4/3/2017 Chapter4

AnIntroductiontoLexicography
DICTIONARYMAKINGPHASEIPREPARATION
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Dictionarymaking,Generalnature Planning CollectionofMaterial

ForHistoricaldictionaries Fordictionariesofwrittenlanguages Fordictionariesofunwrittenlanguages
Selectionofentries

4.0Dictionary making,General nature: The work on the compilation of a dictionary from the beginning to the final printing may be divided into the following three
phases,eachphasehavingdifferentsteps:
(1)Preparation,
(2)Editing,
(3)PreparationofthePresscopy.

(1)Preparation:thisphaseincludestheplanningofthedictionary,thecollectionofthematerialandtheselectionofentriesofthedictionary.

(2)Editing:thisphaseinvolvesthesettingofentry.Theworkincludesfixationoftheheadword,itspronunciation,grammaticalcharacteristicsandthefixationand
selectionofdefinitionsetc.oftheheadword.

(3) The third phase i.e. the phase for preparation of the press copy involves arrangement of entries, the use of notations and preparing an introduction for the
dictionary,whichincludesgeneralfeaturesofthedictionary,guidetopronunciationetc.

Butthesephasesarenotstrictdivisionsofwork.Theyarenotexclusivetoeachother.Asamatteroffact,thelexicographerisfacedwithproblems,relatingtoall
thephases,exceptthefinalone,atallphases.Thereisalotofrepetition.Letustakethesecondstepofthefirstphaseviz.thecollectionofdata.Althoughthisis
the beginning of the work and logically once it is over work on the other steps and phases begins and the collection is stopped. But this cannot happen in actual
practice1.Duringthecourseofthepreparationofthedictionary,whichtakesyears,manynewtextsmayappearinthelanguageandmanynewwordsmaybeadded
to the lexical stock of the language. Many lexical units may acquire new shades of meanings. It may also happen that while scrutinizing the data some new
informationhithertoforenotavailableisfoundout.Someofthelexicalunitswhichmighthaveoccurredasonlyoccasionalandephemeralatthebeginningofthework
mighthavestabilizedinthemeantime.Someofthemeaningsappearingasmorenuancesmightbecomequiteregularandbesystematizedinthelanguage.Inorder
tomakethedictionaryuptodateallthesefactsmustbetakennoteof.Thusthecollectionofdatadoesnotstopatthefirstphase.

Thesettingofentriesiscloselylinkedwiththeselectionofentries.Whilewritingtheentriesthedifferenttypesoflexicalunitstobeincludedarescrutinizedonthe
basisoftheirformandmeaningandthenafinalselectionismade.

Thenotations,althoughtheycomeinthethirdphase,arerequiredinthesecondphasealso,becausewhileeditingtheentriesthelexicographerhastousethemfor
separation of meanings and submeanings. As a matter of fact, the use of notations and the format should be decided tentatively at the stage of planning itself.
Becausetheyprovideguidelinesforotherstagesalso.

4.1Planning:Dictionarymakingisalong,complexandtimeconsumingactivity.Thepreparationofdictionariestakesseveralyears.Thefollowingtablewouldshow

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howlengthyistheprocessofdictionarymaking:

NameofthedictionaryYearofYearof

beginningcompletion

OxfordEnglishDictionary18881928

TamilLexicon19131938

MalayalamLexicon19534volumesappearedsofar

SanskritDictionary(Poona)19522volumesappeared.ThereeditionofWebster'sIIItook757editorialyearsandcost3.5milliondollars.

Astheworkinvolvedisstupendous,itisnecessarythatadetailedplanningisdonebeforetheworkbegins.Someofthebasicissuescrucialforplanningtheworkon
adictionaryarediscussedbelow:

The first point to be considered is about the type of the dictionary. The work on dictionary differs according to the types of dictionaries. The list of words in a
reference dictionary is different form the one in a learner's dictionary. The dialect dictionaries contain different type of word list form an academic or normative
dictionary.Thewordlistinaspecialdictionaryisgovernedbythespecialpurposeorrestrictednessofthedictionary.

Thewordlistinaconcisedictionaryismuchsmallerthanthewordlistofanunabridgeddictionary.

Next,thelexicographershoulddecideaboutthelanguageofthedictionary.Asamatteroffact,themethodofcollectiondiffersfromlanguageto language. For this

thevariationsinthelanguagearetobeconsidered.Iftherearemanydialectalvariations,thedictionarymakerhastodecidewhetherallthedialectalformsaretobe
includedinadictionaryoronlyafewofthem.Forexample,foradictionaryofHindi,itistobedecidedastowhetherthelexicalunitsfromBraj,Awadhietc.arebeing
enteredinthedictionaryornot.

Anotherpointtobeconsiderediswhetherthedictionaryisbasedonpurelycontemporarymaterialofthelanguageordoesitplantoincorporateearlierliteraturealso.
Idiomsandproverbsrepresentanearlierandolderstageofthelanguage.Ordinaryspeakersquotefromtheoldtexts.SowoulditbedesirableforadictionaryofHindi
toincludelexicalunitsfromearlierwriterslikeKabir,Tulasi,Biharietc?Althoughtheydonotformthelexicalstockofthecontemporarylanguage,theyareattimes
neededbysomegeneralreaders,especiallybystudentsforcomprehendingtextsinthelanguage.

The lexicographer has to consider whether the language has a diglossic situation e.g. Tamil and Bengali. If there is diglossia which variety is to be included in the
dictionaryoristhelexicographergoingtoincludeboththevarieties?

Thesocialandstylisticvariationsofthelanguagearealsoconsideredbythelexicographer.Whetherthedictionaryaimsatpresentingalltheprofessionalregisters,
alltheslangs,jargonismsandvulgarismsetc.Theinclusionofallthisisverydifficultifnotimpossible.Sothelexicographerhastodecideastohowmuchofitisto
begiveninthedictionary.

Thesedecisionsshouldbetakenbeforestartingtheactualworkonthedictionaryandbestrictlyadheredto.Thereispracticallynoscopeofmakinganylargescale
changesinthebasicformatofthedictionaryatalaterstagewhentheworkhasmadesomeprogress.Suppose,itisdecidednottoincludeslangsandvulgarismin
thebeginningbutlateronthedecisionisrevisedthelexicographerwouldhavetogobackagainandstarttheworkalmostafresh.

Allthese decisions must be recorded so that when new hands join the project there is no difficulty in following the line of work. The instructionsmust be complete
withminutestdetails.Inordertodothisitwouldbeusefulifablueprintispreparedfortheproject.Thisblueprintmaycontaindescriptionandinstructionsregarding

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thefollowing:

Collection of material (the sources may be mentioned), preparation and filling up of cards (with sample cards), the compilation of word list, the structure of the
dictionary entry, description and definition of meaning (their order etc.), labels, phraseology, illustrations, grammatical characteristics of words, script and
pronunciationetc.Forallthis,theactualexamplescouldbegiven.Thisblueprintorprojectmightalsocontainafewsampleentriesforthedictionary.Theentries
maybesubjecttocertainmodifications,buttheywillprovidebasicguidelinesforthoseworkingintheproject.Again,theseentriesshouldbeasvariedaspossibleso
thatdifferenttypesoflexicalitemsaregiveninthem.

Besidesthesedetails,theprojectorblueprintshouldcontainthescopeofthedictionary,itspurposeandthereadership,therangeofcoverage,etc.Thepreparation
ofsuchblueprintwillnotonlyhelpasaguidebookforthecompilersbutcanalsobeusedtopreparetheintroductionofthedictionary.

4.2CollectionofMaterial:thecollectionofdatadiffersfordifferenttypesofdictionaries.Forlanguageswhichhavewrittenliterature,thematerialiscollectedform
writtentexts.Forunwrittenlanguagesthewordlististobecollectedbyfieldmethodfromthespokenform.

Collectionofdataforlanguageswithwrittenliterature:theworkofthecollectionofdataforsuchlanguageshastwobasiccomponentswhichshouldkeptin view by
thelexicographer:

(1)thesourcefromwhichthematerialiscollected.
(2)Themethodofcollection.

Thenatureofthesourcematerialdiffersfordifferenttypesofdictionaries.

4.2.1Historicaldictionaries:Forahistoricaldictionarythecollectionisdonefromtheavailablerepresentativetextsofthelanguagefromtheearliestperiodoftheir
availability to the present time. The lexicographer should examine the data for historical dictionary keeping in view 'the evidential value of data' from the following
(Kelkar1973).

