Lexicography is the study oflexicons and the art of compiling dictionaries.[1] It is divided into two separateacademic disciplines:
Practical lexicography is the compiling, writing, and editing ofdictionaries.
Theoretical lexicography is the scholarly study ofsemantic,orthographic,syntagmatic, andparadigmatic features oflexemes of thelexicon (vocabulary) of alanguage, developing theories of dictionary components and structures linking the data in dictionaries, the needs for information by users in specific types of situations, and how users may best access the data incorporated in printed andelectronic dictionaries. This is sometimes referred to as "metalexicography" as it is concerned with the finished dictionary itself.[2]
There is some disagreement on the definition oflexicology, as distinct from lexicography. Some use "lexicology" as a synonym for theoretical lexicography; others use it to mean a branch oflinguistics pertaining to the inventory of words in a particular language.
A person practicing lexicography is alexicographer.
Generally, lexicography focuses on the design, compilation, use and evaluation ofgeneral dictionaries, i.e. dictionaries that provide a description of the language in general use. Specialized lexicography focuses on the design, compilation, use and evaluation of specialized dictionaries, i.e. dictionaries that are devoted to a (relatively restricted) set of linguistic and factual elements of one or more specialist subject fields, e.g.legal lexicography. Such a dictionary is usually called aspecialized dictionary orLanguage for specific purposes dictionary and following Nielsen 1994, specialized dictionaries are either multi-field, single-field or sub-field dictionaries.
It is now widely accepted that lexicography is a scholarly discipline in its own right and not a sub-branch ofapplied linguistics, as the chief object of study in lexicography is the dictionary (see e.g. Bergenholtz/Nielsen/Tarp 2009).
Lexicography is the practice of creating books, computer programs, or databases that reflect lexicographical work and are intended forpublic use. These include dictionaries andthesauri which are widely accessible resources that present various aspects of lexicology, such as spelling, pronunciation, and meaning.
Lexicographers are tasked with defining simple words as well as figuring out how compound or complex words or words with many meanings can be clearly explained. They also make decisions regarding which words should be kept, added, or removed from a dictionary. They are responsible for arranging lexical material (usuallyalphabetically) to facilitate understanding and navigation.[3]
Coined in English 1680, the word "lexicography" derives from theGreek λεξικογράφος (lexikographos), "lexicographer",[4] from λεξικόν (lexicon), neut. of λεξικόςlexikos, "of or for words",[5] from λέξις (lexis), "speech", "word"[6] (in turn from λέγω (lego), "to say", "to speak"[7]) and γράφω (grapho), "to scratch, to inscribe, to write".[8]
Practical lexicographic work involves several activities, and the compilation of well-crafted dictionaries requires careful consideration of all or some of the following aspects:
profiling the intended users (i.e. linguistic and non-linguistic competences) and identifying their needs
defining the communicative and cognitive functions of the dictionary
selecting and organizing the components of the dictionary
choosing the appropriate structures for presenting the data in the dictionary (i.e. frame structure, distribution structure, macro-structure, micro-structure andcross-reference structure)
selecting words and affixes for systematization as entries
choosinglemma forms for each word or part of word to be lemmatized
defining words
organizing definitions
specifying pronunciations of words
labeling definitions and pronunciations forregister and dialect, where appropriate
selecting equivalents in bi- and multi-lingual dictionaries
translating collocations, phrases and examples in bi- and multilingual dictionaries
designing the best way in which users can access the data in printed and electronic dictionaries
One important goal of lexicography is to keep thelexicographic information costs incurred by dictionary users as low as possible. Nielsen (2008) suggests relevant aspects for lexicographers to consider when making dictionaries as they all affect the users' impression and actual use of specific dictionaries.
Theoretical lexicography concerns the same aspects as lexicography, but aims to develop principles that can improve the quality of future dictionaries, for instance in terms of access to data and lexicographic information costs. Several perspectives or branches of such academic dictionary research have been distinguished: 'dictionary criticism' (or evaluating the quality of one or more dictionaries, e.g. by means of reviews (see Nielsen 1999), 'dictionary history' (or tracing the traditions of a type of dictionary or of lexicography in a particular country or language), 'dictionary typology' (or classifying the various genres of reference works, such as dictionary versus encyclopedia, monolingual versus bilingual dictionary, general versus technical or pedagogical dictionary), 'dictionary structure' (or formatting the various ways in which the information is presented in a dictionary), 'dictionary use' (or observing the reference acts and skills of dictionary users), and 'dictionary IT' (or applyingcomputer aids to the process of dictionary compilation).
