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Bilingual Lexicography: Translation Dictionaries
Abstract
The present chapter examines the peculiarities of lexicography linking two languages. It addresses the following broad issues: Can bilingual dictionaries legitimately be called translation dictionaries? What language pairs do they normally cover? Who uses them? What are the most persistent problems faced by bilingual lexicography and what time-honored theoretical assumptions are they grounded in? Why is lexicographic equivalence a problematic notion? How is the bilingual dictionary currently changing and what is its future likely to be? The discussion is preceded by a few words of general introduction.
... We will strive towards a procedure that will help us to extract the best equivalent pairs from sets of potential equivalent pairs, from the perspective of form, meaning and use. The equivalence types defined by us are aimed to cross-cut through lexicographic constructs proposed in the literature, such as cognitive and translational equivalents (Piotrowski 1994, 2011, Adamska-Sałaciak 2014, Heja 2016. The former are general ones which first come to the mind of a bilingual speaker (even without any context) and usually fit many translation contexts. ...
... Equivalence is defined for three major domains: form, meaning and use (cf. Piotrowski 1994, Svensén 2009, Adamska-Sałaciak 2014. We decided to break them up into smaller pieces, called equivalence features. ...
Though the interest in use of wordnets for lexicography is (gradually) growing, no research has been conducted so far on equivalence between lexical units (or senses) in inter-linked wordnets. In this paper, we present and validate a procedure of sense-linking between plWordNet and Princeton WordNet. The proposed procedure employs a continuum of three equivalence types: strong, regular and weak, distinguished by a custom-designed set of formal, semantic and translational features. To validate the procedure, three independent samples of 120 sense pairs were manually analysed with respect to the features. The results show that synsets from the two wordnets linked by interlingual synonymy relation have a greater number of equivalents than those linked through interlingual partial synonymy or interlingual hyponymy relations. Even synsets linked via interlingual synonymy may have pairs of lexical units which are only weak equivalents. More-fine grained sense linking enhances the usefulness of the mapped wordnets as a bilingual lexicon for translators or researchers.
... Other things being equal, the more challenging phase ison the one handthe one involving the language in which one is less proficient, andon the other handproduction as opposed to reception. The more 'natural' dictionaries to use in translation are bilingual rather than monolingual dictionaries (Tarp, 2004, Augustyn, 2013, Adamska-Sałaciak, 2015; however, monolingual dictionaries, including specialized collocation dictionaries, may be more appropriate in post-editing. ...
This paper examines the implications of AI and machine translation on traditional lexicography, using three canonical scenarios for dictionary use: text reception, text production, and text translation as test cases. With the advent of high-capacity, AI-driven language models such as OpenAI’s GPT-3 and GPT-4, and the efficacy of machine translation, the utility of conventional dictionaries comes under question. Despite these advancements, the study finds that lexicography remains relevant, especially for less-documented languages where AI falls short, but human lexicographers excel in data-sparse environments. It argues for the importance of lexicography in promoting linguistic diversity and maintaining the integrity of lesser-known languages. Moreover, as AI technologies progress, they present opportunities for lexicographers to expand their methodology and embrace interdisciplinarity. The role of lexicographers is likely to shift towards guiding and refining increasingly automated tools, ensuring ethical linguistic data use, and counteracting AI biases.
... In this case, bilingual or explanatory dictionaries are used. In bilingual dictionaries the source language is a foreign one for the user and the target language can be either the user's native one (or the one better known in comparison with the source language) [4]. In such type of dictionaries we are supposed to find the meaning of the source language entry. ...
The paper outlines the results of experimental testing of the effectiveness of the principles of analogy, cognitive effects and the frame-cluster approach as a basis for a concise associative and dissociative dictionary, which is seen as a means of accelerated teaching of a foreign language based on the knowledge of the mediator language (here: English). It is a proven fact that analogy (including association) is a universal principle of thinking which enables one to correctly identify lexical units of the language of one group through the mediator. The correctness of involving the dissociative principle has been confirmed experimentally: it is based on memorizing the uncommon and different. Accelerated, interest-driven teaching of a foreign language based on associative and dissociative principles takes into account the resources of cognitive effects, which are cognitive illusions not controlled by consciousness. We have substantiated the expediency of distributing vocabulary in the proposed dictionary according to the frame-cluster principle, in which the learner constructs a situationally relevant phrase from cluster-organized associated forms. Repeated use of lexemes in communication provides a correction of errors over time. The experiment confirmed that such a dictionary can satisfy the needs of the modern information society, where multilingual communication is in demand.
