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Word-groups viewed as functionally and semantically inseparable units are traditionally regarded as the subject matter of phraseology. Phraseological units are comparatively stable and semantically inseparable.
The widely used terms - set-phrases, idioms, word-equivalents - reflect to a certain extent the main debatable issues of phraseology.
The term set-phrase implies that the basic criterion of differentiation is stability of the lexical components and grammatical structure of word-groups (устойчивоевыражение).
The term idiom generally implies that the essential feature of the linguistic units under consideration is idiomaticity or lack of motivation.
The term word-equivalent stresses not only the semantic but also the functional inseparability of certain word-groups and their aptness to function in speech as single words.
Phraseological units are defined as non-motivated word-groups that cannot be freely made up in speech but are reproduced as ready-made units. It means that it is assumed that the essential features of phraseological units are stability of the lexical components and lack of motivation.
Grammatical structure of phraseological units is to a certain extent also stable.
According to the degree of idiomaticity phraseological units may be classified into three big groups: phraseological fusions (фразеологическоесращение), phraseological unities (фразеологическоеединство) and phraseological collocations (фразеологическоесочетание).
Phraseological fusions are completely non-motivated word-groups, e.g. red tape — ‘bureaucratic methods’; heavy father — ’serious or solemn part in a theatrical play’;
Phraseological unities are partially non-motivated as their meaning can usually be perceived through the metaphoric meaning of the whole phraseological unity e.g. to fall into a rage.
Phraseological collocations are motivated. In phraseological collocations variability of member-words is strictly limited e.g. take a liking (fancy) to smb
Phraseological units may also be subdivided into phrasemes and idioms.
Phrasemes are, as a rule, two-member word-groups in which one of the members has specialised meaning dependent on the second component, e.g., in small hours;
Idioms are distinguished from phrasemes by the idiomaticity of the whole word-group. Idioms are semantically and grammatically inseparable units. They may comprise unusual combinations of words which when understood in their literal meaning seem to be illogical, e.g. mare's nest.
It is assumed that almost all phraseological units can be traced back to free word-groups which in the course of the historical development of the English language have acquired semantic and grammatical inseparability. It is observed that free word-groups may undergo the process of grammaticalisation or lexicalization. The term lexicalisation implies that the word-group may develop into a word-equivalent, i.e. a phraseological unit. It is assumed that a free word-group is transformed into a phraseological unit when it acquires semantic inseparability and becomes non-motivated if viewed synchronically.
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The main causes accounting for the loss of motivation of free word-groups are as follows:
1/ when one of the components of a word-group becomes archaic or drops out of the language altogether the whole word-group may become completely or partially non-motivated (kith and kin);
2/when as a result of a change in the semantic structure of a polysemantic word some of its meanings disappear and survives only in certain collocations which become phraseological units (to change one's mind);
3/when a free word-group used in professional speech penetrates into general literary usage, it is often felt as non-motivated (to pull the strings);
4/when a word-group making up part of a proverb or saying begins to be used as a self-contained unit it may gradually become non-motivated if its connection with the corresponding proverb or saying is not clearly perceived. (a newbroom)
5/when part of a quotation from literary sources, mythology or the Bible begins to be used as a self-contained unit, it may also lose all connection with the original context and as a result of this become non- motivated (the green-eyed monster (jealousy) - Shakespear; Achilles heel (the weak spot in a man’s or character)- Mythology; to cast pearls before swine (метатьбисерпередсвиньями) – the Bible; to fight against Windmills – world literature).
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1.a great many words in English have a composite nature. they are made up of morphems-smaller units having a sound form and meaning.
unlike a word morphem is not an autonomous unit, they can occur in speech only as a constituent part of the word+ can not be segmented into smaller units without loosing association of a certain meaning with a given sound form.
2 classes belong segmentable words which: can be easy segmentive(newspaper) and which cannot(take, go,come)
morphemic sintagmentability: 1. complete(movement) 2. conditional(contein, recieve)
morphemes may be classified: 1 a form the semantic point of view 2 from the structural point of view
semantically Morphems fall into 2 classes: 1. root morphems 2. non-root/affixational
the root morphems have their own individual lexical meaning, not have the part of speech meaning!
non-root morphems devided into inflections and affixes. inflections carry only grammatical meaning.affixes-prefixes and suffixes.
structually Morph. fall into 3types: 1.free morphems-coinsides with; with the stem of the word form 2. bound-as a constituent part of of the word(affixes) 3. semi-bound- can function both as free and bound Morph.
