Methodology for adopting the witness in modern Arabic dictionaries

Abstract

This paper is devoted to the study of the "citation", as an element, among
others, that forms the formal structure of the lexicological text. The importance of
this work stands on the role of the citation in the context of the linguistic elements
of the lexicological text.
The present study deals with the methodology of using the citation’', recognizing
the efforts made by the ancient Arab grammarians and the lexicographers as well as
the methodology followed by the lexicographer (both ancient and contemporary)
in his justifications to illustrate and establish the rule. This object implies the study
of other elements related to the main theme such as the example based on the
definition and contrast.
We have explored the facts mentioned above on the basis of a corpus made up
of : Lissan al-Arab of Ibn Mandhour and two contemporary and commonly used
dictionaries : al-Wadjiz and al-Wassit.