Lexicography

A Comparative Study
12/30/2009

Mohammad S. Zeidan
The university of Jordan

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Contents
Preface..........................................................................................................
The dictionaries..........................................................................................
About the Dictionaries:...............................................................................
Presentation of the Dictionaries..............................................................
Pronunciation and Grammar...................................................................
Illustrative Examples...............................................................................
Taboo words............................................................................................
Pictorial illustrations................................................................................
Conclusion.....................................................................................................
Endnotes:......................................................................................................
Preface
Arabic monolingual dictionaries are not, by any means, receiving proper
attention and serious research in the contemporary lexicographical practice
or corpus studies that are supposed to take into consideration any linguistic
data available in the literature of a language. Classical monolingual
dictionaries in Arabic are practically ignored, and gradually falling into
oblivion, and this constitutes a threat to Standard Arabic, a variety of the
Arabic tongue that is widely believed to be a source of unity and a definer
of identity in the Arabic community and culture. In addition to this, and
linguistically speaking, a loss of any language, a variety or sub-variety, is a
great loss for the human civilization, and it is the tasks of the linguists in
general and the speakers of that languages in specific, to protect the
language, record it, and revive it. It is really worth mentioning that Arabic
lexicography has been instrumental in keeping a consistent "written" form
of Arabic and has been very helpful in understanding it, keeping a link
between what can be called Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic.
This prevented the development of Arabic dialects into independent
languages.i

Although classical Arabic monolingual dictionaries made a breakthrough

development at their times in the craft of lexicography, there is an
increasing demand nowadays to make use of the developments made in the
Western tradition in this industry, to make these classical dictionaries more
presentable and user-friendly to the contemporary users. A lot can be done
to get these dictionaries back to use again, like making abridged editions,
incorporating user-guides, illustrations, and other techniques that are in use
in modern dictionaries.

Discussing Arabic monolingual dictionaries is not an easy endeavor at all,

especially by a novice practitioner in the field, whose main concern has
been about English monolingual dictionaries, but I will make my best to
shed some lights into our unique linguistics tradition and to highlight the
early creativity that Arabic lexicographers had shown in this regard.

My go in this little research is to make a comparison from a contemporary

perspective between two dictionaries, one is classical and the other may be
classified as contemporary, though a classic for some; being first published
in 1941. In this study I will tackle different matters, sometimes interrelated,
such as the presentation of the dictionary, the grammatical information
contained, illustrations, examples, and other issues that will be under
different headlines.

Each headline will have two parts: (A) Al Mukhtar (the first dictionary)
and (B) Munjid (the second dictionary).

This stub study, I hope, is just a beginning of a more serious and expanded
research that I'm really considering in the near future, on Classical Arabic,
its lexicon and dictionaries, in which I will employ the modern practices
and notions in lexicography. This is quite important, and I am really
motivated, especially for being exceptionally fortunate and privileged, to
have some encouraging professors such as professor Khanji, to whom I'm
deeply grateful.

M. S. Zeidan
 The dictionaries
A brief description

I will deal in this study with two well-known Arabic dictionaries, to which I
am deeply attached and from which I have been learning a great deal about
the wonders of the Arabic tongue and its incomparable grace. These two
dictionaries are:

1)Mukhtar Al Sihah (‫)مختار الصحاح‬

2)Munjid Al Tullab (‫)منجد الطلب‬

Mukhtar Al Sihah (‫)مختار الصحاح‬

Mukhat Al Sihah (henceforward Al Mukhtar) can be described, to use a

lexicographer term, an abridged version of another dictionary which is
known as Al Sihah (‫)معجم الصحاح في اللغة‬. The latter was one of the oldest
dictionaries in Arabic and one of the most comprehensive at that time (the
dictionary was published in the 20th century in six volumes and included
more than 40 thousand entries). It was intended at the beginning to preserve
the Arabic lexicon and to upkeep its purity and grace, just as Samuel
Johnson endeavored to do in the 16th century, when he tried to "fix" the
language and hold it back from development (yet there are great differences
between these two lexicographers)ii. Al Sihah was a foundation of new
school in Arabic lexicography1 , that was very different from the earlier
schools, like Al Khalil Al Farahidi (‫ )الخليل الفراهيدي‬School.iii

Considering the fact that language is ever developing, new words emerging,
other words falling out of use, Al Razi (the compiler of Al Mukhtar, died in
660 AH 1262 AD) decided to abridge the dictionary of his predecessor (Al
Jawhari died in 453 AH, 1061 AD) in order to provide students and learners
of Arabic a more practical dictionary that includes the core of the necessary
Arabic lexicon that can still be used in speech and writing at that time.

