Dictionaries and their types

2. TYPES OF ENGLISH DICTIONARIES AND PARAMETERS OF THEIR CLASSIFICATIONS
2.1 Dictionary types
The simplest division of dictionaries is carried out according to the volume of vocabulary presented in them. Depending on the volume of the dictionary, it is customary to distinguish large (in English lexicographic terminology - unabridged ), medium ( semi-abridged or desk size dictionaries ), small and very small dictionaries ( abridged or pocket size dictionaries ).
Depending on the type of lexical units presented in the dictionary, and, above all, on the way they are described, all dictionaries are divided into two large groups:

• encyclopedic non-linguistic , encyclopedias)

• linguistic (philological).

Encyclopedic dictionaries do not explain words as such, but objects, things, events, phenomena. The object of their description is the area of concepts, facts, realities. In linguistic dictionaries, a word is described in terms of its linguistic and speech characteristics (an interpretation, a set of grammatical and stylistic marks, etymological data, etc. are given), and in an encyclopedia, a dictionary entry can include a wide variety of information transmitted in textual and pictorial form ( in the form of drawings, photographs, maps).

You can find dictionaries that combine the features of a dictionary and an encyclopedia. It seems appropriate to single out a special type of dictionaries, which, by the nature of the information they contain, cannot be unequivocally attributed to either encyclopedias or linguistic dictionaries. These dictionaries include, first of all, linguocultural dictionaries:
Encyclopedic dictionaries are of two types: general and special. The most famous general encyclopedias in English are: The Encyclopaedia Britannica ("British Encyclopedia") in 24 volumes and The Encyclopedia Americana ( "American Encyclopedia") in 30 volumes. The first edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica was published in three volumes between 1768 and 1772. The first edition of the American Encyclopedia (1829-1838) contained 13 volumes, in 1904 - already 16 volumes, and since 1920 - 30 volumes. In addition to these publications, other general encyclopedic dictionaries are also popular in the UK and the USA: Chambers ' encyclopaedia , Everyman's encyclopaedia , Collier's encyclopedia .
All linguistic dictionaries can be divided into three types depending on the number of languages represented in them:

• monolingual,

• bilingual and

• multilingual.

The last two types are often also called translation dictionaries.
IN quality example monolingual linguistic dictionary Can name Long- man Dictionary of Contemporary English, Random House College Webster's Dictionary, Macmillan English Dictionary, etc.
An example of a multilingual dictionary is Ouseg HS 21 Language Dictionary .
Classifications of linguistic dictionaries vary somewhat among different lexicographers, depending on the approach they take. In English and American lexicography, the following types of dictionaries are traditionally distinguished :

• general dictionaries (general dictionaries);

• subject dictionaries (subject or thematic dictionaries);

• special purpose dictionaries ( special dictionaries ).

