Kolomna State Teacher-Training Institute
Report on the course:
Introduction to the Contemporary English Philology
Theme: Lexicography as a science of dictionary-making
Student:
Gavrilin M
Year 1 Term 2
Faculty of foreign languages
Group 11/2
Teacher of a foreign language:
Akhrenova N.A.
Kolomna
2007
Contents
Introduction
1. Lexicography as a science
2. Dictionary: notion, functions, classification, components
3. The characteristics of Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced
Learners
Ending
List of used literature
Introduction
It’s well known that we can’t imagine studying any language in the world
without such an important thing as a dictionary. It’s obvious that it
plays the most leading role in studying a language. But there’s such a
problem as what kind of a dictionary we must choose to improve our
speech skills day by day.
This report is devoted to the lexicography as a science of
dictionary-making. The pursuit of lexicography is divided into two
related disciplines:
Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and
editing dictionaries.
Theoretical lexicography is the scholarly discipline of analyzing and
describing the semantic relationships within the lexicon (vocabulary) of
a language and developing theories of dictionary components and
structures linking the data in dictionaries. This is sometimes referred
to as met lexicography.
A person devoted to lexicography is called a lexicographer, famously
defined in Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language (1755) as
“A writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge that busies himself in
tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words”.
General lexicography focuses on the design, compilation, use and
evaluation of general dictionaries, i.e. dictionaries that provide a
description of the language in general use. Such a dictionary is usually
called a general dictionary or LGP dictionary. Specialized lexicography
focuses on the design, compilation, use and evaluation of specialized
dictionaries, i.e. dictionaries that are devoted to a (relatively
restricted) set of linguistic and factual elements of one or more
specialist subject fields, e.g. legal lexicography. Such a dictionary is
usually called a specialized dictionary or LSP dictionary.
There is some disagreement on the definition of lexicology, as distinct
from lexicography. Some use “lexicology” as a synonym for theoretical
lexicography; others use it to mean a branch of linguistics pertaining
to the inventory of words in a particular language.
It is now widely accepted that lexicography is a scholarly discipline in
its own right and not a sub-branch of linguistics.
The theme of the report is actual because any pupil, student and even
experienced teacher whose activity is closely connected with studying or
teaching a language constantly needs a good dictionary which can always
help at any time.
So the object of the investigation is lexicography as a science. The
subject of investigation is dictionary-making itself.
There’re the following aims of the investigation: to show the importance
of dictionary-making in modern linguistics, to study the history of
lexicography and its modern development, to make out the dictionary its
notion, functions, classification and components, to characterize the
Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners as an example of a
dictionary of good quality.
1. Lexicography as a science
The theory and practice of compiling dictionaries is called
lexicography.
In other words it is the art and craft of writing dictionaries.
The Erya, from the early 3rd century BC, was the first Chinese language
dictionary. The book organized Chinese characters by semantic groups.
The intention of this dictionary was to explain the true meaning and
interpretation of words in the context of older ancient texts.
One of the earliest dictionaries known, and which is still extant today
in an abridged form, was written in Latin during the reign of the
emperor Augustus. It is known by the title De Significatu Verborum (“On
the meaning of words”) and was originally compiled by Verrius Flaccus.
It was twice abridged in succeeding centuries, first by Sextus Pompeius
Festus, and then by Paul the Deacon. Verrius Flaccus’ dictionary was an
abridged list of difficult or antiquated words, whose usage was
illustrated by quotations from early Roman authors.
The word “dictionary” comes from neoclassical Latin, dictio, meaning
simply “word”.
The history of compiling dictionaries for English comes as far back as
The Old English period, where we can find glosses of religious books.
Regular bilingual dictionaries began to appear in the 15th century.
These dictionaries were Anglo-Latin, Anglo-German, Anglo-French.
The first true English dictionary was Robert Cawdrey’s Table
Alphabetical of 1604, although it only included 3,000 words and the
definitions it contained were little more than synonyms. The first one
to be at all comprehensive was Thomas Blount’s dictionary Glossographia
of 1656.