(1)ancestrallanguage,(2)cognatelanguages,(3)descendentlanguages,(4)donororrecipientlanguages,(5)substratumandsuperstratumlanguages.

Thesourcesforadictionaryoffrequencycountymaybedeterminedbyanycriterion.Theremaybefrequencycountryofjournalsandnewspapersonly,orofgeneral
literatureorofgeneralscientifictexts.

The source material for learners dictionary may be based on frequency dictionaries. Words may also be collected form contemporary literature and available
dictionariesofthebasicwords.

Thematerialforchildren'sdictionariesiscollectedfromthetextbooks.Writings,answerscripts,notebooksandcompositionsetc.ofthestudentsshouldbestudied
and the words used by children can be tabulated with the frequencies of the use of words. These frequencies can be used in addition to the general basic
vocabularies.

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4.2.2. For dictionaries of written languages:The source material for a normative dictionary may be different from that of a reference dictionary. For a bilingual
dictionarygenerallyanexistingmonolingualdictionaryistakenasasourcematerial.

Foranormativedictionarythematerialmaybeextractedfromthefollowingsources:

The material used for giving the actual context with reference to the place o f occurrence to authenticate the meaning and usage of the lexical unit. This includes
creativeworksofliterarywriters,textsontechnicalandscientificsubjectsasalsoworksofotherbranchesof human knowledge like history, philosophy, logic etc.
Thereferencesourcesconsistoftextsofdifferentnaturelike,rulebooks,orders,notices,manualsetc.Thishelpsinfindingmorevariedusagesoflexicalunits.

Besides these, articles, sketches, and other types of texts from journals and newspapers can be used as source material. They provide specimens of the
contemporarylanguage.Theyaregoodsourcesforextractingwordsandphrasesnewlyintroducedinthelanguageorwordsorphrasesusedinnewsenses.Special
termsintroducedinthelanguagearesometimesfoundinsuchsources.ThelanguageofmassmedialikeRadio,Televisionetc.mayalsobeutilizedforcollectionof
thematerialforanormativedictionary.

For reference dictionary the sources are a little more varied. Since the focus of this dictionary is not only the standard language but also the regional and social
variationsofit,suchdictionariesmayalsouseoralliteraturewhichhasverymarginalroleinanormativedictionary.Theextractionisdonefromdifferenttypesoforal
literaturetoadd variety to the lexical units used in a dictionary. So different types of discourses, e.g. narrations, eye witness accounts, conversations, arguments,
dialoguesetc.canbeusedassourcematerialforthesedictionaries.

Besidestheabovesourcematerials,somedictionaries,forexampleMalayalamlexicon,alsoutilizesomeotherrecordedmaterialslikeinscriptionsand manuscripts
forcollectionofmaterial.Collectionofdatafromsuchsourcesinvolvestheproblemoftextualcriticism,deciphermentofolderscriptsandinscriptions.Abstractionof
lexicalunitsposestheproblemofsegmentationfromtherecordedcontinuumofgraphemes.

If there are some dictionaries in the language these could also be used for collection of lexical items. In many cases the dictionaries can provide some additional
senses of lexical items which are not otherwise available in the corpus of the dictionary. But for this the lexicographer should be very careful lest he gives many
wordsandmeaningsinhisdictionarywhicharenotusedinthelanguage.Forexampletahas15meaningsinaHindiDictionary.gohas18meanings.Againmanya
lexicalunitsinaparticulardictionarymighthavegoneoutofuse.Alexicographershouldbecarefulinexaminingsuchcases.

But the collection of data from all the above sources may not be enough for a dictionary. For bigger dictionaries there are usually advisory boards consisting of
expertsondifferentbranchesofhumanknowledge.Theseexpertsnotonlyprovidetermsspecialtotheirdisciplinebutalsohelpatalaterstagetogivedefinitionsto
theseterms.Evencommonpeoplecouldbeassociatedinprovidingmaterialfordictionaries.AnappealbyFowlerBrothersforCODhadreceivedquitecommendable
response.ManyoftheillustrativequotationsnumberingnearlytwomillionsinOEDweresuppliedbyanyarmyofmorethanthirteenhundredcontributors (Whitaker
1966,31).

Areferencedictionary,whichaimsatpresentingregionalorothervariations,shouldincludeintheirstafforadvisoryboard,personswhocouldprovidematerialforall
suchvariations.

Thelexicographer,ifheisthenativespeakerofthelanguage,couldhimselfprovidealotofinformation.Hemayconstructhisownexamplesinordertodisambiguate
thepolysemyofcertainlexicalitems.

Anothertypeoftextswhichcouldbeextensivelyusedbyalldictionaries,especiallythebilingualones,aretranslationsfromdifferentlanguages.These translations
providenewtechnicaltermsandothertypesofwordsrelatedtothelifeandcultureofthepeopleofthesourcelanguage.
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Thecollectionofdataforadictionaryisdonebythemethodofextraction.Asinglelexicalunitextractedononecardwithitsfullcontextwhichisadequateenoughto
expressthemeaningofthelexicalunitclearlyandunambiguously.Thetwobasicqualitiesofagoodcontextarethatitshouldbeshortandclearandunambiguous.
The shortness of the context is conditioned by the practical problem of space in a dictionary. A concise dictionary can illafford to provide space for every lengthy
contexts.Buttheshortnessofthecontextshouldnotbeachievedatthecostoftheclarity.

Asfor the cards, they are prepared for this purpose keeping in view the volume of the information to be given with each lexical unit. Space is marked, sometimes
printedalso,foreachtypeofinformation.AtypicalcardforaKannadaKannadaEnglishDictionaryisgivenbelow:
___________________________________________________________
SpellinginKannadaScriptMeaninginEnglish
__________________________________________________

___________________________________________________
PronunciationinIPAorMeaninginKannada
RomanTransliteration
___________________________________________________

__________________________________________________

GrammaticalCategory

Reference.

This is a sample card. But the space on the card and the different information on it vary from dictionary to dictionary. Some dictionaries may provide space for
etymology, synonyms and antonyms also. Sometimes a dictionary project may use cards of different colours for recording different types of information. The
EtymologicalDictionaryofTeluguusescardsofdifferentcoloursforrecordingwordsformdifferentsourcese.g.Sanskrit,Dravidian,Desietc.

Itwillbeusefulifthecardsarenumbered.Thiswillhelpinknowingthenumberofextractionsmade.

Thecollectionofdataoncardstakesseveralyears.Theinformationcollectedisveryusefulformdifferentpointsofview.Theirutilityisnotlostassoonasthework
onthedictionaryisover.Thecardsshouldnotonlybepreservedtillthefinalprintingisover,assomeofthecardsmayhavetobereferredtoevenatthestageof
printingbutshouldbepreservedforfurtherworkalso.Suchcollectionofcardscalledlexicographicalarchievesorscriptoriumarevaluableassets of any language.
Biggerdictionarieshaveverylargenumberofcards.MalayalamLexiconhastwentyeightlakhsslips.NancyFrancehasfourhundredmillionslips.Thescriptoriumof
theSanskritDictionary(Poona)isnotmerelythesourceofthedictionary,itisthestorehouseofinformationonIndianlife.Itistherepositoryofvariousbranchesof
knowledge.Dictionariesofdifferenttypese.g.dictionaryofphrasesandidioms,collegiatedictionaries,dictionariesofsynonymsandofantonyms,canbeprepared
formthesecards.Besidesprovidingmaterialforpreparationofdictionariesthecardscanalsobeusedassourcesformanyculturalinformation.

The context of the lexical units, called lexicographical context, may vary according to the nature of the lexical unit and its usage. Sometimes even very short
contexts may be adequate to give the meaning of the lexical unit. But some times, it may be a full stanza. From this point of view the contexts may be of the
followingtypes:

(1)Itmaybeawordorasinglelexicalunit,e.g.Hindiacchaa'so','yes'Sanskritgaccha'go'(Imperativesecondpersonsingular).

