A Handbook of Lexicography
The Theory and Practice of Dictionary-Making

An important and practical guide to the theory and methods of dictionary-making.

Bo Svensén (Author)

9780521708241, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 13 August 2009

552 pages
24.7 x 17.3 x 2.5 cm, 1.07 kg

'… this is an excellent and truly international survey of the current state of lexicography.' Reinhard Hartmann

This book provides a systematic survey of the theory and methods of dictionary-making: what types of dictionary there are, how different kinds of information are dealt with when compiling dictionaries, how this information is presented to users, and how dictionaries are actually used. It refers throughout to both monolingual and bilingual dictionaries, giving a full account of the writing of definitions as well as of the selection and presentation of equivalents. The treatment of other types of information provided in dictionaries is described systematically in individual chapters. The book also discusses dictionary structure, illustrations, the collection and selection of material, the management of dictionary projects, law and ethics in lexicographic work, and dictionary criticism. As well as looking at print lexicography, the author discusses the role of the Web, electronic corpora, electronic dictionaries, and compilation software used in dictionary-making. This is an important and practical guide to contemporary lexicography, designed for lexicographers, language students and teachers, translators and academics.

1. Lexicography
2. Types of dictionaries
3. Data collection and data selection
4. The dictionary as text
5. The lemma
6. Spelling and word division
7. Pronunciation
8. Morphology
9. Part-of-speech membership
10. Constructions
11. Collocations
12. Idioms and other fixed word combinations
13. Meaning description in monolingual dictionaries
14. Equivalents in bilingual dictionaries
15. Examples
16. Encyclopedic information
17. Illustrations
18. Marking
19. Etymology
20. Microstructure
21. Macrostructure
22. Megastructure
23. Cross-reference structure
24. Dictionary projects
25. Legal and ethical aspects
26. The electronic dictionary
27. Dictionary use
28. Dictionary criticism.

Subject Areas: Language teaching & learning [other than ELT CJ], Lexicography [CFM], Grammar, syntax & morphology [CFK]