Dictionary n. Obsolete?

36 Pages·2013·2.11 MB·English

Kernerman
Number 21 ● July 2013
kdictionaries.com/kdn
DICTIONARY News
Dictionary n. Obsolete?
Ilan Kernerman
Kernerman Dictionary News has offered various views on dictionary as end-product per se. There will of course always
the changing world of dictionaries and lexicography since the be language enthusiasts and others who look up a dictionary,
turn of the century (cf. p.4), and more recently the related but mainstream usage without linguistic passion might be
processes and impacts have accelerated and become clearer. satisfied by broader communication and information solutions,
The topic has preoccupied me for some time and last year I put such as talking on the phone in one language and hearing in
together a paper called ‘Dictionary n. Obsolete? Before and another. As big dictionary names die out or dwindle and others
afterwords’, first presented at the Dutch Institute of Lexicology struggle to survive, lexicography blooms in the technology
in November and since then this year on several other occasions. world that recruits experts and invests in language R&D.
Also last November, Macmillan’s announcement of ending We also see language companies selling specialized services
dictionaries in print and going only digital stirred animated to corporate, education and public sectors, beside national
debate on email lists and expressed a new awareness. The bodies (as well as academic and private initiatives) involved
main focus of this discussion and others seems to be print vs. in innovative projects that are offered for free. Still, the major
electronic – basically revolving around practicality, economics revolution today is perhaps linked to the reader-turned-user
and innovation as opposed to culture, personal taste and force who gets involved in the creative process with the advent
of habit – but the question is not so much whether there will be of crowd-sourcing in relation to expert authority (reflecting
dictionaries in print but would there be dictionaries, and how. worldwider social, technological and political changes). At
Paraphrasing Frank Zappa’s quote on jazz (1974), one the background is a devaluation of the dictionary as book of
could say dictionaries are not dead, they just smell funny. words against growing needs for full language lexicography
While more are available (freely and easily) than ever before, and new generation computational lexicographers.
dictionaries also lose their autonomous identity and disappear The full paper is finally not published anywhere, but its
in language technology. Machine translation, word processors, list of main trends appears on p.7 of this issue, which is
search engines, learning aids and the like incorporate dictionary mostly devoted to more views from dictionary makers and
content and apply it in new forms and tools that go beyond the lexicographers. Thank you to all the authors.
1 Dictionary n. Obsolete? | Ilan Kernerman
2 The future of dictionaries | Judy Pearsall
5 Redefining the dictionary: From print to digital | Michael Rundell
8 Make me a match: Putting learners in touch with dictionaries | Colin McIntosh
9 Free dictionary & Free lunch
10 Trade reference | Sander Bekkers
11 A SIALEX 2013 in Bali | Deny A. Kwary
12 A sweetshop for lexicographers | Jaap Parqui
13 X International School on Lexicography – Life Beyond Dictionaries | Olga Karpova
14 Paragon Software: Turning gigantic print reference content into light-weight apps
with cutting-edge features | Alexander Zudin
16 A brief account of Dutch lexicography | Tanneke Schoonheim
22 Matthias de Vries Genootschap | Anne Dykstra
24 The new Lighthouse dictionary | Kaoru Akasu
27 Why do we need pattern dictionaries (and what is a pattern dictionary, anyway)? |
Patrick Hanks and Jane Bradbury
© 2013 All rights reserved.
30 Fortunes of National Cultures in Globalisation Context | Vera Budykina
32 Patrick Hanks. Lexical Analysis: Norms and Exploitations | Orion Montoya
33 KERNERMAN Japanese dictionaries by Seiko K DICTIONARIES LTD
35 Launching of LEXOCOGRAPHY: Journal of ASIALEX | Ilan Kernerman Nahum 8 Tel Aviv 63503 Israel 745
Tel: [phone]
36 Paul Bogaards 1940-2012 | Wolfgang Worsch 1953-2013 Fax: [phone]-
5
[email protected] 1
Editor | Ilan Kernerman http://kdictionaries.com SN
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The future of dictionaries
Judy Pearsall
Dictionaries of one sort or another have been All of this can, of course, be seen
around for many centuries and longer. For the through the lens of publishing in general, as
English language, the traditional starting point explained by a shift in format and medium:
is Robert Cawdrey’s A Table Alphabeticall print books may be in decline, but that
(1604) but, from a world perspective, the doesn’t mean that people are not reading, or
antecedents are considerably older. In fact, using the printed word. In fact, the opposite
dictionaries go back several millennia perhaps seems to be the case. The last decade has
to the early use of writing itself, and certainly seen the explosion of new written forms
to the early civilizations of the Akkadian, (blogs, social media) and the internet’s
Babylonian, and Greek Empires. In the embrace of new writers of all kinds (via
modern context, dictionaries – understood formal and informal self-publishing), while
here broadly as a book containing a list of e-books are one of the fastest growing areas
words in a particular language with definitions of the digital market, driven by the massive
Judy Pearsall is Editorial or translations (in another language), designed growth in ownership of e-readers and tablets
Director, Dictionaries, at to help with understanding or using the in the last 3 years.
Oxford University Press, language(s) in question – are found in more It is certainly true that dictionary
where she is responsible or less every written language in the world. publishers and others have boldly attempted
for the editorial programme For dictionaries to have lasted within so many to adapt to these changes by shifting formats
of the Oxford English human cultures for so long, it is surely not and means of delivery, with some success.
presumptuous to suggest that dictionaries There are many dictionaries available
Dictionary as well as that
must fulfil some essential human need, and online, especially free ones, and some of
of bilingual dictionaries
that therefore, by implication, their future is the English language-based ones, such as
and lexical content across
secure. Dictionary.com and TheFreeDictionary.
a large range of languages.
