Specialized Dictionaries Typology and Relations

Typology of specialized dictionaries 1.Syntagmatic specialized dictionaries 2.Paradigmatic specialized dictionaries 3.Restricted Dictionaries

Syntagmatic VS Paradigmatic Relations A syntagmatic relationship is the relationship with items which occur within the same construction (for example, in The cat sat on the mat, cat with the and sat on the mat). Every item of language has a paradigmatic relationship with every other item which can be substituted for it (such as cat with dog) On the lexical level, paradigmatic contrasts indicate which words are likely to belong to the same word class (part of speech): cat, dog, parrot in the diagram are all nouns, sat, slept, perched are all verbs. Syntagmatic relations between words enable one to build up a picture of co-occurrence restrictions within SYNTAX, for example, the verbs hit, kick have to be followed by a noun (Paul hit the wall, not *Paul hit), but sleep, doze do not normally do so (Peter slept, not *Peter slept the bed).

On the semantic level, paradigmatic substitutions allow items from a semantic set to be grouped together, for example Angela came on Tuesday (Wednesday, Thursday, etc.), while syntagmatic associations indicate compatible combinations: rotten apple, the duck quacked, rather than *curdled apple, *the duck squeaked.

Syntagmatic The Cat Sat On The Mat Paradigmatic His Dog Slept Uder That Table Our Parrot Perched in Its Cage

Syntagmatic specialized dictionaries They are concerned with the relationship between the lexical items and other items with which they are combined.

Example of such dictionaries: Construction dictionaries Collocation dictionaries Idiom dictionaries.

Construction dictionaries Specify for each lemma (headword) the kind of complement that are syntactically possible. They are primarily concerned with verbs and they specify the construction of nouns and adjectives.

There are mainly three types of complements: A subject complement An object complement A verb complement

1. A subject complement: It follows a linking verb. It is normally an adjective or a noun. e.g. A glacier is a huge body of ice. A glacier is beautiful but dangerous at the same time. 2. An object complement: It modifies a direct object. It can be a noun or an adjective. e.g. The convention named Dogbreath Vice President. (a noun) (The noun Vice President complements the direct object Dogbreath) The clown got the children too happy. ( an adjective) (The adjective happy complements the direct object children) 3. A verb complement: It is the direct or indirect object of a verb. e.g. Amal left Sarah all her money. ( Both money [the direct object[ and Sarah [ the indirect object[ are said to be the verb compliments of the sentence)

Collocation dictionaries Specify for each lemma (headword) what words tend to appear together with it in word combinations. e.g. keep a promise NOT hold a promise do your homework NOT make your homework make a cup of tea NOT do a cup of tea Example: Oxford Collocations Dictionary for Students of English

Idiom dictionaries Idioms are group of words in a fixed order that have a particular meaning that is different from the meanings of each word on its own. GET OUT OF HAND: when you lose control of things, they get out of hand The party got out of hand and the guests started to throw bottles at each other. GET YOUR HEAD AROUND IT: to understand something I just can t get my head around the fact that Joe is leaving us. Example: Cambridge Idioms Dictionary

Paradigmatic specialized dictionaries They are concerned with the relationship between lexical items and other items for which they can be substituted. Every item of language has a paradigmatic relationship with every other item which can be substituted for it (such as cat with dog)

This substitution may concern either the content side or the expression side: 1. Content-paradigmatic dictionaries 2. Expression-paradigmatic dictionaries

Content-paradigmatic dictionaries 1. Synonym dictionaries: They are of two types: Cumulative synonym dictionaries: they group together words having (almost) the same meaning, the user is left to choose the most suitable synonym. ( brave : courageous, plucky, fearless etc) Example: Longman Synonym Dictionary Distinctive synonym dictionaries : They provide the contexts in which each particular synonym is preferred. Example: Webster s New Explorer Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms

2. Antonym dictionaries: They are less common They are often combined with synonym dictionaries

3. Thesauri (plural of a thesaurus ) Words are grouped together according to conceptual connection, regardless of part of speech Example: Roget s Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases

Expression-paradigmatic dictionaries They may be based on the spelling or the pronunciation of words. 1. Based on spelling Reverse-order (final-alphabetical dictionaries): They are sorted according to the last letter of the word, then according to the last but one, and so on. Words that have the same endings are listed next to each other (e.g. words that have the same suffixes) (courageous, advantageous, religious) 2. Based on pronunciation Rhyming dictionaries: They group together words which endings are pronounced in the same way.

Restricted Dictionaries Technical dictionaries (terminological dictionaries) They are compiled according to principles of terminology. They deal with the technical language of a subject field (medicine, law, literature, linguistics etc. )

Class Activities.