One important consideration is the status of 'bilingual lexicography', or the compilation and use of thebilingual dictionary in all its aspects (see e.g. Nielsen 1994). In spite of a relatively long history of this type of dictionary, it is often said[according to whom?] to be less developed in a number of respects than its unilingual counterpart, especially in cases where one of the languages involved is not a major language. Not all genres of reference works are available in interlingual versions, e.g.LSP, learners' and encyclopedic types, although sometimes these challenges produce new subtypes, e.g. 'semi-bilingual' or 'bilingualised' dictionaries such as Hornby's(Oxford) Advanced Learner's Dictionary English-Chinese, which have been developed by translating existing monolingual dictionaries (see Marello 1998).
Definition of Lexicographer, from the 1785 6th edition of Samuel Johnson'sA Dictionary of the English Language. He wryly calls the occupation (and thus himself) a "harmless drudge."[9]
Traces of lexicography can be identified as early late 4th millennium BCE, with the first known examples beingSumerian cuneiform texts uncovered in the city ofUruk. Ancient lexicography usually consisted of word lists documenting a language'slexicon. Other early word lists have been discovered inEgyptian,Akkadian,Sanskrit, andEblaite, and take the shape of mono- and bilingual word lists. They were organized in different ways including by subject and part of speech. The first extensiveglosses, or word lists with accompanying definitions, began to appear around 300 BCE, and the discipline begins to develop more steadily. Lengthier glosses started to emerge in the literary cultures of antiquity, including Greece,Rome, China, India,Sasanian Persia, and the Middle East. In 636,Isidore of Seville published the first formal etymological compendium. The worddictionarium was first applied to this type of text by the late 14th century.[10][11][12]
With the invention and spread of Gutenberg'sprinting press in the 15th century, lexicography flourished. Dictionaries became increasingly widespread, and their purpose shifted from a way to store lexical knowledge to a mode of disseminating lexical information. Modern lexicographical practices began taking shape during the 18th and 19th centuries, led by notable lexicographers such asSamuel Johnson,Vladimir Dal, theBrothers Grimm,Noah Webster,James Murray,Peter Mark Roget,Joseph Emerson Worcester, and others.[10][11][12]
During the 20th century, theinvention of computers changed lexicography again. With access to large databases, finding lexical evidence became significantly faster and easier.Corpus research also enables lexicographers to discriminate different senses of a word based on said evidence. Additionally, lexicographers were now able to work nonlinearly, rather than being bound to a traditionallexicographical ordering likealphabetical ordering.[13]
In the early 21st century, the increasing ubiquity ofartificial intelligence began to impact the field, which had traditionally been a time-consuming, detail-oriented task. The advent of AI has been hailed by some as the "end of lexicography".[14] Others are skeptical that human lexicographers will be outmoded in a field studying the particularly human substance of language.[15]
Regardless of how beneficial human lexicographers may be to lexicography, money to fund such positions has been drying up. The rise of the Internet since the 1990s has seen sharply declining printed paper dictionary sales. Many once formidable brands have stopped publishing new editions and simply began licensing out their last completed edition. During the 2000s and 2010s, ad revenue has helped sustain online versions of dictionaries, includingMerriam-Webster andDictionary.com, and these companies still employed lexicographers to stay up to date. However, changes inGoogle Search, the main source of incoming traffic, has seen traffic decline since 2016. As such, they too have largely laid off most of their staff working on this, with hobbyists, academics, and contractors continuing the work.Stefan Fatsis has estimated that the number of full-time commercial lexicographers in 2025 has dropped to less than a quarter of the amount in 2000.[16]
^Dzharasova, T. T. (2020).English lexicology and lexicography : theory and practice (2 ed.). Almaty: Al-Farabi Kazakh National University. pp. 93–94.ISBN978-601-04-0595-0.
Kirkness, Alan (2004) "Lexicography", inThe Handbook of Applied Linguistics ed. by A. Davies & C. Elder, Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 54–81.ISBN978-1-4051-3809-3
Landau, Sidney (2001)Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography, Cambridge U.P. 2nd ed.ISBN0-521-78512-X
Marello, Carla (1998) "Hornby's bilingualized dictionaries", inInternational Journal of Lexicography 11,4, pp. 292–314.
Nielsen, Sandro (2008) "The effect of lexicographical information costs on dictionary making and use", inLexikos (AFRILEX-reeks/series 18), pp. 170–189.
Nielsen, Sandro (2009): "Reviewing printed and electronic dictionaries: A theoretical and practical framework". In S. Nielsen/S. Tarp (eds):Lexicography in the 21st Century. In honour of Henning Bergenholtz. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 23–41.ISBN978-90-272-2336-4.
Ooi, Vincent (1998)Computer Corpus Lexicography, Edinburgh U.P.[1]ISBN0-7486-0815-X
