Transcript Types of Dictionary

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1. Books
2. CD-ROMs
3. Internet
Books
CD-ROMS
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Advantages
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Familiarity
Ownership
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Disadvantages
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Large size
Slow retrieval
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Fast retrieval
Lots of information
Light-weight
Small size
Some contain
pronunciation files
Some contain
English learning
materials
Some contain lots
of pictures
Computer needed
Slower retrieval
process if users are
computer dummies
Some are not welldesigned
Internet
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Free
Wild-card searching
Computer needed
Internet connection
needed
Slow internet speed
Free ones often have
advertising
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1. Books
Advantages:
Familiarity - you have very probably used a book
dictionary before.
Ownership - you've probably got one already, so you
don't need to buy one.
Disadvantages:
Size - many dictionaries are large and heavy. Small
(pocket-sized) dictionaries have much less information
and can be hard to read.
Speed - finding a word can be a slow process.
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2. CD-ROMs
You can buy dictionaries on CD-ROM.
Advantages:
Finding a word is faster
CD-ROMs can contain a lot of information
They are light-weight
They are small
Some contain sound files for pronunciation (e.g. The Longman
Interactive CD-ROM Dictionary)
Some contain English language learning materials (e.g. The
Longman Interactive CD-ROM Dictionary.
Some contain pictures (e.g. The Longman Interactive CD-ROM
Dictionary.
Disadvantages:
You need a computer
It takes longer to start your computer, start the dictionary program
and look up the word than it does to use a paper dictionary. If you
are already using the computer however, this is not really a problem
Some CD ROMs are not well-designed as they seem not to use the
abilities of computers (e.g. hyperlinking) very well
Due to the above disadvantages you should test the CD before you
buy it, though not all shops will allow this.
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3. Internet
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You can find some dictionaries on the Internet.
Advantages:
They are free.
Wild cards - you can type ? if you don't know a letter,
or * for a group of letters you don't know; e.g. b?t
will find bat, bet, bit, & but. b*t finds babysit,
backseat, bait, ballet etc.
Disadvantages:
You need a computer
You need to be connected to the Internet
The Internet might be very slow
Some have distracting advertising
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1. General Dictionaries
 These are normal dictionaries that give you
information about the most common words in English.
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
dictionary of slang or informal expressions or in a
technical dictionary.
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2. Specialized Dictionaries
These are dictionaries :
Useful for special groups of people. E.g.: Advanced
Learner's dictionaries, college students, children, etc.
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Useful for special fields or professions (technical
dictionaries). E.g.: medical, chemical, physical,
literary, linguistic, computer dictionaries, etc.
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Concentrating on one part of language. E.g.:
dictionaries of idioms, collocations, phrasal verbs,
abbreviations, etc.
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Translating between different varieties of a single
language. E.g.: British-American dictionaries.
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Having a special organization. E.g.: thesauruses,
which are dictionaries that list words with similar
meanings together. This is useful for writing, where it
is sometimes bad style to use the same word many
times. However, you will need to use a general
dictionary to discover the differences between the
similar words. Some word-processing programs have
a thesaurus in the Tools menu. Also, glossaries which
are alphabetical lists of defined terms in a specialized
field usually come at the end of certain books.
1. monolingual dictionaries: all entries come in one
language.
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2. bilingual dictionaries: each entry has translations
of words in another language.
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3. multilingual dictionaries: each entry has
translations of words in two or more languages.
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