Anke Böttcher Eva Steinbrecher

Linguistik 1b 1.HF.: Amerikanistik (6.FS)

Semantics 2.HF.: Kunstgeschichte (4.FS)

Comparison between a Dictionary

and Roget′s Thesaurus

SoSe 2005 22.06.2005

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Content

0.

Introduction

1

1.)

Concise overview of the historical development of dictionaries

2-3

2.)

General purposes of dictionaries

3-4

2.1.)

Organization of a dictionary in detail

5-8

2.2.)

Dictionary information

8-10

3.)

What is a Thesaurus?

10-11

4.)

History of the Rogets Thesaurus

11-12

5.)

Construction and content of Rogets Thesaurus

12- 16

6.)

Conclusion

16

7.)

Works cited

17

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0.)

Introduction

What is the most likely performed action of a person who stumbles over a yet to him

unknown or unfamiliar word? It is neither the internet nor the television (which holds

plenty of information and is without a doubt the most important source in requiring

recent news) but the dictionary he will seek his information in.

In the time of globalization, the influence and significance of communicating with

humans of different speaking languages is raising. Language is first of all a means of

communication and it is no exaggeration if one is proclaiming that knowing more than

the native tongue and being at least bilingual has become a normalcy.

If we want to understand and communicate with people of other nations, we ultimately

have to learn their language and vice versa. Dictionaries provide the basic information

if it is about learning something of different languages. The importance of the

dictionary becomes evident by the fact that over 90 % of households in Britain

possess at least one dictionary, therefore making it far more popular than the Bible,

which was to be found in about 80 % of households in England in 1983, according to

the Bible Society. 1

The dictionary being referred to in this term paper is one particular type of dictionary,

namely the monolingual dictionary for the adult native speaker of English. The aim of

this work is to outline the history as well as the structure of a common dictionary.

How is it arranged, what content and information does it provide and what purposes

does it fulfil? These and other questions will be subjects of concern.

Besides dictionaries, other helpful sources exist in attaining a languages vocabulary,

phrases and synonyms. One of these excellent sources is a

thesaurus

, which will be

the subject of the second half in this term paper. Stress is being put on the history as

well as the structure and content of a

thesaurus

.

1) Robert Ilson,

Dictionaries, Lexicography and Language Learning

(Frankfurt 1985),1.

1

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1.)

Concise overview of the historical development of dictionaries

To consult a dictionary is regarded as a normalcy in nowadays modern world. This

convenience, however, is but one out of many inventions that we take for granted.

Surprisingly, the dictionary as we know it today cannot be dated back further then 350

years from now. 2 One of the earliest dictionaries known is a Latin dictionary, written

during the reign of the emperor Augustus. (23 September 63 BC ­ 19 August AD 14) The

title reads "De Significatu Verborum" ("on the meaning of words") and it was more than

once abridged.

The first monolingual dictionary of the English language was the

Table Alphabeticall

of

1604 A.D., created by Robert Cawdrey. The first version contained little more than 2543

headwords, compiled in 120 pages. Every headword was provided with a brief definition

(rarely exceeding more than a few words, usually synonyms) additionally marking those

words of French or Greek origin. While Cawdreys definitions contained little more than

synonyms the succeeding dictionary was regarded as the first one to be at all

comprehensive. The dictionary of concern is the

Glossographia

of 1656 A.D. by Thomas

Blount. It was the largest English dictionary when it was published, containing around

11,000 words. His aim, however, was not to offer a complete listing of English words but

rather to define and explain unusual terms of literature. The

Glossographia

is in many

regards outstanding: It was the first dictionary citing sources for the words being defined,

the first to include etymologies as well as the first dictionary that depicted illustrations.

This dictionary is without exaggeration groundbreaking in its kind but it does not come

close to what is known as a dictionary today. The transition from the first English

dictionaries to our modern ones is being made by the

Oxford English Dictionary

(OED).

The development of what was to become the most comprehensive record of the English

language started out as a project in 1860 in London and was not completed until 1928

A.D. The

OED

was planned as a four-volume, 6,400- page work that would include all

English language vocabulary from the Early Middle English period (1150 A.D.) onward.

When it was first published in 1928, in had expanded up to 10 volumes, containing more

than 400,000 words with some 2.5 million quotations, and was published under the

2) www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dictionary.

2

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spectacular name

A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles

. Meanwhile, a

second version of the

OED

was published in 1989, consisting of more than 20

volumes. Currently, work is being done to publish a third edition which is thought off

to be a more polished version of the preceding second edition.

Until the release of the third version, impatient people have the possibility to view the

new content via the

OED

Online version. Some hotly discussion is going on about

whether the

OED3

will ever be printed or whether it will only be available through the

medium of a computer. The

OED3

to date (May 2005) has covered the alphabet range

m ­ Papua New Guinea

.3 Online dictionaries are gradually spreading in the Net.

Although these dictionaries constantly expand in content, they only provide additional

information to a common dictionary. Therefore, online dictionaries function as an

ideal complement but not as a substitution for dictionaries.

2.)

General purposes of dictionaries

Before an outline on the structure and classification of a dictionary can be given, the

main tasks of a lexicon need to be revealed and explained first. This is due to the fact,

that the purpose of a dictionary severely influences its construction and the detailed

information being given on each single word.

So what purposes and needs of a reader does a dictionary have to match? There are, of

course, multitudes of reasons why someone is consulting a dictionary. It would be

hilarious, even with a slightly insane, if one surrenders the attempt to explain the

possible reasons for which a user is approaching the stored knowledge of a language.

Therefore, the approach cannot take place on the side of the user but only on the side

of the dictionary and the information it entails. The main purposes of dictionaries are

evident. Here, all the words of a language are stored and arranged on the basis of an

alphabetical order. Furthermore, a short definition of the word in question is being

given, escorted with remarks on usage and meaning differences that sometimes

accompany that particular word. Last but not least, a words orthography as well as

pronunciation (following in parentheses the word in question) is displayed. A typical

exertion of a dictionary can depict this foregoing description best.

3) www.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxford_English_Dictionary

3

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