Al Razi work was phenomenal and revolutionary, and we will further see
how he made the practice of lexicography a dynamic and practical one.

1 There are four schools of lexicography in Arabic known by the names

of its founders. 1) Al Khalil School. 2) Abu Obaid School 3) Al Jawhari
School 4) Al Barmaki School.
The edition I am using in this project is a modernized one. The editor
provides his own introduction to the dictionary with useful information
about the original, unabridged dictionary, and the dictionary in hand. The
modernized edition is unique and popular among learners for its neat
organization, the useful footnotes. It also highlights the main entry in red.
This edition was first published in 1999 in Lebanon, and it is the one I am
using.

Munjid Al Tullab (‫)منجد الطلب‬

It is, to be honest, a sheer, yet fortunate, coincidence, to choose this

dictionary to discuss in this paper, because I found a lot of similarities
between both of them and I will illuminate this in the coming pages.

Munjid Al Tullab (henceforward Munjid) has a similar story to Al Mukhtar.

It is an abridged edition of another dictionary (Al Munjid)2 that was
published in 1908 by Rev. Luis Ma'louf. This dictionary is of great
importance and one of the widely used dictionaries among students.
Nevertheless, Mr. Fuad Al Bustani (1904-1994), then president of the
Lebanon University, embarked on a project that aims at providing students
with a condensed and more practical tool that could be carried away with
the wherever they go in and outside the campus.

The project was a great success, and the dictionary sold out and became
very popular among students and academicians. The first edition of the
dictionary appeared in 1941, the second in 1952 and the third in 1956. The
last edition reproduced in 16 reprints.

2 Not to be confused with Munjid(i.e. Munjid Al Tullab).

About the Dictionaries:
A comparative study

Presentation of the Dictionaries

1)Al Mukhtar

I have indicated earlier that the purpose of both dictionaries was greatly
pedagogical, i.e. they were intended to serve the learners, native and non-
native, and other students in different disciplines. This helped in keeping
the dictionary more presentable, user-friendly, avoiding the intricacies of
specialized lexical and grammatical issues.

Al Razi was a fine writer and well-versed in Arabic literature. He wrote an

explanation of Al Maqamat, and other books in Sufi aspects of literature at
the time.

His preface and introduction of the dictionary was a great scholarly work in
itself, since he incorporated very basic and instrumental information about
Arabic lexicology that was intended to provide students with guidelines that
will help while using the dictionary.

He provided the readers with an inclusive classification of the verbs in

Arabic according to its lexicological behavior. The categories were six, and
they are comprehensive of all Arabic tri-consonantal verbs, although he
states that there may be some exceptions and that if there is any verb that
does not fall in any of these categories but was heard from Arabs who are
arbiters on usage, then it will be part of the Arabic lexicon. He also
emphasizes that what is heard from Arabs is prioritized on the rules or the
categories set3.

He says: "whenever a word is heard (from a an accepted source, like

Bedouins) then it should be prioritized on analogy with the words we have
(in the lexicon)."

."‫ فل يصار إلى القياس إل عند عدم السماع‬,‫"والسماع مقدم على القياس‬

The material contained in this dictionary was organized according to the

3 I understand from this that Arabic lexicographers were trying to

describe the language and keep the categories open for the words that
Arabs use.
first letter of the tri-consonantal lexical root, easier for the users than other
dictionaries that arrange words according to the first and last letter of the
word, as in Al Qamus Al Muhit (‫)القاموس المحيط‬.
 2)The Munjid

The Munjid dictionary is not recommended for those who have problems in
their eyes, or for senior people who cannot read its very tiny font and eye-
straining style, (I am not sure if there are better editions than the one I
use!)4. Nevertheless, being suitable to be hold and carried to school, work or
the university, is a recognizable plus for the dictionary, especially for
students and "bookish" people who like to hold the dictionary and skim
through it.

The dictionary's preface is, as it should be, very informative. The writer
mentions some background information about the basis of the work, and the
history of the unabridged dictionary on which he depended.