According to the derivative structure all words fall into 2 classes: 1.simplexes or non-derived 2. words and complexes or derivatives
simplexes are words which derivationally cannot be segmented into constituents.derivatives are word which depend on some other simpler lexical items that motivate them structurally and semantically.
derivatives(complexes) are classified according to the type of the underlying derivative into: derived and compound words.
each derivational type of words isunequally represented in different parts of speech.
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there are 2 large classes of word-building words which have 1 motivating base belong to Classes1(catch+er=catcher).
Class2 includes the means of building word containing more then 1 motivation base. they are all based on compounding.
the chief process of English word-formation are considred to be affixation, conversion and compounding.
ways of forming word: back-formation, sound interchange distinctive stress, sound initation blending, clipping and acronymy.
word formation is the system of derrivative types of word and the process of creating new words form.
..2 types of word-formation: word derivation and word-composition.
some derived words have no derivation affixes becouse derivation is achieved throudh conversion.
word-formation is the brsnch of Lexicology which studies the derivative structure of existing words and the patterns on which a language builds bew words.
word-formation may be studied from 2 angels: 1.synchronically- the existing system of the types of word formation is investigated 2. diachronically-the history of word-building.
the productive ways of forming words are those that can be resorted to whenever the occasion demands/ non-productive cannot now produce a new word.
affixation is the productive way. productivity of word-building ways derivational affixes.
there are no absolutely productive means derivational patterns and derivational affixes posses different degrees of productivity.according 3 degrees of productivity are distinguished for derivationaj patterns and individual derivational affixes:1. highly-productive 2. productive or semi-productive 3. non-productive.
affixation is subdivided into suffixation and prefixation.
many derivation affixes are polysemantic.(the noun suffixes -er denotes 1.personal following some profession2.a personal doing some action at a particular moment3.instrumental device)
(the adj suffixes -y denotes 1.composed 2.characterised by)
there are homonymic derivational affixes.
synonymy of affixes is a consequence of extensive borrowing by ing from other language.
as far as thew productivity of affixes is concerned distinction is made between dead and living affixes. dead affixes have lost their independence completely(-le,-l,-el,-t)
living affixes can be easily singled out from a word(-ness,-dom,-hood,-ful,-ive,-ous)
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2 TYPES OF PREFIXES DISTINGUISHED: 1. those not correlated with any independent word (un-,dis-,re-,pre-,post-) 2.those correlated with functional words(prepositional or prepositional like adverb) (out-,over-,up-,under-)
prefixes may be clfssified on different principles. diachronically distinction is made between prefixes or native or foreign origin.
synhronically prefixes may be classified in many different ways. there are several of them. 1semantically prefixes fall into mono and polysemantic 2.the generic denotational meaning there are different groups that are distinguished in linguistic literature:
a) negative prefixes (un-,non-,dis-,in-,etc)
b)reversative(противоположные) or privative(un-,de-,dis-)
c)pejorative(уничажительные) (mis-,mal-,pseudo-)
d)prefixes of time and order (fore-,pre-,post-)
+prefixes of repetition (re-)
+locative(указывающие на к-л)(super-,sub-,inter-,tran-)
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is usually modify the lexical meaning of the base and transfer words to a different parts of speech.
there are different classification of suffixes in linguistic literature. suffixea are classifird:
1.according to the part of speech formed: noun(-er,-dom,-ness,-ation,etc), adjective (-able,-full,-ic,-one), verb (-en,-ise,-fy), adverb(-ly,-ward)
2. on the criterion of sense expressed by a set of suffixes. proceeding from this princiole suffixes are classified into various groups within the bounds of a certain part of speech.
noun-suffixes fall into: a) the agent of an action(-er,-ant) b) collectivity(-age,-dom,-ery) c)diminutiveness(-ie,-let,-ling)
3.on the criterion of the stylistic reference a)those charactereised by neutral stylistic reference(-able,-er,-ing) b)those having a certain stylistic value(-tron)
4.according to the degree of their productivity
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Conversion is highly productive in replenishing the English word-stock with new words. The term conversion refers to the numerous cases of phonetic identity of word-forms, primarily the so-called initial forms, of two words belonging to different parts of speech.(work — to work; love — to love)
In the case of conversion it is the paradigm that is used as a word-building means. Hence, we may define conversion as the formation of a new word through changes in its paradigm. As a paradigm is a morphological category conversion can be described as a morphological way of forming words. The treatment of conversion as a morphological way of forming words was suggested by Prof. A. I. Smirnitsky.
