Monolingual Dictionaries Research Articles

Semantics Analysis on the Relation of Meaning of Cultural Differences toward the Translation from Bahasa Indonesia to English

This article aims to explain how to translate the words of Bahasa Indonesia with the local cultural meaning, as sources language, to English, as target language. the mentioned words are taken from short story and would translate in the level og textual and referential level. firstly, it tried to find the meaning of the words based on the bilingual dictionary, Indonesian-English. Furthermore, they are consulted to the monolingual dictionary. finally the translation used is those accepted in target language speaking through the translation techniques, namely contextual conditioning.

Female Translation Students' Knowledge and Use of Online Dictionaries and Terminology Data Banks: A Case Study

This study aims to determine whether translation students at an undergraduate translation program have sufficient awareness of the availability and usability of online vocabulary and terminology search tools that can be of valid assistance to a translator. The study surveyed 50 female translation students of the Translation Program at Prince Sultan University, Saudi Arabia. The survey consisted of questions about knowledge and use patterns and included texts for translating between English and Arabic. Results show that although the students know and use a variety of online resources, they still lack in awareness of some of the very useful ones, and a small minority of the students does not use monolingual dictionaries at all. Analysis of the students’ translations of selected terms reveals that availability of excellent online resources is not enough to prevent mistranslations if the students cannot select the right equivalent. The study has implications for lexicographers about the dictionary features most frequently used by translators-to-be. It also provides pedagogical tips for translator trainers who should guide their students to making use of the full potential of online dictionaries and term banks in order to achieve better translation outcomes.

Investigating Students' Attitudes towards Pedagogical Dictionaries: A Study of Sudanese English Majors

This study purports to uncover the overall perceptions and actual dictionary practices among a sample of 160 Sudanese English majors. A questionnaire based on Bejoint’s (1981) classic study, with more recent modifications such as Hartmann (2005), is utilized. Results indicate that students are overwhelmingly aware of the crucial role of dictionaries in language learning. Also, while most of the subjects are convinced of the superiority of advanced paper- based monolingual dictionaries, they almost as frequently refer to the more accessible electronic and bilingualized dictionaries. Yet, on the whole, dictionary use is limited and is almost invariably associated with reading rather than productive language skills. More significantly, in tandem with earlier studies, the subjects of the present study employ the (monolingual) dictionary primarily as a decoding tool to locate definitions, to the almost utter neglect of such vital entry components as pronunciation, collocations and level of usage. Finally, the subjects manifest a marked lack of knowledge, both of ancillary dictionary matter such as appendices and abbreviations and the organization of definitions in the main dictionary entry. It is suggested that such ignorance is largely due to the exclusion of lexicography from university syllabi and teaching practices in Sudanese universities.

Investigating Students' Attitudes towards Pedagogical Dictionaries: A Study of Sudanese English Majors

This study purports to uncover the overall perceptions and actual dictionary practices among a sample of 160 Sudanese English majors. A questionnaire based on Bejoint’s (1981) classic study, with more recent modifications such as Hartmann (2005), is utilized. Results indicate that students are overwhelmingly aware of the crucial role of dictionaries in language learning. Also, while most of the subjects are convinced of the superiority of advanced paper- based monolingual dictionaries, they almost as frequently refer to the more accessible electronic and bilingualized dictionaries. Yet, on the whole, dictionary use is limited and is almost invariably associated with reading rather than productive language skills. More significantly, in tandem with earlier studies, the subjects of the present study employ the (monolingual) dictionary primarily as a decoding tool to locate definitions, to the almost utter neglect of such vital entry components as pronunciation, collocations and level of usage. Finally, the subjects manifest a marked lack of knowledge, both of ancillary dictionary matter such as appendices and abbreviations and the organization of definitions in the main dictionary entry. It is suggested that such ignorance is largely due to the exclusion of lexicography from university syllabi and teaching practices in Sudanese universities.

