| Arrangement of entries in Indian Dictionaries | ||
6.1 Arrangement of Entries: The dictionary is not only a storehouse of the lexical information of a language. It is also clearing house of this information. The information should be presented in a dictionary in such a way that it is easily retrievable. The entries in a dictionary should, therefore, be arranged in such a way as to enable the reader to find the information quickly and correctly. It would be impractical to present the entries in a completely haphazard manner. This would "squarely defeat the very purpose of a reference work". (Malkiel 1967, 18) "A good dictionary therefore", as Mary Hass (1967. 41) remarks, "is one in which you can find the information you are looking for preferably in the very first place you look. Nothing could be sillier than the silly assumption, for too commonly encountered, that it is somehow good for the soul of the user if he has to work hard for what he is looking for".
6.2. Types of Arrangement: The order of the entries is different in different types of dictionaries. The criterion for their arrangement is based on the formal shape and the semantic content of the lexical units. There are basically three types of arrangements of entries in dictionaries viz. alphabetical, based on the formal shape of the lexical unit; semantic, based on the semantic content of the lexical unit; and casual, which is mixture of the two or a general arrangement.
6.3 Alphabetical arrangement: Of these arrangements, the alphabetical arrangement, though a late arrival in the lexicographic practice, especially in the Indian context, is so very dominant that many reference materials like catalogues, mailing lists, dictionaries etc. are associated with it by the general reader.
As noted earlier (2.0) many works other than a dictionary are also called dictionaries because they follow alphabetical order1. in this order the initial letter of a word is considered first, if they are identical the second letter is taken up, if it is also the same the third one, so on and so forth. In English marital adj. 'of a husband…' and maritime adj. 'connected with sea or navigation' as the first five letters are identical the order of entries is decided by the sixth letters are identical the order of entries is decided by the sixth letter. Similarly in Hindi kapat? 'fraud' and kapr?aa 'cloth' as the first two letters are the same the third letter is taken into consideration.
The arrangement of entries in alphabetical order presents problems of the following type especially for the dictionaries of Indian languages.
(a) Where either new symbols are adopted or the existing alphabets are modified to represent the sounds for which there are no symbols either in the existing script or in the script being adopted for the language if it is an unwritten language. Tones in Tibeto Burman language, glottal stop in Khasi (using Roman alphabet), implosives in Sindhi and some sounds in borrowed words in Hindi, Punjabi and other Indo Aryan languages present such problem. What should be their order of arrangement?
(b) Where there is a discrepancy in the traditional alphabetical order of the language and the traditional lexicographical arrangement of these alphabets in entries. Anusvaara (am"), r?, ks?, tr and jñ present such problem. am, r? occur at the end of the vowels but in the dictionaries they are given earlier, am before oral vowels and r? before e, o etc. ks?, tr, jñ. Are similarly given with k, t, and j, respectively in the dictionary, although they are the last three consonants of the alphabet.
As for the first problem, it may be argued that the new symbols even if they are modifications of some alphabets, are given at the end of the alphabet. But as the user of a dictionary is accustomed to a set alphabetical system and its shape and sequential order it will be difficult for him to look for some entries after all the alphabets are exhausted. In such cases the modified alphabets should be given after the one on which they are based. eg. Sindhi, fricative ?and implosive ? can be given after ?.
It may also be suggested that the new symbols are given with the symbols which are phonetically close to them. ?, q may be given with k2.
For the second problem although the disturbance of the alphabetical order may create some initial difficulties the lexicographical traditions should not be ignored. For arrangement of entries in alphabetical order the lexicographer should keep the following in view:
(1) Whatever be the system adopted it should be clearly stated and repeated as often as possible.
(2) A complete list of alphabets in sequential order as adopted by the lexicographer for his dictionary should be given in the front matter of the dictionary. Any alteration or addition in the traditional order the script should be described clearly.
(3) The phonetic values of the graphemes and their behaviour in isolation, in different environments and in combinations should be discussed prominently in the Reader's guide. In case of difficulties they may be displayed at the bottom of the page or some other obvious place in the dictionary pages.
6.4 Semantic or ideological arrangement: The semantic arrangement is followed in the dictionaries of synonyms, ideological dictionaries i.e. the dictionaries which arrange their matter according to concept, thematic groups and semantic fields "in a semantic link under specific ideas which themselves are classified by objective world phenomena" (Katre 1965.50). This arrangement has been quite in vogue in the Indian lexicographical tradition. From Nighan?t?u to the earlier koshas and the nighan?t?us in Indian languages, prior to the introduction of alphabetical order, there is a long list of such words.
