Dictionary
The dictionary is a list of words with their definitions, a list of characters with their glyphs, or a list of words with corresponding words in other languages. In a few languages, words can appear in many different forms, but only the lemma form appears as the main word or headword in most dictionaries. 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. Some dictionaries are also found in electronic portable hand-held devices. Most dictionaries are produced by lexicographers.
History
The art and craft of writing dictionaries is called lexicography.
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 Erya, from the early 3rd century B.C.E., 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.
The word "dictionary" comes from neoclassical Latin, dictio, meaning simply "word."
The first true English dictionary was Robert Cawdrey's Table Alphabeticall 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. This was followed by Samuel Johnson's famous and more complete dictionary of 1755.
In 1806, Noah Webster's dictionary was published by the G&C Merriam Company of Springfield, Massachusetts which still publishes Merriam-Webster dictionaries, but the term Webster's is considered generic and can be used by any dictionary.
The most complete dictionary of the English language is the Oxford English Dictionary. The first edition was properly begun in 1860 and was completed in 1928, by which time a supplement that took an additional five years to complete was already necessary.
The largest dictionary of 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.
Word order
Today, dictionaries of most languages with alphabetic and syllabic writing systems list words in lexicographic order, usually alphabetical or some analogous phonetic system.
In many languages, words are grouped together according to their true or normal origin ("root"), and these roots are arranged alphabetically. If English dictionaries were arranged like this, the words "import," "export," "support," "report," "porter," "port," "important" and "transportation" would all be listed under "port." This method has the advantage that all words of a common origin are listed together, but the disadvantage is that you have to know how to recognize all prefixes of a word before you look it up. Some Hebrew, Sanskrit, and Arabic dictionaries work this way.
The main body of modern dictionaries of languages using the Chinese logographic writing system, such as Chinese, Japanese and Korean, is sorted phonetically: most Chinese dictionary order entries according to the latin alphabet with the pinyin spelling, Japanese dictionary use the order of the kana syllabic script, and Korean dictionaries use the hangul alphabet. However the dictionary for these language also usually include a list of characters sorted in a non-phonetic way, 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).
The first English alphabetical dictionary came out in 1604 and alphabetical ordering was a rarity until the 18th century. Before alphabetical listings, dictionaries were organized by topic, i.e. a list of animals all together in one topic.
Coverage
Dictionaries vary wildly in size and scope. A dictionary that attempts to cover as many words from a particular speech community as possible is called a maximizing dictionary (e.g. the Oxford English Dictionary), whereas a dictionary that attempts to cover only a limited selection of words from a speech community is called a minimizing dictionary (e.g. a dictionary containing the 2000 most frequently used words in the English language).
Special-purpose dictionaries
There are many different types of dictionaries, including bilingual, multilingual, historical, biographical, and geographical dictionaries.
Bilingual dictionaries
In bilingual dictionaries, each entry has translations of words in another language. For example, in a Japanese-English dictionary, the entry tsuki has a corresponding English word, moon. In dictionaries between English and a language using a non-Roman script, entry words in the non-English language may be either printed and sorted in the native order, or romanized and sorted in Roman alphabetical order.
Specialised dictionaries
On top: Visual Encyclopedia, ISBN 0-7513-0534-0
Specialised dictionaries (also referred to as technical dictionaries) focus on linguistic and factual matters relating to specific subject fields. A specialised 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). Specialised 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 specialised vocabulary concerned. Generally, multi-field dictionaries tend to be minimizing, whereas single-field and sub-field dictionaries tend to be maximizing. See also LSP dictionary.
Character dictionaries
In East Asian languages, a dictionary form for Han (Chinese) characters has developed, called Kan-wa jiten (literally 'Han-Japanese dictionary') in Japanese and Okpyeon ('Jewel Book') in Korean. Each entry has one Chinese character with information about stroke count and order, readings (pronunciations), and a list of words using that character.
These characters are not arbitrary; they are composed of simpler characters, one of which is called the "radical," which indicates its category. The ordering of the characters in the dictionary is by radical, in order of the number of strokes in the radical. Characters using that radical are then ordered by the number of strokes added to the radical. To fit more strokes in a character, radicals can come in simplified variants, which have to be learned; for example, the character for "dog" is altered when it is used as the radical of the character for "cat."
Data dictionaries
Data sets and databases collected and utilized for statistical analysis 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 defined terms in a specialised field, such as medicine or science. The simplest dictionary, a defining dictionary, provides a core glossary of the simplest meanings of the simplest concepts. From these, other concepts can be explained and defined, in particular for those who are first learning a language. In English, the commercial defining dictionaries typically include only one or two meanings of under 2000 words. With these, the rest of English, and even the 4000 most common English idioms and metaphors, can be defined.
Pronunciation Key
In dictionary, before or after the word, it has symbols which represents the sounds. This tells how to say it. Such as Dictionary (dǐk'shə-něr'ē).
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Variations between dictionaries
Prescription and description
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 color. (Similarly, British English subsequently underwent a few spelling changes that did not affect American English; see further at American and British English spelling differences.) 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.
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..."
Because of the broad use of dictionaries, and their acceptance by many as language authorities, their treatment of the language does affect usage to some degree, even the most descriptive dictionaries providing conservative continuity. In the long run, however, usage primarily determines the meanings of words in English, and the language is being changed and created every day. As Jorge Luis Borges says in the prologue to "El otro, el mismo": "It is often forgotten that (dictionaries) are artificial repositories, put together well after the languages they define. The roots of language are irrational and of a magical nature."
Other variations
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.
Trivia
- The Irish mathematical physicist, J. L. Synge, created a game, Circ, to emphasize the circular reasoning implicit in the defining process of any standard dictionary.
- The word 'set' has the longest definition in a standard dictionary.
List of major English dictionaries
- Merriam-Webster Merriam-Webster Dictionary
- Oxford English Dictionary (descriptive)
- Concise Oxford Dictionary
- New Oxford Dictionary of English
- New Oxford American Dictionary
- Canadian Oxford Dictionary
- The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language
- 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)
- Webster's Third New International Dictionary (descriptive)
- 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
- Webster's New World Dictionary
For languages other than modern English, see the article about that language. See also articles such as Japanese dictionaries.
List of major online English dictionaries
- List of online dictionaries
List of major online multilingual translation dictionaries
- List of online dictionaries
See also
- Bilingual dictionary
- Centre for Lexicography
- COBUILD, a large corpus of English text
- Corpus linguistics
- DICT, the dictionary server protocol
- Electronic dictionary
- Encyclopedic dictionary
- Lexicographic error
- Lexigraf
- Medical dictionary
- Monolingual learners' dictionaries
- Picture dictionary
- Rhyming dictionary
- Thesaurus
- Translation dictionary
- Visual dictionary
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Bergenholtz, Henning and Sven Tarp (eds.). 1995. Manual of Specialised Lexicography. Benjamins Publishing.
- Darwin, Charles Schickelgruber Maxis (ed.). 2001. Diction and Stylistics of the 21st century. Jackson Publishing.
- Erdmann, Peter and Dr. See-Young Cho. [ttp://angli02.kgw.tu-berlin.de/lexicography/data/b_history.html A Brief History of English Lexicography] Retrieved January 22, 2007.
- Landau, Sidney I. 1998. Dictionaries, The Art and Craft of Lexicography. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-684-18096-0
- Nielsen, Sandro. 1994. The Bilingual LSP Dictionary. Gunter Narr Verlag.
- Winchester, Simon. 1998. The Professor and the Madman, A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary. New York: Harper Perennial. ISBN 0-06-017596-6.
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