5.1.
A dictionary entry usually consists of a single lexical unit and its lexicographical
description. A lexical unit as a part of the lexical system of a language is related
to the other units of the lexical stock of the language. But when it is presented
in the dictionary in an entry form, it has a universe of its own. The entry presents
characteristics of the lexical unit as whole, its denotational representation
of the extra linguistic world, its semantic characteristics, its relation and
use with other lexical units in larger constructions as also the cultural, historical
and social peculiarities it represents,
5.2
What is a lexical unit which is included in a dictionary? It is the same as a
linguistic unit? One of the basic problems in lexicography is the definition of
this lexical unit or lexicographic word. it is customary to equate the lexicographic
word with the linguistic word. (Rohra 1978) this is generally done because the
bulk of the lexical units of a dictionary are what is usually called words and
the popularly used words 'dictionary' and 'lexicon' and other words meaning this
include in their etymological sense the idea of word1.
But
the lexicographic word is not necessarily the same as a linguistic word or unit.
A word is variously defined by linguistic on the basis of its form and function.
It is described as "a minimum free form" or a "segment of a sentence
bounded by successive points at which pausing is possible". As every language
has its own sentence structure, the word is a language specific unit. The scope
of the lexicographic word is much wider than this. A lexicographic word need not
be minimum, or free.
Berg
calls dictionary 'a list of socialized linguistic forms'2. But all the linguistic
forms do not find a place in a dictionary. In order to be included in a dictionary
a linguistic form has to have an independent entity, both formal and semantic.
A
lexicographic word may be, besides a linguistic word, any of the following:
(1) A letter like a or k because of its special function in the linguistic system
and the tradition of the language.
(2)
An affix Hindi ku-, su-; Eng. anit-, pseudo-, cracy; Sanskrit pari-, prati-; Khasi
nong-; Malayalam -ute, -inte, -kal (case suffixes).
(3)
A phrase or idiom or a proverb like H. aaNkh curraanaa 'to avoid catching eyes'
Bengali gand?aay and?aa deoyaa, 'to avoid one's duty in the state of confusion',
H. miit?hii churii 'a sweet spoken traitor', red tape, chatter box, bread and
butter; H. aaNkh ke andhe naam nayansukh 'blind of eyes but the name enjoying
the pleasure of eyes'. Eng to err is human, Bengali jhaal jhaar?aa - 'to pacify
one's anger by harsh words'.
(4)
A grammatical structure with many words or a sentence baat khaalii jaanaa 'the
word going unheeded'.
A
lexicographer gives the words black and board separately in the dictionary but
when he finds that these words occurring in combination have a special meaning,
he includes blackboard as a separate entry. As semantic independence is an essential
qualification for the inclusion of a lexical unit in a dictionary free combinations
like heavy rain, red flower, tej churii, 'sharp knife' 'kaceii rotii' 'unbaked
bread' do not find place in it because the meaning is predictable from the combined
meaning of the components whereas heavy father 'serious or solemn part in a theatrical
play' red tape, miit?hii churii etc. are included in it as their meaning is not
predictable.
The
lexicographer does not include inflected forms of a word like girls, benches,
lar?ke 'boys' rot?iyaaN 'breads' unless they show some semantic and functional
peculiarity of their own but he includes derivatives like girlish, lar?akpan 'childhood'
because they have independence of meaning.
As
already stated a lexicographic word need not necessarily be a free form. Any bound
morpheme with communicative peculiarities and having the potentiality of being
used in a new construction is as good a lexicographic word as the other. The examples
of affixes are already given. The post-positions, particles and prepositions like
Hindi ne, se, Eng. with, at, classifiers like Beng. -t?i, - t?aa, khasi - ngut,
tlli, Malto irwer, ortu do not occur freely but the dictionary includes them because
they form the part of the lexicon of the language and make communication possible.
The
next qualification for a lexical unit to be a lexicographic word is that it should
have independence in form. Independence of form means that it should be unpredictable
by rules of grammar. That is why all the inflected forms of a word are not included
in a dictionary, only irregular forms are taken, so forms like Eng. her, his,
my, geese, kine, Hindi is 'this', us, 'that', mere 'my' are included in the dictionary
and not forms like cows, bacce 'boys', aurateN 'women' although the latter are
as much linguistic forms as the former.
5.3
Dictionaries differ in size and purpose. The structure and content of the entry
also differs accordingly. The contents of the entry in a learner's dictionary
may not be the same as in a general reference dictionary. The type of definitions,
the number of illustrative examples and collocations differ in larger and smaller
dictionaries. An entry in a historical dictionary has special features of presenting
illustrative examples from different texts, elaborate treatment of etymologies
etc., which are not found in ordinary general purpose dictionaries. An entry in
a pronouncing dictionary contains nothing about sense discrimination or illustrative
examples.
An
entry in a general dictionary usually contains the following information:
(a) Head word,
(b) Spelling and Pronunciation,
(c) Grammatical information
or meaning (also inflected forms in some cases),
(d) Meaning (definition,
description or equation),
(e) Illustrative examples (also illustrative pictures),
(f) Derivatives,
(g) Phrases and idioms,
(h) Etymology,
(i) Synonyms
and antonyms.
It
is not necessary that every entry in every dictionary has all these informations.
Some may not give synonyms and antonyms while others may add illustrative examples.
The pronunciation may not be necessary for a monolingual Indian language dictionary
like Hindi-Hindi dictionary, meant for the use of a native speaker.
The
entry can be divided into two parts. The first part is called lemma and includes
the head word, spelling and pronunciation as also grammatical information. The
grammatical information can be taken as a part of the meaning also. The second
part gives the description of the lexical unit in terms of its meaning and usage.
The first part may also be called the left hand and described part and the second
part the right hand or the description part.
5.4
Head word - The head word is also called the citation form or the entry word.
What is a head word and how is it fixed for a dictionary? Some of the basic characteristics
of a lexicographic word which are coterminous with head word have been discussed
above. The form and meaning are the main criteria for the selection of a head
word. for this the lexicographer takes recourse to the word and paradigm method.
A paradigm is a sum total or system of the grammatical forms, characteristic of
a word. in other words, the inflected forms of a word having a constant lexical
meaning e.g. ghor?aa, ghor?e, ghor?oN horse', 'horses', write, wrote, written
form the paradigm of a word. the number of forms in a paradigm is quite large
especially in the case of inflecting languages. A Sanskrit verb has about 1350
forms, a Greek verb has more than 200 forms. All the forms of the paradigm cannot
be given in a dictionary. The dictionary is concerned with the idio-syncracies
or basic irregularities of a language which are not covered by the rules of grammar.
All the inflected forms in a paradigm are accounted by rules of grammar. The lexicographer
abstracts one form from the total paradigm. The abstraction is governed by the
inflexional characteristic of the languages concerned and the usual practice of
expression by the majority of speakers. It is the most common form in the paradigm.
This form is called the canonical form. Some of the basic criteria for abstraction
of the canonical form are:
(a)
Generally, but not exclusively, it has the capacity of occurring in isolation,
(b) It is the most frequent of all the forms,
(c) It can stand for the
whole paradigm.
But
the most notable criterion of abstraction of a canonical form is governed by the
grammatical tradition of a language. Every language has a tradition of its canonical
forms. For Sanskrit verbs the root is the entry form. In Greek it is the first
person singular of the indicative (Middle voice). Hindi, Punjabi and Gujarati
enter the infinitive form of the verb in the dictionary. Kannada, Tamil and Malayalam
give the root form which is also imperative second person singular. Some languages
give the nominative singular as entry form for nouns (Hindi, Russian etc.) while
others the stem form (Sanskrit).
The
situation is quite comfortable to the lexicographer of languages which have some
grammatical or lexicographical tradition of canonical forms. For languages, which
do not have any grammatical and lexicographer tradition, the lexicographer has
to fix the canonical forms. In order to find out the canonical form he has to
do a complete grammatical analysis of the language. The canonical form need not
be overtly found in all the forms of a paradigm. It is a reference point and is
perceivable in most, if not all, forms of the paradigm.
Although
the lexicographer selects the canonical form as the head word for his dictionary,
all the forms in a paradigm are to be examined carefully. If there is any form
in the paradigm which is irregular and cannot be covered by the general inflectional
rules of the languages, it is to be given special treatment. e.g.
Eng.
goose n. pl. geese
sell v. past sold
write v. past wrote pp. written
Hindi jaanaa v 'to go' past gayaa
Abuj Madia arj n 'bear' pl. arsk
Irregular
forms should be included in a way so as to bring forth their relation to the canonical
form abstracted and irregularities explained as far as possible.
Generally
such forms are treated in the following way in a dictionary:
The
canonical form is given as head word. the irregular form is given along with it
in the entry. When the irregular form occurs at its alphabetical place a cross
reference is made to the head word. e. g.
Hindi
janaa vi 'to go' past gayaa
gayaa past of jaanaa or see jaanaa
Eng. know
vi - past knew
Abuj Madia arj n 'bear' pl. arsk.
arsk n pl. or arj or
see arj.
Malayalam veekuka 'to come' past ventu.
ventu see veekuka.
A
type of irregularity to be noted by the lexicographer is the one regarding the
depleted paradigms, where some forms are lacking in the paradigm. They may also
be called paradigmatic gaps. The classical example of such depleted paradigms
are singularia tantum and pluralia tantum. These forms are entered in the dictionary
with indication of their peculiarities.
Abuj Madia daring n. 'pulses' only
pl.
notor n. 'village people' only pl.
nakorong n. 'early morning' only
pl.
Hindi
gehuuN n. 'wheat' only sg.
aaNtaa n. 'flour' only sg.
mamataa n. 'affection' only sg.
Skt.
aapas n. 'water' only pl.
praan?a n. 'life' only pl.
Eng.
disservice n. (sing with indefinite article)
trousers n. only pl.
Russ.
zoloto n. 'gold' only sg.
moloko n. 'milk' only sg.
chasi n. 'watch',
'clock' only pl.
dengi n. 'money' only pl.
Another
type of paradigmatic irregularity is found in the following:
Eng.
be, is, are, am , was, were
Hindi hE, 'is', thaa 'was', hogaa 'will be'
Skt. paa- 'drink' pib-
These
are the cases of suppletivism or aadesa. Here the canonical form is substituted
by another form in some forms of the paradigm. All these forms are entered in
the dictionary separately and are indicated with the head word. a cross reference
is made to the headword at the place of their alphabetical order. Such cases of
suppletivism are quite common with pronominal forms in some languages.
Eng.
he, his, they, their; I, my, our etc.
Hindi vah, 'he' us-oblique sg. Unh-oblique
pl.
Sanskrit asmad 1st person pronoun aham 'I', mama 'my' vayam 'we'
The
dictionary enters them separately with cross reference to the main entry. e.g.
Hindi us pron. Oblique sing form of vah
Eng. her pers. pron. (as an object
corresponding to she)
Sanskrit mama genitive sing. of 1st person pronoun.
Bengali tahaake, taahaar (see se, taahaa)
Besides
the form, the meaning of the lexical unit is also to be kept in consideration
in the selection of the head word. If any form in the paradigm does not have the
same meaning as that of the canonical form, the form is given a special treatment.
They
are given either with the canonical form with the indication of their peculiarity
or given a separate entry.
Eng.
