The most burning issues of lexicography are connected with the selection of head-words, the arrangement and contents of the vocabulary entry, the principles of sense definitions and the semantic and functional classification of words.
In the first place it is the problem of how far a general descriptive dictionary, whether unilingual or bilingual, should admit the historical element. For the purpose of a dictionary, which must not be too bulky, selection between scientific and technical terms is also a very important task. Dictionary-makers should attempt to improve and stabilise the English vocabulary according to the best classical samples and advise the readers on preferable usage. When the problem of selection is settled, there is the question as to which of the selected units have the right to a separate entry and which are to be included under one common head-word. These are the questions of separateness and sameness of words. The first deals with syntagmatic boundaries of word-units and has to solve such questions as whether each other is a group of two separate words to be treated separately under the head-words each and other, or whether each other is a unit deserving a special entry compare also: one another. Need such combinations as boiling point, carbon paper, department store, phone box be sub-entered under their constituents If so, under which of them Or, perhaps, it will be more convenient for those who use the dictionary if these were placed as separate main entries consisting of a nominal compound or a phrase. As to the sameness, this deals with paradigmatic boundaries. E.g.: the word may be a noun and a verb.
Chamberss Twentieth Century Dictionary combines them under one head-word, i.e. it takes them as variants of the same word. The problem is even more complicated with variants belonging to the same part of speech. The arrangement of the vocabulary entry presents many problems, of which the most important are the differentiation and the sequence of various meanings of a polysemantic word. In editing new dictionaries the lexicographers cannot depend only on the scholarly editions. In order to meet the demands of their readers, they have to sample the reading of the public for whom the dictionary is meant. A synchronic dictionary should also show the distribution of every word. It has been traditionally done by labelling words as belonging to a certain part of speech, and by noting some special cases of grammatically or lexically bound meanings. Many dictionaries indicate the different stylistic levels to which the words belong: colloquial, technical, poetical, rhetorical, archaic, familiar, vulgar or slang, and their expressive colouring: emphatic, ironical, diminutive, facetious. A third group of lexicographic problems is the problem of definitions in a unilingual dictionary. The explanation of meaning may be achieved by a group of synonyms which together give a fairly general idea; but one synonym is never sufficient for the purpose, because no absolute synonyms exist. Definitions serve the purpose much better. If they are only concerned with words as speech material, the definition is called linguistic. If they are concerned with things for which the words are names, they are termed encyclopaedia. The meaning of the word may be also explained by examples, i.e. contextually. The term and its definition are here fused.
