Monolingual learner's dictionary

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Monolingual learner's dictionaries are written for learners of a foreign language. Most such dictionaries are aimed at advanced learners, but in language there are ones for elementary and intermediate users too. They are based on the supposition that learners of a language must move from a bilingual dictionary to a monolingual dictionary as they advance in their study of the target language, but that general purpose dictionaries compiled for native speakers are too complex and indeed confusing for their needs. Learners' (or learner's) dictionaries include a lot of information on grammar, usage, common errors, false friends, collocations, and so on, which a native speaker knows intuitively. Conversely, these dictionaries leave out etymology and quotations.

The first English monolingual learner's dictionary was The Idiomatic and Syntactic Dictionary of English by A. S. Hornby in 1942. This was republished as A Learner's Dictionary of Current English by Oxford University Press in 1948. The second edition came in 1963, the third in 1974, both in several impressions. The dictionary was a huge financial success. This unparalleled success was, of course, the result of the boom in the English language teaching industry worldwide.

The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English was published in 1978. The editors, led by Paul Proctor, introduced several innovations. The most striking was the use of a restricted 'defining vocabulary'. Almost a decade later another new player, the Collins Cobuild English Dictionary, came out, a significant milestone in corpus-based lexicography.

1995 was the 'year of the dictionaries': Oxford published its fifth edition, Longman its third, Cobuild its second and yet another player appeared, the Cambridge International Dictionary of English. 2002 saw the entrance of yet another competitor: the Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners.

The current editions in 2006 are the seventh of the Oxford dictionary, fourth of the Longman dictionary, fourth of the Collins Cobuild dictionary, and most recently the second of the Cambridge dictionary.

See also

• Dictionary
• Lexicography
• Language education
• COBUILD
• Lexigraf

External links

• Macmillan English Dictionary Visit the resource site of the award-winning Macmillan English Dictionary.
• Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary Home page of Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary.
• Cambridge Dictionaried Online Webside of Cambridge Dictionary, helping you look words up from various range of Cambridge Dictionaries.
• Longman Dictionary of Comtemporary English Website of Longman Dictionary Of Contemporary English,providing free online dictionary service.
• Monolingual vs. bilingual dictionaries A discussion of dictionary types with regard to foreign language learners.