Lecture 2

Dictionary as a tool for translators

1.Why is it important to use
dictionaries?
2.Bilingual vs. monolingual
dictionaries
3.Use of dictionaries in the
translation process
Dictionary  is a listing of words in one
or more specific languages, often
arranged  alphabetically , which may
include information on definitions,
usage, etymologies, pronunciations,
translation, etc. or a book of words in
one language with their equivalents in
another, sometimes known as a lexicon  
 General and specialized dictionaries

include words in
supposed to specialist fields,
be semasiological, rather than a
mapping word complete range of
to definition words in the
language
 Prescriptive and descriptive  

reflect what is reflect

seen as correct recorded
use of the actual use   
language
 Why is it important to use dictionaries?

• dictionaries act as an important

reference tool for professionals, and
they certainly shouldn’t be considered as
a crutch for beginners 

• when working on a translation, you

need to consider each potential
interpretive option for a word in both
the source and target languages
 Bilingual vs. monolingual dictionaries
Bilingual dictionaries are often
specifically marketed to translators,
promising an easy way to look up a
word in one language and then find an
alternative for the translation.

When translating, you need to translate a

word’s meaning, not just find its
equivalent in another language.
Monolingual dictionaries
 good monolingual dictionaries
present a wide range of possible
meanings for each word and go
into the sort of depth that just
isn’t possible in most bilingual
dictionaries due to space
restrictions. 
 Use of dictionaries in the translation
process 
• The European Association for Lexicography
(EURALEX) devotes special attention to the problem of
“dictionaries from the user’s perspective”. Translators
make up one of the most sophisticated user-groups
and as such should be well-aware of and adjusted to
advantages and limitations of various dictionary types.
A translator should be able both to extract all the data
a dictionary provides and to recognize its contextual
flexibility.
 Mykola Lukash
a prominent
Ukrainian translator
and indefatigable
collector of Ukrainian
lexis and phraseology 
 
 M. Lukash who intended to compile a comprehensive
dictionary of the Ukrainian language drew his samples from
writings of different authors and oral folklore tradition. The
translator ventured to revive obsolete and dialectal words and
meaning both to explore all the resources of Ukrainian and
achieve adequacy to the original. Some of his translation
decision can be well-substantiated to the information
provided in modern dictionaries.
 Translation dictionaries present the first and the
quickest access to understanding a foreign language. Ideally
the translation part of the entry presents synonymic ranges
a translator can choose from, usage labels showing the
situational appropriateness of an equivalent and
illustrations exemplifying typical contexts and collocations.

The information found in the translation dictionary

often needs backing up by explanatory dictionaries both in
the source and target languages, thesauruses,
phraseological dictionaries, dictionaries of collocations, etc.
 Meet the challenge of the unpredictable 

Cambridge Management consulting.

Global competition, increasing pace of
change and new challenges on industry.

The Oxford Advanced Management

Programme. Presents global overview of
the building enterprise and its strategic
challenges .
 The English-Ukrainian Dictionary
compiled by M. I. Balla
10 meanings of the noun “challenge”

1) виклик (на змагання, дуель тощо),

2) сумнів,
3) юр. Відвід, відхилення (присяжних),
4) юр. Заперечення (проти чогось) у ході
судового процесу,
5) амер. Недопущення виборця до
голосування, 6) амер. Вимога анулювати
результати виборів, 7) претензія,
8) мор. Розпізнавальні сигнали (знаки),
9) оклик (вартового),
10) мисл. Гавкання собак (щоб натрапити на
слід ).  
 The first equivalent provided
seems to fit the context of the first
phrase - Прийми виклик
непередбачуваного.

Іди на зустріч
непередбачуваному
 Dictionary of Synonyms of the
Ukrainian Language: In 2 Vols. /
Словник синонімів української
мови: У 2 т. (1999) offers the
following synonymic range:
інтересний, привабливий,
небезінтересний.
Practical Dictionary of Synonyms of the
Ukrainian Language / Практичний
словник синонімів української мови
(1993) compiled by S. Karavans’kyi –
захоплюючий (дуже цікавий).
The final version is – Підготовка
до майбутнього може бути
захоплюючою   
 The definitions and examples in explanatory
dictionary can stimulate translation. Yet in each
case translators should analyze the context,
especially when the dictionary fails to provide
an appropriate equivalent or definition.
When a text to be translated is a
literary analysis or publicist one
the translator has to turn to the
contextual literary analysis
backed by the information drawn
from the lexicographical sources.
 Electronic dictionaries 
 
