, commerce, medicine, technology, newspapers, magazines, etc., which are considered representative of the standard form. The archaic, obsolete, regional words and special terms are included in it only when these items are considered standardized in regular use. The language database considered for this type of dictionary represents a self-contained and homogenous structure. The uniqueness of this

dictionary is often attested in its inclusion of illustrative examples from language corpora. Dictionary of technical terms, as well as a grammatical dictionary, and spelling dictionary, etc. may also belong to this group, provided these have a normative undertone for the target users. 5.3. Referential or Descriptive Dictionary

A referential or descriptive dictionary does not have any normative role to perform. Therefore, it simply describes the lexical items used in a language in all possible details. Since it does not exercise any kind of restriction in the choice of vocabulary, the lexical items acquired from all possible sources of language use are collected and compiled in simple alphabetically sorted manner. The language database used for the dictionary includes not

only the samples from the literary and imaginative texts but also the samples from informative texts as well as the samples from spoken texts spread across times, regions, societies, ethnicities, and styles. From the perspective of language coverage, the database can be monolingual, bilingual, and multilingual.



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5.4. Historical Dictionary

The primary goal of a historical dictionary is to present a systematic study on the changes

that affect the lexical units during their life in a language. In order to reflect the changes in the structure and meaning of words, it explores the earliest available resources to trace their first occurrence and meaning. Also, it categorically records the history of the chronological development of the words in subsequent stages of language change and modification. In order to achieve this goal, it accesses systematically all the available linguistic (sometimes non-linguistic) resources. Also, it needs to explore varieties of occurrence of lexical units in

different contexts, which are needed to be analyzed and compared to trace different senses and finer semantic shades of the lexical items. Eventual findings help the dictionary maker to arrange the meanings and sub-meanings in a chronological order along with the traces of change in the forms of the lexical units. However, various constraints such as a large amount of lexical load of a language as well as the transient nature of the lexical meanings often put dictionary makers in a real tough situation while there is a need for recording every

minute detail of the history of the worlds. Moreover, archaic, as well as obsolete words, need be handled with much care, since these are needed to be described with reference to their origin, growth, and decay. 5.5. Etymological Dictionary

An etymological dictionary attempts to present the origin, form, and usage of the lexical units from etymological perspectives. The words included in this dictionary differ greatly from those of a general dictionary with regard to their parent form, etymological meaning, primary use. Since the primary interest of this dictionary is related to the pre-history of a language, it traces the root of the present words to find out their earliest forms while it deals with their present forms and functions. To arrive at the parent stage it may need to use

comparative methods of lexical reconstruction to obtain the proto-forms on the basis of recurring correspondences of forms and meanings among the cognate words found in historically related languages. In fact, the information obtained from etymological analysis of words helps to dissolve some basic problems of lexicography related to homonymy and polysemy. Also, it helps to solve the problems of semantic opacity of some dubious lexical

units. 5.6. Dictionary of Loanwords

A dictionary of loanwords usually provides a wider coverage to deal with the stock of loanwords found in a language. While dealing with a loanword, it tries to trace its immediate

source of borrowing, the related form available in the source language as well as its original meaning in the source language. It does not hesitate to mention the name of the intermediate languages and the cognate forms if the process of lexical borrowing is found to be mediated through another language. For this reason, a dictionary of loanwords, at certain times, is put within the class of etymological dictionary because while giving information about the source of a loanword, it provides some clues about its etymological

history. 5.7. Encyclopedic Dictionary

An encyclopedic dictionary, in principle, presents both linguistic as well as encyclopedic information of the headwords included in it. While linguistic information includes the list of

linguistic features related to pronunciation, spelling, definitional meaning, etymology, grammatical information, usage, illustration, etc., encyclopedic information covers information related all other branches of human knowledge. That means, functionally, it is a dictionary that tries to keep a balance between an encyclopedia and a general dictionary. It, thus, combines the functions special to a general dictionary and the functions unique to

an encyclopedia both in amount and manner of presentation of information. This method



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becomes highly useful to the users because while dictionarial definition helps the users to determine the basic concept of a word, the encyclopedic information provides him necessary resources to know the word in more details within the frame of extralinguistic

knowledge-base.

5.7. Learner's Dictionary A learner’s dictionary, although it is made for learners, is used by others for various purposes. Its primary function is to help the learners in their process of learning a language - either the

first language or the second language. Based on the class of language learners, it is presumably classified into two broad types: the dictionary for native language learners and the dictionary for foreign language learners. A dictionary for native speakers, which takes into account the typical problems and needs of the native language learners, might not be equally beneficial to the adult foreign language learners who might have severe difficulties to deal with many common and simple words, which will hardly posit any problem to the

native language learners because they have already acquired the inherent competence over the language.

A learner's dictionary differs from other dictionaries in its scope and nature of the

information provided for each lexical item. The vocabulary of a learner's dictionary is limited since the selection of vocabulary items is done very carefully on the basis of different

scientific principles. Moreover, the emphasis is not on all the possible meanings of lexical units but on their function and usage. Based on the nature of information, it presents semantic, syntactic, and grammatical information. Since it deals with current and common usage of words, obsolete, archaic and dialectal words are usually ignored. Also, easily predictable derived forms are not included and variations in spelling and pronunciation are avoided as far as possible.

Entries in learner's dictionary are selected according to their frequency of use in the

language. The primary meaning of the words is given first followed by their secondary meanings. Also, the number of meanings is restricted to the most important few. Emphasis is always laid on the usage and collocations of the words. Definitions are kept as simple as

possible and familiar words are used for defining unfamiliar entries. Both illustrative examples and pictures are used to ensure a better understanding of the words. 5.9. Monolingual Dictionary

In a monolingual dictionary, all the entry words along with their definitions and meanings are

given in the same language. The term ‘monolingual’ refers to language only, irrespective of the information provided in the dictionary. Any dictionary that gives the lists of words and their meanings in the same language is a monolingual dictionary. To be wider in application it may give information about different aspects of lexical units related to their orthography, pronunciation, grammar, meaning, etymology, and usage with illustrations. Such a dictionary is meant for native speakers only with scopes for checking various aspects of the words. It

may be consulted by the non-users who have a good command of the language in which it is made. In a bilingual dictionary, in contrast to a monolingual one, the lexical items of the second language are explained and defined with reference to the equivalent items available in the first language. A bilingual dictionary is meant to serve first language speakers who want to understand the second language.

5.10. Special Dictionaries

Special dictionaries are made to focus on special domains of language use. The goal is to address the needs of the users who belong to some special fields of occupation, profession or discipline. As a result, special dictionaries contain the list of special words, which may not

be available in a general dictionary. Since these are made with definite purpose to cover a



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specific part of the vocabulary, these dictionaries usually cover vocabulary belonging to specific geographical regions, social dialects, special spheres of human activity, the formal shape of words, a semantic aspect of words, collocations, special linguistic units, etc. There is

a special dictionary of several kinds some of which are discussed below. A dialect dictionary usually covers the word stock of particular geographical, regional or

social variety. It contains words, which are not usually available in the standard variety. Thus the words, which are considered variations of the standard forms, as well as those whose use is restricted to a particular region or locality, are suitable candidates for a dialect dictionary.

Entries are usually compiled from the language databases collected from extensive fieldwork and recordings of regional varieties. To give wider coverage, several dialectal varieties may be included in it. Dictionaries of regionalisms also belong to this category.

There are different methods for presentation of lexical information in a dialect dictionary.

Usually, one of the variants is selected as the headword on the basis of its frequency and

acceptability among the speech community, while other variants are provided as alternative forms. Dictionarial information is related to the grammatical category of the entry words, their meanings, and their usages. Sometimes, the standard variants are included with the entry words so that the users can easily trace the semantic interface underlying the two forms. Also, profuse examples that illustrate the use of words is provided with reference to their actual usage patterns in dialects. In some dialect dictionaries, all the lexical units are

given as headwords and their distribution in different regions is shown with examples obtained from the regions where they are used.