The following indisputable cases of conversion have bееn discussed in linguistic literature:
1)formation of verbs from nouns and more rarely from other parts of speech, and
2)formation of nouns from verbs and rarely from other parts of speech.
There exist different conceptions of conversion. Some linguists define conversion as a non-affixal way of forming words. Others hold the view that conversion is the formation of new words with the help of a zero-morpheme.
They define conversion as a shift from one part of speech to another contending that in Modern English a word may function as two different parts of speech at the same time.
There are the following typical semantic relations of words within a conversion pair.
I. Verbs converted from nouns (denominal verbs).
This is the largest group of words related through conversion. The semantic relations between the nouns and verbs vary greatly. If the noun refers to some object of reality (both animate and inanimate) the converted verb may denote:
1)action characteristic of the object
2)instrumental use of the object
3)acquisition or addition of the object
4)deprivation of the object
II. Nouns converted from verbs (deverbal substantives).
The verb generally referring to an action, the converted noun may denote:
1)instance of the action
2)agent of the action
3)place of the action
4)result of the action
the productivity of conversion is not an absolutely productive way of forming words because it is restricted both semantically and morphologically.
With reference to semantic restrictions it is assumed that all verbs can be divided into two groups: a) verbs denoting processes that can be represented as a succession of isolated actions from which nouns are easily forme
we find innumerable occasional conversion pairs of rather complex structure
it seems possible to regard conversion as a highly productive way of forming words in Modern English.
There are cases of traditional and occasional conversion in English.
Traditional conversion refers to the accepted use of words which are recorded in dictionaries
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Compounding or word-composition is one of the productive types of word-formation in Modern English.
Compounds are made up of two or more free morphemes. Compound words are inseparable vocabulary units.
The free morphemes of compound words may be of different degree of complexity as(week-end, office-management, postage-stamp)
The structural inseparability of compound words finds expression in the unity of their specific distributional pattern and specific stress and spelling pattern.
Structurally compound words are characterised by the specific order and arrangement in which the components they are constituted of follow one another. The order in which the two components are placed within a compound is f ixed and it is the second component that makes the head-member, i.e. its structural and semantic centre.
Phonetically compounds are also marked by a specific structure of their own. No phonemic changes of the component morphemes occur in composition but the compound word acquires a new stress pattern, e.g. words hot and house each possess their own stress but when the stems of these words are brought together to make up a new compound word 'hot-house — ‘a heated building for growing plants’, the latter is given a different stress pattern — in this case - a unity stress on the first component.
Compound words have three stress patterns:
1) a high or unity stress on the first component as in 'honeymoon;2)a double stress, with a primary stress on the first component and a weaker, secondary stress on the second component
3)often both stems have level stress as in
Graphically most compounds have two types of spelling — they are spelt either solidly or with a hyphen. Both types of spelling when accompanied by structural and phonetic peculiarities serve as a sufficient indication of inseparability of compound words as opposed to phraseThe two types of spelling however, are not rigidly observed and there are numerous fluctuations between solid or hyphenated spelling on the one hand and spelling with a break between the components on the other, especially in nominal compounds of the n+n type. The spelling of these compounds varies from author to author and from dictionary to dictionary e.g. war-time vs wartime; war-ship vs war ship.
Semantically compound words are generally motivated units. The meaning of the compound is first of all derived from the combined lexical meanings of its components.
The meanings of the components of the compound word are interdependent and the choice of each is delimited by the nature of the other component of the word, forming a separate set of compound words.
The meaning of the compound is derived not only from the combined lexical meanings of its components, but also from the meaning conditioned by the patterns of the order and arrangement of its components.A mere change in the order of bases with the same lexical meanings brings about a drastic change in the lexical meaning of the compound or destroys it altogether.
the structural or distributional pattern in compound words carries a certain meaning of its own which is largely independent of the actual lexical meaning of their components. It follows that the lexical meaning of a compound is derived from the combined lexical meanings of its components and the structural meaning of its distributional pattern. The semantic centre of the compound is the lexical meaning of the second component modified and restricted by the meaning of the
The bulk of compound words are monosymantic and motivated. The degree of motivation varies. Motivation may be complete , partial (of different degree)
Compound words may be described from different points of view:
a)according to the degree of semantic independence of the constituents compounds are classified into coordinative and subordinative.
