Dictionary

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A selection of special purpose dictionaries

A dictionary is a book of alphabetically listed words in a specific language, with definitions, etymologies, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of alphabetically listed words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon.

In many languages, words can appear in many different forms, but only the undeclined or unconjugated form appears as the headword in most dictionaries. Dictionaries are most commonly found in the form of a book, but some newer dictionaries, like StarDict and the New Oxford American Dictionary on Mac OS X, are dictionary software running on PDAs or computers. There are also many online dictionaries accessible via the Internet.

History

As far as archaeologists have been able to determine, Ancient Mesopotamians were the first to create dictionaries, carving cuneiform words and their Akkadian equivalents on clay tablets. Other ancient dictionaries include the Shuowen Jiezi from China and a Greek lexicon (specifically a list of words used by Homer, and their meanings) was written by Apollonius the Sophist.

A multi-volume Latin dictionary in the University Library of Graz.

The earliest European dictionaries were bilingual dictionaries. These were glossaries of French, Italian or Latin words, along with definitions of the foreign words in English. An early non alphabetical list of 8000 English words was the Elementarie created by Richard Mulcaster in 1592. Daniel Webster also made a dictionary in the 1700's, and a very popular line of English dictionaries carries his name to this day.

The first purely English alphabetical dictionary was A Table Alphabeticall, written by English schoolteacher Robert Cawdrey in 1604. It was eight years ahead of the first Italian dictionary and thirty-five years ahead of the French. Conversely, it is eight hundred years after the first Arabic, and almost one-thousand years after the first Sanskrit in India. The only surviving copy is found at the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Yet this early effort, as well as the many imitators which followed it, was seen as unreliable and nowhere near definitive. It wasn't until Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language (1755) that a truly noteworthy, reliable English Dictionary was deemed to have been produced, and the fact that today many people still mistakenly believe Johnson to have written the first English Dictionary is a testament to this legacy. By this stage, dictionaries had evolved to contain textual references for most words, and were arranged alphabetically, rather than by topic (a previously popular form of arrangement, which meant all animals would be grouped together etc.). Johnson's masterwork could be judged as the first to bring all these elements together, creating the first 'modern' dictionary.

Johnson's Dictionary remained the English-language standard for over 150 years, until the Oxford University Press began writing and releasing the Oxford English Dictionary in short fascicles from 1884 onwards. It took nearly 50 years to finally complete the huge work, and they finally released the complete OED in 12 volumes in 1928. It remains the most comprehensive and trusted English language dictionary to this day, with revisions and updates added by a dedicated team every three months.

Purpose

Dictionaries exist primarily as reference material on a particular language or languages. In modern times dictionaries are often used to the reference the correct spelling, pronunciation, etymology, meaning and/or usage of a particular word. Bi-lingual dictionaries are often consulted to reference one words equivalent in another language (i.e., a Spanish-English dictionary will often give the Spanish translation of English words, and vice versa, but not necessarily give the word's meaning). More academic uses of dictionaries include records of languages, either to trace the roots and evolution of a particular language, or to document those languages that are dying or are extinct.

Organization

Dictionaries can vary widely in coverage, size, and scope. A maximizing dictionary lists as many words as possible from a particular speech community (e.g., the Oxford English Dictionary), whereas a minimizing dictionary exclusively attempts to cover only a limited selection of words from a speech community (e.g., a dictionary of Basic English words). The word order of dictionaries depend upon the language it is based upon. Most languages with alphabetic and syllabic writing systems, such as English, French, Italian and Italian, list words in lexicographic order, usually alphabetical or some analogous phonetic system. In dictionaries of some other languages, most notable Hebrew, Sanskrit, and Arabic, words are grouped together according to their root word, with the roots being arranged alphabetically (If English dictionaries were arranged like this, the words "import," "export," "support," "report," "porter," "important" and "transportation" would theoretically be listed under the Latin "portare," "to carry." This method has the advantage that all words of a common origin are listed together, but the disadvantage is that one has to know the roots of the word before one can look it up.)

