gives the meaning of the headwords through the Sindhi translation of ... Many bilingual English-Sindhi dictionaries were compiled and produced before and after ...
Oxford English-Sindhi Dictionary: A Critical Study in Lexicography Zulfiqar Ali Shah• and Dr. Ghulam Mustafa Mashori•• ABSTRACT: Oxford English Sindhi Dictionary (2010) is the latest addition in the bilingual dictionary making in Sindhi. OESD is based, in its English text on Concise Oxford English Dictionary (9th Ed). It gives the meaning of the headwords through the Sindhi translation of the original meaning descriptions. The pronunciation of English words is given in IPA as well as in Sindhi. Few earlier English dictionaries attempted to present English pronunciation in Sindhi characters (Shahani: 1940; Yadgar: 1988; Kifayat’s: 2004; Pirzada: 2007). In this paper, we examined in the light of the science of modern lexicography the organization and presentation of lexical items with particular reference to the question of pronunciation and the description of meaning. We found some weaknesses of the dictionary on the part of pronunciation. It may cause problems for the learner to use this dictionary. The revised version of the IPA is suggested to use in the dictionary. Key words: Bilingual; Lexicography; Pronunciation; Microstructure INTRODUCTIION Lexicography as a science has two distinguished areas of enquiry and operation. One is its practical area of dictionary making, and other its theoretical aspect of dictionary research. (Jackson, 2002) Practical lexicographer goes through different phases of dictionary making and compilation. And the work of a theoretical researcher is to point out merits and demerits of existing dictionaries in the light of set principles and guide lines for practitioners in the field. Sindhi is a language originating in the Sindh province of present day Pakistan, and is spoken by over 40 million people in Pakistan and India and by a large Diaspora community around the world. Sindhi belongs to the Indo-Aryan language family (Jennifer Cole. 2005). It is spoken in eight different countries of the world. It stands number 43 in Ethnologue list of 9606 world languages (Ethnologue 2012). Many bilingual English-Sindhi dictionaries were compiled and produced before and after the independence of Pakistan i.e.1947. Oxford English Sindhi Dictionary is one •
Assistant Professor Department of English, Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur Pakistan Associate Professor Department of English Shah Abdul Latif University, Khairpur Pakistan
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of them which is produced by Oxford University Press, Karachi in 2010.The present study is an in depth critical analysis of this dictionary. LITERATURE REVIEW Much work has been done on the descriptive analysis and interpretation of existing dictionaries the world over. Two of the great names in the pioneers of such tradition are those of James Augustus Henry Murray The Evolution of English Lexicography (1900) and Mathews, Mitford M (1933) A Survey of English Dictionaries. The most recent developments in this connection are 'English Dictionaries for Foreign Learners: A History' (Cowie, A.P:1999) and 'The Oxford History of English Lexicography' (Cowie, A.P:2009). Another important work is A Comparative Review of Two Monolingual Dictionaries of the English Language by Rek-Harrop. J (2010). 'The lexicography of English: from origins to present' (Béjoint, Henri: 2010) is also a useful addition in this tradition. Howard Jackson (2002) pointed out the following components which form the microstructure of a dictionary: •
Spelling
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Pronunciation
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Inflections
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Word class
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Senses
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Definition (meaning description)
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Examples
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Usage
Sekaninova (1993) as quoted in Klapicova (2005) emphasizes following parameters for the construction of an entry in a bilingual dictionary: a)
phonetic information
b)
grammatical component
c)
stylistic parameter
d)
lexical equivalence
e)
lexical stability
f)
lexical-semantic connection potentiality
g)
context applicability.
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Steiner (1984) has suggested some guidelines in order to evaluate a dictionary whether monolingual or bilingual. The dictionary should be according to the principles of the science of modern lexicography. It should specify the area and its audience or users. He emphasizes the utility of the dictionary either for general use or for specific use. The lexicographer's claims made should be compared with the actual content of the dictionary. The purpose of the dictionary should also be examined whether it is for learning a language, for translation or for something else. Besides, Zgusta, L. (1971), Béjoint, H. (2000), Landau, S. I. (1984/2001) form a very sound basis for the descriptive method of a dictionary research. A heuristic checklist is developed by Abu-Risha (2003) for the entries and information in a bilingual dictionary. It shows what a learner expects or needs to find in a learner's dictionary: A.
B.
C.
