Editing Lexicography (section)

{{Short description|Art and science of compiling dictionaries}}
{{Redirect|Dictionary structure|the dictionary data structure|Associative array}}
{{For|the term in mathematics|Lexicographic order}}
{{Distinguish|Lexicology}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=September 2017}}

{{Linguistics|Subfields}}

'''Lexicography''' is the study of [[lexicon]]s and the art of compiling dictionaries.<ref>{{Citation |last=Jackson |first=Howard |title=English lexicography in the Internet era |date=2017-10-02 |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781315104942-34 |work=The Routledge Handbook of Lexicography |pages=540–553 |publisher=Routledge |doi=10.4324/9781315104942-34 |doi-broken-date=15 December 2024 |isbn=978-1-315-10494-2 |access-date=2022-09-16|url-access=subscription }}</ref> It is divided into two separate [[academic discipline]]s:
* '''Practical lexicography''' is the art or [[craft]] of compiling, writing and editing [[dictionary|dictionaries]].
* '''Theoretical lexicography''' is the [[scholarly]] study of [[semantic]], [[orthography|orthographic]], [[syntagma (linguistics)|syntagmatic]] and [[paradigm]]atic features of [[lexeme]]s of the [[lexicon]] ([[vocabulary]]) of a [[language]], developing theories of dictionary components and structures linking the data in dictionaries, the needs for information by users in specific types of situations, and how users may best access the data incorporated in printed and [[Electronic dictionary|electronic dictionaries]]. This is sometimes referred to as "metalexicography".

There is some disagreement on the definition of [[lexicology]], as distinct from lexicography. Some use "lexicology" as a synonym for theoretical lexicography; others use it to mean a branch of [[linguistics]] pertaining to the inventory of words in a particular language.

A person devoted to lexicography is called a '''lexicographer''' and is, according to a jest of [[Samuel Johnson]], a "harmless drudge".{{Relevance inline|date=May 2025}}<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/lexicographer|title=Lexicographer job profile {{!}} Prospects.ac.uk|website=www.prospects.ac.uk|language=en|access-date=2018-10-29|archive-date=2018-10-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181029152407/https://www.prospects.ac.uk/job-profiles/lexicographer|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Johnson |first1=Samuel |author-link= Samuel Johnson| title=A Dictionary of the English Language |date=1785 |publisher=J.F. and C. Rivington, et al |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/dictionaryofengl02johnuoft/page/n38/mode/1up}}</ref>