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FEATURE
The
truth revealed:
phrasal verbs in
writing and speech
 Your
questions
answered 
COLUMNS
Focus
on Phrasal Verbs:
Introduction
Pronunciation and stress pattern
of phrasal verbs
New
word of the month
Euphemisms – examples
of lexical camouflage
Corpora
tips
Spoken language and the BNC
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In this section of the magazine, from time
to time, we'll be sharing with you questions which have been sent to us.
The answers will be provided by Gwyneth
Fox, Dictionaries Publisher at Macmillan
Education.
Since the publication of the Macmillan
English Dictionary (MED) in 2002 Gwyneth has travelled far and
wide and given lots of workshops, talked to many teachers and students
and answered hundreds of questions about words and how words are described
in dictionaries.
You may find that you've had the same queries yourself,
or that your students keep coming up with similar questions. But if you
feel that you still have a few more lexical questions that you'd like
to get off your chest, fill in this form
and we'll get back to you!
| Your questions
answered |
| being
a lexicographer |
| I was wondering what a person
has to do in order to become a lexicographer. What type of schooling
would I need and where would I go to find job openings? |
It's an interesting question and there isn't
one right answer. Lexicographers come from a wide range of disciplines,
and often seem to 'fall into' dictionary making rather than
having always intended to do it.
These days you need a university degree. Probably in English
or another language, although not necessarily so. I have worked
with lexicographers who have degrees in English, French, Italian,
Latin, Linguistics, Physics, Maths, and so on. It partly depends
what kind of lexicographer you want to be. Do you want to work
on bilingual dictionaries? If so, you need to know both languages.
Do you want to work on specialist dictionaries for lawyers,
for example? In that case it helps to have a law degree. Do
you want to work, as I do, on dictionaries aimed at people who
are learning English as a second or other language? For that
I think it helps to have been a teacher - although there are
many such lexicographers who haven't taught.
You need to be fairly painstaking and careful and analytic.
You need to be able to decide what information is needed by
the users of your dictionary - and that information will vary
depending on the type and level of dictionary. You need to have
common sense. To me, that is one of the most important qualities
you can have. It is impossible to give all the information about
a word, no matter how big the dictionary might be. So you have
to choose what is appropriate for any particular dictionary.
But most of all you have to love language. To be fascinated
by it. To notice its eccentricities and quirks. And to notice
those things about it that many people would think too boring
to bother about. And to be able to express all this in ways
that will be helpful to dictionary users.
If you think you have qualities such as these, then you have
to write round to the various dictionary publishing houses and
try to persuade them that you are just the person they need.
It's not easy. There aren't a lot of jobs available. But persistence
should pay off in the end!
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| the
meaning of horsey |
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I cannot find the meaning
of the word horsey in the following context:
She is attractive in
a horsey way.
The sentence appeared in
a coursebook for intermediate students.
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This means that there is something about her
face that might make you think of a horse. We usually focus
on, for example, a long face or perhaps a nose with slightly
wider nostrils than most people have, and fairly strong features.
That might not sound very attractive but there is no doubt that
it can be.
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| diet
as an adjective |
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I'd like to ask you a question
concerning a word which does not appear in the Macmillan
English Dictionary. Why don't you have an entry for the
word diet as an adjective? The use of this word is
quite common nowadays and I was surprised not to find it in
the dictionary. Is there any special reason for that?
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This is a really fascinating lexicographical
– and grammatical – question. When does a noun 'become'
an adjective?
It is an interesting fact of the language that any noun can
be used in front of another noun, given an appropriate context.
So, for example, you have the noun steel, referring to
a strong metal, as in:
The works produced a million tons of steel a year.
Very often steel is used in front of
another noun to refer to something made of steel:
I bought a new steel sink for the kitchen.
In this case linguists would normally say that steel
is acting as a noun modifier rather than call it an adjective.
There often comes a time, though, when the use of the noun
as a noun modifier is very common and the meaning changes
slightly. That is when some linguists (and teachers) might
say it has changed its function from being a noun modifier
to being an adjective. Different people will differ as to
when this happens. To me, the word diet is at that
stage of its development. Some people will still think of
it as a noun modifier in something like diet coke
and others will think of it as being an adjective. You will
notice that we include it in the dictionary under sense 1
as sense 1c and say '[only before noun]' and explain it as
'containing less sugar or fat than other similar foods'. The
fact that we have explained it in this way says to me that
it is almost ready to be thought of as a full-blown adjective.
To read more questions and answers, go to the
Index page.
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