For a detailed discussion of valency, see the website Valenz.

A valency dictionary is one that uses the valency of the lemmas as the primary criterion both in the macrostructure and in the microstructure. This usually has the following consequences:

• Each entry list comprises lemmas of one word class, typically verbs, adjectives and nouns.
• The macrostructure may obey a structural criterion, viz. valency classes. If it is alphabetical, valency class may be a criterion of lemmatization.
• In the microstructure, alternate valency frames in which the lemma may be used provide the criterion of subdivision.

Some valency dictionaries are structurally oriented, i.e. they are based on distributional properties of their lemmas. Others are more semantically oriented, i.e. they are based on semantic role frames rather that grammatical valency frames.

For each of the uses of the lemma as defined by the respective valency frame, the valency dictionary then indicates the meaning, either in the language of the monolingual dictionary or in the user language of a bilingual dictionary.

A comprehensive general dictionary of the kind whose microstructure is described in detail in the corresponding section comprises all the information that may be contained in a valency dictionary.

References

Hausmann 1977, ch. 7