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A bilingual dictionary or translation dictionary is a specialized
dictionary A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged Alphabetical order, alphabetically (or by Semitic root, consonantal root for Semitic languages or radical-and-stroke sorting, radical an ...
used to translate
words A word is a basic element of language that carries meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consensus among linguists on its ...
or
phrase In grammar, a phrasecalled expression in some contextsis a group of words or singular word acting as a grammatical unit. For instance, the English language, English expression "the very happy squirrel" is a noun phrase which contains the adject ...
s from one
language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...
to another. Bilingual dictionaries can be ''unidirectional'', meaning that they list the meanings of words of one language in another, or can be '' bidirectional'', allowing translation to and from both languages. Bidirectional bilingual dictionaries usually consist of two sections, each listing words and phrases of one language along with their translation. In addition to the translation, a bilingual dictionary usually indicates the
part of speech In grammar, a part of speech or part-of-speech ( abbreviated as POS or PoS, also known as word class or grammatical category) is a category of words (or, more generally, of lexical items) that have similar grammatical properties. Words that are ...
,
gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...
, verb type, declension model and other grammatical clues to help a non-native speaker use the word. Other features sometimes present in bilingual dictionaries are lists of phrases, usage and style guides, verb tables, maps and grammar references. In contrast to the bilingual dictionary, a
monolingual dictionary An explanatory dictionary or defining dictionary is a dictionary that provides definitions of word meanings at its entries. It may give additional information on pronunciation, grammar, etymology Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin an ...
defines words and phrases instead of translating them.


History

The Roman Emperor
Claudius Tiberius Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus ( ; ; 1 August 10 BC – 13 October AD 54), or Claudius, was a Roman emperor, ruling from AD 41 to 54. A member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, Claudius was born to Nero Claudius Drusus, Drusus and Ant ...
(10 BCE – 54 CE) is known to have compiled an
Etruscan __NOTOC__ Etruscan may refer to: Ancient civilization *Etruscan civilization (1st millennium BC) and related things: **Etruscan language ** Etruscan architecture **Etruscan art **Etruscan cities **Etruscan coins **Etruscan history **Etruscan myt ...
-Latin dictionary, now lost. One substantial bilingual dictionary was the Mahāvyutpatti. The Mahāvyutpatti (Wylie: ''Bye-brtag-tu rtogs-par byed-pa chen-po''), ''The Great Volume of Precise Understanding'' or ''Essential Etymology'', was compiled in
Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ), or Greater Tibet, is a region in the western part of East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are other ethnic groups s ...
during the late eighth to early ninth centuries CE, providing a dictionary composed of thousands of
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
and Tibetan terms designed as means to provide standardised
Buddhist texts Buddhist texts are religious texts that belong to, or are associated with, Buddhism and Schools of Buddhism, its traditions. There is no single textual collection for all of Buddhism. Instead, there are three main Buddhist Canons: the Pāli C ...
in Tibetan, and is included as part of the Tibetan Tangyur (Toh. 4346). The Madhyavyutpatti was used in conjunction. Dictionaries from
Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...
and
Aramaic Aramaic (; ) is a Northwest Semitic language that originated in the ancient region of Syria and quickly spread to Mesopotamia, the southern Levant, Sinai, southeastern Anatolia, and Eastern Arabia, where it has been continually written a ...
into medieval French were composed in the
Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
an
Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
communities in the 10th century CE. These were used for understanding and teaching the
Talmud The Talmud (; ) is the central text of Rabbinic Judaism and the primary source of Jewish religious law (''halakha'') and Jewish theology. Until the advent of Haskalah#Effects, modernity, in nearly all Jewish communities, the Talmud was the cen ...
and other Jewish texts.


