dictionary
[′dik·shə‚ner·ē]dictionary
(1)dictionary
(2)dictionary
(3)Dictionary
a reference work containing words (sometimes also morphemes and combinations of words) arranged in a certain order and explaining the meanings of the units described, providing information about the units or their translation into another language, or supplying data on the subjects designated by the units.
Dictionaries play a large role in intellectual culture, reflecting the knowledge of a given society during a certain period. Dictionaries fulfill two social functions: an informative one, because they allow knowledge to be acquired as quickly as possible (through definitions), and a normative one, because they fix the meanings and usages of words and thus facilitate the improvement and standardization of language as a means of communication. Dictionaries were first compiled in remote antiquity and have taken on an ever greater role in accumulating and providing information throughout history.
The principal type of dictionary is the unilingual defining dictionary, which indicates the meaning, usage, and grammatical and phonetic features of words. Dictionaries of this type vary in size. Their normative function is carried out through the selection of entries and meanings and with the aid of examples and stylistic labels. Other types of dictionaries differ from defining dictionaries in various ways. Encyclopedic dictionaries differ in content, explaining not words but the concepts designated by the words. In their selection of vocabulary items, thesauri encompass a language’s entire lexicon. Some dictionaries reflect only some of the thematic and stylistic strata of the lexicon; among these are dictionaries of terms, dialectal expressions, the colloquial language, argot, and the literary language. Other dictionaries contain only special variants of words, such as neologisms, archaisms, rare words, abbreviations, foreign words, and proper names. Some dictionaries differ from defining dictionaries in the way words are described; these specialized works, which take up individual aspects of words and the relationships between words, include dictionaries of etymology, word-formation, word combinations, grammar, orthography, orthoepy, synonyms, antonyms, paronyms, frequency, and rhymes.
Some dictionaries differ from defining dictionaries in that the units chosen for lexicographic description are less or more than a word: roots, morphemes, idioms, or quotations. In ideographic and analogical dictionaries, words are arranged not alphabetically but by semantic associations. Entries in reverse dictionaries are arranged alphabetically proceeding from the last letter of the word to the first. Data can be arranged according to a certain chronology, as in the case of historical dictionaries. Dictionaries compiled for specific readerships include learners’ dictionaries and dictionaries of errors and linguistic difficulties. Some dictionaries are bilingual or multilingual.
Dictionaries characteristically consist of articles in which the entries are interpreted by means of words, specially formulated explanations (a metalanguage), examples, and nonlinguistic means (drawings). Modern dictionaries employ different typefaces, a number of conventional signs, and various typographic devices, frequently using tables to explain the relationships between
words and any linguistic peculiarities the words may have.
When a dictionary is being compiled, the problem arises of the relationship between the information being provided and the general linguistic knowledge of the speakers of the language. The words are selected and the information about the words is provided in accordance with the purpose of the dictionary, based on an analysis of texts, speech samples, and existing dictionaries and grammars; the compilers’ own linguistic experience is also a factor.
Defining dictionaries also address the problem of the relationship between language and speech: dictionaries present words in an isolated form, noting primarily the words’ mandatory and constant meanings, whereas in living speech the meanings of words may undergo changes. In order to give some indication of the state of a word in language and speech, dictionaries derive the meaning of the word from usage in various contexts; they accompany the word with notes, qualifications, examples, and illustrations that indicate the situations in which the word is used and the associations connected with the word. Defining dictionaries and certain other types of dictionaries try to resolve the problems of word arrangement (alphabetical, by root) and the structuring of definitions in such a way as to reflect the overall structure of the language’s lexical component and the semantic structure of individual words. They also seek to resolve the problem of isolating and interpreting meanings through contemporary lexicographic methods and the development of a lexicographic metalanguage.
Principal dictionaries of Russian
Defining
Slovar’ Akademii Rossiiskoi, parts 1–6. St. Petersburg, 1789–94. Second ed.: St. Petersburg, 1806–22.
Slovar’ tserkovnoslavianskogo i russkogo iazyka, fascs. 1–4. St. Petersburg, 1847.
Dal’, V. I. Tolkovyi slovar’ zhivogo velikorusskogo iazyka, parts 1–4. St. Petersburg, 1863–66. Third ed., parts 1–4: St. Petersburg-Moscow, 1903–11. (Edited by I. A. Baudouin de Courtenay.) Sixth ed., parts 1–4: Moscow, 1955.
