Linguistic dictionaries may be classified according to different criteria.

1. According to the nature of the word-list all dictionaries are divided into restricted and unrestricted. To restricted dictionaries belong phraseological and terminological dictionaries (A.V. Kunin's English-Russian Phraseological Dictionary), dictionaries of new words (e.g.: John Ayto. Twentieth Century Words), dialectal dictionaries (e.g. The English Dialect Dictionary by Joseph Wright), etc. Unrestricted dictionaries contain lexical units from various spheres of life, they are unrestricted in their word-list and general in the information they contain (e.g.: The Oxford English Dictionary, The New English-Russian Dictionary edited by prof. I.R. Galperin, A.S.Hornby's The Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English, etc.).

2. The second principle according to which we classify dictionaries is the information given about each item. All linguistic dictionaries fall into two groups: general - presenting a wide range of data about the vocabulary items in ordinary use, and specialized dictionaries, those restricting themselves to one particular aspect.

To general dictionaries belong two most widely used types of dictionaries, i.e. explanatory dictionaries (e.g.: Webster's dictionaries, the Funk & Wagnalls dictionaries, the Random House Dictionary of the English Language, the New English Dictionary on Historical Principles, etc.) and parallel or translation dictionaries (e.g. the Russian-English Dictionary under prof. Smirnitsky's general direction).

Specialized dictionaries are dictionaries of synonyms (e.g.: Webster's New Dictionary of Synonyms, English Synonyms by Y.D. Apresyan), of collocations (e.g.: Kenkyusha's New Dictionary of English Collocations), dictionaries of slang (e.g.: Richard A. Spears. Slang and Euphemisms), usage dictionaries (e.g. Fowler's Modern English Usage), etymological dictionaries (the Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology by C. Onions), pronouncing dictionaries (English Pronouncing Dictionary by Daniel Jones), ideographic dictionaries (Roget's Thesaurus), etc.

3. In accordance with the language in which information is given all types of dictionaries may be monolingual bilingual and polyglot i.e. the information may be given in the same language or in another language.

4. According to the intended user we differentiate learner's dictionaries and those designed for the general public (e.g. The Thorndike-Century Junior Dictionary, Webster's New Elementary Dictionary, etc.). Learner's dictionaries began to appear in the second half of the twentieth century. The most famous dictionary for foreign learners is The Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current English by Hornby A. S., Gatenby E. V., Wakefield H.

For foreign language learners it is important to know that different aspects of the vocabulary are presented in different types of dictionaries, for example:

Thus, there are a number of different kinds of dictionaries, depending upon the purposes for which they are designed, with different propositions of data depending upon the practical needs of the intended users.

A modern dictionary is intended to give a sufficient detailed description of the English vocabulary in its present state. It can serve as a source of reference on many questions, both general and specific, pertaining to English lexicology, grammar, phonetics, style, and it can be useful to translators, teachers, students, and, in general, to all who use English in their academic and practical work.

Date: 2016-06-12; view: 195