Challenges

The most important challenge for practical and theoretical
lexicographers This list contains people who contributed to the field of lexicography, the theory and practice of compiling dictionaries. __NOTOC__ A * Maulvi Abdul Haq (India/Pakistan, 1872–1961) Baba-e-Urdu, English-Urdu dictionary *Ivar Aasen (Norway, 181 ...
is to define the functions of a bilingual dictionary. A bilingual dictionary works to help users translate texts from one language into another or to help users understand foreign-language texts. In such situations users will require the dictionary to contain different types of data that have been specifically selected for the function in question. If the function is understanding foreign-language texts the dictionary will contain foreign-language entry words and native-language definitions, which have been written so that they can be understood by the intended user groups. If the dictionary is intended to help translate texts, it will need to include not only
equivalent Equivalence or Equivalent may refer to: Arts and entertainment *Album-equivalent unit, a measurement unit in the music industry *Equivalence class (music) *'' Equivalent VIII'', or ''The Bricks'', a minimalist sculpture by Carl Andre *'' Equiva ...
s but also collocations and phrases translated into the relevant target language. It has also been shown that specialized translation dictionaries for learners should include data that help users translate difficult syntactical structures as well as language-specific genre conventions. In standard lexicographic terminology, a bilingual dictionary definition provides a "translation equivalent" – "An expression from a language which has the same meaning as, or can be used in a similar context to, one from another language, and can therefore be used to translate it." The British lexicographer Robert Ilson gives example definitions from the '' Collins-Robert French-English English-French Dictionary''. Since French ''chien'' = English ''dog'' and ''dog'' = ''chien'', ''chien'' and ''dog'' are translation equivalents; but since ''
garde champêtre A () is the combination of a forest ranger, game warden and Code Enforcement, code enforcement officer in certain rural communes in France. Organization Their job is to report to the local mayor. Many of these officers carry firearms (they co ...
'' = ''rural policeman'' and ''rural policeman'' is not included in the English-French dictionary, they are not culturally equivalent.
Both phrases can be understood reasonably well from their constituents and have fairly obvious contrasts with ''garde urbain'' in French or with ''urban policeman'' in English. But ''garde champêtre'' has a specific unpredictable contrast within the lexical system of French: it contrasts with ''gendarme''. Both are policemen. But a gendarme is a member of a national police force that is technically part of the French Army whereas a ''garde champêtre'' is employed by a local commune. ''Rural policeman'' has no such contrast.
Perhaps the most difficult aspect of creating a bilingual dictionary is the fact that
lexeme A lexeme () is a unit of lexical meaning that underlies a set of words that are related through inflection. It is a basic abstract unit of meaning, a unit of morphological analysis in linguistics that roughly corresponds to a set of forms ta ...
s or words cover more than one area of meaning, but these multiple meanings don't correspond to a single word in the target language. For example, in English, a ticket can provide entrance to a movie theater, authorize a bus or train ride, or can be given to you by a police officer for exceeding the posted speed limit. In Spanish these three meanings are not covered by one word as in English, but rather there are several options: boleto or entrada and infracción/multa, and in French with billet or ticket and procès-verbal, or in
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...
by Eintrittskarte or Fahrkarte and Mahnung/Bußgeldbescheid. Recently, an automatic method for the
disambiguation Word-sense disambiguation is the process of identifying which sense of a word is meant in a sentence or other segment of context. In human language processing and cognition, it is usually subconscious. Given that natural language requires ref ...
of the entries of bilingual dictionaries has been proposed that makes use of specific kinds of graphs. As a result, translations in each entry of the dictionary are assigned the specific
sense A sense is a biological system used by an organism for sensation, the process of gathering information about the surroundings through the detection of Stimulus (physiology), stimuli. Although, in some cultures, five human senses were traditio ...
(i.e., meaning) they refer to. Open-source software for generating bilingual dictionaries automatically is also available, such as th
ApertiumBidixGen
project.


Usage

To mitigate the problem of one word having multiple meanings and its translation having multiple, but not necessarily corresponding meanings, the user should perform a reverse lookup. In the above-mentioned example in English and Spanish of the word ticket, after finding that ticket is translated into ''boleto'' and ''infracción'' in the English–Spanish dictionary, both of those Spanish words can be looked up in the Spanish-English section to help to identify which one has the meaning being sought. Reverse lookups can usually be performed faster with dictionary programs and online dictionaries.


