Dictionary: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 16:23, 17 May 2012

Revision as of 21:36, 17 May 2012

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{{Other uses}}

[[File:Latin dictionary.jpg|thumb|250px|A multi-volume Latin dictionary by [[Egidio Forcellini]].]]

A '''dictionary''' (also called a '''wordbook''', '''lexicon''' or '''vocabulary''') is a collection of [[words]] in one or more specific languages, often listed [[Alphabetical order|alphabetically]], with usage information, [[definitions]], etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information;<ref name = Web1>''Webster's New World College Dictionary,'' Fourth Edition, 2002</ref> or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a [[lexicon]].<ref name = Web1/> According to [[Sandro Nielsen|Nielsen]] (2008) a dictionary may be regarded as a [[Lexicography|lexicographical]] product that is characterised by three significant features: (1) it has been prepared for one or more functions; (2) it contains data that have been selected for the purpose of fulfilling those functions; and (3) its lexicographic structures link and establish relationships between the data so that they can meet the needs of users and fulfill the functions of the dictionary.

A broad distinction is made between general and [[specialized dictionaries]]. Specialized dictionaries do not contain information about words that are used in language for general purposes&mdash;words used by ordinary people in everyday situations. Lexical items that describe concepts in specific fields are usually called terms instead of words, although there is no consensus whether [[lexicology]] and [[terminology]] are two different fields of study. In theory, general dictionaries are supposed to be [[Semasiology|semasiological]], mapping word to [[definition]], while specialized dictionaries are supposed to be [[Onomasiology|onomasiological]], first identifying concepts[[concept]]s and then establishing the terms used to designate them. In practice, the two approaches are used for both types.<ref name="Sterkenburg2003">Sterkenburg 2003, pp. 155–157</ref> There are other types of dictionaries that don't fit neatly in the above distinction, for instance [[bilingual dictionary|bilingual (translation) dictionaries]], dictionaries of [[synonyms]] ([[thesaurus|thesauri]]), or [[rhyming]] dictionaries. The word dictionary (unqualified) is usually understood to refer to a monolingual general-purpose dictionary.<ref name=Sintro>Sterkenburg 2003, pp. 3–4</ref>

A different dimension on which dictionaries (usually just general-purpose ones) are sometimes distinguished is whether they are [[Prescription and description|''prescriptive'' or ''descriptive'']], the latter being in theory largely based on [[linguistic corpus]] studies&mdash;this is the case of most modern dictionaries. However, this distinction cannot be upheld in the strictest sense. The choice of [[headword]]s is considered itself of prescriptive nature; for instance, dictionaries avoid having too many taboo words in that position. Stylistic indications (e.g. ‘informal’ or ‘vulgar’) present in many modern dictionaries is considered less than objectively descriptive as well.<ref>Sterkenburg 2003, p. 7</ref>

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==History==

The oldest known dictionaries were [[Akkadian Empire]] cuneiform tablets with bilingual [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]]&ndash;[[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] wordlists, discovered in [[Ebla]] (modern [[Syria]]) and dated roughly 2300 [[Common Era|BCE]].<ref name = "imlqdg">{{cite web|title=Dictionary – MSN Encarta<!-- Bot generated title -->|url=http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761573731/Dictionary.html#p3|work=|archiveurl=http://www.webcitation.org/5kwbLyr75|archivedate=2009-10-31|deadurl=yes}}</ref> The early 2nd millennium BCE ''[[Urra=hubullu]]'' glossary is the canonical [[Babylonian]] version of such bilingual Sumerian wordlists. A [[Chinese dictionary]], the ca. 3rd century BCE ''[[Erya]]'', was the earliest surviving monolingual dictionary, although some sources cite the ca. 800 BCE [[Shizhoupian]] as a "dictionary", modern scholarship considers it a calligraphic compendium of [[Chinese character]]s from [[Zhou dynasty]] bronzes. [[Philitas of Cos]] (fl. 4th century BCE) wrote a pioneering vocabulary ''Disorderly Words'' (Ἄτακτοι γλῶσσαι, ''{{transl|el|ISO|Átaktoi glôssai}}'') which explained the meanings of rare [[Homer]]ic and other literary words, words from local dialects, and technical terms.<ref>{{cite journal |author= Peter Bing |title= The unruly tongue: Philitas of Cos as scholar and poet |journal= Classical Philology |volume=98 |issue=4 |year=2003 |pages=330–348 |doi=10.1086/422370}}</ref> [[Apollonius the Sophist]] (fl. 1st century CE) wrote the oldest surviving Homeric lexicon.<ref name = "imlqdg"/> The first [[Sanskrit]] dictionary, the [[Amarakosha|Amarakośa]], was written by [[Amara Sinha]] ca. 4th century CE. Written in verse, it listed around 10,000 words. According to the ''[[Nihon Shoki]]'', the first [[Japanese dictionaries#Early Japanese lexicography|Japanese dictionary]] was the long-lost 682 CE ''Niina'' glossary of Chinese characters. The oldest existing Japanese dictionary, the ca. 835 CE ''[[Tenrei Banshō Meigi]]'', was also a glossary of written Chinese.

[[Arabic]] dictionaries were compiled between the 8th and 14th centuries CE, organizing words in rhyme order (by the last syllable), by alphabetical order of the [[root (linguistics)|radicals]], or according to the alphabetical order of the first letter (the system used in modern European language dictionaries). The modern system was mainly used in specialist dictionaries, such as those of terms from the [[Qur'an]] and [[hadith]], while most general use dictionaries, such as the ''Lisan al-`Arab'' (13th c., still the best-known large-scale dictionary of Arabic) and ''al-Qamus al-Muhit'' (14th c.) listed words in the alphabetical order of the radicals. The ''Qamus al-Muhit'' is the first handy dictionary in Arabic, which includes only words and their definitions, eliminating the supporting examples used in such dictionaries as the ''Lisan'' and the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]''.<ref>"Ḳāmūs", J. Eckmann, ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'', 2nd ed., Brill</ref>