In subordinative compounds their constituents are neither structurally nor semantically equal in importance but are based on the domination of the head-member - as a rule - the second component which is the semantically and grammatically dominant part of the word. This preconditions the part-of-speech meaning of the whole compound as in stone-deaf, age-long which are obviously adjectives, a wrist-watch, road-building, a baby-sitter which are nouns.
Subordinative compounds make the bulk of Modern English compound words, as to productivity most of the productive types are subordinative compounds.
b)according to different parts of speech.
Functionally compounds are viewed as words of different parts of speech. It is the head-member of the compound, i.e. its second component that is indicative of the grammatical and lexical category the compound word belongs to. Compound words are found in all parts of speech, but the bulk of compounds are nouns and adjectives. Each part of speech is characterised by its own set of derivational patterns and their semantic variants.
Compound adverbs, pronouns and connectives are represented by an insignificant number of words, e.g. somewhere, inside, upright, otherwise, moreover, elsewhere, by means of, etc. No new compounds are coined on this pattern.
c)according to the means by which components are joined together.
1) Words formed by merely placing one constituent after another in a definite order which thus is indicative of both the semantic value and the morphological unity of the compound, e.g. house-dog. This means of linking the components is typical of the majority of Modern English compounds in all parts of speech.
2)Compound words whose constituents are joined together with a special linking-element — the linking vowels [ou] and occasionally [i] and the linking consonant [s/z] — which is indicative of composition as in
d)according to the types of bases compounds are classified into compounds proper and derivational compounds.
Compounds proper are formed by joining together bases built on the stems or on the word-forms of independently functioning words with or without the help of special linking element e.g. doorstep, age-long, baby-sitter, looking-glass, sportsman. Compounds proper constitute the bulk of English compounds in all parts of speech, they include both productive and non-productive patterns.
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Varients and Dialects of the English Language
There are two types of language territorial varieties: variants and dialects.
Regional variants of standard language are used in large areas as means of orral
and written communication: British, American, Australian and Canadian English.
Dialects are varieties of non-standard language used in small localities for oral
communication. The main variants of the English language are British and
American. British, American, Australian and Canadian English cannot be regarded
as different languages as they have essentially the same vocabulary, phonetic and
grammar systems. They also cannot be referred to local dialects: they serve all
spheres of verbal communicationand have dialectal differences of their own.
Each regional variant has its phonetic, grammatical and lexical peculiarities.
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Local Dialects on the British Isles
There are six groups of English local dialects: Lowland (Scottish), Northern,
Western; Midland, Eastern, Southern. They are used in oral speech by local
population. Only the Scottish dialect has its own literature (R. Burns).
One of the best known dialects of British English is the dialect of London -
Cockney. There are some peculiarities of it: interchange of [v] and [w] – weryvell;
interchange of [h] and [´] - ´eart for heart.
As compared with the national literary vocabulary dialectal vocabularies
include a limited number of words. They are mainly names for local customs,
social life, natural conditions and farming: laird “landed proprietor, kirk “church“.
Many dialectisms are emotionally coloured: Scot.bonny, daffy. National words
may have a different meaning in dialects: Scot.call (to drive), short (rude). Some
affixes are dialectal. The Irish diminutive suffix –een can be added even to English
stems: girleen, squireen. Besides, dialectal vocabularies do not include scientific or
technical terms.
V. Local Dialects in the USa
There exist a number of local dialects which are divided into three major
groups: Northern, Southern and Midland (North Midland and South Midland).
It should be mentioned that the American English is practically uniform all
over the country, because of the conctant transfer of people from one part of the
country to the other. However, some peculiarities in New York dialect can be
pointed out, e.g. there is no distinction between [ǽ] and [a:] in such words as ask,
dance, sand, bad, both phonemes are possible. The combinations ir and ear in the
words bird, girl, learn is pronounced as [oi]. In the words duty, tune [j] is not
pronounced [´du:ti], [tu:n].
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Main types of English dictionaries.
English dict. may B divided into 2 types: encyclopaedic (Britannica, Americana) & linguistic (word-book, thing-book). Acc. 2 the nature of the word-list: general (lin. units in ordinary use), restricted (terminological, phraseological, dialectical). Acc 2 the lang. on which information is given: bilingual, monolingual. Acc. 2 the kind of information: explanatory, translational. Each dict. has a certain aim. Criteria: nature of the word list, information supplied, La of explanation, prospective user. Specialized: phraseological, new words dict, of slang, usage dict, of word frequency, pronouncing, etymological, ideographic
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Classification of linguistic dictionaries.