And yet, from the perspective of the early com, are reaching many millions of users
She has a background in
twenty-first century, it is hard not to wonder and making good income from advertising
English lexicography and was
aloud about the future of dictionaries, and revenue. There are thousands of dictionary
Co-Editor, with Patrick Hanks, whether it is conceivable they can survive apps available for smartphones and tablets
of the first edition of the New not a few more millennia, but even another and developed for a range of mobile
Oxford Dictionary of English, half century. This article considers this platforms such as iOS and Android.
published in 1998. question of the Future of Dictionaries, why In November 2012, the British-based
[email protected] it is a question worth asking, and what those ELT publisher Macmillan announced
who curate and are involved with lexical that it would no longer publish print
content might do next. dictionaries, bravely citing this as “a cause
The signs that dictionaries are under threat for celebration” rather than concern, with
are all around us. The sale of print dictionaries Stephen Bullon, Macmillan Education’s
is declining in all but the developing markets Publisher for Dictionaries, confidently
of the world; between 2007 and 2012 the total asserting: “[T]he message is clear and
UK market declined by around 15%1, and this unambiguous: the future of the dictionary
was played out to a greater or lesser extent is digital.”
in developed markets including the United There is no doubting these successes but,
States, western Europe, Japan, Canada, and in the midst of such fundamental external
Australia. Respected and long-standing changes, it is hard not to read these current
dictionary publishers, such as Chambers activities as merely a shoring up of current
in the UK and Random House in the US, business models, rather than a positive leap
have all but disappeared while others, such into the future. To put it bluntly, many digital
3
1 as Langenscheidt in Germany, have greatly dictionaries are free and most of them are
0
2
y reduced their operations. While sales of print cheap. A combination of disintermediation
Jul dictionaries are still growing in developing and freely available digital resources means
ws, nations, for example in India and large parts that, despite a few exceptional cases such as
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N of Africa, this is perhaps only because the OED Online, the large sales to libraries of
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ar relative wealth of these parts of the world high-end dictionaries are not being replaced
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Dicti affecting the rest of us is lagging behind. the fundamental idea of the dictionary,
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3
usage, related words, etc.), remains because it’s easy to take for granted that they
basically untouched. Many apps simply are in the Dictionary business, and to think
display the dictionary entry organized much that the product is dictionaries. But, really,
as in a print book, with maybe a few colours dictionary publishers are in the business of
added and abbreviations removed. If digital fulfilling a need, that of providing resources
dictionaries are the future, this doesn’t look to help users to understand or use language.
very exciting. It just so happens that dictionaries have been
On the other hand, seemingly a good vehicle in the past to fulfil the need.
Oxford Dictionaries
paradoxically, ‘language’ is big business. But this may not be true for the future, or for
The English language is booming and, the present. If we focus on what is needed, Oxford University Press has
depending on which forecast you read, the where it is needed, who needs it, and why been involved in producing
number of English learners is expected to it is needed, we might well redefine what dictionaries for around 150
double in the next 15 years. The effects we are doing and even dispense with the years; in 1879, James Murray
of globalization and growth in technology idea of the Dictionary itself along the way. was appointed as the first
mean language technology is more and To do this means going to the very heart Editor of the Oxford English
more in demand and there is a profusion of what we do – the content – and coming
Dictionary, a dictionary on
of translation services, apps, and language up with a content strategy that exploits
historical principles whose
learning packages. While English is the most lexical content to the full, making it always
mission was (and continues
widely used as a second or foreign language, relevant and useful. It is interesting to note
to be) to research and
other languages, particularly Chinese, that the term ‘content strategy’ is quite
record the entire history of
Arabic, Spanish, are growing in prominence recent: it emerged as the term to describe the
on the world stage. But it’s much more than technologies, methods, and systems (such the lexicon of the English
this, too. Language technology is invisibly as SEO, Content Management Systems, language. Throughout the
all around us facilitating us in the most usual metadata) that were deployed from the twentieth century, Oxford
of tasks: every time we send a text, every 1990s to deal with the mass of ‘content’ on Dictionaries grew from a largely
time we search online, every time we receive the web. Content strategy is based on the British-based programme to
‘suggested links’ while shopping online or deceptively simple idea that content must a global programme across
reading a blog, every time we use autocorrect be created, managed, and disseminated
English and bilingual titles
functions in an email or a document, every according to such criteria as relevance
published in more than 20
time we use any aggregating service for (to people), usefulness (to machines),
countries, including titles
news or other information, every time we reusability, efficiency, sustainability, and
such as the Oxford Advanced
use voice-activated technology. Businesses comprehensiveness. A good content strategy
Learner’s Dictionary (first
and technologies such as web advertising, demands a relatively stable core content
published 1948) and the Oxford
spam filtering and parental control, hub that is flexible, reusable, connected,
sentiment analysis, and content management sustainable, and efficient. Whatever is Dictionary of English (1998).
are all powered by language technologies at going on externally – new digital trends, Increasingly, the focus of the
all but the most basic levels. The list could changing user behaviour, emergence of new Oxford programme is now
go on and on. technologies and new markets – the content moving beyond traditional
So, if the language business is booming is sufficiently robust and flexible to adjust dictionary formats and is on
while dictionary publishers face an uncertain itself to the changing needs. using language technology to
future, what does this mean and what can The principle of a new content strategy
develop ever richer and more
dictionary makers learn as a result? can be applied to rethinking traditional
useful lexical data for a wide
In 1960, a Harvard Business Professor dictionary content. Traditional dictionary
variety of language solutions,
called Theodore Levitt published an formats store many different types of
services, and products.