A dictionary of technical terms includes technical and scientific terms used in a

language. Terminology is a major and vital part of the vocabulary, and it grows due to advancement in science and technology. The dictionary contains the terms, which are

either considered peculiar to a particular subject field or treated as general words with special meanings for special fields of human knowledge. Glossaries of various professions, trades, crafts, sports etc. are closely related to this type of dictionary. In general, these dictionaries assemble words, which are considered peculiar or unique to particular professions, trades or crafts (e.g., dictionaries of music, trade and commerce, games and

sports, etc.). A dictionary of slang, jargon, argot, etc. also belongs to the group of the special

dictionary. It usually contains a highly closed set of lexical items used by a class of people belonging to a particular group, clan, profession, or activity. The dictionary also contains words, which are either neologisms or general words, which are used in a different way to

convey a special meaning or sense among the members of the group. In both cases, the special sense of the words has a special semantic role to the group members.

In the case of preparing a dictionary of secret codes and terms, a lexicographer has to

explore the linguistic world of the people involved in underworld activities. Since preservation of the secret senses of the common words is considered a token of group solidarity, these

senses are not usually known to the common people. A lexicographer, therefore, needs to find out means to involve himself with the target group from where he wants to derive words to be included in the dictionary.

A dictionary of spelling or orthography provides information about the correct spelling of

words with their phonetic variants. It also provides information on the tone, stress, and accent

wherever relevant. It also supplies information on whether some words (mostly compounds and set phrases) should be written together or separately. Since this dictionary is normative in character, it is used to check the correct spelling of those words, which have multiple alternatives. Although it is normally used by foreign language learners, native speakers of a language like Bengali, which has a large number of alternative spellings for a single word,



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need to use it to check the most required spelling. It differs from a general dictionary since the information it provides is limited to spelling and orthography.

A pronunciation dictionary usually records the contemporary pronunciation of words. It is also normative in nature and is usually consulted in order to learn the correct pronunciation of words. The information supplied is either presented in IPA (International Phonetic Alphabets) notation or in a simplified script of the language in which it is made. It also differs from a general dictionary because it presents variant pronunciations of words as well as the pronunciation of grammatical forms used in a language.

A word-formation includes different word-forming elements (e.g., prefix, infix, suffix,

enclitic, particle, etc. Although case endings and inflections as morphological elements do not belong to word formation, these properties are included in the dictionary to provide information about their form and use. To be widely representative of a language it may also include verb roots, nominal stems, and other lexical bases along with word-formation rules.

Some of the learner's dictionaries attain the status of word formation dictionaries insofar as they provide lists of prefixes and suffixes.

A dictionary of homonyms presents homonymous forms found in a language. The list may

include homographic and homophonous forms. Sometimes, it also provides exhaustive illustrative examples to show how homonymous forms differ in origin and usage although they

are homographic and homophonous in their surface representation. A dictionary of paronyms includes cognate words from the languages, which are

etymologically or typologically related. It may also include paronyms from two distantly related or unrelated languages. Entry words are normally arranged in the alphabetical order with their cognate forms listed at the right-hand side with the names of sister languages

tagged. For instance, a dictionary of Indo-European words will include words from languages like Greek, Sanskrit, Latin, German, Avestan and Old Persian. Such a dictionary has important referential relevance in diachronic language study as well as in translation. Similarly, a dictionary of paronyms may include words from English, German, French, Spanish and Italian for purposes such as language learning, translation, etc.

A grammatical dictionary is an essential guidebook for understanding the correct

grammatical systems and patterns. This becomes far more helpful when the grammatical system of a language is complex and intricate. In the introduction to such a dictionary, the entire grammatical structure of a language is described in detail. Moreover, different grammatical categories and paradigms are provided, with sufficient information about

gender, person, type of declension, conjugation patterns etc. In a reverse dictionary, the entries are arranged in the alphabetical order of their terminal

letters. Its other form is a rhyming dictionary, which is designed as a tool to help poets to compose their verses. The scope of this dictionary is further widened since words with similar endings provide a sort of grammatical specification. The identical word-forming suffixes as

well as identical compound-forming components are put together so that the arrangement becomes useful for preparing teaching materials and manuals.

A dictionary of abbreviations and acronyms includes abbreviations and acronyms

commonly found in a language. It is not large since the number of words belonging to this type is usually small. With the advancement of time, many new abbreviated forms are

generated and included in such a dictionary. Many general dictionaries, however, provide a list of common abbreviations as an appendix.

A dictionary of synonyms presents synonyms or near synonyms of a language. Sometimes

it simply enumerates different synonyms of a particular word, but sometimes they are

accompanied by illustrative examples. Needless to say, the latter is more useful because it



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helps users to find nuances of meaning of particular words in terms of their relations to other members of the group. Such a dictionary is highly useful for writers and translators. It is also useful for language learners since it provides information about semantic relations. Many

languages have rich traditions of dictionaries of synonyms. A dictionary of antonyms covers words, which are considered to be opposite in meaning.

It is useful in finding out finer sense distinctions of polysemous as well as some synonymous words. It is sometimes argued that any two words may be considered synonymous if their antonyms are also synonymous.

An ideographic or ideological (also called systemic dictionary) presents the words, which

are semantically related. They are grouped according to the internal relation of their underlying concepts. In essence, lexical items in an ideographic dictionary are grouped into families where each one stands for one particular psychological dimension. An ideographic dictionary, in a sense, is a sub-type of a thesaurus.

A dictionary of frequency presents the frequency lexical units. It is usually based on a

special corpus of texts and is useful in the preparation of children's dictionaries, learner's dictionaries, teaching materials, etc.

A dictionary of collocations includes common collocations as well as words with the

potential of being collocated with the headword. Although such a dictionary is usually limited in scope and includes only words belonging to a few grammatical categories (e.g. nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc.), it is highly useful for language teaching.

A dictionary of usage generally aims at providing guidelines for the correct and standard

use. It is highly normative in character.

A dictionary of phrases (i.e. phraseological dictionary) presents detailed information

about phrasal units, often accompanied with illustrative examples. A dictionary of proverbs and idioms is compiled in a similar fashion to include proverbs

and idioms. A dictionary of neologisms presents new words introduced in a language as well as novel

meanings acquired by some old words. It provides good material for revising other dictionaries. The appendices in some dictionaries are close to this type of dictionary.

An exegetic dictionary is based on the texts of one or more author(s). It may cover particular works or complete works of an author. In principle, it contains all the words available in the texts. All the meanings of words are provided with illustrations and reference to their actual occurrence. Sometimes, the total number of occurrences of lexical units is supplied to show their frequency. Both lexicographic definitions and the encyclopedic information are provided, including proper names. It provides necessary guidance for

understanding the special usage of lexical units by different authors. It also helps to find new words used by writers as well as new meanings attached to the regularly used words. It is useful in the preparation of historical dictionaries. 6. Electronic Dictionary

In this era of information technology, a compilation of an electronic dictionary is quite easy and affordable. An electronic dictionary is a user-friendly device, which can be used at all levels of language education for necessary information and reference. In the early 1990s, the advent of information technology made it possible to prepare electronic dictionaries. Electronic dictionaries are now available as a part of multi-volume reference packages for

on-line services.



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The advancement in computer technology provides many new ways to search and link words in a dictionary as well as to provide an illustration of various types. For instance, pre-recorded pronunciation of entry words is provided so that we can learn the actual

pronunciation of words by native speakers. In essence, an electronic dictionary is far more advantageous than a printed dictionary in many ways. We can summarize the advantages of an electronic dictionary in the following ways: (a) Physical advantages: The wonderful thing about an electronic dictionary is that it takes

virtually no space, both in a physical and digital sense. We can roam around the world

with at least a dozen dictionaries stored within a CD or two tucked in our pocket. It can be copied and distributed multiple times quite quickly and easily if the question of copyright is dissolved beforehand. It offers far more benefits over traditional paper dictionaries, such as easy searching facilities, quick access, and easy augmentation scopes, etc. Moreover, it has more longevity than a paper dictionary. Its readability will never degrade, pages will never crumble, the binding will never break, and ink will never

fade.

