The Architecture of a Dictionary
Metadata: Is the catalogue of information on the production of a dictionary
..................(author, publishing house etc.).
..................It is intended for the identification of a specific dictionary.
Examples of metadata from different kinds of dictionaries:
(1) Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (Monolingual Dictionary):
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, AS Hornby, Fifth Edition, Editor: Jonathan Crowther, Assistant Editor: Kathryn Kavanagh, Phonetics Editor: Michael Ashby, Oxford University Press, 1995,
ISBN 3 464 11 223 3
(2) PONS Handwörterbuch für die berufliche Praxis Französisch- Deutsch, Deutsch- Französisch (Bilingual Dictionary):
PONS Handwörterbuch für die berufliche Praxis Französisch- Deutsch, Deutsch- Französisch (Bilingual Dictionary), Ernst Klett Verlag GmbH, Stuttgart 2002, 1. Auflage 2000- Nachdruck 2002, Redaktion Barbara Krüger, Printed in France, ISBN 3 12 517580 1
(3) Thematischer Grund- und Aufbauwortschatz Französisch
Thematischer Grund- und Aufbauwortschatz Französisch, Professor Wolfgang Fischer und Anne-Marie Le Plouhinec, Sinelfingen, Ernst Klett Verlag GmbH, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 3 12 519512 8
Create definitions by nearest kind and specific differences for:
Hip-hop: a type of dance music similar to rap, originated in the USA.
→ Hip hop is a kind of dance music similar to rap.
...........↑....................... ↑ ............................↑
definiendum ...genus proximum .....differentia specifica
Lasagna: Pasta made in broad flat strips.
→ Lasagna is a kind of Pasta made in broad flat strips.
...........↑ ......................↑ .................................↑
definiendum... genus proximum .........differentia specifica
Organisation of Lexical Information
Today, we talked about the different parts of a dictionary which consist of:
- Megastructure
- Macrostructure
- Mesostructure
- Microstrucure
(1) The MEGASTRUCURE of a dictionary is the entire structure of the dictionary, including the front matter, abbreviations of grammar, the body of the dictionary, the back matter.
Example: OXFORD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
- Includes: Metadata information! For example:
..Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, AS Hornby, Fifth
..Edition, Editor: Jonathan Crowther, Assistant Editor: Kathryn Kavanagh, Phonetics Editor:
..Michael Ashby, Oxford University Press, 1995, ISBN 3 464 11 223 3.
- Preface, Key to dictionary entries explaining the structure of entries.
- Using your dictionary: Table of contents, information about the structure of entries,
..cross-references, irregular forms, phonetics, abbreviations, symbols and labels used in the dictionary,
..grammar and syntax pages, body of the dictionary (lexical entry pages, list of words).
- Front/ back pages and the cover of the dictionary
(2) The MACROSTRUCTURE of a dictionary is the organisation of the lexical entries in the body of a dictionary into lists, tree structures, networks.
Semasiological and onomasiological dictionaries have got different types of macrostructure:
Whereas the macrostructure (body) of a semasiological dictionary (reader’s dictionary, decoding dictionary) consists of a list of entries,
an onomasiological dictionary (writer’s dictionary, encoding dictionary) contains a tree structure or a network of entries!
A semasiological dictionary consists of a list of words arranged in an alphabetic order.
An onomasiological dictionary (for instance: an dictionary of synonyms) is arranged in order to the meaning of the entries.
(3) The MESOSTRUCTURE of a dictionary is the set of relations between lexical entries and other entities such as other parts of a dictionary or a text corpus.
In this context, lexical entries can relate to each other.
Their relation is indicated by the use of capital letters or bold print:
For example:
Hip-hop: a type of dance music similar to RAP, originated in the USA.
The capital letter writing of RAP indicates that this lexical entry may also be found in the body of the dictionary (cross-reference).
The technique of capital letter writing, bold/italic print or change of font provides the reader with supplementary information on the structure and contend of the text body. Cross-references may relate different entries such as co-hyponyms, synonyms or antonyms.
Some dictionaries also relate lexical entries to a separate mini-grammar in the megastructure of the dictionary. In the Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, the reader may find specific advice like: For more help with verbs, see study pages B 4-8 at the bottom of each page.
The mesostructure of a lexicon or dictionary also consists of a class hierarchy of DATCAT subvectors such as modality, grammar or object semantics:
................MODALITY .................................................GRAMMAR ...........................................CORPUS
..................↑ .......↑ ..........................................↑ ......↑ .............↑ ..........↑ .....................................↑
ID;Orthography;Pronunciation;POS (Part of speech);Gender;Morphology;Inflection;Definition;Instance (Context)
↓ .................................................................................................................................↓
..........................................................CROSS- REFERENCES
....I__________________________________________________________________I
.....................................MINI- GRAMMAR/ LINGUISTIC DESCRIPTION
Example:
1; table; /teIbl/; n; n; e (sing); n; A piece of furniture consisting of a flat top supported on one ore more legs; Sit at the table;
(4) The MICROSTRUCTURE of a dictionary is the consistent organisation of lexical information within lexical entries in the dictionary. The combined structure of microstructure and macrostructure of a semasiological dictionary can be defined as a hierarchical list structure.
The lexical entries that are arranged as a list (rows) are followed by different columns:
For example:
Lexical entry (ID); Orthography; Phonetic transcription; Etymology; Model; Embedded example; Translation
→ Specific dictionaries chose specific columns to produce/ differentiate different kinds of
....dictionaries!
For example: An etymological dictionary has to include a column specifying the etymology of a word whereas this specification is not necessary in bilingual dictionaries that do not focus on the origin of words, but on their translation into a specific language.
From the microstructural point of view, words contain three different properties that can be divided into small linguistic units (branches of linguistic studies):
........................Pragmatics (use of words in a certain context in terms of speech acts)
MEANING
........................Semantics (refers to the truth/falsity of sentences)
........................Syntax: Text, Phrase
STRUCTURE
........................Morphology: Inflexion, Word formation
(study of how words fit into a sentence; for example: valence of verbs, use of affixes)
APPEARANCE FORM: Pronunciation (Phonetics), Orthography (spoken/written language)
There are 5 types of lexical information to each lexical entry:
- model
- symbols: pictures
- synonyms/ antonyms
- translation
- etymological information
posted by Melanie Zahn @ 5:57 AM
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