Thus a linguistic dictionary is a book of words in a language, usually listed alphabetically, with definitions, pronunciations, etymologies and other linguistic information or with their equivalents in another language (or other languages).
Linguistic dictionaries may be divided into different categories by different criteria. According to the nature of their word-list we may speak about general diсtiоnaries, on the one hand, and restriсted, on the other. The terms generaland restricted do not refer to the size of the dictionary or to the number of items listed. What is meant is that the former contain lexical units in ordinary use with this or that proportion of items from various spheres of life, while the latter make their choice only from a certain part of the word-stock, the restriction being based on any principle determined by the compiler. To restricteddictionaries belong terminological, phraseological, dialectal word-books, dictionaries of new words, of foreign words, of abbreviations, etc.
As to the information they provide all linguistic dictionaries fall into those presenting a wide range of data, especially with regard to the ’semantic aspect of the vocabulary items entered (they are called explanatory) and those dealing with lexical units only in relation to some of their characteristics, e.g. only in relation to their etymology or frequency orpronunciation. These are termed specialised dictionaries.
Dictionaries with the same nature of word-lists may differ widely in the kind of information they afford, and the other way round, dictionaries providing data of similar nature may have a different kind of word-list. For example, dictionaries of unrestricted word-lists may be quite different in the type of information they contain (explanatory, pronouncing, etymological, ideographic, etc.), terminological dictionaries can also be explanatory, parallel, ideographic, presenting the frequency value of the items entered, etc. On the other hand, translation dictionaries may be general in their word-list, or terminological, phraseological, etc. Frequency dictionaries may have general and terminological word-lists.
All types of dictionaries, save the translation ones, may be mоnolingual or bilingual, i.e. the information about the items entered may be given in the same language or in another one.
Care should be taken not to mix up the terms monolingual and explanatory, on the one hand, and bilingual and translation dictionaries on the other. The two pairs of terms reflect different dimensions of dictionaries. The terms monolingual and bilingua pertain to the language in which the information about the words dealt with is couched. The terms explanatory and translation dictionaries characterise the kind of information itself.
Thus among dictionaries of the same type, say phraseological or terminological, we may find both monolingual and bilingual word-books. For example, Kluge’s Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache is bilingual, but it is not its purpose to supply translation of the items entered.
It is important to realise that no dictionary, even the most general one, can be a general-purpose word-book, each one pursues a certain aim, each is designed for a certain set of users. Therefore the selection of material and its presentation, the language in which it is couched depend very much upon the supposed users, i.e. whether the dictionary is planned to serve scholarly users or students or the general public.
Thus to characterise a dictionary one must qualify it at least from the four angles mentioned above: 1) the nature of the word-list, 2) the information supplied, 3) the language of the explanations, 4) the prospective user.
Below we shall give a brief survey of the most important types of English dictionaries, both published in English-speaking countries and at home. We shall first dwell on the dictionaries that are unrestriсt-ed in their word-lists and general in the information they contain, — on explanatory and translation dictionaries, — presented by the greatest number of word-books, then deal with word-books of restricted word-lists and with specialised dictionaries and after that with a special group of reference books, the so-called learner's dictionaries.
Explanatory dictionaries
Out of the great abundance of linguistic dictionaries of the English language a large group is made up of the so-called explanatorydictionaries,1 big and small, compiled in English-speaking countries. These dictionaries provide information on all aspects of the lexical units entered: graphical, phonetical, grammatical, semantic, stylistic, etymological, etc.
Most of these dictionaries deal with the form, usage and meaning of lexical units in Modern English, regarding it as a stabilised system and taking no account of its past development. They are synchronic in their presentation of words as distinct from diachronic, those concerned with the development of words occurring within the written history of the language. For instance, the New English Dictionary on Historical Principles commonly abbreviated in NED and its abridgement The Shorter Oxford Dictionary on Historical Principles (SOD) coyer the history of the English vocabulary from the days of King Alfred down to the present time; they are diachronic, whereas another abridgement of the NED — the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English (COD) as well as H. C. Wyld'sUniversal Dictionary of the English Language are synchronic. Other series of authoritative synchronic explanatory dictionaries are Webster dictionaries, the Funk and Wagnalls (or Standard) dictionaries and the Century dictionaries.