Tolkovyi slovar’ russkogo iazyka. Edited by D. N. Ushakov, vols. 1–4. Moscow, 1935–40. Second ed., vols. 1–4: Moscow, 1947–48.
Slovar’ russkogo iazyka, vols. 1–4. Moscow, 1957–61.
Slovar’ sovremennogo russkogo literaturnogo iazyka, vols. 1–17. Moscow-Leningrad, 1950–65.
Ozhegov, S. I. Slovar’ russkogo iazyka. Moscow, 1949. Tenth ed.: Moscow, 1973.
Language of Writers
Slovar’ iazyka Pushkina, vols. 1–4. Moscow, 1956–61.
Historical
Sreznevskii, I. I. Materialy dlia slovaria drevnerusskogo iazyka po pis’mennym pamiatnikam, vols. 1–3. St. Petersburg, 1890–1912. Third ed., vols. 1–3: Moscow, 1958.
Slovar’ russkogo iazyka XI-XVll vv., fascs. 1–2. Moscow, 1975—.
Etymological
Preobrazhenskii, A. Etimologicheskii slovar’ russkogo iazyka, vols. 1–2. St. Petersburg, 1910–16. Second ed., vols. 1–2: Moscow. 1959.
Vasmer, M. Etimologicheskii slovar’ russkogo iazyka, vols. 1–4. Moscow, 1964–73. (Translated from German.)
Shanskii, N. M. Etimologicheskii slovar’ russkogo iazyka, vol. 1. Moscow, 1963—. (As of 1975, to Zh.)
Dialect
Slovar’ russkikh narodnykh govorov, fascs. 1–10—. Moscow, 1965–74—.
Synonyms and homonyms
Abramov, N. Slovar’ russkikh sinonimov i skhodnykh po smyslu vyrazhenii. St. Petersburg, 1900.
Aleksandrova, Z. E. Slovar’ sinonimov russkogo iazyka. Moscow. 1968. Third ed.: Moscow, 1971.
Slovar’ sinonimov russkogo iazyka, vols. 1–2. Leningrad, 1970–71.
Slovar’ sinonimov. Leningrad, 1975.
Akhmanova, O. S. Slovar’omonimov russkogo iazyka. Moscow, 1974.
Phraseological
Mikhel’son, M. I. Khodiachie i metkie slova. St. Petersburg, 1894. Second ed.: St. Petersburg, 1896.
Frazeologicheskii slovar’ russkogo iazyka. Moscow, 1967.
Zhukov, V. P. Slovar’ russkikh poslovits i pogovorok. Moscow, 1966. Third ed.: Moscow, 1966.
Neologisms
Novye slova i znacheniia. Moscow, 1971.
Foreign words and expressions
Slovar’ inostrannykh slov, 6th ed. Moscow, 1964.
Babkin, A. M., and V. V. Shendetsov. Slovar’ inoiazychnykh vyrazhenii i slov, upotrebliaiushikhsia v russkom iazyke bez perevoda, parts 1–2. Moscow-Leningrad, 1966.
Abbreviations
Slovar’ sokrashchenii russkogo iazyka. Moscow, 1963.
Personal names
Tupikov, N. M. Slovar’ drevnerusskikh lichnykh sobstvennykh imen. St. Petersburg, 1903.
Petrovskii, N. A. Slovar’ russkikh lichnykh imen. Moscow, 1966.
Veselovskii, S. B. Onomastikon. Moscow, 1974.
Slovar’ nazvanii zhitelei RSFSR. Moscow, 1964.
Correctness of oral and written expression
Orfograficheskii slovar’ russkogo iazyka. Moscow, 1956. Thirteenth ed.: Moscow, 1974.
Slitno ili razdel’no? (Opyt slovaria-spravochnika.) Moscow, 1972.
Russkoe literaturnoe udarenie i proiznoshenie. Moscow, 1955. Fourth ed.: Moscow, 1960.
Trudnosti slovoupotrebleniia i varianty norm russkogo literaturnogo iazyka. Leningrad, 1973.
Krysin, L. P., and L. I. Skvortsov. Pravil’nost’ russkoi rechi, 2nd ed. Moscow, 1965.
Bel’chikov, Iu. A., and M. S. Paniusheva. Trudnye sluchai upotrebleniia odnokorennykh slov russkogo iazyka. Moscow, 1968.
Statistical
Shteinfel’dt, E. A. Chastotnyi slovar’ sovremennogo russkogo literaturnogo iazyka. Tallinn, 1973.
