The Entry term
The entry term is “the main entry, by which the word or expression being defined (the lexical unit) is identified” (Landau 1984, p.76) and is presented in the canonical form. One of the most important problems of producing a dictionary is to decide which of the various competing forms with the same meaning should be the canonical form. A language has to have standard spellings or a preferred dialect to ensure that there is a standard. The East Midland is the standard dialect of English. As you have learned, Johnson‘s Dictionary set a milestone in the fixation of spellings of different words, before that fixation, spelling had varied considerably.
A more complex problem occurs, when bilingual dictionaries are made. A user who does not know a canonical form of the source language, should be guided from an inflected form to the canonical one by cross-references. Shorter dictionaries often use so called “run on”- forms. The word “feel” for example is run on by all its derivatives like “pavement” and so on. That creates problems when semantically important words are listed only as “run on”s although they should be listed as main entries. Landau gives the example “oppression”, which has been heavily used throughout the last years and received various meanings (Landau 1984, p. 76 ff.). If a derivative has a peculiar sense itself or is an important word it should be listed separately. Especially some particularly important adverbs often fall victim to the “run on” practice, because they are subordinated to adjectives.
Another terminological problem is that of a standard nomenclature. That means there are various terms for one word and not one definite one. More complicated even, the same term can have different meanings, for example among experts from different regions of the world. Dictionary makers try to solve this problem and find preferred terms by using corpora, following recommendations by authoritative specialist organizations or trying to use as specified and simple terms as possible (Landau 1984, 79 ff.).
As you see, there needs to be great thought and research behind choosing a proper entry term.
Exercise:
Decide which of the following terms is an entry term and which is a run on term in the Oxford Advanced Learner`s Dictionary! If it is a run-on-form in your opinion, what is its canonical one?
live
YES
NO
furiously
YES
NO
purposive
YES
NO
on purpose
YES
NO