1. Definition
of an electronic dictionary
2.General information about
electronic dictionaries
3.Dictionaries on mobile devices
4.Online dictionaries
 Electronic dictionaries can be found in several forms,
including software installed on tablet or desktop computers
, mobile apps, web applications, and as a built-in function
of E-readers. Electronic dictionaries are gaining in
popularity with an increasing number of learners of second
language and the development of technologies that makes
it possible to develop new lexicographical on-line and
offline products meeting the demands of students,
lexicologists, translators.
 Electronic dictionaries may be divided
into two main groups: those intended to
be used interactively by people for
consultation or reading, and those
intended to be used automatically by
computers for various applications, for
instance in language technology contexts
such as machine translation .
 General information about electronic
dictionaries
Electronic dictionaries allow some extensive and
advanced searching of the dictionary text, and that
allows the user to get much information required;
but there is no certainty that the information
obtained is comprehensive and completely reliable.
 
Two obvious advantages are that limitations of
space (and the need to optimize its use) become
less pressing, so additional content can be
provided; and the possibility arises of including
multimedia content, such as audio pronunciations
and video clips.
 Publishers and developers of electronic dictionaries
may offer native content from their own lexicographers,
licensed data from print publications, or both, as in the
case of Babylon offering premium content from 
Merriam Webster, and Ultralingua offering additional
premium content from Collins, Masson, and 
Simon & Schuster, and Paragon Software offering original
content from Duden, Britannica, Harrap, 
Merriam-Webster and Oxford.
 Dictionaries on mobile devices   

Dictionaries of all types are available as apps

for smartphones and for tablet
computers such as Apple's iPad,
the BlackBerry PlayBook and the Motorola
Xoom.
Most of the well-known monolingual
learner's dictionaries such as the Longman
Dictionary of Contemporary English  and
the Macmillan English Dictionary.  
 Online dictionaries   
Several types of online dictionary:

• Aggregator sites: TheFreeDictionary.com and

Dictionary.com

•'Premium' dictionaries : the Oxford English Dictionary

•Dictionaries from a single publisher: Collins Online

Dictionary, Duden Online, Larousse bilingual dictionaries,
the Macmillan English Dictionary, and the Merriam-
Webster Learner's Dictionary.

•Dictionaries available free from non-commercial

publishers : Algemeen Nederlands Woordenboek  (ANW)
and Den Danske Ordbog
The Free Dictionary
 Learner`s dictionaries.
Educational lexicography
1.Educational lexicography.
Learner`s dictionary
2.Typology of lexicographic works
3.General principles of educational
lexicography
4.Classification of Learner`s
dictionaries. Vocabulary of
Learner`s dictionaries
Typology of lexicographic works:

Dictionary for learners:

- for native speakers

- for foreign learners
 Dictionaries for language
teachers :

- for teaching native speakers

- for teaching foreign students

Electronic educational lexicography:

- native language lexicography

- foreign language lexicography
 Lexicographic work can contain
additional information about:

- frequency of head unit

- spelling
- grammar
- syntagmatic links
- concepts of active and
passive vocabulary
General principles:

• Full correspondence to the stage

of teaching, knowledge level. Age.
psychological characteristics of
student categories
•
Compiling a series of
interrelated dictionaries

•
Transparent definitions,
given in simple,
understandable language
• Lexical units should be presented
hierarchically
• Dictionaries using analogies,
grouping, ideographic description of
words and phrases, their
paradigmatic links: synonymous,
antonymous, homonymous, hypo- and
hyperonymous
• Examples should be supplied with
cultural information

• Illustrate educational dictionary

with pictures, photographs, tables
and diagrams
• An educational dictionary
should be printed with
large readable font
Student`s Dictionary
of
Anglo – Saxon
by H. Sweet
Hornby`s Advanced
Learner`s
Dictionary of
Current English
(Oxford University
Press)
 Classification of Learner`s
dictionary:

• the scope of the word list

• the nature of information
provided
 Aspects of vocabulary:
• explanatory dictionaries
• dictionaries of collocations

• derivational dictionaries
• synonymic, antonymic
 Longman
Dictionary of
Contemporary
English
(LDCE)
 Macmillan
English
Dictionary for
Advanced
Learners
 Collins
COBUILD
Advanced
Dictionary