It should be noted that brief remarks of historical and etymological nature inserted in dictionaries like the COD do not make them diachronic. Moreover, dictionaries of a separate historical period, such as Anglo-Saxon Dictionary by J. Bosworth and T. N. Toller, Stratmann's Middle English Dictionary by H. Bradley, which are sometimes called historical, cannot be strictly speaking referred to diachronic wordbooks. They do not trace the evolution of the language, but study a synchronic cross-section, i.e. the words of a historical period are regarded from a synchronic angle.
Translation dictionaries
Translationdictionaries (sometimes also called parallel) are wordbooks containing vocabulary items in one language and their equivalents in another language. Many English-Russian and Russian-English dictionaries have been made in our country to meet the demands of language students and those who use English in their work. The most representative translation dictionaries for English are the New English-Russian Dictionary edited by Prof. I. R. Galperin, the English-Russian Dictionary by Prof. V. K. Müller and The Russian-English Dictionary under prof. A. I. Smirnitsky's general direction.
Specialised Dictionaries
Phraseologicaldictionaries in England and America have accumulated vast collections of idiomatic or colloquial phrases, proverbs and other, usually image-bearing word-groups with profuse illustrations. But the compilers’ approach is in most cases purely empiric. By phraseology many of them mean all forms of linguistic anomalies which transgress the laws of grammar or logic and which are approved by usage. Therefore alongside set-phrases they enter free phrases and even separate words.1The choice of items is arbitrary, based on intuition and not on any objective criteria. Different meanings of polysemantic units are not singled out, homonyms are not discriminated, no variant phrases are listed.
An Anglo-Russian Phraseological Dictionary by A. V. Koonin published in our country has many advantages over the reference books published abroad and can be considered the first dictionary of English phraseology proper. To ensure the highest possible cognitive value and quick finding of necessary phrases the dictionary enters phrase variants and structural synonyms, distinguishes between polysemantic and homonymic phrases, shows word- and form-building abilities of phraseological units and illustrates their use by quotations.
NewWordsdictionaries have it as their aim adequate reflection of the continuous growth of the English language.
There are three dictionaries of neologisms for Modern English. Two of these (Berg P.A Dictionary of New Words in English, 1953; Reifer M. Dictionary of New Words, N. Y., 1955) came out in the middle of the 50s and are somewhat out-of-date. The third (A Dictionary of New English. A Barnhart Dictionary, L., 1973) is more up-to-date.
The Barnhart Dictionary of New English covers words, phrases, meanings and abbreviations which came into the vocabulary of the English language during the period 1963 — 1972. The new items were collected from the reading of over half a million running words from US, British and Canadian sources — newspapers, magazines and books.
Dictionaries of slang contain elements from areas of substandard speech such as vulgarisms, jargonisms, taboo words, curse-words, colloquialisms, etc.
The most well-known dictionaries of the type are Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English by E. Partridge, Dictionary of the Underworld: British and American, The American Thesaurus of Slang by L. V. Berry &M. Den Bork, The Dictionary of American Slang by H. Wentworth and S. B. Flexner.
Usagedictionaries make it their business to pass judgement on usage problems of all kinds, on what is right or wrong. Designed for native speakers they supply much various information on such usage problems as, e.g., the difference in meaning between words like comedy, farce and burlesque, illusion and delusion, formality and formalism, the proper pronunciation of words like foyer, yolk, nonchalant, the plural forms of the nouns flamingo, radix,
commander-in-chief, the meaning of such foreign words as quorum, quadroon, quattrocento, and of such archaic words as yon, yclept, and so forth. They also explain what is meant by neologisms, archaisms, colloquial and slang words and how one is to handle them, etc.
The most widely used usage guide is the classic Dictionary of Modern English Usage by N. W. Fowler. Based on it are Usage and Abusage, and Guide to Good English by E. Partridge, A Dictionary of American English Usage by M. Nicholson, and others. Perhaps the best usage dictionary is A Dictionary of Contemporary American Usage by B. Evans and C. Evans. (N. Y., 1957).
Dictionaries of word-frequency inform the user as to the frequency of occurrence of lexical units in speech, to be more exact in the “corpus of the reading matter or in the stretch of oral speech on which the word-counts are based.
Most frequency dictionaries and tables of word frequencies published in English-speaking countries were constructed to make up lists of words considered suitable as the basis for teaching English as a foreign language, the so-called basic vocabulary. Such are, e.g., the E. Throndike dictionaries and M. West’s General Service List.
