Lexicography is the theory and practice of compiling dictionaries.
The most important problems faced by lexicographers are:
(1) the selection of lexical units for inclusion;
(2) their arrangement;
(3) the selection and arrangement of word-meanings;
(4) the definition of meanings;
(5) illustrative material;
(6) supplementary material.
1. The selection of units for inclusion
Should we include / the dictionary contain foreign words? technical terms? archaic words? new words? dialectisms? slang words, etc?
2. Arrangement of entries
When the problem of arrangement is settled there arises the question which of the selected units have the right to a separate entry and which are to be included under the headword,The number of entries also depends on how dictionary compilers solve the problems of polysemy and homonymy and regularly formed derivatives with such affixes as -er, -ly, -ness, -ing.
The order of arrangement of the entries is different in different types of dictionaries. The order may be (a) alphabetical and (b) the cluster-type order, i.e. words of the same root, or close in their denotational meaning, or in their frequency value are grouped together.
3. The number of meanings and their choice depend on:
1) the aim the dictionary compilers set themselves;
2) how they treat obsolete, dialectal, highly specialized meanings, how they solve the problem of polysemy and homomymy.
There are three different ways of arranging word-meanings:
1) historical order, i.e. meanings are arranged in the order of their historical development (from the earliest to the most recent ones);
2) actual (or empirical) order, i.e. meanings are arranged according to their frequency value (the most common ones come first);
3) logical order, i.e. meanings are arranged to show their logical connection.
4. Meanings may be defined in different ways:
1) by means of encyclopedic definitions
2) by means of descriptive definitions or paraphrases;
3) with the help of synonymous words and expressions;
4) by means of cross-reference.
5. Illustrative examples raise the following questions:
1) when are examples to be used?
2) what words may be listed without any illustrations?
3) should they be made up or borrowed from books and/or periodicals? (In diachronic dictionaries quotations are used and they are carefully dated).
4) How much space should they occupy?
6. The supplementary material appended to the dictionary may be:
1) material of linguistic nature pertaining to the vocabulary (e.g. geographical names, foreign words, standard abbreviations);
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material of encyclopedic nature (may include lists of colleges, universities, tables of weights and measures, military ranks, etc.).
All dictionaries are divided into encyclopedic and linguistic. Linguistic dictionaries are word-books. Their subject-matter is lexical units and their linguistic properties (pronunciation, meaning, usage, etc.).
Encyclopedias are thing-books, giving information about the extralinguistic world. They deal with objects, phenomena and concepts. Encyclopedic dictionaries give both types of information.
Linguistic dictionaries can be classified by different criteria:
1) According to the nature of their word-list they are general and restricted.
General dictionaries contain lexical units in ordinary use in different spheres of communication.
Restricted dictionaries make their choice from a certain part of the vocabulary,
e.g. phraseological dictionaries, dialectal dictionaries, dictionaries of new words, terminological dictionaries and so on.
2) According to the information supplied dictionaries may be explanatory and specialized.
Explanatory dictionaries provide information on all aspects of lexical units (graphical, grammatical, etymological, stylistic, semantic, etc.).
Specialized dictionaries deal with only some aspect of lexical units,
e.g. English Pronouncing Dictionary by Daniel Jones.
3) According to the language in which information is given dictionaries may be: monolingual end bilingual (translation).
4) According to the prospective user dictionaries are divided into those meant for scholars (e.g. etymological dictionaries), for language learners/students (e.g. Oxford Student's Dictionary of Current English by A.S. Hornby) and for the general public (e.g. The Concise Oxford Dictionary).
