translation as well as in everyday life.
2. Dictionaries
If you look up the word 'dictionary' in a dictionary, you will get definitions along the lines of this: 'a book that alphabetically lists the words of a language, providing with descriptions or equivalents in other languages'.
There are many types of dictionaries, some of which are general and some of which are very specialized. They could all potentially be useful, but the two types of dictionary which are probably the most relevant ones are monolingual dictionaries and bilingual dictionaries. So we are going to focus on those.
2.1 Bilingual dictionary
A bilingual dictionary is a two-language dictionary which lists words from the source language and then provides the equivalents (i.e. the words that mean more or less the same thing) in the target
language). The most commonly used bilingual dictionaries in Denmark are the Gyldendals Røde Ordbøger.
Bilingual dictionaries are obviously useful in translation, but they can also be tricky, because they do not offer definitions but only the equivalents in the target language. Often, the meanings that are covered by one word in the source language are covered by different words in the target language. This means that when you look up a source language word, you quite often end up with more possible alternatives. Here is an example:
As you can see, the word 'ticket' covers a wide range of meanings, and each of these meanings is expressed by a different word in Danish. Here is an example from Danish to English:
Here, the verb 'dale' covers a whole lot of meanings which are expressed using different words and phrases in English.
The problem arises if you do not know what the different equivalents in the target language actually mean or how they are used syntactically. This is a problem that a lot of people actually encounter because they do not know which word to choose. And they do not understand the abbreviations used in the dictionary.
2.2 Monolingual dictionaries
Monolingual dictionaries are one-language dictionaries (like the Oxford English Dictionary, The
Oxford English Reference Dictionary, MacMillan English Dictionary, Politikens Nudansk Ordbog
etc.) which list words alphabetically and provide definitions or descriptions of the meanings and uses of the words in the same language. Some words just have one meaning:
Others, because, as we know, words tend to be polysemous, have more meanings which are listed as definitions:
This is, of course, very useful if you want to understand what the word means and want some information on how it is used.
Monolingual dictionaries may seem irrelevant in relation to translation since they do not offer any target language definition. Well, in fact, monolingual dictionaries may actually come in handy in translation – especially if you are faced with the problem described above under the section on bilingual dictionaries.
3. Codes
Dictionaries often provide more information than just the meaning of words. They also typically provide information on syntactico-grammatic aspects such as word class membership, degree of formality, pronunciation, subject matter that the word in question is typically associated with, register etc.
Now, this is a lot of information – and a lot of useful information – and this means that, in order not to have dictionaries that are thousands and thousands of pages long, dictionaries often use codes, symbols, and abbreviations to indicate this information. For instance, grammatical information information is indicated by grammar codes.
Here is an example of some coding from the big fat Gyldendals Røde Ordbog (Danish-English):
The codes and information we are interested in are 'et', 'pl.', 'd.s.', 'glds.', 'poet.', and' What do these mean? Well, here is what they mean:
• et: neuter noun • pl. plural
• d.s.: 'det samme som'
• glds: archaic style ('gammeldags') • poet.: poetic style
• ~: this basically means “insert word here” and is used when the word in question appears in an idiomatic or fixed expression
How do we know? We might guess some of them, while others may not be that obvious. Fortunately, all dictionaries contain guidelines for use and lists of abbreviations. These are typically placed at the beginning and/or the end of the dictionary.
This is all very nice, but the thing is that different dictionaries often use different codes, and not all of the codes are transparent. This means that you have to take care to be absolutely sure that you know what the codes mean. Therefore, it is a good idea to look them up when you use the dictionary in question till you are absolutely sure you know what they mean.
In fact, it is a very good idea to take some time getting acquainted with your dictionaries by reading through the guidelines of use and the lists of codes and abbreviations when you buy a new dictionary or when you use a dictionary for the first time. It certainly is a good idea to be acquainted with your dictionaries before the exam.
4. Structure of entries
While dictionaries use different codes and slightly different formats, their entries do, at least, follow more or less the same structural configurational principles.
Most dictionaries explain carefully how their entries are structured and where to look for specific types of information. Here is an example of this from the Paperback Oxford English
Again, it is a very good idea to read descriptions of the entry structure very carefully, so you know exactly what to look for and where to look for it in an entry.
