This session was dedicated to the structure of a dictionary.

Quiz 1

What is the megastructure?
klick

What is the macrostructure?
klick

What is a semasiological dictionary?
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What is an onomasiological dictionary?
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Quiz 2 (microstructure)

How many types of lexical information can you find?

• spelling
• pronunciation
• definition
• examples
• genus information for substantives

Is the microstructure of a semasiological dictionary typically a list, a tree or a network?
a list

What kind of structure do the combined macrostructure and microstructure of a semasiological dictionary have?
The structure is a table.

Quiz 3

What is the microstructure of a dictionary?
klick

What kind of lexical information is contained in a dictionary's microstructure?

lexical information within lexical entries:
• meaning: pragmatics and semantics --> definition, examples
• structure: syntax and morphology --> words' construction, place within a sentence
• appearance: orthography and pronunciation

Describe the two dimensions of tyoes of lexical information
These are microstructure and macrostructure.

Quiz 4 (mesostructure)

How do lexical entries relate to each other?
Often entries are linked with each other, e.g. when a word that is defined in one entry appears in another.

How do lexical entries relate to text corpora?
Sometimes an example sentence is given in the definition of a particular word. This example might be an invented one but it can also be an literature example taken from a different book. So there are not only relations between different entries within the same dictionary but also relations between the dictionary and other literature.

Quiz 5

What is the mesostructure of a dictionary?
klick

Give examples of mesostructural elements concerning

• linguistic description references:

habitat bot., zo. Lebensraum m
--> use of abbreviations
(from Langenscheidts Universal-Wörterbuch Englisch-Deutsch Deutsch-Englisch, Langenscheidt KG, Berlin und München, 1997)

• cross-references between related entries
• hump Höcker m, Buckel m, ~back --> hunchback
  (from Langenscheidts Universal-Wörterbuch Englisch-Deutsch Deutsch-Englisch, Langenscheidt KG, Berlin und München, 1997)

• corpus references:
• hunchback (...) "One day, when the tailor was hard at work, a little hunchback came and sat at the entrance of the shop, and began to sing and play his tambourine."
  (taken from thefreedictionary.com)

Homework:

Take one of your dictionaries and describe in as much detail as possible its megastructure, macrostructure, microstructure and mesostructure.

Dictionary used: Langenscheidts Universal-Wörterbuch Englisch-Deutsch Deutsch-Englisch, Langenscheidt KG, Berlin und München, 1997

Megastructure:

• cover
• short list of the most important abbreviations
• table of contents (ordered according to letters, e.g. "A ------ pp. 11-26")
• title page
• table of contents (for the entire dictionary)
• information on how pronunciation, orthography differences between BrE and AmE, etc. are marked within the entries
• list of abbreviations
• entries
• appendix containing numerals, measures of length/temperature/currency, list of irregular words
• table of contents (again according to letters)
• explanation of IPA-characters

Macrostructure:
semasiological

Microstructure:

• spelling
• pronunciation
• translation
• genus/numerus
• examples for use

Mesostructure:

• links between entries
• links between entry and mini-grammar (e.g. use of abbreviations)