Lexicography

Lexicological research and producing Dictionaries

Felix Rau University of Cologne

Purpose of dictionaries
Types of dictionaries
Collecting data for dictionaries
Structure of dictionaries
Tools for producing dictionaries

Day 1

Why do you want to make a dictionary?

for myself in the field
for the (whole) community
for semi-speakers
for learners
for the general public
for linguists
for other scientists

Types of dictionaries

Audience: speakers vs. scientific audience
Type: monolingual vs. bilingual (vs. trilingual)
Form: wordlists vs. dictionaries
Scope: general vs. thematic
Perspective: synchronic vs. diachronic
Medium: print vs. digital

monolingual vs. bilingual

monolingual

Aardvark

bilingual

nam

trilingual

dant

wordlists vs. dictionaries

Wordlist (trilingual)

mrAnu

Dictionary (trilingual)

Desia_time

Other types of dictionaries

encyclopaedic dictionary
thematic dictionary
picture dictionary
etymological dictionary

general vs. thematic

Encyclopaedic dictionaries

encyclopaedic

Picture dictionaries

picture_dictionary

synchronic vs. diachronic

etymological dictionaries

arike2

(Burrow, T. and M. B. Emeneau. A Dravidian etymological dictionary. 2nd ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984.)

cf. A Preliminary Mayan Etymological Dictionary (Kaufman and Justeson 2003)

print vs. digital

non-digital print

non-digital_print

Print (self-printed)

print

Digital (desktop)

ss_lexiquepro_1

Digital (mobile)

somali1

speakers vs. scientific

speakers/learners/community

capeller

scientific

nam_v2

nam

Discussion

What material do you have for your language?
What do you think is needed most for your language?
What resources do you have to make a dictionary?