DICTIONARY REVIEW 1

Dictionary Review

Shuting Shen

Colorado State University

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Dictionary Review

Introduction

Chinese is my native language, while English is my second language. When I

studied English in China as a child, the Oxford English-Chinese dictionary was the most

commonly used. In addition, the English book I learned in China is Oxford English, so I

am very interested in these two dictionaries. In this review, I will compare and contrast the

Cambridge Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary. 4th ed. Cambridge: Cambridge

University, 2013. and Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary. 8th ed.

Beijing: Oxford University (China) and The Commercial, 2014. based on the ways in

which they would be suitable and useful for English Language Learners. I compare things

such as, which one is more clearly structured and understandable, whether the contents of

the dictionary are clearly explained, etc. More specifically, this review will illustrate the

differences between the two dictionaries, such as front and back matters, the range of

content and so on. Furthermore, it will compare the typical sections of the two dictionaries.

Overview

Cambridge Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary (CALED) is suitable for

advanced learners of English and contains up-to-date vocabulary, including words from the

areas of technology, media, language, society, and lifestyle, plus essential words for

academic study. The dictionary might be useful as a reference tool or study companion

because it contains over 140,000 words, phrases, meanings, and examples, hundreds of

pictures and illustrations, clear definitions and a "Focus on Writing" section. Besides, it

contains a CD-ROM that includes the complete dictionary and recordings in British and

American English.
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The 8th edition of the Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary

(OALECD) highlights the learning function by attempting to fully meet the listening,

speaking, reading, writing and translating needs of learners. What’s more, 20% of content

has been added compared to the 7th edition. The Chinese translations in this English-

Chinese dictionary are close to the original meaning in English, but also can be understood

in Chinese. It contains 184,500 words, phrases, and explanations, putting equal stress on

British and American English. It has 100 new words, keeping pace with the age. 78 pages

of illustrations of vocabulary are in the dictionary as a supplement making it easier for

learners to memorize. This would be appropriate for intermediate Chinese students

learning American English because the dictionary has the Chinese translation that makes it

easier for Chinese students to understand and the material of the dictionary comes from

authentic sources.

Front and Back Matters

The front matter of the CALED includes one page on parts of speech,

acknowledgments, and grammar labels used in the dictionary. For example, [+ obj + -ing

verb] that means the verb is used with an object followed by the –ing form of another verb.

One page describes the style and usage labels used in the dictionary, such as A1, A2, B1,

B2, C1, C2. These symbols show the English Vocabulary Profile level of a word, phrase,

or meaning. A1 is the lowest level, C2 is the highest. There are two pages written to the

learner by the author, four pages that show how to use the dictionary and one page that

states numbers that are used as words. For example, 3Ws is a noun that refers to

something you can say to represent ‘www’ at the beginning of a website address. The

detail and language which are used in these descriptions are clear and let an ELL
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understand the core knowledge more easily. However, this dictionary does not provide

much explanation of symbols used in the dictionary, such as “▶," "゜." ELLs may

sometimes be confused about these unfamiliar symbols when they use the dictionary.

The front matter of the OALECD includes one page on the introduction by the

Commercial Press that this dictionary is a simplified characters edition. One page in the

introduction by Oxford University Press (China) Ltd is that this is an orthodox characters

edition. Furthermore, two pages show the advisers of the English edition and the advisory

board and editorial team of the English-Chinese edition. Also, the OALECD includes five

prefaces from Lu Gusun, Joseph S M Lau, Jerome Su, translator, and Michael Swan that

are ten pages in total. In particular, OALECD has one specific section of words from a

Hornby Scholar that is not mentioned in the CALED. The words from a Hornby Scholar

section talks about the Hornby trust and being a Hornby scholar. In addition, one page

describes abbreviations and symbols used in the dictionary, such as U means uncountable

noun, "~" means replace the headword of entry, "▶" indicates derivative(s) section of the

entry. Meanwhile, the OALECD has two similar parts to the CALED in the front matter-

labels and numbers for two pages. The last five pages part is key to dictionary entries that

includes finding the word, finding the meaning, understanding and using the word, and

helps to build vocabulary. The front matter of the OALECD is appropriate for the

intermediate learner, and provides the necessary information that the learner needs to use

the dictionary.