In 1721 an English scientist and writer Nathaniel Bailey published the
1st etymological dictionary which explained the origin of English words.
It was called Universal Etymological English Dictionary. Bailey’s
entries are fuller, compared with the glosses in the hard-word books,
and there’re more of them (as many as 60, 000 in the 1736 edition), but
his definitions lack illustrative support, and he gives little guidance
about usage.
The history of lexicography is dominated by the names of 3 figures:
Samuel Johnson, Noah Webster and James A. H. Murray. The role played by
the first two in the Early Modern English period of the language was
very significant. Their influence continues today – directly, in the
case of Webster, through the series of dictionaries which bear his name;
and indirectly, in the case of Johnson, through the tradition which led
the Philological Society to sponsor a «new» English dictionary.
In 1755 an English scientist Samuel Johnson compiled a famous
explanatory dictionary which was called A Dictionary of the English
language. Over a seven-year period, Johnson wrote the definitions of
40,000 words, illustrating their use from the best authors since the
time of the Elizabethans. Although Johnson was fewer entries than
Bailey, his selection is more wide-ranging, and his lexicological
treatment is far more discriminating and sophisticated.
The book, according to his biographer Boswell, «conferred stability» on
the language – and at least with respect to spelling (where most of
Johnson’s choices are found in modern practice).The alphabetical section
of Johnson’s Dictionary is preceded by a famous Preface in which he
outlines his aims and procedures:
When I took the 1st survey of my undertaking, I found our speech copious
without order, and energetic without rules: wherever I turned my view,
there was perplexity to be disentangled, and confusion to be regulated…
Having therefore no assistance but from general grammar, I applied
myself to the perusal of our writers; and noting 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 reduced to method…
The preliminaries also include a short history of the language, with
long extracts from earlier authors, and a grammar, much influenced by
the work of John Wallis, with sections on orthography and prosody. But
it is in the Preface, often anthologized as an independent text, that we
find an unprecedented statement of the theoretical basis of a dictionary
project. The statement is notable for its awareness of the realities of
the lexicographer’s task, and also for its descriptive intention – an
interesting change of opinion from the prescriptive attitudes Johnson
expressed in his 1747 Dictionary plan. There he had written: «The chief
intent is to preserve the purity and ascertain the meaning of our
English idiom». The Preface, by contrast, stresses that his aim is «not
form, but register the language»; and it is this principle which
introduces a new era in Lexicography.
The Johnsonian Method.
This page illustrates several features of the approach Johnson outlines
in his Preface:
1. Most of the definitions are appropriate and consistent between
entries;
2. He plays special attention to the different senses of a word – five,
in the case of eternal;
3. There’s a copious use of quotations to support a definition – 116,000
in all;
4. He routinely identifies parts of speech;
5. He shows the most strongly stressed syllable in a headword by an
accent;
6. There’s an openness of approach;
7. He includes topical explanations of some words;
8. A wide range of ordinary words are included alongside technical
terms;
9. It includes, in the «hard-words» tradition, many cumbersome Latinate
forms, such as cubicula, estuation, whose status within English was
doubtful;
10. His creations are highly selective, chosen more for their literary
or moral value than for their linguistic clarity;
11. Several of his definitions use difficult words, such as reciprocates
in estuary;
12. Several of his definitions have become famous for their
subjectivity.
Some Johnsonian Definitions.
There’re not many truly idiosyncratic definitions in the Dictionary, but
some have become famous.
LEXICOGRAPHER – a writer of dictionary, a harmless drudge, that busies
himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of
words.
EXCISE – a hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the
common judges of property, but wretches hired by those to whom excise is
paid.
OATS – a grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in
Scotland supports the people.
PATRON – one, who countenances, supports or protects.
PENSION – an allowance made to anyone without an equivalent. In England
it’s generally understood to mean pay given to a state hireling for
treason to his country.
His definitions sometimes got him into trouble. He was threatened with
libel over excise, and much lampooned over pension.
