3. The characteristics of Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners
The Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners was conceived, compiled and edited by the Reference and Electronic Media Division of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. Managing editor is Michael Mayor. The Dictionary was printed and bound in Malaysia in 2002.
The Dictionary includes words on the basis of their use in the language today. Some words are identified as being trademarks or service marks. Neither the presence nor absence of such identification in this Dictionary is to be regarded as affecting in any way, or expressing a judgement on, the validity or legal status of any trademark, service mark, or other proprietary rights anywhere in the world.
The definitions in the Macmillan English Dictionary have been based on information derived from 200 million words of English which make up the World English Corpus.
The Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners is a linguistic dictionary because it describes vocabulary units, their semantic structure, their origin and their usage; words are given in the alphabetical order.
It is a general, explanatory (monolingual) dictionary. The entry consists of the spelling, transcription, grammatical forms, meanings, examples, phraseology.
As for the components or the structure of this Dictionary it’s the following:
| Some words have more than | acid1 / / noun ** |
| one entry because they belong | 1[С/U] a chemical substance with |
| to a different word class al | a PH value (= a measure used in chem- |
| although they are spelt the same. | istry) of less than 7: hydrochloric acid |
| The small number at the end of | – compare ALKALI |
| the headword tells you that | 2 [U] informal the illegal drug LSD |
| there’s more than one entry for | |
| this word. | |
| acid2 / / adj 1 very sour: | |
| ACIDIC: Add more sugar if it tastes | |
| too acid. 2 containing acid or consist | |
| ing of an acid: ACIDIC: These plants | |
| prefer an acid soil. 3 an acid remark | |
| or acid humour shows criticism in a | |
| way that is clever but cruel: ACERBIC. | |
| Compound words are separate | 'acidֽhouse noun [U] a style of |
| entries in the alphabetical list. | HOUSE music that developed in the |
| US in the mid-1980s and became very | |
| popular in the UK in the late 1980s | |
| where it was played at RAVE parties | |
| Some words are shown at the | acidify / / verb [I/T] to be - |
| end of the entry for the word | come an acid, or cause a substance to |
| from which they are derived. | become an acid – acidification |
| / / noun [U] | |
| Some words are used in idioms | bat your eyes/eyelashes to open and |
| or other fixed expressions. | close your eyes very quickly several |
| These expressions are shown at | times, intending to be attractive to |
| the end of the main entry. | someone |
| go to bat for smb mainly Am E in - | |
| formal to give someone your support | |
| and help | |
| not bat an eyelid to not be shocked, | |
| worried, or upset by something | |
| Phrasal verbs are shown after | bat a'round phrasal vb [T] to dis - |
| the entry for the main verb. | cuss ideas or plans in an informal way |
| Many words have more than | dolly / / noun [C] 1 informal a |
| one meaning. When meanings | DOLL 2 a flat structure with wheels |
| are very different, they are | for moving heavy loads or for sup - |
| shown as separate senses with | porting a film camera → CORN |
| numbers. | DOLLY |
| Some words have many differ - | bleed / / ( past tense and past par - |
| ent meanings, and so the en - | ticiple bled / / ) verb * |
| tries can be long. Entries with | 1 when blood flows out |
| five or more meanings have a | 2 make smb pay money |
| ‘menu’ at the top. | 3 when colour spreads |
| 4 take liquid/ gas from smth | |
| 5 take blood from smb | |
| The International Phonetic Al - | commerce / / noun [U] ** |
| phabet shows how a word is | the activity of buying and selling |
| pronounced. | goods and services: TRADE: the needs |
| of industry and commerce | |
| When British and American pro - | basil / ; Am E / noun [U] |
| nunciations are very different, | a plant whose sweet leaves are used in |
| both are given. | salads and cooking, especially in |
| dishes containing tomato. Basil is a | |
| herb. | |
| Stress marks tell us which part | 'cabin ֽcrew noun [C] the people on a |
| of a compound to stress when we | plane whose job is to look after the pas - |
| are saying it. | sengers |
| Irregular inflections are shown. | do1 / / (3rd person singular does / weak |
| ; strong /; past tense | |
| did / /; past participle done / / | |
| verb *** | |
| Some words are printed in red | convince / / verb [T] *** |
| with a star rating to show their | 1 to make someone believe that some - |
| frequency. For example, a word | thing is true |
| with one star is fairly common | |
| and a word with three stars is one | blank1 / / adj ** |
| of the most basic words in Eng - | 1 blank paper or a blank space is empty |
| lish. | and contains |
| embarrass / / verb [T] * | |
| 1 to make someone feel nervous, | |
| ashamed, or stupid | |
| Italic words (called ‘labels’) show | bus1 / / noun [C] *** |
| which part of the English-speaking | 1 a large road vehicle with a lot of seats |
| world is used in, or tell us whether | that you pay to travel on, especially one |
| it is used in informal contexts, | that takes you fairly short distances and |
| specialized contexts etc. | stops frequently: by bus The children go |
| to school by bus. miss the bus If we | |
| don’t leave soon, we’ll miss the last bus. | |
| 1a mainly Am E A COACH | |
| 2 computing a set of wires that send in | |
| formation from one part of a computer | |
| system to another | |
| Sometimes a word that is used | aubergine / / noun [C/U] Br |
| only in British English has an ex - | E a vegetable with a smooth dark purple |
| act equivalent in American Eng - | skin and white flesh. Am E eggplant |
| lish. These equivalents are shown | |