2 arm. N. 1 (usu. Pl. but not five arm sing.) weapons….
water
n. (pl. only as in examples below)…….. cast (throw) one's bread upon
the waters, "do a good action without requiring reward, although later some
unexpected return may come".
Skt.
'kr?paa 'mercy' instrumental singular kr?payaa 'please'
This
is quite clear in such cases where a lexical unit has double forms each form having
a slightly different lexical meaning e.g. brother: brothers pl. of brother, but
bretheren 'member of some club or society'. The scientific plurals of index and
formula as indices and formulae as opposed to general plurals indexes and formulas
are also to be noted here.
5.5.
Spelling and Pronunciation: The head word is followed by pronunciation.
But it is an optional feature. It depends on the type of the dictionary. In a
Hindi dictionary for a native speaker this may not be necessary the reader can
have his own inferences. But if the dictionary is not meant for the native speaker
the pronunciation should be given. For languages in which there is no difference
between graphemes and phonemes there is no need to give pronunciation. But for
the languages whose writing system does not have one to one correlation between
the graphemes and phonemes it is essential to give the pronunciation.
Should
the pronunciation be given in the phonemic script or the phonetic script? In the
guide to pronunciation in the front matter of the dictionary an inventory of the
phonemes with all their allophones should be given. But should each individual
entry give pronunciation in a detailed phonetic transcription or in the phonemic
script? Would the allophonic details given in the front matter be adequate? Or
since the pronunciation is so important that the reader is to be provided with
actual phonetic transcription with all the entries to help him find ready information
with each entry? An approach which is something like midway may be considered
for this. As suggested by Kemp Melone (1967, 117) "A good general principle
to follow might be this, make the transcription phonemic for all the entries except
those when the user of the book may be expected to go seriously wrong unless he
is given phonetic rather than merely phonemic guidance. And naturally the two
systems should be sharply distinguished in the usual way, the phonetic transcription
being set of by square brackets, the phonemic ones by diagonal lines".
Another
question associated with the problem of pronunciation is whether it should be
given in the alphabet of the International Phonetic Association (IPA) or the conventional
orthography of the language with suitable modifications to suit the purpose. It
depends on the nature of the language, the purpose of the dictionary and ultimately,
the decision of the lexicographer. If there is a vast gap between the spelling
and the pronunciation in the language and if the dictionary is meant for a foreign
language learner the IPA may be preferred. But for languages whose orthographies
do not differ much from the phonological system, modifications in the existing
systems may suffice. But whatever modification is done or whatever method is adopted
it should be clearly indicated in the front matter of the dictionary.
Many
dictionaries give information about etymology in the lemma. Some dictionaries
give etymologies at the end of the entry. The dictionary of Indian languages e.g.
Hindi, Bengali etc., provide this information with the help of origin tags indicating
the source language and the source-form of the lexical unit. e.g.
Hindi
khopRaa (Sanskrit kharpara) 'sculp'
gallaa (Arabic gul) 'noise'
Bengali
chot?a ks?udra 'small'
Jiin Persian jiin 'the saddle of the horse'
Kannada
sante (Sanskrit samsthaa) 'weekly market'
Nepali acaar pickles, chutney, relish.
(loan word Hindi aaNcaar from Persian)
The
lemma also contains variants of the head word. When the variants occur at their
alphabetical place a cross reference is made to the main entry. e.g.
Bengali
gañi, gaNii 'a class of Brahmins'
chot?, chot?o 'small'
Malto
umg- / umga 'to embrace'
Hindi
diwaar, diiwaar 'wall'
d?haaras, d?haad?has 'consolation'
Dogri akhbaar,
akhabaar 'newspaper'
English
crosier or crozier
labour (USA labor)
The
last example points to another aspect of the lexicographic practice. If it is
decided to include regional/dialectal forms these should be given in the lemma.
These dialect forms, again when they occur at their alphabetical place, may be
cross referenced to the main entry.
5.6.
Grammatical information or meaning: as already noted, the grammatical information
can be treated both as a part of the lemma as also outside the lemma. Since it
helps in the identification of the form of the lexical unit it forms the part
of the lemma. But, as we shall see later, it also helps in finding out the meaning.
It can be, therefore, treated as the second part of the entry also.
The
question of giving grammatical information in a dictionary has to be examined
from two points of view; the quantum and type of grammatical information and the
method of its presentation in a dictionary.
The
first and the basic purpose of indicating grammatical information in the dictionary
is to indicate the morphosyntactic peculiarities of the lexical unit. But all
the grammatical details of a lexical unit cannot be given in a dictionary. The
grammar of the language takes care of it. The lexicographer gives only the morphologically
and syntactically important information. This information relates either to irregular
and unpredictable forms of the lexical unit or have some direct bearing on the
syntactical function of the lexical unit. For example gender in Hindi is arbitrary
and unpredictable. The form and meaning of the word do not provide any indication
about the gender of the word. Again, gender in Hindi is grammatical. There is
a concordance between the subject and verb. So it is essential for a dictionary
of Hindi to give information about gender. Dictionaries generally give information
about transitive and intransitive verbs. Needless to say that the transitive verb
objects and the intransitive does not. So when a dictionary gives this information
it gives the syntactical clue to the reader. The genitive case forms of the nouns
in Russian are irregular. All the Russian dictionaries mark them. In the same
way when a dictionary provides information about countable and uncountable nouns
it indicates that the uncountable nouns do not have plural and if they have it
there is a difference in their signification.
Another
purpose of giving grammatical information in the dictionary is to provide additional
indication of the meaning. Grammatical information is the first clue in the entry
to understand the meaning and function of the word. For example when we mark Hindi
aadmii 'man' as noun we locate the word in the system and eliminate the possibilities
of its being anything else. We also point out that it has certain structural possibilities.
The
grammatical information, to be given in a dictionary, is determined by the nature
of the structure of the language. The simpler the grammar of the language, the
lesser the grammatical information needed.
There
are different ways of indicating grammatical information in a dictionary. The
usual method is by providing grammatical labels (abbreviated forms of the different
parts of speech) with the headword. It may not be out of place here to mention
that the quantum of grammatical information depends on the type of the dictionary.
In a learner's dictionary there is need of giving more grammatical information
than in the general purpose dictionary. Special dictionaries like pronouncing
and orthographical do not require grammatical information.
The
grammatical information can be given in a dictionary in the following ways:
(a)
to give all the necessary information with each lexical entry. This is the usual
lexicographic practice followed universally.
(b)
to give the total grammatical information in appendix or introduction. All the
paradigmatic sets are numbered and the entry word is provided with the particular
number which is characteristic of it. Such dictionaries contain a brief grammatical
sketch of the language.
An
identical way of giving the grammatical information with the dictionary entry
is to give the typical grammatical characteristics of the lexical units not in
the form of the number index but in the form of the chief feature of the unit.
for example Sanskrit verbs may be marked by gan?as.
(c)
to give the entry only the irregular grammatical information, the regular information
being given in the appendix containing a grammatical note.
It
depends on the nature of the language and the decisions of the lexicographer as
to what method would be best suited for his dictionary. he may prefer to give
information about some grammatical categories in one way and about the others
in another way. In some dictionaries the entries for only one class of words are
classified and marked. This, again, is governed by the nature of that class. If
it is more complex it can be classified and rather than giving details about the
morphological nature of the lexical unit with each entry, the classified numbers
can be given. We have several examples of this. The Tamil Lexicon classifies verbs
according to their inflectional peculiarities into 12 groups. The verbal entry
is numbered according to the group of the inflection. e.g.
kat?i1
11. v. tr. 'to bite', 'bite off'
In
the same way the verbs have been classified into sixteen groups in the Malayalam
Lexicon and the entries are marked accordingly.
In
An Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English verbs have been classified
into 25 patterns and each entry has been marked with the number of the verb-patterns.
e.g. cut. vt, & i 1. (VP. 1. 7, 10, 18, 19) 'divide, 'separate'.
In
the Marathi Dictionary being prepared by the Maharashtra State Board for Literature
and Languages, masculine and feminine nouns are classified into seven groups according
to their final vowels. Each class is further sub-divided according to the function
of plural and oblique forms. The verbs are divided into 9 groups.
The
presentation of the grammatical information in appendix is very common in dictionaries
produced in Soviet Union, especially Learner's Dictionaries.
Grammatical
information is also given by indicating the inflected forms of the entry word.
e.g.
criterion
(pl. criteria)
dizzy adj. (ier, -iest)
donkey (pl. -keys)
As
can be seen form the above, this is done in case of irregular formations. But
sometimes even regular formations are indicated in this way. e.g.
Hindi
ghoNghaa (fm ghoNghii) 'snail'
From
the point of view of its nature the grammatical information may be either identificational
or delimitational. The identificational information identifies the lexical entry
and is given with the lexical items having total paradigm. It pertains to the
primary grammatical categories. e.g. any indication of noun, adjective, verb etc.
The delimitational information is given with lexical items which have only partial
or depleted paradigms. For example lexical items occurring only in sing. or pl.
English
dis-service (sing with indefinite art. Or (u)) scissors only pl.
Hindi aaNt?a
'flour' only sing.
Abuj madia nator 'people' only pl.
Russian dengi
'money' only pl.
The
delimitational information may be given in two ways.
(a)
Positive: Only that grammatical information is given which is absent in the paradigmatic
form.
Eng.
scissors pl. only.
Hindi mamataa 'affection' sg. only.
(b)
Negative : Only that information is given which is absent in the paradigmatic
form.
Eng. scissors no sing.
Madia daring 'pulses' no sing.
Hindi
gehuuN 'wheat' no pl.
Whatever
method is adopted, it should be indicated in the front-matter of the dictionary.
it would be quite useful if a brief skeleton grammar of the language is given
in the dictionary in the introduction or appendices. Here again, the nature of
the dictionary will determine the form. In a monolingual dictionary the sketch
of grammar may not be as necessary as in a bilingual dictionary.
Another
thing the lexicographer could do to the greater benefit of the user is to give
in the introduction the form of the entry words along with the grammatical information.
It will be more useful if he indicated therein the basis of choosing grammatical
categories. e.g.
"An
attempt has been made to keep the categories as generic as possible. Thus aux.
will subsume tense, mood and aspect markers. All kinds of pronouns viz., interrogative,
possessive etc. are brought under 'pronoun'. Particles will include intensifiers,
interrogative particles and so on. Although case markers are also post positions
they are considered different categories because they differ in lexical content.
Subordinators are subordinate clause markers". (Giridhar, forthcoming, preface).
The
form of entry word in the dictionary may also be described e.g. for a Hindi Dictionary
the form of the entry can be given as follows:
(a)
verbs are given in their infinitive form as head words. They are marked for transitive
and intransitive.
kahnaa
vt 'to say'
daur?na vi 'to run'
(2)
For nouns the direct singular form is chosen as the entry word. they are marked
for gender as masculine and feminine, e.g.
aaNkh
n.f. 'eye'
aam n.m. 'mango'
this
may be accomplished by such information as countable and uncountable etc.
5.7.
The second part of the dictionary entry gives the semantic description of the
lexical unit. The different components of meaning which together constitute the
semantic structure of a word have been described earlier. There are various methods
of giving meanings to lexical units. These are:
1.
Description and definition of the lexical unit,
2. equations - the lexical
unit is equated with another lexical unit of similar meaning,
3. illustrative
examples,
4. illustrative pictures,
5. glosses,
6. cross reference,
7. etymology,
8. labels.