Bringing home the bacon! A contrastive study of the cognates bring/bringe in English and Norwegian

This paper highlights the value of a bidirectional translation corpus in contrastive studies in an investigation of the cross-linguistic relationship between two cognates in English and Norwegian: bring and bringe. Although monolingual and bilingual dictionaries prove to be excellent sources of information in respect of this relationship, the present study contributes further to our knowledge regarding the cognates’ conditions of use. Drawing on material from the fiction part of the English-Norwegian Parallel Corpus (ENPC), the study reveals that English bring is far more frequent than its Norwegian counterpart. By exploring the close to 500 occurrences of the two words in original and translated texts, it becomes clear that the two verbs have a relatively low Mutual Correspondence. That is, overall, they only correspond to each other in translation in roughly 20% of the cases. This low correspondence rate is surprising, given the fact that we are looking at verbs stemming from the same origin in two closely related languages. The corpus correspondences suggest that there may be at least two main reasons for this. First, Norwegian bringe may be considered more formal than English bring and there is thus a preference for using less formal verbs in Norwegian to express the meaning of bring, notably the multi-word verbs ha med (REFL) ‘have with (REFL)’, ta med (REFL) ‘take with (REFL)’ and komme med ‘come with’. Second, English bring is more versatile than Norwegian bringe, particularly in the sense that it more readily forms part of phrasal verbs and fixed phrases. It is also the case that English bring has come to be used with a wider range of meanings than Norwegian bringe, as attested in the dictionaries consulted. These ‘extra’ meanings include ‘initiate legal action against someone’ and ‘force oneself to do something (unpleasant)’; however, neither of these meanings is particularly salient in the current data. The findings underline the role a parallel corpus such as the ENPC can play in shedding light on contrastive nuances that contribute to a broader understanding of cross-linguistic relationships.

Análisis semántico lexical y terminológico

En este artículo de revisión, presentamos algunos de los procedimientos utilizados tanto en semántica léxica como en terminología con el fin de definir y describir las unidades lingüísticas y terminológicas. Estos análisis sirven de fundamento a los estudiantes o profesionales deseosos de iniciar proyectos de creación de diccionarios o terminologías monolingües, bilingües o multilingües. En primer lugar, introducimos los conceptos de lexicología y de terminología para luego explicar dichos análisis. Cada uno de ellos emplea un vocabulario preciso. Así, en el campo de la semántica, los autores hablan de un análisis semántico o semántico lexical que tiene como objetivo el de describir la significación de las palabras. En terminología, por el contrario, hacen referencia principalmente a un análisis conceptual. Finalmente, concluimos citando posibles aplicaciones que derivan de estas teorías y por medio de las cuales podrían ser profundizadas la competencia léxica y la competencia metalingüística podrían ser profundizadas.

Terminology and Labelling Words by Subject in Monolingual Dictionaries – What Do Domain Labels Say to Dictionary Users ?

Abstract The paper focuses on labelling words by subject in a non-specialized dictionary. We compare the existing monolingual dictionaries of Czech and their ways of labelling terms of medicine and related fields; besides apparent differences between dictionaries, there are also inconsistencies within one dictionary. We consider pros and cons of domain labels as such and their usability in the light of needs and limits of dictionary users, with the aim to motivate further discussion on related issues.

Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL) in Indonesian Islamic Higher Education

Mobile phone use has been studied in its connection with foreign language learning by many researchers concerned in Mobile Assisted language learning (MALL) for more than a decade. In Indonesian Islamic higher education context, the issues of MALL has not been discussed extensively. To respond to this need, this study was aimed at investigating the following research question: 1) How do students use their mobile phone to learn English Monolingual Dictionary (EMD) application?; 2)How do students use their mobile phone to support English language learning?. This study employed the qualitative method using case study. To collect data, this study applied observation to find out students’ engagement in using the mobile phone for learning EMD application. Students participated in this study were 40 students. Findings showed that students were able to use the mobile phone to use EMD application in English language learning (ELL). They demonstrated skill in operating EMD application which was realized in their knowledge concerning, pronunciation, grammar and meaning information when searching a particular word. In addition, there were many features that students seized from the mobile phone for English language learning. They used audio feature to operate EMD from mobile phone to boost listening skill. Their mobile phone facilitated them to record video project presenting their vocabulary learning. These activities could be done by their mobile phone existence as an introductory effort toward MALL implementation in ELL in Islamic Higher education.

