The Use of Dictionary

 

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The Use of the Dictionary

A good dictionary is one of the best reference books for University student. The dictionary may not be a final authority but it is a reliable authority on the use of language.

Since language is used to express ideas, we need to express ourselves competently. This competent comes through acquiring a large and varied vocabulary (the word known to and used by a person). It is not enough to just acquire vocabulary. It will almost be useless to use unless we can use it competently. And the dictionary is indispensable to our acquisition and competent use of dictionary.

We need a knowledge of how to read and interpret the information given in a dictionary so as to get the best out of it and this is the focus in this article.

There are many dictionaries available and they differ in the information and presentation (of the information) they give.

There are the large unabridged dictionaries’ placed in the library, some of which run into volumes. Such large editions are complete and are good for a reference purposes. They do not only give the meaning of words but also the origin, history, development and samples of usage, pages are devoted to as single word.

Examples of such dictionaries include:

I. Webster, A.M Webster’s Third New International Dictionary o the English Language unabridged) London.

II. Standard Dictionary of the English Language

III. Oxford Advanced Learner’ Dictionary

IV. The Concise Oxford Dictionary

V. Chamber’s 20th Century Dictionary

VI. Longman Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

Apart from these listed dictionaries, there are other specialized ones- such dictionaries give technical and specializes information on specific fields. Examples include dictionary of psychology.

Dictionary of Equation, Dictionary of the Word Literature

In a dictionary, you will not only find the meaning of words, but also indications as to how they are pronounced, spelt, derived and idiomatically used. Let us now consider these.

A. Spelling and Pronunciation

Apart from using the dictionary to know the meaning of a word, we can also use it to check the spelling of a word. It could be difficult locating a word, however, of you do not know the first and second letters of the word what to do in this case is to try different possible ways of spelling the word. For instance, you could try ‘rhyme’, is it ‘wine’ or ‘whine’. In the first pair, rhyme is wrong. There is no word like that entered in the dictionary. Rhyme is the correct spelling. In the second pair, both spellings are correct but they mean different things, wine is an alcoholic drink while Whine is a complaining cry. When you check both spellings, you will see the meaning and chose the one which is appropriate to the context.

There systems of symbols to indicate how words are pronounced on a dictionary, we have the pronunciation entered in the squared brackets [] or in some dictionaries between two slant bars //. This system of putting down the symbol is called transcription.

Some dictionaries may have different ways of indicating pronunciation, therefore observe and learn the method in your dictionary.

B. Meaning

The dictionary is most popularly know for giving meanings of words. Word entered in a dictionary are arranged In alphabetical order, written in bold types and referred to as headwords. After the bold type pronunciation, the part of speech and the given meaning are given. You should know that dictionary do not give grammatical rules for word usage, they only record the ways words are used.

Some words- headwords- have the same spelling but different meanings. Such words are entered separately and numbered. The numbering could come immediately before or after the word. One example is the word die. It is the singular form of the word ' dice’. It is then entered again and defined as a verb which means ‘cease to live’. Apart from having different meanings, the word die is used as two different parts of speech- as a noun and as a verb. These are abbreviation as (n) and (v) immediately after the transcription. Check this up in your dictionary.

C. Style and Usage

Dictionary give examples of phrase and showing how headwords are used. For instance, we have:

• Light- fingered, that is being clever at stealing

• Light- hearted, that is cheerful

From the example above I’m the entry under ‘care’, we have the sentence; he was rich and free from cares of every kind. The sample phrases are to help chose the appropriate meaning and usage of a word.

Some words and meanings are labeled as archaic, technical, poetic, slang or colloquial. These labels indicate levels of usage; they indicate whether a word is put to any special use. By sure you using the style in particular Context.