All
the different mechanisms employed by the lexicographer are not required for all
types of lexical units. In some cases only one mechanism may suffice while for
others more than one may be required. For example for a technical term there may
not be any necessity of giving an illustrative example. But for a polysemous word
like run there is a need of giving as many illustrations as the number of meanings
and sub-meanings. For borrowed words the source or the etymology is considered
essential. For a lexical unit with restricted use some indication of its restriction
is useful. Some words may be defined by the base or family words by cross reference.
It
is always useful to define a word in more than one way. As recommended by Urdang,
"there should be no one way to define a word; in defining (within certain
limitations), the end justifies the means and the end should always be to convey,
as accurately and succinctly as possible, the sense of the word being defined".
(Urdang 1963, 587).
The
meaning of a lexical unit is the sum total of its interpersonal impressions in
a society. So the lexicographer has to define his words in the socially accepted
meanings. There is no scope for personal whims and fancies in a dictionary. A
lexicographer cannot define a word in the way he likes. He has to define the word
as it exists and not as it should be. "The writing of a dictionary is therefore
not a task of setting up authoritative statements about the true meanings of words,
but a task of recording, to the best of ones' ability what various words have
meant to authors in the distant or immediate past. The writer of dictionary is
a historian not a law giver". (Hayakawa 1941, 55).
5.8
Of the mechanisms listed above the description and definition are the basic ones
for defining the words.
The
lexicographer gives the description of a lexical unit for giving the meaning of
a lexical unit. this description generally, but no always, pertains to the extra-linguistic
or encyclopaedic components of the lexical unit. e.g.
Hindi
cakor n. ek prakaar kaa tiitar jo candramaa kaa premii aur angaar khaanewalaa
maanaa jaalaa hE. 'A type of partridge which is considered a lover of the moon
and which eats fire'.
Urdu
Sekh n. 'a title of the descendants of Mohammad'.
Bengali
caii n. 'a creeper of the pippali class whose branches and roots are used as medicines'.
Abuj
Madia aakaar n. 'second month of the Madia year falling sometime in June-July'.
Malto
kamane n. 'ritual connected with death ceremony'.
Angami
kEtsu n. 'Angami month around May'.
kenie n. 'a small millet eaten raw or
cooked'.
Tangkhul
aachon n. 'sister (belonging to a noble family), from of addressing a lady'.
Naga
Marathi
vanseN 'used for calling or mentioning respectfully one's husband's sister'. (from
Kelkar 1968, 148).
The
different semantic features of a lexical unit put together are defined by paraphrase
or rewording i.e. "an interpretation of the verbal signs by means of other
signs of the same language". (Jacobson 1959, 253)
Eng.
courage n. 'quality that enables a person to control fear in the face of danger,
pain, misfortune etc.,'
Hindi
jau. N. gehuuN kii tarah kaa ek prasiddha paudaa jiske biij yaa daane kii gintii
anaajoN meN hotii hE. 'an important plant of the type of wheat whose seeds or
grains are counted among grains'.
Linguistic
definition alone does not suffice to describe all the words of a language. The
meaning of many a lexical unit is the result of a process of evolution involving
historical, social, cultural, mythological and folklore traditions of the speakers
of a language. So while defining a lexical unit the lexicographer has to keep
all these facts in his mind. We may illustrate this by some examples. When a lexicographer
defines the word kaamaari 'Siva' in his dictionary, he has to keep in mind the
mythological lore in which Kama was burnt by Siva for causing disturbance in his
penance. While defining the world bhagiiratha prayatna 'a great effort', the lexicographer
has to take recourse to the cultural and mythological traditions of the people.
When the word kanyaadaan 'giving away of the daughter in marriage' is defined,
the social custom relating to the giving of kanyaa (a young girl) in marriage
is taken into consideration. When the word niyoga is defined in a dictionary the
lexicographer has not only to give the general meaning like 'appointment', 'responsibility'
etc., but also the meaning 'an ancient Aryan practice according to which a childless
widow or woman was permitted to have sexual intercourse with a person other than
the husband to beget a child'.
Let
us examine the following words in Malayalam:
pe´´al?a
honorific plural for a female (pe´-kal?) meaning 'sister.
aa´´al?a
honorific plural for male (aan-kal) meaning 'brother'.
The
first word is used only by the brother to address the sister whereas the second
is used to address the brother by the sister, usually, by the Christian community
of Central Travancore3. These specifications of use are to be indicated in a dictionary.
The Bengali word bar?gii means 'Old Maharastrian army'. But this meaning may not
be adequate for giving the complete picture of the word. it has to include some
information about the ruthless ransacking and plundering of the cities and villages
by the members of the army.
The
lexicographic definition need not be the same as logical definition. The logical
definition identifies the defined object or idea by giving it in total contrast
with all other things. It puts an object in a class. The lexicographic definition
puts only those features which are sufficient to differentiate the object from
other units. Thus the lexicographic definition gives general features to specify
the object. It may not be the same as required by the logical definition. A definition
like the following, Hindi sundar4 jo dekhne meN achaa lage 'that which appears
good in looking' is lexicographically adequate but it is not complete logically.
A thing may not be pleasant to look but it may be sundar.
We
may examine the following definition of koyal 'cuckoo' in a Hindi Dictionary and
see the meaning of sundar. Koyal fm. Bahut sundar bolanewaalaa kaale rang kaa
paks?ii. 'A black coloured bird which sings beautifully i.e. melodiously'. Here,
the appeal is not to the eyes but to the ear and sundar is not pleasing to the
eyes but to the ears.
In
one field, genus and differentia definition, the lexicographical definition is
nearer to the logical definition. Here the specific is defined in terms of the
generic. The genus stands for all the semantic features or markers and the specific
for special or distinguishing features. When we define the word kamal 'lotus'
as 'a kind of flower' we include in the definition the features of flower which
is the generic term. This is also explained in terms of hyponymy and hyperonymy.
(3. 10) in these definitions genus is the expression of the logical definition.
The
definition should be as precise, accurate and unambiguous as possible. It should
avoid unnecessary words. Only minimum words with utmost clarity should be used
for defining a word. In SHSS the word mahaapraan?a is defined as vyaakaran?a ke
anusaar vah varn?a jiske uccaaran?a meN praan?avaayu kaa vi ses?a vyavahaar karnaa
par?taa hE… 'According to grammar that letter in pronunciation of which some
special use of the praan?avaayu is made'. Here the form 'special use of praanavaayu'
is vague. It does not tell specifically as to how the air comes out of the vocal
chords. vyaakaran?a ke anusaar is also unnecessary. An indication by the label
Vyaa. for vyaakaran?a 'grammar' would suffice.
Hindi
muuNgphalii! ek prakaar kaa ks?up jis?kii khetii phaloN ke liye kii jaatii hE.
'a type of creeper plant which is cultivated for fruits'. In this definition the
word ks?up is unusually difficult and the word phaloN 'fruits' is ambiguous.
We
may compare the following definitions in the same dictionary and find out the
unnecessary words in one of the definitions.
battiis
'thirty two' jo gintii meN tiis se do jyaadaa ho 'which is two more than thirty
in counting'.
baais
'twenty two' jo biis aur do ho 'which is twenty and two'.
Here
the use of gintii meN in the first definition seems to be superfluous. Indication
that it is a numeral will be more useful. The same is the case with the following:
battissi
battiis kaa samuuh 'collection of thirty two'.
baaisii
baais vastuon kaa samuuh 'a collection of twenty two things'.
Here
the word vastuoN in the second definition is not needed.
The
definition should be so precisely and accurately worded that it denotes one and
only one sense, and it leaves no scope for misinterpretation. It should clarify
all the semantic features of the word. Suppose we define the Hindi word kursii
as ek prakaar kii chaukii jo bEt?hane ke kaam meN aatii hE 'a wooden square seat
used for sitting'5.
In
this definition the object defined need not be a chair only. It may be a stool,
so the definition should contain something like 'a back rest or hands' to make
it specific for chair only.
The
definition should be inclusive. This means that all the words in the definition
must also be defined in the dictionary. No word in the definition should be left
undefined.
We
may examine some entries:
Tangkhul-Naga-English-Dictionary:
ranrei n. 'assembly of people for the celebration of marankasaa
marankasaa
n. 'festival of celebrating a newly built house and the erection of a tarung.
Tarung n. 'a tree erected in front of the house as status symbol, after performing
some ritual'.
These
are examples form a bilingual dictionary. The point made here is this. If the
two underlined words marankasaa and tarung were not explained in the dictionary
the meaning of ranrei and marankasaa would not be understood clearly.
We
may examine an entry from a Bengali Dictionary.
d?aak
n. 'call' aahvaana 'call', sambodhana 'address'.
The
defining word aahvaana is not an entry in the dictionary. it is given as one of
the many meanings of aahvaya. The word d?aak is not given. How can a reader find
the meaning of d?aak?
Hindi
(SHSS) khanjana n. 2 khiNrric ke rang kaa ghoraa 'a home of the colour of khi"nr?ric.
There is no entry in the dictionary for the word khiNr?ric.
The
entry d?aak in the Bengali dictionary takes us to another field of defining the
meaning. The word d?aak is more frequent and common than aahvaan. One of the ways
to define a lexical unit is to define the unfamiliar words of a language by familiar
and basic words. Every language has a stock of words which are basic and minimal
for it. This forms the nucleus of the total lexicon and constitutes the built
in vocabulary of the language. As opposed to these there are peripheral and learned
words. Such words may be called the built out vocabulary of the language.
The
built out vocabulary is defined in terms of the built in vocabulary. In other
words the unknown is defined by the known.
Marathi
vidhi 'law' kaaydaa
saasan 'government' sarkaar
pus?pa 'flower' phuul
hindi
paan?I 'hand' haath
bhojan 'food' khaanaa
But
if the common words are defined by uncommon words it will create difficulties
for the reader. The defining language or metalanguage should be very simple. Difficult
and uncommon words should be avoided as far as possible. We have already alluded
to the use of the word kus?p in the definition of a Hindi word.
Care
should be taken to limit the number of words used for defining a word. in the
International Reader's Dictionary of English the word list of 2400 words is defined
within a vocabulary of 1490 words selected by M. West.
The
definitions should avoid circularity, that is the word should not be repeated
in both the defined and defining words, e.g.
English6
continuity 'quality
or state of being continuous'
continuous 'having continuity of parts'
folly 'stage of being foolish or a foolish act or idea'
foolish 'exhibiting
folly' 'proceeding from folly'
Hindi:
tasallii: 'consolation' aasvaasana, saantvanaa, d?haaras
aasvaiisana:
tasallii, saantvanaa, d?har?aas, d?haad?has
aasvaasan: saantvanaa, tasallii
The
definition should not be under specific. It should be adequate to give a complete
and total picture of the defined word e.g.
Hindi
t?aaNkaa n.m.1. vah jiske dvaara do ciijeN (praayah? kapr?aa yaa dhaatu kii) jor?ii
jaatii hEN. 'that by which two things (generally of cloth and metal) are joined
together'. Can an adhesive used for joining metals be called a t?aaNkaa in which
some stitching is essentially involved? The definition could include this feature
in it.
