Boris IomdinRussian Language Institute,

Russian Academy of Sciencesiomdin@ruslang.ru

Lecture 6. PlanHistory of lexicographyFamilies of dictionariesLexicology vs. lexical semanticsNew type of dictionary:

productivesystematicintegrated

Lexeme as the main unit of descriptionNew types of information in the lexical entry:

non-trivial semantic featuresconnotations

Glosses

A gloss is the meaning of a less known word marked at the margin of a manuscript

Sumerian (XXV B.C.), Chinese (XX B.C.), Ancient Greek, Indian glosses

First dictionaries: ChineseErya (III B.C.):a collection of direct glosses

to concrete passages in ancient texts

4300 words, 13000 hieroglyphsShuowen Jiezi (II B.C.):Explaining simple and compound

characters9353 characters + 1163 variants

First dictionaries: LatinDe Significatu Verborum, Marcus Verrius Flaccus (I century),Sextus Pompeius Festus (II century, an

abridgment in 20 books, arranged alphabetically)

First dictionaries: EnglishÉpinal Glossary (VII):

bilingual (Old English

to Latin) dictionary,

3200 words

Glossary manuscripts, the earliest (1282) contains 174 words

The first printed Slavic dictionary:Annex to Grammar by Laurentius Zizanius (1596),1061 words

Golden age of lexicographyIn postwar Europe, it was clearly understood

that the dictionary is the key to culture.Hence, in France, then Great Britain and the

US, an then in many other countries, lexicography becomes very active.

Golden age of lexicography More than 90% of British households have at least one explanatory dictionary

Dictionaries are more popular than cookbooks (70%) or the Bible (80%)

Families Families of dictionariesWebster, Random House, Barnhart, American

Heritage (USA)Oxford, Chambers, Collins, Hamlyn, Longman

(Great Britain)Le Robert, Larousse, Tresor (France)Duden, Langenscheidt (Germany) Academy of Sciences (USSR, than Russia)

A dictionary familyLarge explanatory dictionarySmall explanatory dictionaryLearners dictionaryPhraseological dictionaryHistorical dictionaryRegional dictionaryDictionary of synonyms…

Lexicology vs. lexical semanticsLexicology is much older: Diderot et

d’Alembert 1765Common interests:

what do lexical units meanwhether two or more given words are different

or are they variants of a single word polysemy or homonymy (lexical semantics) phonetic and morphological variants (lexicology)

what the system of lexicon is

Lexical semantics ignored:separate word / morpheme / word

combinationetymology: aboriginal words / loanwordsfrequency of use: active / passivestyle: elevated / standard / colloquial / slang

etc.

Traditional lexicology ignored:integrated description of languagemetalanguage for description of meaningsrules according to which lexical units interacthighly systematic organization of the lexicon

New type of dictionary Active (productive) Systematic Integrated Reflecting the naïve picture of the

world Using special metalanguage Combining techniques of corpus

lexicography and experimental linguistics

ProductiveComprehensive information on each

lexeme, necessary not only to understand its every occurrence in texts, but also to use it correctly in speech.

Hence new types of information needed to describe fully the linguistic competence of native speakers.

SystematicThe semantic system of the human

language as a framework of repeated semantic oppositions.

They divide the lexicon into classes of lexemes, or lexicographic types (with many intersections), having common properties.

Words of same types react identically or very similarly to different linguistic rules.

IntegratedThe description of the lexicon should be

coordinated with the description of the grammar as much as possible.

Different kinds of rules : MorphologicalSyntacticSemanticCommunicativePragmaticetc.