The well-known lexicographer K. Whittaker , describing these types of dictionaries, explains that general dictionaries are called so because they deal with the words of the entire language .
Subject or thematic dictionaries are limited to words of a certain type (for example, words of a dialect or slang) or words related to a certain thematic field.
The outstanding Czech lexicographer L. Zgusta (L. Zgusta ) based his typology of dictionaries based on several principles. He divides all linguistic dictionaries into several groups according to different criteria. One of the most important divisions is into synchronous and diachronic. Diachronic dictionaries consider the history of the development of lexical units. These include etymological and historical dictionaries. Historical dictionaries describe the development of the vocabulary of the English language for a certain period of development. Such, for example, is Stratmann's Middle English Dictionary or Old English Dictionary Bosworth J., Toller TN An Anglo- Saxon Dictionary . Etymological dictionaries pursue the goal of explaining the origin of the word, establishing its original form and original meaning. One of the most authoritative etymological dictionaries of the English language is The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology . Data on the history of words and their etymology is also given in such large explanatory dictionaries as The Oxford English Dictionary .
Synchronous dictionaries reflect the lexical composition of the language only at this stage of its development.
Among monolingual linguistic dictionaries, several types can be distinguished based on what language material is presented in the dictionary and what are the ways of processing this material. Explanatory dictionaries are the most common type of monolingual dictionaries. They give different characteristics of the word: orthographic , orthoepic, grammatical, etymological, etc. Explanatory dictionaries are called so because they provide interpretations of the meaning of the word by means of the same language.
In English lexicography, the term "intelligent" is not used. Dictionaries of this type are most often called General dictionaries or Monolingual dictionaries .
According to the functions and purpose of creation, explanatory dictionaries are divided into descriptive and prescriptive (normative). In English lexicographic terminology they are called descriptive and prescriptive , respectively. Descriptive dictionaries are designed to fully describe the vocabulary of a particular area and record all the uses there. The quality of a descriptive dictionary depends on the extent to which its vocabulary reflects the area being described and how accurate the definitions of the meaning of the words presented in the material are. The best example of a descriptive English dictionary is the Oxford English Dictionary .
The purpose of the normative dictionary is to give the norm of the use of the word. Normative dictionaries prescribe a standard for the use of a word, set a literary norm. An example such dictionary Maybe serve as The Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English.
According to the way vocabulary is organized in a dictionary, a special type of dictionaries can be distinguished - ideographic dictionaries, or (as they are often called) thesauri. An example such dictionary is Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases. Unlike explanatory dictionaries, in which dictionary entries are arranged alphabetically by the head word, in ideographic dictionaries the vocabulary is organized according to the thematic principle.
By the nature of the dictionary, explanatory dictionaries are divided into general and private. Oxford English Dictionary , Webster's Third New International Dictionary , Random House Dictionary of the English Language are general explanatory dictionaries, since they reflect the entire lexical system of the English language, and not some part of it.
Private explanatory dictionaries include dictionaries that reflect only a certain area of the vocabulary of the national language. Such, for example, are dictionaries of phraseological units (idioms), dictionaries of dialect or slang. The Oxford Dictionary of American Slang (1992) and The Oxford Dictionary of Idioms (1999) are private intelligent dictionaries .
Among other types of dictionaries, we can name the dictionaries of the usus (in the English terminology “ dictionaries of usage ”), the subject of which are the features of the use of language forms, primarily those that can cause difficulties. Two varieties of such lexicographic guides are dictionaries of difficulty and dictionaries of compatibility: Longman Dictionary of Common Errors (1987), The BBI Combinatory Dictionary of English, edited by M. Benson , E. Benson , R. Ilson (1986).