Narakacaturdasii-kaartik
kr?s??n?a caturdasii jis din ghar kaa kuur?aa katwaar nikaalkar pheNkaa jaataa
hE. 'The fourteenth day of the dark fortnight of Kartik on which the garbage of
the house is thrown out'. This definition is quite good in so far as it gives
the present description of the festival. But it has a cultural and historical
significance. The word narka is the name of the demon killed on the day. So, the
inclusion of such information in the definition is considered useful
We
have already noted the significance of cultural, social and other traditions while
giving the definition of a word.
Flora
and Fauna: under specificness of definitions is very frequently found in the treatment
of lexical items pertaining to the field of flora and fauna. Although giving equivalents
for them is a problem for all languages for unwritten languages especially tribal
languages. They present special problems. The usual way of define them is to give
'a king of grass', 'a type of tree', 'a species, of animals' etc. Giving Latin
botanical and zoological equivalents is another device used to define these words.
For a general purpose dictionary both the ways of defining are inadequate. Any
grass is a kind of grass and every animal is a species of animal. What would a
general reader understand out of it? Again a general reader is not expected to
understand a word like adbmosehaus esculentus for 'lady finger' and azadirachta
indica for 'Neem'.
A
useful way of defining the flora, as Conklin (1967, 122) puts it, is in terms
of folk-taxonomies by defining the items under hierarchies of plants e.g.
oak
poison oak, white oak
pine pine apple, pitch pine
Another
approach is suggested below7.
The
flora of any place may be broadly grouped in the following two groups from the
point of view of their usefulness and cultural significance.
(a) Those which
are useful in the areas of food, shelter medicine and general adornment, and
(b) those which have minimal or no significance.
All
the plants of the first group may not be of equal significance. These may again
be classed into groups on the basis of their being cultivated or not.
(1)
Cultivated: The plants cultivated by the people and generally used by the people.
(2) Protected: Not cultivated in the strict sense but their growth would
not be as luxuriant if left alone.
(3) Wild but having cultural significance
receiving no special treatment by men. e.g. grasses, shrubs, etc.
(4) Wild
plants with low cultural significance.
The
lexical units of this class may be defined by making up the above criteria as
the basis of semantic features. e.g.
Malto
eepu. n. 'a wild plant, the fibres of which are utilized to make chords'.
O: po n. 'a kind of tree the wood is used to make combs'.
gurnigote n. 'a
fruit which is used as a cure for headache'.
gurso n. 'a tree, the fruits
of which are used s poison to kill fish'.
Hindi
poi: ek lata jiskii pattiyoN kaa saag aur pakaud?iyaaN bantii hEN 'a creeper the
leaves of which are used for preparing vegetable and fried vegetable-stuffed preparation
of gram flour'.
Angami
luou: 'a kind of bamboo used for making flutes'.
Besides
the cultural significance mentioned above the physical characteristics of the
flora in terms of their shape, size, colour etc. may also be given. The flora
may further be described in terms of its comparability with other similar object.
For example a grass might be defined in terms of its nearness to another grass
or a flower nearer to another flower.
The
definition by Latin botanical and zoological terms has a particular advantage.
If botanical terms can be given the objects may be compared to another object
in any other language, so that it provides a list of similar trees and plants.
A
similar method may be applied for defining fauna also. Here, again, besides giving
the genus, the size and other physical descriptions the cultural significance
and usefulness of the species may be described in the definition.
e.g. Malto
colg-dundo n. 'a large butterfly which makes the children cry',
hindi
jhiiNngur n. ek prasiddha chot?aa kiir?aa jo aNdhere gharoN khetoN aur mEdaanoN
meN rahtaa hE. iskii aawaaj bahut tej jhiiN jhiiN hoti hE. 'A famous small insect
which lives in dark rooms, fields and plains. It has a very sharp jhiiN jhiiN
voice'.
Technical
terms: The definition of technical terms should have all the qualities prescribed
above and be scientifically accurate and intelligible. For a general dictionary
the definition of the technical term should be such as can be intelligible to
a non-specialist. Then comes the question whether only the technical definition
is to be given or a general definition can also be given. For example should the
Hindi word namak 'salt' be defined as Nac 1 or as ek prasiddha ks?aar padaartha
jiskaa vyavahaar bhojya padaarthoN meN ek prakaar kaa svaad utpanna karne ke lie
hotaa hE 'a famous alkine substance which is used in eatables to produce a type
of taste'. The first definition may be useful for a specialist in the field of
chemistry, but the general reader may not find it equally useful. So for a general
dictionary the treatment of technical terms should be such that it transmits the
idea of science into general language. It will not be adequate in case of these
words to define them by some equivalent but it would be more useful, if the terms
are described along with the definition. This description may attain the nature
of encyclopaedic definition. e.g.
coal
n. 1. 'Hard opaque black or blackish mineral or vegetable matter found in seams
or strata below earth's surface and used as a fuel and in manufacture of gas,
tar etc.,'.
For
the treatment of technical term the following remark of Barnhart may be quite
useful.
"The
vocabulary of science should be related to the general vocabulary of educated
people so that the peculiar contributions of any science to our knowledge and
understanding of the universe can be made a part of general knowledge. The basic
terms of scientific and technical vocabulary should be so explained that the beginning
student can comprehend them and relate them to this experience. It should be possible,
both in general purpose dictionaries and in specialized technical dictionaries
to show that scientific terms are not merely hard words but results of a different
and more exact structuring of the world by the scientist; parallel defining is
of great importance as are cross references to closely related terms. The concept
of atom is related to molecule and nucleus and proton; one term cannot really
be understood without the others" (Barnhart, 1978, 1927).
Here
it may not be out of place to quote from the entry uppu 'salt' in Malayalam Lexicon.
uppu.
a crystalline substance having alkine acidic taste extracted usually from sea
water, it dissolves in water,… added to food stuff for taste… used as
a preservative…' then the entry contains the various used of salt. This definition
gives more useful information about salt.
A
lexicographer cannot do justice with the definition of all the technical terms
in the dictionary if he defines all of them himself. He has to take the help of
experts in different fields. Generally the bigger dictionary projects have a consultative
board which gives advice in the matter of the definition of the technical terms.
Syntax
of the meta language: The lexicographer has to keep the syntax of the meta language
in view. As far as possible the definition should be such as it can be substituted
for the defined word in a context. For this it is necessary that the definition
should be in endocentric phrase. This means that the grammatical category of the
defining word or phrase or the total definition/construction should be the same
as that of the lexical unit defined. For this the possibilities of collocations
should be clearly indicated by the meta language. Thus a noun is to be defined
by a noun phrase, a verb by a verb phrase, an adjective by an adjective phrase
etc.
H.
naram adj. mulaayam adj. 'soft'
thaalii n bhojan karne kaa ek prasiddha chichlaa
bartan
'a famous shallow utensil for taking food'
Eng.
cut n. 'act of cutting'
cut v. 'divide or separate', 'make an opening'
Bengali
taagaa sub. Baahute paribaar alañkaar vises?a 'a particular ornament worn
on the arms'.
Angami.
unurhi. vi 'to have presence of mind' 'to be alert'.
This
principle cannot be adhered to strictly sometimes and the definition is to be
given with different structure of the meta language (Weinreich 1967, 39).
Eng.
at prep. (place and direction) indicating the place in which something or somebody
was, is or will be.
Hindi
kaa suffix 1. sambandh yaa s?as?t?hii (vibhakti) kaa cinha 'marker of the genitive
case'
Bengali
- t?aa Banglaa nirdesaka pratyaya-vises?a-sankhyaa baa parimaan nirdesa. 'A particular
suffix etc. indicating numeral or measurement in Bengali'.
Khasi
nong prefix 'expressing agent'.
Malto
ortu adj. 'one (classifier for human beings)'.
Repetition
in Definition: the lexical units defined are sometimes used for defining new related
lexical units. Here usually the derivatives are defined by the base or family
words defined. e.g.
seal.
n. 1. 'a piece of wax, lead etc. s?tampled with a design, attached to a document
to show that it is genuine or to a letter, packet, box, bottle, door etc. to guard
against it s being opened by unauthorised persons'.
seal vt. 'to put a seal'.
Hindi
jaan n.f. praan?, jiiv, 'life'
Jaandaar adj. jismeN jaan ho (which has life)
naram adj. 'soft'
narami n. naram hone kaa bhav. 'the state of being soft'.
Bengali
kaajal n. 'collirium'
kaajalaa adj. 'kaajal barn?ara 'of the colour of collirium'.
This
practice of defining can be used with advantage because it not only saves space
but also indicates the interrelationship of different words. It also stops the
broadening of the range of the meaning of the derivative, leading to ambiguity
at times. Gove (1967, 10) gives a very interesting example:
'The
adjective bothersome is best defined by 'causing bother' in a dictionary that
defined bother a few lines away. To define it by 'causing trouble or annoyance'
sweeps up and includes all the meanings of trouble and annoyance and adds them
to those of bother'.
Hindi
vajanii has been defined as jiskaa bahut bojh ho, 'which has much weight'. It
can be defined as jiskaa bahut vajan ho. vajan and bojh are not absolute synonyms.
One sees his vajan on a weighting machine not his bojh. Again one carries the
bojh 'responsibility' of his family and not the vajan of it. So by putting bojh
in the definition certain additional and unapplicable features are added to the
definition of the word.
Hindi
pesaab-n 'urine' muut, muutra
pesaabkhaånaa n. vah sthaan jahaaN log
muutratyaag karate hoN. 'the place where people pass urine'.
Here
the reader has to refer to the definition of muutratyaag in place of which pesaab
could have been given which would have helped the reader stop unnecessary turning
of pages to find out the definition of mutratyaag. And even if muutratyaag is
defined as pesaab karnaa the reader will have to go through double rerouting.
This
phenomenon is called truncated definition. In using truncated definitions the
lexicographer has to keep in mind the following things:
(1)
The truncated definition should be formed on 'etymologically more basic word in
the family' (Gove 1967. 12) and not on the derived word. e.g. complete adj. should
not be defined as 'which has achieved completion' rather completion should be
defined as 'an act of being complete'.
Hindi
krodh n 'anger' cannot be defined as the nature of krodhii but krodhii should
be defined as one who has krodh in his nature.
(2)
The user of the dictionary should not be put to more than one rerouting before
he arrives at the primary definition. e.g. perfectible adj. 'capable of improvement
or perfection'.
perfection
n.1. 'a quality or state of being perfect'. For knowing the meaning of perfectible
the reader has to see the definition of perfect again. If perfectible was defined
in terms of perfect the reader would have been saved of the trouble of going through
perfection8.
(3)
If the truncated definition uses any one of the many numbered senses of the base
word, it should be marked in the dictionary. The example of seal n. and seal v
is already noted.
Hindi
dhuupaghar?ii n. ek yantra jisase dhuupmeN samay kaa jñaan hotaa hE.
'A
machine by the help of which time is known in sunlight'. The word dhuup has three
meanings9.
(1) fragrant smoke.
(2) incense
(3) sunlight
If
the number of the meaning is indicated the definition would avoid ambiguity.
5.9.
Equations or use of the words of similar meaning for definition: the lexical units
with similar meaning are used for defining in the dictionary in two ways:
(a)
In addition to the definitions and
(b) Alone, without any definition.
