21 - Lexicology and Lexicography

Summary

This chapter discusses ‘modern lexicology and lexicography’, as developed through the growing interaction between theoretical and descriptive approaches in lexicology, especially Explanatory Combinatorial Lexicology (ECL, Mel’čuk) and also Fillmore’s Frame Semantics. It also describes increasing focus on electronic/online resources in lexicography (e.g., LDOCE and Cobuild). It lays out basic ECL concepts and terminology for rigorous statements about e.g., ‘lexemes’ (lexical items) and ‘lexical units’ (fixed phrases, ‘idioms’) which underpin advances in the modeling of meaning and combinatorial properties of lexical units. It concentrates on lexical definitions, i.e., explanatory paraphrases of lexical units, in connection with their combinatorial properties. It also looks at ready-made phraseological combinations (idioms, collocations and linguistic clichés, such as go ahead, watch out) and valency-controlled syntactic structures.

The last sections of the chapter deal with lexicographic (and lexicological) studies in the computer age: the replacement of paper dictionaries by their electronic counter-parts, the central role played by corpora in modern lexicography, and the prospect of radically new forms of lexicography (e.g., inferencing of new lexicographic information from data in lexicological models, e.g., lexical networks). The author is, however, worried about the increasing disappearance of trained and experienced lexicographers.