Distinct terms for a monolingual dictionary and a bilingual dictionary Describe languages of the same or be regarded as same :
Specifically, I want to know how two categories of dictionaries can be organized and explain. The
first type of dictionary presents words alongside one or more possible definitions, constrained to a single language. No dictionary or textual file is allowed for the second type. The second type is a bilingual/multilingual dictionary where words are presented with their translated versions.
When i speak monolingually, I don’t automatically infer a dictionary of definitions. Also in general monolingual/bilingual feels excessively technical and I’d resort to them if the distinction I’m trying to make cannot be conveyed by a simple term or phrase.
A quick Google search shows me https://www.merriam-webster.com.uk. Is there anything that I should know about? When I type dictionary. com/, this is /the1st type of dictionary I’m trying to define while https://www.collinsdictionary.com. A dictionary is second type.
com/dictionary/english-german is the different type.
“Unilingual” dictionary is a dictionary with only one language. Bilingual dictionary are words which are written in the same language, and their divergent parts in one language.
What are some of them?
On A Practical Guide to Lexicography (2003), edited by Piet van Sterkenburg, the first type of dictionary is called dictionary.
For us, looking for a definition of ‘dictionary’ is looking for a definition of a prototypical dictionary. Is the prototypical dictionary the alphabetical monolingual general-purpose dictionary (as in alphabetical grammatically monolingual languages)? These examples are the use of one and the same language for both the object and the means of description, the supposed exhaustive nature of the list of described words and the more linguistic than encyclopaedic nature of the knowledge offered. The monolingual general-purpose dictionary…
contains primarily semasiological rather than onomasiological or non-semantic data, gives a description of a standard language rather than restricted or marked language varieties, and serves a pedagogical purpose, rather than a critical or scholarly one.
What makes
a general purpose dictionary so prototypical? It is the one that every household has, that everybody thinks first
when the word dictionary is mentioned, it is the one that plays the most important role in the society that produces it. If our
second type of dictionary are multilingual or translation dictionary, then that is why they are called Multilingual dictionary. (Page 3)
According to Zgusta (1971:294) the basic aim of translation dictionaries is ‘to co-ordinate with the lexical units of one language those units of another language which are equivalent in their lexical meaning’. On the microstructural level this function is realised by providing for a lemma in the source language one or more translation equivalents in the target language. (Page 67)
