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The vanity of monolingual dictionaries | ||
Tags: Monolingual | Dictionaries | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7186 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes  12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 1 of 11 14 April 2006 at 12:49am | IP Logged | ||
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I am a dictionary enthusiast and have a great collection of dictionaries in many languages. I also have bought for all the languages I study, monolingual dictionaries. These are dictionaries intended for native speakers, with definitions instead of translation. A certain hallmark of the advanced student?
Well, the more I think about them, the more I think that monolingual dictionaries are not very useful to the foreign language student. They look cool, but at the end of the day it is much, much faster to get a translation of a word than having to go from word to definition and then trying to figure out what it is. For instance I tried using my Italian monolingual dictionary to decipher some unknown words I had found, but what can you do with for example Martora: Small carnivorous mammifer of the Martora family, with a long body with a long tail, small head, pointed nose and highly prized fur that lives in woods of Northern Europe and Asia.? Of course you might eventually guess correctly what it is but it's much quicker and more accurate to match directly the foreign word to the concept of a marten that you already have in your brain by way of a direct translation. Perhaps there are other uses of monolingual dictionaries for foreign language students, but most of the time I'd say stick to a regular bilingual dictionary. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Linas Octoglot Senior Member Lithuania Joined 6722 days ago 253 posts - 279 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Lithuanian*, Russian, Latvian, French, English, German, Spanish, Polish Studies: Slovenian, Greek, Hungarian, Arabic (Written), Portuguese | Message 2 of 11 14 April 2006 at 1:38am | IP Logged | ||
I would like to disagree. The above definition gives indeed very much information about Martora so that if you read it you can almost vividly see the animal before your eyes and there is no need to guess what it is - because the definition clearly says what he is. Probably by guessing here you mean guessing its equivalent in mother tongue, however whether it is called "marten" or what in your mother tongue is of little importance, if we know the characteristics of it. On the other hand the direct translation provides no information about marten only the heap of sounds m-a-r-t-e-n, which can be of use to you only if you have seen the animal before or have read its description in your mother tongue. Otherwise you still would have to look for the definition in your mother tongue's monolingual dictionary. I found the definitions of animals in monolingual dictionaries the more useful the more seldom and unfamiliar the animal( or plant) in question is. For very common animals maybe direct translation is better, but in this case you usually have no difficulty to figuring the mother tongue equivalent from definition as well. In general, for concrete things direct translation can be more useful for ver well known objects, yet definitions can be more useful for more obscure objects. However the most useful monolingual dictionaries are for verbs and abstract concepts which can have no precise equivalent(or even no equivalent at all) in your mother tongue. However the most important thing is that while you use the monolingual dictionary, you can see the reality as native speaker sees it and forget your mother tongue at least for some time. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Linas Octoglot Senior Member Lithuania Joined 6722 days ago 253 posts - 279 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Lithuanian*, Russian, Latvian, French, English, German, Spanish, Polish Studies: Slovenian, Greek, Hungarian, Arabic (Written), Portuguese | Message 3 of 11 14 April 2006 at 1:59am | IP Logged | ||
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A good example which I came upon just now. Translating from Lithuanian into English I have found that the equivalent of Lithuanian word "z^ilvitis" in English is "osier". Yet I have no idea neither what "zilvitis" is nor what is "osier", only that they are some trees or shrubs. So for more exact definition I still have to look into a monolingual dictionary, English or Lithuanian.
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| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7186 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 11 14 April 2006 at 4:35am | IP Logged | ||
Well, to some extent. Are you sure you'd be able to tell the difference, based on such a definition only, between marten, weasel, dormouse and scores of other similar furry wood animals? You might but I think the translation would be much faster in most cases. Now to be fair I thought of one useful use of monolingual dictionaries, that of finding related words to build up your vocabulary by word families. I'm sure there are many other uses and I have loads of monolingual dictionaries myself, but I can't help wondering about their real usefulness. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7186 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 11 14 April 2006 at 4:35am | IP Logged | ||
Well of course if you don't know the word in your own language to start with, it's clear a translation would not help. I could not agree more on this. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Linas Octoglot Senior Member Lithuania Joined 6722 days ago 253 posts - 279 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Lithuanian*, Russian, Latvian, French, English, German, Spanish, Polish Studies: Slovenian, Greek, Hungarian, Arabic (Written), Portuguese | Message 6 of 11 14 April 2006 at 5:21am | IP Logged | ||
Maybe not, but translation also would not be very helpful, if I wount to know what is the difference between marten and weasel is, the knowledge that marten and weasel are respectively "kiaune" and "zebenkstis" gives me little information, probable as much as "marten" and "weasel" themselves. Finally, I will have to take some encyclopedia or book on zoology to find it out how they really look out and in what they differ. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| administrator Hexaglot Forum Admin Switzerland FXcuisine.com Joined 7186 days ago 3094 posts - 2987 votes 12 sounds Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 11 14 April 2006 at 6:57am | IP Logged | ||
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Right, if you don't know what the thing a given foreign word means is, translating is not going to help, we are on the same page here. Edited by administrator on 14 April 2006 at 7:01am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Eidolio Bilingual Octoglot Senior Member Belgium Joined 6671 days ago 159 posts - 164 votes 2 sounds Speaks: Dutch*, Flemish*, French, English, Latin, Ancient Greek, Italian, Greek | Message 8 of 11 14 April 2006 at 7:20am | IP Logged | ||
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monolingual dictionaries usually include some things that are very useful for me:
- etymology (sometimes this makes it easier to remember difficult words) - synonyms & antonyms - a lot of idioms - example sentences (this is very useful when the word has only one meaning in your target language but different meanings in you own language. Or when the word can only be used in specific situations, etc.) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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