Obratnyi slovar’russkogo iazyka. Moscow, 1974.
Major modern defining dictionaries of foreign languages
Adygei
Kh’atlene, A., and Z. Klerashche. Adyga”zem izekhef gushchylakh”. Maikop, 1960.
Afrikaans
Schoonees, P. C. Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse taal. Pretoria, 1950—.
Arabic
Ibn Manzur Muhammad ibn Mukarram M. Lisan al-Arab, 20 vols. 2nd ed. Beirut, 1955–66.
al-Mujam al-wasit, 2 vols. Cairo, 1960–1961.
Armenian
Malkhasiants, S. Tolkovyi slovar’ armianskogo iazyka, vols. 1–4. Yerevan, 1944–45. (In Armenian.)
Azerbaijani
Azerbaijan dilinin izahly lughati, parts 1—. Baku, 1964—.
Bengali
Bangiya Sabda Kosh, vols. 1–5. Calcutta, 1932.
Bulgarian
Rechnik na suvremenniia bulgarski knizhoven ezik, vols. 1–3. Sofia, 1954–59.
Catalan
Fabra, P. Diccionari general de la llengua Catalana, 4th ed. Barcelona, 1966.
Chinese
Tz’u yüan, vols. 1–3. Shanghai, 1933.
Ch’i hai(A Sea of Words), vols. 1–5. Shanghai, 1938.
Kuovü tz’ u tien, vols. 1–8, 1943.
Czech
Příručni slovník jazyka českého, vols. 1–8. Prague, 1935–57.
Slovník spisovného jazyka českého, vols. Prague, 1958–71.
Danish
Ordbog over det danske sprog, vols. 1–24, 26–28. Copenhagen, 1919–56. Second ed.: Copenhagen, 1966–70.
Nudansk ordbog, vols. 1–2. Copenhagen, 1953. Fifth ed.: Copenhagen. 1967.
Dutch
Woordenboek der Nederlandsche taal, vols. 1–22. The Hague, 1882–91.
Dale, I. H. van. Groot Woordenboek der Nederlandse taal, vols. 1–2. The Hague, 1970.
English
Little, W. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 3rd ed., vols. 1–2. Oxford, 1968.
Webster’s Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, vols. 1–2. Chicago, 1966.
Random House Dictionary of the English Language. New York, 1967.
Finnish
Nykysuomen sanakirja, vols. 1–6. Helsinki, 1951–61.
French
Robert, R. Dictionnaire alphabétique et analogique de la langue française, vols. 1–7. Paris, 1972–73.
Grand Larousse de la langue française, vols. 1–7. Paris, 1971–78.
Georgian
Tolkovyi slovar’ gruzinskogo iazyka, 8 vols. Tbilisi, 1950–64. (In Georgian.)
German
Wörterbuch der deutschen Gegenwartssprache, vols. 1–5. Berlin, 1961–74.
Modern Greek
Demetrakou. Mega lexikon tes hellenikes glosses, vols. 1–9. Athens, 1936–50. Second ed.: 1950–53.
Hindi
Manaka hindi kosh, 5 vols. Allahabad, 1963–66.
Hindi shabda sagar, 11 vols. Varanasi, 1965—.(As of l974, 10 vols.)
Hungarian
A magyar nyelv értelmezö szótára, vols. 1–7. Budapest, 1959–62.
Icelandic
Íslenzk orōabók handa skólum og almenningi. Reykjavik, 1963.
Indonesian
Poerwadarminta, W. J. S. Kamus Umum Bahasa Indonesia, 2 vols. Jakarta, 1952.
Poerwadarminta, W. J. S. Kamus Umum Bahasa Indonesia, 2 vols. Jakarta, 1971–72.
Italian
Battaglia, S. Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, vols. 1–8. Turin, 1961–73—.
Devoto, G., and G. C. Oli. Vocabolario illustrato della lingua italiana, vols. 1–2. Milan, 1967.
Japanese
Simmura, I. Kojien, 2nd ed. Tokyo, 1973.
Simmeikai kokugo dziten. Tokyo, 1973.
Kazakh
Qazaq tĭlĭnĭn tusĭndĭrme sözdígĭ, vols. 1–2. Alma-Ata, 1959–62.
Korean
Chosonmal sachtong, vols. 1–6. Pyongyang, 1960–62.
Latvian
Mílenbahs, K. Latviešu valodas vārdnī ca, vols. 1–4. Riga, 1923–32.
