Introducing English Linguistics

English language dictionaries
There are many different kinds of dictionaries:
Monolingual dictionaries: Monolingual dictionaries are intended for native
speakers and as a consequence focus on a single language (e.g. English,
German, French). Some of the more well-known monolingual English
dictionaries include the Oxford English Dictionary, Webster’s Third New
International Dictionary, and the American Heritage Dictionary of the English
Language. For non-native speakers, there are specialized monolingual
dictionaries known as learner dictionaries. For instance, the Cambridge
Advanced Learner’s Dictionary and the Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s
English Dictionary are written specifically for non-native speakers of
English, and thus contain simpler definitions than would be found in
a typical monolingual dictionary and a greater emphasis on vocabu-
lary, such as idioms or phrasal verbs, that give individuals learning
English as an additional language considerable difficulty.
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INTRODUCING ENGLISH LINGUISTICS

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Bilingual dictionaries: Bilingual dictionaries focus on two languages and
are designed for individuals who are native speakers of a particular
language learning another language as an additional language. For
English speakers, there are English/Spanish dictionaries,
English/Italian dictionaries, and so forth.
Unabridged/abridged dictionaries: The major dictionary makers will periodi-
cally release large unabridged dictionaries from which they will pro-
duce smaller, abridged dictionaries that contain a subset of the words
in the unabridged dictionary as well as newer words that have
entered the language since the publication of the unabridged version.
For instance, Webster’s Third New International, an unabridged diction-
ary produced by the G & C Merriam Company in Springfield, MA, was
released in 1961. Since the publication of this dictionary, Merriam-
Webster has published eleven collegiate dictionaries – dictionaries
that contain fewer entries than Webster’s Third but that at the same
time have been updated so that they contain newer words than the
unabridged version. Because the Webster name is so closely associated
with the nineteenth-century American lexicographer Noah Webster,
many dictionaries have been published under the Webster name.
However, the G & C Merriam Company is the only publisher of a
Webster dictionary having any connection to Noah Webster’s 1828 dic-
tionary, American Dictionary of the English Language.
Thesauruses: These are dictionaries that specialize in providing synonyms
for the main entries that they contain. One of the more famous
English Thesauruses is Roget’s Thesaurus, published in 1852 and written
by Peter Roget. Because the name of this dictionary was never copy-
righted, many thesauruses contain the name Roget, even though they
are not derivative of the original thesaurus.
Specialized dictionaries: Many dictionaries focus on vocabulary specific to a