(a)
Many dictionaries give synonymous words in addition to the definition of a lexical
unit to bring forth the finer shades of meanings. e.g.
eng.
curl vt. 2. 'to form into a spiral or curved shape'; coil
Hindi tamaacaa
n. hathelii aur uNgaliyoN se gaal par kiyaa huaa prahar. 'the blow on the cheek
by palm and fingers'; thappar? 'slap'.
As
a matter of fact, synonyms are superfluous if the definition of the lexical unit
is adequate to describe the lexical unit clearly and unambiguously. Nevertheless,
there are certain lexical units for which the synonyms add to the clarity in definition.
For polysemous words the synonyms can be given with different meanings and sub-meanings.
Beside helping in the disambiguation of polysemy they provide the reader with
another word for use in similar contexts.
Hindi
bolii n. 1. muh se nikaalii hui aavaaj, 'voice coming out of the mouth'; vaan?ii
'voice', 'speech'.
2. arthayukta sabda yaa vaakya 'significant word or sentence';
vacana 'promise' baat 'talk', 'discourse'.
3. vah sabdasamuuh jiskaa vyavahaar
kisii pradesa ke nivaasii apnaa vicaar prakat? karne kelie karte hEN .N 'the group
of words which the people of some region use for expressing their thoughts'; bhas?aa
'language'.
Synonyms
help in defining the overlapping areas of meaning. in defining by words of similar
meaning it usually happens that the defining word does not give the total semantic
range of a defined word. Some semantic features of the lexical unit may be left
undefined e.g. Hindi soka n. 'mourning' cannot be defined by dukh meaning 'any
type of sorrow'. So other synonyms of the set like dard, vis?aadaa etc. are given
so that the total meaning of all the synonyms approximates the semantic range
of the lexical unit, thereby explaining certain overlapping in the meanings of
all the lexical units.
In
English peace and tranquility one of the meanings of peace 'involving physical
and or psychological state of calm' overlaps the meaning of tranquility. So when
peace is defined in terms of tranquility that overlapping of meaning is explained.
(Nida, 1975. 98).
It
depends on the type and scope of a dictionary whether to give synonyms in addition
to the definitions or not. Bigger dictionaries have greater scope for this. The
smaller dictionaries normally do not give both. In the latter, the lexical units
are usually defined by the words of similar meaning. Some dictionaries, specially
American, give a list of synonyms at the end of the entry. Others give synonyms
along with the definitions of the different senses and subsenses of the polysemantic
words.
(b)
The use of words of similar meaning alone: The words of similar meaning are equated
with the lexical unit to give its meaning. Most of the dictionaries use this device.
The following types of lexical units, besides others, are more usually defined
by the lexical unit of similar meaning.
(i)
unfamiliar and learned words could be explained by their common and basic counterparts.
(See 3.8).
Hindi
puraatana adj. 'old' puraanaa
jal n. 'water' paanii
nayan n. 'eye' aaNkh
Beng.
kat?i~kat?ii n. 'waist' komar
tandul n. 'rice' caaul
Eng.
fraternal n. brotherly
legal adj. lawful
(ii)
The meaning of obsolete, archaic and rare words is given by contemporary and common
words:
Hindi
nirmaan?a vt. 'to make', 'construct' banaanaa
aahar n. 'time' samay
jhakhi
n. 'fish' machlii
Bengali
caturdhaa 'fourtimes' caarbaar
marks?an?a 'apply' maakhaa
English
albeit although
Whilom formerly
(iii)
The meanings of dialectal and stylistic variations are given by words of similar
meanings in the standard language and the stylistically neutral synonyms. e.g.
Hindi jhar?ap n. 'storm' jhoNkaa
Jhalamal 'brightness' camak
English
kick the bucket 'to die' (slang).
If
a word with emotive or stylistic connotation is defined in terms of a denotative
word the additional semantic feature of the defined word should be indicated suitably
by glosses, labels and other devices. e.g.
H.
tariini fm. 'sub-mountain region'. talahat?ii (Bundeli)
bhakosanaa v. 'to
eat' khaanaa (vulgar0
ularanaa v. 'to throw' uchaalnaa (dialect)
Eng.
cute short for acute
ass buttocks (slang)
Synonyms
are used for discrimination of the senses of polysemous words. Different meanings
of a polysemous word can be singled out by giving synonyms. e.g.
handsome
man 'a beautiful man'
handsome reward 'a generous reward'.
Antonyms
can also be used for defining some words, specially the polysemous words.
Hindi
mulaayam 'soft' sakht kaa ult?aa
opposite of hard.
English
light (colour) opposite of dark
deep (water) opposite of shallow
wide
(difference) opposite of slight.
5.10.
Illustrative examples: Verbal illustrations showing a word in a characteristic
revealing context are used for further clarifying and distinguishing slight shades
of meaning. All dictionaries, except a few special ones, use this device. The
special dictionaries which do not give examples are dictionaries of frequency
count, orthographic dictionaries, pronouncing dictionaries and reverse dictionaries.
Since the purpose of these dictionaries is to provide different types of information
and not meaning there is no need of giving examples in them.
The
usefulness of examples is manifold. The very first purpose of examples is to show
concretely that a lexical unit exists in the language with a particular meaning.
They help to illustrate the first and last known occurrences of the lexical unit,
its typical collocations, sense discrimination of words with multiple meanings,
the differentiation of synonyms etc. The illustrative examples help knowing the
grammatical categories and the stylistic peculiarities of a lexical unit. We may
quote from Gleason regarding the use of illustration:
"The
central place in the entry in most cases might be given to what are conventionally
called 'illustrations'……. They are simply carefully selected and properly
edited contexts for the entry word. what are traditionally called definitions
might then be considered explanatory comment on citations, rubrics to indicate
what brings together a group of them and what peculiarities are significant. Definitions
can be central only if the function of a dictionary is actually to tell what a
word means. If it is rather to help the normal process of finding senses the citations
must be central for they are the input in sense discovering process" (from
Barnhart 1979, 102-103).
Some
basic questions are to be considered while giving illustrative examples in a dictionary.
Which words are to be given without examples? Which lexical units require more
illustrative examples? What should be the length of examples? Should the lexicographer
give constructed examples or has he to give quotations from written texts only?
Should the quotations be given with citations or without citations?
Answers
to these questions depend on the type of the dictionary and the type of the lexical
unit. as a matter of fact, no lexical unit should be given without illustrative
examples. Only a few words used as technical terms can be given without examples.
But even for technical terms illustrative examples are useful in disambiguating
the polysemy of some technical terms used in more than one branch of human knowledge.
For these the illustrated examples help in locating the particular subject field.
e.g.
Eng.
case n. 1(medicine) person suffering from a disease, instance of a diseased
condition: There were five~s of (five persons suffering from) influenza.
2.
(law) question to be decided in a law court, the ~ for the defendant, the statement
of facts etc. in his favour when will the~come before the court?
3.
(grammar) (change in the) form of a noun or pronoun that shows its relation to
another word: The first person pronoun has three cases I, me and my.
H.
samiikaran?a n. 1. (maths) gan?ita meN vah kriyaa jisee kisii jñaat
raasi kii sahaayataa se koii ajñaat raasi jaanii jaatii hE. 'In mathematics
that action by which some unknown number is known with the help of some known
number'. samiikarana kaa siddhaanta par?haanaa paNcaviiN kaks?aa ke gan?it ke
paat?hya krama se suruu ho jaata hE. 'The teaching of equation starts form the
mathematics syllabus of class five'.
2.
(grammar) ek prakaar kaa dhvani parivartan, savarn?ya saaruupaya tathaa anuruupataa
bhii iske anya naam hEN. 'a type of phonetic change. saavarn?ya, saaruupya and
anuruupataa are its other names.'.
samskrita
ke yugma vyañjana praakr?ta meN samikaran?a ke dvaaraa saral ho gaye. 'The
conjunct consonants of Sanskrit were simplified by assimilation in Prakrit'.
That
illustrative examples are needed for technical terms has been emphasised in the
following statement of Barnhart. (1978. 103).
"Technical
terms can be explained, then, by simplifying the definitions using technical terms
with explanation as Goldin does or by giving illustrative quotations".
The
illustrative examples help in clearly defining the polysemous words. Even if a
polysemous word has been clearly defined, the illustrative examples have their
own significance in giving concrete references of the collocational possibilities
of the word. e.g.
handsome (1) 'of fine appearance' He is a handsome fellow.
(2) 'generous' He said some very handsome things about you.
take
vt. (1) get or lay hold of with the hand(s) or any other part of the body take
something on one's back.
(2) carry take the luggage upstairs
(3) eat
or drink take food in time.
(4) marry (old use) why don't you take a wife.
(5) find out (by enquiry, measurement) the doctor took my temperature.
Hindi
ghar has many meanings which can be explained in a better way by examples. e.g.
usakaa ghar acchaa hE 'his house is good', meraa ghar banaaras hE. 'My birth place/native
place is Banaras'. vah bar?e ghar kii bet?I hE. 'she is a girl form a high family'.
The
illustrative examples clearly indicate the semantic features particular to certain
synonyms in the synonymous group. In other words sense discrimination of synonyms
is known form the context.
Hindi
varan?, cayan and cunaav all refer to the exercise of one's judgement in order
to fix upon one (or more) of a number of things as the one (or ones) to be taken,
accepted, adopted or the like varan? is making a selection on a given basis and
cunaav is an exercise in choice making in general. (Bahl 1974: 26.27). The following
examples help in the sense discrimination of the synonyms, e.g.
varan?:
candrasekhar aajaad ne desa kii svatantrata ke liye mr?tyu kaa varan? kiyaa. 'Chandrasekhar
Azad selected (preferred) death for the freedom of the country'.
cayan:
adhyaksa ke na aane kii vajah se cayan samiti kii bEt?hak na ho sakii. 'The meeting
of the selection committee could not be held because of the not coming of the
President'.
cunaav.
vah sart yah rehegii ki part?anarkaa cunaav taasoN par na chor?akar ham log svayam
karleN. 'The condition is this (i.e. I propose) that we choose parties ourselves'.
(Bahl. 1974: 27).
Set
combination of words (including set expressions, idioms and proverbs) require
illustrative examples for being clearly explained. The definition and meaning
of the idioms and set expressions are not adequate to explain them. The examples
provide references and guides for their usage and collocational peculiarities
e.g. get away 'manage to leave'; 'escape' Two of the prisoners got away.
see
somebody through 'give him support, encouragement until the end' you will have
a difficult time, but I'll see you safely through.
In
the above examples we find that although the meanings are given with idioms the
illustrative examples make them more understandable.
H.
atar?iyoN meN bal par?naa. 'to have pain in the intestines'. haNste hoNste atar?iyoN
meN bar? par? gaye 'got pain in intestines laughing' akla sat?hiyaanaa 'to be
superanuated' is bud?dh?e kii akla to sat?hiyaa gayii hE. vah anaap sanaap baktaa
hE 'This man has gone superannuated. He speaks uselessly'.
Examples
are useful for defining function words. It has already been noted that as there
is no denotatum or referent for the function words, a lexicographer describes
the different functions of these words. The simple verbal descriptions of their
functions may not be adequate. If supplemented by actual contexts it provides
the total semantic range of the word as also its collocational possibilities e.g.
with prep. 1. 'having', 'carrying', 'characterised by' a cup with a broken handle,
a women with an angry look in her eyes.