influential article called ‘Marketing information, much of it elliptically. They
Myopia’2. His central point was that are typically designed to serve multiple http://oed.com/
companies paid too much attention to needs: to help with both decoding and http://oxforddictionaries.com/
producing products and too little to encoding, as well as including information
satisfying customer needs. One of the on usage, pronunciation, related words,
practical examples he gave was drills. But derived words, collocates, and so on.
what he said was this: ‘People who buy Users need a certain amount of expertise
drills don’t need drills; they need holes.’ and familiarity to navigate an entry quickly,
3
His point was to illustrate the importance passing over information they do not need 1
0
of focusing on the need rather than on to get to the information they do need. The y 2
products or features. His further point was dictionary may be accurate and coherent in Jul
that businesses continue to focus on the its own terms, but as a means of providing ws,
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product at their peril – because if someone the information needed at the moment of N
else thinks beyond the product and finds use, it is just not very efficient. And while ry
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a better way to fulfil the need, then the digital access may help, this doesn’t really o
existing business is in trouble. get around the central issue. Dicti
This is important for dictionary publishers, Moreover, today we need to think not n
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2.Theodore Levitt (1960), ‘Marketing to the machine as user, and beyond that to ne
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Myopia’. Harvard Business Review. uses we don’t even know. The dictionary Ke
4
format is limited in that it is essentially having a single perfect result that takes a
fixed, standalone, and designed for human long time to find, is located in a standalone
users. Inconsistencies between and even application somewhere else, or, because
within texts abound. Information is of insufficient quality of morphology or
deliberately missing, truncated, or implied metadata, is never found at all.
in a way that may be acceptable (even It is, of course, always easier to state the
desirable) for a human user but represents challenge than to articulate the opportunity.
only incompleteness and failure to the On the other hand, there is plenty to be
computer as user. The reason, typically, positive about. Even if the Future of
Charles M. Levine.
is that many dictionary conventions arose Dictionaries qua dictionaries is uncertain,
The Coming Boom in
due to a need to economize on space in a it is clear that lexical information is very
English Lexicography:
print volume. But in the digital age these much in demand, especially by the new
Some Thoughts about the
print-driven conventions are not only technologies. All of the uses mentioned
World Wide Web
unnecessary, they actively undermine the in the paragraphs above – and many more
(Part One)
machine interface. Imagine trying to use a – are underpinned by lexical information.
Kernerman Dictionary
standard dictionary, without the addition of There is an opportunity for those expert in
News 9, July 2001
metadata, as the backdrop to look up words handling lexical content to continue to do
http://kdictionaries.com/
kdn/kdn9-1.html/ from an e-reader, or to find meaningful so, by developing a strong content strategy
results from a search engine. For every time that can serve machine users as well as
a so-called regular variant or morphological human users, and which can be focused
Joseph E. Esposito.
form is missing from the dataset, every time on needs and finding solutions to those
Dictionaries, another
a variant is recorded in intractable syntax needs rather than improving the features or
Netscape?
(encyclop(a)edic, be of one/be of the same performance of existing products. While
Kernerman Dictionary
mind (about)), every time a definition much present-day dictionary content is
News 10, July 2002
follows a non-standard style, and every time structured (as xml, for example) so that it
http://kdictionaries.com/
there is variability in spelling, hyphenation, can be processed by a machine, the new
kdn/kdn10-1.html/
or capitalization, a gap in information, a lexical content goes further; it is structured
failure to connect, a failure to deliver what and semantically annotated in such a
Charles M. Levine.
is needed will be the outcome. way that it can be read intelligently by
The Coming Boom in
One way of expressing the transformation a machine, and new products, links, or
English Lexicography –
that is needed by the new content strategy information are automatically produced
Reconsidered (Part Two)
is to consider it in terms of quality. as a result. This type of new content is
Kernerman Dictionary
Established organizations, businesses, and segmented and modular so that each type
News 11, July 2003
individuals which are under threat from new of information is separable, while also
http://kdictionaries.com/
competitors or new models often cite quality linking into a central concept, allowing
kdn/kdn11-1.html/
as a factor differentiating themselves from for specific needs to be addressed directly
newcomers. Publishers are certainly no and efficiently. It starts with the simple
Julian Parish.
exception. As a result, quality has become a hub, but supports the creation of a scalable
Microsoft and Dictionary
kind of shibboleth of traditional publishers. language resource, allowing related types
Makers: Defining
But the same organizations may not of content – text from corpora, taxonomies,
Partnerships
question their notion of quality and how it and synonyms, for example – to be included
Kernerman Dictionary
might need to change according to customer or added incrementally as time and need
News 12, July 2004
behaviour and needs. Whatever its merits or dictate. Frameworks are consistent across
http://kdictionaries.com/
demerits, they may not acknowledge that languages to enable interlinking. Linking to
kdn/kdn12-1.html/
it is a new type of quality brought by the other similar types of content or content of
newcomers that is creating the disruption similar meaning creates context that further
Adam Kilgarriff.
in the first place. Whereas quality of lexical enriches the information for future use. The
If dictionaries are free,
content in a pre-digital age may have been new lexical hub is format and platform
who will buy them?
measured principally in terms of local detail independent, and built within a flexible
Kernerman Dictionary
and accuracy, quality of lexical content technology that allows new combinations
News 13, June 2005
for the digital age may be measured also quickly to be prototyped and produced.
http://kdictionaries.com/
by macro factors such as discoverability, None of this sounds very much like
kdn/kdn1307.html/
3
1 speed, or availability, underpinned by full building a dictionary. But such models are
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5
Redefining the dictionary: From print to digital
Michael Rundell
Last November, Macmillan Dictionaries This is not to say that the migration of
announced that it was abandoning the print dictionary content from print to digital
medium, and would henceforth publish media has met with universal approval.
1
dictionaries in digital formats only . Around Macmillan’s announcement sparked a
the same time, I heard a great story from my lively debate (notably on the Euralex
friend Jim Ronald, a professor in English discussion list) on the pros and cons
linguistics working in Japan. Jim had taken of digital dictionaries, and there were
a set of (printed) learner’s dictionaries into plenty of dissenting voices. The tone
a class, and noticed one of his students was occasionally elegiac: “a sad day for
picking up a dictionary and nostalgically dictionaries”, and similar sentiments.
leafing through it, before declaring “Ah, Much of this is pure nostalgia (rather like
this brings back memories!” Two months mourning the passing of steam trains),
earlier, when Jonathon Green wrote a critical but two recurrent concerns deserve to be
piece about crowdsourced dictionaries in addressed. First, the idea that an online Michael Rundell has been
The Guardian, one (British) reader added dictionary can’t match the “browseability” a lexicographer since 1980.
a comment saying: of a printed one – where you can skip He has edited numerous
“The three things no young person owns from entry to entry or from page to page, learner’s dictionaries, and after
or uses and often don’t realise exist: making serendipitous discoveries. There working at both Longman
an alarm clock, an address book and a isn’t much substance to this argument. In and COBUILD, he became
dictionary. … At university i didn’t meet many online dictionaries, every word in an Editor-in-Chief of a new range
a single person who owned any of them”2. entry (including inflected forms), whether of learner’s dictionaries for
in a definition or example sentence, is
Anecdotal evidence, yes, but what both Macmillan. He has published
hyperlinked to its own entry. Many also
stories suggest is that, for younger people extensively in the field of
have some kind of ‘related words’ panel,
living in developed economies, the print corpus-based lexicography,
typically listing compounds or phrases
dictionary is already history. This should that include the word you are looking up. and is co-author (with Sue
come as no surprise: most people currently
Thus the entry for dog in the Macmillan Atkins) of the Oxford Guide
entering higher education are effectively
Dictionary provides links to items such to Practical Lexicography
digital natives, and for their general
as hot dog, top dog, dog-eared, dog eat (2008). With Sue Atkins and
reference needs, the Web will always be the
dog, and you can’t teach an old dog new Adam Kilgarriff, he set up
first (and, usually, only) port of call.
tricks. Experience with Wikipedia suggests the Lexicom workshops in
A very different attitude towards the
that, if people really want to while away lexicography and lexical
physical book can be seen in this review
of a new edition of the American Heritage their leisure hours leafing through works computing, which are now
of reference, the digital medium provides
Dictionary from 2011: “I confess I still get in their 13th year. In the
abundant opportunities.
a psychic satisfaction from fumbling with last ten years, he has been
A more significant concern is the
a balky dust jacket wrapped around a real at the forefront of applying
question of connectivity. Unless you
‘live’ book, while taking in that distinctive computational technologies to
are using a standalone dictionary app,
new-book fragrance, and experiencing the the development of dictionaries.
you need to be connected to the Web
subtle, yet futile resistance of the book spine Michael’s career is bookended
3 to search an online dictionary. And it
on its very first opening”. This touching by two major lexicographic
remains the case that there are many places
display of bibliophilia may strike a chord
where connections are slow, unstable, revolutions: the arrival of
with readers of a certain age. But for most
expensive, or non-existent. It quickly corpora in the 1980s and –
people a dictionary is a practical tool
became clear, from exchanges on the more recently – the transfer of
for resolving immediate communicative
Euralex forum, that connectivity isn’t a reference resources from print
problems, and as such, a dictionary accessed 3
simple case of rich-countries-connected, to digital media, a process in 1
on a computer or mobile device has huge 0
advantages over its analogue predecessors. psuoroprr-icseo,u Gnteroieffsr-enyo tW. iSlloiammesw phoaitn tteod mouyt wlehadicihn gM palacymeirl.l aWni htha sth bies esne cao nd July 2
that many of the students at his French revolution still unfolding, he ws,
1. http://macmillandictionaryblog.com/ university didn’t have internet access when Ne
is engaged in exploring the y
bye-print-dictionary/ they went back to their parental homes r
opportunities it offers and a
2. http://guardian.co.uk/books/ after a day at college. Conversely, David on
booksblog/2012/sep/13/dictionaries- Joffe gave an upbeat assessment of the pthoen pdreirnincigp iltess iamnpdl ipcraatciotincse foofr Dicti
democratic-crowdsourcing/ situation in Africa, whose mobile phone n
3. http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/ revolution – one of the most astonishing dictionary-making. ma
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mcintyre/blog/2011/09/infatuated_ developments of the last two decades – is n
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with_a_book.html/ now being consolidated by infrastructure people/michael-rundell/ Ke
6
improvements which will provide fast and Apart from space, other obvious
affordable Web connections for increasing benefits include hyperlinking, multimedia
numbers. (providing audio pronunciations,
But the direction of travel is clear. animations, and games, for example) and
Eurostat reports that 76% of households the potential for regular updating. The old
in the EU27 (EU countries and a few print model saw new editions coming out
Macmillan Dictionary
neighbours such as Norway and Turkey) perhaps once every five years, leaving
The Macmillan English
have access to the internet - and that was enormous gaps in the record. Macmillan
Dictionary for Advanced a year ago.4 (In 2004, the figure was 41%.) now has several updates every year.