So Johnson’s Dictionary was the first attempt at a truly principled
lexicography. It portrayed the complexity of the lexicon and of English
usage more accurately than ever before; and his quotations initiated a
practice which has informed English dictionaries ever since. The
dictionary influenced normalization of the English vocabulary but at the
same time it helped to preserve the English spelling in its conservative
form.
In 1857 the Philological Society of Great Britain, noting the
inadequacies of the English dictionaries then available, adopted the
decision to compile a dictionary including all the words existing in the
language from Anglo-Saxon times.
Twenty six years later in 1884 the first volume was published; it
contained words ginning with A and B. The editor of this dictionary was
James A. H. Murray. The aim was to produce a 4-volume work in a period
of 10 years; but after 5 years, Murray and his colleagues had managed to
complete only the section A-ANT; it was 352 pages, and sold for 62 Ѕ p
in modern money. It was evident that the dictionary was a much greater
work than had been envisaged. Additional editors were appointed and the
last volume was published in 1928, the dictionary was called NED (New
English Dictionary). It contained 12 volumes, comprising 15,487 pages
and covering 414,825 lexical items.
In 1933 the dictionary was republished under the title «The Oxford
English Dictionary» because the work on this dictionary was conducted at
Oxford. The dictionary contained 13 volumes. Work on the dictionary
recommended in1957, with the appointment of R.W. Burchfield to edit a
new supplement. This appeared in 4 volumes between 1972 and 1986, and
included the content of the 1933 work: it added 5,732 pages to the
dictionary, and nearly 70,000 further lexical items.
As it was large and very expensive scientists continued their work and
made shorter editions of the dictionary. The shorter Oxford dictionary
contained the same number of entries but far less examples from
literature. They also compiled a Concise Oxford Dictionary. It contained
only one volume and no examples at all.
American lexicography began to develop much later at the end of the 18th
century. The most famous American dictionary was compiled by Noah
Webster. In 1828 he published a two volume dictionary (70,000 words),
which was called American Dictionary of the English language. He tried
to simplify English spelling and transcription. The work greatly
improved the coverage of scientific and technical terms, as well as
terms to do with American culture and institutions and added a great
deal of encyclopedic information. A new feature was the introduction of
Webster’s own etymologies – though the speculative nature of many of
these was an early source of unwelcome criticism. The spellings were
somewhat more conservative than those used in the 1806 book. Its
pronunciations were generally provincial in character – those of
Webster’s own New England. The label «American» in the title is more a
reflection of the works of American authors referred to than of its
uniquely American lexicon. Indeed, at one point Webster observed that
«there were not 50 words in all which were used in America and not in
England». On the other hand, nearly half of the words he did include are
not to be found in Johnson’s Dictionary, which added considerable force
to his claim that he was giving lexicography a fresh direction.
Despite its weaknesses and its critics, the American Dictionary made
Webster a household name in the USA. It was fiercely attacked in Britain
for its Americanism especially in matters of spelling and usage; but the
work was crucial in giving to US English an identity and status
comparable to that given to the British English lexicon by Dr Johnson.
Indeed, it’s difficult to appreciate today the impact which Webster’s
Dictionary made at the time, and just how authoritative the book was
perceived to be. After Webster’s death (1843), the rights were purchased
by George and Charles Merriam, and later editions have appeared under
the name of Merriam-Webster. A revision in 1847 was edited by Webster’s
son-in-law, Chauncey A. Goodrich. Several dictionaries within this
tradition appeared in the following decades, via the Webster’s
International Dictionary of 1890 to the Webster’s New International
Dictionary of 1909, with a second edition in 1934. The 3rd edition
appeared in 1961, edited by Philip B. Gove, based on a collection of
over 6 million citations of usage, and dealing with over 450,000 words.
This edition prepared over a 10-year period, took up 757 editor-years,
and proved to be highly controversial. Three supplements later appeared
– of 6,000 words (1976), 89,000 words (1983), and 12,000 words (1986),
and a CD is also available. Outside of this tradition, many other
publishers have come to use the «Webster» name for their dictionaries
and word-books.
