Педагогические науки/ 2. Современные
методы преподавания
Dozorova Darya
Herzen
State Pedagogical University of Russia, St.Petersburg
Scientific
review of English and French lexicography history and development through the
centuries
Lexicography
is separated into two types: practical lexicography is the ability of
accumulating, writing and editing dictionaries. The study or description of the
vocabulary of a particular language, and the meaning that associates certain
words to others in a dictionary, is recognized as theoretical lexicography.
Theoretical lexicography is particularly concerned with developing theories
concerning the structural and semantic associations among words in the
dictionary. As it involves theotrical analysis of the lexicon, Theoretical
Lexicography is also identified as Metalexicography.
To
gain a better understanding of lexicography, we should be familiar with
lexicons. Lexicon is an expression used in linguistics to point out the archive
of lexemes. Lexemes are abstract, smallest components in a language that
connect interrelated forms of a word together. Lexemes, then, make up a lexicon
which is the compilation of word meanings in a specified language. In a
dictionary, the lexemes, sometimes loosely referred to as word stems, are given
first and followed by variations of the base word. The lexicon also deals with
semantics which is a field of linguistics. In addition to providing data on the
morphology and semantics of a lexeme, the dictionary in addition offers
structural information concerning the origin of the word, and chronological
information about the development of the word into its present-day form. This
is recognized as etymology.
Lexicography is the practice of making and editing dictionaries
and other reference texts. The lexicographer is the one who must
research, organize, define, and compile the words in a dictionary. This takes a
lot of time and a lot of detail. For each dictionary entry, there is a
definition, a pronunciation, a list of synonyms, an example of the word being
used, and even sometimes its etymology (or history of the word's origin). The
word 'lexicography' was created in the late 17th century, from the Greek lexikos
meaning 'of words' and grapho meaning 'to inscribe, to write'.
The
dictionary is extremely vital to
the literacy of speakers of a specific language. It is used to look up
definitions, spelling, and pronunciation. The dictionary is considered the most
accurate and ample resource for information about words.
The
practice of lexicography is as old as, if not older than, many religions. The
first model of a dictionary dates back to the BC times in West Asia. In its
early stages, these lexicographic works were more like lists. These lists were
used to cultivate bilingualism by recording the similar words of two languages,
after land conquests began mixing different cultures. It took thousands of
years, however, for the creation of the alphabet ordering system, before the
dictionary became organized in the way we know it to be today.
While
many other continents were well underway with the concept of 'lists' as a
language reference, it took Europe a little longer. Beginning in the 15th
century, the first popular dictionaries were lists of Latin words with English
entries. These were written to encourage the study of Latin, especially for
those who could not read it. These English-Latin dictionaries are the first
example of lexicography in the English language. Within a century of their
publications, lexicography became a very popular tool for learning new
languages, like French.
The
very first English-only dictionary was written in 1604. A Table
Alphabeticall, written by Robert Cawdrey, contained a little less than
3,000 entries. It was more than one hundred years later, in 1755, before the
publication of the classic dictionary, The Dictionary of the English
Language. Written by Samuel Johnson, the dictionary contained over 42,000
entries. It would remain the most comprehensive British reference text until
the first edition of the great Oxford English Dictionary, published in
1884. After the publication of four volumes, the last of which was published in
1928, the Oxford contained over 400,000 entries.
First on
our list is American lexicographer Noah Webster (1758-1843), whose biggest
claim to fame was An American Dictionary of the English Language; next
is Joseph Emerson Worcester (1784-1865) author of the Dictionary of the
English Language (1860) and Charles Richardson (1775-1865), who published
the New Dictionary of the English Language. With its lexicographic
efforts, the Philological Society gave rise to works like the New English
Dictionary on Historical Principles, the Oxford English Dictionary
and Murray's Dictionary (for Sir James A. H. Murray, 1837-1915, one of
the authors). The renowned Oxford English Dictionary's publication
spanned the period between 1884 and 1928 (128 fascicles), and from the time of
its initial approval, the monumental work took some 70 years to complete.
Together, the first edition's 12 volumes and its supplement describe the
history of roughly 250,000 English words; they also present more than two
million quotations and define close to 415,000 words. The 1989, 20-volume
second edition integrates the entire four-volume supplement and tops the
616,000-word mark. The Oxford English Dictionary also has two concise
editions: Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English and the Shorter
Oxford English Dictionary. A less ambitious but nonetheless remarkable
project is the 1943 four-volume Dictionary of American English on
Historical Principles, edited by Sir William Alexander Craigie.
The foundations of modern
French-language dictionaries and lexicographical descriptions were laid by
Émile Littré (1801-1881), Pierre Larousse (1817-1875) and Paul
Robert (1910-1980). Littré's Dictionnaire de la langue
française, published in 1876, stood as a paramount work at the
time, listing a huge number of technical and scientific words. Published at
about the same time was Pierre Larousse's Le Grand Dictionnaire universel
du XIXe siècle, a learned survey of the language that would spawn a
whole succession of encyclopedic dictionaries (Le Grand Larousse universel),
a remarkable language dictionary (Le Grand Larousse de la langue
française) and a series of smaller encyclopedic dictionaries aimed
at the general public (Le Petit Larousse).
In the 20th century, more
and more French-language dictionaries joined the lexicographic ranks, for
example, Paul Robert's extensive nine-volume Dictionnaire
alphabétique et analogique de la langue française
(1953-1964). Afterward, the Robert editors and writers produced other
dictionaries, including Le Petit Robert (1967), seen as one of the
best dictionaries of its kind in French, and the four-volume Le
Dictionnaire universel des noms propres (also called Le Robert II, 1974).
In 1971, research began for the formidable Trésor de la langue
française, whose 16-volume edition was finally published in 1994;
its breadth and richness make it arguably the most impressive of all
French-language dictionaries: more than 100,000 words, 270,000 definitions and
over 430,000 examples. The Trésor de la langue française
also has an electronic version (TLFI) which is available on CD.
As a science, lexicography
has a very rich history of foundation and development through the different
historical periods. Especially we can observe its huge influence on such
widely-spoken languages as English and French. It is well-known fact that
lexicography is very important for renewing and providing new items to the
modern languages.
Literature:
1. Francis W.N. Problems of
Assembling and Computerizing Large Corpora / W.N. // Francis Computer Corpora
in English Language
2. On-line словарь Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary oup.com Oxford Dictionaries
http://www.oup.com Random House Dictionaries: http://www.randomhouse.com The
Amrerican Heritage Dictionary bartleby.com
3. Oxford English Dictionary Электронный ресурс. URL: www.oed.com/
4. Pruvost J. Les dictionnaires
français, Outils d'une langue et d'une culture. Paris, Ophrys. 2006. 199
p.