Lexicography

Lexicography is an area of applied linguistics that focuses on the compilation of dictionaries (practical lexicography) and on the description of the various types of relations found in the lexicon (theoretical lexicography). This article deals with the applied linguistic features which manifest themselves in pedagogical dictionaries for foreign language learners, focusing on the use of controlled vocabulary in definitions and on the representation of grammatical information in learners’ dictionaries. Notions that are central to practical lexicography, such as lumping and splitting, or the Aristotelian distinction between ‘genus’ and ‘differentiae’ adopted by lexicographers when drafting a definition, are also discussed. The article also addresses the impact of the corpus revolution, which allows lexicographers to compile dictionary entries on the basis of linguistic evidence extracted from huge textual corpora. Sophisticated tools can now extract lists of typical collocations and various types of multi-word entries from corpora, in keeping with the Firthian principle that ‘words shall be known by the company they keep’. The semi-automatic extraction of candidate examples and definitions is also discussed.