Volume 29, Issue 2013

This contribution presents a framework for a systematic description of pragmatemes. Pragmatemes are compositional phrasemes restricted in its signified and its signifier by the extralinguistic situation in which they are used, that is, by pragmatic factors. This kind of phraseological units have not attracted much attention in lexicography or metalexicography. We offer a complete metalinguistic apparatus to deal with these sequences in bilingual lexicography, through a dozen categories of microstructure. Our work is based in French-Spanish bilingual lexicography. Numerous examples are provided in both languages.

This paper focuses on finding links and dissimilarities between Terminology and Specialised Lexicography. This debate is not new though. However, the evolution of Terminology into other spheres of activity besides lexicography and specialised communication has strengthened the differences between these two domains. Translators that need to access structured knowledge in order to transfer it from one linguistic system into another need both the products that derive from terminological work and those that originate from lexicographical work. Therefore, we do not start from the dichotomy Terminology vs. Specialised Lexicography, but from a relationship that builds on the idea of a continuum that allows us to argue that these disciplines are connected albeit at different degrees.

Eine Auseinandersetzung mit der Rolle syntagmatischer Information in online Wörterbüchern und Valenzwörterbüchern zwecks einer Übersetzung sowie der Begründung, dass kontrastive Valenzwörterbücher für gewisse Konsultationen angebrachter sind als die vom Benutzer häufig zu Rate gezogenen Wörterbücher, ist das zentrale Anliegen dieses Beitrags. Diesbezüglich werden unterschiedliche mit der Übersetzung zusammenhängende Phänomene ausgeführt. Der Frage, ob in zweisprachigen elektronischen Bedeutungswörterbüchern für das Sprachenpaar Deutsch-Spanisch die valenzfundierte Information die korrekte Verwendung eines Valenzträgers ermöglicht, wird nachgegangen. Weiterhin werden Internetwörterbücher mit Nutzerpartizipation einer Analyse unterzogen: da je nach Wörterbuch der Benutzer an unterschiedlichen Phasen der Werkerstellung und -korrektur teilnehmen darf, wird geprüft, ob in derartigen Nachschlagewerken signifikative Optimierungsfortschritte hinsichtlich der Disambiguierung der Äquivalente gegenüber den Werken ohne Nutzerpartizipation festzustellen sind und ebenfalls welcher Status der Übersetzung zugeschrieben wird. Einblicke in das Schwergewicht der syntagmatischen Information lässt die Betrachtung ihrer Foren gewinnen. Im Fall der Valenzwörterbücher befasse ich mich mit der Rolle der Übersetzung bei der Erstellung von Valenzwörterbüchern und mit übersetzungs- sowie sprachbedingten und lexikographischen Schwierigkeiten, die eng mit dem Wörterbuchtyp verbunden sind. Optimierungsvorschläge und aktuelle Tendenzen werden erläutert.

This paper discusses the role dictionaries play in a translation situation within the tenets of the Function Theory of Lexicography (Bergenholtz/Tarp, 2002, 2003, 2004; Tarp 2008; Fuertes-Olivera/Tarp, 2014). It comments on the lexicographic data needed for assisting translators of specialised texts, proposes a list of recommendations for constructing high quality translation dictionaries and illustrates these views by referring to the Accounting Dictionaries , a series of interconnected Danish, English, Spanish, Danish-English, English-Danish, Spanish-English and English-Spanish dictionaries that provide assistance to the envisaged user group in a number of specified situations, e.g. L1-L2 and L2-L1 translation (Fuertes-Olivera/ Nielsen, 2012). These dictionaries are subject to a continuous process of adaptation in order to cope with theoretical modifications and technological breakthroughs, e.g. the challenges the Internet poses for making dictionaries (Fuertes-Olivera, 2013a; Fuertes-Olivera/Bergenholtz, 2011 [2013]; Fuertes-Olivera/Tarp, 2014; Tarp, 2012). For instance, since 2011 users can access several usage specific dictionaries, e.g. the Diccionario Inglés-Espanol de Contabilidad: Traducción and the Diccionario Inglés- Espanol de Contabilidad: Traducción de Frases y Expresiones . These are Model T. Ford dictionaries, i.e. dictionaries whose articles and the visualized lexicographical data are adapted to the various functions displayed by the dictionary, frequently assisted by different types of interactive options where the users may define themselves and the activity for which they need information (Tarp, 2011 [2013]).

