Semantics and Lexicography: Selected Studies (1976-1996) (review)

Reviews211 Semantics and Lexicography: Selected Studies (1976—1996). 1999. Herbert Ernst Wiegand. Ed. Antje Immken and Werner Wolski. Lexicographica Series Maior 97. Tubingen: M. Niemeyer. Pp. 350. The publication of Herbert Ernst Wiegand's collection Semantics and Lexicography offers scholars of lexicology and lexicography whose native language is not German (as the editors of the volume delicately put it) an important survey of his carefully developed research. Wiegand worked towards a theory of definition (or, more precisely, in his terms, "socalled definition") by questioning the conventional practice and theoretical premises of linguists and lexicographers. While this present publication does not provide a full exposition of his work and ideas, the selection of work in the volume reveals the evolution of his systematic approach to dictionary research and will most likely leave the reader with a desire to take the time to look at other articles that are not included. Anglophone readers — especially those interested in lexicographical practice — will find detailed accounts and descriptions and explanations based on close readings of German monolingual dictionaries which should prove illuminating; the use of notational systems intended to provide semasiological and onomasiological information provides models for monolingual dictionaries in any language. The book under review includes a preface by its editors, Antje Immken and Werner Wolski, an introduction by Wolski, twelve articles and an epilogue by Wiegand, and a thirty-one page bibliography. We are told by the editors that this English translation of articles covering twenty years of research on semantics and lexicography was motivated by a call to make Wiegand 's work available to a larger readership. The editors take on the daunting task of translating terminology coined by Wiegand and a myriad of linguistic examples; perhaps most daunting was the challenge of translating Wiegand's use of his own terminology, since he uses it in a "highly creative way" (1), a reference to his deft and literary German. With that in mind, one could easily find examples to criticize for a stylistic or even translational shortcoming, but it is not within the scope of this review to quibble with their choices, nor with their poesy. However, in this day of desktop publishing, the absence of an index is a serious shortcoming; for example, when I found references to, say, Rosch on prototypes and Wittgenstein on use and ordinary language, I wanted to be able to find all the citations of their names throughout the collection. In a book with such far-ranging comprehension, it is frustrating not being able to look for instances of this dictionary or that lexicographer. In Wolski's introduction we find a brief, but very useful, discussion of the rationale behind Wiegand's methods and theories; there is an insightful discussion of what constitutes "dictionary research" from the perspective of this collection that places these shorter pieces in their broader international Dictionaries:Journal ofthe Dictionary Society ofNorth America 22 (2001) 212Reviews context. The remarks on the relationship of semantics to lexicography bring to our attention the perspective of lexicography and lexicology as distinct sets "related to each other by a mutual relationship of give and take" (4). By no means is lexicography a sub-branch of lexicology: such a classification would indeed be too restrictive since lexicography, which is empirically given "entweder in abgescholossenen lexikographischen Prozessen oder in solchen, die derzeit noch im Gange sind" (= 'either in concluded lexicographic processes or processes still in operation'; 215), takes into consideration, apart from lexicology , "Methoden und Ergebnisse aus ganz verschiedenen akademischen Disziplinen" (= 'methods and results of very different academic disciplines; 263) . Wolski also makes the salient point that semantic theories that explain particular lexicographical practice are generally inferred through a process of reconstructing theory based on representation of meaning. Here, he rightfully emphasizes, is where the strength of Wiegand's methods and theory are derived : his critique and subsequent formulation of a lexicology is not predicated upon defending a prevailing semantic theory or upon explaining the hidden sytematicity of scientific lexicography. Nothing short of an independent method of semantic analysis is proposed (and accomplished) that will then become the frame to test the validity of lexical explanations (definitions) and to help reveal to the user a systematic representation of...