(2)Itmaybeaphraseorasentence.Isliyelogusaseghr?n?aakarnelage.'Sopeoplestartedhatinghim',anewhiredhand,theheadofthefirmetc.
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(3) It may be a full stanza or even a collection of sentences e.g. Sanskrit akr?ta. Adj. 1A. VIII. 'not done or prepared (specifically somebody)'. akr?ta kaaritaam
bhiks?aammanasaanaanumoditamgr?hyataamvidhinaayuktaamtapah?pus?yatiyoginaam.Padm.P.(Ra.)92.48.

aks?atayoni.adj.'(awoman)whoisnotdeflowered'saacedaks?atayonih?syaadgataapratyaagataapivaapaunarbhaveinabhartraasaapunahsam?skaaramarhati.
Maha.XIII.314.3

Hindiyakiinkarnaa:'tobeconvinced'

muniimneniicaasirkiyehuekahaa,paaNcserduudhaurpaavbharjalebiikiirasiid.samitivaleyakiinnahi"i"NkareNgekivakiilpakkaasavaapaaNcserd?aalgayc
sakkareNgekimuniimpacaagayaa(DabepaaNv.5)(quotedfromBahl1974,117)

Sometimes,itmaytakeafullparagraphtogiveafullcontextespeciallywhenthelexicalunithassomeculturalsignificance.

As we can see the extraction is done for full collocations which give clear and unambiguous meanings. A word is extracted in all its possible contexts. The
occurrenceofawordindifferentcontextsinthesamesenseshouldnotdeterthelexicographerfromthecollectingmoreextractsforthelexicalunit.Itislikelythata
newmeaningisavailableinafurtherextraction.Again,evenifmanycardshavethesamecontextsi.e.givethesamemeaningtheseshouldbepreserved.Itisquite
possiblethataparticularcontextmayatthelastmomentbringforththemeaningmoreclearly.

Thelexicographerusuallymakestwoinferencesonthebasisofthelexicographiccards.

(1) An inference is made regarding the contextual sense of the word. A meaning is tentatively fixed for the word from the first extract. It is later on verified to its
appropriatemeaningstakenoutofallthepossiblecontextsforexample,formthesentence:

vahgharmeNrehtaahE.'helivesinthehouse'atentativemeaning'house'forgharisarrivedat.Thenthefollowingcontextsareverified:

(1)vahbar?egharkiibet?iihE.'Sheisadaughter(orgirl)ofhighfamily'.

(2)MerekurtemeNbat?ankeliyegharbanaanaahE.'Aholeistobemadeforbuttonsinmykurta'.

(3)IsmakaanmeNcaarbar?eaurdochot?egharhEN.'Therearefourbigandtwosmallroomsinthishouse.

Fromsentence(1)themeaning'family'isdetermined,fromsentence(2)themeaning'hole'andfrom(3)'room'.Thelexicographerputsallthesemeaningsforgharin
hisdictionary.Asthemeaningsarerelatedtheyaretreatedasthemultiplemeaningsofthesameword.Wemaytakeanotherexample.Fromthefollowingcontexts
thelexicographerfindsoutthedifferentmeaningsofchair:

(1)hesatonachair,
(2)thechairofphilosophy,
(3)hewillchairthemeeting,
(4)hewascondemnedtothechair.

as

(1)separatemovableseatforoneperson,
(2)positionofProfessor,
(3)topreside,
(4)electricchairfordeath.]

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Butletuscomparethefollowingcontextsinwhichthewordaamoccurs:

AamcunaavmeNkaangreskiijiithogaii

'Congresswoninthegeneralelections'.

Banaaraskaaaambahutmiit?haahotaahE.'ThemangofromBanarasisverysweet'.

Herethemeanings(1)'general'and(2)'mango'arenotrelated.Whereverthemeaningsdonotappeartoberelatedthelexicographertreatsthemasseparatewords.

(2)Thelexicographercanmakesomeabstractionsofthecanonicalformwhichistobesetupastheheadword.

Whilemakingtheextractionsthefollowingpointsmustbekeptinview:

The lexicographer should be careful about depleted, incomplete and ambiguous contexts. Such contexts do not give full and clear meaning of the lexical unit.
Contextslikeyoucannotliveonmoonarenogood.Herethemeaningofthephraseliveonisambiguous.Itcanbeinterpretedbothas(1)'reside'and(2),'sustain'.
SimilarlyringinHegavemearingmaymeanboth'ametalring'anda'telephonecall'.InHindisiitaagaanewaaliihEthemeaningofgaanewaaliiisnotclear.Itmay
mean both 'Sita is to sing' and 'Sita is a singer'. Similarly in Raamko kurtaa acchaa nahu_N lagtaa has two meanings 'does not like' and 'does not suit'. The
lexicographerhastoexaminesuchcontextsandcollectonlythosewhichareselfsufficienttodeterminethemeaningofthelexicalunit.

For function words, attempt should be made to collect extracts to the maximum. Many of the complex and diverse uses of such lexical units may not be easily
availableiftheextractsarefew.

Closelyrelatedtothisisthequestionofthenatureofextractions.Whattypeofextractionshouldbedonefromdifferentsources?Althoughanidealsituationwouldbe
toextractdatafromallworks,thereisthepracticaldifficultyofdealingwithenormousamountofdata.Sotheextractionhastobeselectiveatsomestage.Formthis
pointofview,extractionscanbeoftwotypes:

(1)Generaland(2)Special.

(1)GeneralExtraction:whenthelexicalunitsofgeneralnatureareextracteditisgeneralextraction.Lexicalunitsalthoughbelongingtosomedefinitethematicgroups
areextractedforthesegeneralmeanings.forexample,fromstoriesandarticlesonthemeofhuntingonemaycollectlexicalunitsrelatedtothefieldofhunting.From
a general work on sky and sea words related to sky water, climate etc., may be extracted without any specification of the technical meaning or explanation of the
word.forexamplefromabookonhuntingwordslikeH.machaan'araisedplatform'(forshootingwildanimals)'kheddaa'Khedda' can be extracted. Similarly words
likewater,tide,waveetc.maybeextractedfromabookonsea.

(2) Special Extraction: this is done for finding out the special technical meanings of words belonging to any subject field. For example from a book on general
linguistics,onemaygetadetailedlistoflinguistictermsintheirspecialmeanings.similarly,fromabooklike,'TheLanguageofKabir'wordsforphilosophicalterms
used by Kabir may be found. Form a book on botany the words of flora in their special meanings may be found. Textbooks in different subjects provide details of
technicaltermsrelatedtotheparticularbranchofknowledge.

Onthebasisofitsquality,theextractioncanbeoftwotypes:

(1)Concordanceortotalextractionand(2)Selectedorpartialextraction.

(1)Concordanceortotalextraction:thisisdonefromallthegeneralworksofalanguage.Allthewordsinatextareextractedinallthecontextsoftheiroccurrence.
In the beginning the extraction is of the nature of Thesaurus i.e. collection of all the occurrences of a word with actual citations. But after sometime, the extractor

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knows that the word in some senses is being repeated. Collection of such multiple information is discontinued at a later stage. A useful way to do this is to have
concordancetypeextractionforeveryworkforthebeginningportions.Butaftersometime,ifsomewordsarefoundagainandagainwithoutaddinganynewsense
theextractionistobestopped.Butbeforedecidingtostopcollectionofextractswhereinthemeaningofalexicalunitisrepeated,thelexicographershould make a
thoroughcomparisonofcontextstofindoutthesimilarityanddifferenceinthecomponentsofthemeaningsofthewordsinitstwoormoreoccurrences.Ifthereis
anydifferencethecontextshouldbeextracted,becauseitwouldgiveafurthersense.

(2) Selected or partial Extraction: selected extraction is done for collecting such lexical units which have not been covered by general extraction. This situation
comeswhenspecialtypeoflexicalunitsarefoundinatext,dealingwiththelifeofsomepeopleofoneorotherprofessionorsocialgroup.Forexamplewhenone
readsAmrutSantan,aOriyanovelbyGopinathMahanti,hefindsalargenumberoflexicalitemsandexpressionsrelatedtothetriballifeofOrissa.Formsuchatext
words relating to the tribal life may be extracted. A story or novel with regional and local colour in it e.g. the stories and novels of Phan?ishwarnath Renu in Hindi,
maybeselectedforextractinglexicalunits particular to a region in Bihar in India4. From Nisi Kut?umba, a Bengali novel by Manoj Basu, a large number of words
relatedtostealingandhousebreakingmaybeextracted.

Alltheseextractionscangosidebyside.Butaftertheextractionshavebeendoneitisnecessarytohaveacheckingofthesourcematerial.Itmaybeconsidered
essentialatsomestagetoincludemorewordsfromsomeothertypeofworks.

4.2.3 Collection of data for unwritten languages: for unwritten languages the data is collected by field method with the help of informants. The criteria for the
selection of informants, their age, sex, cultural and psychological qualities like intelligence, memory, alertness, patience, honesty, dependability, cheerfulness etc.
havebeendiscussedinworksonfieldlinguistics(Samarin,1967,Nida1947138146).Alsodiscussedthereinarethewaysinwhichafieldworkershouldapproach
anddealwiththeinformantstoelicitasmuchofdataasdesirablewithouteithercausingannoyancetotheinformantorantogonisminhim.Thiswouldassurefaithful
andproperelicitationoftheproperlanguagedata.