Reflecting the NPW The NPW may differ from the scientific

picture of the world and from the NPWs of other languages

Reconstruction of naïve ethics, anatomy, psychology, teleology, time, space, etc. is based on linguistic data only

The reconstructed fragments serve as a theoretical basis for further lexicographic descriptions

Metalanguage Special metalanguage should be used for

the analytic explications of the meaning It should be a sublanguage of the object

language, but use only simple words and constructions

No homonymy or synonymy is allowed The semantic metalanguage may be

easily reduced to a small number of semantic primitives

Corpora and experimentsUnlike traditional dictionaries, new ones

should be based on large and balanced text corpora (collections of texts)

Linguistic experiments (putting words into different contexts and than evaluating the sentences) should also be widely used

Negative linguistic material is especially useful when demonstrating correct word usage

Картотеки

Lexeme as the unitA lexeme is a certain meaning of a given word

(monosemous words have one lexeme, polysemous words have several lexemes)

A complete description of the lexeme is the principal component of the integrated description of language

The description includes:Analytic explication in a special metalanguageRules of interaction of meaningsNon-trivial semantic featuresConnotationsPragmatic information

Non-trivial semantic featuresSofa Stool

Armchair Table

Fridge Lamp

TV set Cube

objects with / without own anatomyobjects with a front: width and depth; left vs. right, in

front of vs. behind according to their own anatomyobjects without a front: width and length; left vs.

right, in front of vs. behind according to the observer’s point of view

Non-trivial semantic featuresX is in front of Y = ‘X is situated on that side

of Y through which Y is normally used, and in a distance to Y which is comparable to the dimensions of Y’ [if Y is an object with a front]

X is in front of Y = ‘X is situated between Y and the observer, the dimensions of X and Y are comparable, and the speaker estimates the distance from X to Y as not long, comparable to the distance from X to the observer ’ [if Y is an object without a front]

Non-trivial semantic featuresMy car was in front of the house.My car was in front of the lake.The lake was in front of the mountain.*The lake was in front of the bush.The picture was behind the mirror.The picture was behind the lamp.the top <bottom> of the cupboardthe top <bottom> of the cube

Girl in front of the car

Girl in front of the car

ConnotationsAn inessential but settled feature of a notion that

reflects an evaluation of the referent in the language

The connotation of a lexeme is not part of its meaning and cannot be logically concluded from it

Therefore, not included into the explicationHelps explain the phraseology, figurative

meanings, semantic links between different lexemes, etc.

Connotations are often language-specific

Connotations of DutchDutch bargain. A bargain settled over

drinks.Dutch courage. The courage exerted by

drink.Dutch defense. A sham, feigned defense. Dutch feast. Where the entertainer gets

drunk before his guest.Dutch headache. Hangover. Dutch treat. A meal, amusement, etc., at

which each person pays for himself.

Boys will be boysBoys will be boys?Les garçons seront les garçons?Knaben werden Knaben ?Mal’chiki vsegda budut mal’chikami?Lexicographers will be lexicographers?Lamas will be lamas?Computers will be computers?Dictionaries will be dictionaries

Boys will be boys (Wierzbicka)(a) everyone knows:

people of this kind do things like thisone would want them no to do things like this

(b) I know: someone can think:this is bad, they should not do it

(c) I think: one should not think this(d) one should know:

all people of this kind are the samethey want to do things like this because they want to feel something goodthey will do them because of thatthey cannot not do them

(e) I don’t want to think: this is bad(f) I don’t want to feel something bad because of this(g) I think: people of this kind are not bad

Connotations of animalswolf: ‘cruelty’, ‘rapacity’, ‘greed’ in Russian,

English, Chinesecow: ‘stupidity’ in English, ‘overweight’ in

Russian, ‘strength, persistence’ in Chinesegoose: ‘wealth’ and ‘stupidity’ in English,

‘importance’ in Russian, ‘married bliss’ in Chinesesnake: ‘cunning, treachery’ in English and

Chinese, ‘danger’ in Russian, ‘immortality’ in Korean

elephant: ‘heaviness, awkwardness’ in Russian, ‘grace, elegance’ in Sanskrit

Next lecture

Systematic lexicography. Lexicographic types. Lexicographic portraits.