Learners was first published In parts of east Asia, the percentage is We are just beginning to grasp the
in 2002, and a second edition much higher. We are, admittedly, still possibilities of the medium, but the
followed in 2007. A free in a transitional phase, but the trend is implications of going digital will be
online version was launched unstoppable, and in deciding to focus wide-ranging. For instance, traditional
in February 2009, and in only on digital dictionaries, Macmillan criteria for inclusion (which words get
was merely anticipating a move that all into the dictionary) were partly determined
November 2012, Macmillan
dictionary publishers will have to make by how many pages your dictionary had.
announced its intention to
eventually (and probably sooner than most This in turn contributed to the dictionary’s
phase out printed dictionaries
people think). perceived role as “gatekeeper”, because the
and focus entirely on digital
The benefits of moving from print to imperative of keeping a lot of vocabulary
publishing.
digital have been well-rehearsed, and don’t out encouraged the popular view that
As well as providing the need to be discussed in detail here. Several admitting a word to a dictionary conferred
traditional learner’s dictionary posts on the Macmillan Dictionary blog some special status on it.
fare (definitions, example have been devoted to this topic5, and in Many of these rules no longer apply, but
sentences, information on one of these Adam Kilgarriff described we are still working out what to replace
syntactic, collocational and Macmillan’s decision as “A day of them with. What contribution, for example,
text-type preferences, and so liberation from the straitjacket of print”. could be made by crowdsourcing? Some
The fact is that printed books are not a very experiments in this area have been less than
on), the online Macmillan
efficient medium for reference materials. impressive – the Urban Dictionary6 being
Dictionary has a range of other
Space constraints have made the dictionary an egregious example (notwithstanding
components. Thesauruses are
a miracle of compression, as huge its value as entertainment). But there are
a common feature of online amounts of information are shoehorned plenty of counterexamples. Wiktionary7
dictionary sites, and the one in
into a limited space. Many lexicographic continues to grow, as subject-specialists
Macmillan is fully integrated
conventions – the abbreviations and add headwords or translations for terms
– with a link from every word, tildes, the compressed defining styles, in their own fields. Macmillan has its
word-sense, or phrase in the the truncated examples – can be seen as own crowdsourced dictionary (the Open
dictionary. devices for maximizing the amount of Dictionary8), which already includes
Like many online dictionaries, data that will fit within the covers of a almost 2,000 items sent in by users from
Macmillan’s engages with book. But it all comes at a cost: how well all over the world. We have found that this
is the user served, for example, when, model works particularly well for “long
its users through social
expectant is defined as ”characterized by tail” items like neologisms, regional
media, competitions, and the
expectation”, and expectation as ”the act usages, and technical terms. Typically
inclusion of “user-generated
or state of expecting” (Merriam-Webster’s these have only one meaning, so they don’t
content” (UGC). The site
11th Collegiate, 2003)? require the kind of lexicographic skills
additionally includes a games
The corpus revolution gave us the tools you would need when compiling an entry
area (with a growing suite of
and the data to provide a far richer account for set or place. Some of this material is
language-learning games), of word behaviour than was previously ephemeral, but some takes its place in the
a set of videos dealing with possible, but this has left printed books language, in which case we “promote” it to
dictionaries and language bursting at the seams. My old copy of the main dictionary (and edit as necessary).
change, a weekly column the third edition of the Oxford Advanced Crowdsourcing has great potential, but to
(Buzzwords) providing in-depth Learner’s Dictionary (1974) is small and exploit this fully we need to develop clear
discussion of notable new words portable, with just over 1,000 pages. The guidelines and provide contributors with
latest crop of learner’s dictionaries come foolproof templates.
and meanings, and a blog (http://
3
1 in a larger format, contain around 2,000 This is one of many areas of lexicography
0 macmillandictionaryblog.com/).
July 2 The blog posts four or five new pCaDg-eRs,O wMeisg (ha an otothne, ra nadg eairneg b tuencdhlneodl owgiyth) wthhise ree xwceit ianrge sptielrl ifoede lionfg toraunr switaiyo nd.u rTinhge
ws, articles every week, on topics to accommodate overspill data. This business model is another. The question
e such as language change, world
N can’t continue – and fortunately it we’re all asking is: is it possible for
ry Englishes, common learner doesn’t need to. dictionary publishers to make money if they
a
on errors, language technology, and don’t sell books? The long-term viability
Dicti metaphor. 4. http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/
n http://macmillandictionary.com table.do?tab=table&init=1&plugin=1&l 6. http://urbandictionary.com/
a
m anguage=en&pcode=tin00134/ 7. http://wiktionary.com/
r
ne 5. http://macmillandictionaryblog.com/ 8. http://macmillandictionary.com/
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e
K no-more-print-dictionaries/ open-dictionary/
7
of dictionary publishing is an issue that improved advertising revenue. SEO
was debated in KDN over a decade ago. (search-engine optimization) has an
Writing in these pages, Joseph Esposito important role in attracting visitors to the
offered a gloomy vision for traditional site, but it is not the critical factor. Contrary
dictionary publishers, who he saw being to the way things looked a few years back,
outflanked by Microsoft, adding: “In the we’re now increasingly convinced that
absence of growth, the old business will appealing, relevant, high-quality content Dictionary n. Obsolete?
be strained for capital, which will beget is what really draws users to the site Before and afterwords
smaller investments, which will in turn and encourages them to come back. And Ilan Kernerman, 2012
hasten the decline” (2002). It’s still too “content” now means much more than a
Trends
early to say how accurate this prediction traditional defining dictionary.