The number of informants to be employed depends on the scope and the type of the dictionary. If all the regional varieties of the language are to be included
informants should be selected from all the regions. In order to ensure optimum data it is advisable to select more than one informant for every variety. This would
alsohelpincheckingandrecheckingthedata.

Inordertoelicitlexicalunitsofasmanyvariedtypesaspossibleitwouldbeadvisabletoselectinformantsfromallthefollowinggroups5.
(a)frombothsexes,
(b)frompersonsofallages,
(c)frompersonsbelongingtodifferenteconomicandsocialgroups.

Manyatypicallexicalitemcommonamongthewomenmaynotbeelicitedfrommaleinformants,itisnotunlikelythat,attimes,onlymalesmaybeabletoprovide
suchitems.Manyunwrittenlanguages,especiallyalargenumberoftriballanguagesarefastcomingundertheinfluenceoftheirneighbouringlanguages.Asaresult,
newlexicalitemsareintroducedreplacingtheolderstockofthelanguage.Theyoungergenerationisadoptingthenewlexicalitemsinplaceoftheolderones leading
to a gradual loss of older vocables in the language. Only older generation knows many of the atpresentdyinglexicalunits. Therefore, the informants of older age
wouldbeusefulforprovidinglargernumberoflexicalunitsofthetypenotedabove.Theyoungergenerationinformantwouldbeequallyusefulforprovidingnewwords
introducedinthelanguage.Therepresentationfromdifferentsocialgroupswillensuretheinclusionofwordsfromthosegroups.

The method of the collection of data for a dictionary would be slightly different from that involved for writing a linguistic description of a language. As Samarin
observed"thecompilationofadictionaryisagoalverymuchdifferentformthatofalanguagedescription,especiallywhenthedictionaryhasastrongethnographic
bias".(Samarin1967,46).Itmightnottakemuchtimeforaninvestigatortoidentifythephonemesandthegrammaticalclassesofalanguage.Allthismayalsonot
requirealargeamountofdataasneededforadictionary.Because"thecollectionofamountainoftexts,whetherhecantranslatethemornotisinsufficientcorpus
forsuchaproject,forithasbeenadequatelydemonstratedthatlongtextsdonotnecessarilyshowupnewwords".(Lawton1963,139,quotedfrom Samarin 1967,

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46).Forpreparationofadictionaryofanunwrittenlanguagethelexicographershouldhaveaknowledgeofthelifeandcultureofthepeople.Forelicitingwordsinan
unwritten language word list especially of a neighbouring language and other elicitation instruments might be utilized. But in making use of a wordlist its following
limitationsmustbetakenintoconsideration.

(a)Thelistsmaycontainagoodnumberoflexicalunitswhicharequiteunknown,notinfrequently,evenirrelevant,tothenativelanguagesituations.Wordslikegulf,
sex,hyena,harnia,opthalia,sapphire,niche,sash,ivory,asafetidaandseveralotherswerenotknowntomanyinformantsinJaintia,adialectofKhasi.Thegeneral
responsefor querries about such items is either 'I don't know' or 'there is nowordlikethis'.Insuchsituations,askedrepeatedly,theinformanteither gives generic
words for specific objects or tries to coin what we may call emasculated equivalents. In Jaintia, there is only one word khlor for stars, planets and all heavenly
bodies.WhenaskedtogiveequivalentforJupiter,VenusorNeptuneallthattheinformantgivesiskhlor.InthesamewaytheadmiralgetsitsequivalentaswahE?
chipaaii(lit.bigsoldier)gunpowderbamsuloi(lit.foodofthegun)picnicbamkhana(lit.eatfood),breakfast,jastep(lit.morningmeal),lunchjasngi(lit.daymeal)
anddinnerjammed(lit.nightmeal).

(b)Someofthenewlycoinedlexicalitemsareveryartificial.Theirartificialitycanbetestedbygettingthemcheckedwithotherspeakersofthelanguage.Insome
casesthenativespeakerconfessestotalignoranceofalexicalitem,insomethereisagreementwithreservationandinothersquitedifferentwordsarecited.

(c)Thereisatotalunawarenessoflocalenvironmentandobjectsinsuchlists.Maltohasthefollowingwordsfor'mushroom':
naqlo,dulekora,teelekuttto,tupo,taakno,jibra,kutapuragejo,edroosdu,peetqopotlo,mookrooosduandsomeothers.

NowordlisteitherofHindi,orofBengaliorofEnglishmaycontainthesewords.Everyspeechcommunityhasitsownlexicon.Thefloraandfaunadifferformplace
toplaceandsodothecustomsandtherituals.Therichnessoffloraandfauna,thevariedusesofthefloraandthedifferentlexicalunitstosignifythemaredifficult
tofindinanywordlist.ForexamplebamboohasagreatsignificationinthelifeofthetribalsofIndia,speciallythoseofNorthEasternpart,ascanbeseenfromthe
followinglexicalunitsinAngami.

kerie'bamboo'(generic)
khopri'acommontypeofbamboousedfortheconstructionofhousesetc.'
vu_prie'akindofbamboousedformakingropes,basketetc.'
vu_ni'thebiggesttypeofbamboousedforwallingpurposes'.
kuccierie'akingofbamboousedformakingpostetc.
riinyu~/rutsu'akindofbamboousedforconstructinggraneryofriceetc'.
luouu_'akindofbamboousedformakingflutes'.

This can be compared to different names associated with the products and uses of the item illustrated here by the following lexical units in Kokborok, a language
spokeninTripura.
wa(n)'bamboo'
wakkitor'crookedbamboo'
wajar'avarietyofbamboo'
wakhum'bambooearring'
wakolok'alongbamboolamp'
watuy'aringofbamboo'
wathuy'avarietyofbamboo'
wathop'bamboodecoration'
wamlang'avarietyofbamboo'
wamlik'avarietyofbamboo'
wasun'anamegivetobamboo'

Elicitationofsuchlexicalitemsbecomesverydifficultintheselanguages.Inelicitationofdatafromsuchlistsasnotedearlier,manyobjectswhichareanintegral
partofthelifeandcultureofapeoplearelikelytobemissedbyalexicographer.
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Insomecasestheinitialglossesmaynotgivesufficientcluetoidentifythecontrastingsemanticfeaturesofthelexicalunit.Thepossibilityofinterchangeofwords
foranimalsandhumanbeingsisnotrulesoute.g.,pregnantinMaltohastwoequivalentsqabniiandkocitaanii,theformerusedforanimalsandthelatterforhuman
beings.Aninitialgloss'those'maybeinadequatetobringoutthecontrastbetweenthefollowingwordsinJaintia:

kitu'thosethere(near)'
kitay'thosethere(atadistance)'
kita'thosethere(notseen)'
kitey'thosethere(upthere)'
kiti'thosethere(downthere)'

Angamihasthefollowingwordsrelatedto'wine'.

Zhu'Angamiwinemadeofrice,ricebeer'.
Zhutlo'Angamiricebear'.
ruohi'akindofAngamiwine'.
Khe'akindofAnagamiwine'.
Zhuhaelu_'akindofAngamiwine'.

Theinitialgloss'wine'maynotbesufficientforelicitingallthesewords.

Howcanalexicographerensuremaximumelicitationforadictionaryofsuchlanguages?Asourcebookofencyclopaedicnature,abookonbasketry,abookonflora
and fauna and any other book with pictures may serve the purpose well. If the words in the list are grouped in grammatical classes and semantic domains the
lexicographermayfinditeasytoelicitthelexicalitemsheislookingfor.