The largest dictionary in the world is “het Woordenboek der Nederlansche
Taal (WNT)” (the Dictionary of the Dutch language). It took 134 years to
create the dictionary (1864 – 1998). It consists of approximately
400,000 words on 45805 pages in 92000 columns.
A Brief History of English Lexicography
(1) Latin and French GlossariesYearAuthor /EditorDictionarySize
/Type1440ParvulorumStorehouse [of words] for children or
clericsEnglish-Latin1476CaxtonPrinting in
EnglandEnglish-Latin1480CaxtonFrench-English
GlossaryFrench-English1499CaxtonPromptorium”hard words”1500Hortus
VocabularumGarden of WordsLatin-English1533John WithalsA Short
Dictionary for Yong BeginnersEnglish-Latin1538Sir Thomas ElyotDictionary
(Bibliotheca Eliotae)Latin-English1565Thomas CooperThesaurus of the
Roman Tongue and the BritishFrench-English(2) Early English
Dictionaries: The Seventeenth CenturyYearAuthor /EditorDictionarySize
/Type1552Richard HuloetAbecedarium
Anglo-LatinumEnglish-Latin-(Fr.)1582Richard MulcasterElementary8,000
words1588Thomas ThomasDictionarium Linguae Latinae et
AnglicanaeLatin-English1598John FlorioA World of
WordsItalian-English1604Robert CawdreyA Table Alphabetical2,500
words1616John BullokarAn English Expositor5,000 words1623Henry
CockeramThe English Dictionary3 parts1656Thomas
BlountGlossographia1658Edward PhillipsThe New World of English
Words1673Thomas BlountA World of Errors Discovered in the New World of
Words1676Elisha ColesAn English Dictionary25,000 words(3) The Beginning
of Modern Dictionary Practice: The Eighteenth CenturyYearAuthor
/EditorDictionarySize /Type1702John KerseyA New English Dictionary28,000
words1704John HarrisAn Universal English Dictionary of Arts and
Sciences1706John KerseyPhilips’s New World of English Words38,000
words1721Nathan BaileyAn Universal Etymological English Dictionary40,000
words1727Nathan BaileyAn Universal Etymological English Dictionary
Volume II2 parts1728Ephraim ChambersAn Universal Dictionary of Arts and
Sciences1730Nathan BaileyDictionarium Britannicum48,000 words1747Samuel
JohnsonPlan of a Dictionary of the English Language1749Benjamin
MartinLingua Britannica Reformata1755Samuel JohnsonA New Universal
English Dictionary40,000 words(4) Dictionaries of the Eighteenth and
Nineteenth CenturiesYearAuthor /EditorDictionary1757James
BuchananLinguae Britannicae1764William JohnstonPronouncing and Spelling
Dictionary1764John EntickSpelling Dictionary1773William KenrickA New
Dictionary of the English Language1780Thomas SheridanA General
Dictionary of the English Language1783Noah WebsterThe American Spelling
Book1791John WalkerCritical Pronouncing Dictionary and Expositor of the
English Language1818Henry ToddJohnson’s Dictionary1820Albert
ChalmersTodd-Johnson with Walker’s Pronunciations1828Joseph E.
