Microsoft Word lexicologiya o'UM. doc

What is a dictionary?

Lexicography 
is, simply speaking, about the 
principles and practice of dictionary making. 
English pedagogical lexicography is then about the 
making of dictionaries for teaching and learning 
English, especially as a second or foreign 
language.

What then is a dictionary? Ambrose Bierce has 
jokingly defined 
“dictionary”
in his 
The Devil’s 
Dictionary as “a malevolent literary device for 
cramping the growth of a language and making 
it hard and inelastic,”
analogous to Dr Johnson’s 
definition of dictionary makers as 
“harmless 
drudges”. 

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
To explain or define the meaning of 
word is at the heart of dictionary 
making. To define a common word 
like “dictionary” is not an easy task as 
one may imagine. For it is usually the 
case that the commoner a word is, 
the harder it will be to work out an 
appropriate definition for it.
Types of Dictionaries.

There are 
encyclopedic
and 
linguistics
dictionaries. 
An 
encyclopedic 
dictionary 
gives the information of extrolinguistic world. 
It gives the information about the important 
events 
animals, 
and 
all 
branches 
of 
knowledge. They deal not with words, but 
with facts and concepts.

There are main types of dictionaries: 
general
and 
special
dictionaries. General 
dictionaries are divided into explanatory and 
parallel or translation dictionaries.

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