(b) Academic advantages: An electronic dictionary is digitalized to open up new avenues of information. Each entry word can be pronounced with the help of multimedia to provide information about the utterance patterns by native speakers. With the help of concordance and key-word-in-context programs, information about usage can be

procured for each entry. This information is useful for language researchers as well as language learners and teachers. It can also incorporate many useful features for a wide variety of applications. It can show the correct spelling of words, refer to sense variations and to orthographically similar word-strings; it can provide information about euphonic and assimilated words, compounds, collocations, reduplicated words; synonyms and antonyms; the idiomatic and proverbial usage, etc. It is also capable of performing the

function of a thesaurus supplying semantically or conceptually related words.

(c) Customization facilities: Generally, we consult a printed dictionary to find the spelling, meaning, usage, synonyms, etc. However, there is lexical information of various types, which is not usually available in a printed dictionary. For these, we need to refer to

different source materials and reference books published in separate volumes. For instance, thesauruses, rhyming dictionaries, crossword puzzle dictionaries, etc. are compiled as appendices to a printed dictionary. We can easily incorporate information from all these resources in an electronic dictionary with extended functions performed by other sources of reference. Moreover, facilities are provided to add new words to address subject- specific needs. We can also add meanings and parts-of-speech to a

database to reformat it into a personal dictionary. Some of the advantages of an electronic dictionary have been briefly described above. Such a dictionary has high commercial potential since it can provide additional linguistic information of various kinds. The more we use such a dictionary in regular activities, the more its utilities are expanded.

7. Groundwork for Dictionary Making

Dictionary making begins with the collection of data from a language or variety. In a step-by-step process, lexical items are selected and arranged in the alphabetical order; headwords or entry words are established; pronunciation is given; etymological grammatical

and morphological information is provided, definitions are worked out, and reference to usage and citations are provided. Although the information of the type stated above is normally included in a general reference dictionary, the range of information can vary depending on the needs of end-users or the purpose of the dictionary. All the steps, however, are closely interrelated.



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7.1. Panning

Dictionary making is a long, complex and time-consuming task. Preparation of dictionaries

may take several years. First, we need to decide what kind of dictionary we want to develop since subsequent work will differ according to the type of a dictionary. A monolingual general dictionary, for example, will cover words available in one language. All entry words and their definitions or meanings will be given in the same language. In practice, it will contain those words, which belong to various spheres of life. It will carry additional information about the spelling, pronunciation, grammar, meaning, etymology, usage, and

various other aspects. Although it may vary in size, it will aim to cover all the regular aspects of the words included. It cannot, however, include the entire lexical stock of a language, since language is a vibrant aspect of a human society that changes with time. No dictionary, except that of a dead language, can include all the words found in a language.

At the stage of planning, we need to decide about various issues of dictionary making.

As there is hardly any scope for large-scale changes at a later stage, we need to adhere to these issues before we can start the actual work. To stick to the plan, it is always useful to prepare a blueprint that will contain detailed description and meticulous instructions regarding the collection of data, selection of lexical items, compilation of word lists, the structure of the dictionary entry, orthography and pronunciation, definition, grammatical information, semantic information, usage, phraseology, citation, illustrations, etc. The

blueprint will contain a few sample entries. It may also contain information about the scope of the dictionary, its purpose, and readership, the range of coverage, etc.

7.2. Data Collection

After the planning stage, the next step is the collection of relevant data that can represent

the language in a homogenous form. Practically, databases are usually developed by collecting representative text samples from literature, arts, social sciences, natural sciences, commerce, medicine, technology, newspapers, magazines, advertisements and other sources, which are considered representative.

A collection of data will differ for different types of the dictionary. We can collect data from written text samples if a language has written literature. For unwritten languages, data can be collected from spoken text samples using fieldwork methods. In collecting data for written languages, records should be kept regarding the sources from which the material is collected and the methods followed in collecting the data.

The nature of the source material also differs for different types of the dictionary. For a historical dictionary, the collection is based on the available representative texts of the language from the earliest periods to the present. Data can be examined keeping in view ‘their evidential value’ from the perspective of ancestral languages, cognate languages, descendent languages, donor or recipient languages, as well as substratum and superstratum languages.

The source materials for the learner's dictionary are collected from contemporary

literature and available dictionaries. Materials for children's dictionaries are usually collected from textbooks, writings, answer scripts, notebooks, and children’s compositions. For a bilingual dictionary, existing monolingual dictionaries are taken as source materials. Also, the resources of a bilingual dictionary include translations, which provide new technical terms

and other words related to the life and culture of the people of the source language. Materials for a normative dictionary are extracted from creative literature, texts on

technical and scientific subjects, history, philosophy, logic, etc. as well as from journals and newspapers. These sources are good for extracting words and phrases newly introduced into

a language as well as words and phrases used in a new sense. Special terms introduced in



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the language are also found in such sources. To achieve wide representativeness of data, text samples from mass media (e.g. radio, television, etc.) are also utilized for collection of words for a normative dictionary.

Sources for a reference dictionary are more varied. Since the focus of this dictionary is

not only in the standard language but also the regional variations, it uses texts from spoken sources also. Extraction is made from different types of spoken texts to add variety to the lexical stock used in it. Texts from various discourse types (e.g., narration, dialogue, eyewitness account, conversation, argument, etc.) are used as source material for this

dictionary. The collection of data from all the above sources may not be enough for a large

dictionary. For large dictionaries, there are usually advisory boards consisting of experts on different branches of human knowledge. The experts not only provide terms special to their discipline but also help at a later stage to give definitions of these terms. Even common people can assist by way of providing materials for dictionaries. People working on a

reference dictionary that aims at presenting regional variations include texts that provide materials for such variations. The lexicographer, if he is a native speaker of the language, can provide a lot of information himself. He may construct his own examples in order to disambiguate certain lexical items.

A general dictionary may contain words used in other types of the dictionary. To expand

its functional relevance, it may include language samples belonging to both contemporary and earlier periods, which can give a diachronic dimension necessary for understanding a language. At the time of dictionary planning, it is needed to decide whether it will base on purely contemporary materials or include texts of earlier years. Since idiomatic and proverbial expressions represent the older stage of language and ordinary speakers often quote from old texts, it is sensible to include lexical items from the earlier texts. Although these

do not form the central body of the contemporary vocabulary, they are useful for the users for comprehending the older texts.

A general dictionary does not contain words of local or regional varieties. Such words are

usually ignored. However, a lexicographer may include words and terms from local regional

varieties only when these items are standardized and included in the common vocabulary of the language. Archaic and obsolete words are included in the dictionary following the same principle.

A general dictionary may also include words related to social and stylistic variations if it

tries to represent different registers, professional jargons, slang etc. as far as possible. Since

the inclusion of all these items in a general dictionary is a debatable issue, the lexicographer has to decide how much can actually be included.

The entire database that is considered sufficient for a dictionary should be, in principle,

multidimensional, properly balanced, and representative. In fact, the uniqueness of a general dictionary is attested in its scope (Dash 2005: 308).

7.3. Extraction of lexical items

Normally, lexical items are extracted from a text with its ‘full context’ which is considered adequate to express its meaning clearly and unambiguously. The context of a lexical item varies according to the nature of its use. At certain times, a very short context is adequate to

give a clear meaning of a lexical item while at some other times it requires a full stanza. From this point of view, a context can either be a word or a single lexical unit; a phrase or a sentence; a full stanza or collection of sentences; or a full paragraph to give a full context especially when the lexical unit has some cultural significance. Words should be collected with their full collocational frame, which will provide clear and unambiguous meanings. In

fact, the occurrence of a word in different contexts in the same sense should not deter a



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lexicographer from collecting more extracts, since a new meaning may become available from further extractions. In general, two inferences can be made on the basis of the context:

(i) The contextual sense of a word. A meaning is tentatively fixed from the first extract. It is later verified on the basis of meanings taken from all the possible contexts. All the meanings have to be included in a dictionary since related meanings are treated as multiple meanings of the same word. For example, different meanings of chair can be determined from the following contexts: (a) He sat on a chair (a separate movable seat for one person)

(b) The chair of philosophy (position of Professor in an academic institute) (c) He will chair the meeting (to preside over) (d) He was condemned to the chair (electric chair for death)

(ii) Abstractions of the canonical forms can be made, which will be used as headwords. In

extracting, depleted, incomplete and ambiguous contexts should be avoided, since

they cannot give full and clear meaning. For instance, in a context such as he gave me a ring the word ring may mean “a metal ring” or a “telephone call”. The lexicographer has to examine such contexts and collect only those, which are self-sufficient to determine the meaning of a lexical unit.