will turn out to be, but – though some Given the abundant corpus resources and • from print to digital
players will not survive – there are reasons powerful software now at our disposal, the • from tangible to virtual
for cautious optimism. opportunities offered by digital media are (to invisible)
On the development side, technology unlimited – and only just beginning to be • from one dictionary
is helping to drive down costs. Acquiring explored. In this sense, it’s an exciting for life to many
corpus data used to be a major expense, scenario. At the same time, commercial simultaneously
but billion-word Web corpora can now be dictionary publishers find themselves • from one-size-fits-all
assembled for a fraction of what it cost to operating in a challenging and often to customized and
create the BNC 20 years ago. Meanwhile, uncomfortable environment. We used personalized
significant progress has been made in to know who our competitors were (and • from a language product
automating editorial processes such as there weren’t very many of them), but we to (multi-)language
extracting relevant information from now compete for attention with numerous services
corpora, selecting example sentences, online dictionaries (of wildly varying • from paid to non-paid
and checking text quality (cf. Rundell quality), automatic translation sites, (to paid)
and Kilgarriff 2011, Rundell 2012). In language forums, text-remediation devices, • from private(ly-owned)
prospect now is a dictionary-compila- and other resources. Publishers have to to public(ly-funded/
tion model where “the software selects remain alert (you never know who is going shared)
what it believes to be relevant data and to appear from nowhere to eat your lunch) • from (passive) reader to
actually populates the appropriate fields and be aware that the environment can (interactive) user
in the dictionary database” (Rundell and change rapidly – as shown, for example, • from old to young
Kilgarriff 2011.278), so that the whole by the dramatic growth in mobile devices, • from human to machine
process is streamlined…and therefore so that dictionaries are now more likely to • from content to
costs a lot less. Crowdsourcing (mentioned be accessed from a smartphone or tablet technology
earlier) could also – if well managed – than from a desktop computer. Just as we • from words (to phrases
have a part to play in keeping a lid on get used to the idea that “the dictionary” and structures) to
editorial costs. is no longer a printed book, we have to language
On the publishing side, several possible face the possibility that dictionaries will • from dictionaries to
revenue streams are already in the frame, not survive at all in the longer term – at lexicographicology
and others that we can’t yet imagine will least, not as the autonomous entities they
no doubt emerge. Apps, APIs, and licence are now. It is just as likely that they will
deals to provide dictionary services to be embedded in other resources. But that
third-parties can all contribute. But it’s is for another day. What is clear is that
a fluid situation, and there is bound to the migration of reference resources from
be a lot of trial and error before a robust print to digital media is going to be an even
business model takes shape. When bigger game-changer than the arrival of
we launched the online Macmillan corpora in the 1980s.
Dictionary in 2009, for example, there
was a debate about whether to adopt the References
so-called freemium model, keeping the Esposito, Joseph. 2002. Dictionaries,
more valuable content behind a paywall. another Netscape?, Kernerman
Our conclusion was that for general Dictionary News 10.
reference this wasn’t going to work (just Rundell, Michael and Kilgarriff, Adam. 13
0
as it doesn’t work for general news: users 2011. Automating the creation of y 2
have too many other options). dictionaries: where will it all end?. In Jul
Over the four years that the Macmillan Meunier, F., De Cock, S., Gilquin, G. and ws,
Dictionary has been online, the landscape Paquot, M. (eds.), A Taste for Corpora. Ne
has changed, and there are many more A tribute to Professor Sylviane Granger. ry
a
n
competitors out there. Despite this, our Amsterdam: Benjamins. 257-281. o
commitment to continuous improvements Rundell, Michael. 2012. The road to Dicti
to every aspect of the site, including its automated lexicography: an editor’s n
a
look-and-feel, functionality, content, and viewpoint. In Granger, S. and Paquot, m
r
currency. has paid off in terms of steadily M. (eds.), Electronic Lexicography. ne
r
e
growing traffic, and hence significantly Oxford: Oxford University Press. 15-30. K
8
Make me a match:
Putting learners in touch with dictionaries

Colin McIntosh
In the new, Fourth edition of the Cambridge bilingual dictionary, which tends to be
Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, the entry more useful as a decoding rather than an
for book has been rewritten. The first sense encoding tool.
is no longer “a set of pages fastened together ELT publishers and editors have always
inside a cover”, but “a written text that can made great efforts to pass on the message
be published in printed or electronic form”. to teachers and learners that learners’
The “set of pages” is destined to become a dictionaries are an almost inexhaustible
historical sense, much like codex, scroll, or mine of information and advice about
tablet (the Mosaic rather than the Jobsian English that can help with encoding as
variety). well as decoding. It has to be said that this
A dictionary, too, is a book, that is to say message has got through only sporadically.
a written text in printed or electronic form. To the vast majority of users of language
In undergoing the transformation from (i.e. virtually everyone), a dictionary is still
Colin McIntosh is the a set of pages to a text, the dictionary is a monolithic fountain of knowledge that is
Publisher of Cambridge in the process of achieving its destiny. In not susceptible to variation or adaptation,
Dictionaries Online and editor fact, the dictionary was electronic before its and not the highly flexible tool that can be
of the Cambridge Advanced time, with its hypertext (cross-references), recreated endlessly to suit its users which
non-linear progression, and easy access to lexicographers know it to be.
Learner’s Dictionary, Fourth
any piece of data that the user required. In the days of print, the distinction between
edition. In a previous life he
Online, alphabetical order is no longer learners’ dictionaries and native-speaker
edited new editions of the
relevant. Dummy entries, placeholders dictionaries was made clear-cut by their
Oxford Collocations Dictionary
that cross-refer to other entries, are no physical separation in the bookshop. If your
and Phrasal Verbs Dictionary,
longer needed. Running heads, alpha local bookshop was in São Paulo, it is likely
as well as developing the starts, run-ons, and all the rest of the that it stocked English learners’ dictionaries
Oxford 3000 vocabulary list for time-honoured catalogue of dictionary and bilinguals, not native-speaker English
the Oxford Advanced Learner’s furniture are consigned to the bonfire. monolinguals. If your local bookshop was
Dictionary. He is also an Much thought has been given to how to in Brighton, you would find your learners’
experienced language teacher, convert dictionary codices into electronic dictionaries in the ELT section. You would
and has written self-study dictionary texts; perhaps less to how users be guided by the realities of distribution or
encounter dictionaries in the real world. the layout of the shop into choosing the most
materials for learners of Italian.
