![]() ![]() ![]() The smallest units are normally special dictionaries and so-called word lists, which are too small or narrowed to justify themselves being called dictionaries ( Zgusta 1971, p. They try to cover a vast amount of texts and words of languages as opposed to small dictionaries, which have a low generative power and a reduced vocabulary. “Size” is a traditional but also confusing term as we merely talk about the degree of completeness or density of a dictionary and not the number of pages.Įxamples of dictionaries with great exhaustiveness are thesauruses. Is it written for children, adults, scholars, etc.? Each group has its own expectations and needs which have to be taken into considerationįurthermore, we should have a look at the size of a dictionary. Of course, it is essential to consider which groups a dictionary is aimed at. They often have a prescriptive character. Zgusta mentions pedagogical dictionaries which restrict themselves to information that a learner is expected to need, e.g. The factor purpose is to be considered as a powerful one in dictionary making. Monolingual dictionaries like the Oxford Advanced Learner` s Dictionary belong to this category, too. Mostly dictionaries like these are made for people learning English as a foreign or second language and are therefore called EFL or ESL dictionaries. There are monolingual dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries and, although rather infrequently, dictionaries including more than two languages. The counterpart of this type of dictionary is the general dictionary, which focuses on the general standard national language in use.Īn important dimension of classifying dictionaries is the number of languages dealt with. The focus of restriction can be on almost everything: semantic properties, etymological roots, geographical areas and many more. Dictionaries of loan-words, idioms and various others also belong to this large group. There is a great variety of restricted dictionaries dealing for example with dialects, slang, jargons and their lexicon or the words and terms used by an author or in a special work, the word indexes or concordances. Secondly, we have to distinguish between general and restricted dictionaries.Īuthors of restricted dictionaries narrow their view to a certain part of the lexicon or other features of a language. Synchronic dictionaries deal with the language and its word-stock at a certain point in time, for example in the Early Modern period or the Present Day English period, although this definition bears methodical problems when one considers that language is in change every day and used differently by everyone. So we can subsume historical and etymological dictionaries under this category. The first differentiation, Ladislav Zgusta makes is between diachronic dictionaries and synchronic ones.ĭiachronic dictionaries are mainly concerned with the history and development of the form and meaning of words. Let us now take a look at the categories he chose. ![]() In his book Manual of Lexicography, Ladislav Zgusta tried to create a possibility to categorize dictionaries better. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |