The structure of linguistic dictionary entry (on the materials of aviation English)

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The structure of linguistic dictionary entry (on the materials of aviation English)

С.М. Муравська,

кандидат педагогічних наук, доцент (Кіровоградська льотна академія Національного авіаційного університету України)

Throughout history the human activity has been very closely connected with the language and the world itself. As it has been discovered by scientists, the traces of dictionary compiling go to back to the XXV century B.C. when Sumerians made special lists of explanations of difficult worlds. Since those times, a lot of attempts to write down and systemize the lexicon have been made by different scientists. Being a relatively young discipline, lexicography has not explored all aspects of dictionary compiling yet. Thus, there are no universally accepted principles of the dictionary's structural and graphic organization. The phenomenon of the word and different aspects of lexicography have been researched by many Soviet scientists such as I. Arnold, P. Denisov, L. Minaeva, M. Moiseev, L. Scherba, L. Stupin. The great contribution into the development of lexicography and the word phenomenon research has been made by foreign language specialists such as H. Bejoint, H.

Bergenholtz, R. Burchfield, R. Hartmann, S. Landau, L. Zgusta. In the given article we have analyzed the structure of a linguistic dictionary and the organization of its entries. We have come to the conclusion that common features in the composition of linguistic dictionaries are: introduction and Guide to the using of the dictionary; the dictionary proper; supplementary material. In the process of the research it has been found out that the entries in the linguistic dictionaries can be arranged according to the formal or thematic principles; formal principle is more popular and its most widespread type of the entry arrangement is the alphabetical one. The conducted research has shown that linguistic dictionary entries contain such types of information: spelling; explanation of a meaning; grammatical information about the word; examples to each meaning (may be missing in abridged dictionaries); a set of idioms and stable expressions with a headword; etymological (not obligatory).

Key words: lexicography, linguistic dictionary, dictionary entry, formal principle, thematic principle, alphabetical order.

Дану статтю присвячено дослідженню структури статті у лінгвістичних словниках. В укладанні лінгвістичних словників було помічено спільні тенденції: наявність вступу або керівництва з використання словника; сам словник; додатковий матеріал. Формальний та тематичний принципи є характерними для організації словникових статей. Формальний принцип є більш розповсюдженим, а його найчастіше вживаним різновидом є організація статей в алфавітному порядку. В процесі дослідження було встановлено, що статті у лінгвістичних словниках включають таку інформацію: написання слова; пояснення значення; граматична довідка; приклади для демонстрації кожного із значень слова; ідіоми, фразеологічні звороти з даним словом; етимологія слова (необов 'язковий пункт).

Ключові слова: лексикографія, лінгвістичний словник, словникова стаття, формальний принцип, тематичний принцип, алфавітний порядок.

Данная статья посвящена исследованию структуры статьи в лингвистических словарях. В уложении лингвистических словарей были замечены общие тенденции: вступление или руководство по использованию словаря; сам словарь; дополнительный материал. Формальный и тематический принципы являются характерными для организации словарных статей. Формальный принцип более распространенный, а его наиболее часто используемым подвидом является организация статей в алфавитном порядке. В процессе исследования было установлено, что статьи в лингвистических словарях содержат такую информацию: написание слова; объяснение значения; грамматическая справка; примеры для демонстрации каждого из значений слова; идиомы, фразеологические обороты с данным словом; этимология слова (необязательный пункт).

Ключевые слова: лексикография, лингвистический словарь, словарная статья, формальный принцип, тематический принцип, алфавитный порядок.

linguistic dictionarу grammar phraseological

Introduction. Throughout history the human activity has been very closely connected with the language and the world itself. As it has been discovered by scientists, the traces of dictionary compiling go back to the XXV century B.C. when Sumerians made special lists of explanations of difficult worlds. Since those times, a lot of attempts to write down and systemize the lexicon have been made by different scientists. And the paradox is that lexicography was recognized as a science only in the XX century. The specific feature of the modern lexicography is its close connection with the culture of nations, for the large part of culture finds its reflection in the language which is fixed in the dictionaries.

Being a relatively young discipline, lexicography has not explored all aspects of dictionary compiling yet. Thus, there are no universally accepted principles of the dictionary's structural and graphic organization.

Review of recent research and publications. The phenomenon of the word and different aspects of lexicography have been researched by many Soviet scientists such as I. Arnold, P. Denisov, L. Minaeva, M. Moiseev, L. Scherba, L. Stupin. The great contribution into the lexicography development and the word phenomenon research has been made by foreign language specialists such as H. Bejoint, H. Bergenholtz, R. Burchfield, R. Hartmann, S. Landau, L. Zgusta. The structure of the linguistic dictionary entry is of special interest for us as there are no universally accepted principles of the structural and graphic organization of dictionaries.

The objective of the given article is to analyze the structure of the linguistic dictionary entry, giving examples from aviation English.

Presentation of basic material. In spite of the great variety of linguistic dictionaries their composition has many features in common. Nearly all of them may be roughly divided into three unequal parts.

Apart from the dictionary proper, that make up the bulk of the wordbook, every reference book contains some separate sections which are to help the user in handling it - an Introduction and Guide to the use of the dictionary. This prefatory matter usually explains all the peculiarities of the word-book, it also contains a key to pronunciation, the list of abbreviations used and the like [1].

It is very important that the user of a dictionary should read this prefatory matter for this will enable him / her to know what is to be found in the word-book and what is not, will help him locate words quickly and easily and derive the full amount of information the dictionary affords.

Appended to the dictionary proper there is some supplementary material valuable for language learners and language teachers. This material may be divided into one of the linguistic nature, pertaining to vocabulary, its development and use, and the other pertaining to matter distinctly encyclopedic. In explanatory dictionaries the appendixes of the first kind usually include addenda or / and various word-lists: geographical names, foreign words and expressions, forenames, etc., record new meanings of words already entered and words that have come into existence since the compilation of the word-book. The educational material may include a list of colleges and universities, special signs and symbols used in various branches of science, tables of weights and measures, etc.

In translation dictionaries supplementary material may be different from that in explanatory dictionaries.

A lot of scholars differentiate macro- and microtexts in dictionaries. The term 'macrotext' is referred to a dictionary, as a whole, and the term 'microtext' is referred to a dictionary entry. Accordingly, there is a macro- and microstructure and under that we mean a general structure of dictionary and a way how lexical units are represented in the dictionary. Under microstructure we mean the format of a dictionary is different from a structure of other types of texts in a way that a material in a dictionary is organized on a level of separate units, combined with each other by certain relationships. The text of a dictionary is represented as an ordered structure, implying a certain system for searching.

A sphere of a macrostructure formation comprises such issues as a principle of arrangement of lexical units, the way of representation of polysemantic and homonymous lexical units.

The order of entries arrangement can be formal and thematic. The most ancient is the thematic arrangement of entries. Sumerian-Arcadia dictionaries compiled more than 3 000 years B.C. for translation purposes were built according to a thematic principle. But later a formal principle gained more popularity [2].

The most widespread type of the formal arrangement of entries is alphabetical one. It can be uniform. When each headword has its own entry and all entries are arranged in a strict alphabetical order. This principle is applied in most monolingual general dictionaries.

Another type of the alphabetical arrangement is a nest-type. In this case an entry combines the information about several headwords, connected with each other and the entries are arranged in the alphabetical order. In dictionaries compiled according to this principle lexical units are combined into nests based on either a word building (morphological, syntactic) or the lexical (semantic) principle. A nest-type arrangement of entries is a characteristic of most terminological dictionaries (both monolingual and bilingual).

The dictionaries in which lexical units are arranged according to a thematic principle are called thematic. They can be of several types:

* thematic-alphabetical in which the lexical units are correlated with central entries arranged alphabetically;

* ideographic dictionaries or thesauri in which entries are grouped in semantic fields. Semantic fields can be singled out according to associative or hierarchical relations between the notions.

The structure of the entry is different in monolingual and bilingual dictionaries. The entry can be seen as an 'equation' between the left and the right side [3]. The left side is represented by lemma which consists of:

* the headword;

* the grammatical and phonetic information about the word.

In Ukrainian and Russian dictionaries a transcription of a headword is printed with signs of the international phonetic transcription system. In British and American lexicography it is common to show the pronunciations of a word using letters of English alphabet.

The second point of lemma may vary according to the type and aim of the dictionary. The most complicated type of entry is that found in explanatory dictionaries.

In explanatory dictionaries of the synchronic type the left side of the entry usually presents the following data: accepted spelling and pronunciation; grammatical characteristics including the indication of the part of speech of each entry word, the transitivity and intransitivity of the verb and irregular grammatical forms [1].

The compilers of a dictionary of the same type may choose a different setting of a typical entry: they may omit some of the item or add some other, choose a different order of their arrangement or a different mode of presenting the same information.

The right side is presented by a definition in monolingual dictionaries and by an equivalent from the corresponding language in bilingual dictionaries.

According to L. Zgusta a lexical meaning can be described by the following lexicological means [4]:

- the lexicological definition;

- the location in the system of synonyms;

- the exemplification;

- the glosses.

The lexicological definition should be precise, but not too detailed. The language of the lexicological definition is also of great importance. The formulations have to be simple, accurate and standardized. In English and American lexicography the vocabulary used in definitions is limited.

Another important issue in the entry organization is the order of definitions of a polysemantic word. One of the most difficult problems nearly all lexicographers face is recording the word-meanings and arranging them in the most rational way, in the order that is supposed to be of most help to those who will use the dictionary.

If one compares the general number of meanings of a word in different dictionaries even those of the same type, one will easily see that their number varies considerably.

The number of meanings a word is given and their choice in this or that dictionary depends, mainly, on two factors [1]:

1. on what aim the compilers set themselves;

2. what decisions they make concerning the extent to which obsolete, archaic, dialectal or highly specialized meanings should be recorded, how the problem of polysemy and homonymy is solved, how cases of the conversion are treated, how the segmentation of different meanings of a polysemantic word is made, etc.

The definitions can be arranged according to either a historic principle or a frequency principle.

In entries built according to a historic principle (diachronic dictionaries), the first definition describes the primary (initial) meaning of the word.

Entries are structured according to the frequency principle (synchronic dictionaries), the most frequently used meaning of the word goes first.

Sometimes the meanings are given in the logical order.

The second means used by lexicographers for the explanation of a meaning of a certain lexical unit is synonyms and words close to a headword in their meaning. There are two main ways of how this method is used in the dictionaries. The first one is when the synonyms are given in addition to the lexicological definition. The second way implies that the synonyms and words close to a headword in their meaning are used instead of a lexicological definition. The drawbacks of the second method are evident; first of all it is inconvenient because of polysemy of the words. That is why in unabridged dictionaries it is preferred to use the first method. Nevertheless, the second way is popular by pocket dictionaries, since it economized space.

Exemplification in dictionary entries is used in order to show how the headword is used in the combination with other lexical units. Most dictionaries give examples. Their quantity depends upon the volume of a dictionary. The importance of giving example sentences can hardly be overestimated. They not only explain the headword, but also illustrate the first and the last known occurrences of the entry word, the successive changes in its graphic and phonetic forms, as well as in its meaning, the typical patterns and collocations, the difference between synonymous words [5].

As to the nature of examples, diachronic dictionaries make use of quotations drawn from literary sources, while in synchronic dictionaries illustrative sentences and phrases by big dictionaries, in middle-size dictionaries illustrative sentences and phrases drawn from classical and contemporary sources or those constructed by the compilers are employed.

The form of the illustrative quotations can differ in different dictionaries; the main variation can be observed in the length of the quotation and in the precision of the citation.

Some dictionaries indicate the author, the work, the page, verse, or line, and the precise date of the publication, some indicate only the author, because it gives at least the basic orientation about the time when the word occurs and the type of text [1].

The glosses are used in many spheres. They can explain etymology of the headword, the sphere of its usage etc.

Some scholars single out one more way of description of the lexical meaning of a headword - a cross-reference. Reference to other words is resorted to define some derivatives, abbreviations and variant forms [6].

Very often dictionary entries contain a set of idioms and stable expressions with a headword.