Other frequency dictionaries were designed for spelling reforming, for psycholinguistic studies, for an all-round synchronic analysis of modern English, etc.
In the 50s — 70s there appeared a number of frequency dictionaries of English made up by Soviet linguo-statisticians for the purposes of automatic analysis of scientific and technical texts and for teaching-purposes (in non-language institutions).
A Reversedictionary is a list of words in which the entry words are arranged in alphabetical order starting with their final letters.
The original aim of such dictionaries was to indicate words which form rhymes (in those days the composition of verse was popular as a very delicate pastime). It is for this reason that one of the most well-known reverse dictionaries of the English language, that compiled by John Walker, is called Rhyming Dictionary of the English Language. Nowadays the fields of application of the dictionaries based on the reverse order (back-to-front dictionaries) have become much wider. These word-books are indispensable for those studying the frequency and productivity of certain word-forming elements and other problems of word-formation, since they record, in systematic and successive arrangement, all words with the same suffixes and all compounds with the same terminal components. Teachers of English and textbook compilers will find them useful for making vocabulary exercises of various kinds. Those working in the fields of language and information processing will be supplied with important initial material for automatic translation and programmed instruction using computers.
Pronouncingdictionaries record contemporary pronunciation. As compared with the phonetic characteristics of words given by other dictionaries the information provided by pronouncing dictionaries is much more detailed: they indicate variant pronunciations(which are numerous in some cases), as well as the pronunciation of different grammatical forms.
The world famous English Pronouncing Dictionary by Daniel Jones, is considered to provide the most expert guidance on British English pronunciation. The most popular dictionary for the American variant is A Pronouncing Dictionary of American English by J. S. Kenyon and T. A. Knott.
Etymologicaldictionaries trace present-day words to the oldest forms available, establish their primary meanings and give the parent form reconstructed by means of the comparative-historical method. In case of borrowings they point out the immediate source of borrowing, its origin, and parallel forms in cognate languages.
The most authoritative of these is nowadays the newly-published Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology edited by С. Т. Onions.
Quite popular is the famous Etymological English Dictionary by W. W. Skeat compiled at the beginning of the century and published many times.
Ideographicdictionaries designed for English-speaking writers, orators or translators seeking to express their ideas adequately contain words grouped by the concepts expressed.
The world famous ideographic dictionary of English is P. M. Roget’s Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases.
Besides the most important and widely used types of English dictionaries discussed above there are some others, of which no account can be taken in a brief treatment like this (such as synonym-books, spelling reference books, hard-words dictionaries, etc.).
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Learner's dictionaries and some problems of their compilation. Main characteristic features of learner's dictionaries
Nowadays practical and theoretical learner’s lexicography is given great attention to, especially in our country. Lexicographers, linguists and methods specialists discuss such problems as the classification of learner’s dictionaries,1 the scope of the. word-list for learners at different stages of advancement, the principles of word selection, etc.
In the broad sense of the word the term learner’sdictionaries might be applied to any word-book designed as an aid to various users, both native and foreign, studying a language from various angles. Thus, we might refer to this group of word-books such reference books as Student’s Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon by H. Sweet, the numerous school-level or college-level dictionaries for native speakers, the numerous spelling-books, etc. By tradition the term is confined to dictionaries specially compiled to meet the demands of the learners for whom English is not their mother tongue. It is in this sense that we shall use the term further on.
These dictionaries differ essentially from ordinary academic dictionaries, on the one hand, and from word-books compiled specially for English and American schoolchildren and college students, on the other hand.
Though foreign language learners and children speaking the same language as their mother tongue have both imperfect command of English, it is obvious that the needs and problems of the two groups of dictionary users are altogether different. A foreign adult student of
English even at a moderately advanced stage of learning will have pitfalls and needs of his own: among the other things he may have difficulties with the use of the most “simple” words (such as play, wipe), he may not know the names for commonest things in everyday life (such as oatmeal, towel, rug) and he will experience in this or that degree interference of his mother tongue.
On the one hand, we have users who for the most part have command of the language, who have fluent speech habits, since this language is their mother tongue; they need guidance as to which of the usage they come across is correct. On the other hand, we have users that have a limited vocabulary and no speech habits or very weak ones and who have stable speech habits in another language which is their native tongue and these native speech habits interfere with the foreign ones. That is why these users must be given thorough instruction in how the words are to be used and this instruction must be given against the background of the learners’ native language.