The nature of extraction is also related to this. What type of extraction should be done

from different sources? Although an ideal situation is to extract data from all the existing texts, there are practical difficulties in dealing with enormous amounts of data. Therefore, extraction has to be selective. From this point of view, extraction can be general and special.

In general extraction, lexical units of general nature are normally selected. Also, lexical

units belonging to definite thematic groups are extracted for their general meanings. For example, from a general text on the sky and the sea words related to climate are extracted without any specification of their technical meanings.

Special extraction is done in order to find special technical meanings of words belonging

to any subject field. For example, we can get a detailed list of linguistic terms in their special meanings from a book on general linguistics. Similarly, the names of flora in their special meanings can be found in a book on botany. Textbooks on different subjects provide details of technical terms related to a particular branch of knowledge. 7.4. Selection of Lexical Items

Lexical items are selected after the extraction of a large list of words from various text samples. While selecting the lexical items following issues have to be taken into consideration: (a) New words

New words are important in dictionary compilation. Since new objects, ideas, and concepts are continuously created or adopted by a speech community, the lexical stock of a language can never remain static. The word stock is in the process of gradual modification in the following ways: (a) new words and expressions are coined, (b) new meanings are given to existing words, and (c) words are borrowed from other languages. New words and

expressions are coined for different objects ranging from day-to-day fashion to nuclear warfare. Some neologisms are ephemeral. They are born today to die tomorrow. Neologisms depend on some extra-linguistic conditions and as soon as they disappear the words denoting them tend to disappear as well. Some may have a longer life. From individual and occasional usage they become more frequent and are gradually accepted in the

vocabulary. The inclusion of such lexical items in a dictionary is always problematic. It is often



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claimed that they should not be included until they become a part of the regular vocabulary. However, one of the roles of a dictionary is to record neologisms as well.

(b) Obsolete and archaic words

These words should also be considered for inclusion. As new words are born in a language, old words die. When some concepts and objects become outdated, words and expressions for them become obsolete. A similar process applies to archaic words, which are not found in general use but has rare occurrences in specific text types. A modern dictionary, which is

based on contemporary language, can ignore such words. But a general dictionary, which aims at helping readers to understand older texts, will definitely include them. Some of the words and phrases used by earlier writers may have functional relevance for modern users. On a similar principle, old and archaic idioms, phrases and proverbs will have the right to be included in a general dictionary, although they are considered obsolete.

(c) Scientific and technical terms

It is a debatable issue if scientific and technical terms should be included in a general dictionary. The influx of technical terms in a language is considerable. Every day new technical terms are coined or new meanings are attached to old words. The problem in the selection of technical terms is related to their commonness (i.e. frequency of use),

acceptability (i.e. artificiality), and ambiguity. The question is whether these terms should be included in a dictionary and be given preference over their common counterparts? Since a general dictionary can hardly cover all the specialist terms, a dictionary maker should be selective. (d) Proper names

The inclusion of proper names in dictionary also creates problems. Since proper names do not form a part of a language system, it is questionable whether they should be included in the dictionary. However, some proper names attain special significance in the course of the history of a language and become an integral part of national culture. Thus, if a name is

intimately connected with a people as a vital part of its cultural fabric, it should be included in a dictionary. Names of national heroes, mythological characters, etc. should find their place in the dictionary. For instance, names like Christ, Mohammed, Bethlehem, Vatican, etc. convey more than their referential meaning. Therefore, these names should be included in a dictionary. In some cases, proper names are used as the basis to derive new words. For instance, the word Marx is used to generate Marxism, Marxist, etc. In such cases, it is always

desirable to include such proper names even though the general policy may be against their inclusion. Similarly, when proper names are converted to common nouns (e.g. Romeo, Casanova, etc.) they should be included (Zgusta 1971: 245). (e) Function words

Since function words have no referent, they have no lexical meaning. They have only functional or relational meaning. Yet, they should be included in the dictionary because (a) their functional relations, especially in collocations are unpredictable, and (b) a function word may have a lexical meaning in one context and a grammatical meaning in another. For example, the function of does in the following sentence is grammatical: he does not like to go while in a sentence such as he does his work on time the function is lexical, and (c)

function words have higher frequencies than content words. As a result, they have a larger variety of functions and greater collocational possibilities providing greater scope to sense discrimination.



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(f) Compound words

The inclusion of compound words also presents problems. The peculiarities related to their

formal and semantic characteristics should be kept in mind in considering their inclusion. Formally, the components used to form a compound are united phonetically and/or orthographically, since they are characterized by the unity of stress, intonation, spelling, hyphen, etc.

Some constituting components may not undergo any morphophonemic change while

entering into a compound. E.g. Skt. nagarbaasi ‘one who lives in city’, niikamal ‘blue lotus’, kalaratri ‘the night on which death occurs’, arunanetra ‘red eyed’, krsnavarna ‘black color’, etc. On the other hand, some components may undergo morphophonemic change while forming a compound. In such cases, the morphophonemic change is so significant that the components loose their formal identity. Such compounds are very common in the Aryan languages. E.g. Skt. dampati ‘couple’ (< jaya ‘wife’ + pati ‘husband’), etc.

Since compound words function as single lexical units, they are automatic candidates for

inclusion in the dictionary. However, longer compounds consisting of more than two or more components are not usually included in the dictionary, because their meanings are possible to infer from the meanings of the individual components. Because of this reason, a dictionary normally includes compound words made of two or three components while longer

compounds are usually avoided. In the case of some compounds, formative components do not lose their meanings so

that the meaning of the compound is equivalent to the combined meanings of its constituents, e.g. mailbox, graveyard, moviemaker, maidservant, snowfall, schoolgirl, seawater, road light, etc. On the other hand, the meaning of some compounds cannot be

deduced from the combined meanings of its components, since one or both the components may lose their original individual meaning, e.g. English chatterbox, greenhouse, sweetheart, red light, white house, etc. The Sanskrit, as well as Bengali Bahuvrihi compounds belong to this group.

(g) Affixes

Should a lexicographer include all affixes (i.e. prefix, infix, and suffix) found in a language in a dictionary or only a selected few should be considered? In the case of a general dictionary, a lexicographer does not have any option but to include all the affixes available in the language. However, to be accurate and informative, he may provide information about the

high productive nature of some affixes (e.g. English, anti-, dis-, un-, non-, etc.) with respect to other affixes which are less productive and rarely used in the language.

(h) Proverbs

Proverbs are short and familiar epigrammatic sayings that express popular wisdom, truth or

moral lessons in a concise and imaginative way. Proverbs resemble to set expressions in many respects, since their constituents cannot be interchanged, and no element can be inserted. Proverbs should be included in a dictionary because they contain many words, which are not found in the current usage of a language. Moreover, they provide information about the long heritage of the cultural milieu of a speech community. Although proverbs are not true lexical units in the same way as the set expressions and the compounds are, they are

included in a dictionary because of their referential and functional relevance to the language users.



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(i) Acronyms and Abbreviations

Most of the acronyms, abbreviations, and clippings are usually presented in the appendices

to a dictionary. But some abbreviations, which become very much the part of a language, are presented in the main body of a dictionary. Selection of acronyms and abbreviations in the main body of a dictionary is normally controlled by their recurrent use and referential function in the language. Also, the overall scope of a dictionary plays a vital role in the selection of these items.