He clearly states the purpose of his dictionary, saying that it is "aimed at

those students who encounter in their studies less than half of the words
included in the original, and use less than quarter of the words therein. It is
my intent to help these students and provide them with a smaller, clearer,
and user-friendly dictionary, by eliminating the obsolete lexical items and
including neologisms and loan words". 5

Also, the writer says that he kept a lot of literary words that could be found
in the classical literature and pre-Islamic poetry. On the other hand, he
states the descriptive approach he adopts and that he tried to include
neologisms that gained currency among users of Arabic.

The dictionary has an elaborated user-guide that comes in 22 pages. The

guide illustrates some of the abbreviations used in the dictionary. It also
provides easy-to-follow rules regarding the use of the dictionary and
dealing with the lexicological matters. It also gives important grammatical
information, like words classes, gerund, and plural form in Arabic.

This, I think, is very important for the dictionary user, because these rules
are not easily retrieved, and one must read them more than one time, to

4 I have found the 10th edition of this dictionary. They should call a
reprint because there is no difference between the one I am using and
the new "edition".
5 "‫ متجها نحو الطلب خاصة من الذين ل يكاد يقع ي‬,‫على هذا الصل نشأ فرعنا الصغير‬
,‫مطالعاتهم نصف المفردات الذي جمعها المنجد ول يكاد يتناول استعمالهم ربع هذا النص‬
‫ واضح‬,‫فكان ل بد من النظر إلى هؤلء الطلب والعمل لهم بوضع معجم صغير الحجم‬
‫ ول يهمل المفردات المستحدثة‬,‫ يخلو من الكلمات المهجورة‬,‫ سهل السلوب‬,‫الترتيب‬."
better understand the lexicological nature of Arabic.
Pronunciation and Grammar

A)The Indication of Pronunciation

Since Arabic spelling depends to a great extent on diacritics, and the

International Phonetic Alphabet has not been in use at the time of
compilation of these two dictionaries, there is no indication of the exact
pronunciation of the lexical items. This is not necessarily a shortcoming in
Arabic monolingual dictionaries, especially because Arabic spelling is far
more consistent and clearer than the English spelling.

But a clear emphasis is placed on giving the right diacritics, because any
mistaken diacritic may distort the meaning and the lexicological pattern of
the word.

There is clear difference between the two dictionaries regarding diacritics.

While printing machines made it easier to write and compile dictionaries in
a very efficient and times consuming manner, authors before this were very
concerned about being clear, so they, in addition to putting the diacritic,
state the suitable diacritic in writing. So in Al Mukhtar one encounter a very
large number of definitions that indicate the proper diacritics, and this is
very prudent of him. (Better safe than sorry!)

B)Grammatical information

A)Al Mukhtar

Al Razi provided a lot of grammatical information in his dictionary, and

this can be easily noted even through leafing throughout the dictionary. It
could be considered a remarkable feature of Al Mukhtar; yet, grammatical
information was not based on a systematic plan or a study of the needs of
the readers.

He could in certain circumstances remark on certain usages that are

incorrect in standard Arabic, as in this example:
 ‫حها( أي أفسدها‬
َ ‫ و)أمل‬.‫ح‬
َ ‫مل‬
ِ ‫ح القدَر من باب قطعَ أي طرح فيها ال‬ َ َ ‫مل‬
َ ‫ مل‬:‫ح‬ َ
,‫ملح‬
ِ ‫ح الماُء من باب دخل وسُهل فهو ماء‬ َ
َ ‫مل‬ ً ّ
َ ‫ و‬.‫بالملح وملحها تمليحا مثله‬
.‫ول يقال مالح إل في لغة رديئة‬

Some may argue that this is prescriptive, and I would agree with this if the
historical records indicate that this word was commonly used by the public
at the time. If the public were using this word commonly in their speech, or
writers used in their writings, then Al Razi would have said something else,
as in this example:

‫ واجره‬:‫ والعامة تقول‬,‫آجره الدار أي أكراها‬

, and this is in order to describe the informal usage. At least, one would
apologetically say, that Al Razi indicated the fact that that word is used in a
sub-dialect in Arabic, while he could have ignored it altogether, or said:
"Never use this word", as some of the English dictionaries do in the
definitions of obscene or racist words. Another example that could bear a
prescriptive interpretation the word (‫ )أتن‬as follows:

.... ‫ الحمارة و ل تقل أتانة‬:‫التان‬

This on the lexical level, and on the sentence level there is this example:

...(‫ تقول )إياك وأن تفعل كذا( و ل تقل )إياك أن تفعل كذا‬........ :‫إّيا‬

But this is a common practice in all dictionaries that try to educated learners
on he proper and accepted usage of the languages, as the following example
from Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDOCE) shows6:

6 This table was taken from the E-copy of the 4th edition of LDOCE.
‫‪When there are differences in grammar between two or more Arabic‬‬
‫‪dialects, Al Razi would indicate this and give examples from the Holy‬‬
‫‪Quran, Hadith, or poetry, as in this example:‬‬

‫الب‪ :‬أصله أبوٌ بفتح الباء لن جمعه آباء مثل )َقفا و أقفاء‪ ,‬و رحا و أرحاء(‬
‫فالذاهب منه واو لنك تقول ي التثنية )أبوان( و بعض العرب يقول )أبان(‬
‫على النقص و في الضافة )أبْيك( و إذا جمعته بالواو والنون قلت )أبون(‬
‫وكذا أخون وحمون وهنون‪ .‬قال الشاعر‪:‬‬

‫ديننا بالبينا‬
‫بكين وف ّ‬

‫وعلى هذا قرأ بعضهم )وإله أبيك إبراهيم وإسماعيل وإسحاق( يريد جمع‬
‫‪7‬‬
‫)أب( أي )أبينك( فحذف النون للضافة‪.‬‬

‫‪Certain grammatical articles were well discussed and plainly explained in‬‬
‫‪the Mukhtar by providing examples: such as this article:‬‬

‫إذن‪ :‬حرف مكافأة وجواب وإذا قدمته على الفعل المستقبل نصبت به ل‬

‫‪ 7‬هنالك ثلث لغات في السماء الستة‪ ,‬وهي لغة النقص ويكون العراب فيها بالحركات‪,‬‬
‫مثل‪ :‬جاء أُبك و رأيت أَبك‪ .‬وهنالك لغة القصر ويكون العراب بحركة مقدرة على اللف‪,‬‬
‫مثل‪ :‬جاء أباك و رأيت أباك ومررت بأباك‪ .‬واللغة الثالثة هي لغة التمام‪ ,‬ويكون فيها‬
‫العراب بالحرف‪ :‬جاء أبوك‪ ,‬رأيت أباك‪ ,‬مررت بأبيك‪) .‬شرح شذور الذهب لبن هشام(‬
 ‫مك"‪ .‬وإن أخرته‬
‫غير‪ ,‬كما لو قال قائل‪" :‬الليلة أزورك"‪ ,‬فقلت‪" :‬إذن أكر َ‬
‫مك إذن"‪.‬‬‫ألغيت )أي لم تنصب( كما لو قلت‪" :‬أكر ُ‬

‫‪It is really worth noting here that there are a lot of what we can call here‬‬
‫‪), which has‬أ( ‪"one-letter-article" in Arabic morphology, like the letter‬‬
‫‪). These articles are‬ي( ‪) and‬ب(‪) ,‬ت(‪) ,‬ك( )هـ( ‪difference uses, the letter‬‬
‫‪explained and elaborated at the beginning of each one in the dictionary. I'll‬‬
‫‪give here one example from more examples can be found in the Appendix.‬‬

‫)الياء(‪ :‬حرف من حروف المعجم وهي من حروف الزيادات ومن حروف‬

‫المد واللين‪ .‬وقد يكنى بها عن المتكلم المجرور ذكرا ً كان أو أنثى كقولك‪:‬‬
‫ثوبي و غلمي‪ .‬ولك أن تحذفها في النداء خاصة تقول‪ :‬يا قوم ِ و يا عبادِ‬
‫ي‪ ....‬وقد‬‫بالكسر‪ ,‬فإذا جاءت بعد اللف فتحت ل غير نحو‪ :‬عصايَ و رحا َ‬
‫يكنى بها عن المتكلم المنصوب مثل نصرني و أكرمني ونحوهما‪ .‬وقد تكون‬
‫ت تفعلين‪ .‬و )يا( حرف ينادى به القريب‬ ‫علمة للتأنيث كقولك افعلي و أن ِ‬
‫والبعيد‪ .‬وهي كلمة تعجب كقول الشاعر‪:‬‬

‫يا لك من قبرة بمعمر‬

‫‪The last grammatical example was really well described and really useful‬‬
‫‪and it is really worthwhile to look at:‬‬

