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What is a Lexicon?
Lexicon is defined in the 1913 websters as a vocabulary, or book
containing an alphabetical arrangement of the words in a language or
of a considerable number of them, with the definition of each; a
dictionary; especially, a dictionary of the Greek, Hebrew, or Latin
language. That brings up the questions doesn't it, what is a
vocabulary? Well the simplest definition used is simply all the
words in a language. That is something so simple but the word all in
there makes all the difference. Because vocabulary is often used to
define the set of words a person is likely to use, we are talking
about the whole set of people who are using the language. The
following is obtained from Wikipedia. In linguistics, lexicon has a
slightly more specialized definition, as it includes the lexemes
used to actualize words. Lexemes are formed according to morpho-syntactic
rules and express Sememes. In this sense, a lexicon organizes
the mental vocabulary in a speaker's mind: First, it organizes the
vocabulary of a language according to certain principles (for
instance, all verbs of motion may be linked in a lexical network)
and second, it contains a generative device producing (new) simple
and complex words according to certain lexical rules. For example,
the suffix '-able' can be added to transitive verbs only such that
we get 'read-able' but not '*cry-able'. Furthermore an
individual's lexical knowledge (or lexical concept) is that person's
knowledge of vocabulary.
Now that we have established what a lexicon is lets get to the next
important question which is import to A-Z of dictionaries website.
What is
the difference between a Glossary and a Dictionary?
When we mentioned a Lexicon it could be used to mean a Dictionary or
a Glossary. These reference books have slightly different
denotations. Dictionaries offer a broad appeal and depth in defining
the words in a language. A glossary is a specialized vocabulary with
definitions but does not provide other information about the words.
A glossary may also be called a vocabulary. Lexicon is considered by
some to be a more formal word for dictionary. A dictionary is a
reference book consisting of an alphabetically-arranged list of
words with their definitions, as well as any or all of these: forms
(spellings), pronunciations, functions (parts of speech),
etymologies, and syntactical and idiomatic uses. So, dictionary is
usually reserved for the more comprehensive type of word book.
Lexicon's etymology is Greek, while dictionary's is Latin.
Glossaries are used to define a precise set of words which make up
the vocabulary of a set of people who were grouped by a common
interest, a profession or other circumstances. So we can see this as
a specialized dictionary which doesn't offer much in depth knowledge
of the word itself but just enough so that a person can understand
and use it as part of their vocabulary. Lets take an example, for a
software engineer to work effectively he or she should understand a
basic set of words and add them to their vocabulary and use
extensively in their daily work life. But a Doctor on the other hand
wouldn't care about half of those in that bread and butter words
that makes up the lingo of the software engineer. But rather the
Doctor would be more interested in a Medical glossary.
So a Glossary should be a list of words that should be ordered in an
alphabetical order but rather in the order of importance. The way I
see and advocate is a Dictionary or specialized dictionary is an
uncategorized book with a list of words or specialized list of words
in alphabetical order of a language. The Glossary on the other hand
offers a categorized and subcategorized list of words ordered by
their significance and usage in the specific category. There are
other ways to build glossaries, one way is to build up. What is
meant is that you define the concrete base words which a person
should have knowledge of before delving further down in the
glossary.
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