Abstract
M.A.
The objectives of the study was the treatment of needlework terms in four Afrikaans monolingual dictionaries, viz. Nasionale Woordeboek (NAS), Verklarende Afrikaanse Woordeboek (VAW), Verklarende Handwoordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal (VAW) and the exhaustive Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal (WAT).
Chapter 1 focused on the semantic description of needlework terms. For this purpose definition types such as descriptive, genus-differentia, synonym, circular, extensional, genetic, functional and antonym definitions were distinguished. Polysemy and a separation in homonyms were also considered. Needlework terminology as a semantic field was introduced in
Chapter 2 and a list of terms given in Appendix A. A distinction was made between terms referring specifically to needlework and more general vocabulary items also applicable to needlework. The vast majority of the terms were found to be nouns, the remainder being verbs and adjectives. A small number of needlework terms were found to be compounds and derivations.
The main thrust of the study was Chapter 3, in which a semantic analysis of definitions was made with reference to the definition types distinguished earlier on. The genusdifferentia definition was found to be the type most commonly employed. It was moreover found that the differentia in particular could itself be analysed in other definition types. One or more synonyms formed a separate part of the semantic description. The occurrence of the various definition types as they were distributed amongst the various dictionaries, was expressed in a number of tables. No significant difference was found between the dictionaries as far a preference for a specific definition type is concerned. A number of microstructural elements, such as morphological and syntactic information, labels, etymological information and illustrative examples, and idioms containing needlework terms, were discussed in Chapter 4, and the idioms listed in Appendix B. The labels were found to be of two types, viz. subject and stylistic labels. The latter was limited to ongewoon ('uncommon'), while the former could refer to needlework, embroidery, knitting and textile usages.