Interpretation by Description in Old Dictionaries and Interpretation by Image in Modern Dictionaries (Al-Mu'jam Al-Wasit ) : Tools of War as an Example

Abstract

This research aims to study two types of interpreting the meaning of

the word in the dictionary. These are: interpreting by description which has

often been used by old dictionaries and interpreting by image which has been

used in modern dictionaries such as Almu’jam Alwaseet. This will be applied

to the vocabulary related to war tools which the Arabs in old times paid

great attention to and so they immortalized the words in their poetry and

dictionaries until modern times. This countries and companies competed in

developing, manufacturing and selling these weapons and even depending on

them to assure their strength.

The timitations of the study are the Vocabulary items of the war tools in

old dictionaries and in «Almu'jam Alwaseet« . The researcher used the applied

descriptive method in studying these vocabulary items and interpreting them

by description in old dictionaries and comparing this to interpreting them by

image in «Almu`jam Alwaseet«.

This research has two parts, The first is the role of the image in

communicating and interpreting the meaning. This included the definition of

the image linguistically and idiomatically and from a religious perspective.

The second part is an empirical study which included balancing the

interpretation of meanings of war tools by images in Alwaseet with the

interpretation by description in old dictionaries. The research concluded

some finding.

The most important of these is that the description was used more in

the interpretation of some vocabulary items and the image was used more

in others especially for those items which were used in the past but are no

longer in use. People have forgotten these tools so the image come supporting

description in interpreting these words.