Linguistics 2023 & 6023

DICTIONARIES AND DICTIONARY-MAKING

2nd semester 2004, Arts, ANU

Lecturer: Prof. Andrew Pawley
Dept. of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, ANU

Lecture times: Tuesday 9-10, Thursday 9-10

Prerequisites: Two points from Linguistics units, or permission of the Head of Department.

Outline of syllabus
The chief aims are: (1) to introduce the craft of dictionary-making, (2) to look at questions about the nature of language and language descriptions that arise when one is trying to make a dictionary. I will be particularly concerned with the task of making a dictionary of a language from scratch, i.e. where no previous dictionaries exist for that language.

Topics will include:
  1. A brief history of lexicography, looking at how modern dictionaries have evolved.
  2. Different types and uses of dictionaries, e.g. monolingual vs bilingual dictionaries, historical dictionaries, phrasal dictionaries, dictionaries of synonyms, of genres and topic, etc.
  3. Practical questions faced when making a dictionary, e.g. who is it for, what data are needed and how to gather and use the data, how much will research and publication cost, through to book design and publication.
  4. What kinds of information should go in a dictionary, e.g. where is the boundary between dictionary and encyclopaedia, knowledge of language and knowledge of the world? Where is the boundary between lexicon and grammar?
  5. What are the minimal and maximal lexical units? Which multi-words expressions count as lexical units?
  6. The various components of dictionary entries and how to structure entries; main headwords and subheadwords, etc.
  7. Writing definitions: common principles and practices. Translation equivalent vs definitions.
  8. Discovering and representing systematic relations of meaning among words: synonymy, antonymy, inclusion, contrast, etc.; folk taxonomies, partonomies.
  9. Why the lexicographer working on an undescribed language needs help from botanists, zoologists, medical experts, anthropologists, etc.
  10. The politics of dictionary-making in Pacific Island and Western societies.
  11. Handling variability in usage across the language community.
  12. Computers and dictionaries: how new electronic technology has affected the compilation, form and use of dictionaries.
  13. Alternatives to the tyranny of the alphabet, e.g. organising a dictionary by semantic fields, interactive dictionaries.
  14. Making a reversal or index of a bilingual dictionary.
  15. How much and why do languages differ in the number of lexical units they contain?
  16. Idioms and semi-productive formulas as a challenge to lexicographers.
Assessment: By assignments, consisting of:
1. Five 200 word summaries of articles from the required reading list, each worth 6 percent. (Total 30 percent.)
2. Three exercises, to do with the collection and analysis of data and the construction of dictionary entries. Each exercise is worth 10 percent. (Total 30 percent.)
3. An essay of not more than 3000 words. Topic to be decided on in consultation with Prof. Pawley. (40 percent.)

Reading. There is a reading brick of about 14 selected articles or extracts. Lecture notes and other materials will be distributed during classes. Students should read assigned material in advance of each lecture.

‘Reading Brick’

CONTENTS
Preface

PART I DICTIONARIES: KINDS AND LIMITS
1. A. Cowie Language as words: Lexicography
2. S. Landau What is a dictionary? (ch. 1 of Dictionaries...
3. Samples of different kinds of dictionaries
4. J. Haiman Dictionaries and encyclopaedias
5. A. Pawley Grammarian’s lexicon, lexicographer’s lexicon: worlds apart

PART II UNITS OF THE LEXICON
6. D.A. Cruse The paradigmatic and syntactic delimitation of lexical units (Lexical Semantics, ch. 3)
7. A. Pawley Lexicalization

PART III DEALING WITH MEANING
8. S. Landau Definition (ch. 4 of Dictionaries...)
9. A. Pawley When lexicographers don’t do their homework
10. D.A. Cruse Lexical configurations (Lex. Semantics ch. 5)
11. H. Conklin Lexicographical treatment of folk taxonomies
12. A. Wierzbicka Back to definitions: cognition, semantics and lexicography

PART IV SOME PRACTICAL MATTERS
13. G. Kennedy The design of corpora
14. L. Lindstrom The politics of dictionary-making on Tanna
© 2004 Andrew Pawley
Modified: 10 November 2004
URL http://www.anu.edu.au/linguistics/nash/lexicog/pawley.html