In the dictionary of synonyms the arrangement is done by the set of synonyms. The dominant or the neutral word of the set is selected as the head word and other synonymous words are given with it. The entries are arranged either in the alphabetical order or according to subject fields. e.g. beautiful adj. beautiful, lovely handsome, pretty, bonny, comely, fair, beauteous, pulchritudinous, good-looking.
Whenever these words occur at their alphabetical places a cross reference is made to the main word and the other synonyms are also given there. e.g. lovely beautiful, fair, comely, pretty, bonny handsome, beauteous, pulchritudinous, good-looking.
In the dictionaries basing their arrangement on semantic field or thematic group the words belonging to one group are given at one place. An interesting example is C.D. Buck's A dictionary of selected synonyms in the principal Indo-European languages where the lexical units are arranged under 22 subject fields.
In the ideographical dictionaries the entries are arranged according to the concept. Roget's Thesaurus and Amarakosa are classical examples of such dictionaries.
6.5 Other arrangement: another arrangement also quite well-known in the Indian lexicographical traditions is based on morphological criterion. In the derivative dictionaries the lexical items are arranged according to the family of words derived from the same root. Here the root words or base forms are selected as the head word and the derivatives and phrases and idioms formed from them are given as sub-entries or run-ons. All of these, the roots, the sub-entries and run-ons are arranged in alphabetical order.
The arrangement of entries in the dictionaries of phrases and idioms and proverbs follows the alphabetical order, which is determined by the first component of the entry.
Hindi muskil meN par?na 'to fall in trouble'
Bengali gaache kaat?aal goNphe tel' expecting result before the beginning of the work'.
In case, the component other than the initial one also contains equal semantic load, the phrase or idiom could be given an entry under this word also with a cross reference to the one which occurs earlier, e.g.
kaat?naa baat~ 'to interrupt'.
baat ~ kaat?naa 'to interrupt'
see kaat?naaIn the frequency count dictionaries the order is usually alphabetical. The number of frequency is given against the entry word. Sometimes words are arranged according to the degree of their frequency. The more frequent words are given first followed by less frequent ones in descending order.
In the reverse dictionaries the arrangement is alphabetical although not based on the initial letters. The final letters of the lexical units are taken into consideration for alphabetical ordering. This system has a great advantage in so far as it presents similar derivatives and inflected forms at one place. Words of the same grammatical categories are available at one place which could help the text book writers and other engaged in material production.
It can be seen from the above that the alphabetical order is followed in larger number of dictionaries, in some directly in others indirectly, because it is most convenient for locating words for every type of user.
Even in the dictionaries where strict alphabetical order is not followed an alphabetical order can be given in appendix to help the reader to find the word easily. Roget's Thesaurus follows this.
The other order based on the semantic criterion where the words are arranged in clusters of identical concepts or notions is no less advantageous.
It presents at one place different types of information depending on the type of the dictionary e.g. synonyms, derivatives, frequency etc. Besides helping the creative writers in finding the words they require, it is also useful for the writers who are preparing textbooks and other materials like manuals etc.
The other arrangement viz. casual is not based on any criteria. Indexes to critical texts, historical grammars, and other linguistic studies are some type of dictionaries with casual arrangement of entries.
In some dictionaries dealing with lexical units of more than one language, e.g. etymological and comparative dictionaries, the entries are numbered. The lexical units are given in appendix in alphabetical order with the indication of the entry number e.g. Dravidian Etymological Dictionary, Comparative Dictionary of the Indo Aryan Languages.
6.6 Arrangement of Homonymy: The usual lexicographical practice of the arrangement of homonyms is to give separate entries for each word, number them as 1,2 either as superscript or give the number before or after them and describe each entry separately3. The numbering of homonyms has a practical usefulness for a lexicographer. While he gives cross reference to any homonymous word he can give the word with number and thus refer to the specific word otherwise he will have to describe the word by its meaning or grammatical category or any other suitable information, at the place of cross reference.
Some dictionaries do not follow this system and give them under one entry. Separating the senses according to their grammatical categories, if they belong to the separate grammatical categories, or giving the meanings separately under the same entry, if the grammatical categories are the same. The separation is done sometimes by using new paragraphs. This practice is usually followed by abridged dictionaries but sometimes even larger dictionaries follow them, e.g.