‫إذ‪ :‬كلمة تدل على ما مضى من الزمان وهو اسم مبني على السكون وحقه‬
‫أن يكون مضافا ً إلى جملة‪.‬تقول‪ :‬جئتك إذ قام زيد‪ ,‬و جئتك إذ زيد قائم وإذ‬
‫ونت‪ :‬قال أبو ذؤيب‪:‬‬ ‫زيد يقوم‪ .‬فإذا لم تضف ن ّ‬
‫ح‬
‫نهيتك عن طلبك أم عمرو بعافية وأنت إذ ٍ صحي ُ‬

‫‪B)The Munjid‬‬

‫‪There was, on the other hand, no clear emphasis on grammar in the body of‬‬
‫‪this dictionary, except when defining certain adverbs and prepositions, e.g.‬‬

‫بعد‪ :‬ظرف زمان ضد قبل يلزم الضافة‪ ,‬فإن قطع عنها بني على الضم أو‬
‫نصب منونًا‪.‬‬

‫‪Notice that there are no illustrative examples, although learners are not‬‬
‫‪).‬القطع عن الضافة( ‪familiar with such morphological rules, i.e.‬‬
Nevertheless, the compiler of this dictionary could be clearer on other
instances, as we can observe from the following example:

‫ وقد تحذف الجملة ويعوض‬.‫ ظرف للزمان الماضي ل يقع بعدها الجملة‬:‫إذ‬
‫ فحين‬:‫ كان في الصل‬.‫ متى جاءكم الموت فحينئذ ٍ تعلمون‬:‫عنها بالتنوين نحو‬
.‫إذ يجيء تعلمون‬

‫ بينما أنا جالس إذ جاء زيد‬:‫ وتكون للمفاجأة نحو‬-2

.‫ أي لنه أساء‬:‫ ضربت ابني إذ أساء‬:‫ وتأتي حرفا ً بمعنى لم التعليل نحو‬-3

By way of contrasting between the two previous examples we see the lack
of consistency and the absence of a theory in this work. Another point that I
have observed in the second example is the nature of the examples given.
For instance: a sentence like (‫)ضربت ابني إذ أساء‬, is not appropriate in a
dictionary for learners8, and the point could have been done by using
another verb. A lexicographer is an active cultural agent and he\she should
be conscious and attendant to such issues.

Good grammatical examples were observed in the beginning of each

section, i.e. each alphabetical letter. This is because some letters have
functions in Arabic Syntax and Morphology, such as the indefinite article in
English which has 16 functions in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary
English. Notice the following example:

‫ الحرف السادس والعشرون من حروف الهجاء وهي على ثلثة‬:‫ الهاء‬- ‫هــ‬
:‫أوجه‬

:‫أن تكون ضميرا ً للغائب وتستعمل في موضعي النصب والجر نحو‬ -

...(‫)قال له صاحبه وهو يجاوره‬

(‫أن تكون حرفا ً للغيبة )للغائب( وهي الهاء )في إّياه‬ -

‫ وهي اللحقة لبيان حركة أو حرف‬9‫أن تستعمل ساكنة في السكت‬ -

.(‫نحو )ما هيه( و )هاهناه( و )وازيداه‬

The lexicographer here doesn't mention a very important feature of this

article, which is the fact that it is one of the affixes in Arabic morphology10.

8 See the first paragraph, page 6

.‫ وهذا ما يسمى هاء السكت في العربية‬9
(‫ حروف الزيادات في الصرف العربي مجموعة في الكلمة )سألتمونيها‬10
 On the other hand, this was mentioned in Al Mukhtar, and the function of
the letter was explained in a more detailed manner.

‫ والهاء تزاد‬....‫)الهاء( حرف من حروف المعجم وهي من حروف الزيادات‬

.‫في كلم العرب على سبعة أضرب‬

Seven functions of the letter (see the appendix), in contrast with only three
function in Munjid. This is also a result of the lack of clear theory in the
work of the Arabic Lexicographer, since there is no explanation for the
difference in the amount of information given for difference articles. Being
succinct and to the point in definitions and the grammatical illustrations
does not by any means imply that a lexicographer is allowed to cut vital
information and deprive the learner from having a complete understanding
of the language he is learning.