The
examples illustrate the meaning of the word more clearly and show the syntactical
peculiarities of the lexical unit. The following examples give further elucidation
to the meaning with to indicate accompaniment or relationship.
a
walk with a friend, mix one substance with other.
Hindi
tak kisii baat yaa kaarya kii siimaa athwaa avadhi suucit karane vaalii vibhakti.
'suffix-denoting the limit or end of a matter or an action'.
The
definition gives the reader the meaning of the word but from this he cannot know
the actual usage or the different meanings 'up to' 'as far as', 'until', 'by'
etc. The following illustrative examples provide this information.
gaaNw
tak jaanaa 'to go up to the village'.
kal tak rahnaa 'to stay till tomorrow'
vah akt?ubar tak laut?egaa. 'He will return by October'.
Hindi
ne is defined in a SHSS as 'a post position used with the past tense of the transitive
verbs10'. This definition does not give the full semantic structure of the lexical
unit nor does it give any clue of its different usages. The following examples
illustrate the further uses of the lexical unit:
mohan
ne uske saath naacaa. 'Mohan danced with him or her'. usne haNs diyaa 'he laughed'.
usne
jor se chiiNkaa. 'he sneezed loudly'.
It
is seen from the above examples that ne is used with the verbs haNsnaa and chiiNknaa
which are not transitive. The definition in the dictionary stipulates that ne
could be used in a sentence with transitive verbs but here it is used with intrasitive
verbs. This is made clear by illustrative examples only.
Illustrative
examples explain the meaning of the words which function both as content words
as well as grammatical words.
rahnaa:
vah yahaaN rahtaa hE 'he lives here'
vah kaam karta rahtaa hE 'he goes on
doing the work'.
paanaa
vah apne kiye kaa phal paa rahaa hE. 'he is getting the result of his works'
laakh kosis karne par bhii mEN apnaa kaam puuraa nahiiN kar paayaa. 'In spite
of all my attempts I could not complete my work'.
Eng.
has; he has a book
he has gone to Delhi
had: I had seven books on
history in my college days.
I had had my share of worries.
As
for the length of the quotations, it has been discussed in connection with the
extraction of suitable lexicographic context. The examples should be as far as
possible self sufficient and understandable without any outside help. The length
of quotations, again, depends on the type of dictionary. Smaller dictionaries
can give smaller or reduced examples only highlighting the use of the lexical
units. Such examples indicate only peculiar collocational features. e.g.
reta:d vt. 'check, hinder progress', a mentally ~ed child
handicap
v. ~ped by ill health, ~ped children
t?hand?aa
adj. 'cold' ~paanii 'cold water', ~dimaag 'cool mind' ~khuun 'cold blood' ~dil
'a heart without compassion'.
The
bigger dictionaries can give full sentences as illustrative examples. In some
cases especially in bigger type of dictionaries it is not unusual to find quotations
which are more than sentences.
Hindi
at?akaanaa vt. to stop.
Gaye
tabahiN tE pheri na aaye. suurasyaam vE gahi at?akaaye. 'He has not returned after
he went'. Sura says he has been stopped from coming'.
Sanskrtit11
agnikumaara.
n.I (Jaimism) 'name of a group of Bhavanavaasin gods' naakino 'gnikumaarakaah.
citaasu tatkaala-magni-kaayaan vicakrire. Tricas Sa-Puc 1.6.549.
acitra
adj. 'which is not manifold or multiple'.
Sarvatra baalaah sr?nvanti dharman
tebh?yah? pratisrutvaa aadimadhyaantanirmuktam bhaavaabhaava vivarjitam.
Vyaapinamacalam suddham acitram citra sambhavam. Lankaavasu 110.4 (10-41).
The
next question relates to the problem as to whether the examples should be constructed
or only those which are available in literature or texts be given. This depends
on the type of the dictionary and the needs of different situations. In some situations
we may not get quotations from books. In a historical dictionary, whose total
presentation is governed by examples because the development in from and meaning
of the lexical unit can be illustrated by examples only, the examples are naturally
taken from different works of different periods, selected as the corpus of the
dictionary. in exegetic dictionaries the basis of presentation is actual examples
from the work, or works of a writer. For normative dictionaries the examples are
taken form different works discussed earlier (chapter 4). The ideal situation
for a reference dictionary would be to give examples from both the written and
oral forms of the language and thus the examples can be both constructed by the
lexicographer and also quotations from writings.
A
problem closely related to this is about giving the citations i.e. actual places
of reference for the examples. This, again, depends on the type of dictionaries.
In historical, exegetic and (to a great extent also) normative dictionaries the
quotations are accompanied with actual citations, the name of the work, page,
stanza, line etc. The actual occurrence of the word lends authenticity to the
definition and gives concrete usages of the forms in the language. Any entry form
Oxford English Dictionary or Sanskrit Dictionary (Poona) can be taken as example.
In
many dictionaries the illustrative examples (quotations) are given without citations.
Here the quotations are followed by the name of either the authors or of the works.
e.g.
Hindi
itar 4. niic 'mean' janu det itar nr?pa kar vibhaag 'as if giving the portion
of the man king' Tulasi HSS.
In
some dictionaries only the citations are given without any actual examples e.g.
Sanskrit
r?nu mn. Going, flying, fugitive (as a thief). Rv. VI, 1.25 mfn. A debt of money,
money owed. MBH. Mn. Yajñ. (Monier-Williams)
Citations
to the quotations not only lend authenticity to the occurrences of the lexical
units but also provide insights into the meaning of a word. The citation itself
helps in delimiting the different possibilities of a word's meanings. An entry
from Monier Williams will make it clear.
kus?maan?d?a
as m…………………. Susruta (bhruun?aantara= a state
of womb in gestation w.) false conception (?).
here
the very mention of Susruta indicates that the meaning belongs to the subject
field of medicine.
ketu
(Br?haamuhuurtamaadhaviiyam). This indication gives the clue to the fact that
this particular meaning belongs to the subject field of astronomy and the word
is the name of a planet. This precludes the possibilities of the word's other
meaning 'flag'.
Another
advantage of giving citations is to enable the reader check the examples from
actual works.
As
for giving constructed or fabricated example, it has several advantages some of
which are being given here.
(a)
A lexicographer, if he is the native speaker of a language, can himself construct
such examples. He need not depend on texts for them.
(b)
The constructed examples can be short, giving only peculiar collocational characteristics
and this would avoid the lengthy quotations.
(c)
There is always a scope of getting variability in the constructed examples. In
quoted examples all the possibilities of the generative power of the lexical unit
are close.
(d)
The constructed examples can be cross checked and verified from different speakers
of the language. This is completely rules out in quoted examples.
(e)
The possibilities of getting further nuances wherein new shades of meaning can
be discovered are always alive in constructed examples. This may happen at the
time of cross checking even.
The
question of giving quoted or constructed examples arises in the case of written
languages only. For languages without any written literature there is no scope
of giving quoted examples. Here, the work of the lexicographer becomes more difficult.
He has to ask and re-ask his informants all the possible contexts in which a word
is and can be used. This is not an easy task. This may not be possible in one
enquiry. He will have to try again and again. There is the possibility of getting
some new contexts even when the particular lexical unit is not the point of enquiry.
The possibilities of novel constructed examples are quite open for unwritten languages.
5.11
Illustrative pictures: illustrative pictures are given along with the verbal
definition, examples etc. to further clarify the meanings of the lexical units.
There are some basic questions regarding giving of pictures in the dictionaries.
How many pictures can be given? Since many of the pictures may not be easily perceivable,
what is the use of giving them? There is a constant change going on in the denotata
themselves. For example Hindi pagar?ii 'turban' and t?opii 'cap'. Their shape
has been changing from time to time. So which picture could be given in the dictionary?
What are the lexical units which require pictures for definitions?
It
is easily understandable that no general dictionary can give pictures for all
its lexical units. Only a few objects can be illustrated by pictures. The pictures
can be given for the following types of lexical items, besides others.
(a)
The defining of flora and fauna is a big problem. In spite of all the verbal description
of this class of words, the user of the dictionary may not be able to get a clear
and concrete picture of the object defined. It is useful to give the picture of
the object along with the definitions. This will reinforce the image created by
the verbal definition and make the reader understand the object more clearly.
(b)
The cultural objects require pictures. For example there are different types of
nets (nearly 200 of them) used for fishing in Bengal. Any verbal description may
not be adequate to describe all these. If pictures are given the reader may clearly
understand the object.
(c)
Pictures could be given for unfamiliar objects in the culture of the language
community. e.g. camel in Malayalam and Khasi. The newly introduced objects in
the culture like scientific and technical items may be accompanied by pictures
to enable the reader have a concrete picture of this.
(d)
Pictures can help in understanding all lexical units whose definitions may not
be adequate to describe them. So different articles of daily use, words related
to sports, dresses, household goods and materials and articles may be accompanied
by pictorial illustrations.
Pictures
are not only useful for defining concrete objects like a pendulum, a sofa, rolling
pin etc, but also for such words as refraction, (Hornby p. 822) etc. In Hornby
the adjective concentric is illustrated with the picture of concentric circles,
the verb clasp with the picture of clasped hand.
Besides
pictures, lines, drawings, and diagrams etc., can also be given in addition to
the verbal definitions.
The
following points should be considered while giving the illustrative pictures:
(a) Arrows and colours could be used to denote the more important part of
the picture which is the focus of the definition. Inset in a bigger diagram should
clearly be indicated, e.g. eye in head may be shown with specification.
(b)
In a composite picture like a human body or a motor car, the different parts can
be numbered. The definitions may carry these numbers.
(c)
If a picture is given for explaining one of the many senses of a polysemous word,
the picture should have the title with the number of the meaning or definition.
e.g. Hornby p. 899 seeds (def. 1) p. 1081 trolley (def. 3) p. 817 recorder (def.
3)
(d)
The picture should be as simple as possible. Unnecessary details should be avoided.
There should be clarity and vagueness should be avoided as for as possible.
Illustrative
pictures can be given in all types of dictionaries. Malkiel (1967; 23) feels that
picture cannot be given in historical dictionaries and "maps, sketches, drawings,
photographs befit the synchronic dictionary geographically oriented". But
in historical dictionaries the pictures can be usefully given to help the reader
get a concrete picture of many objects which have been lost at present. For example,
many weapons of war are now only things of history. A pictorial illustration would
provide the reader with concrete pictures of the weapons to understand and know
the shape and size of the weapon.
For
learner's dictionaries the pictorial illustrations are necessary in order to make
the learner, especially when he is a foreign learner, understand the object more
clearly. Children's dictionaries must contain pictures.
For
unwritten or little known language, including many tribal languages, pictures
for different objects help in introducing the items otherwise unknown hithertofore
to the outside world. This is also true of the dictionaries of dialects whose
chief focus is to give the localisms which are naturally locality specific and
region-bound. Verbal definitions may not be adequate to define them.
5.12
Glosses: glosses are given in the definition to show the meaning in more concrete
way. The glosses are short comments or some remarks showing grammatical, syntactic
or semantic characteristics of the lexical units and are used in place of examples.
They are usually given in brackets with the definition. As a matter of fact, the
glosses are devices of saving some space in the dictionary. If long and complete
illustrative examples are given the glosses are not needed.