2.2 Dictionary classification problem

Lexicography, or the science of compiling dictionaries, like any other science, has a number of general and particular problems, among which the problem of classifying dictionaries seems to be fundamental, since it is directly related to the question of choosing a dictionary for specific purposes (Shcherba L.V. "The experience of a general theory lexicography"). Its relevance is also connected with the fact that English-language lexicography at the turn of the XX-XXI centuries. enriched by a large genre variety of reference books that go beyond the established classifications and expand the very concept of lexicography to the so-called reference science (for the first time this term was used by the famous English lexicographer T. Mac -Arthur). This trend has led to the classification of existing dictionaries not according to one, but according to a number of features, which makes it possible to comprehensively characterize any reference book ( Swanepoel P. Dictionary Typologies : A.Pragmatic Approach // A Practical Guide to Lexicography // P/ van Sterkenburg /. In the UK, as in many other Western European countries, the traditional opposition of dictionaries according to the object/method of describing input units (linguistic-encyclopedic) is becoming less relevant. In connection with the migration of the population (and as a result, a change in the user profile), an intermediate type of dictionary arises - explanatory-encyclopedic, combining the features of a linguistic and encyclopedic reference book. The dictionary includes cultural realities that are unfamiliar to new members of society and require an explanatory and encyclopedic description (Karpova O.M., Korobeynikova O.V. Dictionaries of the language of writers and quotations in English lexicography).
In accordance with the historically established differential feature in lexicography - language, all the mentioned dictionaries are traditionally divided into monolingual, bilingual and multilingual. However, at the end of the twentieth century. they are joined by a new kind of reference book - a bilingualized dictionary ( bilingualized dictionary ), which is a translation of authoritative English dictionaries into other national languages.
Modern English dictionaries are diverse in genres and types. This diversity is explained by the complexity and multidimensionality of the very object of the lexicographic description, i.e. language. There is practically no way to give in one dictionary all comprehensive information about input units that would equally satisfy all users in general and their individual groups in particular. That is why in all classifications of dictionaries there is such a feature as the size or volume of the dictionary. In accordance with it, the directories mentioned above can be large ( big ), medium ( concised ) and small ( pocket ). In this series, dictionaries of a new format have recently appeared - gem dictionaries , especially popular among students and schoolchildren due to the convenient format and compact presentation of the material (Karpova O.M. "Modern lexicographic picture of Great Britain (on the basis of new dictionaries of the HarperCollins publishing house ), Karpova O.M. Modern lexicographic portfolio of English lexicography (on the basis of the dictionaries of the publishing house Harper Collins ).
According to the lexicographic form, i.e. way of presenting the material, all dictionaries can be concordances (headwords are supplied with citations and their addresses); indices, or frequency dictionaries (different types of frequencies are given: absolute, absolute accumulated, relative and relative accumulated); glossaries (contain interpretations of difficult or incomprehensible words); explanatory dictionaries (they have all the main information categories in the dictionary entry: various kinds of labels, definitions, illustrative examples, etc.) and thesauri, or ideographic dictionaries. The classification of ideographic dictionaries of the English language is presented in the book by Vorontsova I.A. "Historical and typological study of thesauri of the English language"
In this regard, we note that the organization of headwords in a dictionary is an equally important problem for a lexicographer. The alphabetical arrangement of capital words is generally accepted and has a centuries-old tradition. The representation of words by frequency - from the highest to 1 - came to lexicography with the appearance in the twentieth century. statistical lexicography. And, finally, the conceptual arrangement of linguistic material has also been established in the English-language lexicographic tradition from the very beginning of its existence. The classification of frequency dictionaries is described in the book by Kirillov M.A. " Linguistic and statistical analysis of a literary text" (on the material of short stories by F.S. Fitzgerald .