The back matter of the CALED contains five sections: “Focus on Writing”,

“Picture Dictionary”, “Irregular Verbs”, “Geographical Names”, and “Pronunciation”. The

Focus on Writing section could be useful to international students and could help to solve
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the problem of formal writing, academic writing, informal writing, and presentations. The

Picture Dictionary section is extensive and lists information on many notable figures from

body positions, health, fruits and vegetables, clothes, study and work, travel, and so on. It

also includes a map of the USA, Canada, and the Caribbean. The next section, Irregular

Verbs, shows a list of English verbs that have irregular simple past tense and an irregular

past participle. It states that if more than one form is listed, it may be because each type has

a different meaning. For example, for the verb beseech, the past tense and past participle

are listed as “beseeched or besought." The Geographical Names show the spellings and

pronunciations of countries, regions, continents, oceans, and territories. For example, a

person from China is Chinese. This information will be beneficial to ELLs who may know

the name of a place. In the last Pronunciation section, it states how authors show

pronunciation in this dictionary.

In the back matter of the CALED, the information can be beneficial to international

students if they come across what is considered common knowledge but they are

unfamiliar with and they can have a good grasp on this information from the dictionary.

However, only a small amount of information allows students to understand the

information, but if they want detailed information, they need to check other places, such as

the Internet or other dictionaries.

The back matter of the OALECD includes three sections: Oxford Writing Tutor,

Visual Vocabulary Builder, and Reference Section. The Oxford Writing Tutor section

contains examples of essays, practical types of writing and advice about planning,

organizing, and writing. This section will be useful for an intermediate level learner

because they can access this information when needed. The Visual Vocabulary Builder
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section has some similarities to the Picture Dictionary section in CALED. Like CALED, it

includes body, clothes, fruits and vegetables and so on. Unlike CALED, it contains

information about the Earth and the solar system, DIY, cleaning and decorating, etc. This

information would be beneficial for international students to understand common

knowledge. The final section, Reference Section, includes irregular verbs, verbs, phrasal

verbs, nouns and adjectives, collocations, idioms, notes on usage, the language of literary

criticism, punctuation, numbers, common first names, British and American English, the

Oxford 3000TM, language study terms, the academic word list, and pronunciation and

phonetic symbols in the dictionary.

Information on Entries

Head Word

Words at the beginning of entries are called headwords. Headwords are in

alphabetical order. In the CALED, headwords are in black. However, in the OALECD, the

headwords are color coded.

Pronunciation

In the CALED, British and American pronunciations of a word are shown after the

headword in forward slashes (/ /). These are written using the International Phonetic

Alphabet (IPA). In the OALECD, the pronunciation is also given after the headword in

forwarding slashes (/ /). Besides, OALECD bases its pronunciation symbols on

comparisons with common English words. The pronunciation section for the same word to

be represented differently between the two dictionaries. For instance, in the OALECD, the

pronunciation of the word enlarger is represented as /ɪnlɑːdʒə/ and in the CALED as

/ɪnlɑːrdʒɚ/. For beginning and intermediate learners, the pronunciation used in the
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OALECD is suitable because they may not know how to pronounce the guide words given

in the pronunciation chart in the CALED.

Syllabication and Stress

In the CALED, the primary stress symbol is represented by a high-set mark /ꞌ/.

This symbol shows the part of a word that should be emphasized the most. For example,

picture /ꞌpɪk.tʃər/. Also, secondary stress by a low-set mark /ˏ/. This symbol shows the part

of the word that has the second most important emphasis. For example, submarine

/ˌsʌb.məˈriːn/. Stress is marked at the beginning of the syllable, and unstressed syllables

are not marked. Furthermore, the syllable mark is like a full stop and comes before each

new syllable. For instance, utmost /ˈʌt.moʊst/ that syllable mark shows the word has two

syllables. In the OALECD, stress is represented in the same manner as the CALED, but

OALECD does not use a syllable mark in the dictionary.

Parts and Subcategories of speech

OALECD and CALED both provide the part of speech after the pronunciation

representation. The CALED identifies parts of speech as the adjective, adverb, auxiliary

verb, conjunction, comparative, determiner, exclamation, modal verb, noun, number,

ordinal number, phrasal verb, predeterminer, prefix, preposition, pronoun, suffix,

superlative, and verb. This kind of information is useful for proficient students who might

use this dictionary in a writing class.

