Abstrakt
The aim of this paper is threefold. First, it aspires to discuss some general considerations regarding the treatment of word-forming elements in a bilingual dictionary.
It is argued that not few lexicographic decisions are to be made rather independently of fluctuating linguistic postulates and that the user aspect and the function of the respective dictionary should be paid special attention to. Second, the paper examines the quantity and quality of the information provided on affixes in two German-Czech dictionaries.
The analysis focuses on the entry components terminology, spelling, pronunciation, input and output units, sense distinction, translation equivalents, examples, cross-references, usage labels and productivity as well as on selectional criteria and information on affixes in the outside matter. The analysis reveals that the dictionaries under scrutiny show considerable weaknesses with respect to the information provided.
Third, the paper briefly describes the treatment of the German prefix/circumfix Ge-...(-e) in the emerging Large German-Czech Academic Dictionary, an output of a project pursued at the Institute of Germanic Studies, Faculty of Philosophy & Arts, Charles University in Prague. It is shown how contrastive analysis can be supplemented by a corpus-based view using new corpus-linguistic tools.