Information in Monolingual Dictionaries By : Nour A. Abu Jalalah. To : Dr. Mohammed El Haj Ahmed

The Outline What is Monolingual Dictionary ? Examples of Monolingual Dictionaries . Information in Monolingual Dictionaries. Phonological Syntactic Semantic Etymological Appendices

What is Monolingual Dictionary ? A Monolingual dictionary ( MD):- Simply , it is a dictionary that deals only with one language. A monolingual dictionary is “a type of reference work in which the words of a language are explained by means of the same language” (Hartmann 95). MLDs are based on the premise that language-learners should progress from a bilingual dictionary to a monolingual one as they become more proficient in their target language, but that general- purpose dictionaries (aimed at native speakers) are inappropriate for their needs.

Examples of Monolingual Dictionaries Monolingual learner's dictionaries have been produced for learners of several languages, including German, Spanish, Dutch, and Chinese; however, most of the activity in this field is for people learning English. The first English MLD was the New Method English Dictionary by Michael West and James Endicott published in 1935. Others :- Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners. Merriam-Webster's Advanced Learner's English Dictionary. Cambridge International Dictionary of English.

Information in Monolingual Dictionaries All monolingual dictionaries provide users with the following main types of information :- Phonological Syntactic Semantic Etymological

Phonological Information Almost all monolingual dictionaries present their phonological information using IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet). The phonological information consists of :- Phonemic transcription of the word Its syllable structure Its stress pattern

Syntactical information This type indicates :- The part of speech of the word (noun, verb, adjective, adverb,…) If a word is a verb , it shows weather it is transitive or intransitive .

Semantic Information It is the most important component of a monolingual dictionary as it revolves around the meanings of word in a language . It gives :- Synonyms and antonyms of the given word. Pictures of objects in the real world Some example sentences to illustrate abstract things.

Etymological Information Etymology is the study of the origins, history , and changing meaning of the word. For example :- The word literature is firstly used in the 14th century . It is origin goes back to the middle English , from Anglo- French , from Latin litteratura writing , grammar , learning , from litteratus .

5. Appendices These appendices include many components differ from one dictionary to another such as :- Signs and symbols. Names of colleges and universities. Lists of geographical places . English names .

Longman Dictionary

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