TYPES OF DICTIONARIES IN RELATION TO 1 The

TYPES OF DICTIONARIES IN RELATION TO: 1. The form or medium 2. The dictionary content 3. The dictionary language

TYPES OF DICTIONARIES IN RELATION TO FORM OR MEDIUM: 1. Books (paper dictionaries) 2. CD-ROMs 3. Internet or online dictionaries

1. Books (hard copies) Advantages: • Familiarity • Ownership Disadvantages: • Large size • Slow retrieval

2. CD-ROMs: You can buy dictionaries on CDROM. Advantages: Fast retrieval Lots of information Light-weight Small size Some contain pronunciation files (e. g. The Longman Interactive CDROM Dictionary) Some contain English learning materials (e. g. The Longman Interactive CD-ROM Dictionary) Some contain lots of pictures (e. g. The Longman Interactive CDROM Dictionary) Disadvantages: Computer needed Slower retrieval process if users are computer dummies Some are not well-designed

3. Internet or online dictionaries: are accessible via the Internet through a web browser. Advantages: Free Wild-card searching (this feature helps you perform a search on those occasions when you are not sure about the exact spelling of a word) Disadvantages: Computer needed Internet connection needed Slow internet speed Free ones often have advertising

TYPES OF DICTIONARIES IN RELATION TO THE DICTIONARY CONTENT 1. General Dictionaries: These dictionaries give you information about the most common words in a language. However, new words are often not included in these dictionaries until they become very common. Therefore, you should look for new fashionable words and new technical words (especially computer terms) in a technical dictionary.

2. Specialized Dictionaries These dictionaries focus on a specific subject area. This type of dictionary is also called a technical dictionary: Useful for special groups of people, (e. g. : Advanced Learner's dictionaries, college students, children, etc. ) Useful for special fields or professions (e. g. : medical, chemical, physical, literary, linguistic, computer dictionaries, etc. ) Concentrating on one part of language, (e. g. : dictionaries of idioms, phrasal verbs, collocations, abbreviations, etc. ) Translating between different varieties of a single language, (e. g. : British-American dictionaries).

• Having a special organization. (e. g. thesauri, a thesaurus is a book that organises words by categories and concepts, so synonyms and near-synonyms will be grouped together. Also, glossaries which are alphabetical lists of words or phrases used in a particular field with their definitions. Glossaries are often found at the back of a specialist or academic book as an appendix to the text.

TYPES OF DICTIONARIES IN RELATION TO THE NUMBER OF LANGUAGES USED: 1. Monolingual dictionaries: use the same language for the words and their definitions. 2. Bilingual dictionaries: give words in two languages with translations into the other language. 3. Multilingual dictionaries: each entry has translations of words in two or more languages.