WorcesterChalmers’s Dictionary1828Noah WebsterAn American Dictionary of
the English Language1830Joseph WorcesterComprehensive Pronouncing and
Explanatory Dictionary of the English Language1837Charles RichardsonA
New Dictionary of the English Language (cf. OED)1841Noah WebsterAn
American Dictionary of the English Language new edition1846Joseph
WorcesterUniversal and Critical Dictionary of the English
Language1857Richard Chenevix TrenchSome Deficiencies in Our English
Dictionaries (cf. OED)1860Joseph WorcesterA Dictionary of the English
Language1864Noah PorterA Dictionary of the English Language1882Charles
AnnandaleThe Century Dictionary1890George and Charles
MerriamInternational Dictionary 1893Funk & WagnallsStandard Dictionary
of the English Language(5) Dictionaries of the 20th Century YearAuthor
/EditorDictionary1909George and Charles MerriamInternational
Dictionary1913Funk & WagnallsNew Standard Dictionary of the English
Language1927The New Century Dictionary1928Oxford English
Dictionary1934Webster’s New International Dictionary1938Irving Lorge &
Edward ThorndikeA Semantic Count of English Words1947American College
Dictionary1947Funk & WagnallsNew College Standard1953David Guralnik &
Joseph FriendWebster’s New World Dictionary of the American
Language1961Philip Babcock GoveWebster’s Third New International
Dictionary1963Philip Babcock GoveWebster’s Seventh New Collegiate
Dictionary1966Random HouseThe Random House Dictionary of the English
Language1968Random HouseRandom House Dictionary, College Edition (Random
House College Dictionary)1969American Heritage Dictionary1973Webster’s
New Collegiate Dictionary1983Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary
2. Dictionary: notion, functions, classification, components
If we speak about the dictionary as a linguistic term, it is a list of
words with their definitions, a list of characters, or a list of words
with corresponding words in other languages. Many dictionaries also
provide pronunciation information; grammatical information; word
derivations, histories, or etymologies; illustrations; usage guidance;
and examples in phrases or sentences. Dictionaries are most commonly
found in the form of a book, but more and more dictionaries are produced
as software runs from electronic PDA or a general purpose computer. Most
dictionaries are produced by lexicographers.
Since words and their meanings develop over time, dictionary entries are
organized to reflect these changes. Dictionaries may either list
meanings in the historical order in which they appeared, or may list
meanings in order of popularity and most common use.
Dictionaries also differ in the degree to which they are encyclopedic,
providing considerable background information, illustrations, and the
like, or linguistic, concentrating on etymology, nuances of meaning, and
quotations demonstrating usage.
Any dictionary has been designed to fulfill one or more functions. The
dictionary functions chosen by the maker(s) of the dictionary provide
the basis for all lexicographic decisions, from the selection of entry
words, over the choice of information types, to the choice of place for
the information (e.g. in an article or in an appendix). There are two
main types of function. The communication-oriented functions comprise
text reception (understanding), text production, text revision, and
translation. The knowledge-oriented functions deal with situations where
the dictionary is used for acquiring specific knowledge about a
particular matter, and for acquiring general knowledge about something.
The optimal dictionary is one that contains information directly
relevant for the needs of the users relating to one or more of these
functions. It is important that the information is presented in a way
that keeps the lexicographic information costs at a minimum.
All dictionaries are divided into linguistic and encyclopedic.
Encyclopedic dictionaries describe different objects, phenomena and
people and give some information about them.
Linguistic dictionaries describe vocabulary units, their semantic
structure, their origin and their usage; words are usually given in the
alphabetical order.
Linguistic dictionaries are divided into general and specialized
dictionaries.
General dictionaries include explanatory (monolingual) and translation
(bilingual) dictionaries.
In explanatory (monolingual) dictionaries the entry consists of the
spelling, transcription, grammatical forms, meanings, examples,
phraseology.
Translation (bilingual) dictionaries give words and their equivalents in
the other language.
Specialized dictionaries include dictionaries of synonyms, antonyms,
collocations, word frequency, slang, neologisms; etymological,
pronouncing, phraseological and other dictionaries.
Specialized dictionaries (also technical dictionaries) focus on
linguistic and factual matters relating to specific subject fields. A
specialized dictionary may have a relatively broad coverage, e.g. a
picture dictionary, in that it covers several subject fields such as
science and technology (a multi-field dictionary), or their coverage may
be more narrow, in that they cover one particular subject field such as
law (a single-field dictionary) or even a specific sub-field such as
contract law (a sub-field dictionary). Specialized dictionaries may be
maximizing dictionaries, i.e. they attempt to achieve comprehensive
coverage of the terms in the subject field concerned, or they may be
minimizing dictionaries, i.e. they attempt to cover only a limited
number of the specialized vocabulary concerned. Generally, multi-field
dictionaries tend to be minimizing, whereas single-field and sub-field
dictionaries tend to be maximizing.