One thing that strikes me in my role appropriate dictionary for your needs. The
[email protected]
as dictionary publisher (as opposed to question of level would largely be decided
lexicographer) is that the distinctions by looking at the dictionary on the shelf
between different types of dictionary are and opening it at random. If the 2000-page
being eroded by online dictionaries. doorstopper looked too forbidding with its
Learners’ dictionaries developed in sheer bulk and closely packed print, then
the middle of the last century, born of a an intermediate or elementary dictionary
realization that the needs of learners of would do the job.
English (or of any language, for that matter) In the digital age, these distinctions
were very different from those of native no longer apply. In the absence of the
speakers. Native-speaker dictionaries rarely physical cues of the bookshop layout or
trouble themselves with grammar, because the printed books themselves, a certain
3
1 things like complementation patterns and degree of sophistication is required of
0
y 2 restrictions on plural use are obvious to the user, a sophistication that we cannot
ul natives. With its grammatical information necessarily expect them to have. When a
J
s, at the lexical level and model example student in Italy wants to know the meaning
w
Ne sentences, the learner’s dictionary filled a of upcycling, the most likely course of
ry gap in a way that nothing else has been able action is to google “upcycling definition”
a
on to do so far. or “upcycling meaning” or “upcycling
Dicti ELT bilingual dictionaries developed traduzione”, and wait for the avalanche
n later, and continued the same approach to of sources (Wikipedia, Urban Dictionary,
a
m the type of information presented as the learners’ and native-speaker dictionaries,
r
e
n learners’ monolinguals had done, setting monolingual and bilingual dictionaries), all
r
e
K them apart from the traditional type of jostling for space on the first page of results.
9
Faced with this bewildering array, the user Thus, a one-size-fits-all approach
Cambridge Dictionaries
is likely to choose the first result, or the first does not have to be the logical outcome
Online
name that he or she recognizes. The type of online dictionaries. The difference
of dictionary will be largely immaterial, is that, before, the differences between Cambridge University Press is
and the whole historical back story of dictionaries were explicit and enforced a leading global publisher of
ELT dictionaries, from Hornby’s flight by the physical product, whereas now English language learning and
from Japan in 1942 with his Idiomatic and they are hidden below the surface so teaching materials. The first
Syntactic English Dictionary in his suitcase that the dictionary-using experience is a Cambridge learner’s dictionary
all the way up to the latest innovations in streamlined, almost automatic one. One was published in 1995.
corpus lexicography, becomes invisible. thing that has not changed is that we still
Originally entitled Cambridge
The result of this is that it becomes more have to get to know our new customers
International Dictionary of
difficult for the publisher to unite the user extremely well, something that has always
English, this developed into
with his or her ideal dictionary. Where been the dictionary publisher’s job.
the Cambridge Advanced
previously the publisher was the village Fortunately, we are now in a position
Learner’s Dictionary, and has
matchmaker, the situation now can be more to get to know our users better than ever
like a free-for-all online dating service, if not before. Whereas in the past the feedback just been published in its fourth
something rather more promiscuous. While on our dictionaries was limited to small edition. It was followed by
SEO is a very useful tool for publishers, it surveys, individual lookup observations, dictionaries for intermediate and
does not necessarily do the job of putting and letters from individual customers, we elementary learners, dictionaries
the right dictionary at the user’s fingertips. can now track users’ journeys (with their of American English, and
Of course, not everyone comes to the permission), so that we can form a much semi-bilingual editions for
dictionary via Google. An important part of clearer picture of the words they are looking
Chinese, Turkish, Polish, and
our job as publishers will be to build up our up, the domains that these words fall into
Russian speakers.
online brands, so that the user comes straight (and therefore their interests), the level of
Cambridge Dictionaries Online
to our site, whether via a bookmark or a English that their lookups indicate, and
(CDO) was launched in 1999,
widget. Cambridge’s API is an attempt to do even the type of word information that they
the first dictionary website with
this at a group level rather than an individual are seeking. Our surveys can reach vastly
learners of English in mind,
one. A website with a particular community increased numbers of people, with the result
of users will be able to supply the datasets that we are closer to our users than ever and became one of the most
that most suit their users’ profile. before, and for the first time we can really popular dictionary sites on the
Localization and channelization are other start to understand their language-learning Web. It remains the pre-eminent
ways that dictionary publishers can get closer habits and preferences so that we can often online learner’s dictionary, with
to their customers. Thanks to geo-targeting, answer their questions even before they millions of users around the
specific local-language bilinguals be offered; have started to formulate them. world.
advice about choosing the right tool for the Some users may miss the old serendipity
Cambridge and K Dictionaries
job can be offered in the local language; the of browsing the pages of a print dictionary
have just announced their
metalanguage of entries can be translated (the forerunner of the user journey), but
decision to partner up to provide
(and the user is always at liberty to reject the new technology used by the best online
bilingual English learner’s
the default option if that is not appropriate dictionaries has the potential to offer an
dictionary content for a range of
to his or her needs). If the level of words experience that is of far higher quality in
being looked up is intermediate rather than terms of the targeting of the information, languages, which will be added
advanced, we can suggest an intermediate and which can adapt itself to the user’s to CDO over time.
dictionary as the default. If the lookups backgrounds, needs, and interests in http://dictionary.cambridge.org/
tend to belong to a particular domain, we exciting and surprising ways.
can suggest an ESP dictionary. And user
profiles can help in hiding or showing
particular elements of the entry, such as IPA,
Free dictionary & Free lunch
translations, or extra examples.
