The Social Aspects of Lexicography

Existing studies on the subject of lexicography tend to deal mainly with its technical aspects. Lexicography, however, enjoys the benefit of social bearing as well, a fact that should, nevertheless, not to be ignored. Topics such as the social function of dictionaries, the place of lexicography in language planning and the manner in which lexicographers deal with 4 Farhangnevisi 5 & 6 Summary of the Contents linguistic variation reflect a close association between lexicography and socio-linguistic issues. As a rule, it is essential to distinguish two kinds of linguistic methodology of approach: 1- descriptive method that reveals fundamental and for the most part unconscious patterns of language; 2- prescriptive method that determines which linguistic features are precise and acceptable by the speakers of a given linguistic society. It seems that it is the latter method that is generally applied in lexicography as well as any endeavor dealing with compilation and stabilization of linguistic data, albeit most often in the process prescription tends to be exercised under the disguise of description. It is this symbolic function of dictionaries that grants them social authority next to their linguistic authority, that is, an authority for judgment on linguistic behavior (as part of social behavior) and a source of authentic linguistic patterns in the lexicon. Hence, dictionaries are believed to have a special function in corpus planning. But, on the other hand, the placement of lexicography solely in the category of corpus planning (language development) at the expense of status planning can be a measure open to question. For, status planning, that is, language determination, too, deservedly has an important place in lexicography. Language variability and linguistic variation stand in contrast to the function of dictionaries. Therefore, the lexicographers’ encounter with this dilemma is demanding. Whereas there is no easy solution to the problem, it is possible to provide a clear description of linguistic variation while complying with the basic function of dictionaries as the provision of standard patterns. The other option is to make special dictionaries for linguistic varieties.