Phraseological dictionaries describe idioms, colloquial phrases and
proverbs. Some of them have examples from literature.
Etymological dictionaries trace present-day words to the oldest forms of
these words and forms of these words in other languages.
Pronouncing dictionaries record only pronunciation.
Dictionaries of neologisms contain newly appearing words.
Anybody learning a foreign language knows the value of a good
dictionary.
We all know how useful a bilingual dictionary can be in providing a
quick translation for something when we don’t know a simple concrete
word which translates easily. On the other hand a good well-organized
monolingual dictionary can help a lot.
Let’s begin by looking at meaning. You know that one word can have a
whole range of different meanings, some of them very similar to each
other and some completely different. Which definition should you choose?
Well, the first way in which a dictionary can help is by listing
meanings so that the most common or frequent comes first, and at least
common comes last. A good dictionary will also provide example sentences
for each of the different meanings; it can solve a lot of problems if
you can see how the word is actually used in a sentence.
The example sentence should also help with understanding the way the
word combines with other words in a sentence. For example, you can’t
really use a verb unless you know that it should be followed by a gerund
or an infinitive or «that» clause or whatever.
Another important thing is the use of certain preposition after some
adjectives which a dictionary will prompt to you. Besides, dictionaries
give examples of common compounds and phrases which include the word
you’ve looked up.
The example sentences can give you quite a lot of information about the
grammar of the word you’re interested in; but it isn’t the only way in
which a dictionary provides grammatical information. A dictionary will
indicate to what word class a word belongs. A well-thought-out
dictionary will also have a system of abbreviations or symbols to tell
you, for example, whether a noun is countable, whether a verb is
transitive or intransitive and so on. You won’t be able to use a word
correctly in a sentence unless you know the answers to such questions.
English is famous for its unpredictable spellings and a dictionary is
obviously going to be very useful here. A dictionary will tell you
whether this spelling is British or American. You can even find out
whether a verb has an irregular past tense or whether an adjective has
an irregular comparative form.
The phonetic alphabet is used in dictionaries to tell you about the
pronunciation of a word, and a special indication will help you get the
stress in the right place.
List of major English dictionaries:
The Penguin English Dictionary
Merriam-Webster Dictionary
Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (descriptive)
Random House Dictionary of the English Language
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
Webster’s New World Dictionary
Oxford English Dictionary (descriptive)
Concise Oxford Dictionary
New Oxford Dictionary of English
New Oxford American Dictionary
Canadian Oxford Dictionary
ITP Nelson Canadian Dictionary
Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary Samuel Johnson’s A
Dictionary of the English Language (prescriptive)
Noah Webster’s An American Dictionary of the English Language
(prescriptive)
The Century Dictionary
Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable
Macquarie Dictionary, The, a dictionary of Australian English
Chambers Dictionary
Collins COBUILD
Collins English Dictionary
Gage Canadian Dictionary
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Black’s Law Dictionary, a law dictionary
3. The characteristics of Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced
Learners
The Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners was conceived,
compiled and edited by the Reference and Electronic Media Division of
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. Managing editor is Michael Mayor. The
Dictionary was printed and bound in Malaysia in 2002.
The Dictionary includes words on the basis of their use in the language
today. Some words are identified as being trademarks or service marks.
Neither the presence nor absence of such identification in this
Dictionary is to be regarded as affecting in any way, or expressing a
judgement on, the validity or legal status of any trademark, service
mark, or other proprietary rights anywhere in the world.
The definitions in the Macmillan English Dictionary have been based on
information derived from 200 million words of English which make up the
World English Corpus.
The Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners is a linguistic
dictionary because it describes vocabulary units, their semantic
structure, their origin and their usage; words are given in the
alphabetical order.