7.5. Mode of Lexical Selection

The most common and widely accepted method of selection of entries is based on frequency. Frequency counts provide the minimum criteria for the selection of entries. The advantages of frequency count in the selection of lexical items are summarized below:

(a) Frequency counts of various linguistic elements are now available in most of the languages due to the existence of large, representative corpora of written and spoken texts. It helps a lexicographer to build up a list of the most commonly used words from language databases different types.

(b) The lists contain large numbers of lexical items, which are well known to the users. The

selection of these items is best done by way of extracting the most frequently used words from the language corpora and arranging them in a simple alphabetical order. In addition, the list is further augmented with words and other items, which are mostly unknown, rarely known and infrequent to the users of the native language.

(c) Loan words, which are adapted to the receiving language and attested by the use of

native speakers, should also be included in the list. Almost every language contains a large list of lexical items, which are borrowed from various sources. Since these loan words constitute a major part of the basic vocabulary of a language, they are automatic candidates for inclusion in the dictionary. Similar treatment may be given to the foreign words if these words pass through the stages undergone by the loanwords.

(d) The flora and fauna differ from place to place, so do the customs and rituals. The lexical units that stand for the richness of flora and fauna, customs and rituals etc. are sometimes very difficult to find in the dictionary. However, these items cannot be ignored because without them a dictionary cannot present the geographical, social and cultural aspects, which are the integral parts of the life of the people in a given a speech community.

The lexical list should include the lexical items belonging to various domains, which may be classified in a systematic way so that the dictionary can have the best representation of the lexical stock available in a language. At the initial stage the present classification of domains may help a lexicographer to select lexical items systematically: (a) earth and nature (e.g. earth, water, sky, events, geographical and astronomical items, directions, winds, weather, seasons, etc.); (b) humankind (e.g. sex, copulation, family, relationship, etc.); (c) body parts,

bodily functions and conditions; (d) diseases and cures, etc.; (e) clothing and personal adornments; (f) food and drink (methods of preparation and consumption); (g) dwelling and habitation (e.g. part of house, furniture, etc.); (h) cooking utensils, tools, weapons, etc.; (i) flora and fauna (including parts of animal anatomy, diseases, cures, etc.); (j) occupation, service, and profession (and equipment, rituals and customs connected with them); (k) road, transport and communication; (l) sense perception; (m) emotion (temperamental, moral

and aesthetic includes insults, curses etc.); (n) government, ruling, war and law; (o) religion and religious practices; (p) education and academic activities; (q) games and sports; (r) amusement and entertainment; (s) music, dance, drama and other cultural events; (t) fairs, festivals, customs, beliefs, etc.; (u) metals and minerals; (v) numerals and system of enumeration; (w) measurement of time, space, volume, weight and quantity; etc.



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This present list is not an exhaustive one. It should be treated as a reference point. Words from various domains may be elicited on the basis of this list. For example, while collecting words related to agriculture, words about different agricultural products, sowing and

harvesting, rituals and ceremonies connected with agriculture, names of different parts at different times of growth of the products, and verbs connected with different actions related to agriculture may be included in the list.

The list will also include function words including the classifiers, and the verbs, which are

used to express various physical activities, motion, gesture, communication, static condition,

cognition, sensory perception, emotion, etc. Thus a lexicographer will be able to ensure maximum lexical elicitation for his dictionary. If the word list is not exhaustive, he can probably augment the language databases to be more diversifies and multidimensional.

The obtained lexical database may be further supplemented with collection of words

from various sources such as narratives (e.g. eyewitness accounts, reminiscences, instructions,

etc.), conversations (e.g. arguments, dialogues, etc.), songs (e.g. lullabies, dirges, etc.), folktales (e.g. legends, anecdotes, proverbs, riddles, etc.), names (e.g. personal, topographic, village, etc.), calls of animals and birds (Samarin 1967: 208).

8. Dictionary Making: General Dictionary

The number of the lexical item of a living language always increases with time. Therefore, a dictionary can never include all the lexical units of a language with all their meanings, sub-meanings, and collocations. Selection of entries is determined by various factors such as size, type, and purpose of the dictionary, status and formal variation of words, different local and social variations in a language use, etc.

An entry in a dictionary usually consists of a single lexical unit along with its lexicographical description. In principle, a lexical unit, as a part of the entire lexical system of a language, is related to other lexical units. However, when it is presented separately as an independent entry form in the dictionary, it creates a universe of its own. As a unique lexical unit, it depicts its own characteristic features along with information of its denotative

representation to the external world, its semantic characteristics, its relation and uses with other lexical units in larger constructions, as well as cultural, historical and social peculiarities it represents.

One of the basic problems in lexicography is the definition of the lexical unit or

lexicographic word. Generally, a ‘lexicographic word’ is equated with a ‘linguistic word’,

since the bulk of lexical units of a dictionary are usually called ‘words’. But, in the true sense, a lexicographic word is not necessarily the same as a linguistic word. The scope of the lexicographic word is much wider than a linguistic word. A lexicographic word need not be minimum or free.

Although a dictionary is called as ‘a list of socialized linguistic forms’, all linguistic forms do

not find their place there. In order to be included in a dictionary, a linguistic item has to have an independent entity, both formal and semantic. Besides being a linguistic word, a lexicographic word can also be: (a) a letter (e.g. a, n, k, s, etc.) because of its special function in the linguistic system and the tradition of the language, (b) an affix (e.g. anti-, pseudo-, -cracy, full, -s, etc.), (c) a phrase, an idiom or a proverb, (d) a grammatical structure with many words, and (e) a sentence.

Inflected forms such as girls, benches, breads, etc. are not included unless they show

some semantic and functional peculiarity. But derivatives such as girlish, childhood, beautiful, etc. are included because they have independent meanings. Since a lexicographic word is not necessarily a free form, a bound morpheme with communicative peculiarities and

potentiality to be used in a new construction can be a lexicographic word too. Thus affixes,



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postpositions, particles, prepositions, classifiers, etc. are included in the dictionary because they form the part of the lexicon of a language and make communication possible.

In essence, the content of the entry differs according to the size and purpose of a dictionary which determines the type of definition, number of illustrative examples, and collocations. The information provided by an entry word in a learner’s dictionary is different from that in a general or reference dictionary. An entry in a historical dictionary may have special features of presenting illustrative examples from different texts elaborate treatment of etymologies, etc., which are not found in a general dictionary. An entry in a pronunciation

dictionary says nothing about sense discrimination or illustrative examples, but only provides information on the pronunciation. In a general dictionary, an entry word usually contains the following elements: headword, spelling, pronunciation, etymology, morphology and grammar, meaning (definitional, descriptive or equational), and illustrative examples (or citations).

8.1. Headwords

The lemma form of an entry word is a headword. It is also called the ‘citation form’. The form and meaning are the main criteria for the selection of a headword. For this, a ‘canonical form’ is selected from the paradigm. The basic criteria for a canonical form are related to its capacity for occurring in isolation, high frequency of occurrence, and its ability to stand for

the whole paradigm. Although the canonical forms are selected as headwords, all the forms in a paradigm

need to be examined because irregular forms (e.g. men [n. pl], bought [v, pst], written [v, ppl]. etc.) require special treatment, since they cannot be covered by the general rules of inflection. Irregular forms are included to show their relation to the canonical forms.

Generally, such forms are treated in the following way in a dictionary: the canonical form is given as the headword and irregular forms are given along with it in the entry. When the irregular forms occur at their alphabetical place, a cross-reference is made to the headword.

In addition to the form, the meaning of the lexical unit should be also kept in mind in the selection of headwords. If any form in the paradigm does not have the same meaning as that of the canonical form, the form is given a special treatment and becomes a separate entry. For instance, waters [n. pl.] as in … cast (throw) one's bread upon the waters “do a good action without requiring a reward, although later some unexpected return may come”. Similarly, lexical units with double forms, each having a slightly different lexical meaning (e.g.

brother: brothers and brethren) are given separate entries. The scientific plurals of index and formula as indices and formulae as opposed to general plural indexes and formulas are also treated in the same manner. 8.2. Spelling

After the selection of the headwords, the next problem is related to the spelling of the headwords. A language such as English, where words exhibit no variation in spelling, presents no problems in this respect. But in a language like Bengali where nearly 20% of the total vocabulary exhibit spelling variation (Dash 2005: 167-200), the selection of one particular spelling out of multiple alternatives available in the language is a serious problem.