Alistofbasicwordsbelongingtodifferentsemanticdomainsandgrammaticalclasses,someofwhicharelistedbelow,maybetentativelypreparedforelicitationof
dataforunwrittenlanguages.
(1)Natureearth,water,sky,events,geographicalandastronomicalitems,directions,winds,weather,seasons,etc.
(2)Mankindsex,family,relationship,bodyparts,bodilyfunctionsandconditions,diseasesandcures,
(3)Clothingandpersonaladornments,
(4)Foodanddrinkmethodsofpreparation,
(5)Dwellingpartofthehouse,furnitureetc.,
(6)Cookingutensils,tools,weapons,etc.,
(7)Floraandfauna(includingpartsofanimalanatomydiseases,curesetc.)
(8)Occupationsandprofessionsequipments,ritualsandcustomsconnectedwiththem,
(9)Roadandtransport,
(10)Senseperception,
(11)Emotions,temperamental,moralandaesthetic(includesinsults,cursesetc.).
(12)Government,war,law,
(13)Religion,
(14)Education,
(15)Gamesandamusement,entertainment,music,dance,drama,
(16)Metals,
(17)Numeralsandsystemofenumeration,

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(18)Measurementoftime,space,volume,weight,quantity,
(19)Functionwordsincludingclassifiers,
(20)Fairs,festivals,customs,beliefsetc.
(21)Verbs:
(a)Physicalactivity
(b)Instrumentverbs
(c)Verbsoffighting
(d)Musicverbs
(e)Motionverbs
(f)Occupationalverbs
(g)Culinaryverbs
(h)Cosmeticverbs
(i)Communicativeverbs
(j)Stationaryverbs
(k)Cognitiveverbs
(l)Sensoryverbs
(m)Emotiveverbs
(n)Otherverbs.

Thislistisbynomeansexhaustive6.Itmightbetreatedasasortofreferencepointandtherelatedwordsinthesemanticdomainmightbeelicitedonthebasisof
thislist.Forexamplewhilecollectingwordsaboutagriculture,wordsaboutthedifferentagriculturalproducts,thesowingandharvestingtime,ritualsandceremonies
connectedwiththem,namesofthedifferentpartsatdifferenttimesofgrowthoftheseproductsandtheverbsconnectedwithdifferentactionsconnectedwiththem
maybeelicited.Wemaytakeanotherexample.Whileelicitingwordsforteeththeinformantmaybeaskedtogivewordsfordifferenttypesofteeth,diseasesofteeth
andcuresforthem.

It should not be understood from the foregoing statements that the elicitation through word lists is a very complete and perfect method. The role of collection and
elucidationofthelexicalunitsfromdifferenttypesoftextsprovidinggreatercontextualpossibilitiesshouldinnowaybeundermined.Thedatacollectedbywordlists
mightnotbeadequatespeciallyfromthesemanticpointofview.Thedifferentmeaningsofthelexicalunitmaynotbedeterminedanddemonstratedifcollectionis
done of the isolated lexical items and the dictionary may suffer from the shortcomings pointed out by Samarin. "The chief failure of a field dictionary is that it
indicatesnotsomuchthemeaningofwords,butthefactthattheyexist.Theydonotdefine,theydocument".(Samarin,1967,208).

Thedata for a dictionary collected from the word list as noted above should be supplemented by data from different types of discourses, some of which are listed
below.(Samarin1967,208).

Narrations:eyewitnessaccounts,reminiscences,instructionsonhowtoperformcertaintasksorhowtogettocertaindestination.

Conversations:Arguments,dialoguesover'wherehaveyoubeen',
Songs:Lullabies,dirges,dancesongs,

Folktales:legends,howthingscometobe,amusingstories,ProverbsandRiddles,

Names:personal,topographic,village,
Pseudoonomatopoeticcallsofanimalsorbirds.

Thecollectionofdatainanunwrittenlanguagehasmanyproblemssomeofwhicharegivenbelow:

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One of the most vital problems of collection of lexical units is the segmentation and identification of a word from the phonetic continuum of the texts. In written
languageswhichhavesometraditionofgrammar,therearecertaindevicesandfixedcriteriatoidentifyaword.awordinwrittenlanguagesisgenerallyidentifiedasa
meaningfulunit,aclusterofsoundsorletterswrittenbetweenspaces,orwithpotentialpauses.Inwrittenlanguagesthereisnosuchdevice.Thelexicographerhas
toanalysethedata,makeagrammaticalanalysisofthelanguageandfixthewordandthelexicographicunit.

The determination of the lexicographic word is a more ticklish problem for languages which are of isolatingagglutinating type, e.g., Khasi an Austric language and
manyTibetoBurmanlanguagesinIndia.Intheselanguagesthewholegrammaticalprocessinvolvesprefixationandsufficationofmorphemes.Anynumberofwords
maybederivedbymerelyjuxtapositionofvariousmorphemestotherootorthestem.Thegrammaticalsystemisverysimpleforalexicographer.Whatitemsshould
be included and in what way has always to be viewed carefully. Many lexical units formed by this way might be treated under both the main root and prefixes, the
formerisnecessaryfromthesemanticpointofview,thelatterfromthepointofviewofalphabeticalarrangemente.g.Khasi.Nongthaawaayn.'legislature'mightbe
treatedbothundernong'agentivemarker'andaayn'law'.

Theproblemofcollectionandselectionofsetcombinationsandcompoundsisnolessintriguingforafieldlexicographer.Forwrittenlanguages,besidesgettingsome
clues of solid and hyphenated spelling about compounds, the lexicographer has at his disposal enough data wherein he comes across many occurrences of such
units.Thishelpshimindeterminingsetexpressions.Forunwrittenlanguagesthefieldlexicographerhastocollectdifferentcontextswithvariedcollocationsofwords
tofinoutcompoundsandsetexpressions.

Inelicitationofwordsfromglossesthereisalwaysapossibilityofnotgettinganappropriateword.Forexamplewithagloss'blow'onegetsawordp?utinJaintiafor
'blowingflute'buttherearedifferentotherwordsdenotingthemeaningof'blow',e.g.

slu'blow(mouth)'
be?'blow(wind)'
s?er'blow(nose)'

SimilarlythefollowingwordsinJaintiawithshadesofdifferentiationmightnotbeelicitedbythesimplegloss'break'.

pnkhan'break(stick)'
pya?'break(bottle)'
tkuc'break(rope)'

Agreatdifficultyinelicitationofdataforunwrittenlanguagesispresentedbyanisomorphims7.Twoormorethantwowordsforoneobjectmaybefoundinthesource
languageforwhichthereisonlyonegloss.Someexamplesaregivenintheprecedingsection.Wemayexaminesomemoreofthem.

In Shina there are two words hankal and kutsur for the upper and lower parts of latch expressed by latch in English. English razor has two equivalents in Jaintia
yuukhiandrati?andfryingpanhaskharaiandtalaiinthesamelanguage.Thewordsbasketandspearhaveseveralequivalentsinmanylanguages.

Evenwhensomeobjectisinthesightoftheinformant,hemightnotidentifyitfortheglossandgiveanotherrelatedword.Whenpointedtocurryandaskedtogive
wordforittheJaintiainformantmayprovidemnchit'curryjuice'andnotyute?thewordfor'curry'.

Identification and determination of meaning in respect of flora and fauna and culture bound words is a problematic area for the lexicographer of an unwritten
language8.Forcultureboundwordsmereonewordglossmaynotbeadequate.Thewholeculturalinformationrelatedwiththewordistobeprovided.Thedictionary
of an unwritten language, especially a tribal language, is not merely a linguistic dictionary. It is more of an ethnographic dictionary with a considerable amount of
encyclopaedicinformationinit.Soforitemswithculturalsignificancedatashouldbecollectedabouttheculturealso.ForKhasis?iemtheonewordequivalent 'king'
maynotgivetheculturalsignificance.Itshouldbeaccompaniedwithfullculturaldescription.

ForAngamikeciesuaonewordgloss'aritual'wouldnotgivethedesiredinformation.Itshouldbeaccompaniedbythefollowingculturalinformation:

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'Practiceofthesonofthedeceaseddraggingaboulderinhisfather'sremembranceifhisfatherhasdiedafterfourSha's'.

Foragooddictionaryitisnotonlythecollectionofthenumberofwordsthatmatters.Allthedifferentmeaningsindifferentcontextsshouldalsobegiven.Forthis
thelexicographershouldrecordasfaraspossibleallthelinguisticandphysicalcontexts9.Forthisthedatashould be thoroughly and systematically collated. The
expertsshouldbecomparedandsimilaritiesanddissimilaritiesinusageoflexicalunitsnotedtomarkthedifferentmeaningsoftheword.theinformantmaybeasked
toproduceexamplesofthecollocationalpossibilitiesofaparticularlexicalunit.Hemayalsobeaskedtoprovidesynonymsandantonymswhichwillgiveadditional
helpinthedeterminationofmeaning.

Functionwordsshouldbegivenspecialtreatmentinthecollectionofdata.Becauseoftheirfrequencyofusetheyhavediverseandvariedmeanings.larger number
ofcontextsneedbescrutinizedforgettingtheirvariedmeaningsanduses.