In the OALECD, nouns that are marked with a “C” means countable noun, and “U”

means uncountable noun. Also, [U, C] refers to a word that is both an uncountable noun

and a countable noun and uses with the same definition. For example, heartbreak “1. [U,

C] a strong feeling of sadness”. The OALECD also distinguishes “T” which means
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transitive verb, and “I” which means intransitive verb. “V” is a verb and [T, I] is a word

that is both transitive and intransitive. For example, the definition of the verb diminishes

provides both the transitive and intransitive meaning, “1. [I, T] to become or to make

something become smaller, weaker, etc. 2. [T] sb/sth to make sb/sth seem less important

than they really are”. [U, C] and [I, T] will be helpful and useful to students at any level of

proficiency.

Order of meanings

Entries in the CALED are ordered by the frequency of the first meaning in each

guideword group. Where headwords have many meanings or very different meanings,

guidewords help to find the meaning that you need. In addition, the entry starts with the

definition that was known to appear first in the English language for that particular word.

For example, the CALED lists three meanings and some examples of the word blood, “1.

The red liquid that is sent around the body by the heart and carries oxygen and important

substances to organs and tissue, and removes waste products: He lost a lot of blood in the

accident. 2. To allow a trained person to take some blood from your body so that it can be

stored and is ready to be given to people who lost a lot of blood in an accident or operation

3. Family relationship by birth rather than marriage: They are related by blood”. Similarly,

the OALECD lists meanings in the order of their frequency of use in English, with the

most frequently used definition listed first. What’s more, the OALECD also gives example

sentences for many of its entries. For the same word listed above, blood, the definitions are

as follows: “1. The red liquid that flows through the bodies of humans and animals: He lost

a lot of blood in the accident. 2. Having the type of blood mentioned 3. Family origins: She

is of noble blood. 4. a rich and fashionable man”. The approach taken by the OALECD and
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CALED will help both intermediate students and proficient students to understand the

meaning of a word entirely. Although OALECD and CALED may have some different

examples, they can help students better understand and use the word.

Expressions Related to the Headword

Homographs

In the CALED, a superscript number is not provided for homographs, but the

OALECD lists homographs as separate entries, with a superscript number to differentiate

between the two separate definitions and pronunciations when English words have the

same spelling but different pronunciations. The OALECD places the superscript number at

the end of the headword. For example, for the word gill, the MWD has two separate

entries, and the small homonym number shows that this is the first of two headwords

spelled gill listed as “gill1 /ɡɪl/: one of the openings on the side of a fish’s head that it

breathes through; gill2 /dʒɪl/: a unit for measuring liquids”. Separating these words into

different entries will help make it clear to learners that these two words are homographs.

Idioms and Fixed Phrases

In the CALED, idioms are shown at the end of the relevant part of speech and

idioms are listed at the first important word. For example, a heap is given two idioms of

the word: “the bottom of the heap” and “a (whole) heap of something.” However, the

OALCED provides more idioms about “heap,” such as “at the top/bottom of the heap,”

“collapse, fall. Etc. in a heap,” “heaps better, more, older, etc.” In the OALCED, this idiom

is in a separate section, marked with the special symbol "IDM." Information on idioms

would be helpful to learners of any proficiency level since they can be a problematic aspect

of the language and the meaning can't be determined by the individual words in the saying.
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Both dictionaries include some phrasal verbs. In the CALED, phrasal verbs are

shown after any ordinary verbs, or at the end of entries where there are no other words.

Moreover, in the OALECD, the phrasal verb is represented as “↔” that shows that the

object may come either before or after the particle. Because phrasal verbs are difficult for

learners, this information can be useful for all levels of learners.

Compounds

Both the CALED and the OALECD include compounds as headwords. For

example, the OALECD lists compounds of “down,” such as “downer, downfall, download,

etc.” as individual entries after the entry. Also, it also provides definitions and

pronunciation for each of words. The OALECD puts compound words in alphabetic order.

Conclusion

Based on this review, the OALECD would be more suitable for Chinese students to

use in a general English course since it gives appropriate support for learners in difficult

areas. It also provides Chinese translations that would help Chinese students understand

the meaning of a word better. For the CALED, it would be suitable for English language

learners enrolled in courses at the high level. Both the CALED and the OALECD provide

a writing section that can improve English language learners writing ability and help solve

some their writing problems. In contrast, the OALECD provides more useful information,

such as collocation, punctuation and so on. It could be helpful for students to learn the

basics.