Types of dictionaries that can be used by the

translators.

Tashkent state state university of uzbek language and literature

named after Alisher Navo’i
The faculty of Uzbek-English translation
Group 402 // Sadaddinov Azimboy
CONTENTS

 What is a Dictionary?
 Types of Dictionaries.
 Bilingual & monolingual dictionaries for Translators.
 Online dictionary resources for Translators.
What Is a Dictionary?

To write about different types of dictionaries first requires a definition of the term
‘dictionary’ itself.
“Dictionaries are alphabetically arranged works that provide information, usually in
concise form, about words or topics” (GIBALDI 8).

The use of a dictionary has different aspects: information, operations, users and
purposes. The information can be the meaning of a word, its synonyms,
pronunciation, or spelling, the etymology, or it can mean information about certain
facts or names etc. Under operations, actions like finding meanings, finding words,
translating something from one language into another language etc. are summarized.
As there are various kinds of dictionaries which list all sorts of things in sometimes
varying ways, the information given can be extremely different in one dictionary
compared to another.

First of all, this depends on the size of the dictionary. “To what extend the dictionary
can answer the questions of the user about any word of the language depends upon
the number of words to be covered in the dictionary”, and of course on the space that
each item is granted.

Second, it depends on the type of dictionary used. These different types of

dictionaries, or at least some of them, will be looked at closer throughout this report.
Types of Dictionaries.

There are general and special dictionaries. General dictionaries deal with the
words of a language as a whole. Special dictionaries cover only a specific part
of the vocabulary.

General dictionaries may be subdivided according to the language of

description into monolingual and bilingual or multilingual. To monolingual we
refer all types of explanatory dictionaries. Learner’s dictionaries
(e.g. Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English by A.S. Hornby) may
be considered a special type of monolingual dictionaries for general use. They
are characterized by simplicity of definitions, information on the usage of the
listed words.

We also refer to general dictionaries translating dictionaries, such as English-

Russian, Russian-English and others which do not define the words they list.
Special dictionaries may be subdivided according to the sphere of
human activity in which they are used or the functional variant of the
language: technical dictionaries, medical dictionaries, dictionaries of
law terms, etc; dialect dictionaries, dictionaries of slang. Another
criterion of division is the unit of description. We distinguish
dictionaries of foreign words, phraseological dictionaries, dictionaries
of new words, of obsolete words, dictionaries of synonyms, antonyms,
abbreviations, proverbs, quotations, surnames, dictionaries of
collocations, etc. According to the aspect of the word described special
dictionaries are also subdivided into pronouncing dictionaries
(orthoepic dictionaries), etymological dictionaries, spelling
dictionaries (orthographical dictionaries), dictionaries of frequency,
etc.

Encyclopedic dictionaries have entries for the names of individual

people and for places as well as for common words. They give a wide
range of general information (great inventions, names of highest
mountains, exotic animals, political doctrines, etc. They do not define
words but give background information about them.
Dictionaries also differ in the number of units they list (there can be big academic dictionaries, medial-sized and small
dictionaries (in one volume), in the order of units (alphabetical and non-alphabetical (thematic). Besides the ones mentioned
above, the most famous dictionaries are the following ones:

· dialect and regional dictionaries: S. Wright. The English Dialect Dictionary. 6 vols. Oxford, 1898 – 1905; N. Wentworth.
American Dialect Dictionary. New York, 1944.

· dictionaries of slang: E. Partridge. Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. 2 vols. London; H. Wentworth and S.B.
Flexner. Dictionary of American Slang. New York, 1975.

· dictionaries of foreign words: Mawson C.O. Dictionary of Foreign Terms. N.Y., Bantam Books; Bliss A.J. Dictionary of
Foreign Words and Phrases in Current English. London, 1966.
· dictionaries of neologisms: Berg P.S. A Dictionary of New Words in English. 2 nd ed. London, 1953; Barnhart C.I. The Second
Barnhart Dictionary of New English. London, 1980.

· dictionaries of abbreviations and signs: Partridge E.A. Dictionary of Abbreviations. London, Constable; Allen E. Dictionary
of Abbreviations and Symbols. London, 1944.

· synonymic dictionaries: Webster’s New Dictionary of Synonyms. Mass., Merriam, 1968; Roget’s International Thesaurus.
New York, Cromwell, Soule R. A Dictionary of English Synonyms and Synonymous Expressions. N.Y. Bantam Books.
·
antonymic dictionaries: Комиссаров В.И. Словарь антонимов современного английского языка. – М., 1964.

· phraseological dictionaries: Cowie A.P., Maskin R. Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English. Vol I. Oxford, 1975;
Boatner M.T., Gates J.E. A Dictionary of American Idioms. New York, 1975; А.В. Кунин. Англо-русский фразеологический
словарь (first published in 1955).
· dictionaries of collocations: Crowell T.L. A Glossary of Phrases with Prepositions. With Exersices: London, 1957; Гинзбург
Р. и др. Глагольные словосочетания в современном английском языке. – М., 1975.
Bilingual & monolingual dictionaries for Translators.
Having established that dictionaries are essential for translators, let’s take
some time to discuss two popular types of dictionaries: bilingual and
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. Whilst this might sound like a good idea,
bilingual dictionaries are actually detrimental to a good translation.
Bilingual dictionaries assume that each word has a direct replacement in the
other language, but in reality this just isn’t the case. As we discussed above,
words have a wide range of meanings, and the context often dictates what
meaning should be inferred from a particular word. When translating, you
need to translate a word’s meaning, not just find its equivalent in another
language.

This is where monolingual dictionaries come in handy: 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.

When you’re proficient in both the source and target language (and if you’re
not, then you really shouldn’t be working on the translation!), then using a
monolingual dictionary shouldn’t be problematic for you to use, and it will
allow you a much wider range of options when choosing a suitable
translation.
Online dictionary resources for Translators.

Thanks to the internet, there’s a ton of dictionary-related resources that translators

can make use of, including sites where you can ask translation questions and discuss
the meaning of certain words in context. Below are a couple of sites that you should
definitely check out:

wordreference.com. This site has access to online dictionaries as well as a forum for
translators and language enthusiasts to debate various word choices.

proz.com. This webpage is specifically geared towards translators, allowing them to

network and improve their work through discussion. There’s also a wealth of
dictionary resources available to use, and you can discuss a difficult translation with
another professional in a matter of minutes .
Thank you for your attention!