A New Perspective on the Access Process

Only 10 or 15 years ago, you had to spend hours, days or even weeks in libraries to find data of many kinds. Today, one has access to data at your desks at home. Therefore, the biggest problem for a real information society is not that you do not have access to the needed data, but that you cannot find it or that it takes so long to find it that you quit the search before finding the result. This is clearly shown by a Google search where you get so many results that can lead to a case of information stress or even worse information death. An easy search route and a short search time are important elements when trying to satisfy certain information needs. This topic is discussed based on two case studies: one concerning certain fixed expressions in seven Danish printed and electronic dictionaries and one concerning looking at different access attempts in six Afrikaans reference sources, including linguistic text books, books presenting the formal spelling and orthographic rules of Afrikaans as well as a monolingual dictionary. The paper argues that the applicability of the access process, as developed in lexicography, goes beyond dictionaries, illustrating the importance of a process not relevant within the field of linguistics but extremely important in the successful use of reference works.

The Impact of Monolingual Dictionaries on Reading Comprehension among Sudanese English Majors

<p><em>Vocabulary is recognized as a central aspect of mastery of the language and the use of monolingual dictionaries is regarded as a crucial tool in determining meanings of words in reading exercises. This paper aims at exploring the effects of dictionaries on reading appreciation among Sudanese students. The reading comprehension test was a replication of the text used in an experiment by Nesi and Meara (1992). Its rationale is simple: since monolingual dictionaries are designed to help in reading comprehension, it is reasonable to assume that dictionary users will score significantly better than non-dictionary users. The study sample comprised 50 students from a Public Sudanese university, with half the students carrying out the test using monolingual dictionaries and the other half without this aid. Dictionary users were asked to tick the words they had looked up and to write down their meanings. The meanings selected were matched with the original context, and judgment was made as to whether the degree of correctness had affected the scores. The results indicate that no statistically significant differences exist between the two groups. This conclusion contradicts the bulk of research and the researcher proposes a number of explanations for this apparent failure. It is suggested that the poor reference skills of the subjects is the major responsible factor.</em></p>

Online Corpus Tools in Scholarly Writing: A Case of EFL Postgraduate Student

Some studies have reported the positive outcome of using concordancers and dictionaries in (ESL) context. This study aims to examine how an EFL writer consulted with concordancers and dictionaries along with Google and Google Scholar when engaging in academic writing at university level. The researcher investigated a non-English-major postgraduate student corpus consultation over five months. The researcher provided a toolkit including corpus tools; concordancers, collocation dictionaries, thesaurus, Google, in combination with traditional reference resources such as monolingual and bilingual online dictionaries. The participant received a three-session training to consult with different resources while writing research paper. Real-time data, stimulated recall interview, participants’ writing and query logs served as the main sources of data. Results showed that the participant was aware of the applicability of each corpus tool. He could successfully solve 604 linguistic problems, and promoted his linguistic awareness. It is implied that corpus tools have the potential to assist EFL writers in proofreading and editing the surface levels of their writing.

Gender sensitivity in Isichazamazwi sesiNdebele

The article examines the treatment of lexical items related to gender in Isichazamazwi sesiNdebele (ISN; a monolingual Ndebele dictionary). Lemmata that carry gender sensitive overtones and what they reveal about Ndebele society are examined. Information for this article was gathered through an analysis of ISN lemmata and paraphrases of meaning of gender lexical items, as well as through questionnaires administered to ISN users, namely Ndebele teachers, Ordinary level and Advanced level Ndebele students, Bachelor of Arts students in Ndebele from tertiary institutions and Ndebele language lecturers. In the paraphrase of meaning of gender lexical items such as iwule, isifebe, impumangingene (which all mean prostitute), these terms associate anti-social behaviour with females, while exonerating their male counterparts. It is argued that, apart from novels, proverbs and folktales, the dictionary can also provide insight into societal values and attitudes from a gender perspective. Although a dictionary is supposed to be neutral and objective, its terms may reflect the ideology of the definer. The study suggests ways of improving paraphrases of meaning for lexical items relating to gender. The researcher recommends that lexicographers should use both the corpus and intuition in selecting lemmata. All this should be done in order to produce acceptably functional and objective dictionaries.

