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General-Purpose Dictionary and Society
The Functions of
the General-Purpose Dictionary
Cuibinbin
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The functions of
the general-purpose dictionary
1. What are the dictionaries for?
2. How are dictionaries really used?
1. Who uses dictionaries
2. What do the dictionary users want?
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1. What are the dictionaries for?
The front matter of dictionaries is a fair enough indication of what their authors were trying to achieve.
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Dubois and Dubois, after having examined
the front matter of French dictionaries published
in the sixties, came to conclusions that were not
Particularly surprising:
Some dictionaries introduce themselves as
‘portraits’ of the language, and others as
instruments for its acquisition – and the distinction is not very clear.
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The aim of the PED is to capture and record Modern English and to present a selection of its vocabulary. (PED) A treasury of information about every aspect of words. (AHD)
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Gives information about the meaning,
speaking and pronunciation of the most important
and most frequently used words and phrases in
the English language. (WBD)
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The …aim is to provide…a comprehensive
vocabulary aid for the present-day reader,
speaker and writer of English. (CTD) A guide to the English of today (OPD)
To meet the needs of students and others (WNW)
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Barnhart clearly sums up the functions of
the ‘instrument dictionary’: the function of a
commercial general-purpose dictionary—college
dictionaries are the best examples—is to answer
questions about words for users of different levels
of ability.
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More generally, the dictionary aims at answering all sorts of questions about everything in the culture: it is the function of a popular dictionary to answer the questions that the user of the dictionary asks, and dictionaries on thecommercial market will be successful in proportion to the extent to which they answer these questions of the buyer.
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The way the dictionaries are really used, as
opposed to the way lexicographer would like
them to be used, has been the object of much
conjecture.
It is logical to imagine that there are different
possible uses even for the same dictionary,
according to who the users are.
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McDavid distinguished three types of user, and four types of use. To scholars, in all probability, the most important function of a dictionary is that of a record of the language. Another function of the dictionary is that of acquainting a user with a language, or a variety of language, other than his own…
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A third function is to supply incidental
information, linguistic or otherwise, for the casual
user…
Finally, there is the role of conduct book,… a
guide to what one should do and especially to
what one should not do.
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Hartmann, a few years later, substantially
enlarged the list, though without distinguishing
categories of users: he saw seven functions of
the general-purpose dictionary.
1. The dictionary as an authority on usage
2. The dictionary as a store of (difficult)
vocabulary
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3. The dictionary as a tool for improving
communication
4. The dictionary as a means of strengthening
the language
5. The dictionary as a stimulus to reflection on
language
6. The dictionary as an aid to foreign-
language learning
7. The dictionary as an ideological weapon
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How are dictionaries really used?
1. Who uses dictionaries
Some dictionaries indicate with more or less
precision what sort of user they intend to address:
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--for the learned people of time, the erudites,
philologists, physicians, and intellectuals in
general
--for users whose education is above average,
students, teachers, well-read individuals
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--for the educated person who is part of what
was until fairly recently called the elite, but is now
preferably referred to as the upper middle or
middle middle class
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All this is fairly vague, because it would not
be commercially sound to restrict the public to
only one category.
The Preface of LDOCE is typical of this
attitude:
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--although the dictionary is intended primarily
for the foreign student, its design and the new
features it contains make it particularly suitable as
a small reference dictionary for any person–
whether teacher, student, linguist, or writer
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The lexicographer is obviously trying hard not
to forget anyone.
Non-educated public is never explicitly
referred to.
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The conclusions, if one examines modern
general-purpose English-language dictionaries,
are vague, and very similar for all dictionaries:
the average user tends to belong to the
middle classes and to be fairly well educated, in
Britain, the USA, just as France.
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But such observations are not only vague;
they can also be deceptive:
they allow conclusions about the dictionary
users as the lexicographers see them, not
necessarily as they are.
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Some metalexicographers, particularly in
Britain and in Germany, have recently been
asking for a sociological type of study of
lexicography that would provide better answers to
questions like:
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Who buys general-purpose dictionaries?
What social class are the users?
What age and sex?
Are the buyers and the users the same
persons?
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The argument is that studying the population of
dictionary users is important because the results could
determine the contents and layout of the dictionary.
The choice of linguistic information in a dictionary,
and the means of access provided to it, will vary with the
class of user for whom the dictionary is intended.
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Conclusion:
It was necessary to design different
dictionaries for different categories of users.
‘Dictionaries should be designed with a special
set of users in mind and for their specific needs.’
(Householder)
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Research on the public of dictionary users
have never been answered in practice. Many
people doubt that anything of any use can be
achieved through such a study.
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The conclusion, it is thought, would be that
the public of dictionaries is too diverse, its use of
dictionaries too varied and inconsistent, its
motivations too confused.
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How are dictionaries really used
2. What do the dictionary users want?
What people want with dictionaries is to a
certain extent indicated by the commercial
success -- or absence of dictionaries.
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Lexicographers must give to the public what
the public expects, or at least what they think the
public expects, at the expense of what a truly
scientific description of the language would
require.
No lexicographers can escape these social
pressures, whether they like it or not.
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A dictionary that sells well is not necessarily
a good dictionary from the point of view of the
metalexicographer, who may have entirely
different criteria; but it is certainly a dictionary that
responds to a social need.
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General-purpose dictionaries are needed
more than any other type, and their success in
different societies seems to rest on particular
features:
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American users want encyclopedic facts,
usage notes, and information such as word-
division and etymologies,
While British users want short definitions,
no pictures, etc.
Dictionaries reflect the changes in society.
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But the commercial success of dictionaries should be regarded with caution as well. Dictionary users cannot buy what is not offered for sale. If they buy the dictionaries that are on offer, it may be because they like them and find them useful, or it may be because they have no choice.
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Dictionaries, as Samuel Johnson said, are
“like watches, the worst is better than none”, even
if ‘the best cannot be expected to go quite true’.
The expectations of the public are created by
the dictionaries themselves.
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The number of words in the word-list is by far
the biggest preoccupation of most popular
reviewers.
But it is only one aspect, and the quality of a
dictionary should be evaluated on other aspects
as well.
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The ideal general-purpose dictionary:
--contains as many entry-words as possible,
particularly all the ‘good’ words, but omits taboo
words, neologisms, and other ‘undesirable’ words
that do not fit into the popular image of the
language
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The ideal general-purpose dictionary:
--defines all entry-words with undisputable
authority
--indicates clearly how far each word is
acceptable or unacceptable
--seen everywhere as storehouses of the
best language, undisputable sources of word
meanings, and authorities on usage in general
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The ideal general-purpose dictionary:
--seen as the guardians of the purity of
language, as thesauri of the totality of the
lexicon and of all the collective knowledge
of the society,
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The ideal general-purpose dictionary:
--as repositories of the truth as well as of
the moral and ideological values of the society.
--sometimes even seen as patriotic emblems.
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