Lexicography

Cover of the Prince edition Treasure of the Castilian or Spanish language (1611), of Sebastian de Covarrubias

Lexicography is the discipline applied to language that deals with the creation and critical analysis of dictionaries. To do this, it is not only based on the theoretical and methodological principles of linguistics, but also has its own. Like lexicology, it has a theoretical and a practical dimension.

Etymology

The term comes from the technique carried out by the lexicographer, which in turn comes from the Greek leksikográphos, composed of leksikós (λεξικόν) which means a collection of words or words of a language, and gráphein (γραφειν), to write. For what corresponds to the technique of collecting words that must enter a lexicon, or simply who writes dictionaries. The same term also alludes to the study of the origin and roots of words, and how they constitute families depending on the language from which they come.

Objectives

lexicography is a very ancient discipline that seeks a systematic collection and explanation of all words (or more strictly, lexical units) of a language, but generally in breadth rather than depth, something that its sister discipline lexicology does. These lexical units include not only individual words but also idioms, compound words, and even dependent morphemes.

The lexicographical discipline is not limited exclusively to "compiling dictionaries" it also encompasses a whole set of analyzes of a theoretical nature in what is commonly known as theoretical lexicography or metalexicography. This theoretical discipline reviews both the origins of dictionary making, as well as aspects related to its formal structure, typology, the compilation methods, or the existing links between this and other disciplines, whether linguistic or not.

Linguistic subdiscipline

The place that lexicography occupies within linguistics has varied over the years as the principles and objectives that govern it, the amount of studies and research, and the theoretical and practical dimension that it possesses have changed. At first, lexicography is nothing more than the practical level of lexicology; If the latter studies the lexicon (lexical units) from a theoretical perspective (word formation, lexical creation, derivation), lexicography is described as the subdiscipline that deals with the practical application of this lexicon, that is, how it is collected and spelled out in a dictionary. At this point, it is described as art or technique.

Later, in light of the creation of applied linguistics, lexicography was inserted within this subdiscipline; again, it is about the practical application of the lexicon in a work. The previous consideration, analogous to lexicology, disappears, but remains within another branch of linguistics.

Modern considerations, although not fully accepted by linguists and lexicographers, place lexicography as an independent subdiscipline, within linguistics, but independently of both lexicology and applied linguistics. The basis of this new perspective is based on the fact that lexicography has its own object of study (the dictionary), has a practical dimension (practical lexicography or, simply, lexicography) and a theoretical one (theoretical lexicography or metalexicography). In addition to research, there are specialized and specific journals and conferences focused on lexicography.

Dictionary classes

A dictionary is, according to that of the Royal Spanish Academy, "a repertoire in the form of a book or on electronic support in which the words or expressions of one or more languages are collected, according to a certain order, or of a specific matter, accompanied by its definition, equivalence or explanation".

According to José Martínez de Sousa, they can be classified according to the criteria of support (in paper format or in digital format), number of languages (monolingual —a definition is associated with each entry— or multilingual, and within these bilingual (for example, a Spanish-English dictionary) or multilingual); order of entries (alphabetical order or semasiological order or systematic order, according to topics) and criteria of the presentation or field (terminology -with the terminology of a certain field-, encyclopedic dictionaries -with extensive information on each entry-, dictionaries visuals -with photographs or illustrations that accompany the entries- and glossaries).

For Günther Haensch, general dictionaries are divided into four types:

• Definition dictionary. Offering definitions about each entry and an essential minimum of linguistic information
• Dictionary of use (It also includes synonyms, antonyms, propositional regimens or examples).
• Learning dictionary (school and non-native speaking).

Another criterion for distinguishing dictionaries is their normative (correct words) or descriptive character (without ratings: includes barbarisms, foreign words or vulgarisms), and their synchronous character (reflecting the language of a specific time) or diachronic (reflecting an evolution of the meaning and form of words over time); Synchronous are also the dictionaries of archaisms, those of neologisms or the dictionaries of voices in current use; diachronic etymological or historical dictionaries.

Although most popular dictionaries have definitions, there are also non-defining dictionaries. Among them are frequency dictionaries.

Lexicographic article

The lexicographical article is what is commonly known as input, that is, the block formed by the word and the information about it. The set of words collected in a dictionary makes up the macrostructure, while the information collected about each word, that is, the different meanings, make up the microstructure. Each entry is minimally divided as follows:

• Lema: the word to be defined, usually in bold.
• Etymological information (does not appear in all dictionaries).
• Morphology or internal structure of the word.
• Grammatical range or word class.
• Aims: each of the different definitions provided in case the word is monosemic (i.e. polysemic or numbered). If it's monosemic, it's only got a sense.