8. Anything in a bold typeface is counted as reference
These references may overlap with the following “ headwords” contained in modern
dictionaries: a. abbreviations; b. prefixes; combining forms; e. open compounds; f.
encyclopedic entries, neither in the specified order or with the obligatory presence of all
of them.
The main entry form in a dictionary serves a number of different purposes according to
Landau (1989: 87); it indicates the referred spelling, the usual printed form of the lexical
unit and syllabication.
When speaking about dictionaries, the usual questions of how many words they contain
will surely arise but the answer depends, not surprisingly, upon the author ‘s choice to
save space: “Every decision a biographer makes affects the proportion of space his
dictionary will allot to each component. It is perfectly fair for critics to question his
judgment, but they must realize that the length of a dictionary is finite, and as large as it
may appear to them, it is never large enough for the lexicographer”(Landau:87).
2. Alphabetization
Alphabetization in dictionaries concerns primarily the headwords, thus enabling
the user to quickly find the word that he is looking up. There are two ways of
alphabetizing: letter by letter and word by word.
Letter by letter arrangement is by far the most general method, having the great
advantage that users need not bother about knowing whether a compound is spelled as
one word, a hyphenated one, or as two words, e.g. power, powerful, power of attorney.
Word by word arrangement seems rather complicated for the average user but it
might be of great use for specialists, e.g. power of attorney comes before powerful. It is
important to notice that few dictionaries operate with a strict alphabetical order of the
lexical items. This is because all dictionaries use some degree of nesting where a lexical
item may be included within the entry of another lexical item which has headword status.
This nesting policy or running-on refers to the arrangement of the following
categories of words: words derived by suffixation and prefixation ; fixed phrases; idioms;
compound words.
In general, some dictionaries accord headword status only to those derivatives
whose meaning has diverged significantly from the root, others ordinarily give headword
status to any derivative that merits separate definition.
In the case of suffixation, run-ons do not need separate definitions, since the user
is assumed to be capable of deducing the meaning from the headword and the suffix, e.g.
cello – cellist.
A more strict selection is operated in the case of words derived by prefixation
which are always allotted separate headword status, because a user would not otherwise
be able to find them in the alphabetical listing, e.g. believable/unbelievable. Fixed
phrases and idioms are nested under the headword of the first main word in the phrase
(even if this is not always very clear) so, by and large, no form of alphabetization can be
fully successful since there is not always clear whether the idiom should be placed under
the first word or under the most important word and eventually decide upon which word
is more important. As a conclusion, most dictionaries prefer to list idioms under the first
