Confrontation of Words in Bilingual Dictionaries
Bilingual lexicography is at present a well established branch of linguistics, and we possess not only enormous numbers of bilingual and multilingual dictionaries of all kinds, but also comprehensive manuals on the subject. Yet it would be a mistake to believe that all the problems of bilingual lexicography have already been satisfactorily solved. This is the reason why the bilingual dictionary is always the centre of lexicographers’ attention.
If we look at bilingual dictionaries from the user’s perspective the first thing to be mentioned is this: bilingual general‑purpose dictionaries, like monolingual ones, are directed at natives and foreign learners. The difference is in a more generous treatment of the part which represents the user’s foreign language. Here are samples of the entries for motivein the English‑Russian dictionary edited by Kenneth Katzner and the one edited by Olga Akhmanova and Elizabeth Wilson, the former is intended for native speakers of English, the latter – for Russian learners of English:
Kenneth Katzner
motiven мотив; побуждение.
Olga Akhmanova, Elizabeth Wilson
motive (ґmqVtIv) n мотив; побуждение.
And here are samples of the entry for мастерin the twin Russian‑English dictionaries of the same authors:
Kenneth Katzner
мастер (pl мастера) n 1. skilled craftsman. Сапожный мастер, shoemaker. Мастер по ремонту (+gen), repairman (TV, washing machine, etc). 2. master. Мастер рассказа, master storyteller. 3. fore‑man. Мастер на все руки, jack‑of‑all‑trades.
Olga Akhmanova, Elizabeth Wilson
мастер 1. (на заводе) foreman, skilled workman 2. ( знаток чего‑л.) expert; он ~ своего дела in his own field he is a past master; ~ спорта master of sports (a highly qualified athlete); ~ на все руки ~ Jack of all trades.
It does not require a very close examination to see that the English‑Russian dictionary by Kenneth Katzner in contrast with that by Olga Akhmanova and Elizabeth Wilson does not transcribe the English word. It is taken for granted that the English speaker does not need this information.
In the Russian‑English dictionary Kenneth Katzner gives the plural form of the noun in question and indicates the genitive case of nouns following the word‑combination мастер по ремонту. If we took other entries we would see that they contain all irregularities in Russian verb conjugations and noun declensions. All this information is known by the Russian speaker and this is why it is not found in Olga Akhmanova’s dictionary.
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As for the correlation of L1 and L2 words within an entry it should be pointed out that the bilingual dictionary is always the projection of one language in terms of the other. Thus, for example, if we take Olga Akhmanova’s dictionary we shall see that an L1 word has generally two L2 equivalents:
English‑Russian Dictionary
Modern
современный
новый
Russian‑English Dictionary
Современный
modern
contemporary
This feature of bilingual dictionaries is accounted for by partial semantic equivalence of juxtaposed English and Russian words. If, for example we compare the semantic structures of the English word heart and the Russian word сердцеwe shall see that in some senses they do not coincide.
Heart –1. Part of body, the organ in the left side of the chest that pumps blood around the body;
2. feelings, emotions;
3. the most important part of something;
4. centre;
5. the smaller leaves in the middle of the cabbage
6. a thing shaped like a heart;
7. (hearts) one of the four sets of cards
сердце –1. Центральный орган кровообращения в виде мускульного мешка (у человека в левой стороне грудной полости);
2. перен.Этот орган как символ переживаний, чувств, настроений человека;
3. перен. Важнейшее место чего‑либо, средоточие.
In such cases the lexicographer has to turn to other words which would help to render the senses of the L1 word in the target language. Thus, the entry for heartin an English‑Russian dictionary could look like this:
Heart – 1. сердце,
2. душа;
3. суть, сущность;
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4. центр, средоточие;
5. кочерыжка;
6. в форме сердечка;
7. (в картах) червы.
and the entry for сердце in а Russian‑English dictionary could be as follows:
Сердце – (в разн. знач.) heart.
If we turn to phraseology we shall find ourselves in deeper waters because even if the nominative basic meanings of the juxtaposed words coincide their collocations have little in common. Thus, for example, the word brush is translated as щетка. This equivalent, however, occurs only in one of the following pairs of equivalent collocations:
a brush for clothes – платяная щетка
to give one’s clothes a good brush – хорошо почистить платье
to paint with a full brush – писать широкими мазками
Turner’s magic brush – волшебная кисть Тернера
It follows from what has just been said that every time when a lexicographer compiles a bilingual dictionary he/she has to solve the problem of partial equivalene of two lexical systems.
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