Examples in Igbo-English Dictionaries

Abstract

A bilingual dictionary example is a verbal or non-verbal phrase or a grammatically complete sentence that includes the lemma and is translated from the source language to the target language or vice versa (Toope 1996). The use of examples in bilingual dictionaries has been an issue of discussion for many lexicographers like Al Kasimi (1977), Zofgen (1991), Jacobsen et al (1991), and Nielsen (2014) among others. This issue includes questions like ‘What is an effective example?’, ‘Should examples be based on authentic material or should they be written (invented) by the lexicographer? This paper reviews metalexicographic literature on examples in bilingual dictionaries while focusing on two Igbo-English dictionaries with a view to finding out if certain considerations were taken into account in the use of examples. Consequently, it is observed that factors such as availability of space, dictionary type as well as idiosyncratic information, amount of information to be given and the need for generalization all influence the use of examples in both dictionaries thereby leading the researcher to conclude that the use of examples in Igbo-English dictionaries does not deviate but aligns with the norms reviewed in the literature.

Keywords: Bilingual Dictionary, Metalexicography, Lemma, Examples