Die leksikografiese hantering van sinonimie in die verklarende handwoordeboek van die Afrikaanse taal

M.A.This dissertation is an investigation into the lexicographical treatment of synonymy in Afrikaans explanatory dictionaries - especially the Verklarende Handwoordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal (HAT). It is divided into two chapters of theoretical discussion, a chapter of practical examples from HAT and a final chapter with conclusions and suggestions for improvement. Chapter two discusses the concept of 'meaning'. In order to arrive at an understanding of 'meaning', it is necessary to have a measure knowledge of some aspects of the theory. First of all there will be a brief discussion of the theory of reference and cognitive/ descriptive meaning. A lexicographer should describe the conceptual sense of a word. In order to do this he uses sense relations, namely hyponymy, antonymy and synonymy. These relations are interdependent. Hyponymy and antonymy will be touched on briefly, while synonymy will be discussed thoroughly. As far as synonymy is concerned there will be, among other aspects, a discussion of the concept 'synonymy', the difference between absolute and near-synonymy and polysemy and homonymy. Chapter three lists the lexicographical criteria in terms of which synonymy must be applied in a dictionary. In this chapter there will be a look at aspects such as the guide to the use of the dictionary (front matter), synonym definitions, the arrangement of synonyms, contextual information and a consistant cross-reference. The system according to which syonymy must be applied in a dictionary must be thoroughly explained in the front matter. In the case of synonym definitions every synonym must be taken up as a lemma and supplied with a lexicographic definition. The member of a synonym paradigm with the highest use frequency must be supplied with a lexicographic definition, while the other members of a synonym paradigm get synonym definitions. With reference to chapter three, chapter four deals with an evaluation of the application of synonymy in HAT. All the criteria in chapter three will be discussed on the basis of examples from HAT.A main conclusion reached, is that the criteria are not always maintained. In many cases the criteria are correctly maintained, but deviations of the criteria are, inter alia: not all the synonyms are taken up as lemmas; cross-references are not always correct and consistant; the lexicographic definition is placed with the wrong lemma; the members of a synonym paradigm are not arranged according to the highest use frequency. Chapter five gives a summary of the conclusions regarding criteria. There are also suggestions for improvement, regarding the application of synonymy in the case of multi-word lexical units and sublexical units. Lexicographers are working on a central data base for Afrikaans, The main problem with dictionaries, namely inconsistant cross-referencing, will be reduced if such a data base functions as the basis for lexicographic activity