The next feature used in the classification of dictionaries is the completeness/ differentiality of the dictionary, according to which linguistic and encyclopedic dictionaries presented in various lexicographic forms can be complete, or registering, and differential, or selective. It should be noted that in the history of English national lexicography, dictionaries were originally differential and prescriptive; their authors recommended to readers the rate of use, focusing on literary authorities: Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton. With the passage of time and the development of corpus lexicography, modern dictionaries have become registering, including both significant and auxiliary words in the dictionary.
Such a feature as the completeness/ differentiality of the lexicographic development of a word makes it possible to divide the existing dictionaries into complete and differential according to the lexicographic development of a word, depending on its lexicographic form. In accordance with this feature, concordances can be complete or differential in citations; glossaries - according to the set of labels (grammatical, etymological, stylistic, chronological, etc.) and types of definitions (synonymous, descriptive, reference); frequency dictionaries - according to the types of statistical labels (absolute, relative, etc.), and explanatory dictionaries - according to the set of labels, verbal and graphic illustrations, interpretations and other elements of the microstructure.
It should be noted that the following problems are inextricably linked with the classification feature of differential / completeness of the lexicographic development of headwords:
criteria for selecting material in the dictionaries of proper names, abbreviations, function words, phrases, etc.;
ways of presenting the headings of dictionary entries, i.e. their varieties: original, derivational, inflectional forms; regular and irregular grammatical forms of words;
the structure of the grammar reference: indications of parts of speech, additional column, appendices;
technical design of the vocabulary megastructure ( style manual of a dictionary ) or means of polygraphic semiotics ( dictionary design ): typographic fonts, symbols, color signals, etc.;
layout technique in a dictionary ) input units of the dictionary.
These problems should remain in the field of view not only of the lexicographer, but also of the direct user of the dictionary. moreover, special attention should be paid to the technical design and format of the dictionary, as evidenced by user surveys that precede work on compiling dictionaries for various countries. Readers primarily prefer the aesthetic design of the reference book and its format, which largely determines the choice of a dictionary (Karpova O.M. "Dictionaries of the new century: searches and solutions")
Continuing to consider the principles of classification of modern English dictionaries, it is necessary to single out one more feature - the coverage of vocabulary in the dictionary, which allows us to subdivide all linguistic, encyclopedic and explanatory-encyclopedic monolingual and bilingual dictionaries into dictionaries for general purpose dictionaries ) and special purposes ( special purpose dictionaries )
Dictionaries for general purposes include, first of all, explanatory academic dictionaries of the English language, based on the norm of use. Among dictionaries for special purposes, the largest group of terminological dictionaries, or dictionaries in various subject areas (business, biology, botany, zoology, computer science, history, social work, sociology, chemistry, physics, finance, economics, etc. ) should be noted. it is they who have priority in modern lexicography, when, with the development and formation of new subject areas, the question arose of creating authoritative and reliable reference books in which the terms of new disciplines and branches of knowledge are registered and processed (Averbukh K.Ya., Karpova O.M. " Bilingual terminography: current trends and their implementation")
The group of special dictionaries, along with terminological ones, also includes other reference books in which certain layers of vocabulary are recorded and processed. These are dictionaries of abbreviations, archaisms, new words, phrases, slang, phraseological units, quotes and proverbs, the language of writers, onomasticons (for example, J. Joyce, D. Milton , J. Chaucer , W. Shakespeare ), etc. (Karpova O.M. "On the role of dictionaries in teaching foreign languages")
And, finally, in modern lexicography in general and English in particular, a new feature of classification stands out - the format for presenting material in a dictionary, according to which linguistic and encyclopedic monolingual and bilingual dictionaries for general and special purposes are divided into printed and electronic ..
Thus, the type of dictionary of the modern English language is characterized by a set of features (see also Dubchinsky V.V. "Theoretical and practical lexicography"), among which the following are distinguished:
input unit description object;
language;
the size/volume of the dictionary;
its lexicographic form;
completeness/ differentiality of the dictionary;
completeness/ differentiality of the lexicographic development of the word;
vocabulary coverage;
format for presenting material in a dictionary.

