Lexicography

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…so it has a theoretical and practical value being aimed at compiling dictionaries. Lexicography is typically referred to applied linguistics. because its product (the dictionary) serves the aims of better communication and translation. Both lexicography and lexicology have one common object of studies which is the vocabulary of the given language or languages. The general aim of lexicography is semantic and functional description of words. The formal peculiarities of the described lexical units are also relevant here. Hence each dictionary is an attempt of a more or less complete description of the given type of units. At the same time dictionaries are unable to achieve a truly systematic description of words which is the aim of lexicology.

Neither of these two branches of linguistics could develop without the other one. This lexicography is based on the principles of systematization and classification of words, produced by lexicology, and lexicology often uses as the basic empiric material of its studies the results of lexicographic systematizations.

The basic product of lexicology is the dictionary, which can be defined as a book or a software product listing words, usually together with their meanings and various data, regarding their grammar functions, origin, combining abilities, participation in the formation of idioms, etc., but some dictionaries concentrate their attention upon only one of these aspects, the result being pronunciation, etymological, explanatory and other dictionaries.

Another view upon the dictionaries may be that from the position of the number of languages, involved in them. And here we may have:

1. unilingual or explanatory dictionaries,

2. bilingual or translation dictionaries,

3. multilingual or polyglot dictionaries.

Both unilingual and bilingual dictionaries may be general and special. The former tend to represent the vocabulary as a whole, and the degree of their completeness only depends on the volume of the book itself.

Special or specialized dictionaries may be further subdivided according to the sphere of human activity they describe. So they may be technical, economic, medical, agricultural, sport and other dictionaries.

While the technical ones, for example, may be subdivided into aviation, computer, transport, machinery and other dictionaries.

According to the types of units we may have dictionaries of idioms, slang, dialectal dictionaries, etc. According to the relations existing between the units there are dictionaries of synonyms, antonyms and homonyms.

Finally all dictionaries may be classified into linguistic and non-linguistic ones. The non-linguistic dictionaries are those offering information on practically all branches of the human knowledge. They are called encyclopedic dictionaries or encyclopedias. The basic difference they make is that they do not deal with words but with facts and concepts. The best known English-language encyclopedias are Encyclopedia Britannica, the last edition containing more than 40 volumes, and Encyclopedia Americana, consisting of approximately 50 books.

English lexicography is know to be the richest and best-developed in the world due to the long time of its development and with respect to the variety and scope of the dictionaries published. In fact a dictionary is the most widely used reference book in English homes, schools, editorial houses and business offices.

Dictionary entries are usually arranged in an alphabetical order. Sometimes derivatives and compounds may be given under the same headword. Some general dictionaries may also contain recommendations on how to use the dictionary and the phonetic data and grammar references on the peculiarities of the language concerned. Sometimes separately may be given lists of abbreviations, personal names, toponyms, which are in other cases included in the dictionary bulk.

Types of dictionaries

	Unilingual	bi-/multi-lingual
General	Explanatory	English-Russian, Russian-English, English-Russian-German-French, phrase books
	Etymological, frequency, phonetic, rhyming, thesauruses*
Special	Glossaries** of terminology, concordances***. Dictionaries of abbreviations, synonyms, antonyms, borrowings, neologisms, proverbs, toponyms, etc.	Dictionaries of terminology. Dictionaries of abbreviations, idioms, proverbs, synonyms, etc.
	Dictionaries of American English, dialects, slang, etc.	Dictionaries of Old English, Middle English with explanations in Modern English or any other national language.

*Thesaurus (derived from Lat. thesaurus – “treasury”) – a thematic dictionary supplying a reader with the words by which one definite idea may be completely expressed.

**Glossary – a dictionary or rather a list of words dealing only with difficult or rare units used in the text or the book.

***Concordance – a dictionary, recording the complete vocabulary of a definite author. The best known English example is The Dictionary of Shakespeare’s language.