Dictionaries

Research output: Contribution to book/anthology/report/proceedingEncyclopedia entryResearchpeer-review

Abstract

Translation and lexicography, through dictionaries, are two disciplines that can work together in theory and practice. Dictionaries for translation are reference tools that can help users with transferring discourse from one language to another. The traditional type is the bilingual dictionary, which may assist translators with fictional, non-fictional, technical, or non-technical translations. However, recent research shows that dictionaries for translation are not merely bilingual ones, and that the transformative theory of lexicography appears to be well-suited for analyzing, designing, and evaluating dictionaries for translation. The main reason for this is that the theory focusses on the functions of dictionaries, i.e., the study of the real-world activity of translating in order to identify the needs translators may have. This is supplemented by user profiling, because translators have many different levels of knowledge, different competences, and different translation skills. By comparing needs, knowledge, competences, and skills, lexicographers can make dictionaries specifically targeted to translation activities and intended user groups. This means that dictionaries will be lexicographic products containing several types of data that can assist translators in the decoding, transfer, and production stages of translation at the macro-, medio-, and micro-levels. The result is that the traditional lexicographic focus on language system will be extended to usage because the central unit of translation is not merely the word but texts.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationEncyclopedia of Translation and Interpreting
Number of pages15
PublisherAIETI - The Iberian Association of Translation and Interpreting Studies
Publication dateNov 2023
Publication statusPublished - Nov 2023

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