[Lexicog] Newbie

[Ronald Moe]

Dear "Newbie"

As far as I know there are no online classes in lexicography. I teach
lexicography workshops and have a full set of PowerPoint presentations to go
with each lecture. The problem is that there is no script to go with them. I
am going to be working over the next few weeks/months to write out the
script for each lecture. I could send them to you as I complete them.

The best background for a lexicographer is a degree in linguistics. You
would need a good all-round program with courses in phonetics, phonology,
morphology, syntax, discourse grammar, socio-linguistics, historical
linguistics, and semantics. Lexicography draws on all of the sub-fields of
linguistics. You should concentrate on semantics and anything you can get on
corpus studies.

The other thing you can do is to read books on lexicography. I would start
with the following:

Atkins, B. T. Sue, and Michael Rundell. 2008. The Oxford guide to practical
lexicography. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Fontenelle, Thierry. 2008. Practical lexicography: a reader. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.

Goddard, Cliff. 1998. Semantic analysis: a practical introduction. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.

If you are interested in minority languages, you will also need a slightly
different perspective. A good perspective would be:

Newell, Leonard E. 1995. Handbook on lexicography for Philippine and other
languages. Manila: Linguistic Society of the Philippines.

The last thing I would recommend is that you start investigating words.
There are online text corpuses (or more properly corpora) such as:

http://www.collins.co.uk/Corpus/CorpusSearch.aspx

Perhaps someone else could recommend a better site.

Ron Moe

 

  _____  

From: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
[mailto:lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of kozmikcallie
Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2009 1:52 PM
To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Lexicog] Newbie

 

Hello! I'm a new member of the group and I have a few questions about 
lexicography. I'm very interested in working as a lexicographer but I 
have no idea how to get started. It helps that I live in the same city 
where Merriam-Webster is based, but I have some general questions that 
I hope someone can help me out with.

What are the general education requirements for a lexicographer? I have 
my Bachelor's in English, and also a teaching degree.

Also, are there any good online classes in lexicography? There aren't 
any available at the school I go to.

Thank you!

 

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