Dictionaries and Morphology

Page 577-584
Author Janet DeCesaris
Title Dictionaries and Morphology
Abstract This paper explores the relationship between word formation and dictionary representation in general purpose monolingual dictionaries of English. The relationship between dictionary representation and morphological structure in languages with inflectional morphology, productive derivation and compounding, and conversion is complex for several reasons and varies across dictionaries. Historically, several important dictionaries of English have chosen to omit words because of their presumed transparent morphological structure. In addition, starting with dictionaries published in the latter half of the 19th century, many dictionaries of English have included affixes and combining forms as headwords, treating these ‘partial words’ in the dictionary like independent words, yet the information provided in the dictionary about the affix or combining form is often lacking from the standpoint of morphological description. The paper aims to show that while not a frequently discussed topic in current research on lexicography, the relationship between morphological structure and dictionary representation is essential to quality lexicographic products and should be reconsidered in light of digital consultation of dictionaries.
Session Full papers of plenary lectures
Keywords word-formation; inflection; derivation; affixes; compounding; English monolingual dictionaries
BibTex
@inproceedings{ELX2020_2021-060,
address = {Alexandroupolis},
title = {Dictionaries and {Morphology}},
isbn = {978-618-85138-2-2},
url = {https://www.euralex.org/elx_proceedings/Euralex2020-2021/EURALEX2020-2021_Vol2-p577-584.pdf},
language = {en},
booktitle = {Lexicography for {Inclusion}: {Proceedings} of the 19th {EURALEX} {International} {Congress}, 7-9 {September} 2021, {Alexandroupolis}, {Vol}. 2},
publisher = {Democritus University of Thrace},
author = {DeCesaris, Janet},
editor = {Mitits, Lydia and Kiosses, Sypros},
year = {2021},
pages = {577--584},}
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