Hindi magar n. 1. ghar(iyaal ‘crocodile’
2. machlii ‘fish’
adv. (pers) 1, lekin. Parantu, ‘but’
gaur adj. 1. goraa ‘white’
m. 1. laal rang ‘red colour’
m. (Arabic γ aur) 1. soc vicaar ‘consideration’
(Manak Hindi Kosh)
English
season n. 1. r(tu, mausam etc.v. 1. namakmicraa milaanaa, chauNkanaa(Bulcke)
Telugu podi n. ‘An udder’, ‘weight’
v. ‘To become a crowd’ ‘to assemble’ (Brown)
Marathi kaam n. ‘an action or act’, ‘a deed’
m. ‘lust or carnal desire’
(Moles-worth)Marathi dadapana n. 2. (fig.) ‘curb’, ‘check’ ‘control’
Hindi carit (vyangya) karanii, karatuut ‘work’, ‘deed’
Russ. kruto 3. (coll) ‘sternly’, ‘severely’,
Malayalam kut(am 5. (jyo) kumbham raaśi, ‘acquarius’ ‘sign of the zodiac’.6. (śilpa) ‘the spherical capital of a pillar’
7. (aayur) ‘a swelled scrotum’
This system is quite commendable in so far as it saves some space especially for dictionaries which have severe restrictions of space. But this may create some difficulties for a foreign learner who is likely to commit mistakes in identification.
Some dictionaries do not separate entries of homonymous and polysemous words and give all the meanings related or otherwise under one entry. in such dictionaries there always a danger of the creation of what is called 'illegitimate nesting'
(see 6.7)
What should be the order of entries of the homonyms? There are generally two ways to treat them in dictionaries.
(1) Some dictionaries like Oxford English Dictionary and Hindi Sabda Sagar present the entries in fixed order of the grammatical categories.
OED bank sb1 ‘a raised shelf or ridge of ground etc………..’
bank sb2 ‘ a long sheet etc. ……’
bank sb3 ‘ money dealer’s table, counter, shop……..’
HSS magar1 n. ghar(iyaal naamak prasiddha jaljantu ‘a well known aquatic animal of the name crocodile’.
magar2 adv. lekin ‘but’
If a lexicographer decides to do so he may do it but for the benefit of the user he should indicate this in the front matter of the dictionary.
(2) In many dictionaries the world in the more common and frequent meaning is given first followed by the words with less common and frequent meanings. Most of the English dictionaries follow this system.
corn 1. n. (U) (collective) ‘seed of various grain plants chiefly wheat, barley, oats, rye………..’
corn 2. n. ‘small area of hardened skin of the foot…….’
corn 3 vt. ‘preserve (meat) in salt’. (Hornby)
(3) Another way of ordering the homonymous words is found in the following entries from Tamil Lexicon
akkam1 ‘grain’
akkam2 ‘rope, ‘cord’
akkam3 ‘eye’
The first two are native Dravidian words and the third is a borrowing. Giving the indigenous words first and then the borrowed words is a practice followed by Malayalam Lexicon also. A similar method may be suggested for the arrangement of tadbhava and tatsama words also, the former may be given earlier.
Then comes the problem of the ordering of the partial homonyms (described as polysemous words by some), words belonging to separate grammatical categories but having related meanings. e.g. Eng. take v., take n. Hindi godnaa n. 'tatoo', godnaa v. 'to tatoo':
There are three ways of arranging them in dictionaries;
(1) To give separate entries for each grammatical category e.g.
Eng. drink vt. & i. 1. 'to take liquid in the mouth and swallow'.
drink n. (U & E) 1. 'Liquid for drinking' (Hornby)This is the order in COD, Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, Honrby's The Advanced Learner's Dictionary etc.
(2) To give one single entry, but change the number of meanings when the grammatical category changes e.g.
Hindi kaanaa adj. 1. ‘one eyed’……..
m : 1. ‘the sign of aa (T) used with letters’,
Manak Hindi Kosh.
3) To give all the meanings, irrespective of the grammatical categories of the lexical unit in general number. e.g. run in Random House Dictionary. But after each grammatical category the paragraph is changed. Here again comes the problem as to what should be the order of the grammatical categories. The lexicographer may choose the method of giving a fixed order of the grammatical categories, giving nouns first, then verbs, followed by adjectives etc.
e.g. OED cut sb. I-VIII meanings with 34 subsenses
cut2 vt. I-VII meanings with 36 subsenses.
cut3 pple, a I-II meanings with 12 subsenses.
