Lexicography : Journal of ASIALEX

Includes bibliographical references.

Lettered words in Chinese dictionaries: a challenge for non-Romanised language -- A typology of lexicographical tools based on information needs and user types -- Authors who inspired Samuel Johnson's language use in The Rambler: an investigation of his reading sources based on a phraseological unit "of our present state".

[Article Title: Lettered words in Chinese dictionaries: a challenge for non-Romanised language / Lan Li and Qi Gong, p. 85-96] Abstract : Language use in the digital era has led to the surge of lettered words in non-Romanised languages. Some linguistic purists have concerns for these unwanted alien elements although lettered words have become a significant part of modern Chinese lexicon. Their omnipresence has also created a challenge to dictionary compilation. Although lettered words have entered Chinese dictionaries, what are the selection criteria? How can they fit into macro- and microstructures of dictionaries? This paper probed into a list of over 1000 lettered words from a recently published Chinese dictionary, analysed their origins, word class, and uses in modern Chinese together with corpus data. The findings show that lettered words are mainly used as nouns, and can also function as verbs, adjectives and adverbs. They are extensively used in different genres by different people. The challenge of including lettered words in Chinese dictionaries is also discussed. Drawing on the FUDGE factor analysis by Metcalf (Predicting new words: the secret of their success. Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, 2002), the authors suggest that the treatment of lettered words in a Chinese dictionary should have practical guidelines for selection, definition, pronunciation and usage. Frequency, unobtrusiveness, diversity of use and endurance of lettered words ought to be taken into consideration.;[Article Title: A typology of lexicographical tools based on information needs and user types / Henning Bergenholtz and Heidi Agerbo, p. 97-122] Abstract : The focus of this article is dictionary typology and the purpose of developing dictionary typologies. Our main argument is that each new dictionary concept should be conceptualised based on a typology developed specifically for that purpose, i.e., that the primary use of a dictionary typology should be the development of new lexicographical tools. A typology can also be used to describe existing lexicographical tools from a specific viewpoint, but this should not be the point of departure for developing a typology. The first section discusses the distinction between classification and typology. In the following section, we present and discuss some of the dictionary typologies and approaches to developing dictionary typologies suggested over time. In the third section, we suggest a typology of information needs as the point of departure for a typology of lexicographical tools. The fourth and final section firstly presents a discussion of the concept of lexicographical tool, and secondly, it presents an example of a function-based typology developed to be applied in the production of six planned lexicographical tools. This function-based typology is a two-step typology structured around a combination of users' information needs and user types.;[Article Title: Authors who inspired Samuel Johnson's language use in The Rambler: an investigation of his reading sources based on a phraseological unit "of our present state" / Masaaki Ogura, p. 123-132] Abstract : The present study attempts to identify some of the reading sources by which Samuel Johnson was inspired when writing his periodical, The Rambler (1750-1752). To this end, 4-grams were extracted both from The Rambler corpus and the 1710-1780 subset of The Corpus of Late Modern English Text 3.0 (CLMET 3.0). This was conducted to detect the phrases that appeared only in The Rambler and not found in the texts, as far as the corpus is concerned, that were contemporary to his collection of essays. The study exclusively focuses on the cluster "of our present state" and traces its use in the era that preceded Johnson's time using the corpus of Early English Books Online (EEBO). It was found that "of our present state" was commonly used in sermon-style or theology-related works in the 17th century, which indicates, along with the fact that Johnson was religiously committed, that Johnson obtained some inspiration from these writings.