| at the end of a definition. | |
| Example sentences in italic | basis / / (plural bases / /) |
| show us how a word is used in | noun [C] *** |
| context. | 1 a particular method or system for doing |
| or organizing something: on a … basis | |
| workers who are employed on a seasonal | |
| or temporary basis. | |
| Information about collocation - | on the basis of smth Don’t make your |
| how words combine and which | decision on the basis of cost alone. |
| structures can be used with a word. | |
| When a word has many collocations, | Words frequently used with basis |
| these are shown in a box at the end | verbs: constitute, create, establish, form, |
| of the entry. | lay, provide, serve as |
| There's information about the use | Both above and over can be used to |
| of a word in practice. | mean ‘at a higher level than something’: |
| the light above/over the door. | |
| Use above when something is not di - | |
| rectly over something else: on the hillside | |
| above the river. | |
| Use over when something moves or | |
| stretches across the space above some - | |
| thing: flying over London, the bridge | |
| over the river. | |
| There're hints which help us to avoid | If you take something that someone of - |
| common errors. | fers you or if you allow something to |
| happen, you accept it: We accepted her | |
| offer of help. | |
| If you say that you are willing to do | |
| something, you agree to do it: She | |
| agreed to work at the weekend. | |
| You accept something, but you agree to | |
| do something. | |
| There're notes that tell us about the | Cinderella / / noun [C |
| origin of a word. | usually singular] |
| 1 someone or something that has good | |
| qualities but is treated badly or ignored: | |
| Primary education has long been the | |
| Cinderella of the education service. | |
| Cinderella is the main character in a fa - | |
| mous children’s story. She is a poor girl, | |
| badly treated by her stepsisters but, in the | |
| end, thanks to the power of magic, she is | |
| able to marry the rich attractive Prince | |
| Charming. | |
| There're definitions which introduce | address1 / / noun [C] *** |
| us to related words. | 1 the name of the place where you live |
| or work, including the house or office | |
| number and the name of the street, area, | |
| and town. It may also include a set of | |
| numbers and letters, called a postcode in | |
| British English and a zip code in Ameri - | |
| can English. | |
| Sometimes the opposite of a word | obedient / / adj *doing what a |
| is shown. | person, law, or rule says you must do: |
| The children stood in a little group, dis - | |
| ciplined and obedient. – opposite | |
| DISOBEDIENT | |
| Some definitions give us synonyms. | booking / / noun [C] ** |
| 1 an arrangement to buy a travel ticket, | |
| stay in a hotel room etc at a later date: | |
| RESERVATION: Holiday bookings are up | |
| 20% on last year. |
Except of all the components of this Dictionary we can also single out such elements as: Language Awareness( the information about numbers, phrasal verbs, Academic English, metaphor, computer words, pragmatics, spoken discourse, sensitivity, British and American English, Business English and word formation) and different illustrations on various topics: House, Kitchen, Office, Clothes and patterns, Motorway and Types of vehicle, Transport, Car, Trees, plants and flowers, Fruit, Vegetables, Animals, Sports, Gym and Games.
Ending
In this work we succeeded in achievement of all the aims that we had had at the beginning of our investigation: to study the history of lexicography and its modern development, to make out the dictionary its notion, functions, classification and components, to characterize the Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners as an example of a dictionary of good quality. So we proved the importance of dictionary-making in modern linguistics.
So General lexicography focuses on the design, compilation, use and evaluation of general dictionaries, i.e. dictionaries that provide a description of the language in general use. In other words it is the art and craft of writing dictionaries.
So we can’t imagine our studying or work without lexicography because any pupil, student and even experienced teacher whose activity is closely connected with studying or teaching a language constantly needs a good dictionary which can always help at any time.
The material of this report can be used by anybody who is interested in lexicography as a science and wants to know more about dictionary-making itself.
List of used literature
1. David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (Second Edition) - Cambridge University Press, 2003.
2. Weiner E.S.C., The Oxford Miniguide to English Usage – OUP, 1987.
3. Lyons J., New Horizons in Linguistics – Lnd., 1970.
4. Longman Essential Activator, 1997.
5. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 1996.
6. Arnold I.V., English Word – Moscow, 1973.
7. Benson M, Benson E, The BBI Combinatory Dictionary of English Language – Amsterdam, 1986.
8. Borisova L.M., Fomenko O.V., Introduction to English Philology – Kolomna, 2004.
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... visitors, to each of which a particular word for a concrete object was unknown and thus had to be described. Participants should assume that each alien visitor knew all other words of the language apart from the unknown (target) word. Participants were asked to enter a descriptive phrase per line (not necessarily a whole sentence) and to try and write at least 4 phrases per word. They were ...
... water comes up out of the earth; and some other meanings, whereas V.D.Arakin’s dictionary presents the three homonyms as given above. 3. Problems of Homonymy. The synchronic treatment of English homonyms brings to the forefront a set of problems of paramount importance for different branches of applied linguistics: lexicography, foreign language teaching and information retrieval. ...
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