DICTIONARY USERS and TYPES OF DICTIONARIES

Linguistic activities are divided into:

reading listening writing speaking

passive/ decoding active/ encoding

1. The native language explained in the native language

The monolingual dictionary- used to eliminate uncertainty and to

fill a gap in knowledge.
Reading- passive activity- meanings of words and expressions are
important;
spelling of w. or their construction- are obvious
Writing- active activity- spelling, inflexion, construction of w.,
subject field, style level
Listening to and speaking- dictionaries are more rarely used, BUT
spelling is important as a key to the dictionary.
-The listener is primarily interested in knowing the meaning of the
word or expression he has heard. The most important activity for
speaker is the pronunciation.

2. The native language translated into a foreign lang. or vice versa

The bilingual dictionary presupposes that the user is competent in

his own language, whereas the other language is assumed to be
more or less known. Its purpose is to give equivalents in the target
language for each word and expression in the source language.

For speakers of Swedish:

a passive dictionary for the understanding of French text
an active dictionary for the production of French text
For speakers of French:
a passive dictionary for the understanding of Swedish text
an active dictionary for the production of Swedish text
3. A foreign language explained in the foreign language

A general feature in the use of monolingual dictionaries in a foreign

language is that all types of information are sought by users-
dictionaries are used actively and passively.

Three investigations- to find out what demands are imposed by the

different categories of user on their dictionaries:
1. Barnhart in 1962- Monolingual dictionary in the native
language: meaning, spelling, pronunciation, synonyms, usage
notes, etymology.
2. Bjoint in 1981- Monolingual dict. not in the native lang.:
meaning, grammar, synonyms, spelling, pronunciation, language
variety, etymology.
3. Hartman in 1983- Bilingual dict. from a foreign lang.: meaning,
grammar, use in context, spelling, synonyms, pronunciation,
etymology.

The user has to find:

1. the right entry word
2. the right section within the entry

A very large percentage of users probably lack the ability to utilize

the information given in a dictionary. The material is grouped in a
certain order and presented according to certain conventions,
which can be difficult to learn.

Lexicographers must try to make things easier for the user, by

improving the typography and layout of the entries, by providing
more user-friendly instructions.