Semantic Information: •
Definition
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Lexical Relations (Synonyms and/or antonyms and/or semantic field)
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Formality and Technicality (formal, informal, slang, colloquial, and register)
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Collocations, idioms and fixed expressions
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Illustrative examples showing the actual grammatical usage of the word
Grammatical Information: •
Parts of Speech
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Verb Argument Structure
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Grammatical use in sentences
Morphological Information: •
Derivational forms of lexemes
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Inflectional forms of lexemes
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Pronunciation (with special reference to BrE and AE)
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Variation (Variation of usage or spelling in the various Englishes: British, American, New-Zealand, Australian, Canadian, etc.)
METHODOLOGY There is a clear distinction in the research methods used in natural science research and in a social science one. There are many research methods to obtain data in social science research as in the fields of Language, Linguistics and Literature. Social science research is basically qualitative and unobtrusive (Webb et al.:1966). This
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Zulfiqar Ali Shah, Ghulam Mustafa Mashori / ELF Annual Research Journal 2011 Vol.13
research is qualitative and descriptive in nature (Nunan: 1992) and (Silverman: 2000). Descriptive research provides information about conditions, situations, and events that occur in the present situation (Educational research: UNESO). According to Richards et al (2002) descriptive research is an investigation that attempts to describe accurately and factually a phenomenon, subject or area. The research tools used in this study are 'content analysis' and 'document analysis'. Content analysis is the intellectual process of categorizing qualitative textual data into clusters of similar entities, or conceptual categories, to identify consistent patterns and relationships between variables or themes. Qualitative content analysis is sometimes referred to as latent content analysis. This analytic method is a way of reducing data and making sense of them—of deriving meaning. It is a commonly used method of analyzing a wide range of textual data, including interview transcripts, recorded observations, narratives, responses to open-ended questionnaire items, speeches. 'Content analysis is an accepted method of textual investigation…In content analysis, researchers establish a set of categories and then count the number of instances that fall into each category' (Silverman:2001). In qualitative research, content analysis is interpretive, involving close reading of text. Qualitative researchers using a content analytic approach recognize that text is open to subjective interpretation, reflects multiple meanings, and is context dependent (e.g., part of a larger discourse). This entry describes how qualitative content analysis is used and how to use it well. Content analysis is ' A method of analyzing the contents of documents that uses quantitative measures of the frequency of appearance of particular elements in the text. The number of times that a particular item is used, and the number of contexts in which it appears, are used as measures of the significance of particular ideas or meanings in the document (Victor.J: 2006). Document analysis according to the Sage Encyclopedia of Qualitative Research Methods (2008) is 'the standard approach to the analysis of documents focuses primarily on what is contained within them.' In this frame, documents are viewed as conduits of communication between, say, a writer and a reader-conduits that contain meaningful messages. OXFORD ENGLISH SINDHI DICTIONARY Oxford English Sindhi Dictionary (henceforth OESD) came out in 2010 and is published by Oxford University Press, Karachi. It is a good addition in the tradition of bilingual dictionary making in Sindhi. It spreads over almost 2100 pages. Though few popular English Sindhi Dictionaries were present in the scenario, there was a persisting need for a good dictionary in the field.
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This dictionary is the directed adaptation of Concise Oxford Dictionary. As mentioned on the front matter of the dictionary English text is taken from Concise Oxford Dictionary, (9th edition). COMPONENT PARTS OF THE DICTIONARY The dictionary is well divided into three parts, i.e. front matter, back matter and the middle matter containing main entries. 1)
Front Matter: The front matter covers the title page inside and outside the book. A detailed list of contents is given. Editorial board and compilers names have been listed. A publisher's note is followed by a preface by the editor. Then, instructions for the use of dictionary are give in detail spreading over six pages. It points out the peculiarities of Sindhi pronunciation and there representation in the dictionary.
2)
Middle Matter: Middle matter includes main entries in the dictionary. Average 30 words per page, the dictionary covers well about more than 60000 words.
3)
Back Matter: It includes some grammatical explanations. Some encyclopedic information follows, in which abbreviations; scientific terms, punctuation marks and symbols for proof reading are described.
As this dictionary depends for its entries and semantic details on Concise Oxford Dictionary, our main focus of enquiry in present study is the presentation of meaning and pronunciation. Meaning equivalents and pronunciation are the two main problems its precedent bilingual English Sindhi dictionaries face. comply /k´mpl√I/ v.intr. (-ies, -ied) with ع طE
