Table Of ContentMANUAL OF SPECIALISED LEXICOGRAPHY
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ADVISORY BOARD
Jens Allwood (Linguistics, University of Gothenburg)
Morton Benson (Department of Slavic, University of Pennsylvania)
Marilyn Gaddis Rose (CRIT, Binghamton University)
Yves Gambier (Institute of Translation and Interpreting, Turku University)
Daniel Gile (INALCO and ISIT, Paris)
Ulrich Heid (Computational Linguistics, University of Stuttgart)
Eva Hung (Chinese University of Hong Kong)
W. John Hutchins (Library, University of East Anglia)
Werner Koller (Department of Germanic, Bergen University)
José Lambert (Catholic University of Louvain)
Willy Martin (Lexicography, Free University of Amsterdam)
Alan Melby (Linguistics, Brigham Young University)
Makoto Nagao (Electrical Engineering, Kyoto University)
Roda Roberts (School of Translation and Interpreting, University of Ottawa)
Juan C. Sager (Linguistics, Terminology, UMIST, Manchester)
Maria Julia Sainz (Law School, Universidad de la Republica, Montevideo)
Klaus Schubert (Technical Translation, Fachhochschule Flensburg)
Mary Snell-Hornby (School of Translation & Interpreting, University of Vienna)
Sonja Tirkkonen-Condit (Savonlinna School of Translation Studies, Univ. of Joensuu)
Gideon Toury (M. Bernstein Chair of Translation Theory, Tel Aviv University)
Wolfram Wilss (Linguistics, Translation and Interpreting, University of Saarland)
Judith Woodsworth (FIT Committee for the History of Translation,
Concordia University, Montreal)
Sue Ellen Wright (Applied Linguistics, Kent State University)
Volume 12
Henning Bergenholtz and Sven Tarp (eds)
Manual of Specialised Lexicography
MANUAL OF SPECIALISED
LEXICOGRAPHY
THE PREPARATION OF SPECIALISED DICTIONARIES
Edited by
HENNING BERGENHOLTZ
SVEN TARP
Aarhus School of Business
With contributions by
Grete Duvå, Anna-Lise Laursen, Sandro Nielsen,
Ole Norling-Christensen, Jette Pedersen
JOHN BENJAMINS PUBLISHING COMPANY
AMSTERDAM/PHILADELPHIA
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences — Permanence of
Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Manual of specialized lexicography : the preparation of specialised dictionaries / edited by
Henning Bergenholtz, Sven Tarp ; with contributions by Grete Duvå ... [et al.].
Training the translator / Paul Kussmaul.
p. cm. — (Benjamins translation library, ISSN 0929-7316 ; v. 12)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Sublanguage--Lexicography. I. Bergenholtz, Henning. II. Tarp, Sven. III. Duvå,
Grete. IV. Series.
P120.S9M36 1995
413'.028--dc20 95-19988
ISBN 90 272 1612 6 (Eur.) / 1-55619-693-8 (US) (alk. paper) CIP
© Copyright 1995 - John Benjamins B.V.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any
other means, without written permission from the publisher.
John Benjamins Publishing Co. • P.O.Box 75577 • 1070 AN Amsterdam • The Netherlands
John Benjamins North America • P.O.Box 27519 • Philadelphia PA 19118-0519 • USA
Contents
Preface 8
CHAPTER 1. Specialised Lexicography versus Terminology and
Terminography 10
CHAPTER 2. Guide to the Use of the Manual 12
CHAPTER 3. Basic Issues in Specialised Lexicography 14
3.1 Basic concepts in lexicography 15
3.2 LGP and LSP 16
3.3 Specialised dictionary functions 20
3.4 Specialised lexicography 28
3.5 The use of computers in specialised dictionary making 31
CHAPTER 4. Special Problems in Central Types of
Specialised Dictionaries 48
4.1 Monolingual specialised dictionaries 48
4.2 Bilingual specialised dictionaries 49
4.3 Bidirectional specialised dictionaries 52
4.4 Multilingual specialised dictionaries 54
4.5 Specialised dictionaries for large and small languages .. 57
4.6 Multi-field, single-field and sub-field dictionaries 58
4.7 Culture-dependent and culture-independent specialised
dictionaries 60
4.8 Law dictionaries 63
4.9 Dictionaries of economics 66
4.10 Dictionaries of science and technology 70
4.11 Product-line and group dictionaries 72
CHAPTER 5. Preliminary Work 77
5.1 User survey 77
5.2 Systematic classification 83
6 MANUAL OF SPECIALISED LEXICOGRAPHY
5.3 Material for the dictionary 90
5.4 Lexicographical instructions 96
CHAPTER 6. Selection 98
6.1 Lemma selection 98
6.2 Equivalent selection 104
CHAPTER 7. Linguistic Information 111
7.1 Grammar 111
7.2 Word combinations 117
7.3 Synonyms and antonyms 126
7.4 Linguistic labelling 131
7.5 Pronunciation 134
7.6 Examples 137
CHAPTER 8. Encyclopedic Information 143
8.1 Encyclopedic notes 143
8.2 Encyclopedic labelling 150
8.3 Encyclopedic section 154
8.4 Illustrations 159
CHAPTER 9. Structural Components 167
9.1 Contents 167
9.2 Preface 168
9.3 Introduction 169
9.4 User's guide 170
9.5 Encyclopedic section 176
9.6 Dictionary grammar 178
9.7 Word list 179
9.8 Index 181
9.9 Appendix 184
9.10 Informative label 186
CHAPTER 10. Dictionary Structures 188
10.1 Distribution structure 188
10.2 Alphabetic macrostructure 190
10.3 Systematic macrostructure 195
10.4 Microstructure 200
CONTENTS 7
10.5 Frame structure 211
10.6 Cross-reference structure 215
10.7 Access structure 219
CHAPTER 11. Further Work on the Dictionary 224
11.1 Layout 224
11.2 Proofreading 230
11.3 Revision 231
CHAPTER 12. Dictionary Criticism 232
CHAPTER 13. Perspectives 236
Bibliography 238
Dictionaries 238
Secondary literature 242
Index 250
Preface
In 1990 the Danish Research Council for the Humanities endowed a 3-year
research project entitled "translation of LSP texts". The timeframe ran from
mid-1990 to the end of 1993, and the overall leadership was in the hands of
Arnt Lykke Jakobsen. The research project was initially split up into five part-
projects, one of which was "LSP lexicography". This Manual of Specialised
Lexicography should be seen as one of the most important results of this part-
project.
