LEXICOGRAPHY

A person devoted to lexicography is called a lexicographer.

General lexicography focuses on the design, compilation, use and evaluation of general dictionaries, i.e. dictionaries that provide a description of the language in general use. Such a dictionary is usually called a general dictionary or LGP dictionary. Specialized lexicography focuses on the design, compilation, use and evaluation of specialized dictionaries, i.e. dictionaries that are devoted to a (relatively restricted) set of linguistic and factual elements of one or more specialist subject fields, e.g. legal lexicography. Such a dictionary is usually called a specialized dictionary or LSP dictionary.

There is some disagreement on the definition of lexicology, as distinct from lexicography. Some use "lexicology" as a synonym for theoretical lexicography; others use it to mean a branch of linguistics pertaining to the inventory of words in a particular language.It is now widely accepted that lexicography is a scholarly discipline in its own right and not a sub-branch of applied linguistics, as the chief object of study in lexicography is the dictionary.

The English word idiom was itself derived from the Greek “ἰδίωμα" (idioma), which can be variously translated as peculiarity, property, or peculiar phraseology. Hence the word has come to be used to describe the form of speech peculiar to a people or country and, in a narrower sense, to the forms peculiar to a limited district, group of people, or even the technical vocabulary peculiar to a profession such as medicine, the law or any of the sciences. This narrower sense is also described by the word dialect (Gr. διάλεκτος), also of Greek origin.

A Bilingual dictionary of idioms is a work of reference, containing a wide range of idiomatic expressions in a language with proposals as to their nearest equivalents in another language; it includes a comprehensive range of phrasal and prepositional verbs, colloquialisms and proverbs, together with examples of their usage and translations or equivalent phrases in the reader’s language; and at the same time to achieve a coherent whole, both through the choice of entries and their translations.

These two aims reflect the fact that such a dictionary is rather a lexicon than a simple dictionary in its narrow meaning, and is addressed to two categories of reader.In the first place it is addressed to students, by whom idiomatic phrases may often be misconstrued or mistranslated, representing at least a barrier to achieving ease with the use of idiomatic, or natural English, and at worst, costly mistakes in school or university examinations.

A reference book of this kind is destined to provide a complementary tool for student’s studies. Coming across an English idiom he doesn’t know, he can refer to this lexicon and hopefully, as the idioms are placed within a context, find a reliable translation.The second category of reader is any citizen of the world today who, whether a student or not, finds himself more and more often in the situation of having to speak a language other than his mother tongue. And this person will find a dictionary with illustrations, words and phrases - a modern engravings of technological society; a book which he wants to carry with him (hence it must have a compact format), to leaf through and also to read, dipping into it less to verify a word than to become impregnated with a culture. The idioms are selected both for their occurrence in the language and for their “cultural reflection”.