2.3 Detailed classification of special dictionaries

In the future, in this work, we will consider in detail the modern English-language dictionaries of mythologemes, which relate to dictionaries of special purposes. Therefore, I propose to consider this category in detail.
a) Dictionaries of the Bible.
BIBLICAL DICTIONARIES - various kinds of reference books dedicated to the Bible and certain branches of the Bible. Sciences. Depending on their nature, they are intended both for specialists and for all who read and study the Word of God. In the 20th century Bible dictionaries occupy an important place in the biblical literature .
Bible dictionaries stand at the origins of English lexicography. They appeared in the 16th century, immediately after the translation of the Holy Scriptures into English by W. Tyndale . Initially, their significance as a lexicographical work was very great, since, like other dictionaries of this period, they had a differential vocabulary and registered difficult, incomprehensible and significant words of Latin origin. The main lexicographical form of these reference books was corkodans , which included quotations from the Bible with an address. In English-speaking countries, many explanatory linguistic dictionaries have appeared, for example, Collins Dictionary of the Bible. - Glasgow , 2005/
b) Dictionaries for leisure.
This type of dictionaries arose relatively recently, in the middle of the 20th century, and actually laid the foundation for a new, "entertaining" branch of English lexicography, called Lexycography for fun , which is rapidly evolving. Among them are dictionaries for solving crosswords, charades, anagrams, etc. ( Collins Bradford's cross word Compendium.- _ Glasgow , 2005; New Webster's cross word Puzzle Dictionary. -NY 1995; Newman St., Stark D. Collins Million Word Crossword Dictionary - Glasgow , 2005). Leisure (or entertainment) dictionaries are especially in demand by native speakers, as evidenced by user surveys in English-speaking countries. And despite the seemingly "entertaining" aspect of this direction of English lexicography, its development is recognized by experts as very promising, since it not only fulfills an educational role, but also expands the circle of users.
c) Linguocultural and linguocultural dictionaries.
special dictionaries is acute ( Uzhova O.A. "Evolution of the Linguistic Dictionary"). Thus, linguocultural and linguocultural dictionaries solve the important task of describing culturally significant vocabulary by lexicographic means, which is necessary first of all in the study of foreign languages. These dictionaries are both monolingual and bilingual.
d) Dictionaries of new words
Dictionaries of new words in the English language were formed under the influence of historical conditions in the national lexicography. They originate from dictionaries of difficult words, which recorded and explained words from Latin that dominated the territory of all Western European countries in the Middle Ages ( Yumanov E.V. "Principles of selection and lexicographic processing of neologisms in dictionaries of new words of the English language").
They have come a long way of development from glossaries with a differential vocabulary to explanatory dictionaries with an exhaustive number of original marks, reflecting the trends characteristic of the development of national lexicography.
e) Dictionaries of synonyms and antonyms
At the turn of the XX-XXI centuries. to replace the usual user . early to mid-twentieth century. dictionaries of synonyms and antonyms (for example: Chambers Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms. -L., 1998; Merriam Webster's Dictionary of Synonyms .- Springfield , 1968) explanatory dictionaries came containing in one volume the main alphabetic dictionary and an additional section "Synonyms and antonyms" (among them: Collins English Dictionary and Thesaurus . - Glasgow , 2005; Collins Thesaurus AZ. -Concise _ ed . - Glasgow , 2005).
The integration of two lexicographic forms - an explanatory dictionary and a thesaurus (this is how the dictionaries of synonyms and antonyms of the new generation began to be called) - has become firmly established in modern lexicographic practice thanks to users who approved the fixation of synonyms and antonyms in one volume.
f) Slang dictionaries
Slang, slang (eng. slang ) - expressively and emotionally colored vocabulary of colloquial speech, deviating from the accepted literary language norm (the term "Slang" is most often used in relation to the English language and its functioning in England and the USA). Distributed mainly among schoolchildren, students, military, young workers. S. is subject to frequent changes, which makes it a linguistic sign of generations. Easily penetrating into the literary language, it is used for the speech characteristics of the characters and the author's speech;
Slang has always been a very attractive group of vocabulary, primarily for those who study English as a foreign language, since it reflects both new changes in society and the features of modern word usage. That is why the participants in sociological surveys repeatedly point out the need for slang dictionaries, which are a minority in the market of special dictionaries.
g) Phrase Dictionaries
In the explanatory dictionaries of modern English, quite a lot of space is devoted to registration and lexicographic development of phrases ( Ooi V. "Computer Corpus Lexicography ")
This is understandable, since it is phrases that present great difficulty not only in understanding, but also in use in speech. And yet, despite many constructive findings of the compilers of general dictionaries (putting word combinations into separate parts of the dictionary entry; special columns marked with conventional icons, color signals, etc.), the user should be recommended special word combination dictionaries that are focused only on registration and description of this material.