As so far specialiced lexicography has had but a small share in the explosive
development within LGP lexicography since the early 1970s, the manual is
primarily intended as a contribution towards the establishment of an improved
foundation for practical LSP lexicography. Contrary to what was the case only
a few decades ago, a countless number of theoretical contributions on LGP lex
icography are available today. In comparison, however, it is possible to survey
all important theoretical literature on specialised lexicography within a short
period of time. Due to the lack of a theoretical basis, the authors of this manual
have only been able to build upon the findings of existing scholarly research as
far as a few sub-fields are concerned. A number of the issues discussed in this
manual have, at least to some extent, been taken up in practical LSP lexico
graphy, but they still lack a theoretical foundation. In addition to being the first
"textbook for would-be LSP dictionary makers", the manual has thus had to
break new ground, which must be considered unusual for a manual.
Owing to a reorganisation of the research team, we had to enter actively into
the planning and preparation of the manual in the autumn of 1992. What was at
the time seen as an imperative duty should turn out to be a very rewarding
experience. Dealing with an only inadequately developed research field and
subsequently formulating the findings for a group of users who do not have
much prior knowledge of theoretical lexicography present in several respects a
special challenge.
The design of the manual is the result of a close co-operation between the
editors. We are grateful to the following contributors for their guidance and
direction: Grete Duvå and Anna-Lise Laursen (both of the Århus School of
Business), and in particular to Sandro Nielsen (Southern Denmark Business
School, Varde) and Jette Pedersen (Århus School of Business), who has also
made the English translation. Furthermore, discussions with the members of
PREFACE 9
the LSP lexicography research team, which, in addition to the above-mentioned
colleagues from the Århus School of Business, consisted of Karin Balsgart,
Lisbeth Maidahl, Hans Kristian Mikkelsen, Bernt Møller and Morten
Pilegaard, have contributed towards improving the result. Special thanks are
due to Herbert Ernst Wiegand, whose constructive criticism of the original plan
has had a major impact on the final design of the manual, in its entirety as well
as in a number of details. Finally, we would like to thank Marie-France Pors for
having worked out the final layout.
In consideration of the overall design of the manual, the individual chapters
have been written as independent contributions by the following authors: Grete
Duvå and Anna-Lise Laursen (chapters 5.1 and 10.3), Sandro Nielsen (chapters
9, 10.2, 10.4, 10.5, 10.6 and 10.7), Ole Norling-Christensen (chapters 3.5 and
13) and Jette Pedersen (chapters 5.2 and 6.2). The remaining chapters have
been written by Henning Bergenholtz (3.2, 3.4, 5.3, 5.4, 6.1, 7, 11 and 12) and
Sven Tarp (2, 3.1, 3.3, 4, 8 and 10.1).
Henning Bergenholtz & Sven Tarp
April 1995
CHAPTER 1
Specialised Lexicography versus Terminology and
Terminography
As the title indicates, the topic of this manual is specialised, or LSP, lexico
graphy. Although neither terminology nor terminography is used in the title or
in the individual chapters, they might both have been employed without the
manual thereby becoming essentially different in terms of contents and struc
ture.
As part of general lexicographical theory and practice, specialised lexico
graphy is based on a tradition which dates back several thousand years. Thus,
the dictionaries written four thousand years ago to comment upon and explain
religions in the Middle East may be considered the first specialised diction
aries. In recent decades, the further development of lexicographical theory is
primarily due to linguists, with experts within the individual subject areas parti
cipating in the actual compilation of specialised dictionaries.
The theory and practice of terminology originates from Wüster's pioneer
work in the 1930s. Initially involving only specialists like Wüster himself, the
theoretical development of this discipline has in recent years become increas
ingly influenced by people with a linguistic background, however. Only after
1975 was terminography (ISO 1087) introduced to designate that part of ter
minology which deals with the production of terminological dictionaries.
Although traditionally LSP lexicography and terminology/terminography
differ in terms of approach, in our opinion they are not autonomous, non-inter
related disciplines, as in several respects they deal with the same subject mat
ter. We therefore do not agree with those terminologists who, in their attempt to
demarcate terminology vis-à-vis LSP lexicography, only widen the gap be
tween the latter and terminology/terminography, using arguments like:
1. Lexicography deals with the description of general-language words, whereas ter
minography concentrates on the description of LSP terms.
2. As opposed to lexicographers, who work with an alphabeticm acrostructure, termi
nologists prefer a systematic macro structure.
3. Terminology is prescriptive, whereas lexicography is descriptive.
4. The target group of terminology is the expert, whereas in lexicography it is the lay-
man.
5. While terminologists aim to help users encode texts, lexicographers aim to help
users decode them.