Any other arrangement may also be adopted.From practical point of view, the following method may be more useful. When a word occurs in more than one grammatical categories one of them is primary and the other s derived or secondary e.g. Eng. drink and drop. In drink the primary meaning is that of a verb. The noun is a derived grammatical category. In drop the primary meaning is that of a noun, the verb is derived from it. This may be further extended to other cases like cut which has another meaning of an adjective.
In all these cases the primary grammatical category should be given first allowed by the derived grammatical category.
drop1 n. 1. ‘very small quantity of liquid, usu, round or pearl shaped’.
dorp2 vt. & i. ‘fall’, ‘cause to fall in drops’.
run1 vt & i ‘move with quick steps, faster than when walking.,
run2 n. ‘act of running’
Hindi godnaa v. ‘to tatoo’
godnaa n. ‘tatoo’
gaanaa vt. ‘to sing’
gaanaa n. ‘the act of singing’
6.7 Arrangement of the meaning of polysemous words: It has been an intricate problem whether to treat the polysemous words in one entry with all its meanings and sub meanings under it or give separate entries of the words for each of its meanings. the latter view is held by those who believe that once a word develops a different meaning it ceases to be the same word. This is the view of Shcherba but himself never followed it in his dictionary. (Srivastava 1968, 116).
The general lexicographic practice adheres to the former view. It has two advantages from practical point of view:
(1) It helps reduce the unnecessary repetition of some information like pronunciation, grammatical categories etc. with the entries with all the meanings of a polysemous word. For example if the Random House Dictionary gives separate entries for all the 178 meanings of run the pronunciation and grammatical categories will have to be written as many times and the whole process would consume a lot of time and much of the valuable space4.
(2) It helps the reader understand clearly the interdependence and inter-relationship of the various meanings in the semantic structure of a word.
in this system the different meanings of the lexical unit given under it are marked usually with Arabic numberals. The sub-meanings of a meaning, if any, are given under that particular meaning, a further sub-meaning of the sub-meaning is given under that sub-meaning. All the meanings, sub-meanings etc. are marked suitably by different numeral or symbols. (See Chapter 7) In the abridged and smaller dictionaries the senses are not usually numbered, but are separated by some other devices. Generally the main meanings are separated by semicolons and the sub-meanings by commas. In some dictionaries slanting lines are used. e.g.
Bengali pratijñaa n. sankalpa ‘determination’, dr(d(hpan, ‘firm promise’; śapath ‘oath’, angiikaar ‘acceptance’
English nature n. ‘the power that creates and regulates the world; the power of growth; the established order of things; the cosmos, the external world, esp. as untouched by man; the qualities of anything which make it what it is; …………’
Sanskrit aśva m horse, stallion; Rv. etc., ; the horse (in the game of chess); the number ‘seven’ (that being the number of the horses of the sun). (Monier-Williams)The next problem is about the number of meanings and the order in which they are to be given in a dictionary. How many meanings of a polysemous word are to be given in a dictionary? This is largely determined by the size and purpose of the dictionary. A bigger dictionary may give all the possible meanings with all its subsenses whereas a smaller dictionary cannot do so. For example the Random House Dictionary (unabridged) gives 178 meanings of the word run. The abridged edition gives only 134. a still smaller dictionary might give further lesser number of meanings. Honrby has only 28 main meaning of run plus some with adverbs and prepositions in special use.
Hindi Sabda Sagar gives 21 meanings of the word paanii 'water' but the one volume Samks?ipta Hindi Sabda Sagar gives only 17. it does not give the meanings in collocations.
For a dictionary of technical terms only one, the specialized meaning, need be given. For example in a Dictionary of Geography, there is no need to give different general meanings of the word bed. The following definition would suffice5.
'A layer or stratum of rocks, usually a feature of the deposition of sedimentary rocks, divided from the layers above and below by well-defined bedding planes'……..
For learner's dictionaries especially for the beginners the number of meanings to be given need not be as many as required for a general purpose dictionary. Only those senses of the words which are common and are likely to occur in texts for that age group can be given. The English word head has 20 meanings.