5. The 'slut' pitfall
One of my classmates in high school translated 'det nytter ikke noget at sjuske' into 'it is no use to slut', the problem being the incorrect translation of 'sjuske' into 'slut'. Here are the entries of 'sjuske' in the dictionary she used (which is the small Gyldendals Røde Ordbog):
So what went wrong? Firstly, she did not know enough about parts-of-speech, or word classes, to figure out that 'sjuske' with 'at' in front of it is a verb in Danish, or that 'slut' typically is a noun in English. Secondly, she did not know anything about the structure of entries in that dictionary and where to look for relevant information. Thirdly, she did not know the grammar codes. Fourthly, she did not study the entry carefully, but just took the first English equivalent she could find.
Had she taken her time to get aquainted with the dictionary, she would know that in the small
Gyldendals,
• 'I' and 'II' indicate two different senses and two different words in that dictionary
• 'en -r' means that we are dealing with a common gender noun that ends in '-r' in its plural form in Danish
– your grammatical terminology, so all you would need to do is to get acquainted with the dictionary.
6. Monolingual dictionaries in translation
Okay, imagine you want to look up the verb 'dale' in one of Gyldendals dictionaries and you find the entry we saw above. Now imagine that you actually did not know what most of the English equivalents meant.
You would be stuck. Well, not if you had a monolingual English dictionary, because what you could do is simply to look each and every equivalent up in the monolingual dictionary until you have understood them all and gained knowledge about how they are used.
Simple, but admittedly time consuming.
7. Useful resources
● Bache, Carl: Essentials of Mastering English. [more of a descriptive grammar] ● Cambridge’s Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
● Cambridge International Dictionary of Idioms ● Cambridge Dictionary of American English ● Cambridge Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs
● Collins cobuild Advanced Learner's English Dictionary
● Collins Cobuild Student Dictionary Plus Grammar [grammar and dictionary in one!] ● Collins Cobuild Phrasal Verbs Dictionary
● Flavell, L.: A Dictionary of Idioms and their Origins ● Flavell, L: A Dictionary of Proverbs and their Origins
● Garde, Anna: Engelsk-Dansk – Dansk Engelsk. [includes a CD rom]
● Garde, Anna and Glyn Jones: Danish Dictionary: Danish-English, English Danish ● Holmen, Marianne: Danish-English, English-Danish Dictionary.
● Hjulmand, Lise-Lotte and Helge Schwarz: A Concise Contrastive Grammar of English For
Danish Students. Vol. A.
● Hjulmand, Lise-Lotte and Helge Schwarz: A Concise Contrastive Grammar of English For
Danish Students. Vol. B. [vols. A and B are now collected in one tome]
● Hjulmand, Lise-Lotte and Helge Schwarz. A Contrastive Grammar of English Workbook. Copenhagen: Samfundslitteratur. [there's a new version out]
● Gyldendals Røde Ordbøger [although they're pretty much crap] ● Gyldendals Store Røde Ordbøger [they're better]
● Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
● Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture ● MacMillan English Dictionary
● Munksgaards grønne Dansk-Engelsk og Engelsk-Dansk ordbøger [out of print, so you might have to look for them in second hand bookstores]
● Onelook.com [this is a portal to virtually all the big online dictionaries] ● Oxford's Advanced Learner's Dictionary
● Oxford A-Z of English Usage ● Oxford Thesaurus of English ● Shorter Oxford English Dictionary ● Consice Oxford English Dictionary ● The Oxford Dictionary of Idioms ● Penguin Dictionary of English Idioms ● Politiken Nudansk Ordbog
● Schwarz, Helge: Dansk-Engelsk Ordbog over Præpositioner. ● Schwarz, Helge: False Friends.
● Swan, Michael: Practical English Usage. [newest edition]
● Ejnar Fryd: Anglo/Amerikansk-Dansk – Dansk/Anglo/Amerikansk Specialordbog inden for
revision, regnskabsvæsen m.v. Foreningen af Statsautoriserede Revisorer. [a rare gem... a