h) Dictionaries of abbreviations
At present, a significant number of new names of organizations, representative offices, firms, trademarks and, accordingly, their abbreviations have appeared in the English language, which require a competent explanation. Such a stream of abbreviations made it necessary to include them even in explanatory dictionaries of the English language (for example, dictionaries for general purposes of the series Chambers , Collins , etc.)
However, the user strives to get help in a special dictionary, where the material he needs is concentrated. In this regard, students are recommended special abbreviation dictionaries: Mattia FB Elsevier`s Dictionary of Acronyms , Initialisms , Abbreviations and Symbols ; Pickering D. The Cassell Dictionary of Technical Abbreviations , built alphabetically, in which the latest abbreviations are fixed and processed.
i) Glossaries of terms
Terminological dictionaries, or dictionaries of various LSPs ( languages for special purposes ), represent the undisputed majority in English lexicography. They are compiled by terminographers , and terminography itself is defined as the theory and practice of compiling special, or terminological, dictionaries that describe the terminology and nomenclature of individual sciences in the field of knowledge (Averbukh K.Ya., Karpova O.M. "Bilingual terminography : current trends and their implementation.
These dictionaries have been created in English lexicography over many centuries, and by now hundreds of monolingual and bilingual (in particular, English-Russian and Russian-English) linguistic and encyclopedic dictionaries have been published, organized mainly in alphabetical order, as well as conceptual principle ( Tabanakova V.D. "Ideographic description of scientific terminology in special dictionaries") The history of the creation of this group of dictionaries and the analysis of the principles of their construction on the material of various subject areas are covered in numerous works (Kudashev I.S. "Designing translation dictionaries of special vocabulary. ", Shcherbakova E.V. "The subject area of "public relations" in the terminographic aspect.) The book by K.Ya. Averbukh and O.M. Karpova "Lexical and Phraseological Aspects of Translation" is devoted to the description of the current state of English terminography ".
j) Dictionaries of phraseological units
In modern English lexicography, along with terminography, another independent section is developing - phraseography , which deals with the lexicographic description of various structural types of set expressions. Unlike other groups of special dictionaries, dictionaries of phraseological units are not so diverse, which is primarily due to the difficulty of the object of description itself.
In the English lexicographic tradition, dictionaries of phraseological units are usually called dictionaries of idioms , published by all the leading UK dictionary publishers. These dictionaries are monolingual and differ both in the criteria for selecting material for the dictionary and in the way they are described.
The lexicographic development of phraseological units in bilingual phraseological dictionaries requires the most competent analysis and knowledge of the similarities and differences in the use of phraseological units, largely determined by the cultural traditions of England and Russia.
k) Dictionaries of phrasal verbs
Phrasal verbs (a special kind of compound verbs consisting of two or more elements that are inextricably linked) present a considerable difficulty in learning English, since such a grammatical phenomenon does not exist in Russian. The methods of their registration in explanatory dictionaries of the English language do not always satisfy the reader who does not have the correct strategy for searching for phrasal verbs in the dictionary.
The authors of many dictionaries for general purposes register phrasal verbs in dictionary entries under a keyword, which does not always allow, firstly , to quickly find the units you are looking for, and, secondly, to use them correctly in speech, since the overload of the microstructure with other information categories makes it impossible to mark phrasal verbs the corresponding marks.
Following foreign lexicographers, domestic researchers also turned to the creation of phrasal verb dictionaries, offering students bilingual special dictionaries of various types and volumes.
l) Writers' language dictionaries
Writers' language dictionaries ( writers / authors dictionaries ) played an important role in the development of English national lexicography. They began their existence in the XV century. from concordances to an English translation to an English translation of the Bible and Chaucer's glossaries (Karpova O.M. "Dictionaries of the Writers' Language"), creating the basis for subsequent numerous linguistic and encyclopedic dictionaries.
There are more than 300 reference books to the works of more than 70 English writers and poets of the XIV-XX centuries: D. Austin , D. Milton , W. Blake, C. Dickens , T. Dreiser and many other prominent writers who at various times had a significant impact for the formation of the English language.
m) Quotation Dictionaries
Currently, in the speeches of public figures and other famous personalities, quotations from the works of famous writers have become popular ( Bartlett J. " Familiar Quotation . A Collection of Passages, Phrases Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature". For this, the speechwriters needed quotation dictionaries.
There are various types of quotation dictionaries in English lexicography:
wide thematic coverage
representing quotes from specific areas, for example: politics, sports, business, philosophy
from the works of English writers
from other literary sources.