It is a general, explanatory (monolingual) dictionary. The entry
consists of the spelling, transcription, grammatical forms, meanings,
examples, phraseology.
As for the components or the structure of this Dictionary it’s the
following:
Some words have more than acid1 / / noun **one entry because they
belong 1[С/U] a chemical substance with to a different word class ala PH
value (= a measure used in chem-although they are spelt the same. istry)
of less than 7: hydrochloric acidThe small number at the end of –
compare ALKALIthe headword tells you that 2 [U] informal the illegal
drug LSDthere’s more than one entry for this word.acid2 / / adj 1 very
sour: ACIDIC: Add more sugar if it tastes too acid. 2 containing acid
or consisting of an acid: ACIDIC: These plants prefer an acid soil. 3 an
acid remark or acid humour shows criticism in a way that is clever but
cruel: ACERBIC. Compound words are separate ‘acid?house noun [U] a style
of entries in the alphabetical list. HOUSE music that developed in the
US in the mid-1980s and became very popular in the UK in the late 1980s
where it was played at RAVE parties Some words are shown at the acidify
/ / verb [I/T] to be -end of the entry for the word come an acid, or
cause a substance to from which they are derived.become an acid –
acidification / / noun [U] Some words are used in idioms bat your
eyes/eyelashes to open and or other fixed expressions. close your eyes
very quickly several These expressions are shown at times, intending to
be attractive to the end of the main entry. someonego to bat for smb
mainly Am E in – formal to give someone your support and helpnot bat an
eyelid to not be shocked, worried, or upset by something Phrasal verbs
are shown after bat a’round phrasal vb [T] to dis -the entry for the
main verb.cuss ideas or plans in an informal way Many words have more
than dolly / / noun [C] 1 informal a one meaning. When meanings DOLL 2 a
flat structure with wheels are very different, they are for moving heavy
loads or for sup -shown as separate senses with porting a film camera ?
CORN numbers.DOLLY Some words have many differ -bleed / / ( past tense
and past par – ent meanings, and so the en -ticiple bled / / ) verb
*tries can be long. Entries with1 when blood flows outfive or more
meanings have a 2 make smb pay money‘menu’ at the top.3 when colour
spreads4 take liquid/ gas from smth5 take blood from smb The
International Phonetic Al -commerce / / noun [U] **phabet shows how a
word is the activity of buying and selling pronounced.goods and
services: TRADE: the needs of industry and commerce When British and
American pro -basil / ; Am E / noun [U] nunciations are very different,
a plant whose sweet leaves are used in both are given.salads and
cooking, especially in dishes containing tomato. Basil is a herb. Stress
marks tell us which part ‘cabin Нcrew noun [C] the people on a of a
compound to stress when we plane whose job is to look after the pas –
are saying it.sengers Irregular inflections are shown.do1 / / (3rd
person singular does / weak ; strong /; past tense did / /; past
participle done / / verb *** Some words are printed in red convince / /
verb [T] ***with a star rating to show their 1 to make someone believe
that some -frequency. For example, a word thing is truewith one star is
fairly common and a word with three stars is one blank1 / / adj **of the
most basic words in Eng -1 blank paper or a blank space is empty lish.
