Dictionaries and their types

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

• encyclopedic non-linguistic , encyclopedias)

• linguistic (philological).

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

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

• monolingual,

• bilingual and

• multilingual.

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

• general dictionaries (general dictionaries);

• subject dictionaries (subject or thematic dictionaries);

• special purpose dictionaries ( special dictionaries ).

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