The paper dwells on Latvian terminology of the 21st century. It is coined mostly on the basis of English counterparts. There are many sources of this new terminology: Latvian branch and domain experts, professional EU institutions’ Brussels and Luxembourg based translators and terminologists, professional Latvia based translators and terminologists. But numerous terms are coined by random translators, journalists, media representatives, tradespeople, e. g. small shop owners, car dealers, etc. Finally, numerous new nonce terms are coined on the spur of the moment by interpreters, some of which are picked up by their audience and thus gain currency. This leads to a very chaotic terminology scene: often one English term has many established Latvian counterparts (available in official databases), while some terms have none and the English term is used in a grammatically changed or even unchanged form. Still other terms have ‘established’ Latvian counterparts in the shape of overextended definitions. These terms often breach basic principles of term-formation and contribute to terminological chaos, ambiguity and legal uncertainty. It also makes the work of lexicographers most complicated: dictionaries and databases could standardize terminology, but the descriptive approach to lexicography presumes reflecting lexis that is being used. A ray of hope can be seen in a gradual acceptance of metaphorical terminology.
We present a new corpus-based resource and methodology for the annotation of Latin lexical semantics, consisting of 2,399 annotated passages of 40 lemmas from the Latin diachronic corpus LatinISE. We also describe how the annotation was designed, analyse annotators’ styles, and present the preliminary results of a study on the lexical semantics and diachronic change of the 40 lemmas. We complement this analysis with a case study on semantic vagueness. As the availability of digital corpora of ancient languages increases, and as computational research develops new methods for large-scale analysis of diachronic lexical semantics, building lexical semantic annotation resources can shed new light on large-scale patterns in the semantic development of lexical items over time. We share recommendations for designing the annotation task that will hopefully help similar research on other less-resourced or historical languages.
This paper measures dictionaries made by Polish Americans against the development of the Polish–English and English–Polish lexicographic tradition. Of twenty nine monoscopal and biscopal glossaries and dictionaries published between 1788 and 1947, four may be treated as milestones: Erazm Rykaczewski's (1849–1851), Władysław Kierst and Oskar Callier's (1895), Władysław Kierst's (1926–1928), and Jan Stanisławski's (1929). Unsurprisingly, they came to be widely republished in English-speaking countries, primarily the United States of America, for the sake of Polish-speaking immigrants. One might therefore wonder whether there was any pressing need for new dictionaries. There must have been, assuming that supply follows demand, because as many as eight Polish–English and English–Polish dictionaries were compiled by Polish Americans and published by the mid-twentieth century. The scant attention accorded this topic suggests a chronological approach to these dictionaries is in order, firstly, to blow the dust from the tomes; secondly, to establish their filial relationships; and, lastly, to evaluate their significance for the bilingual dictionary market.
A headword's meaning develops along two paths in bilingual dictionaries: intralinguistic meaning and interlinguistic meaning, the former defined by the headword's linguistic system while the latter shown by its translation(s). The semantic differences between the headwords and their translations in signification, and in syntagmatic and associative relations, indicate that partial equivalences in bilingual dictionaries are in fact solid and authentic, and are thus prevalent. Based on a new classification of meaning developed from Saussure's value hypothesis, we have identified 18 possible types of partial equivalences. Bilingual dictionaries may choose to compensate for the partial equivalences through translation methods and dictionary devices according to users’ needs, types of the dictionary and evidence provided by the corpus.
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. © 2017 Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. All rights reserved.
This paper presents the results of large-scale noun synset mapping between plWordNet, the wordnet of Polish, and Princeton Word-Net, the wordnet of English, which have shown high predominance of inter-lingual hy-ponymy relation over inter-synonymy relation. Two main sources of such effect are identified in the paper: differences in the methodologies of construction of plWN and PWN and cross-linguistic differences in lexi-calization of concepts and grammatical categories between English and Polish. Next, we propose a typology of specific gaps and mis-matches across wordnets and a rule-based system of filters developed specifically to scan all I(inter-lingual)-hyponymy links between plWN and PWN. The proposed system , it should be stressed, also enables one to pinpoint the frequencies of the identified gaps and mismatches.
p>Abstract: The ideophone, a word class not unique to but highly characteristic of the Bantu languages, presents particular challenges in both monolingual and bilingual lexicography. Not only is this part of speech without a counterpart in most other languages, the meaning of ideophones is highly elusive. In this research article these challenges are studied by means of an analysis of the treatment of ideophones in a corpus-driven Zulu–English school dictionary project.