The following article exemplarily analyses and types different kinds of interference in the corpus-based bilingual special dictionary ‘KOLLEX’. Based on selected figures the first section shortly overviews this German-Hungarian learner’s dictionary. Then, based on different aspects of the dictionary’s concept, the next chapter presents the concrete realisation of the conception’s focus on the language learner. Though ‘KOLLEX’ is designed for active language production, due to its German register of more than 10.000 cotextpartners it can be used as an appropriate translation tool as well. The second section scrutinizes the phenomenon of interference in lexicographi cal practice. First some German-Hungarian learner’s dictionaries are surveyed concerning the applied solutions. As a second step, the solutions found for ‘KOLLEX’ are presented by means of concrete examples, the so called interference candidates. This for it’s essential to analyze the phenomenon of interference on different language levels. This baseline study provides a first theoretical step towards a consistent methodical framework for a lexicographic record of interference.

Most phrasemes contain varied semantic, stylistic, functionally pragmatic, and text-forming properties. Furthermore, phrasemes also contain additional semantic and pragmatic properties. Hence, they are regarded as complex for the translation process. Their complexity becomes even more evident during literary translation. The relationship between dictionary equivalence and text equivalence within interlingual connections is considered as particularly important. Consequently, it is observed in the present paper. The research is based on recorded instances of translated phrasemes between German as the source language and Slovene as the target language. The paper outlines how original German phrasemes were translated into Slovene, which translation procedures and strategies were applied, and to what extent dictionaries were used during the translation process. It has become evident that contrastive-linguistically defined and lexicographically documented phraseological system equivalence does not sufficiently cater for the active translator. The active translator namely principally seeks functionally pragmatic interlingual equivalence, which has to be determined in compliance with a given context. The analysis has shown many phrasemes to feature specific semantic characteristics. Consequently, the meaning of each phraseme is essentially dependent on context. Meanings of phrasemes vary significantly and can lexicographically be accurately deduced only by taking different contexts into consideration. Requirements for highlighting phraseology in dictionaries appropriately - in order for dictionaries to be applicable as viable translation aids - should therefore be based on the essential semantic characteristics of phrasemes in order to enable the user (translator) to access a vast repository of tentative translation equivalents.

The article analyzes the use of bilingual dictionaries in the translation process of polysemic verbs from Italian into German. The polysemic verbs are described in a contrastive way in order to highlight the specific difficulties of Italian speakers who are learning German as a foreign language. The empirical research focuses on how the Italian students use their dictionary when faced with translation difficulties presented by polysemic verbs. The results show the relationship between difficulties, errors in translation and the use of the bilingual dictionary. A retrospective questionnaire demonstrate what students think about their own use of dictionary, how they approach specific hurdles in the process of translation and how a high language awareness correlates to an effective use of the dictionary.

This contribution treats the concept of a specialised translation dictionary and argues that this concept is much broader than the traditional vision of a bilingual dictionary going from source language to target language. Based on a methodology developed in the framework of the function theory and using qualitative evidence from existing user research, the contribution then discusses the respective phases and sub-phases of the overall translation process where lexicographically relevant problems and needs may occur. Subsequently, it discusses how these needs could be solved in a complex combination of monolingual and bilingual lexicographical solutions and presents an overall concept of a specialised translation dictionary together with some general principles. Finally, it provides examples of how these principles can be applied in both printed and online dictionaries using already available techniques from information and computer science.