Formats

Bilingual dictionaries are available in a number of formats, and often include a grammar reference and usage examples.(For instance Yadgar Sindhi to English Dictionary)Yadgar Sindhi to English Dictionary - The Sindh Times feb. 02, 2004
/ref> * Printed dictionaries – Printed dictionaries range from small pocket-sized editions to large, comprehensive multi-volume works. * Handheld electronic dictionaries (also: Pocket electronic dictionaries or PEDs) – Electronic dictionaries are small devices that receive input via a miniature keyboard,
speech recognition Speech recognition is an interdisciplinary subfield of computer science and computational linguistics that develops methodologies and technologies that enable the recognition and translation of spoken language into text by computers. It is also ...
or a scanning device that reads printed text, and outputs the translation on a small
LCD A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers to display information. Liquid crystals do not em ...
screen or speaks the translation audibly. * Dictionary programs –
software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...
that allows words or phrases to be input and translated on computers and smart phones. * Online dictionaries – Online dictionaries similar to dictionary programs, these are often easy to search, but not always free to use, and in some cases lack the accuracy (particularly in open collaborative dictionaries), or scope of printed and electronic dictionaries. * Visual dictionaries – A visual dictionary is a printed dictionary that relies primarily on
illustration An illustration is a decoration, interpretation, or visual explanation of a text, concept, or process, designed for integration in print and digitally published media, such as posters, flyers, magazines, books, teaching materials, animations, vi ...
s to provide the user with a reliable way of identifying the correct translation. Visual dictionaries are often multi-lingual rather than bilingual—instead of containing translations between two languages they often cover four or more languages.


Distribution

Bilingual dictionaries are available for nearly every combination of popular languages. They also often exist between language pairs where one language is popular and the other isn't. Bilingual dictionaries between two uncommon languages are much less likely to exist.


Multilingual dictionaries

Multilingual dictionaries are closely related to bilingual dictionaries. In a multilingual dictionary, a person looks up a word or phrase in one language and is presented with the translation in several languages. Multilingual dictionaries can be arranged alphabetically or words can be grouped by topic. When grouped by topic, a multilingual dictionary can be presented as a phrase book, or illustrated in the form of a visual dictionary.


Publishers

There are many publishers and manufacturers of both printed and electronic bilingual dictionaries. For example: * Ectaco * Velazquez Press *
Franklin Electronic Publishers Franklin Electronic Publishers, Incorporated (formerly Franklin Computer Corporation) was an American consumer electronics manufacturer based in Burlington, New Jersey, founded in 1981. Since the mid-1980s, it has primarily created and sold hand-h ...
*
HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...
*
Langenscheidt Langenscheidt () is a German publishing company that specializes in language reference works. In addition to publishing language, monolingual dictionary, dictionaries, Langenscheidt also publishes bilingual dictionaries and travel phrase-books. ...
* Collins-Robert * Larousse *
Merriam-Webster Merriam-Webster, Incorporated is an list of companies of the United States by state, American company that publishes reference work, reference books and is mostly known for Webster's Dictionary, its dictionaries. It is the oldest dictionary pub ...
* SYSTRAN


See also

* Bescherelle, a type of grammar reference book for conjugating verbs * Babel Fish (website) *
Computer-Assisted Translation Computer-aided translation (CAT), also referred to as computer-assisted translation or computer-aided human translation (CAHT), is the use of software, also known as a translator, to assist a human translator in the translation process. The tr ...
*
Foreign language writing aid A foreign language writing aid is a computer program or any other instrument that assists a non-native language user (also referred to as a foreign language learner) in writing decently in their target language. Assistive operations can be classifi ...
*
Lexical markup framework Language resource management – Lexical markup framework (LMF; ISO 24613), produced by ISO/TC 37, is the ISO standard for natural language processing (NLP) and machine-readable dictionary (MRD) lexicons. The scope is standardization of principles ...
*
Machine Translation Machine translation is use of computational techniques to translate text or speech from one language to another, including the contextual, idiomatic and pragmatic nuances of both languages. Early approaches were mostly rule-based or statisti ...
* Mariano Velazquez de la Cadena (Spanish-English bilingual dictionary author) *
Parallel text A parallel text is a text placed alongside its translation or translations. Parallel text alignment is the identification of the corresponding sentences in both halves of the parallel text. The Loeb Classical Library and the Clay Sanskrit Libr ...
* Phrase book *
List of online dictionaries An online dictionary is a dictionary that is accessible via the Internet through a web browser. They can be made available in a number of ways: free, free with a paid subscription for extended or more professional content, or a paid-only service. ...


References


External links

{{Authority control Lexicography