Keywords: LEXICOGRAPHY, DICTIONARY, BILINGUAL, CORPUS, FREQUENCY, BANTU, ZULU (ISIZULU), ENGLISH, IDEOPHONE, SEMANTIC IMPORT, PARAPHRASE, PART-OF-SPEECH MISMATCH
Samenvatting: De lexicografische behandeling van ideofonen in Zoeloe. De ideofoon, een woordklasse die niet uniek maar wel heel karakteristiek is voor de Bantoetalen, is een echte uitdaging in zowel de monolinguale als bilinguale lexicografie. Niet enkel heeft deze woordklasse geen equivalent in de meeste andere talen, de betekenis van ideofonen is heel moeilijk vast te leggen. In dit onderzoeksartikel worden deze uitdagingen onderzocht aan de hand van een analyse van de behandeling van ideofonen in een corpus-gedreven Zoeloe–Engels schoolwoorden-boekproject.
Sleutelwoorden: LEXICOGRAFIE, WOORDENBOEK, TWEETALIG, CORPUS, FRE-QUENTIE, BANTOE, ZOELOE, ENGELS, IDEOFOON, SEMANTISCHE LADING, PARAFRASE, VLOEKENDE WOORDKLASSEN</p
This article examines the role of translation equivalents in the context of foreign language vocabulary teaching and learning. While current beliefs about vocabulary acquisition in typical communicative-approach foreign language classrooms overwhelmingly discourage or stigmatize translation as a learning strategy, a small but growing number of SLA researchers are now questioning this overt ban on translation to reassess the principled use of the learner's first language. Frequency-dictionaries show that foreign language teaching materials focus heavily on lexical units that can be visualized (in order to avoid the need for translation) and do not represent the most frequently occurring vocabulary in spoken and written texts. Recent research on vocabulary acquisition and frequency effects in conjunction with a reorientation of learning objectives from communicative competence towards literacy call for a reassessment of the role of translation equivalents and bilingual dictionary practice for effective vocabulary acquisition.
The lexicons of natural languages are not isomorphic. Reasons for the anisomorphism can be sought on three interrelated planes: language structure, extralinguistic reality, and conceptualisation. Simply put, the relevant differences may reside in the language, the world, the mind, or any combination of these. As a result, what goes under the name of lexicographic equivalence is a rather heterogeneous category. Growing awareness of this fact has resulted over the years in the creation of several tentative typologies of equivalence, one of which is presented below, together with a brief discussion of some strategies for dealing with imperfect equivalence. The remaining part of the article comprises a detailed analysis of a single problem encountered while preparing a new edition of a bilingual dictionary for Polish learners of English. The task at hand involved choosing a viable counterpart for a (Polish) semantic neologism from among a few (English) equivalence candidates. In the discussion, reference is made both to the metalexicographic categories introduced earlier and to such concepts developed by lexical (especially cognitive) semantics which may prove helpful in capturing the meaning differences between the source-language item and its competing target-language renditions. This micro-scale dissection of a single specimen demonstrates that we are still some way from being able to classify, let alone deal with, all the instances of imperfect interlingual correspondence that come our way. Persisting in the efforts to advance our understanding of the complex issues covered by the blanket term lexicographic equivalence thus seems crucial for improving the treatment of meaning in bilingual dictionaries.
The ideophone, a word class not unique to but highly characteristic of the Bantu languages, presents particular challenges in both monolingual and bilingual lexicography. Not only is this part of speech without a counterpart in most other languages, the meaning of ideo-phones is highly elusive. In this research article these challenges are studied by means of an analy-sis of the treatment of ideophones in a corpus-driven Zulu–English school dictionary project.
The arrival of the modern computer set in motion a series of lexicographers' dreams without equal in the history of dictionary making. Achieving the wildest of those electronic‐dictionary vistas has the potential to result in reference works beyond all recognition. This potential, alas, remains to be realised. The aim of this article is to analyse the major achievements and future prospects when it comes to ‘human‐oriented electronic dictionaries’ (for short EDs). In the first two sections the scene is set by revisiting this article's title. In the third section various ED typologies are presented, including a new three‐step access dictionary typology. The latter is used as a frame in section four, where forty pros and cons of paper versus electronic products are reviewed. This study clearly shows that ED dreams are indeed not without a solid basis. The next two sections then deal with the ED dreams proper, first in the form of a brief diachronic perspective singling out main dreams and main actors (section five), then in a much more detailed fashion sorting and scrutinising one hundred and twenty dreams found throughout the literature (section six). Section seven concludes with some observations on the way ahead.