4.3.SelectionofEntries:vrhaspatirindraayadivyamvars??asahasrampraatipadoktaanaamsabdaanaamsabdapaaraavan?amprovaacanaantamjagaama

'vr?haspatitaughtIndravocabularyoforalrecitationforonethousanddivineyears,butwasendless'.(Mahaabhaas?yaPaspasaahniika'.P.43)

Thismaysoundpoeticalandhighlyimprobableyetitissignificantinthatitpointstotheunlimitednumberofwordsofalanguageorthepotentialityofthelanguageto
createnewwords.Asthenumberofwordsisalwaysincreasingnodictionary,howevervoluminousitmaybe,canclaimtoincludeallthelexicalunitsofalanguage
with all their meanings, submeanings and collocational possibilities. A lexicographer has to make selection of entries for his dictionary. The general nature of the
lexicographicwordhasbeendiscussedelsewhere10.

Theselectionofentriesisdeterminedbyvariousfactorsviz.,size,typeandpurposeofthedictionary,thestatusandformalvariationofwordsandthedifferentlocal
andsocialvariationsinthelanguage.Thelexicographerhastoconsiderspeciallythefollowingtypesoflexicalunitsbesidesothers.

(1) Neologism: the lexical stock of a language does not remain static. New objects and concepts are introduced in the speech community. These objects and
conceptsareexpressedinthelanguagebydifferentways:
(1)newwordsandexpressionsarecoined,(2)newmeaningsaregiventotheexistingwords,and(3)thewordsareborrowedfromotherlanguages11.

Thenewwordsandexpressionsarecoinedfordifferentthemesrangingfordaytodayfashiontothenuclearwarfare."Anywordorsetexpressionformedaccording
totheproductivestructuredpatternsorborrowedfromanotherlanguageandfeltbythespeakersassomethingnewisaneologism".(Arnold.1973.232).Someofthe
neologisms are eventual and ephemeral. They are born today and die tomorrow. The neologisms are some conditions and as soon as these conditions disappear
thesewordsalsoloosetheirexistence.Butgenerallytheyhavelongerlife.Fromindividualandoccasionalusagestheybecomesocialandfrequent.Graduallythey
arestabilizedandbecomepartofthelanguage.Thelexicographer'sproblemiswhetherheshouldenterallsuchlexicalunitsinthedictionaryornot.

It depends on the size and type of the dictionary. Bigger reference dictionaries may include all such neologisms. Smaller and abridged dictionaries may not have
suchascope.

As a matter of fact, till the words become a part of the language their inclusion may be doubted. But when they are in a transitory stage, i.e. they are on way to
gainingtheirplaceinthelanguage,whatshouldbedonewiththem?Forexampleafter1967aparticularphraseaayaaraamgayaaraamusedforpersonswhochanged
theirpoliticalloyalitiesfrequentlycameintousage.Shouldadictionaryincludethisword?AwordrephujiilataawasintroducedinTripurawiththecomingofrefugees
fromerstwhileEastPakistan(nowBanglaDesh)after1947.Thisisacreeperunknownearlierbutnowverypopular(becauseofitsluxuriousgrowth).Shouldsucha
wordfindplaceinthedictionarybutsuitablelabels(likefrequent,rareetc.,)shouldbeemployedwiththemtomarktheircurrency.

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(2)ObsoleteandArchaicwords:Asnewwordsareborninalanguage,somewordsdiealso,althoughtheirnumberissmallerthanthenewwords.Some concepts
andobjectsbecomeoutdated.Wordsandexpressionsforthemaredroppedoutofthelanguageincourseoftime.Suchwordsarecalledobsoletewords.Similarto
thesewordsareanotherclassofwords,whicharenolongeringeneraluse,buthavenotbecomecompletelyobsolete.Suchwordsarearchaicorpracaaralvpta.How
many of such words should find place in a general purpose dictionary? In a dictionary based on purely contemporary language there may not be scope for the
inclusionofsuchwords.Butinageneralpurposedictionarywhoseaimisalsotohelpunderstandingtextsoftheearlierlanguageviz.,Kabir,TulasiinHindi,Namdev
inGujarati,ShakespeareinEnglishetc.thedictionaryshouldincludesuchwords,becausesomeofthewordsandphrasesusedbythewritersarecommonlyused
bypeople.Manyidiomsandproverbscontainwordswhichhavebecomeobsoleteandarchaicinthegenerallanguage.Shouldsuchwordsbeincludedinadictionary
ornot?

(3)Technical Terms: It is a debatable point if all the scientific andtechnicaltermscanfindplaceinageneralpurposedictionary.Theinflux of technical terms in a
languageisquiteconsiderable.Everydayeitheranewtechnicaltermsisbeingcoinedornewmeaningsareattachedtotheoldwords.MerriamandCompanyhas
nearlyfourlakhstermsforChemistryalone.Howcanallthesetermsbeincludedinadictionary?TheWebster'sIIIhasinallfourlakhandfiftythousandwordsonly.

Aproblemrelatedtothetechnicalterminologyisaboutthecommonnessanduncommonnessofsometerms.Sometermsareveryartificialandambiguous. Should
these terms be included in a dictionary and be given preference over their common counter parts. For example almost all the IndoAryan languages have a word
bansii,'fishinghook'.Atechnicaltermaakhet?adand?aiscoinedforthisterm.Thislattertermisveryuncommonandalsoambiguous.Itmaymeanevena'hunting
stick'tosomespeakers.Sometimesmorethanonetermsareusedforanobjectorconcept.Whichoneshouldbeincludedinadictionary?

(4) Proper names: A lexicographer is faced with the problem of the inclusion of proper names in his dictionary. Proper names do not form part of the language
system.Theirinclusioninmonolingualdictionarieshasbeen questioned by many scholars. But some proper names in course of the history of a language attain a
specialsignificance.Theyformanintegralpartoftheculturallifeofthepeople.Anyinformationaboutthemisahelpintheinterpretationoftheculturallifetooutside
would. Let us take the word gangaa. Ganga is a river, intimately connected with the culture of India, rather it is a very vital part of the Indian culture. The name
appearsfrequentlyintheliteratureofIndianlanguages.Sothisnameshouldbeincludedinanydictionary,whichpresentsinformationonIndiantheme.Thenational
heroes,mythologicalcharactersetc.shouldfindaplaceinthedictionary.Christ,Mohammed,Mecca,Bethelehem,Veticanalthoughpropernamesconveysomething
morethantheirmerereferentialmeaning.Theyshouldfindplaceinadictionary.

Manyatime,thepropernamesbeingusedinspecialsensedevelopintogeneralwordsandbecomeapartofthelexicalstockofthelanguage.Wemayexaminethe
followingentriesin,aHindidictionarywiththewordgangaawhichhasattainedcertainspecialmeaningsof'anyriver'or'whitecolour'.

gangabaraar.'thelandformedbytheshiftingofthecurrentofariver(gangaa=river)'

gangasikasta.'thelanderodedbyanyriver'

gangaajamnii'mixed,whiteandblack(cf.ThemeaningwhiteandblackofGangaandYamunarespectively,basedonthecolouroftheirwater)'.

cf.Bengaligangaayamunaa(2)'ofwhiteandblackcolours','mixedwithgoldandsilver'.

Gangaala'apotforstoringwater'.(ganga=water)
Cf.also

Banaarasii.AnadjectivefromBanarsemansa'sari',andMagahiifromMagah(Magadha)means'betels'.

Whenpropernamesarerelatedtocommonnounstheycanbegiveninadictionary.Shcherbagivestheexampleofkhlestakov,acharacterofGogol'sRevizor,asan
impudent lier and a flap. The word has lost its specificity and has a derivative xlestakovscina (Srivastava 1968 p. 122 Zgusta 1971 245.) In Hindi we have
kumbhakarn?a for a man who sleeps too much with its derivative kumbhakarn?ii nidrra 'the sleep of the type of kumbhakarn?a In Bhagiirathaprayatna the name
bhagirrathahaslostitsspecificnessandisusedfor'greatperseverance'.

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Anotherpointtobenotedaboutpropernamesisthisthatifsomederivativesfrompropernamesareincludedinthedictionary,thepropernamesmustbeincludedin
thedictionary.e.g.Webster'sSeventhNewCollegiatehastheentry.

Muhammadanadj.oforrelatingtoMuhammedorIslam.

ButMuhammadisnotanentry.ThemeaningofMuhammadanisderivedfromMuhammad.Insuchcasesitisdesirabletoincludesuchpropernameseventhough
thegeneralpolicymaybeagainsttheirinclusioninadictionary.