The question that arises in this situation is: which spelling should be selected for the headword? Since there is no simple way to overcome this problem, the frequency of use of each variant in the language is the most reliable criterion. The best means to achieve this is to assemble all the words that show spelling variations from a large corpus of written text samples. In subsequent stages these variant forms are arranged in the order of frequency to



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find out which variant has the highest percentage of occurrence. Obviously, the most frequent variant form should be selected.

Although the question of grammatical validity or morphological authenticity of a particular variant may arise to challenge the selection of a particular spelling made by the statistical method, this can be ignored. If required, grammarians or etymologists can be consulted to provide the necessary guidelines for the selection of appropriate spelling of the headwords with multiple spelling variations.

8.3. Pronunciation The headword is followed by pronunciation as an optional feature, which depends on the type of dictionary. In a monolingual dictionary, this may not be necessary (no Bengali monolingual dictionary carries information about the pronunciation of the headwords) because it is assumed that readers can have their own inferences. But, in principle,

monolingual dictionaries should carry information of pronunciation because of the wide discrepancy between the written form of words and their pronunciation. In a dictionary for non-native speakers, information about pronunciation is a mandatory criterion. It cannot avoid this essential property.

Usually, information of pronunciation of headwords is given in IPA symbols. However,

since pronunciation is an important piece of information for the dictionary users, it is normally given in conventional orthography of the language. Else, people who are not acquainted with the IPA symbols will have problems to learn about the pronunciation of words. 8.4. Etymology

A general dictionary provides brief etymological information of headwords, while a historical or etymological dictionary supplies detailed etymological information. The main function of etymological information is to elucidate the origin of a headword. Also, at certain contexts, it helps to clarify the meanings of the lexical units whose meanings appear to be obscured. For instance, the Bengali word phiringirog refers to “syphilis”. A reference to its etymology informs

that the disease is introduced in Bengal by the foreigners since the meaning of phiringi refers to a ‘foreigner’.

As a matter of fact, etymology explains the original or the early meaning/s of words. In

some cases, it provides clues to understanding the obscure meanings. A general dictionary provides brief information of etymology with the help of origin-tags indicating the source

language and the source-form of the lexical unit. For instance, the Bengali word chota (< Skt. ksudra) “small”. 8.5. Morphology and Grammar

Morphological and grammatical information is also provided in the general dictionary. The

question of giving grammatical information in a dictionary has to be examined from two points of view: the quantity and type of grammatical information and the method of its presentation in a dictionary.

Morphological information refers to the morphosyntactic peculiarities of a lexical item.

Grammatical information gives only the morphologically and syntactically important

information which is related either to irregular and unpredictable forms of the lexical unit or have some bearing on the syntactical function of the lexical unit. For example, in Hindi, the form and meaning of a word do not provide any indication about its gender since gender in Hindi is entirely grammatical. As a result, it is essential for a dictionary of Hindi to give information of this type.



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Dictionaries generally give information about the transitive and intransitive features of verbs. Needless to say, a transitive verb has objects while an intransitive verb does not have it. So when a dictionary gives this information it gives the syntactical clues to the readers.

Similarly, when a dictionary provides information about countable and uncountable nouns it indicates that the uncountable nouns do not have plural forms and if they have it there lies a difference in meaning.

The grammatical information in a dictionary is determined by the nature of the structure

of a language. The simpler the grammar of a language, the lesser the grammatical

information is required. Generally, the information of irregular grammatical features is provided while the regular paradigms of words are presented in the appendix. There are different ways of providing grammatical information. The usual lexicographic practice is that all relevant grammatical information is provided either to each headword, or in the appendix, or at the introduction.

Grammatical information is provided in identificational and delimitational manner. Identificational information identifies the lexical entry. It is given with the lexical items having a full paradigm to refer to primary grammatical categories, e.g. noun, adjective, verb, etc. Delimitational information is given for lexical items, which have only partial or depleted paradigms. For example, lexical items occurring only in singular or plural forms (e.g. scissors only pl.).

8.6. Meaning

The semantic information of a lexical item is an essential part of a general dictionary. There are various methods of defining meanings. These include simple description and definition of lexical units, equations (a lexical unit is equated with another lexical unit of similar meaning),

illustrative examples, illustrative pictures, glosses, cross references, etymology, and labels. All the different types of mechanism enumerated above are not required for each lexical

unit. In some cases, only one mechanism may suffice while for others more than one may be required. For example, for a technical term, illustrative examples may not be necessary. But a

polysemous word will need many illustrations for its different meanings and sub-meanings. For borrowed words, the source or the etymology is considered essential. For a lexical unit with restricted use some indications of its restriction are useful. Some words may require being defined by their basic form or family of words by way of cross-reference.

It is always useful to define a word in more than one way, since “there should be no one

way to define a word; in defining (within certain limitations), the end justifies the means and the end should always be to convey, as accurately and succinctly as possible, the sense of the word being defined” (Urdang 1963: 587). The meaning of a lexical unit is the sum total of its interpersonal impressions in a society. So words have to be defined in all their socially accepted meanings.

Since there is no scope for personal whims and fancies, a lexicographer cannot define a word in the way he likes. He has to define a word as it exists and not as it should be. “The writing of a dictionary is therefore not a task of setting up authoritative statements about the true meanings of words, but a task of recording, to the best of ones’ ability what various words have meant to authors in the distant or immediate past. The writer of the dictionary is a historian, not a law giver” (Hayakawa 1941: 55).

8.7. Illustrative Examples and Citations

Illustrative examples are used to show how a word is used in a characteristic context. This helps to clarify and distinguish the finer shades of meaning especially in the case of

polysemous words. According to Barnhart (1978: 102-103) “The central place in the entry in



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most cases might be given to what are conventionally called ‘illustrations’… They are simply carefully selected and properly edited contexts for the entry word. What is traditionally called definitions might then be considered explanatory comment on citations, rubrics to

indicate what brings together a group of them and what peculiarities are significant. Definitions can be central only if the function of a dictionary is actually to tell what a word means. If it is rather to help the normal process of finding senses the citations must be central for they are the input in the sense discovering process”. The utility of illustrative examples is manifold:

(a) They provide evidence that a lexical unit exists in the language with a particular meaning.

(b) They help to illustrate the first and last known occurrences of a lexical unit, its typical collocations, sense discrimination, differentiation of synonyms, etc.

(c) They show grammatical categories and stylistic peculiarities of a lexical unit. (d) They help in clearly defining polysemous words. Even if a polysemous word has been

clearly defined, illustrative examples have their own significance in showing its collocational possibilities.

(e) They can clearly indicate the semantic features particular to certain synonyms in the synonymous group. In other words, sense discrimination of synonyms is known from the context given in illustrative examples.

(f) Set combinations (e.g. set phrases, idioms, and proverbs etc.) require illustrative

examples to be clearly explained. Since definition and meaning of idioms and set expressions are not adequate to explain them, illustrative examples provide reference and guides for their usage and collocational peculiarities.

(g) The examples also show syntactical peculiarities of a lexical unit. The following examples indicate accompaniment or relationship. E.g. a walk with a friend, mix one substance with other.

(h) Illustrative examples explain the meaning of the words, which function both as content and as grammatical words. Consider the use of has as a main verb (e.g. he has a book) and as a supporting verb (auxiliary?) (e.g., he has gone to London).

Regarding the use of illustrative examples, the following questions can be asked: Which

words require illustrative examples? What should be the length of the examples? Should constructed examples be used in addition to illustrations from a corpus of written texts? Should the illustrations be given with or without citations?