Out of these meanings only those which are more frequent. General and common can be given e.g. 'that part of the body which contains the eyes, nose, mouth and brain', 'ruler', 'chief', but it will serve no useful purpose to give such meanings as follows:
(1) 'body of water kept at certain height', or
(2) 'foam or liquid that has been poured out, especially liquor'.Similarly for Hindi paanii the general meaning of 'a liquid, transparent, smell less and tasteless……' with a few of its idiomatic uses may be more useful than listing all the 21 meanings with many idiomatic uses.
For historical and exegetic dictionaries there is no such problem, because they register all the possible senses in which a word has been used in the corpus.
As for the order of the single senses of a polysemous word, there is no generally agreed principle which can be applied for ordering meaning in all the dictionaries. As Ianucci (1967, 204) puts it, "various arrangements are possible, the determining factor being for whom the dictionary is intended and for what use or uses it is intended".
These are three possible ways in which the meanings of polysemous words can be arranged in a dictionary:
(1) According to the historical development of the meaning, i.e. historical order. Here the meanings are arranged in a chronological order. The etymological meaning is given first and other meanings in order of their appearance in the language. This order is generally, but not exclusively, found in historical dictionaries.
(2) According to the frequency of the meaning i.e. the most frequent meaning being given first followed by the less frequent meanings. This order is most widely followed and is termed the empirical or actual order.
(3) According to the logical connection of the words i.e. the logical order. Here the meanings are arranged according to their logical connections. This order may or may not correspond to the historical order.
Besides these the arrangement of entries also depends, to a greater degree, on lexicographer's own knowledge of the language. A meaning with which the lexicographer is most familiar may be given first by him.
But the order of meanings need not necessarily be uniform for all the words in a dictionary. It is neither necessary nor relevant. The arrangement depends more or less on the semantic structure of the individual word. For some words the etymological meaning may be given first, for other s the most frequent, while for other the logical order may be preferred.
Dictionaries do not follow a definite principle for arrangement of meanings as can be seen from the entries given below.
Hindi aaNc has the following meanings in Manak Hindi Kosh and Hindi Sabda Sagar.
Manak 1. fire, 2. the flame of the fire, 3. heat coming from the fire, 4. the act of cooking on the fire, 5. a trouble or loss of some type, 6. some painful or harmful thing or talk, 7. an intense feeling of some sentiment, 8. misfortune, 9. love, 10. lust, sexual desire.
HSS 1. heat, 2. the flame of fire, 3. fire, 4. heat, overflow of passion, 5. glow, splendour, 6. shock, impact, 7. loss, 8. misfortune or calamity, 9. love, 10. lust.
The meanings can be presented in a comparative table as the following:
Manak
HSS
1
3
2
2
2
1
4
-
5
7
6
6
7
4
8
8
9
9
10
10
Here we find that HSS follows the empirical order, 'heat', the most frequent meaning, is given first. Manak does not follow this. It appears to follow the logical order in the arrangement. The etymological order does not appear to have been followed by any of the two dictionaries. aaNc is derived from archin which means 'flame of the fire' the second meaning in both the dictionaries.
We may examine an entry from English dictionaries -
English table : Webster's Collegiate Dictionary
1. tablet,
2. one of the two leaves of the back gammon board or either half,
3. a piece of furniture consisting of smooth flat slab fixed in legs,
4. string course,
5. a systematic arrangement of data usually in rows or columns for ready reference,
6. the upper flat surface of a precious stone.COD.
1. article of furniture etc.,
2. part of machine tool on which work is put to be operated,
3. slab of wood stone,
4. matter written on it,
5. level area, plateau,
6. arch,
7. flat surface of gem, cut gem with two flat faces,
8. palm of hand,
9. each of the two bony layers of skull,
10. list of facts, numbers etc. systematically arranged in columns.Chamber's
a slab or board,
a layer,
flat surface,
a board for painting on,
a picture,
a writing tablet,
a board for a game e.g. chess,
a board flat surface on a cut gem,
a tabular crystal,
an article of furniture consisting of a flat top on legs, pillar or trestles for use of meals etc.
a condensed statement, a syllabus or index,
a compact synoptic scheme of numerical information.Here COD gives the most frequently used meaning first. The other dictionaries do not follow this order.
