Introducing English Linguistics

Creating word definitions.
Dictionaries contain a wealth of informa-
tion about words: their meaning(s), spelling, pronunciation, and etymol-
ogy. However, questionnaires surveying what people actually use diction-
aries for have revealed that dictionaries are consulted “mostly to find out
the meanings of words, particularly rare words” (Béjoint 2000: 152).
Because dictionaries are, as noted earlier, user-oriented, lexicographers
have developed a methodology for defining words that presents meaning
to their readership concisely and clearly.
There are various philosophies among lexicographers for defining
words. Landau (2001: 153) notes that the traditional Aristotelian notion of
definition “demand[s] that the word defined (called in Latin the definien-
dum) be identified by genus and  differentia” (italics in original). Thus, in
Merriam-Webster’s above definition, cup is a member of the class of drinking
vessels (genus) but differs from other drinking vessels because of its size
and shape (differentia). But Merriam-Webster also employs encyclopedic def-
initions: “definitions [that] are often long paragraphs that seem to aim at
giving a ‘complete’ description of the referents rather than extracting
what is essential for the comprehension of the concept” (Béjoint 2000: 51).
For instance, Webster’s Third New International Dictionary opens its definition
of the word window with a basic definition of the word: