Abstract
A dictionary is considered to be a main element towards understanding a foreign language, in this case English. In fact, it represents a link between words and their conceptual units that reflect standardised and specific meanings. Electronic dictionaries are a way of encoding all relevant information associated with lexical entries in a manner easily accessible to users. Nowadays, wide varieties of English dictionaries are electronically available on the web. Kent (2001:74) argues “…a benefit of utilizing the bilingual dictionary is that it allows learners to search for terms they wish to express in the target language…” This paper presents a project currently in progress at the Simón Bolívar University which has as main objectives: 1) to construct an electronic bilingual dictionary for International Trade; 2) to supply succinct definitions of terms used in international trade; 3) to support students, researchers, teachers and the trade community; 4) to demonstrate the effectiveness of hypertext in education and research. The dictionary will be based on the English language terminology for International Trade and will contain standard definitions of the terms accepted worldwide. The project has been divided into stages and will take at least three years to complete. Phase One is related to the planning and design; this is what we have been developing. The work consists of the preparation and designing of the dictionary, the selection of headwords, the development of computational support systems and the creation of templates that will be used when the complete dictionary will be compiled in the course of Phase Two. In Phase One, the corpora will be selected, classified and analysed in order to derive the headwords for the new dictionary.. The International Trade bilingual electronic dictionary will be based on a thorough revision of existing related materials in the field and its corpora will include a wide range of useful entries and web links. This bilingual dictionary will be available in print and electronic format.
Keywords: Bilingual dictionary, International trade, research project, ESP, technology
INTRODUCTION
Dictionaries are good tools for bearing in mind to what extent ideas of the world have entered our societies because they work at two different levels. First, dictionaries name the world around us presenting vocabulary that appeals to be used in the real world. Second, dictionaries give an idea about what words are used by society because people go and check the meaning of words that they heard elsewhere.
They have been described as “…a book containing the words of a language, arranged alphabetically, with explanations of their meanings; a lexicon; a vocabulary; a wordbook. Hence, a book containing the words belonging to any system or province of knowledge, arranged alphabetically; as, a dictionary of medicine or of botany; a biographical dictionary…” Webster's Dictionary.
A set of generalizations about the way the words in a language work, playing a significant part in our culture and bridging the gap between words and their associated meanings in a specific domain. Powerful reference books and, as such, we expect them to have only objective information about general or specific knowledge areas.
Bilingual dictionaries of major languages are usually written by consulting monolingual dictionaries or by relying on a native speaker’s intuition. Hartmann (1987) proposes that a bilingual dictionary should be compiled by consulting a corpus of parallel texts. In this way, the compiler has access to specific choices that skilled, bilingual translators have made in matching words between languages.
Bilingual dictionaries have been a long time mate of many foreign language students. They are a vital source for data concerning vocabulary items, and they are not a simple classroom tool but an object of life long use. (Kent, 2001). If the role of the teacher is as a facilitator for foreign language learning in the classroom, then what is a role of a bilingual dictionary? For students, the bilingual dictionary is a preference to its counterpart. (Baxter,1980)
Researchers have conversed about the use of various types of electronic bilingual dictionaries in the context of English as a Foreign Language. (Cowie, 2000; Gu; Koren, 1997; Thompson, 1987,Tono, 1989) and have agreed that not a single bilingual dictionary meets 100% of students need.
Electronic dictionaries offer great potential benefits for users: they are quick and easy to use, they can provide access to large amounts of data, and they are interactive. It is also important to take into consideration that most web based dictionaries are currently available. (Nesi, 1999)
Pollard, (1999) explains that web-based dictionaries are non-linear learning tools where students can explore concepts according to their own agendas via embedded hyper-links over the World-Wide Web. Prompt retrieval of further information is possible and is not limited to one spatial location. Dictionaries act as information hubs since navigation through an information matrix is made easier by the analogous use of a paper-based alphabetically -ordered dictionary, or lookup table.
Using electronic bilingual dictionaries have to do with allowing learners to search for terms they wish to communicate in the target language. Electronic dictionaries serve as much more than just mere word translators. Apart, from being portable, they are convenient in terms of providing multi search paths and speeding up the search process. (Perry, 1997, Yonally & Gilfert, 1995).
Teubert (1996) argues that electronic dictionaries will tend to suppress the paper dictionary in the future. This is likely to be in the field of dictionaries for specific purposes, no matter whether the dictionaries are monolingual, bilingual, or multilingual as the case may often be.
The expediency and speed of electronic dictionaries give access to a wide variety of searches through the presentation of entries and other composite elements, which supply updated information from different available sources or links.
Currently, the best electronic dictionaries for language learners seem to be those published on websites, which offer storage devices, and retrieval systems; their immense capacity and easy links to other computer-based applications make them a useful learning tool for foreign language students and teachers.
THE PROJECT
This project is at this time in progress at the Simón Bolívar University and has as main objective to create an online searchable electronic bilingual dictionary for International Trade in order to make it accessible to language learners, teachers, native speakers, and researchers over the web for specific language learning and teaching.
Based on the complexity of International Trade terms, this bilingual electronic dictionary is configuring a way to encode all the relevant information associated with lexical entries in an easy reachable manner to users.
The English language terminology for International Trade will be based for the electronic dictionary and will contain standard definitions of the terms accepted worldwide.
This research work has been divided in phases and will take about three years to complete. Phase One relates to the planning and designing phase. Now, we are carrying out the phase related to preparation and scheming the dictionary, the selection of the corpora, the development of computational support system and the creation of templates that will be used when the compilation of data for the dictionary is complete in the course of Phase Two.
THE ELECTRONIC INTERNATIONAL TRADE ENGLISH - SPANISH DICTIONARY
Corpus here is referred to any body of texts in digital form. For lexicographers, grammarians, and anyone concerned in general language description, a corpus means a large, representative sample illustrating the full repertoire of text-types in a language – including novels, journals, academic writing, and many other varieties of texts.
Computer corpora were developed as far back as the early 1960s. The computer boom of the 1980s and 1990s established the corpus as an indispensable instrument. Nowadays it is possible to build corpora containing tens of millions – even hundreds of millions – of words.
Because of the previous assumptions, any dictionary including English as one of its languages should be systematically corpus-based, in the interests of objectivity, completeness, accuracy, and indeed credibility. For this project, we will be providing the Spanish language, too, with state-of-the-art linguistic resources that will strengthen a new programme of dictionary development for the 21st century.
Corpuses supply the information we need to create a reliable description of the vocabulary of a language. For any given word, we can discover a range of information, including:
Semantic evidences for the word’s different meanings and nuances.
Syntactic how the word combines grammatically with others.
Contextual the environments in which the word typically appears, and the patterns or phrases it forms part of.
Stylistic the kinds of text where we are most likely to encounter the word – whether these be literary or poetic, journalistic, academic, or email.
Statistical evidences for the relative frequency of different words or of the different meanings or grammatical constructions of the same word.
The corpora for the International Trade electronic bilingual dictionary is going to be configured and organised from different sources such as newspapers, journals, textbooks, printed dictionaries, papers, and other electronic monolingual dictionaries. These will be our ‘raw data’, which in turn and progressively be classified and analysed in order to help us construct a representation of the way words (terms) are used in international trade. Kennedy (1992:367) suggests that the corpora on which dictionaries are based can provide an almost limitless quantity of data concerning word and structure frequency.
Creating the corpora is being the most time consuming aspect of the project. Time, effort and devotion should be posed to undertake this complicated task. The selection of headwords and the wording of definitions should be made out carefully taking into account the context, the future users and the different thematic areas into which they appear.
The large volume and diversity of international trade knowledge makes the conceptual modelling task difficult and labour- demanding. Concept models will supply language-independent and structured domain knowledge upon which vocabulary items will be set up.
TECHNICAL ISSUES
Computational tools provide great support to configure and structure the dictionary lexicon. They can help us gather information from corpora and to thoroughly analysing this information in a numerous ways. This material will be processed and from it a useful database generated.
These tools make possible the process of writing entries and make it easy to use data again and again in different ways and for different purposes. During Phase One of the project the following working instruments will be developed, a Corpus System, a Dictionary Writing System and an Assembling System. The acquisition and representation of lexical knowledge are fundamental issues for international trade.
The success of understanding the terminology of English for International Trade depends on the ability to make up clear conceptual relationships between the terms and have developed them in such a framework that users will find the International Trade electronic bilingual dictionary accessible and useful.
CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, we have presented a project to create an electronic bilingual dictionary for International Trade. We have stated that, electronic dictionaries are a way of encoding the lexicon of a knowledge area in a manner that makes information handy to users.
The project is a work in progress. We are currently working on Phase one that has to do with:
a) the selection, classification and analysis of the corpora to derive the possible headwords;
b) developing a Corpus System, a Dictionary Writing System and an Assembling System; and
c) looking up for the best way to structure the new dictionary.
Facing all the work that remains to be done in order to configure the templates for the dictionary, we consider decisive for the success of this project that having a thorough revised corpora will lead us to create an electronic dictionary for International Trade which will take into account all the aspects of the specific language terminology used in this area as well as giving the opportunity to interact with teachers, language learners, and researchers.
The most important result of the project will be the accessibility of huge lexical databases in an electronic form and in due course the construction of electronic dictionaries for International Trade English.
Finally, this project will therefore be the beginning of other initiatives for developing electronic dictionaries for other disciplines, as well as strengthen a programme of dictionary development for the 21st century at our university campus.
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