(5)Emptywords:somewordsoccurincertainconstructionsonlytheyarenotusedindependentlye.g.Hindiaasusedonlyinaaspaas'nearby'

ar?osusedonlyinar?ospar?os'neighbourhood'

ajaayab(pl.ofajab'strange')usedonlyinajaayabghar'museum'andajaayabkhaana'acuriocollectioncentre.
aamneusedonlyinaamnesaamne'facetoface'.

Thistypealsoincludeswordswhichareusedinsomecollocationsonlye.g.froonlytoandfro.Suchwordsshouldbeincludedinthedictionarywith suitable cross

referenceandspecificindicationoftheirpeculiaritiesofoccurrencee.g.

Hindiaasseeaaspaas
Engfroseetoandfro

(6) Affixes: Should the dictionary enter all the prefixes and suffixes or only a few of them. As a matter of fact, all the productive prefixes and suffixes should find
placeinadictionary.e.g.
Englishanti,mal,Sktprati,anu,Hindisu,ku,panKhasinong'agentivemarker',jing'prefixforformingabstractnounandnounofaction'.

(7)Functionwords:Asthefunctionwordshavenoreferentordenotatumtheyhavenolexicalmeaning.Theyhaveonlyfunctionalorrelationalmeaning.soitmaybe
contendedwhethertheyshouldbeincludedinadictionaryornot.Theirinclusioninadictionarycanbepleadedonthefollowinggrounds:

(1)Thefunctionofrelationorfunctionwordsespeciallyinalltheircollocationscannotbepredicted.
(2)Awordmayhavelexicalmeaninginonecontextandgrammaticalinother.e.g.Eng.doesin
Hedoesnotliketohearthisargument.
Hedoeshisworksintime.
AndHindilaayaain
VahkitaabnahiiNlaayaa'hedidnotbringthebook'.
Vahbazaarsesar?iisabjiiut?haalaayaa.

'hebroughtrottenvegetablesfromthemarket'

(3)Thefunctionwordshavegreateroccurrenceinthelanguagethancontentwords.Becauseofthefrequencyoftheirusetheyhavelargervarietyof functions and

greatercollocationalpossibilities.Hencethereisagreaterscopeofsensediscriminationinthem12.

(8) Compounds: In the process of their formation and type compounds differ from language to language. Compounding involves joining of more than one
stems/affixeseitherfreeofboundforms.Incompoundsthecomponentsareintegratedandfunctionasasinglelexicalunitinasentence.Thechiefcharacteristicsof
compoundsaretheirindivisibility(nowordcanbeinsertedbetweenitselements)andthespecificorderofthecomponentssorigidlyfixedinthearrangementinwhich
they follow each other than no element can be reversed. Semantically the meanings cannot be generally, but not exclusively, derived form the sum total of the
meanings of the components. In a book of this type there is no scope for going into details of the formation and types of compounds. Our concern is to consider

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whether all the compounds can be entered in a dictionary. While entering them in the dictionary some peculiarities of compounds should be kept in view by the
dictionarymaker.Thesepeculiaritiesrelatetotheformalandsemanticcharacteristicsofthecompounds.

FormalCharacteristics:formallythecomponentsenteringintoacompoundareunitedphoneticallyorgraphicallyorboth.Theyarecharacterizedbyunityofstressor
intonationorsolidspelling,hyphen13etc.
(a)Someofthecomponentsdonotundergoanymorphophonemicchangewhileenteringintoacompounde.g.

Hindicir?iimaar'flower'
sahabaasii'onewholivesinacity'
niikamal'bluelotus'

Bengalikaalaraatri'thenightonwhichdeathorsomecalamityoccurs'.
balipus?t?a'crow'

Skt.arun?anetra'redeyed'
ghoraruupa'ofafrightfulappearance'

MarathipEsaapaavalii'ascheapasdust'

Malayalamanangakriid?aa'amoroussport'

(b)Somecomponentsundergomorphophonemicchangeswhileformingacompound:e.g.

Hindihathakar?ii'handcuffs'
pancakkii'awatermill'

Insomelanguagesthemorphophonemicchangeissoverysignificantthatthecomponentsloosetheirformalidentity.SuchcompoundsareverycommoninKhasi
e.g.

langbrot'sheep'<blang,'goat'
?erlangthari'whirlwind'<l?er'wind'.
theysotti'vergin'<knthey'female','woman'

Sincethecompoundsfunctionaslexicalunitstheyarenaturallycandidatesfordictionaryentry.ButlongercompoundswithmanycomponentsasfoundinSanskrit
cannotbeenteredinadictionary.TheSanskritDictionary(Poona)includescompoundswithtwoorthreecomponents.Longercompoundsareavoided.

Asfor the first group of compounds the lexicographer does not face any problem. The second group has to be carefully scrutinised because of the change in their
shape.

Semanticcharacteristics:thecompoundshavethefollowingtwosemanticfeatureswhichalexicographershouldtakeinview:

(a)Themeaningofsomecompoundsisnotderivablefromthecombinedmeaningofitscomponents.Themeaningofthewholeisnotameresumofthemeanings of
itscomponents.Oneorbothofthecomponentsusuallyloosetheirmeaningpartially.Thecomponentscollectivelyrefertoanotherword,e.g.

Englishchatterbox'personwhotalksagreatdeal',hotmouse'abuildingforgrowingplants'.

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Hindidasaanana'onewhohastenfacesi.e.Raavan?a
ganesa'thechieforlordofthepeople','nameofaGod'.
Bengalibalipus?t?a'crow'
Basantaduuto'cuckoo'

ThewholegroupofBahuvriihicompoundscomesunderthis.

(b)insomeothercasesnoneofthecomponentsloosesitsmeaningandthewholemeaningisequivalenttothecompoundmeaningofitselementse.g.

Hindicir?iimaar'hunter'(lit.onewhokillsbirds).
niilkamal'bluelotus'.
raajaputra'thesonoftheking'
Eng.oilrich'richinoil'.
Beng.Pallimangal'thewelfareofthevillage'.

For a lexicographer the compounds whose meanings can be predicted are not so important as those whose meanings cannot be predicted form the combined
meaningsofitscomponents.Thecompoundswhosemeaningscanbepredictedmaybegivenassubentriesundertheentriesforthefirstcomponentwhereasthose
whose meanings cannot be predicted are generally given separate entries. Selection of compounds as main or subentry, at least in certain cases, is decided on
extralinguisticconsiderations.

(9)Setexpressionsofwordsormultiwordlexicalunits:Alsocalledphraseologicalunits,setcombinationsofwordsorsetexpressionsarewordgroupsconsisting of
twoormorewordswhosecombinationisintegratedasaunitwithorwithoutspecializedmeaningsofthewholee.g.

Hindinaudogyaarahhonaa'tomakegoodones'escape'
aaNkhdikhaanaa'tobeangry'

Bengalicokheaanguldiyedekhaano'tomakeclearbyuse'.
cokherbaali(fig)'amanwhoissoretotheeyes'

Englishfallout,givein,cutnoice,breadandbutter.

The set expressions are to be distinguished from the free combinations. In free combinations words are combined to express different meanings in different ways.
e.g.

Hindit?hand?aapaanii'coldwater't?hand?aamausam.'coldweather'
garamduudh'hotmilk'garamhawaa'hotwind'
tejchurii'sharpknife'tejdimaag'sharpmind'

Englishlivehappily,livemiserably,livecomfortably.
goodman,goodnews,goodbooketc.,

Bengalibhaalochele'goodboy'bhaalokhobor'goodnews'.
bhaalobyabohaar'goodbehaviour'

Thefreecombinationsarecreatedasandwhenthespeakerwantstocommunicatesuchideas.Theyarenotstableinuse.Themaximumcommunicativefunction of
thelanguageisperformedbysuchexpressions.Butastheirmeaningsarepredictablei.e.themeaningsarethesumtotalofthemeaningsoftheconstituents,the

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lexicographerdoesnotentertheminhisdictionary14.

Asopposedtothefreecombinations,thesetexpressionsarenotcreatedontheneedofcommunication.Theyarefairlystableinuse.