As a matter of fact, except a few technical terms, no lexical unit should be given without

illustrative examples. But even for technical terms, illustrative examples are useful for

disambiguating their polysemous nature or determining their particular field of usage. For instance, in English the word case as a noun in the field of medicine refers to an instance of a diseased condition (e.g. there were five cases of bird-flu in China in 2005), in the field of law it denotes the question to be decided in a law court, the statement of facts etc. (e.g. when the case will come before the court), and in the field of grammar it refers to the form of a noun or pronoun that shows its relation to another word (e.g. Sanskrit has seven case system).

Illustrative examples should be self-sufficient and understandable without any outside

help. The length of an illustrative example depends on the type of dictionary. Shorter dictionaries can give short or reduced examples only highlighting the use of the lexical units. Large dictionaries can give full sentences as illustrative examples. In some cases, it is not unusual to find quotations longer than a sentence.

Illustrative examples can be constructed or obtained from the existing texts. In historical

dictionaries, where lexical presentation is governed by examples illustrating the development of form and meaning, examples are normally taken from texts from different periods. In general dictionaries, illustrative examples are usually obtained from different texts, and if



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suitable illustrative examples are not found, they can sometimes be constructed (with large electronic corpora this is less and less necessary and maybe not even acceptable anymore).

9. Conclusion

With a long history of continuous research and development, the art and craft of dictionary making have been modified in many ways with the addition of new aspects and features. Yet, we are not in a position to claim that the field is at its final level of saturation. In fact, the introduction of computer technology in the realm of dictionary making has opened up many

new possibilities, which were beyond our introspection even a century ago. We assume the functional utility will be much enhanced after the traditional printed dictionary of all kinds is converted into electronic form. There will be a time when dictionary users will be much reluctant to access printed dictionaries, since their daily course of academic activities will be, to a certain extent, controlled by way of direct access to the dictionaries available in electronic form. Starting from the language teaching to simple query about various aspects

of words people will be more inclined towards electronic dictionaries since their needs will be addressed in a far better way by electronic dictionaries than it has been done so far by printed dictionaries. To reach to that stage, however, we need a concerted effort combined with all kinds of help and support from the people directly and indirectly related to this field. Acknowledgments:

I dedicate this work in memory of Late R.A Singh, probably the first Indian scholar who made a valuable contribution by way of writing a theoretical book on lexicography with close reference to Indian languages. I honestly and humbly declare that some sections have drawn heavily from his book entitled An Introduction to Lexicography (1982).

Glossary

Descriptive Dictionary: It describes lexical items used in a language in all possible details.

Since it does not exercise any restriction in the choice of vocabulary, lexical items acquired from all possible sources of language use are collected and compiled in

simple alphabetical order (also known as a referential dictionary). Dialect dictionary: It usually covers word stock of particular geographical, regional or social

variety. These words are not usually available in a standard dictionary. Dictionary of abbreviation and acronym: It includes abbreviations and acronyms commonly

found in a language. Dictionary of antonym: It covers words, which are considered to belong in opposite meaning

relationship. Dictionary of collocation: It includes common collocations and words with potential for being

collocated with headwords. Dictionary of frequency: It presents the frequency of lexical units. It is usually based on a

special corpus of texts and is useful in the preparation of children’s dictionaries, learner’s dictionaries, teaching materials, etc.

Dictionary of homonym: It presents homonymous forms found in a language. The list may include homographic and homophonous forms.

Dictionary of neologism: It presents new words introduced in a language as well as new meanings acquired by old words.

Dictionary of paronym: It includes cognate words from languages, which are etymologically or typologically related. It may also include paronyms from two distantly related or

unrelated languages. Dictionary of phrases: It presents detailed information about phrasal units often

accompanied with illustrative examples. Dictionary of proverbs and idioms: It is compiled in a similar fashion to include proverbs and

idioms used in a language or a variety.



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Dictionary of slang, jargon, argot: It usually contains a highly closed set of lexical items used by a class of people belonging to a particular group, clan, profession, or activity.

Dictionary of spelling: It provides information about the correct spelling of words with their

phonetic variants. Dictionary of synonym: It presents synonyms or near synonyms of a language. It helps users to

find nuances of meaning of particular words in terms of their relations to other members of the group.

Dictionary of technical terms: It includes technical and scientific terms used in science and technology of a language.

Dictionary of usage: It aims at providing guidelines for correct and standard use of words and phrases. It is highly normative in character.

Dictionary: It is a “book that deals with the individual words of a language (or certain specified class of them) so as to set forth their orthography, pronunciation, signification and use, their synonyms, derivation, and history, or at least some of these facts; for convenience of reference the words are arranged in some stated order,

now in most languages, alphabetical, and in larger dictionaries the information given in illustrated by quotations from literature”. Oxford English Dictionary

Encyclopedia: An encyclopedia is often made in several volumes to give information on many subjects, or on many aspects of one subject, usually arranged in alphabetical order. It is concerned with concepts and objects from the extralinguistic world. Therefore, in a narrow sense, it may be called ‘a book of things’.

Encyclopedic Dictionary: It presents both linguistic as well as encyclopedic information of headwords included in it. While linguistic information includes a list of linguistic features related to pronunciation, spelling, definitional meaning, etymology, grammatical information, usage, illustration, etc., encyclopedic information covers information related all other branches of human knowledge.

Etymological Dictionary: It attempts to presents origin, form, and usage of lexical units from

etymological perspectives. Words included in it differ greatly from those of a general dictionary with regard to their parent form, etymological meaning, primary use, etc.

Etymology: It relates to the origin of words. Also, at certain contexts, it helps to clarify meanings of lexical units whose meanings appear to be obscured.

Exegetic dictionary: It is based on texts of one or more author(s). It may cover particular

works or complete works of an author. Function word: Function words have no referent. They have no lexical meaning. They have

only functional or relational meaning. General Dictionary: A general dictionary aims at covering most, if not all, words of a

language. It contains words, which are of general use and which represent various spheres of life.

Grammar: It presents a description of regular and predictable forms and rules of a language.

Grammatical dictionary: It is a guidebook for understanding correct grammatical systems and patterns of a language.

Headword: The lemma form of an entry word is a headword. It is also called the ‘citation form’. The form and meaning are the main criteria for the selection of a headword.

Historical Dictionary: It presents a systematic study on the changes that affect the lexical units during their life in a language. In order to reflect the changes in the structure and meaning of words, it explores the earliest available resources to trace their first occurrence and meaning.

Ideographic or ideological (also called systemic dictionary): It presents words, which are semantically related. Words are grouped according to their internal relation of

underlying concepts. Learner’s Dictionary: It helps learners in their process of learning a language - either first or

second language. It serves to deal with many common and simple words, which will posit problem to foreign language learners.



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Lexicography: It is an art of writing a dictionary or the science of compiling a dictionary. It studies words as elements of a system. It approaches words as individual units with respect to their meaning and usage.

Lexicology: It deals with origin and development of form and meaning of lexical units in a particular language across the time scale.

Loanwords Dictionary: It provides a wider coverage to deal with the stock of loanwords found in a language. While dealing with a loanword, it tries to trace its immediate source of borrowing, related forms available in source language as well as their original meanings in the source language.

Monolingual Dictionary: In a monolingual dictionary, all entry words along with their definitions and meanings are given in the same language. The term ‘monolingual’ refers to language only, irrespective of the information provided in the dictionary.

Normative Dictionary: It covers words that are considered standard in a language. Lexical entries are usually selected from works of contemporary literature, science, arts and humanities, commerce, medicine, technology, newspapers, magazines, etc., which

are considered representative of the standard form. Polysemy: A kind of feature in which a word illustrates different meanings and sub-meanings. Pronunciation dictionary: It usually records the contemporary pronunciation of words. It is also

normative in nature usually consulted in order to learn the correct pronunciation of words.

Proverbs: Proverbs are short and familiar epigrammatic sayings that express popular wisdom,

truth or moral lessons in a concise and imaginative way. Referential Dictionary: It describes lexical items used in a language in all possible details.