Illustrative Examples
This section discusses the frequency of illustrative examples in both
dictionaries. Examples include phrases, multi-word units idioms, and real-
life examples. The last category, i.e. real-life or natural example, is not
literary natural, unless it is a quotation, as a verse from thr Quran or a
sentence in a Hadith. Otherwise, the examples are created by the author
because there is no corpus from which he can pick examples.

A)Al Mukhtar

A lot of examples were provided in this dictionary. A concentrated portion

was from Hadith, other sources of course are the Quran, poetry, and speech
of the Arabs. Other examples, as I have noted above are written by the
compiler of the dictionary, since his work is not corpus-based.

The following table will illuminate part of the examples used in the
dictionary:

Multi-word units Idioms Real-life examples or Quotations

‫ راهب النصارى – أبيل‬/‫أبيل‬
.‫ عيسى عليه السلم‬:‫البيليين‬
‫ أبيت اللعن )تحية للملوك في‬:‫أبى‬
11
(‫الجاهلية‬
‫ ل أبا لك )عبارة‬:‫أب‬ ‫ تأبل آدم عليه السلم على‬:‫تأّبل‬
(‫للمدح‬ ‫ابنه كذا عاما ً ل يصيب حواء‬.
‫ استأثر الله بفلن‬.... :‫أثر‬ ‫ كل مال أديت زكاته فقد‬:‫البلة‬
‫إذا مات ورجي له الغفران‬
 ‫‪.‬ذهبت أبلته‬

‫أرض أريضة‪ :‬أي زكّية بّينة‪ ,‬أو‬ ‫آِثر )نعت(‪ :‬قال عمر‪ :‬فما حلفت فحص‪ - :‬ليس له مفحص‬
‫المعجبة للعين‬ ‫)ذاكرا ً أو آثرا ً )أي ناقل ً عن غيري قطاة )أي ليس له حق ول‬
‫بجزء صغير(‬
‫عفيف الطعمة‪ :‬أي رزقه حلل‬ ‫"أبابيل‪ :‬أي فرقًا‪" :‬طيرا ً أبابيل سكت ألفا ً ونطق خلفا ً‬

‫تطّعم تطعم‪ :‬أي ذق حتى تشتهي‬ ‫فلن أبو عذرتها‪ :‬أي من‬ ‫الثم‪ (2 :‬الخمر‬
‫وتأكل‬ ‫قال الشاعر‪ :‬شربت الثم حتى ضل افتضها‬
‫عقلي‬
‫كذاك الثم تذهب بالعقول‬

‫ما ألح ول أنجح‬ ‫)رجل( صفر اليدين‬ ‫أدم )فعل( أي أصلح‬

‫أدم الله بينهما أي أصلح‪-‬‬
‫وألف‪ ,‬وفي الحديث‪" :‬لو‬
‫نظرت إليها فإنه أحرى أن‬
‫‪".‬يؤدم بينهما‬
‫أعذر من أنذر‬ ‫حر‪ :‬قبيل الصبح" )إل آل لوط الصفران‪ :‬الذهب‬ ‫الس َ‬
‫حر والزعفران‬
‫)نجيناهم بس َ‬
‫أكسفا ً وإمساكًا‪ :‬أي أعبوسا ً مع‬ ‫ما ً ومنه قوله ندم ندامة الكسعي‬
‫بخع نفسه‪ :‬أي قتلها غ ّ‬
‫بخل‬ ‫تعالى‪) :‬فلعلك باخع نفسك على‬
‫)آثارهم‬

‫بدا‪ :‬في الحديث "من بدا جفا" أي طوى فلن عني كشحه‪ :‬أي التبختر‪ :‬في المشي يقال‪ :‬فلن‬
‫"يمشي الَبخترية"‪.‬‬ ‫من نزل البادية صار فيه جفاء قطعني‬
‫العراب‬

‫‪This table gives a "taste" of the sort of information found in Al Mukhar, and‬‬
‫‪one can see how useful leafing through the pages of this dictionary is in‬‬
‫‪enriching one's vocabulary and phrases in Arabic.‬‬

‫‪B)The Munjid‬‬

‫‪This dictionary is not very true to its name. Al Munjid means the guide, the‬‬
‫‪helper, the assistant, but it is really not. Illustrative examples were limited‬‬
‫‪in scope in Munjid dictionary, except at the beginning of some sections, like‬‬
‫‪), where some examples were given to clarify the grammatical‬ب( ‪letter‬‬
‫‪features of this preposition12.‬‬
‫‪11 This is an obvious example on how Al Razi gives background and‬‬
‫‪cultural information that are important to understand the sense of the‬‬
‫‪word.‬‬
‫‪12 See the section on grammatical information in this dictionary.‬‬
 ‫ حرف جر من معانيه‬-‫ب‬

