Sub-field dictionary

A sub-field dictionary is a specialized dictionary that has been designed and compiled to cover the terms of one (or possibly more) sub-fields of a particular subject field.

The typology consisting of these three dictionaries is important for a number of reasons.

The main advantage of sub-field dictionaries is that they can easily be maximizing dictionaries, i.e. deep rather than broad, attempting to cover as many terms of the sub-field as possible without expanding into several volumes.

Consequently, sub-field dictionaries are ideal for extensive coverage of the linguistic and extra-linguistic aspects within a particular subject field.

Secondly, if the lexicographers intend to make a bilingual, maximizing sub-field dictionary they will not run into the same problems with the space available for presenting the large amount of data that has to be included in the dictionary, cf.