For a general purpose dictionary, perhaps, the empirical order would be the most suitable. The meanings logically connected may be given together. In this process a meaning even if it has developed much later may be given first. Some of the meanings of a Hindi word and their order is given below:
kraanti. n. f. 1. kadam rakhnaa 'to keep step, speed', 'go ahead'
2. kissi grah kaa apakraman?a, 'the movement of a planet'
3. ek dasaa se duusrii dasaa me bhaarii parivartan ' a great change from on condition to the other'.Here the third meaning may be treated as the first by some scholars because of the greater frequency it has attained in the present socio-political situations.
In Manak Hindi Kosh the word dhvaj has the following meanings (only a few of them are given here) as given in the order below.
(1) baaNs aadi kii tarah koii lambii siidhii lakr?ii 'some long straight stick like bamboo or other things',
(2) vah d?and?aa jiske sire par kapr?aa lagaakar jhan?d?aa banaayaa jaataa hE. 'that rod on whose top a cloth is fixed to make a flag'. 3. 'flag'.From empirical point of view the third meanings should be given the first.
Even in a historical dictionary the etymological meaning is not necessarily the first one. Some derived meaning might occur earlier in the language or might be more frequent at an earlier period of the language. The etymological meaning might appear at a subsequent stage.
The order of meanings in a learner's dictionary differs from that a general purpose dictionary. In these dictionaries the meaning given first is not the oldest on record but one which can be 'fittest to act as a semantic fountain head'. The following principle formulated by Thorndike might prove to be most use full for such dictionaries, 'other things being equal literal uses come before rare and easily understandable uses before difficult, to sum up that arrangement is the best which helps the learner most'.
6.8. Nesting: In order to save some space and make the dictionary more compact, the lexicographer uses two devices viz, 1. by reducing space in the entry by contracting the quantum of information in the entry and 2. by referring the entry to some other entry in the dictionary. The former method is called nesting and the latter cross reference. Cross reference has already been discussed.
In nesting the lexical units having derivational and semantic relations are brought together. The main item carrying the basic form and meaning and recurring in all the derivative forms is given as the head word and its derivatives and compounds and idioms are nested with it. This is done by using an em dash or a swung dash in place of the recurring morpheme and placing the nested item after it. In compounds and set expressions the nested item is put even before it. Some typographical specification is adopted to indicate it clearly. Usually some other types of letters (Italics or bolder letters) are used for them. The nested entry is called a sub-entry or a run-on. Sometimes the whole derivative is given without a tilde or a dash.
e. g. Eng. apple n. (tree with) round fruit with firm, juicy flesh and skin that is red or yellow when the fruit is ripe… 'the ~ of one's eye, 'sb. Or sth dearly loved'.
bilateral adj. of, or with two sides ~ly adv. ~is n…
Hindi
chaatii n. ‘breast’, ‘chest’. ~jalnaa ‘to be under the spell of grief
kaat(naa v. ‘to cut’ vakta~ ‘to while away’, ‘to gleece’.
paat(h n. ‘lesson’, ‘text’; ~bhed ‘different reading’.
basaanaa v. ‘to inhabit’ ghar~ ‘to settle the family’.
Skt. arun(a adj. red ~netra ‘red eyed’.
dadhi n. ‘curd’ ~saara ‘butter’.
Vamśa –n. ‘family’ ~dhara ‘child’.
A thorough knowledge of the morphological structure of the language is a prerequisite for a proper and methodical system of nesting of the entries. The morphemic boundaries should be understood clearly. Wrong morphological segmentation leads to the creation of illegitimate nesting6 e.g.
7mole ‘a mark’. ‘an animal’. ~cular.
ghar-gharaana n. ‘family or clan ~hat( n. snorting from ghargharaanaa’ ‘to short’.
When homonyms and polysemous words are given under one entry without any proper order or indication of meanings a confusion is apt to be created and the nested item may be related to one or the other meaning although some of it may not be related.
This also produces illegitimate nesting.H. daad n. ‘ring worm’, ‘shingles’. ‘vocal appreciation, ‘praise’ ~ denaa ‘to give due praise’.
adaa n.’coquetry’, ‘blandishment’, graceful manner or carriage’ performance’ ~kaar ‘an actor’ ~karnaa ‘to pay’, ‘to fulfil jall n. ‘a net’ ‘net work’, ‘mesh’ snare’, ‘plot’, ~saaj ‘forgerer’.For polysemous words nesting should be done with all their senses and subsenses separately. If all the meaning are listed in the beginning and the nested items are shown later on it will be difficult for the reader to correlate the nested elements with different meanings of the entry word.