In addition, publishers can actually TheFreeDictionary.com welcomed its five billionth visitor in April 2013,
take advantage of the absence of just months before its 10th birthday. In 2007 the website’s owner, Farlex Inc,
physical separation. Where previously a launched Definition-Of.com as a community-based dictionary that allows
conscientious writer, editor, or translator users to generate, access, and rate its content. For every two definitions
would need various monolinguals and approved on the site, Farlex donates one school lunch to a hungry child through 13
0
bilinguals, a thesaurus, a collocations the United Nations World Food Program’s (WFP) school meals program. In y 2
dictionary, a spelling dictionary, and a this way, users are afforded the opportunity to share their knowledge with Jul
usage guide, all of this information can others and, at the same time, fight global hunger. In addition to its monetary ws,
be combined in one dataset. I may want to donations to the WFP, Farlex has provided it with development resources Ne
know a meaning of a word; but how do I say and advertising space on its websites. To date, these combined efforts have ry
a
it in Turkish? And what are its collocations helped provide over 100,000 meals to children around the world. As noted by on
and synonyms? So instead of having to the WFP, these meals do more than just nourish the children physically; they Dicti
come out of one book to see what another help nourish their minds, encouraging them to attend school and improving n
a
book is saying about the same word, I can their academic performance. m
r
display as much or as little information http://farlex.com/ ne
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about it as I like, all on the same screen. K
10
Trade Reference
Sander Bekkers
Commercial dictionary publishing is The international community increasingly
changing, for several different reasons uses the English language in global business
publishers have encountered a loss of communication, and this tendency is the
product relevance to their public. One of most obvious reason behind the increase in
my former colleagues once mentioned: the trade in English bilingual dictionaries
language and communication is very much and the decline in demand for German,
alive, everyone communicates continuously French or Spanish bilingual dictionaries.
and most of it is done in writing, however Added to this are also internal issues,
dictionary publishers have trouble meeting concerning the way dictionary publishers
the needs of today’s writers and finding a were organized in the past. Most traditional
niche in the present writers’ environment dictionary publishers still originate from
where people communicate. The reality, book publishing and lexicographers, while
however, is that dictionaries are by and the real innovations are now coming from
Sander Bekkers is Publisher large not being used as an active writing or computer programmers. This all depends
at Prisma language and learning tool, but as a passive reference tool. of course on how dictionaries are defined.
dictionaries, Department of If language learning is defined as Dr. Robert Amsler, an American
combining a grammar database with computational linguist, wrote the following
Unieboek|Het Spectrum, part
definitions and relevant phrases within, a on this matter (in the email discussion
of the Lannoo publishing
dictionary could be an essential construct. following Macmillan’s announcement
group. He has rich experience
If you define a dictionary as a functionality on replacing print entirely by digital
in dictionaries and reference
to assist you in writing texts in your own publication):
publishing, and has previously
or another language, or as a tool you can The work I did on the analysis of
worked with Bert Bakker,
use to acquire a language, there are several dictionary definitions demonstrated that
Amsterdam; Van Dale solutions, none of which include it being there was an imperfect, yet intriguing,
Publishers, Utrecht; Educatieve in book form. But the fact remains that taxonomy of definition texts and showed
Partners, Houten; and for dictionary makers books are still the that the alphabetic organization of
Reed-Elsevier, Amsterdam. primary revenue base. dictionary entries was outmoded except
sander.bekkers@ It seems as though, for the last thirty under special circumstances. I.e., for
unieboekspectrum.nl years digital reference sources have always example, you had to know how to spell
held the promise that the market would a word to look it up; you had to know a
shift from dictionaries as books to digital word existed that dealt with the meaning
media. Up to now this promise has not been you were trying to express to know how
fulfilled, however recently in Germany the to look it up; and when you did look a
situation has shifted. Duden Verlag has gone word up you were given a tiny view of the
online, publishing their main dictionary Die dictionary’s contents that didn’t show you
Deutsche Rechtschreibing on the internet the other words whose definitions were
for free, and other publishers such as related to the entry you were examining
Macmillan and Pons have done the same. in terms of taxonomic relatives. Sure,
The number of internet hits indicates they some dictionaries did an excellent job
are doing fairly well, but they were more of including information on synonyms...
reserved when inquiries were made about but NONE gave taxonomic or part/whole
their revenue. The fact is, however, that related headwords.
doing nothing means an ultimate decline In many discussions there is no clear
and finally – discontinuation. differentiation between the market position
Examining the matter more closely, it of bilingual and monolingual dictionaries,
3
1 is clear that there are some divisions to be but the differentiation is there, especially in
0
y 2 made. There are the different platforms the Netherlands and Belgium. Monolingual
Jul upon which you can publish dictionaries, dictionaries have lost considerable market
ws, including online, smartphones and tablets, share to spell-checkers, Google and free
e
N desktop computers or integrated dictionaries, online dictionaries, spell-checkers have
y
r as well as adding dictionary functionality to taken over the spelling function that not
a
on This article is based on the other applications. But it is also interesting so long ago were provided by dictionaries.
Dicti presentation made at the to consider different users: a student or pupil, Google is also used as a resource for looking
n Matthias de Vries forum, at the learning the language, is a different user than up word definitions, another function
a
rm Dutch Institute of Lexicology a professional translator or a staff member in formerly provided by dictionaries. Bilingual
e
rn (INL), on 28 November 2012. an internationally-operating company – they dictionaries have a must have aspect, as
e
K all have different needs. they have become essential while writing