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From dictionary user From dictionary user to amateur lexicographerto amateur lexicographer
Possibilities of on-line searchesPossibilities of on-line searches
Costas Gabrielatos(Lancaster University)
Gresham CollegeGresham College
Lecture series: Look it up yourself! A History of the Dictionary
23 March 2009
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Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.
Samuel Johnson(Statement made April 18, 1775, quoted in Boswell's Life of Johnson)
• How will the information be used?• Comprehension• Production
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Do you know this word?Do you know this word?
• What does ‘knowing’ a word involve?
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To know a word:To know a word:FormForm
• Written form– Spelling chagrin
• Spoken form– Pronunciation ‘sh’ or ‘tsh’– Stress chagrin or chagrin– Symbols vs. audio /ʃægrɪn / (BrE)
/ʃəgrɪn/ (AmE)
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To know a word: To know a word: Grammar (a) Grammar (a)
• Part of speech
• Countable/uncountable (for nouns)– Not independent of meaning– experience [LDOCE]
• Derivatives– extend (verb)– extendability / extendibility / extensibility (noun) – extendable / extendible / extensible (adjective)
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To know a word:To know a word:Grammar (b)Grammar (b)
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To know a word: To know a word: MeaningMeaning
• Sense(s)• Connotations
The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Online http://www.ldoceonline.com
• Image reredos
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To know a word: To know a word: Meaning: specialised wordsMeaning: specialised words
collateralized debt obligationcollateralized debt obligation
InvestorWords, www.investorwords.com
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To know a word: To know a word: The lexical company a word keepsThe lexical company a word keeps
stale breadstale bread
rancid butter rancid butter
sour milksour milk
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To know a word: To know a word: The lexical company a word keepsThe lexical company a word keeps
The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Online http://www.ldoceonline.com
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To know a word: To know a word: UseUse
• Contexts of use– general/specialised• heart attack – (acute) myocardial infarction
– archaic/formal/informal/colloquial/slang• offspring - minor - child - kid - brat
• Frequency– In what contexts?
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To know a word: To know a word: Meaning in relation to other wordsMeaning in relation to other words
• Synonyms / Antonyms• expand
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionaryhttp://www.merriam-webster.com
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To know a word:To know a word:Etymology (the history of a word)Etymology (the history of a word)
Encartaahttp://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/dictionaryhome.aspx
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World Wide Words (Michael Quinion), www.worldwidewords.org
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To know a word:To know a word:A holistic view: examplesA holistic view: examples
• Examples can demonstrate most of the aspects of knowing a word.
• What does this word mean?• What does this word do?
• The more examples, the better our understanding – patterns and frequency
• What kind of examples?• Whose examples?
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Prescription or description?Prescription or description?
'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone,' it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.'
'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.'
'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master - that's all.'
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, Lewis Carroll, 1871
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Sources of examplesSources of examples
• Corpora– British National Corpus (BNC), 100 million words– http://sara.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/lookup.html
• The web as a corpus– WebCorp– http://www.webcorp.org.uk
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egregiousegregious
• Conspicuously bad or offensive. • Often of mistakes, extremely and noticeably bad.• An egregious mistake, failure, problem etc is
extremely bad and noticeable.• Extraordinary in some bad way; glaring; flagrant: an
egregious mistake; an egregious liar. • Conspicuous ; especially : conspicuously bad :
flagrant <egregious errors> <egregious padding of the evidence — Christopher Hitchens>
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egregiousegregious
• Conspicuously bad or offensive. • Often of mistakes, extremely and noticeably bad.• An egregious mistake, failure, problem etc is
extremely bad and noticeable.• Extraordinary in some bad way; glaring; flagrant: an
egregious mistake; an egregious liar. • Conspicuous ; especially : conspicuously bad :
flagrant <egregious errors> <egregious padding of the evidence — Christopher Hitchens>
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egregiousegregious
• Conspicuously bad or offensive. • Often of mistakes, extremely and noticeably bad.• An egregious mistake, failure, problem etc is
extremely bad and noticeable.• Extraordinary in some bad way; glaring; flagrant: an
egregious mistake; an egregious liar. • Conspicuous ; especially : conspicuously bad :
flagrant <egregious errors> <egregious padding of the evidence — Christopher Hitchens>
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egregiousegregious
• Conspicuously bad or offensive. • Often of mistakes, extremely and noticeably bad.• An egregious mistake, failure, problem etc is
extremely bad and noticeable.• Extraordinary in some bad way; glaring; flagrant: an
egregious mistake; an egregious liar. • Conspicuous ; especially : conspicuously bad :
flagrant <egregious errors> <egregious padding of the evidence — Christopher Hitchens>
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egregiousegregious in the BNC in the BNC
• 36 instances
• Action/behaviour/event/result etc. (15)• Person/organisation etc. (12)• Mistake/error etc. (6) • Object (2)• Other (1)
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Types of dictionariesTypes of dictionaries
• General - alphabetical • General - thematic (concepts)
• Thesaurus
• Terminological
• Pronunciation• Collocations (lexical patterns)• Pictorial
• Encyclopaedic
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Possibilities of online searchesPossibilities of online searches
• The ‘ultimate’ reference source (?)
• Free
• Quick and easy comparison of information
• ‘Lexical journeys’
• Primary research