| Abstract: |
First, the various functions of a bilingual dictionary and the functions of its major lexicographic items are described. In this light, the purpose and contents of a comprehension dictionary are discussed on more detail. While the production of four or more separate, monofunctional dictionaries for one language direction is a very costly task for printed books, new possibilities open up in this respect for electronic dictionaries.
We propose to develop one decompacted dictionary database for a particular language direction from which the monofunctional dictionaries can be extracted, either as separate books or in a virtual way. A look-up system can then select particular types of information for presentation to the user depending on the function the dictionary is used for.
After comparing important characteristics of traditional, printed dictionaires, electronic dictionaries for human users and computer lexicons, we present a way to adapt bilingual dictionaries to suit dictionary users and the automatic evaluation by the computer at the same time.
The COMPASS system, of which we give a brief overview, takes advantage of this new kind of dictionary. It can be used as a comprehension dictionary or similar to a normal, multi-functional electronic dictionary. The system is designed as a foreign language reading aid that distracts the user as little as possible from reading. COMPASS takes over considerable parts of the look-up process and filters information redundant for the comrehension task. |