and contains embarrass / / verb [T] *1 to make someone feel nervous,
ashamed, or stupid Italic words (called ‘labels’) show bus1 / / noun [C]
***which part of the English-speaking1 a large road vehicle with a lot
of seats world is used in, or tell us whether that you pay to travel on,
especially one it is used in informal contexts, that takes you fairly
short distances and specialized contexts etc.stops frequently: by bus
The children go to school by bus. miss the bus If we don’t leave soon,
we’ll miss the last bus. 1a mainly Am E A COACH2 computing a set of
wires that send information from one part of a computer system to
another Sometimes a word that is used aubergine / / noun [C/U] Br only
in British English has an ex – E a vegetable with a smooth dark purple
act equivalent in American Eng -skin and white flesh. Am E eggplant
lish. These equivalents are shown at the end of a definition. Example
sentences in italic basis / / (plural bases / /) show us how a word is
used in noun [C] *** context.1 a particular method or system for doing
or organizing something: on a … basis workers who are employed on a
seasonal or temporary basis.Information about collocation -on the basis
of smth Don’t make your how words combine and which decision on the
basis of cost alone.structures can be used with a word. When a word has
many collocations,Words frequently used with basis these are shown in a
box at the end verbs: constitute, create, establish, form, of the
entry.lay, provide, serve as There’s information about the use Both
above and over can be used to of a word in practice. mean ‘at a higher
level than something’: the light above/over the door.Use above when
something is not di -rectly over something else: on the hillside above
the river.Use over when something moves or stretches across the space
above some -thing: flying over London, the bridgeover the river.
There’re hints which help us to avoid If you take something that someone
of -common errors.fers you or if you allow something to happen, you
accept it: We accepted her offer of help.If you say that you are willing
to do something, you agree to do it: She agreed to work at the
weekend.You accept something, but you agree to do something. There’re
notes that tell us about the Cinderella / / noun [C origin of a
word.usually singular] 1 someone or something that has good qualities
but is treated badly or ignored: Primary education has long been the
Cinderella of the education service.Cinderella is the main character in
a fa -mous children’s story. She is a poor girl, badly treated by her
stepsisters but, in the end, thanks to the power of magic, she isable to
marry the rich attractive Prince Charming. There’re definitions which
introduceaddress1 / / noun [C] ***us to related words.1 the name of the
place where you liveor work, including the house or office number and
the name of the street, area, and town. It may also include a set of
numbers and letters, called a postcode in British English and a zip code
in Ameri -can English. Sometimes the opposite of a word obedient / /
adj *doing what a is shown.person, law, or rule says you must do: The
children stood in a little group, dis -ciplined and obedient. – opposite
DISOBEDIENTSome definitions give us synonyms.booking / / noun [C] **1 an
arrangement to buy a travel ticket, stay in a hotel room etc at a later
date: RESERVATION: Holiday bookings are up 20% on last year.Except of
all the components of this Dictionary we can also single out such
elements as: Language Awareness( the information about numbers, phrasal
verbs, Academic English, metaphor, computer words, pragmatics, spoken
discourse, sensitivity, British and American English, Business English
and word formation) and different illustrations on various topics:
House, Kitchen, Office, Clothes and patterns, Motorway and Types of
vehicle, Transport, Car, Trees, plants and flowers, Fruit, Vegetables,
Animals, Sports, Gym and Games.
Ending
In this work we succeeded in achievement of all the aims that we had had
at the beginning of our investigation: to study the history of
lexicography and its modern development, to make out the dictionary its
notion, functions, classification and components, to characterize the
Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners as an example of a
dictionary of good quality. So we proved the importance of
dictionary-making in modern linguistics.
So General lexicography focuses on the design, compilation, use and
evaluation of general dictionaries, i.e. dictionaries that provide a
description of the language in general use. In other words it is the art
and craft of writing dictionaries.
So we can’t imagine our studying or work without lexicography because
any pupil, student and even experienced teacher whose activity is
closely connected with studying or teaching a language constantly needs
a good dictionary which can always help at any time.
The material of this report can be used by anybody who is interested in
lexicography as a science and wants to know more about dictionary-making
itself.
List of used literature
1. David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language
(Second Edition) – Cambridge University Press, 2003.
2. Weiner E.S.C., The Oxford Miniguide to English Usage – OUP, 1987.
3. Lyons J., New Horizons in Linguistics – Lnd., 1970.
4. Longman Essential Activator, 1997.
5. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 1996.
6. Arnold I.V., English Word – Moscow, 1973.
7. Benson M, Benson E, The BBI Combinatory Dictionary of English
Language – Amsterdam, 1986.
8. Borisova L.M., Fomenko O.V., Introduction to English Philology –
Kolomna, 2004.
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