The properties of the words as the basic units of the language

7.Main structural components of a dictionary
The present section focuses on a general dictionary. A dictionary is structured at three levels below the level of the dictionary as a whole:
1. The dictionary as a whole has a framing structure which comprises a set of main
sections that correspond to the chapters of a book. 2. A subset of these sections – mostly only one – comprises an entry list. The structure of
each of these sections is a macrostructure (or the macrostructure of the dictionary). 3. Each of the entries in a macrostructure has an internal structure of its own, which is
the microstructure of the entries of that list
8. Historical development of British lexicography
.A need for a dictionary or glossary has been felt in the cultural growth
of many civilised peoples at a fairly early period. The history of dictionarymaking for the English language goes as far back as the Old English period
where its first traces are found in the form of glosses of religious books
with interlinear translation from Latin. Regular bilingual English-Latin dictionaries were already in existence in the 15th century.
The unilingual dictionary is a comparatively recent type. The first unilingual English dictionary, explaining words by English equivalents, appeared in 1604. It was meant to explain difficult words occurring in books.
Its title was “A Table Alphabeticall, containing and teaching the true writing and understanding of hard usuall English words borrowed from the Hebrew, Greeke, Latine or French”. The little volume of 120 pages explaining
about 3000 words was compiled by one Robert Cawdrey, a schoolmaster.
Other books followed, each longer than the preceding one. The first attempt
at a dictionary including all the words of the language, not only the difficult
ones, was made by Nathaniel Bailey who in 1721 published the first edition
of his “Universal Etymological English Dictionary”. He was the first to include pronunciation and etymology.