the craft of lexicography -- sense distinctions

[Frank Abate]

The theory behind sense distinctions and the approach taken by dicts has been
well treated by Patrick Hanks in various places.  The culmination of his
ideas is best represented in the UK-published dict "The New Oxford Dictionary
of English", which came out in the UK in 1998.  It is in the US in some
libraries, but is not in bookstores.  The intro to that dict treats the
approach taken in it, which is more by way of lumping senses together into
major groups than splitting into many (sometimes false, or syntactically
based) distinctions.

Frank Abate