KolomnaState Teacher-Training Institute
Reporton the course:
Introductionto the Contemporary English Philology
Theme:Lexicography as a science of dictionary-making
Student:
GavrilinM
Year1 Term 2
Facultyof foreign languages ​​
Group11/2
Teacherof a foreign language:
AkhrenovaN.A.
Kolomna
2007
Contents
Introduction
1. Lexicography as a science
2. Dictionary: notion, functions, classification,components
3. The characteristics of Macmillan English Dictionaryfor Advanced Learners
Ending
List of used literature
Introduction
It's wellknown that we can't imagine studying any language in the world without such animportant thing as a dictionary. It's obvious that it plays the most leadingrole in studying a language. But there's such a problem as what kind of adictionary we must choose to improve our speech skills day by day.
This report isdevoted to the lexicography as a science of dictionary-making. The pursuit oflexicography is divided into two related disciplines:
Practicallexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries.
Theoreticallexicography is the scholarly discipline of analyzing and describing thesemantic relationships within the lexicon (vocabulary) of a language anddeveloping theories of dictionary components and structures linking the data indictionaries. This is sometimes referred to as met lexicography.
A persondevoted to lexicography is called a lexicographer, famously defined in SamuelJohnson's Dictionary of the English Language (1755) as "A writer ofdictionaries; a harmless drudge that busies himself in tracing the original,and detailing the signification of words ".
Generallexicography focuses on the design, compilation, use and evaluation of generaldictionaries, i.e. dictionaries that provide a description of the language ingeneral use. Such a dictionary is usually called a general dictionary or LGP dictionary.Specialized lexicography focuses on the design, compilation, use and evaluationof specialized dictionaries, i.e. dictionaries that are devoted to a (relativelyrestricted) set of linguistic and factual elements of one or more specialistsubject fields, e.g. legal lexicography. Such a dictionary is usually called aspecialized dictionary or LSP dictionary.
There is somedisagreement on the definition of lexicology, as distinct from lexicography.Some use "lexicology" as a synonym for theoretical lexicography; othersuse it to mean a branch of linguistics pertaining to the inventory of words ina particular language.
It is nowwidely accepted that lexicography is a scholarly discipline in its own rightand not a sub-branch of linguistics.
The theme ofthe report is actual because any pupil, student and even experienced teacherwhose activity is closely connected with studying or teaching a language constantlyneeds a good dictionary which can always help at any time.
So the objectof the investigation is lexicography as a science. The subject of investigationis dictionary-making itself.
There're thefollowing aims of the investigation: to show the importance ofdictionary-making in modern linguistics, to study the history of lexicographyand its modern development, to make out the dictionary its notion, functions,classification and components, to characterize the Macmillan English Dictionaryfor Advanced Learners as an example of a dictionary of good quality.
1. Lexicographyas a science
The theory andpractice of compiling dictionaries is called lexicography.
In other wordsit is the art and craft of writing dictionaries.
The Erya, fromthe early 3rd century BC, was the first Chinese language dictionary. The bookorganized Chinese characters by semantic groups. The intention of this dictionarywas to explain the true meaning and interpretation of words in the context ofolder ancient texts.
One of theearliest dictionaries known, and which is still extant today in an abridgedform, was written in Latin during the reign of the emperor Augustus. It isknown by the title De Significatu Verborum ("On the meaning ofwords ") and was originally compiled by Verrius Flaccus. It was twiceabridged in succeeding centuries, first by Sextus Pompeius Festus, and then byPaul the Deacon. Verrius Flaccus 'dictionary was an abridged list of difficultor antiquated words, whose usage was illustrated by quotations from early Romanauthors.
The word"Dictionary" comes from neoclassical Latin, dictio, meaning simply"Word".
The history ofcompiling dictionaries for English comes as far back as The Old English period,where we can find glosses of religious books. Regular bilingual dictionariesbegan to appear in the 15 th century. These dictionaries were Anglo-Latin,Anglo-German, Anglo-French.
The first trueEnglish dictionary was Robert Cawdrey's Table Alphabetical of 1604, although itonly included 3,000 words and the definitions it contained were little morethan synonyms. The first one to be at all comprehensive was Thomas Blount'sdictionary Glossographia of 1656.
In 1721 anEnglish scientist and writer Nathaniel Bailey published the 1 st etymologicaldictionary which explained the origin of English words. It was called UniversalEtymological English Dictionary. Bailey's entries are fuller, compared with theglosses in the hard-word books, and there're more of them (as many as 60, 000in the 1736 edition), but his definitions lack illustrative support, and hegives little guidance about usage.
The history oflexicography is dominated by the names of 3 figures: Samuel Johnson, NoahWebster and James A. H. Murray. The role played by the first two in the EarlyModern English period of the language was very significant. Their influencecontinues today - directly, in the case of Webster, through the series of dictionarieswhich bear his name; and indirectly, in the case of Johnson, through thetradition which led the Philological Society to sponsor a В«newВ» English dictionary.
In 1755 anEnglish scientist Samuel Johnson compiled a famous explanatory dictionary whichwas called A Dictionary of the English language. Over a seven-year period,Johnson wrote the definitions of 40,000 words, illustrating their use from thebest authors since the time of the Elizabethans. Although Johnson was fewerentries than Bailey, his selection is more wide-ranging, and his lexicologicaltreatment is far more discriminating and sophisticated.
The book,according to his biographer Boswell, В«conferred stabilityВ» on the language -and at least with respect to spelling (where most of Johnson's choices arefound in modern practice). The alphabetical section of Johnson's Dictionary ispreceded by a famous Preface in which he outlines his aims and procedures:
When I tookthe 1 st survey of my undertaking, I found our speech copious withoutorder, and energetic without rules: wherever I turned my view, there was perplexityto be disentangled, and confusion to be regulated ... Having therefore no assistancebut from general grammar, I applied myself to the perusal of our writers; andnoting whatever might be of use to ascertain or illustrate any word or phrase,accumulated in time the materials of a dictionary, which, by degrees, I reducedto method ...
Thepreliminaries also include a short history of the language, with long extractsfrom earlier authors, and a grammar, much influenced by the work of JohnWallis, with sections on orthography and prosody. But it is in the Preface,often anthologized as an independent text, that we find an unprecedentedstatement of the theoretical basis of a dic...