That is why the word-lists and the sort of directions for use for the benefit of the foreign adult learners of English must differ very widely (if not fundamentally) from those given to English or American schoolchildren.
Hence the word-books of this group are characterised by the following features:
by their strictly limited word-list, the selection of which is based on carefully thought over scientific principles;
the great attention given to the functioning of lexical units in speech;
a strong prescriptive, normative character;
by their compilation with the native linguistic background in view.
Classification of learner's dictionaries
Learner’s dictionaries may be classified in accordance with different principles, the main of which are: 1) the scope of the word-list and 2) the nature of the information afforded.
From the point of view of the scope (volume) of the word-list they fall into two groups. Those of the first group contain all lexical units that the prospective user may need, in the second group only the most essential and important words are selected. To the first group we can refer A. S. Hornby’s Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (50,000 lexical units) and M. West’s International Reader’s Dictionary (about 24,000 units); to the second group — A Grammar of English Words by H. Palmer (1,000 words), and The English-Russian Learner’s Dictionary by S. K. Folomkina and H. M. Weiser (3,500 units).
As to the information afforded by learner’s dictionaries lexicographers and methodologists seem to have agreed that there should be a whole series of them. There must be a group of dictionaries presenting different aspects of the vocabulary: showing mainly the semantic structure of words (explanatory), presenting the syntagmatic relations between words (dictionaries of collocations), providing information: about the word’s structure (derivational), supplying synonymous and antonymous words, etc.Another grouping of dictionaries reflects the practice of teaching different aspects of speech. The word-books having as their goal the ability to read scientific and technical literature in a foreign language will need a vast word-list ensuring adequate comprehension of written speech. Teaching oral speech habits requires a dictionary that contains a selected list of active words explained from the point of view of their use.
Since learners of different linguistic background will have different pitfalls in mastering the same language, will need different directions for use, different restrictive remarks, each pair of languages requires its own dictionaries, dictionaries based on a contrastive study of the learner’s native tongue and the language to be learned.1
In this connection it must be said that Hornby’s dictionary, with all its merits and advantages, has an essential demerit — it does not take into account the user’s linguistic background, so it cannot foresee and prevent the possible language problems of this or that national group of English learners.
Not long ago Soviet lexicographers came to the opinion that separate reference books are called for teachers and learners. As far as dictionaries of English go, perhaps the first attempts at producing dictionaries for teachers are the reference books Adjectival Collocations and Verbal Collocations.
Those are the main types of dictionaries considered necessary to ensure the process of foreign language teaching. As to the present state of learner’s lexicography, it may be characterised as just coming into being, as the already existing dictionaries are few in number and they do not make a system, rather some separate links of a system.
As to the information they provide they may be divided into two groups: those giving equal attention to the word’s semantic characteristics and the way it is used in speech (these may be called learner’s dictionaries proper) and those concentrating on detailed treatment of the word’s lexical and grammatical valency (dictionaries of collocations).
To learner’s dictionaries proper issued in English-speaking countries we may refer, for example, The Progressive English Dictionary and An English Reader’s Dictionary by A. S. Hornby and E. СParnwell designed for beginners, as well as Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English by A. S. Hornby and The New Horizon Ladder Dictionary of the English Language by J. R. Shaw with J. Shaw for more advanced students.
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English by A. Hornby has achieved international recognition as a most valuable practical reference book to English as a foreign language. It contains 50,000 units and is compiled on the basis of COD to meet the needs of advanced foreign learners of English and language teachers. It aims among other things at giving detailed information about the grammatical and partly lexical valency of words.
The New Horizon Ladder Dictionary includes 5000 of the most frequently used words in written English. It is called Ladder Dictionary because the words are divided in it into five levels or ladder rungs of approximately 1000 each, according to the frequency of their use (a figure in brackets attached to each word shows to which thousand the word belongs).
Compiled in our country is the English-Russian Dictionary of Most Commonly Used Words prepared by V. D. Arakin, H. M. Weiser and S. K. Folomkina under Prof. I. V. Rakhmanov’s direction. This is a vocabulary minimum of 3250 words, typical word-groups and phraseological units selected for active mastery in Soviet secondary school.
The Learner’s English-Russian Dictionary by S. Folomkina and H. Weiser does not, strictly speaking, belong to the group of dictionaries under consideration, as it is designed for use by English-speaking students of the Russian language, but is helpful as well when learning