Definition in Mutahhar Al-Eryani's The Yemeni Dictionary of Language and Heritage: Its Characteristics and Types

Abstract

The research seeks to identify the types of lexical definitions that Al- Eryani followed in explaining the linguistic entries in his dictionary, and to clarify the characteristics of those definitions and explanations, using the descriptive inductive method. The nature of the research required that it be divided into a preface, an introduction, two chapters, a conclusion, and a list of sources and references. The introduction dealt with the concept of lexical definition, dialect, biography of the author, and summary of The Yemeni Dictionary of Language and Heritage. The first chapter examined the characteristics of definition. The second chapter examined the types of definition, and it has four axes: nominal definition, logical definition, technical definition, and definition of movement accompaniments. The conclusion included the most important results of the research. Finally, a list of sources and references. The research reached a number of results, including: Al-Eryani did not limit his definition and explanation of his linguistic material to what he transmitted from the common people, but rather he used what he heard himself, or what was used in his local dialect, which makes Al-Eryani a compiler of the dictionary and a linguistic source at the same time. A single definition may include several types of definitions. For example, it is defined by synonyms, antonyms, context, and so on, in a desire to explain the meaning and facilitate it for the reader, by all possible means.