English

The present article reports on the results of a study which investigated the quality of translation equivalence for mental verbs as guided by two monolingual dictionaries namely, the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English and the COBUILD Dictionary, which employ two distinct defining strategies, Substitutability and Full-Sentence strategies respectively. Two parallel tests were administered to a group of Persian translation trainees. In one of the tests, the unknown verbs were defined by Substitutability and in the other, by Full-Sentence Strategy. The results showed that the participants performed significantly better on the test the items of which were defined by Substitutability strategy. The analysis of the test items revealed that both definition formats are conducive to kidrule strategy which guided them to select familiar words from the entry as a substitute for the search term. The application of this strategy was also found to depend on the position of information content, information load, in the definitions. Keywords: Equivalent; substitutability strategy; full-sentence strategy; kidrule principle; information load

Illustration in Explanatory Dictionary

This paper has treated the syntagmatic level in the explanatory dictionaries, in the monolingual and bilingual as well, since the syntagmata in the dictionary can be dealt with as being unnoticed, because it is considered as less important than explanations or definitions or equivalents (when the dictionary is bilingual). But, if, for example, it can’t be said in the explanation that a verb or adjective can be linked with words that refer to alive and not alive objects, than the user can see the illustrative examples (the weather became cold/cold (distant) from his friend; a cold room/a cold person; a man walks/ the horse walks ; the time passes/ the work goes on; ecën koha (ecën puna). Nowadays, when the society is developing so fast and thoroughly, the use and utilisation of monolingual, bilingual, multilingual, linguistic or encyclopaedic dictionaries, is the most common and inevitable phenomenon, because these works not only are recorders of the word and phraseology, of semantic and lexical fortune, national and international one, but also have their determining importance in the acquirement of the language and in the expansion of the linguistic and communicative competence, in finding an unknown word and its semantic definition, or in finding lexical and semantic units with which creates semantic, paradigmatic, word-forming and stylistic relations etc. The illustrative examples are helpful for the full exploration of meaning and serve as an additional instrument for the characterisation of the word, showing the area of use and the typical grammatical lexicon enclosure. They also prove the stylistic evaluation and grammatical characteristic that is given to the word. The main purpose of this paper is that by relying in the subject that is offered by these kind of irreplaceable works, it will treat the importance of the syntagmatic level of the explanatory dictionary as an important part for knowing the word and its significance, to increase the lexical and semantic competence of the users of these dictionaries.

Lexicography, or the Gentle Art of Making Mistakes

The man in the street’s attitude of mind towards dictionaries is that they are the true repositories of all the words in a language, and that they are both authoritative and objective – in short, dictionaries are perfect. By mainly referring to the early history of English mono- and bilingual lexicography, this essay explodes the myth of the perfect dictionary and shows that mistakes in dictionaries may profitably be discussed under two headings: lexicographical mistakes, i.e. vague or circular definitions and the so-called ghost words in monolingual dictionaries, and non-insertable equivalents in bilingual dictionaries; and socio-cultural mistakes, which are related to the often elusive impact of ideology on dictionary-making.

A Corpus-based Arabic Valency Dictionary: The Case of Fighting Verbs

Empirical pedagogical dictionaries aim at defining words in their context and presenting corpus-based evidence for eachword. They are meant to teach language learners how to use a word correctly. Valency, which describes the arguments of a verb syntactically and semantically, is of unique importance to pedagogical dictionaries. Unfortunately, Arabic lacks corpus-based valency resources. Thus, this paper proposes a monolingual corpus-based valency dictionary, for Arabic learners, covering fighting verbs. The dictionary explores the valency of fighting verbs in Sketch Engine’s uploaded Arabic TenTen corpus. The dictionary compiling method depends on both automatic word sketch function to identify the lexico-syntactic patterns of verbs and on threelayer manual annotation of corpus-driven examples to consolidate the results. Each verb entry, in the dictionary, displays (a) number; (b) phrase type; (c) semantic role; (d) grammatical function of its arguments and (e) definition of its different senses. At least, three annotated examples are provided for each verb sense to illustrate its usage authentically. The dictionary, integrating semantic and syntactic information, facilitates effective learning of new Arabic vocabulary.

ФИКСНИ БИНОМИ У ЕНГЛЕСКОМ И СРПСКОМ: ФОРМАЛНИ И САДРЖИНСКИ АСПЕКТИ

Предмет истраживања у овом раду су формални и садржински аспекти фиксних бинома у енглеском и српском језику. Корпус коришћен у овој анализи је речнички и садржи 300 фиксних бинома из енглеског језика и 170 фиксних бинома из српског језика. У циљу провере степена сличности ове врсте фразема у два језика, у раду се испитују: (1) ритмичке и фонолошке карактеристике фискних бинома, (2) најзаступљенији структурни обрасци и природа везног елемента, (3) степен садржинске идиоматизације фиксних бинома и (4) врста семантичке везе између његових чланова. Резултати истраживања показују да постоји висок степен сличности у погледу фонолошких, структурних и семантичких аспеката ове врсте фразема у два језика.

Comparative Study of English and Russian Phraseology: Component Theory of Identity and Difference of the Seme Organization

This research is aimed at comparative study of English and Russian phraseology and semasiology. It provides new scientific approach to the solution of one of the most complex problems of comparative study of the phraseological material of different languages on the semantic level. This work is of great importance as it helps to define similarities and distinctions in the language picture of the world and reveal the peculiarities of different languages. It also allows to investigate ways of reflection of reality into language which gives the chance to study language picture of the world.Our research suggests that component analysis method, based on the criteria of identity and difference of seme organization of phraseological units, provides a more complex and in-depth analysis of the description of the semantic structure of phraseological meaning in English and Russian. Over 1750 phraseological units have been analysed from monolingual and bilingual phraseological dictionaries, English and Russian explanatory dictionaries to describe the structure of English and Russian phraseological units, identify stable semantic correlations between them. We further reveal three types of interlingual phraseological compliances / non-compliances: semantic equivalents, semantic analogues and partial semantic analogues. The results show strongly expressed quantitative prevalence of semantic analogues over semantic equivalents. The quantity of semantic analogues exceeds the quantity of semantic equivalents by 0.5%, which can be explained by the peculiarities of the development of the two remotely related languages. Our further study could address the comparative investigation of ways of the translation of phraseological units with no direct equivalents (culture-specific vocabulary) in other languages, which would enable translators to provide the interpretation which is more or less adequate and close to the original meaning.

Bild im Wörterbuch. Zu visuellen Darstellungsformen in einem Lernerwörterbuch. Illustrations in a dictionary. Visual forms of entry presentation in a learner‘s dictionary.

In this article we will subject visual forms of entry presentation found in monolingual learner's dictionaries to critical contrastive analysis. The characteristics of dictionaries under discussion, especially those addressed to foreign users, make them an essential language learning aid. The aim of the analysis is to identify which entries are effectively illustrated to constitute an effectual support of a verbal definition, and how it is achieved. The results of the analysis will indicate the possibilities and limits of illustrating concepts in dictionaries.

Türk Dil Kurumu'nun yayımladığı iki dilli sözlükler: Boşnakça-Türkçe sözlük

Bilingual dictionaries are slightly different from monolingual dictionaries in terms of the points to be considered during the preparation process. For example, generally lexicographers prepare monolingual dictionaries in their native language but bilingual dictionary preparers should have a full command of target language apart from their native language and achieve equivalence between two languages. Besides, two languages partaking in different language families have to be known well within the scope of inectional morphology with regard to language typology. In this study, issues related to equivalance and inectional morphology in terms of Turkish statements made for Bosnian lexical entry in Bosnian-Turkish Dictionary published by the Turkish Language Institute are discussed. Equivalance: Since the expression “gozunu ferah tut” is not found in Turkish, his semantic content could have been dened as “gonlunu serin tut, gonlunu ferah tut”. Inectional Morphology: the expression of “yildirim hizla” which is partaking in statements made for lexical entry “brzopotezno” should have been used as yildirim hiziyla (Word hiz should have had possessive sufx.) Issues encountered within the frame of the two titles mentioned above will be analyzed in detail with examples.