Lexicography Flashcards
Lexicography
Lexicography is the art of writing and editing dictionaries; the practice of arranging and describing
components of vocabulary in such works of reference as dictionaries, glossaries, thesauruses.
dictionaries are the result of
alphabetic lexicography
thematic lexicography
where words are arranged by themes, topics
the most important result of thematic lexicography
is Roget’s Thesaurus
ROGET’S THESAURUS full title
ROGET’S THESAURUS OF ENGLISH WORDS AND PHRASES
ROGET’S THESAURUS is written by……. published in……
by Peter Mark Roget, published in 1852 by Longman
The classification of the THESAURUS
is hierarchical, with six major headings:
1. ABSTRACT RELATIONS
2. SPACE
3. MATTER
4. INTELLECT
5. VOLITION
6. AFFECTIONS
In the 1982/1987 editions, AFFECTIONS have been replaced by EMOTION, RELIGION AND MORALITY.
- Each of these six headings is further divided,
e.g.: 1. ABSTRACT RELATIONS is subdivided into: EXISTENCE, RELATION, QUANTITY, ORDER, NUMBER, TIME, CHANGE, CAUSATION.
Dictionaries generally give some/all of the following information:
a. headword and any variants, sometimes with syllabication marked and
homograph status indicated
b. pronunciation
c. grammatical information and usage labels (often in the form of abbreviations or codes)
d. number of senses
e. explanations proper
f. possible illustrative phrases or sentences
g. etymology
h. compounds, derivatives, phrasal verbs, and idioms
i. information about synonyms and antonyms.
Dictionaries generally give some/all of the following information:
a. headword and any variants, sometimes with syllabication marked and
homograph status indicated
b. pronunciation
c. grammatical information and usage labels (often in the form of abbreviations or codes)
d. number of senses
e. explanations proper
f. possible illustrative phrases or sentences
g. etymology
h. compounds, derivatives, phrasal verbs, and idioms
i. information about synonyms and antonyms.
The beginning of English lexicography
– the glossaries of Anglo-Saxon priests; these glossaries were meant to help those who did not have the ability to read Latin texts
glossary
was a list of Latin words (difficult Latin words) with their English correspondents
the first important step in the tradition of English lexicography
alphabetization
the earliest English glossary
Corpus Glossary (8th century)
the first monolingual dictionary
Robert Cawdrey’s A Table Alphabeticall…of hard usuall English wordes (1604)
The most important work ever published is
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), earlier known as A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (NED).