While most of Japanese and Korean dictionaries are arranged according to their phonetic writing (kana syllabic script for the Japanese, and hangul alphabet for the Korean), the main body of modern Chinese dictionaries mostly is ordered according to the latin alphabet with the pinyin spelling ; but most Chinese dictionaries have an appendix ordering entries accordance to the Chinese logographic writing system, in order to allow readers to find words written in logograms whose pronunciation is not known. Chinese characters may be sorted according to one of many schemes based on the component parts of the characters (radicals, number of strokes, overall shape).

Dictionaries for languages for which the pronunciation of words is not apparent from their spelling, such as the English language, usually provide the pronunciation, often using the International Phonetic Alphabet. For example, the definition for the word dictionary might be followed by the (American English) phonemic spelling: /ˈdɪkʃəˌnɛri/. English dictionaries, however, often use other systems, such as the English Phonemic Representation system, in which the pronunciation of dictionary is given as [dĭk'shə-něr'ē]. Yet others use an ad hoc notation; for example, dictionary may become [DIK-shuh-ner-ee].

Issues

Dictionaries function as a record and reference for a particularly language, yet there are times when a dictionary can actually affect the lexicon of the language it is trying to document. One of the clearest examples is the debate between how words are recorded in the dictionary.

Dictionary makers apply two basic philosophies to the defining of words: prescriptive or descriptive. Noah Webster, intent on forging a distinct identity for the American language, altered spellings and accentuated differences in meaning and pronunciation of some words. This is why American English now uses the spelling color while the rest of the English-speaking world prefers colour. (Similarly, British English subsequently underwent a few spelling changes that did not affect American English) Large 20th-century dictionaries such as the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and Webster's Third are descriptive, and attempt to describe the actual use of words.

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A dictionary open at the word "Internet," viewed through a lens

While descriptivists argue that prescriptivism is an unnatural attempt to dictate usage or curtail change, prescriptivists argue that to indiscriminately document "improper" or "inferior" usages sanctions those usages by default and causes language to "deteriorate." Although the debate can become very heated, only a small number of controversial words are usually affected. But the softening of usage notations, from the previous edition, for two words, ain't and regardless, out of over 450,000 in Webster's Third in 1961, was enough to provoke outrage among many with prescriptivist leanings, who branded the dictionary as "permissive."

The prescriptive/descriptive issue has been given so much consideration in modern times that most dictionaries of English apply the descriptive method to definitions, while additionally informing readers of attitudes which may influence their choices on words often considered vulgar, offensive, erroneous, or easily confused. Merriam-Webster is subtle, only adding italicized notations such as, sometimes offensive or nonstand (nonstandard.) American Heritage goes further, discussing issues separately in numerous "usage notes." Encarta provides similar notes, but is more prescriptive, offering warnings and admonitions against the use of certain words considered by many to be offensive or illiterate, such as, "an offensive term for..." or "a taboo term meaning..."

Specialized dictionaries

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Picture dictionaries explain concepts from soup-tureen in the 1904 Engelska bild-glosor med textöfningar … to supersonic transport in the 1998 Visual Encyclopedia.

There are several different types of specialize dictionaries that focus on specific groups of words or areas of specialized interest.

For example, Black's Law Dictionary the definitive law dictionary first published in 1891. Founded by Henry Campbell Black, it is the most widely-used law dictionary for the law of the United States, having been cited as legal authority in many Supreme Court. The first edition was published in 1891, and the second edition in 1910, long before the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary was completed in 1928.

Data dictionaries

Data sets and databases collected and utilized for statistical analyses are typically accompanied by, or able to be used to generate, a list of all variable names used within the data set, as well as matters such as their meaning, values, level of measurement, length, decimal allowances, and type (numeric, string, etc.)

Glossaries

Another variant is the glossary, an alphabetical list of specific terms and words. Often glossaries are found as an appendix to books on a specific subject, such as a science text book, although books that have been published for wide circulation, (usually non-fiction) may have a glossary for readers who are not necessarily familiar with words or terms used in the writing.