Since it does not exercise any restriction in choice of vocabulary, lexical items acquired from all possible sources of language use are collected and compiled in a simple alphabetically sorted manner (also known as a descriptive dictionary).

Reverse dictionary: Here all entries are arranged in alphabetical order of their terminal letters.

Rhyming dictionary: It is designed as a tool to help composers to compose verses.

Bibliography

Arnold, I.V. (1973) The English Word. Moscow: Vysaya Skola. [It deals with form, nature, usage and meaning of English words]

Ayto, J. (1990) Dictionary of Word Origin. London: Blumsberry. [A useful book that deals with the origin of nearly two thousand English words]

Barnhart, C. (1978) “American lexicography”. American Speech. Pp. 83-140. [It emphasizes on the history and uniqueness of lexicographical works in America]

Béjoint, H. (2000) Modern Lexicography: An Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [An introductory book on various issues and aspects of dictionary compilation and use]

Béjoint, H. (1994) Tradition and Innovation in Modern English Dictionaries. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [A good book that presents interesting studies on the history of traditional lexicographic works along with special reference to the modern innovative ways adopted for dictionary compilation]

Bloomfield, L. (1933) Language. New York: Holt, Rinehart. [Perhaps, it needs no introduction. It deals will almost all the traditional areas of linguistics in descriptive point of view]

Coleman, J. and C.J. Kay (Eds.) (2000) Lexicology, Semantics, and Lexicography: Selected Papers from the 4th G.L. Brook Symposium. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. [An anthology that includes interesting articles dealing with lexicology, semantics, and lexicography with close reference to corpora]

Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English (1998) Oxford: Oxford University Press. Dash, N.S. (2005) Corpus Linguistics and Language Technology. New Delhi: Mittal

Publications. [The only book is written so far in the area of corpus linguistics with close reference to Indian languages. Highly useful for those working in the area of corpus linguistics, language technology, and machine translation]



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Doroszewski, W. (1973) Elements of Lexicology and Semiotics. Mouton: The Hague. [It fabricates a nice discussion to explore the interface between lexicology and semiotics]

Gleason, H.A.(1967) “The relation of lexicon and grammar”. In, Householder F.W. and S. Saporta (Eds.) Problems in Lexicography. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Pp. 85-102. [Interesting exploration between lexicon and grammar to understand the position of lexicon in grammar and lexicography]

Hartmann, R.R.K. (Ed.) (1983) Lexicography: Principles and Practice. London: Academic Press. [A must read the book in the area of lexicography. All the important areas of

lexicography are addressed in depth and with insight] Hartmann, R.R.K. (Ed.) (2003) Lexicography: Critical Concepts. London: Routledge (Taylor

and Francis). 3 Volumes. [A highly useful collection of nearly seventy-two seminal papers ever written by the masters of the craft of dictionary compilation]

Hausmann, F.J., O. Reichmann, H.E. Wiegand and L. Zgusta (Eds.) (1989-91) Dictionaries: An International Encyclopaedia of Lexicography. Vols.1-3. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

[Another interesting book that deals with various types of dictionaries compiled in all major languages of the world. A highly useful reference]

Hayakawa, S.I. (1941) Language in Thought and Action. New York: Harcourt Brace and World Inc. [An interesting discussion about the colorful interplay of mind, thought, and language in the process of human cognition and communication]

Householder F.W. and S. Saporta (Eds.) (1962) Problems in Lexicography. Bloomington IN:

Indiana University Research Center for Language and Semiotic Studies. [Another useful book that deals with the problems a dictionary maker often faces while trying to compile a dictionary – either general or special kind].

Ilson, R.F. (Ed.) (1986) Lexicography: An Emerging International Profession. Manchester: Manchester University Press. [It focuses on lexicography as a profession that opens up scope for survival and growth for the new generation of linguists. Also, it provides

some basic ideas about the techniques of dictionary compilation] Jackson, H. (1985) “Grammar in the dictionary”. In Ilson, R. (Ed.) Dictionaries, Lexicography

and Language Learning. London: Pergamon Press. Pp. 53-64. [It deals with role and relevance of grammar in dictionary compilation]

Jackson, H. (1988) Words and Their Meaning. London: Longman. [It is a book more in the

nature of lexicology rather than lexicography. If explores the interface between form and meaning that often plagues lexicographers]

Jackson, H. (2002) Lexicography: An Introduction. London: Routledge. [An interesting and useful introductory book in the area of dictionary making. A must read for the professionals]

Katre, S.M. (1980) “Current trend in Indian lexicography”. In, Zgusta, L. (Ed.) Theory and

Method in Lexicography: Western and non-western Perspectives. Columbia, SC: Hornbeam Press. Pp. 177-189. [Simple and precise description about the present lexicographical works in Indian languages after a short description of the history of Indian lexicography]

Landau, S.I. (2001) Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography. (2nd Ed.) Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Perhaps, the best book I have ever read in the area of

lexicography. In a captivating narrative technique, the author addresses all the major issues of dictionary compilation including with the use of electronic corpora in the work]

Malkiel, Y. (1967) “A typological classification of dictionaries on the basis of distinctive features”. In, Householder, F.W. and S. Saporta (Eds.) Problems in Lexicography. The Hague: Mouton. Pp. 3-24. [It deals with classification of dictionaries in various types

with regard to their formation, content, and target users] McDavid, R.I. and A.R. Duckert (Eds.) (1973) Lexicography in English. New York: Academy of

Sciences. [It carries detailed descriptions of the history and present activities of lexicographical works in the English language]

Nafisi, S. (1999) “Persian dictionaries”. In, Shahidi, S.J. and M. Mo’in (Eds.) Preface to the

Dehkhoda Encyclopedic Dictionary. Vol. I. Tehran: Tehran University Press. Pp. 189-190.



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[Short but interesting description about the history and classification of Persian lexicographical works]

Samarin, W.J. (1967) Field Linguistics. New York: Holt, Reinhart and Winston. [It is a text-cum-

guide book for language data elicitation, processing, analysis, and interpretation needed in dialectology, lexicography, etc. Useful for the beginners in field methods]

Shcherba, L.V. (1995) “Towards a general theory of lexicography”. International Journal of Lexicography. 8(4): 314-350. [It is an attempt at presenting a general frame of lexicographic works taking into account all broader aspects related to it]

Shiqi, X. (1982) “Chinese lexicography: past and present”. Dictionaries: Journal of the

Dictionary Society of North America. 4: 151-169. [Another short yet interesting description about the history of Chinese lexicographical works]

Singh, R.A. (1982) An Introduction to Lexicography. Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages. [Perhaps, it is the first book written in India to address all basic aspects of lexicography with reference to English and Indian languages]

Taherian, A. (1998) “Lexicography and lexicocomputing in the Persian language”. In,

McArthur, T. and I. Kernerman (Eds.) Lexicography in Asia. Tel Aviv: Password. Pp. 143-148. [It carries interesting and insightful discussion about the use of computer in lexicographical works in the Persian language]

Urdang, L. (1963) “Review of Problems in Lexicography”. Language. 39: 586-594. [It is one of the most insightful writings to address the problems and hurdles of dictionary compilation]

Vera, D.E.J. (Ed.) (2002) A Changing World of Words: Studies in English Historical Lexicography, Lexicology, and Semantics. Amsterdam: Rodopi. [A fascinating book that compiles several articles exploring the change of form and meaning of words across time]

Wright, J. (1898-1905) English Dialect Dictionary. London: Oxford University Press. [One of the first dictionaries that analyze a large set of words collected from the British dialects of

late 19th century] Zgusta, L. (1973) “Lexicology, generating words”. In, McDavid, R.I. and A.R. Duckert (Eds.)

Lexicography in English. New York: Academy of Sciences. Pp. 14-28. [It deals with patterns of lexical generation and the status of words in the realm of lexicology]

Zgusta, L., et al. (1971) Manual of Lexicography. The Hague: Mouton and Company. [It is one

of the seminal works which is highly referred to in any discussion of lexicography. A must read for all lexicographers]

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THE ART OF LEXICOGRAPHY