Funksies van voorbeeldmateriaal in eentalige woordeboeke

Abstract

English Title: Functions of illustrative material in monolingual dictionaries

English Abstract

Illustrative material is a microstructural element which in most dictionaries is not used to its full potential. Interaction between examples and other microstructural elements is imperative. Correlation between the definiens and illustrative material in the dictionary article aids the user of the dictionary with his encoding skills. Without illustrative material supporting it the information conveyed by the definiens is not as significant as it could be. However, illustrative material should not be viewed as an only means of conveying semantic information. Correlation between usage labels and examples is especially important. An example which contradicts a label, or vice versa, confuses the user. If either label or illustrative material is absent, the user can easily be misled. Illustrative material should also support the grammatical information given in the dictionary article. It has an implicit function because it complements and illustrates the explicit information. A correlation between these two microstructural elements of the dictionary article will result in a dictionary which is more user-friendly. Both citations and constructed examples can be applied successfully to assist the user in the comprehension and generation of utterances. Furthermore examples shows that each lexical item is related to others semantically as well as syntactically. Certain semantic resemblances and differences between related lexical items are reflected by illustrative material. Illustrative material should not be viewed as an optional element of the dictionary article, but as an essential component thereof.

Keywords: citations, constructed examples, context, definiens, dictionary article, dictionary user, evidence of usage, examples, grammatical information, illustrative material, interaction, lemma, lexical item, pragmatic, register, semantic, semantic relations, syntactic usage