What Does a Lexicographer Do?
The information someone finds in a dictionary covers not only spelling but the background and the development of the word and how it fits into its language. It is the work of a lexicographer to develop a dictionary through the study of a culture and its connection to language. Lexicographers consider grammar, context, pronunciation, connotations, history and synonyms when writing dictionaries.
-
History
-
Lexicographers have been around since ancient times, all over the world. In countries such as China, Sri Lanka, Spain, Russia, France, Ireland, England, Germany, Poland, Egypt, Kuwait and many others, lexicography in its different specialized forms has been employed. In the fifth century CE a grammarian named Hesychius of Alexandria compiled a lexicon of obscure Greek words. In China, an eleventh century historian named Sima Guang compiled a dictionary. In 1911, Henry Watson Fowler was a lexicographer who worked on the Concise Oxford Dictionary. More recently, in 2003, an English lexicographer named Susie Dent published annual Language Reports for the Oxford University Press.
Identification
-
Lexicography is separated into two main branches: theoretical and practical. Practical lexicographers are the people who write and edit dictionaries. Theoretical lexicographers figure out the best way to write dictionaries and study languages and their connection to culture. They look at a language and break it down into its various parts to see how it would fit into a dictionary.
-
Types
-
Lexicographers may specialize in their study of words. They may choose to focus on certain aspects of a language. There are also bilingual lexicographers who relate the culture and vocabulary of one language to another. There are specialist lexicographers who work on terminology dictionaries, such as law terms. This differs from what is called "general lexicography" in that only terms from a certain field of study are defined. Lexicographers can specialize in media. Some lexicographers consult with catalog companies to write advertisement titles.
Considerations
-
The definition of lexicography as opposed to lexicology is debated. Some people use the term lexicology to mean theoretical lexicography. Others used the term lexicology as a subdivision of linguistics that works with only vocabulary.
Significance
-
Without lexicographers, linguists would have a very hard time learning languages. Learning a vocabulary of a language and its connections to a culture are very important to cross cultural development. In literary works, lexicography can add depth to a story by creating a language and utilizing it in the plot. This is the kind of thing J.R.R. Tolkien used for his stories.
-