The
glosses are of three types:
(1)
Semantic glosses: they show some semantic features of the lexical units. Sometimes
synonyms and antonyms are given with meanings. Certain restricting glosses are
given to specify and delimit the usages. e.g.
|
Oriya
| ut(hiaa Akasaa
| ‘got
free’, ‘got gratis (food)’ ‘unseasoned
(bamboo or cane)’. |
| Eng. | handsome
| adj.
1. ‘of fine appearance (of men)’ ‘good looking’; ‘(of women) having a fine
figure. |
| Russian
| mesto lezhaat
| 2.
‘seat (in a theatre, at a table etc.,)’ ‘berth (on a train, ship)’. 5.
‘place, passage (in a book, magazine etc.)’ 6.
‘standing place (in society, history, sports etc.)’ 1.
‘lie (in a horizontal position)’ 2.
‘be (in some place, said of things)’ |
| Eng.
light | adj
and adv. light
| 4.
‘(of beer and wine) not very strong’, ‘(of
food) easily digested’; ‘(of
meals) small in quantity’; ‘(of
sleep) not deep, easily disturbed’. (opposite
of darkness) |
| Gondi
| taraanaa
| v
‘to dig or scratch up (of pigs)’ |
| Santali
| rad
bad | ‘rustling’,
make a rustling sound (specially in dry leaves)’. |
Many
tribal languages in India have different verbs for the same action differing according
to the manner or object of the action. Such verbs can better be explained by semantic
glosses.
Ao
Naga. apun
v. ‘carry
(a baby in a customary manner)’
apu
v. ‘carry
(on shoulder)’
penlok
v. ‘carry (on head)’
am
v. ‘carry
(in hand)
Halbi
goNdh v.
‘cut (firewood)’
tulaa
v. ‘cut
(vegetables)’
mundari
maa
‘cut (by
axe)’
had
‘cut (by
knife)’
ir
‘cut (by
sickle)’
latab
‘cut (by
scissors)’
hire
‘cut (by teeth)’
gid
‘cut (meat)’
topang
‘cut (to the size wanted)’
gandhui
‘cut (in two parts)’
cese
‘cut (the
branch of the tree)’
(2)
Grammatical glosses: They indicate the different syntactical peculiarities of
the lexical unit and are given in the dictionary in addition to the grammatical
information given in them.
Eng.
let v.
1. (followed by a (pro) noun and an infinitive without to,
rarely used
in the passive in this sense) allow to
2.
(used with first and third person pronoun to supply an indirect imperative)
Sanskrit
daa
to give, to accept,
to offer, to present etc. (usually with accusative for things and with dative
also genitive and locative with persons).
Russ.
prevraschaht : to reduce (into)
Hindi
aaNkh lagnaa 1. to sleep
2.
to fall in love (with instrumental) e.g. Kissi se aaNkh lagnaa
3.
to have evil eye (with genitive) kisii kii aaNkh lagnaa
citrus
n. (NL. Genus name for Lat. citron
tree); any of the genus (citrus) of often thorny trees and shrubs.
namaaj
n. prayer of God (by Muslims)
5.13.
Cross Reference: Cross reference is used in the dictionary to show
interrelationship between lexical items of a language in terms of their similarity,
contrast and complementariness. In cross an entry is referred to another.
Cross
reference given in a dictionary can be broadly grouped into two types:
(1)
Explicit or directional cross reference: This type of cross reference begins with
words meaning see, campare, also called, same as etc. It gives clear direction
to the reader to look somewhere else for some information. It either gives additional
and supplementary information to the meaning of the lexical unit or directs the
reader to cross refer to some entry for lexicographical details of the lexical
unit not given at the entry of cross-reference. The latter course is generally
adopted to save space.
(2)
Implicit cross reference: This is found in the definition itself. When a word
already defined is used in the definition of another word, the defined lexical
unit is cross referenced. The use of defined words in truncated definition is
already noted. All dictionaries adopt this method but some adopt some overt device
to mark it, others do not. We may note the following overt device of Webster's
III (introduction 20b).
"A
sequence of light face small capitals used anywhere in a definition is identical
letter by letter by a bold face main entry at its own alphabetical place. This
sequence is cross reference and its bold type equivalent elsewhere is what is
cross referenced".
The
different methods and purposes of giving cross reference in a dictionary are given
below:
(a)
When a lexical unit has variations, the more common among the variants is given
as the main entry. The variants are generally, but not exclusively, given with
them. The formal variant, when it occurs as its alphabetical place, has a cross
reference to the main entry.
Hindi
diivaar
n. ‘wall’
diivaal
see
diivaar
nisabat
n. 1. ‘relation’,
2. ‘the custom of fixing marriage’.
nisbat
see
nisbaat.
Skt.
akiirti
n. ‘infancy’
akiirtti
see akiirti.
Sindhi
r(s(i, r(s(ii,
risii ‘saint’
r(s(ii see
r(s(I
Dogri
akhabaar
n. ‘newspaper’
akhbaar
see akhabaar
Santali
rad badao
the same as rad-bad
rad-bad.
rustling, make a rustling sound (specially in dry leaves).
(b)
When a lexical unit has some irregular forms in the paradigm, cross reference
is used to show this irregularity. The canonical form is given as the headword
of the main entry and irregular forms are given along with it. At their
alphabetical place the irregular forms have a cross reference to the main entry.
Eng.
write
vi & vt (past wrote)
wrote
v. see
write
I pers.
pron. used by a speaker or writer to refer to himself (eg. me……..
we us)
me pron.
object form for the pronoun I
Abuj
Madia arj
n. ‘bear’
pl. arsk
arsk
see arj
Kuvi
koyyu
n. ‘fowl’ pl. koska
Koska
see
koyyu
(c)
For polysemous words cross reference can be used for some meaning common to two
polysemantic words. e.g.
Eng.
string
n. llc. a group or set of horses or draft animals compare. 3.
MOUNT 3 b.
3. mount
3 b. a supply of saddle horses.
1 run
vb 8 b.
2 f FAN 7b.
2 fan
7 b to spread
(as the leaves of an unbound book).
(Webster’s III)
(d)
Cross reference can be extensively used for defining semantically related words.
Here, the purpose is to add to the meaning of the word defined in some significant
way.
Eng.
house
n. a structure intended or used for human habitation see
BUNGALOW, COTTAGE, MANSION. (Webster’s III)
(e)
The use of synonyms in a definition is also a type of cross reference. e.g.
eng.
field
n. Ic. The place where a battle is fought BATTLE FIELD
Hindi
khaalii
adj. jiske bhiitar kaa sthaan śuunya ho ‘the place inside
which is vaccum
riitaa ‘vacant’.
cehraa
n. gardan se uupar ke anga kaa aglaa bhaag. ‘the front part of the
limb above the neck’, much, badan.
(f)
When the antonyms are used in a definition it is also a cross reference.
Eng.
light (opposite of dark)
Hindi
mulaayam adj. opposite of sakhta (hard).
Cross
reference with words meaning compare gives additional information about
the word.
Eng.
beer
n. la. ‘a malted and hopped somewhat bitter alcoholic
beverage’ compare
ALE BOCK, BEER………
Grammatical
meaning: n.1. ‘the meaning expressed by a grammatical ending’, compare
LEXICAL MEANING. (Webster’s III)
Gondi
tarraanaa
v. ‘to
root up’. cf
taraanaa,
Taraanaa
v. ‘to dig or scratch up (of pigs)’.
Cross
reference is used in what is called repetition of definitions (See 5.8) e.g.
seal
vt. ‘to put seal’ (def. I). Here the truncated or shortened form is
referred to the full definition. This saves some space and provides the
interrelation of words.
(g)
Dialectal variations of the lexical units are cross-referenced to the standard
words. e.g.
Hindi
cakahaaN m. see pahiyaa
pahiyaa
m. ‘wheel’
pahiranaa
see pahananaa
pahananaa
v. ‘wear’
bataas
n. ‘orthopaedis’
gaNt(hiyaa
(h)
Archaic and obsolete words are cross-referenced to the current words for meanings
and other details. e.g.
Hindi
nandin n.
‘girl’ ‘daughter’
lar(kii
janeuu
n. ‘scared
thread’ yajñopaviita.
saccu
n. ‘truth’
sac.
How
to give cross reference in a dictionary? In order to avoid circularity in
reference, a cross reference is usually made to a lexical item that has preceded
the item under consideration. But when semantic consideration is important
even the succeeding lexical units may be cross referenced to e.g.
Hindi
gayaa
see
jaanaa ‘to
go’
Eng.
are
see be.
What
should be done with lexical items occurring at the same page? Should a cross
reference be made or not and f it is made how to do it? Webster’s III
does not give cross reference to items occurring within five inches of the
main entry. But generally the dictionaries give cross reference for all
lexical items.
For
giving cross reference, the lexicographer has to be careful about some points.
If a cross reference is made to certain variants of a word it is useful to cross
refer to the more common and frequent word and not to the uncommon and rare word.
e.g. tasallii
n. ‘solace’
1. d(haaras, saantvanaa, aaśvaasana
d(haaras n.
see d(haad(has
d(haad(has
n. 1. dhairya, aaśvaasan, tasallii
Here
we find that the word d(haaras has a cross reference to d(haad(has.
So in the first definition the word d(haad(has should have been given and
not d(haar(as. Here the reader will have to go through more than
one rerouting.
5.14
Etymology: Etymology can help in clarifying the meaning of at an average
5% of the lexical units, whose, meanings otherwise appear to be obscure.
E.g. Kannada, phat(iikii (gii) śiks(aa ‘ punishment given
by beating the person (severely)’. The word phat(iikii is derived
form the English word fatigue. The etymological information
elucidates the meaning of the word.
There
is another word p(h)arengii in Kannada and Tamil. The word means
‘foreigner’. The meaning of the following words becomes clearer when this
particular etymological meaning is kept in view. Kannada pharengii rog
‘syphilis or any other venereal disease’. The etymology of the word
indicates that the disease was initroduced in the language community by foreigners
and throws additional light on the meaning.
Hindi
has a similar word phirang used in the same meaning.
Another
word derived from p (h) arengii is p (h) arengii kaai/hannu. ‘papaya’
in Kannada. It is a fruit, introduced by foreigners.
In
Malayalam, in the names of many objects we get the word kappal ‘ship’ that
means that the object is imported (by ship) or is of foreign origin. e.g.
kappalanti
‘ground nut’
kappa(l) mulaku
‘red chillies’
kappa(l) kka(y)
‘payaya’
Hindi
anjhaa ‘leave’ is derived form Skt. anadhyaaya ‘no study day’.
This etymology gives the reader the clue to understand the lexical unit more clearly.
Bhojpuri
niiman adj ‘intact’ ‘unbroken’ ‘good’
This
is used with word for pot. Niiman haaNr(ii ‘broken earthen pot’ and niiman
tabiiyat ‘good health’. This word is derived form nirmalaan which
means ‘not weathered’. So a pot which is not broken is niiman.
The etymology makes the meaning clearer.
As a matter of fact etymology explains
all the meaning but in some cases it gives clue to understand obscure meanings.
5.15
Labels: Variations in the language whether temporal or regional or of usage
and style are generally first manifest in the lexical stock of the language. If
a lexicographer decides to include these variations in his dictionary he should
use some device to indicate them.
Often
words develop some special meanings for some special subject fields e.g. medicine,
physics, music, etc. Moreover, some words and some meanings of some words are
restricted socially. So the specificness of the lexical units and their meanings
should be indicated in a dictionary in a proper way. By doing so the lexicographer
not only helps the reader find the correct usage, but also save time because the
reader will search for the meaning in the particular subject field he is interested
in.
The
general lexicographer practice to show this peculiarity of lexical items is to
put some labels either with entry word or with a particular meaning which requires
separate marking. Labels, like glosses, are space saving devices. if full examples
are given for all the words and all their meanings there is no need of giving
labels. Webster's Third defines label as "a word or a phrase used with but
not as a part of the dictionary definition usually in abbreviated form and distinctive
type to provide information (as grammatical function or area or level of usage)
about the word defined".
The
labels are distinct from glosses. They are used for a group or class of lexical
untis, whereas the glosses are used for individual lexical units. The labels are
decided in the beginning of the lexicographic work. A cursory view of the vocabulary
of the language gives a fairly general idea of the nature of the lexical units
and their meanings in respect of the range of their usage, on basis of which a
general list of labels can be prepared before the work begins. This list is tentative
in the beginning and can be expanded further later on. Glosses, on the other hand,
are decided with single lexical units and are put with each individual lexical
units.
The
labels can be broadly classified in three groups:
(1) Functional labels
(2) Subject labels
(3) Status labels
(1)
Functional labels: they are used to indicate the part of speech or other functional
classification of the lexical unit. All dictionaries use them.
(2)
Subject labels: These labels indicate the special subject field in which a particular
lexical unit or any meaning of a particular lexical unit is used.
(3)
Status labels: These are the most important labels in a dictionary indicating
the status of a lexical unit in respect of its usage. Actually, these are the
labels which deserve greater attention and more careful treatment in a dictionary.
The
labels are used to describe the level or are of the usage of a word, and so they
are basically descriptive. But as a dictionary has some normative effect, the
labels, in course of time, tend to become prescriptive or prohibitive. The labels
sabhya (civilized), asliila (vulgar) gaalii (abuse) in some dictionaries of the
Indian languages and labeling of excepting as an improper word by Johnson point
to the prescriptive nature of the labels.
Labels
are not permanent. As there is always a change in the status of the words in respect
of their usage and meaning the labels also change accordingly. What is a slang
today might become a general word in the course of time. A frequent word might
change into rare and what is current now might become archaic in future.
The
device of using labels, specially the status labels, in Indian language dictionaries
is very sketchy. The two prestigious dictionaries of Hindi viz. Hindi Sabda Sagar
and Manak Hindi kos do not use more than four or five labels. The label regional
is too vague, because it does not specify the particular regions. The use of labels
in Tamil Lexicon and Malayalam Lexicon is more exhaustive. Only a few labels are
used in the Od?iya bhasha Kosha of G.C. Praharaj and Bangiya Sabdakosh of Haricharan
Banerji. Molesworth's Marathi English Dictionary has a fairly good list of labels.
The Sanskrit Dictionary (Poona) has a large number of subject labels.
There
are two ways of labeling in a dictionary.
(a)
The lexical unit itself is marked e.g. Hindi kharocnaa (local) see khuracanaa
'to scrap'. Eng. aboulia (psycho)
(b)
The meanings special to specific subject field or having specific status are marked
by labels.
English
reduction: 2 a (Arith) 'the process of changing an amount from one denomination
to another'.
2.
(Logic). 'The process of reducing a syllogism (or proportion) to another esp,
to a simpler or clearer form'.
Bengali
naayaka (ala´kaara) ratir aalambana 'a hero (of a drama, fiction etc.)'
Marathi
dadapana
n. 2. (fig.) ‘curb’, ‘check’ ‘control’
Hindi
carit (vyangya)
karanii, karatuut
‘work’, ‘deed’
Russ.
kruto
3. (coll)
‘sternly’, ‘severely’,
Malayalam
kut(am
5. (jyo) kumbham raaśi, ‘acquarius’ ‘sign of the
zodiac’.
6. (śilpa)
‘the spherical capital of a pillar’
7. (aayur)
‘a swelled scrotum’
The
labels can be grouped into different types on the basis of their characteristic
features, which are given below:
1.
Temporal: They denote the currentness or otherwise of the word or its usage. They
are generally used in descriptive dictionaries. The labels coming under this class
are the following:
Obsolete:
formerly in use, now no longer in use except historically. Webster's III puts
this label for words and meanings no longer in use after 1755.
Archaic:
No longer in general use but not absolutely obsolete.
Neologism:
They are newly coined words and are considered as such by the speakers.
Kelkar
(1968) uses the label obsolescent for words which are nearly obsolete because
according to him totally obsolete words do not find place in the dictionary of
a contemporary language.
Other
labels used for denoting temporal status are one-time, formerly, ole-fashioned
etc.
2.
Spatial: The criterion for fixing up of these labels is the geographical distribution
of the lexical unit or its meaning. These may be:
(1)
Regional: pertaining to regional variations, e.g. Awadhi and Braj etc., in case
of Hindi, Tanjore Tamil in case of Tamil and Kudali, Vaidarbhi and Ahirani in
case of Marathi.
(2)
Local: This refers to usages peculiar to some locality or restricted region like
Hindi of Varanasi or the Coimbatore usage in Tamil or the Burdwan usage in Bengali.
Besides
these some other spatial variables may also be used to describe and label words
in a dictionary, e.g.
(i)
International : Some words especially scientific and technical terms like Sputnik,
Cosmonaut, Radio etc. are used in the majority of languages of the world.
(ii)
National: In case of an international language like English the different types
of English used in different countries may be labeled national. In a language
situation like that of Hindi the terms (words) used through-out the entire area
may be national.
(iii)
Individual: Many words are used by individuals like creative writers, scientists,
etc. for the first time and many words are used in a completely new sense buy
some individuals. Before being socialized, if the words are included in dictionary,
they are to be marked suitably. Hapax lagomena are included under this category.
The
labels used to denote these variations are dialectal, provincial (general term)
and the names of the regions, etc. or directions, e.g. East, West etc.,
Closely
related to the regional variations are the social variations. Words and meanings
peculiar to certain castes, social groups and professions can be marked by their
names, e.g. Christian, Brahmin, Carpentry, Law, Medicine etc.
3.
Stylistic: This pertains to the stylistic variations in the language. The use
of words and their meanings in different registers and domains comes under this
class. Traditional labels found in the dictionary like colloquial, literary, poetic
etc., are also covered by this group.
The
different styles which can provide basis for labels are:
(1) Frozen or formal:
This pertains to the words used only formally;
(2) Informal: Vocables used
on informal occasions;
(3) Intimate: Words used in intimate groups and intimate
conversations
B.
Closely related to the stylistic labels, especially the intimate, are the labels
based on the restrictedness of the usage of the lexical items. These restrictions
are determined by different constraints e.g. group solidarity, obscenity, social
taboos etc. and are either accidental or intentional, he latter leading to secrecy.
In some cases the secrecy is needed for the survival of the speaker and keeps
him away form the hands of law. Any disclosure of the secrecy results in the loss
of group membership.
Another
type of restriction is applied to words or meanings which are special to special
subject fields, occupations, or technical jargons etc. The subject labels mentioned
earlier are included under this. The labels used to denote restrictedness in use
of vocables may be classified as:
(a)
Partially restricted: to this group belong jargons, slangs, taboos, obscene, vulgar
words etc. The subject labels, e.g. Maths, Jyotias?, technical etc. come under
this class.
(b)
Completely restricted: to this group belong words of argot, cant etc. As a matter
of fact, these types of words are not found in a general dictionary.
Not
far removed from the labels based on style are those which indicate the figurativeness
of use. They are concerned more with the meaning part of the lexical item than
the item itself and refer to the different connotative meanings. the labels used
are:
Figurative,
ironical, jocular, loose, euphemistic, contemptuous, literary, etc.
Labels
denoting the status of the lexical units are based on the level of the use of
the lexical unit by the educated or uneducated speakers. They could be grouped
into:
(1)
Standard or elegant or cultivated: Used on formal occasions.
(2) Illiterate
or uncultivated: Words used by uneducated people. Labels like graamya (rustic),
non standard etc. come under this group.
Labels
can also be used to denote the frequency of the lexical units. According to their
frequency the lexical units may be marked as:
(a)
Frequent: which are not common but whose occurrence is quite frequent.
(b)
Occasional: those which are not frequently used but occur regularly in the language.
(c) Rare: those which are found very rarely in the language. Nonce forms
and hapax lagomena can be included under this:
The labels usually, often,
casually etc. come under this.
On
the basis of the above criteria we may prepare a tentative list of labels as given
below, which can be used as a reference point for putting labels in a dictionary.
obsolete
archaic
neologism
dialectal-names of the dialects.
local - name of the locality
provincial
East
West
colloquial/informal
slang.
jargon
technical
vulgar
figurative
literary
ironical
jocular
loose
euphemistic
contemptuous
elegant
nonstandard
frequent
occasional
rare
often
poetic
causal
usually
etc.
The
list of labels is by no means exhaustive. Another point to be noted about the
labels is this that only specificness is marked. General features are left unmarked.
So in the groups described earlier only one feature may be applicable to a lexical
unit. Some times, more than one features may be required to mark a word. The labels
listed above have been suggested with this point in view.
Coming
back to the structure of the entry the components other than those described earlier
are the following:
(i)
Derivatives: The derivatives whose forms and meanings are generally predictable
are given either in nested form (see nesting) in the entry or are given separately
after the entry. The latter method is more useful for finding out the derived
lexical units especially for the general reader.
(ii)
Phrases and idioms: they are also nested in the entry with the head word. (see
nesting).
(iii)
Etymology: That etymology can explicate the meanings of some obscure words has
already been noted. As for its presentation, it is given at the end of the lemma
(after head word, pronunciation and grammatical information). OED, HSS. Webster's
III etc. follow this method. In some dictionaries it is given at the end of the
entry. e.g. Chamber's, Samsada Baanglaa Abhidhaan etc.
(iv)
Synonyms and Antonyms: we have already seen how synonyms and antonyms are used
for defining lexical units. Some dictionaries, especially American ones, give
a list of synonyms and antonyms at the end of the entry. TOP
NOTES
1.
Dictionary (diction-word) Lexicon (lexis-word), German Worterbuch (wort-word),
Russian Slovar (slov-word), Hindi Sabda Kosa (Sabda-word).
2. Berg, C.C.
'Report on the need for publishing dictionaries which do not to date exist prepares
by the International Academic Union (quoted by Zgusta 1971, 197).
3. Personal
communication from Dr. B.C. Balakrishnan, Editor Malayalam Lexicon.
4. Example
based on Zgusta (1971. 264)
5. Constructed example.
6. Constructed example
to show circularity.
7. For details see Berlin, B; Dennis E. Breedlove; and
Robert M. Laughlin 1969- Lexical retention and cultural significance in Tzeltal-Tzotzil
comparative ethnobotany. Paper presented at the symposium on Mayan Ethno-linguistics
68th Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, New Orleans La.
20-23 November (Issued as Language Behavior Research Laboratory working paper
29, Berkaley; University of California, 1970).
8. Examples form Al Kasimi
(1977-80).
9. It may be contended if all the meanings are related (especially
the 3 with 1 and 2). So it may also be treated as case of homonymy.
10. Actually
the definition should be 'a post-position, used with subjects in the constructions
of past tense of transitive verbs'.
11. From Sanskrit Dictionary (Poona).