H. KaaNt(aa n. 1. ‘thorn’ ~bichaanaa ‘to pave somebody’s way with thorns’.
2. ‘obstacle’ ~bonaa ‘to sow seeds of distress’.
3. ‘balance’ ~meN tulnaa ‘to be costly’.
Bengali
jaaygaa n. 1. ‘place’ daar(aaibaar ~ ‘standing place’
2. ‘condition’ lobher ~ ‘the condition of greed’
3. ‘land’ ~kenaa ‘to buy land’.
Eng. length n. 1) ‘measurement form end to end at ~ ‘for a long time’; at full ~ ‘with the body stretched out and flat’
2. ‘degree of thoroughness in action go to the ~of saying
It is quite likely that sometimes the alphabetical order is disturbed in nesting. Eng. clean 'free from dirt' has two derivatives with -ly, one is an adverb and the other an adjective. The adjective has another derivative cleanliness. In a proper arrangement of entries the two grammatical categories should be separated so that the proper of derivation is indicated. So the entries would be as follows:
cleanly adj. 'careful to keep clean', cleanliness n.
cleanly adv. 'in a clean manner'The proper alphabetical order would be cleanliness n. and cleanly adj. and adv.
In another example of green, greenness and greenery the same kind of disturbance in alphabetical order may be noticed. A dictionary would arrange them as
green adj.1. 'of the colour between blue and yellow in the spectrum'.
~ness n. ‘quality of being green’.
greenery n. ‘green foliage, verdure’. The normal alphabetical order should be green, greenery and greenness.
Nesting is widely use, and beneficially too, for compounds and set expressions. e.g.
Hindi
baat n. ‘talk’, ‘discourse’ ~kaat(naa ‘to intervene’
~bar(haanaa ‘to make a affair of’
kaat(naa v. ‘cut’ baat ~’to intervene’ vakta ~ ‘to pass, mark time’.
English
line n. ‘long narrow mark made on the surface life ~ ‘line of life ‘fortune’ etc.
sex n. ‘either of two divisions of organism distinguishing respectively as male and female’. ~appeal ‘personal appeal or physical attractiveness for members of the opposite sex’ fair ~ ‘women’.
Nesting is commonly followed in smaller dictionaries. Bigger dictionaries generally do not follow nesting. e.g. Hindi Sabda Sagar and Manak Hindi Kosh. In some dictionaries the derivatives are nested at the end of the entry, e.g. The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary.
What should be done with such derivative as Skt. paarthakya <pr(thak and saahacarya<sahacara. As they are derivationally connected, it may be argued that paarthakya may be nested with pr(thak and saahacarya with sahacara. Such problems are in plenty in inflexional languages. If nesting is done the reader looking at paarthakya at its proper alphabetical place might be in a difficulty to find it with pr(thak. In such cases, it would be advisable to give separate entries for them.
In highly inflectional languages with quite a large number of highly productive prefixes the number of derived lexical units may be infinitely large. If all these derivatives are nested the entry would become very large and unwieldy. Sometimes, the reader would have to turn pages to find the main lexical unit and its derived forms. Monier Willaiam’s Sanskrit English Dictionary presents a large number of examples of such nesting. although from derivational point of view it is quite commendable, from practical point of view, an entry should not be unwieldy.
Besides space saving, nesting has another practical advantage. It provides the reader the possible derived forms and set expressions from a lexical item, which helps him understand the interrelationship of the words and develop his vocabulary. The reader can understand the meanings in a better way by looking at the lexical unit and its derivative as a combined whole of the word formation.
6.9 Sub-entries: A sub-entry is a part of the main lexical entry given usually in reduced form under the same lexical entry. It carries meaning, examples, labels etc. like the general lexical entries. The sub-entry is nested with the main entry. e. g.
eng. break vt. ~off 9a) (vp 23) ‘stop speaking’
Hindi baat n. ‘talk’ ~kaat(naa ‘to interrupt’.
Bengali jor adj. ‘high’, ‘sttrong’ ~kapaal n. ‘the favour of luck’ ~julum n. ‘using force’.
As already noted (6.3) with polysemous words, the sub-entries are given for all the different meanings separately.
Sub-entries are more commonly used incase of idioms and phrases and even proverbs etc. In some dictionaries the sub-entries for idioms, and proverbs etc. are separated form the main entry and sub-entries for derivatives and compounds, by some other device usually by a rhombus □8 e.g. buddhi ‘mind’ ‘sense’ sahaj~ normal sense’ □ ke piiche laat(hii liye phirnaa ‘to be against sense’~ maarii jaanaa ‘to loose sense’.