Sometimes a glossary exists as its own publishing, intended for use in a specialized field, such as medicine and law dictionaries, which used words and terms that have been specially added to the lexicon for use in those areas of interest. Usually such terms are not used often in the general lexicon outside of those specialized areas and therefore contain words and phrases not found in other dictionaries.

On-line dictionaries

Since the internet revolution of the mid 1990s, schools and companies have been creating dictionary databases that can be accessed via the interview. At first, most of these internet dictionaries were merely electronic copies of already existing dictionaries; later however, completely new dictionaries were appearing on the internet with no hard-copy correlate. Some of these dictionaries are free to any user, while other's require a one time fee or request users to become members and pay a monthly fee for usage. Most on-line dictionaries are now interactive, with such features as search engines, helpful notes, and programs that help users to cite the dictionary as a reference. Some dictionaries will help translate words and phrases from one language to another, while other specialized on-line dictionaries will have links to other related websites.

Notable Dictionaries

Oxford English Dictionary: Considered the most thorough dictionary of the English language, the O.E.D. contains roughly 301,000 entries, each of which lists every known meaning of the word, and a very extensive etymology.

The Canadian Oxford Dictionary: A dictionary of Canadian English, first published by Oxford University Press Canada in 1998. Quickly became the standard dictionary reference for Canadian English. The second edition contains 300,000 entries, including about 2,200 true Canadianisms. It also provides information on Canadian pronunciation and on Canadian spelling, which has features of both British and American spellings.

Dictionnaire de la Langue Française: Completed in 1873 by the famous French scholar Emile Littre, the dictionary contains an authoritative interpretation of the use of each word, based on the various meanings it had held in the past, beginning with the earliest meaning. It also contains numerous quotations from works of literature, illustrating the use of words and the development of the French language

Deutsches Wörterbuch: One of the lesser known creations of the Brothers Grimm outside of Germany was their German dictionary, the Deutsches Wörterbuch, which was the first major step in creating a standardized "modern" German language since Martin Luther's translation of the Bible to German. It represented a very extensive (33 volumes, weighing 84 kg) standard reference for German etymology, remaining so to this day.

Black's Law Dictionary: The most widely-used law dictionary for the law of the United States, it was founded by Henry Campbell Black. It has been cited as legal authority in many U.S. Supreme Court cases. The latest editions, including abridged and pocket versions, are useful starting points for the layman or student when faced with an unfamiliar legal word. It is the reference of choice for definitions in legal briefs and court opinions.

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable: Sometimes referred to simply as Brewer's, it is a reference work containing definitions and explanations of many famous phrases, allusions and figures, whether historical or mythical. Originally published in 1870 by the Reverend E. Cobham Brewer, it was aimed at the growing number of people who did not have a university education, but wanted to understand the origins of phrases and historical or literary allusions. The 'phrase' part of the title refers mainly to the explanation of various idioms and proverbs, while the 'fable' part might more accurately be labelled 'folklore' and ranges from classical mythology to relatively recent literature. On top of this, Brewer added notes on important historical figures and events, and other things which he thought would be of interest, such as Roman numerals.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Manual of Specialized Lexicography, Henning Bergenholtz/Sven Tarp (eds.), Benjamins Publishing, 1995
• Diction and Stylistics of the 21st century, Darwin, Charles Schickelgruber Maxis (ed.), Jackson Publishing, 2001
• The Bilingual LSP Dictionary, Sandro Nielsen, Gunter Narr Verlag 1994
• Dictionaries, The Art and Craft of Lexicography, Sidney I. Landau, Simon & Schuster, 1998, hardcover, ISBN 0-684-18096-0
• The Professor and the Madman, A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary, Simon Winchester, HarperPerennial, New York, 1998, trade paperback, ISBN 0-06-017596-6. (published in the UK as The Surgeon of Crowthorne)
• A Brief History of English Lexicography. Retrieved 2007-01-22.

External links

• {{{2}}} at the Open Directory Project
• How many words do you need? (E-MELD)

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