Gloassaries and author dictionaries in Urdu: principles and problems

Abstract

It is heartening to see a large number of students working on gloassaries of literary texts and author dictionaries for their MPhil and PhD dissertations. But despite hard work the gloassaries compiled by these researchers sometimes lack in many aspects. The reason is a general lack of material in Urdu on glossaries, their history and the principles laid down for compiling such works. This research paper describes the definition and nature of gloassaries and author dictionaries along with a brief history of Urdu gloassaries. It also provides the readers with some basic information and rules governing the compilation of gloassries and dictioanries of terminology and/or dictioanries of technical terms. It also takes into account the problems practically faced by the scholars while compiling /editing such dictioanries/glossaries. Special care has been taken to explain every aspect with examples and especially examples from Urdu literature and glosaaries published in Urdu.