‫الوظيفة مثال‬
‫النحوية‬
‫اللصاق أمسكت بالرجل‬:
‫الستعانة كتبت بالقلم‬:

‫المصاحبة اذهب بسلم‬:

‫الظرفية سار بالليل‬:

‫البدل باع الكفر باليمان‬:

‫التعدية ذهبت به إلى البيت‬:

‫القسم بالله‬:

‫السببية لقيت بزيد الهوال أي بسببه‬:

Nevertheless, you can stumble upon some examples here and there, only
when you strain your eyes looking for an example or an idiom. The
following table contains some of these very few illustrative examples:

Example Category
‫كنت على صوب فلن وأوبه‬ Idiom
‫جاءوا من كل أوب‬ Illustrative sentence
‫هو على بتات أمر‬ Idiom
"‫"قال له صاحبه وهو يحاوره‬ Illustrative example (from the Quran)
(‫اخترمته المنية )مات‬ Idiom
(‫رأيته مكتفئ اللون )أي متغير اللون‬ Illustrative sentence
(‫ وهو ابن بجدة المر )أي عالم به‬,‫عنده بجدة المر‬ Idiom
‫ أي جمع الكثير من الناس‬:‫جمع بالهوش والبوش‬ idiom

Taboo words
You can never find a taboo word in Al Mukhtar, not a single word. Even
the sexual organs of men and women were not mentioned, even the
euphemized words that allude to these parts of the body. The same is in
Munjid dictionary where you cannot find a single taboo word nor the sexual
part in the human body. This is expected, since it is in the nature of Arabic
(both standard and conversational), to be euphemistic and avoid sexual
explicitness. iv
Pictorial illustrations
Although the Munjid prides itself on being replete with pictorial examples
and illustrations, it has failed to serve the students properly. The overuse of
this technique was sometimes counterproductive.

There are 100 full-page pictorial illustrations in this dictionary covering a

wide variety of topics such as human races, transportations, insects,
aviation, animals, architecture, tools, and jewelry, just to mention a few.
These pictures are not clear since they are black-and-white drawings, and
they usually lack proper order.

I am confident that there wasn't any clear theory that guides the selection of
the pictures or the distribution thereof throughout the dictionary; hence the
results were not encouraging.

I have included some examples of these pictorial illustrations in the

appendix.
Conclusion
In one of the lectures in this course, a kind professor was invited to discuss
some ideas about lexicography and to air his deep concerns about itv. He
began his lecture by two assumptions:

-We live by words, don't we?

-We need dictionaries. Who doesn't?!

Our Arabic monolingual lexica are "linguistic treasuries, with long and
colorful histories". If spending time with a monolingual dictionary of
another language "will make you realize that speakers of other languages
see things differently, that their words shape, organize, and make sense of
the world in unfamiliar ways."13, then naturally our experience with our
native and traditional lexicon will change a lot in our attitudes towards
ourselves and others. It will shape our identities, usually unconsciously, and
will make one's national language a part and parcel of his ideological make-
up.

Lexicography in the Arab world is not on the right track currently, and it
requires hard labor and sincere efforts to 'make its presence felt' among
other linguistic disciplines in our universities.

I would like to extend my thanks to professor Rajai al Khanji for his

continuous encouragement and patience throughout the semester.

13 This quotation is taken from "Loving Lexica", an article by Adam

Serfass.
Endnotes:
i For more information, see: Heywood A., John, Arabic Lexicography, 1965.
ii Steiner, Roger, Lexicology and Lexicography (a course book), pp.10-11
iii For more information about Arabic Lexicography schools see: ‫ تحقيق أحمد‬,‫ تاج اللغة وصحاح العربية‬:‫الصحاح‬
1984 ,‫ الطبعة الثالثة‬,‫ دار العلم للمليين‬,‫عطار‬
iv See Farghal, Muhammad, Euphemism in Arabic: A Gricean Interpretation, Anthropological
Linguistics, 1995.

v He is Dr. Turki bin Khalid, professor of linguistics at the University of Jordan.