In the Amazon Kindle e-books, readers are automatically directed to a linked e-dictionary which enables the reader to obtain the meaning of the word without having to leave the book being read - the first three lines of the dictionary article are presented to the reader on the same screen as the open book. If this information is not sufficient to enable the reader to obtain the correct information to satisfy his/her information need, (s)he can follow a link to the full dictionary article. This is an excellent feature to help readers obtain relevant information in a text reception situation. It works perfectly in most cases. However, unfortunately there are many cases where the reader is not presented with relevant information or even presented with incorrect information, based on incorrect part of speech identification, linking to the incorrect lemma or a number of other categories of incorrect linking which are discussed in the article. Following a categorisation of such problems, we provide a number of suggestions for possible solutions to the problem. The solutions include the provision of tagged corpora, on-the-fly tagging, a menu of items to enable the reader to disambiguate between various options, etc. Each of these options is discussed in terms of what the option entails, technical issues involved in the specific option and the feasibility of the option. The article concludes that not one option will necessarily resolve all problems and that a multi-pronged approach may be necessary to optimise the automated linking of words in the Kindle e-books to the e-dictionaries that are provided.

Im Beitrag werden Gestaltungsprinzipien des Wörterbuchs der „Falschen Freunde“ auf der Makro- und Mikroebene behandelt. Zuerst wird auf wörterbuchtypologische Grundfragen eingegangen, von denen sich wichtige Gestaltungsprinzipien des Wörterbuchs ableiten. Anschließend werden herkömmliche Ansätze zur Auswahl der Lemmata, Struktur eines Wörterbuchartikels sowie Differenzierung von Übersetzungsäquivalenten besprochen. Die Darstellung basiert auf Erfahrungen bei der Erstellung eines Wörterbuchs für das Deutsche und Ukrainische.

This article deals with lexicography from the Age of Enlightenment. The idea is not only to understand what was done but also to see if anything relevant to modern lexicography could be retrieved from this historical experience. With this objective, it will have a closer look at a specific eighteenth-century dictionary, viz. Malachy Postlethwayt’s Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce , published in four editions between 1751 and 1774. This work is selected because it is one of the most comprehensive and complex specialised dictionaries produced in that era. The article will first place the dictionary in its historical environment. It will then make a detailed study of its very rich content with a view to systematising the various types of lexicographical data included as well as the structures applied to assist the users when navigating through its highly complex pages. The analysis will show the great variety of items which Postlethwayt put into his dictionary in order to meet the multi-facetted needs of a broad group of users. In some aspects, the dictionary displays very advanced features which may even inspire modern lexicography, especially online lexicography. It seems that relevant lexicographical knowledge from the Age of Enlightenment was more or less forgotten due to the predominance of the erroneous idea that dictionaries are books of words and not of “things” as many eighteenth- century lexicographers described their products. The article therefore makes a call to recover the holistic Enlightenment Age vision of lexicography and re-integrate “dictionaries of things” into modern lexicographical theory and practice.

As an introduction the typological position of printed utility tools with formal properties of a lexicographic nature (hereafter abbreviated as GlexFE) is determined within a typology of utility tools. This follows an extensional and intensional definition of GlexFE. Using examples a number of concepts are then informally introduced and it is shown that why and when the action-theoretically based theory of dictionary use can also be employed for a theory-based description of the use of GlexFE. The central part of this paper gives a detailed and critical examination of a regional telephone directory with special reference to its text compound constituents, its arrangement structures, its cross-reference culture, its telephone directory functions and its textual architecture. It is shown that the theory of dictionary structures allows detailed examinations and that it is so robust that it functions well and renders informative results without changing its basic concepts when expanding its application domain to include GlexFE. The analysis clearly shows that the compilation of a good telephone directory also needs lexicographic-theoretical knowledge.

The following report shows the important changes of EMLex concerning the organisation and implementation of the course and a short overview over the international summer term which took place 2013 in Erlangen.