Analysing Lemmas: A Lexicographic Study of English Dictionaries

Abstract

The study is a lexicographic analysis conducted about the possible occurrence of inaccurate components (ICs) into two English dictionaries. It states how these ICs may influence the readers’ understanding of the lemmas and how the readers’ opinion about the content of the dictionary can be. The word ‘occurrence’ is used in this paper to mean ‘existence’. This study is divided into four sections. The first section is an introduction that undertakes the hypothesis, the scope, and the purpose of the study. It also defines the term ‘dictionary’ and states briefly how English dictionaries were compiled. It states the first linguistic attempts made in the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia for compiling dictionaries and how similar attempts consequently continued in other parts of the world. A literature review is also presented for the occurrence of ICs in English dictionaries. Section Two introduces the methodology followed to examine and evaluate the data of the study. Section Three is the result and discussion of the study, as it discloses, analyzes and classifies the ICs, which were observed in the dictionaries selected as sources of data for the present study. It is also an attempt to figure out the common reasons for the occurrence of ICs in dictionaries. The last section is the conclusion of the study.