Problems With Bilingual Dictionaries Noha AlAfifi & Ahd AlIfranji

Bilingual dictionary Bilingual dictionaries are dictionaries whose entries are in one language and their definitions are in another. Pinchuck points out that the dictionary therefore has limitations, but if used intelligently, it can be of great value, and indeed indispensable.

Bilingual dictionaries Their simplicity and brevity makes it easy for the learner to find the denotative meaning directly. They help you check your spelling, pronunciation, grammar, and word families. They give the phonetic alphabet of words. They provide you with examples that help you know how to use the word.

According to Pinchuck (1977: 223), the translator should bear in mind: (a) that a dictionary, and therefore also a bilingual dictionary, is always out of date; (b) that many of the recorded expressions are no longer in common use; (c) that expressions referred to as colloquial or non-standard may have risen into more formal use; and (d) that, most commonly, new expressions have come into use but are not yet recorded.  

The translator should also consider two things: Text type context

“The type of the text”: If the students know about what a text speaks, they can guess the needed meaning whether it is legal, medical, religious,..etc. “The context”: If a polysemous word is in context, the context helps us in determining its meaning and that by looking on what precedes and follows it. For example: She cannot bear children.

Problems of using bilingual dictionaries One-to-many and many-to-one correspondence. Homonymy. Polysemy. Ambiguity. Idioms. Collocations.

Difference between one to one correspondence and one to many\ many to one correspondence. One to one correspondence: finding one equivalence in the TL that perfectly describe the SL word. e.g. dictionary : قاموس One to many correspondence: finding more than one meaning in the TL that describe the SL word depending on the context.

Homonymy Lexical items that are identical in form (pronunciation and spelling) but different in meaning. The meanings of these words are far apart from each other, and not obviously related to each other in any way, such as: Bat For example: the word “bank” Bank of a river: ضفة النهر Commercial bank: بنك Bank of seats : صف من المقاعد

Polysemy Having several meaning, all derived from the same idea or concept. For example: head, foot, run. Head: refers to the object on top of your body, or top of a glass of Pepsi, or on top of a company or department. Or foot: of a person, or bed, or mountain. Or run: (a person runs, colors run and water runs).

Polysemy vs homonymy in a bilingual dictionary Homonymy: different meaning in different entries. Lie: make an untrue statement. Lie: put oneself in a resting position. Polysemy: all meanings are written in the same entry. Face:the front of the head. a surface of a thing. a person’s countenance.

Ambiguity words that can be interpreted in many different ways with different meanings. This is due to ambiguity of the meaning of the lexical item in the context of a specific sentence. E.g.: she cannot bear children. In order to select the right equivalence for ambiguous words, translators should use a reverse look up. For example, if the user uses a bilingual dictionary from English to Arabic and he finds an ambiguity, he can look up in the Arabic- English dictionary.

E.g.: A good life depends on a liver – Liver may be an organ or simply a living person. Foreigners are hunting dogs – It is unclear whether dogs were being hunted, or foreigners are being spoken of as dogs.

Idioms Group of words in which the meaning cannot be explained in terms of the habitual meaning of the words. Example: dead as a dodo: فاقد للاحساس

Collocations Group of two or more words that usually go together. Example: - make tea - Do homework. - Make progress.

Thank you.