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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, but more and
more dictionaries are produced as a software runs from electronic PDA or a
general purpose computer. Most dictionaries are produced by lexicographers.
Lexicography
The art and craft of writing dictionaries is called lexicography.
The Erya, 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 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. Though
many believe that Samuel Johnson's famous and more complete dictionary of
1755 was the first dictionary it was predated by Blount, as well as Kersey
and Bailey.
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 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.[1]
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
one has to know how to recognise all prefixes of a word before one can look
it up. Some Hebrew, Sanskrit, and Arabic dictionaries work this way.
While most of Japanese and Korean dictionaries are arraged 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 still ordered according to the Chinese logographic writing system;
but most Chinese dictionaries have an appendix ordering entries in
accordance to the latin alphabet with the pinyin spelling, 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. retirement- appoint
Coverage
Dictionaries vary widely 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
Picture dictionaries explain concepts from soup-tureen (1904) to supersonic
(1998).On top: Visual Encyclopedia, ISBN 0-7513-0534-0
Picture dictionaries explain concepts from soup-tureen (1904) to supersonic
(1998).
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 or a one page dictionary of difficult words], 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 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 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
Dictionaries often provide a pronunciation key, which spells the defined
word in a phonetic alphabet. For example, the definition for Dictionary
might be followed by the phonetic spelling: (dǐk'shə-něr'ē). There also are
other ones like (th'en).
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 colour. (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 fulfil 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.
* The longest word in the English dictionary is
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (45 letters). This is a lung
disease caused by inhaling silica dust.
List of major English dictionaries
* The Penguin English Dictionary
* Merriam-Webster 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
List of major online English dictionaries
* Wiktionary, A collaborative project run by the Wikimedia Foundation + List
of online dictionaries
* AskOxford, The Compact Oxford English Dictionary
* Bartleby, American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language Fourth
Edition
* Cambridge, Cambridge Dictionaries Online
* Merriam-Webster, The Merriam-Webster dictionary
* Oxford, Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary
* Collins, Collins English dictionary and thesaurus
Other major online dictionaries
* Academic Dictionary of Lithuanian
* Free On-line Dictionary of Computing
* Free On-line Dictionary of Philosophy
* Interglot
* LEO (website)
* Lithuanian dictionaries
* Logos Dictionary
* Merriam-Webster
* Online Etymology Dictionary
* Pseudodictionary
* Reference.com
* Dictionary of the Scots Language
* Susning.nu
* Urban Dictionary
* WWWJDIC
* Private Sözlük
References
* Manual of Specialised 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 on 2007-01-22.
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