6.9.1 Run-on Words.
they are also parts of the same lexical entry and are like sub-entries. But meanings or labels are not given in run-on because they are clear from the meaning of the main lexical items. The run-on words are usually formations on regular productive patterns e.g. English assertive adj. ‘having or showing positive assurance’ –ly. adv.promotion. ~block, ~cadre, ~examination, ~profits, ~zone etc.
6.10 Arrangement of entries in Indian Dictionaries:
The arrangement of entries in the dictionaries of Indian language, especially Sanskrit, was generally based on semantic principles, although the grouping of words according to their parts of speech was also followed at the same time. In Nighan(t(u and , later on, in amarakośa and other dictionaries the entries are arranged according to the semantic groups either in synonyms or in words of the same conceptual field. homonymous and polysemous words are grouped together. The Nighan(t(u was written in prose.As in other branches of knowledge the need for memorizing for transmission of texts through oral tradition was perhaps responsible for the compilation of most of the dictionaries in Sanskrit, Prakrit and many earlier dictionaries of Modern Indian Languages in verses. Only a few dictionaries of Sanskrit, the most notable among them being Vern,adeśanaa, are written in prose. The dictionaries are written usually in anus(t(up metre. But some dictionaries like Abhidhaanacintaaman(I of Hemacandra use different metres also. In some dictionaries like Naanaartha Kośa (Anekaartha samucaaya) of Śaaśvata the meanings of polysemous words are arranged in full verses (ekaślokaatmaka), half verses (ardhślokaatmaka), and quarter verses (paadaatmaka).
The dictionaries generally arrange their entries into homonymous, polysemous and synonymous groups but some like Haaraavalii of Puruśottama give a class of monosemous (ekkarthya) words also.
Words, especially the homonymous and polysemous ones, have been further grouped into one syllable (ekaaks(ara), two syllables (dvyaaks(ara), three syllables (trayaaks(ara), up to seven syllables in Viśvaprakaaśa of Maheśvara. The words are also grouped according to genders.
Some type of alphabetical arrangement is found in these dictionaries, especially for homonymous and polysemous words. In the Naanaartha section of Amarakośa words are arranged according to their final syllables e.g. kaanta, khaama etc. This practice is found in many dictionaries. The first dictionary which arranges the words in alphabetical order of the initial syllable is the Vaijayantiikośa of Yaadava Prakaaśa (between 1055 to 1337). But it arranges the homonymous and polysemous words up to first syllable only.
Mention may be made of the dictionaries of numerals, Sanketakośas which enumerate different objects associated with a particular number as the r(s(is, avataaras etc. They became popular in the later period.
The earlier dictionaries of Hindi were in verses and they grouped their words in the three categories viz., synonyms, polysemous words and Nagari alphabet meanings.
In Tamil the earlier lexicons, Tivaakaram bring the oldest are in Suutra form.
Later dictionaries like Nikant(u Cuut(aaman(i, are in verse form. The earliest attempt to arrange the entries in alphabetical order is found in Akaarati Nikan(tu of chidambara Revana Siddhar (c. 1549 A.D.). But this arrangement is limited only in regard to the initial syllable. Ordering of entries up to first two syllables is found in Potikainikan(t(u of Swaminatha Kavirayar (1750 AD). The arrangement according to the last syllable is also not unknown.The alphabetical order as generally used as generally used now in the dictionaries of Indian languages has come into vogue with the beginning of the Western contact and preparation of bilingual dictionaries by European scholars.
NOTES
1. The alphabetical order is the etymological basis for the word akaaraati meaning dictionary in Tamil.
2. Mahapatra B.P. Malto Hindi English Dictionary follows this practice.
3. Most of the well known dictionaries e.g. OED, COD, Webster’s III, RHD, Hindi Sabda Sagar, Malayalam Lexicon, Tamil Lexicon etc. follow this practice.
4. It may be noted that in case of homonymous words also some dictionaries give the pronunciation etc. at the first occurrence only. e.g. Italian English and English Italian Dictionary. Harrap.
5. A Dictionary of Geography by F.J. Minkhouse, 1970.
6. The wrong combination of words with different forms and meanings.
7. Constructed examples.
8. Hindi Rusi Śabda Kosh.