Letuscomparethefollowingexamples:

Hinditej'sharp'andchurii'knife'combinetoformaphrasetejchurii'sharpknife'.Inthistejmaybesubstitutedbyanyotherwordlikenaii'new',puraanii'old',acchii
'good', kharaab 'bad' to form phrases naii churii 'new knife' puraanii churii 'old knife', acchii churii 'good knife', kharaab churii 'bad knife'. There is no change in the
denotational meaning of churii. In the same way the word churii may be replaced by any word like talwaar 'sword', kulhaar?ii 'axe' to form combinations tej talwaar
'sharp sword', tej kulhaar?ii 'sharp axe'. Here again, there is no change in the denotational meaning of tej in combination with these words. Not only that these two
constituentscanalsobesubstitutedbywordssemanticallysimilartotheme.g.pEnii'sharp'(pEniichurii'sharpknife')andcaakuu(pEnaacaakuu'sharp knife') and
therewillbenochangeinthetotalmeaningofthecombination.Butinmiit?hiichurii'asweetspokentraitor','acheatinfriend'sgarb'neithermiit?hiinorchuriicanbe
substitutedbyanyotherwordwhethersynonymicorsimilarfunctionallywithoutachangeinthemeaningofthephrase.Thusmiit?hiichuriiisasetexpression.

In the same way the constituent red in red flower may be substituted by blue, white or any other word denoting colour without in anyway changing the meaning of
flower. But if the word red in red tape is changed to blue or white it would mean 'a tape or ribbon of certain colour' and the total meaning of red tape 'beaurocratic
method'wouldbechanged.

Anotherdifferencetobenotedbetweenthefreecombinationandsetexpressionisregardingthesemanticrelationshipbetweentheconstituentsofthephrase.Inthe
former the relationship between the constituents of the phrase. In the former the relationship is additive. Each element has greater semantic independence. In the
lattertheinformationormeaningisnotadditive.Theconstituentsarefusedsemantically.

Besidesthese,thesetexpressionshavesomeothercharacteristicfeatures,whicharegivenbelow:

(a)Theyaregenerallyindivisible,Nothingcouldbeinsertedbetweentheme.g.

Eng.redtape,goodmorning
Hindigudar?iikaalaal.'adiamondinrags'(apreciousthinginmostshabbyquarters)
niir?kaapanchii'homesick'.
niimhakiim'aquack'
Bengalichelemaanusii'senseless'
dinduupure'inthebroaddaylight'

(b)Theycanbesubstituted,sometimes,bysinglelexicalunits,andthustheycanbecalledwordequivalents.

Eng.beinabrownstudy'begloomy'
HindicaaNdkaat?ukr?aasunder'abeauty'
calbasnaamarnaa'todie'.
caltaapurjaacaalaak'cunning'.

Thesetexpressionshavethesamefunctioninasentenceasalexicalunit.Sotheyareincludedinthedictionary.

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(10)Proverb15:Proverbsresemblesetexpressionsinmanyrespects.Theyaretraditional.Theirconstituentscannotbeinterchangednoranyelementcanbeusually
insertedinthem.Theyareusuallyformedonsetexpressions.Butcanalltheproverbsbeincludedinadictionary?Theproverbscontainmanywordswhicharenot
found in the current language. They provide information about the cultural milieu of the speech community. A bigger dictionary may include them but not all
dictionaries.Proverbsarenotlexicalunitsinthesamewaysasthesetexpressionsandthecompounds.Theyaregroupoflexicalunits.Soitdependsonthescope
ofthedictionarytoincludethem.

(11)Quotations,clichsetc.:Quotationsaredifferentfromproverbs.Theyaretakenfromliteraturebutgradually,byconstantuse,theybecomepartandparcelofthe
languageandtheirsourceisforgotten.Asamatteroffacttheproverbsthemselveshavebasicallythecharacterofrepeatedquotations.(Zgusta1971,153)Clichs
arequotationswhichhavebecome'hackneyedandstale'orstereotypes.Thequestionoftheirinclusiondependsonthescopeofthedictionary.Ageneralpurpose
dictionarymaynotincludethem.

(12)AcronymsandAbbreviations:Someoftheacronyms,abbreviationsandclippingsbecomeverymuchthepartofthelanguage.Theusualpracticeis to present
theminappendices.Butsomeabbreviationscanbepresentedinthemainbody.

Theselectionoflexicalunitsonthebasisofsocialvariationsdependsonthescopeofthedictionary.thegeneralpurposedictionariesmayincludethecolloquialisms
although normative dictionaries do not enter them. In the dictionaries using more of oral literature and unwritten texts the possibility of inclusion of colloquialism is
greaterthanthedictionarieswhicharemainlybasedonwrittenliterature16.

Similarlyadictionarywithanormativecharactermightnotincludewordspertainingtoslangs,tabooetc.,Smallerdictionariesanddictionariesforlearnersalsotonot
havescopefortheirinclusion.

Thismuchabouttheformalcharacteristicofthelexicalentries.Howtodecidethenumberordensityofentriesinadictionary?Whatarethecriteriawhichhelpinthe
selection of entries? One very common and widely accepted criterion for selection of entries is the frequency of the lexical items. Frequency counts are specially
made a basis for the selection of entries in a learner's dictionary, because they provide the vocabulary minimum criterion for selection of entries. There are many
limitationsofit.

(a) There are not many frequency counts especially in Indian languages. Whatever frequency counts are there, they are based on a very limited corpus. Many
common words are not found in them. For example in Phonemic and Morphemic frequency in Hindi some basic words like akar?naa 'to be stiff', akhaar?aa 'a
wrestlingarena'pakauraa'friedsaltishvegetablestuffedgramflowerpreparation'arenotincluded.Itdependsonthecorpusonwhichthefrequencycountisbased.
Manywordsofdailyusemaynotbefrequentandbefoundinthecorpus.

(b) For larger dictionaries, frequency counts cannot be made the basis for selection of entries from practical point of view. It will involve analysing a large and
unwieldydata.

Frequencycountmaybejudgedfromanotherpointofview.Somewordsareusedonlyonceortwicebysomeeminentwriterofalanguagewhilesomeothersmaybe
quitefrequentlyusedbylesserknownwriters,incheapperiodicalsandspythrillersetc.Whatshouldbethecriterionfortheirselectioninadictionary?itdependson
thescopeandsizeofthedictionary.anormativedictionarymaynotincludeallsuchwordsofthesecondcategory.Thereferencedictionarymaydoso.Moreover,if
onlycertainstylesarepreferredoverothersmanywordsandexpressionsmaynotfindplaceinit.

TOP

NOTES

1.Forthedictionaryofadeadlanguagethecollectionofdatamaybeoveratonestageandneednotcontinueasinthecaseoflivinglanguagesinwhichpossibilities
ofthecreationofnewwordsandmeaningsarenotclosedasinthecaseofdeadlanguages.
2.Onlytheacademicpointshavebeentakenintoconsideration.Thefinancialandorganizationalmattersarenotdiscussed.
3.FromSanskritDictionary(Poona).
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3.FromSanskritDictionary(Poona).
4. Collection of dialectal materials from novels and poems may sometimes give distorted idea of the dialectal form, since the novelist or poet (by his untrained
faculties)maycreateimitativeform,whichmaynotbethereinthedialects.
5. Samarin (1967, 61) gives the following factors which are correlated with speech diversity each of which should in some way be represented in a god linguistic
corpus,age,sexandsocialclassoroccupationofthespeaker,speaker'semotion,speedofutterance,topic,typeandstyleofdiscourse.
6.Nida(1975,178186)givesaverydetailedlistofsemanticdomainsgroupedinto4headsIEntities,IIEvents,IIIAbstractsandIVRelationalwithalargenumber
ofsubheads.
7.Differencebetweentwoormorelanguageintheirphonological,grammaticalandsemanticstructure.
8.FormeaninganddefinitionoffloraandfaunaseeChapter5.
9.Malinowskiemphasizestheroleofthreekindsofcontexts:thecontextofculture,thecontextofsituationandthecontextoflanguageforthestudyofwords(The
problemofmeaninginprimitivelanguagesinOgdenandRichards1952,305).
10.Settingofentries'headword'.
11.SeeBull,William'Theuseofvernacularlanguagesineducation'inDellHymesed.LanguageinCultureandSociety530.
12.Seealso5.2.
13.SeeIntroductiontoOxfordEnglishDictionaryforhyphenatedcompoundsp.XXXIII.
14.Somedictionariesespeciallythoseforlearnersgivefreecombinationsalso,buttheyalsodonotgiveallpossiblecollocations.
15.Aproverbisashortfamiliarepigrammaticsayingexpressingpopularwisdom,atruthoramorallessoninaconciseandimaginativeway.
16.SleddandEbbit(1962,50ff)hasanumberofarticlesonthecontroversyontheinclusionofsuchcolloquialwordsas'a'nt'intheWebster'sIII.

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