Reflection on Lexicography

Before I acknowledged the existence of lexicography, i thought that dictionaries contained all the same words available there is out there, but actually, there are, there are differences according to their respective subject matter or level. For example, there is a specific dictionary for political jargons, engineering, etc.

     

     Lexicography is the process of editing, compiling, writing, and creating a dictionary. This process is divided into two different elements. The first would be practical lexicography, and the second is theoretical lexicography. Practical lexicography is the art of the processes; i.e. the compiling, the editing, and the writing. While theoretical lexicography is the discipline of analyzing the lexicon (vocabulary) and group them into their subject matter. Theoretical lexicography can also be referred to as metalexicography.

     In today's IT-Savvy era, of course we can get our hands on the online dictionary, we don't really have to buy the thick dictionaries available out there to help us to search for the meaning every time we encountered new words. The online dictionaries are easier, because with just typing specific words, they can give us plenty of definition, and also on how to use the words in different context.

     It requires quite a number of stages in the process of making a dictionary - both the traditional and online dictionaries. From deciding the range of coverage whether it has to be in standard or nonstandard forms up until the preparation of printing. And from scanning the excerpt of the textual material up until arranging the headwords. 

     Whatever it is, both processes are tedious and detail-oriented.