Let us take some examples of dictionary entries of aviation English vocabulary units from Oxford Wordpower Dictionary. The first word to analyze is climb. In Oxford Wordpower Dictionary we find the following entry:

Climb [klaim] v. i.v. 1. Climb (up) (sth) to move up towards the top of sth: She climbed the stairs to bed. 2. To move with difficulty or effort, in the direction mentioned: I managed to climb out of the window. 3. To go up mountains, etc. as a sport. 4. To rise to a higher position: The plane climbed steadily. idm climb / jump on the bandwagon; phr v climb down (over sth) (informal) to admit that you have made a mistake; to change your opinion about sth in an argument.

Let us take some other words: airborne [eobom] adj. flying in the air; descend [di'send] v. (formal) to go down to a lower place; to go down sth: The plane started to descend and a few minutes later we landed. Opp. ascend; idm be descended from sb: to have sb as a relative in past times: He says he's descendedfrom a Russian prince.

In the given examples we can see the transcription of the word; the indication of a part of the speech; in the case of a verb whether it is transitive or intransitive; the explanation of the meaning with examples; phrasal verbs; idiomatic expressions; opposites.

Having analyzed some other examples we have noticed that in some other dictionary entries we can see additional points such as: synonyms, derivatives, collocations. There are some kinds of note: Help (to avoid mistakes), More (to build your vocabulary), Culture (for information about Britain and America), Grammar (for difficult grammar points).

Conclusion. In the given article we have analyzed the structure of a linguistic dictionary and the organization of its entries. We have come to the conclusion that common features in the composition of linguistic dictionaries are:

* the introduction and Guide to the using of the dictionary;

* the dictionary proper;

* the supplementary material.

The entries in the linguistic dictionaries can be arranged according to the formal or thematic principles; formal principle is more popular and its most widespread type of the entry arrangement is alphabetical one.

Usually, linguistic dictionary entries contain such types of information: spelling; explanation of a meaning; grammatical information about the word; examples to each meaning (may be missing in abridged dictionaries); a set of idioms and stable expressions with a headword; etymological (not obligatory).

Список використаних джерел та літератури

1. Лексикология английского языка : учебник для ин-тов и фак. иностр. яз.] / [Гинзбург Р. З., Хидикель C. С., Князева Г. Ю., Санкин А. А.]. - М. : Высш.шк., 1979. - 269 с.

2. Bejoint H. Modern Lexicography : An Inroduction / H. Bejoint. - Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2000. - 279 p.

3. Landau S. Dictionaries : The Art and Craft of Lexicography / S. Landau. - Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2001. - 538 p.

4. Zgusta L. Manual of Lexicography / L. Zgusta. - Praha : Academia, 1971. - 360 p.

5. Арнольд И. В. Лексикология современного английского языка : [УЧЄ6. для ин-тов и фак. иностр. яз.] / И. В. Арнольд. - М. : Высш. шк., 1986. - 295 с.

6. Моисеев М. В. Лексикология английского языка / М. В. Моисеев. - Омск : Изд-во ОмГУ, 2006. - 92 с.

REFERENCES (TRANSLATED & TRANSLITERATED)

1. Leksikologiya angliyskogo yazyka [Lexicology of the English Language] : [uchebnik dlya in-tov i fak. inostr. yaz.] / [Ginzburg R. Z., Khidikel S. S., Knyazeva G. U., Sankin A. A.]. - M. : Vyssh. shk., 1979. - 269 s.

2. Bejoint H. Modern Lexicography : An Inroduction / H. Bejoint. - Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2000. - 279 p.

3. Landau S. Dictionaries : The Art and Craft of Lexicography / S. Landau. - Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2001. - 538 p.

4. Zgusta L. Manual of Lexicography / L. Zgusta. - Praha : Academia, 1971. - 360 p.

5. Arnold I. V. Leksikologiya sovremennogo angliyskogo yazyka [Lexicology of Modern English Language] : [ucheb. dlya in-tov i fak. inostr. yaz.] / I. V.Arnold. - M. : Vyssh. shk., 1986. - 295 s.

6. Moiseev M. V. Leksikologiya angliyskogo yazyka [Lexicology of the English Language] / M. V. Moiseev. - Omsk : Omsk State University Publishing House, 2006. - 92 s.

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