Lithuanian
Lietuvių kalbos žodynas, vols. 1–9. Vilnius, 1941–73.
Malaysian
Kamus Dewan. Kuala Lumpur, 1972.
Mongolian
Tsevel, la. Mongol Khelnii tovg tailbar tol’. Ulan Bator, 1966.
Norwegian
Knudsen, T. Norsk riksmålsordbok, vols. 1–2. Oslo, 1937–57.
Norsk ordbok: Ordbok over det norske folkemålet og det nynorske skriftmålet. Oslo, 1950—.
Pashto
Pashto qamus, 2 vols. Kabul, 1952–55.
Persian
Moin, M. Farhange-efarsi, vols. 1–6. Tehran, 1963–73.
Dihkhuda, A. A. Logatname-ie Dehkhoda. Tehran, 1946—. (As of 1974, 195 fascs.)
Polish
Słownik języka polskiego, vols. 1–11. Warsaw, 1958–69.
Portuguese
Dicionário geral luso brasileiro da lingua portugesa, vols. 1–15-. Lisbon-Rio de Janeiro, 1962—.
Rhaeto-Romance
Dicziunari rumantsch grischun, vols. 1—. Published by La Società Retorumantscha. Chur, 1938—. (As of 1966, A-C.)
Rumanian
Dicţionarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, vols. 1–4. Bucharest, 1955–57.
Dicţionarul limbii române, vols. 1–7. Bucharest, 1913–49. New series: 1965–72. (To P.)
Serbo-Croatian
Rečnik srpskohrvatskoga knjizhevnog jezika, vols. 1—. Novy Sad-Zagreb, 1967—. (As of 1973,5 vols., to S.)
Slovak
Slovník slovenského jazyka, vols. 1–6. Bratislava, 1959–68.
Slovenian
Slovar slovenskega knjižnega jezika, vol. 1 (A-H). Ljubljana, 1970—.
Spanish
Diccionario de la lengua española, 19th ed. Madrid, 1970.
Alonso, M. Enciclopedia del idioma: Diccionario histórico y moderno de la lengua española, vols. 1–3. Madrid, 1958.
Swedish
Ordbok öfver svenska språket, vols. 1–26. Lund, 1898–1974.
Östergren, O. Nusvensk ordbok, vols. 1–10. Stockholm, 1919–72.
Tadzhik
Farkhangi zaboni tojiki, vols. 1–2. Moscow, 1969.
Tatar
Velidi, Dzh. Tatar telenets tuly suzlege. Kazan, 1927—. (Not completed.)
Turkish
Ağakai, M. A. Türkçe sözlük. Ankara, 1974.
Tuğlaci, P. Okeanus, vols. 1–3. Istanbul, 1971–74.
Turkmen
Türkmen dilininin sözlügi. Ashkhabad, 1962.
Ukrainian
Slovnyk ukrains’koi movy, vols. 1–10. Kiev, 1970—. (As of 1975, 6 vols., to P).
Urdu
Majid, A. Jamiul lughat, 4 vols. Lahore, 1935.
Firoz al-lughat. Karachi [no date].
Vietnamese
Tu dien tieng Viet. Hanoi, 1967.
REFERENCES
Semenov, N. A. Tolkovye slovari russkogo iazyka. Kiev, 1969.Voprosy uchebnoi leksikografii. Moscow, 1969.
Berkov, V. P. Voprosy dvuiazychnoi leksikografii. Leningrad, 1973.
Denisov, P. N. Ocherki po russkoi leksikologii i uchebnoi leksikografii. Moscow, 1974.
Slovari, izdannye v SSSR: Bibliograficheskii ukazatel’, 1918–1962. Moscow, 1966.
Zaunmüller, W. Bibliographisches Handbuch der Sprachwörterbücher: Ein internazionales Verzeichnis von 5600 Wörterbüchern der Jahre 1460–1958 für mehr als 500Sprachen und Dialekte. Stuttgart, 1958.
Bibliografia słowników, 1945–1972 [vols. 1–6]. Warsaw, 1965–74.
Whittacker, K. Dictionaries. London, 1966.
Matoré, G. Histoire des dictionnaires français. Paris, 1968.
Quémada, B. Les Dictionnaires du français moderne. Paris, 1968.
Wahrig, G. Neue Wege in der Wörterbücharbeit. Hamburg, 1967.
“La Lexicographic” Langages, 1970, no. 19.
Slovo a slovník. Bratislava, 1973.
See also references under LEXICOGRAPHY.
V. G. GAK