Meaning And The Bilingual Dictionary

The topic of this book, central to the endeavours of bilingual dictionary-makers and metalexicographers, is how to transmit meaning across languages within the confines of a lexicographic work of reference. The issues addressed - including, among others, the status and typology of bilingual dictionaries, the different ways of overcoming lack of interlingual equivalence, and the difficulties involved in providing adequate examples of usage - are set against the background of recent theoretical perspectives on meaning and illustrated with problem cases taken from the author's own lexicographic practice.

This book gives an account of the linguistic principles that should govern the production of better bilingual dictionaries and is intended for linguists, lexicographers, librarians, and foreign language teachers. -- from Preface ([p. 9] from cover).

This stimulating new book, as the premier work introducing bilingual lexicography from a communicative perspective, is launched to represent original thinking and innovative theorization in the field of bilingual lexicography. It treats the bilingual dictionary as a system of intercultural communication and bilingual dictionary making as a dynamic process realized by sets of choices, characterizing the overall nature of the dictionary. It examines the dictionary and dictionary making by using a model of lexicography which stresses the three-way relationship of compiler, dictionary context and user and incorporates them into a unified coherent framework. Throughout the study, special focus is on English and Chinese bilingual lexicography. It will serve not only as a valuable guide to those interested in dictionary compilation and theoretical inquiries but also as a textbook for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in bilingual lexicography.

This stimulating new book, which combines dictionary research and linguistic knowledge, analyses the representation of meaning in business dictionaries from a pedagogical perspective. By examining in detail the macrostructure, mediostructure, access structure and microstructure of eight business dictionaries, this book presents interesting findings on how the dictionaries studied represent the 'noun-term', and on how they cope with the principles of new lexicography that aims at solving the needs of a specific type of user with specific types of problems related to a specific type of user situation. This exhaustive study, which makes simultaneous contributions to the theory of terminology, lexicography, and LSP teaching, defends a methodological confluence between LSP lexicography and terminology, and proposes some guiding principles towards the construction of pedagogically-oriented specialised dictionaries that must target students enrolled in LSP courses: Business English, Business Spanish, Business Translation, etc.

The topic of this book, central to the endeavours of bilingual dictionary-makers and metalexicographers, is how to transmit meaning across languages within the confines of a lexicographic work of reference. The issues addressed - including, among others, the status and typology of bilingual dictionaries, the different ways of overcoming lack of interlingual equivalence, and the difficulties involved in providing adequate examples of usage - are set against the background of recent theoretical perspectives on meaning and illustrated with problem cases taken from the author's own lexicographic practice.

Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: A (1,0), Middle Tennessee State University, course: Modern English Grammar and Usage, language: English, abstract: Most students don’t know how different types of dictionaries can be used. Some of them don’t even know that there are different types of dictionaries, although the knowledge of how a term can be best found in the appropriate dictionary is an aid for academic research and will be helpful on their future job. This paper is to inform not only students but also the general public who is interested in dictionaries about the use of dictionaries, as well as the many different types and kinds of dictionaries that are available to them. Dictionaries can help everyone to better understand the own language, or languages one is learning. This paper also contains a list of good monolingual and bilingual dictionaries with some sample pages. It also provides the explanation of certain types of specialized dictionaries which seemed interesting and important to the author.

The research has provided insights into the area of look-up behaviour, in particular, look-up strategies. A coding scheme of 51 executive, cognitive and metacognitive operations has been derived from the think-aloud data. On the basis of the codes, seven types of strategies were identified: Ignoring, Assuming, Minimizing, Checking, Paraphrasing, Stretching, and Maximizing. The results also indicated that the look-up strategies preferred one part (either L1 translation equivalents or L2 definitions) rather than both parts (L1 translation equivalents and L2 definitions) of the bilingualised entries. Four other factors i.e. language preference, language proficiency, target words and L2 definitions could also influence the use of the bilingualised entries in various degrees. Learners were shown to have common as well as different patterns of strategy use. Most learners attempted a variety of strategies while one learner repeatedly utilized one type of strategy. The frequency of strategy use for individual learners usually fluctuated when different types of strategies were used. Although a wide variety of strategies were used, not every strategy was used frequently. The most frequently used strategy was maximizing, which was used in 112 look-ups out of a total of 264. It appears that the learners repeatedly used strategies they are familiar with or they think are effective, and do not spontaneously try other strategies that they may know and that may be effective.