What information can be found in a dictionary? Since this website is dedicated to academic writing, it will make sense to take a closer look at the process involved in production (encoding) of written language and the dictionary use typically needed in this process. Finding a different word to use instead of a known one (a.Confirming the spelling, pronunciation, meaning etc.On use, collocations, inflections and derived forms of partly known Looking up spelling, pronunciation, meaning, grammar, constraints.Looking up unknown words needed to speak or write.Confirming the meanings of partially known words.Looking up unknown words that are encountered when listening. Nation (2001) provides the following lists of typical uses: dictionaries of false friends, pictorial dictionaries, collocation dictionaries, idiom dictionaries, etc.)įor what purposes are dictionaries typically used?Įven though dictionaries can be used for many different purposes, a useful distinction that can be made is that between comprehension (decoding) and production (encoding) purposes. The specialized dictionary is thus typically a subject-specific technical dictionary, but other types exist too, e.g. For example, Norstedts Stora Engelsk-Svenska Ordbok (Norstedts, 2000) is aimed a covering some 135,000 of the most commonly occurring words of English.Ī specialized dictionary, on the other hand, focuses on a more narrow and specialized part of a language, for example the words used in engineering, medicine, aviation, experimental psychology, etc. The general dictionaries, as the name implies, deal with the more general side of one or several languages. Thirdly, a dictionary that deals with more than two languages is called a multilingual dictionary.Īll these types of dictionary can furthermore be divided into general or specialised dictionaries. Example sentences are often given in both languages. For example, Norstedts Stora Svensk-Engelska Ordbok (Norstedts, 2000) presents headwords in Swedish, whereas meanings (translation equivalents) are given in English. English-Swedish) is called a bilingual dictionary. Secondly, a dictionary that deals with two languages (e.g. For example, English monolingual dictionaries like the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDOCE) or the Collins Cobuild Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (CCALD) have English headwords, English definitions, and all examples and additional information are given in English. Firstly, a dictionary that deals only with one language is called a monolingual dictionary. One distinction that can be made is that between dictionaries that deal with one single language and those that deal with several languages.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |