|
Exclusive Articles
back to index
----------------------------------------------------------------
Bilingual Dictionaries
A bilingual dictionary as the name
suggests is a dictionary that uses two languages. Each of the
entries or words has a corresponding translated entry in the second
language. For example in an English-Hindi dictionary, the word phone
would have a corresponding Hindi word, doorbhash. A bilingual
dictionary that uses a language (apart from English) which non-roman
script can be sorted either in the native order of alphabets in that
language or in the Roman alphabetical order. Bilingual dictionaries
are generally useful for translation, since the basic usage of the
dictionary is for the purpose of translation. These dictionaries are
either mono or bi directional. A mono directional bilingual
dictionary translates from language A to language B, whereas a bi
directional dictionary does vice-versa also. A bi directional
dictionary is divided into two parts, each part containing word of
one language.
Bilingual dictionaries suffer from
multiple meaning confusions. For example in English the word
“Ticket” might mean a ticket to a movie, a ticket for a ride on the
bus or a ticket for traffic violations and conversely in other
languages these meanings might be denoted by different words. This
generally results in multiple entries for a single word in either
direction of a bilingual dictionary. Bilingual dictionaries are
available in various different formats viz. Electronic, printed,
online and phrase books. Electronic dictionaries are available in
form of CD’s that can run on a computer whereas printed dictionaries
are the standard age old classic hard bound book versions. Online
bilingual dictionaries are available on the internet for ready
reference, some are free and the others can be used with a
subscription. Phrase books are not dictionaries in the real sense
but useful in translation work to look up a group of words.
Usage of
Bilingual Dictionaries
When using a bilingual dictionary
it is very important to do reverse lookups i.e. look up a word in
language A - language B and again look it up in language B –
language A section. This will help in accurately identify the words
that you are looking for.
How to buy a
Bilingual Dictionary
Irrespective of what dictionary you
buy, the following three points should be given the prime
importance:
Organization of the
dictionary: How does the dictionary list irregular verbs? How are the entries
organized? How does it list plural forms?
Reverse Lookup:
Once you have looked up a word in
the language A - language B section, look it up in the language B –
language A section to avoid misunderstanding, using
clues to the different senses of the word contained in the
dictionary.
Never overuse the
dictionary: When you are trying
to understand something, look up the words only if you cannot guess
them. When you are expressing vocally or write try to express the
idea in a way by using the vocabulary you already know prior to
looking up a word or expression. Puritan guilt culture may have
habitualised you to look up all the words you are unsure of whereas
you should feel guilty if you look up everything, because in the
process you will learn lesser and lose sight of the bigger picture.
Learning a language becomes a chore instead of pleasure in this
case.
Size:
Big dictionaries are more comprehensive, but less likely to be used,
since they become a nuisance to carry around so that you may use it
in times of need. The first dictionary you get ideally should be a
paperback in the $10-$15 range, with about 100,000 entries. Later,
when you can afford, you can buy a bigger dictionary to keep at
home.
|