A definitive guide to the long tradition of lexicography, this handbook is a rigorous and systematic overview of the field and its recent developments. Featuring key topics, research areas, new directions and a manageable guide to beginning and developing research in the field, this one-volume reference provides both a survey of current research and more practical guidance for advanced study.
Fully updated and revised to take account of recent developments, in particular innovations in digital technology and online lexicography, this second edition features:
– 6 new chapters, covering metalexicography, lexicography for Asian languages, lexicography for endangered and minority languages, onomasiological lexicography, collaborative lexicography, and internet dictionaries
– Thoroughly revised chapters on learner dictionaries, bilingual dictionaries and future directions, alongside a significantly updated third part on ‘New Directions in Lexicography’, accounting for innovations in digital lexicography
– An expanded glossary of key terms and an updated annotated bibliography
Identifying and describing the central concepts associated with lexicography and its main branches of study, The Bloomsbury Handbook of Lexicography demonstrates the direct influence of linguistics on the development of the field and is an essential resource for anyone interested in this area.
This classic research monograph develops and illustrates the theory of linguistic structure known as Cognitive Grammar, and applies it to representative phenomena in English and other languages. Cognitive grammar views language as an integral facet of cognition and claims that grammatical structure cannot be understood or revealingly described independently of semantic considerations.
This chapter discusses work of Plato and his predecessors. The basic notion of grammar on which all later Greeks built was developed by various nameless people between Homer and Socrates. In the second book of the Iliad, at the beginning of the Trojan catalog, the goddess Iris offers a comment on the variety of languages spoken by the allies of the Trojans, and near the end the poet mentions in particular the “barbarity” of the speech of the Carians. The Semitic alphabet as adopted by the Greeks implies a grouping of voiced stops in the alphabetic order (B, G, D) and also the nasals (M, N). Besides the schools of the grammarians, the fifth century BC saw the rise of higher education, the schools of the sophists. One sophist stands out above the rest for his interest in grammar, Protagoras, about whom tantalizing bits of information come from Plato and Aristotle, as well as Diogenes Laertius.
Because of globalisation, the requirements for bilingual LSP dictionaries have expanded dramatically, requiring more and more information for users. This chapter deals with the theoretical and practical approaches to introducing bilingual collocations and higher order phraseology in a bilingual term base/ dictionary for specialised translators and domain specialists, learners and professionals. The ARTES online bilingual LSP dictionary is described in detail, showing how it is adapted to target different users by providing both a term base and an electronic dictionary. Corpus data show that linguistic information must go beyond the terminological or lexical levels and include semantic and pragmatic information, stepping thus into the domain of discourse. Finally, solutions for implementing semantic preference and semantic prosody in the dictionary are put forward. © Editorial matter and organization Sylviane Granger and Magali Paquot 2012 © The chapters their several authors 2012. All rights reserved.
The paper attempts to answer some basic questions pertaining to lexicographic equivalence. These include the definition of
the concept, the types of equivalence that need to be distinguished in order to describe what is found in bilingual dictionaries,
and a brief comparison of the way equivalence has been treated in contrastive linguistics, translation theory, and metalexicography.
Despite the many problems identified in the course of the discussion, it is concluded that the equivalence notion is likely
to remain central to the concerns of bilingual dictionary makers.
The past is print dictionaries; the present is print dictionaries with some electronic versions of the same text; the future must be print dictionaries and truly electronic dictionaries, compiled afresh for the new medium, enriched with new types of information the better to meet the needs of the multifarious users. The paper sets out the various aspects of the bilingual dictionary which must be taken into account if the new dictionaries are to be different from (and better than) the old. A design for .a new electronic bilingual dictionary is sketched out, applying a frame semantics approach to corpus analysis. A demonstration of the prototype multilingual hypertext Dictionary of the Future will be given.
Meaning and the bilingual dictionary: The case of English and Polish. Frankfurt am Main
- A Adamska-Sałaciak
It works in practice but will it work in theory? The uneasy relationship between lexicography and matters theoretical
- M Rundell
Towards a general theory of lexicography (trans: Farina, D.)
- L Ščerba
Why we need bilingual learners’ dictionaries English learners’ dictionaries at the DSNA
- A Adamska-Sałaciak
Explaining meaning in a bilingual dictionary
- A Adamska-Sałaciak
Thinking about dictionaries: Current problems
- H E Wiegand
- HE Wiegand