Lexicographic information cost

Lexicographic information cost is a concept in lexicography referring to the difficulties and inconveniences that a dictionary user perceives when consulting a particular dictionary or dictionary article. The concept was first proposed by the Danish metalexicographer Sandro Nielsen and is relevant to lexicographers planning and compiling dictionaries, to users consulting them, and to reviewers evaluating them.

A dictionary user always weighs the effort required to obtain information against the value expected from that information. The more easily a user can navigate a dictionary and understand its articles, the lower the information costs and, in turn, the greater the user's satisfaction. Conversely, high information costs tend to produce dissatisfaction and may cause users to abandon a dictionary in favour of a competing resource.

A typical source of elevated information cost is the extensive use of abbreviations and symbols to save space: condensed text is harder to read and its abbreviations must be decoded before the underlying data can be understood, adding effort at every step of the look-up process.

There are two general categories of lexicographic information cost:

Search costs

The effort required to locate an entry or piece of information within a dictionary.

 Search costs include navigating the macrostructure (the overall arrangement of
 entries), finding the correct headword or sub-entry, and using finding aids such as
 thumb indexes, guide words, or cross-references. Poor typography, opaque
 ordering conventions, and inadequate cross-referencing all raise search costs.

Comprehension costs

The effort required to understand and interpret the data presented within a

 dictionary article. Comprehension costs increase when definitions are written in
 unnecessarily technical language, when the microstructure (the internal
 organisation of an article) is unclear, or when heavy abbreviation obscures
 meaning. They decrease when examples, grammar labels, and usage notes are clear
 and well integrated.[1]

The concept is practically useful at every stage of the dictionary-making process. During planning, lexicographers can design macrostructures and microstructures that minimise unnecessary friction. During compilation, editors can evaluate whether condensation strategies (abbreviations, symbols, typography) save space at an acceptable cost to readability. During review, critics can assess a finished dictionary by asking how much effort a typical user must invest to obtain the information they need.

Nielsen's framework connects lexicographic information cost to broader ideas in information science, particularly the principle that users engage in a cost– benefit calculation when choosing and using information sources.

• Chartjunk
• Lexicography
• Microstructure
• Macrostructure
• Wikipedia:Too long; didn't read

• Nielsen, Sandro (1999), "Mediostructures in Bilingual LSP Dictionaries", Lexicographica: International Annual for Lexicography, 15: 90–113
• Nielsen, Sandro (2002), "Textual Condensation in the Articles of de Gruyter Wörterbuch Deutsch als Fremdsprache", in Wiegand, Herbert Ernst (ed.), Perspektiven der pädagogischen Lexikographie des Deutschen II, Niemeyer, pp. 597–608
• Nielsen, Sandro (2008), "The Effect of Lexicographical Information Costs on Dictionary Making and Use", Lexikos, 18: 170–189