Word's worth

Meanings of over 50 million words can now be accessed by just the click of the mouse. And that's not all. The newly developed Cambridge International Dictionary of English, also on CD-ROM, and available online, has well-planned classifications pertaining to word origin, antonyms, homonyms and idiomatic expressions. In an interview to PADMINI DEVARAJAN, Patrick Gillard, Senior Commissioning Editor, ELT Dictionaries, CUP, explains its salient features.

PATRICK GILLARD, Senior Commissioning Editor, ELT Dictionaries, Cambridge University Press, was recently in Hyderabad, to participate in the World Congress on World Languages in Multilingual contexts held at the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, from Jan 3 to 7. In an interview, he spoke about the newly developed Cambridge International Dictionary of English on CD-ROM that has also recently been made available online.

Gillard was keen that people and learners understand the salient features of this dictionary. "On my laptop, I can search from a repertoire of 50 million words without much difficulty. In addition, much of the information that is inherent in the dictionary can be accessed easily by the user/learner in the CD- ROM form or online. The powerful and flexible searches offer many options to the user. For instance, if I want to search for a word, I can bypass the conventional A to Z order, and go ahead with the search by typing out the word. Or I can even search for a word from its suffix or ending. Suppose I want to know the meaning of foolproof, I can call up the search by typing merely the suffix. Thereby I not only get the meaning, but also a list of all the words ending in proof. Or there is the Thesaurus kind of search to access words with similar meanings, or words within a particular field of reference. The well-planned classifications and cross references - based on borrowed words, like those from Indian or Latin or French origin, or antonyms, homonyms, idiomatic expressions, verbal features, or words with associated meanings and many such - that are in-built in the structure and design of any learner's dictionary are easily accessible in the CD-ROM form".

During his presentations, he demonstrated the use of the key and extra features and the search facilities to retrieve information that goes beyond mere meaning. "The Dictionary can be used for developing activities in the classrooms too. It is possible to prepare glossaries and get printouts of the same. There are exercises in the CD, like grammar exercises, or those that help people understand the way language works. All this can make language learning more self-oriented, and maybe less teacher- dependent. The learners are exposed to these lists of words, and automatically their fund of vocabulary improves". He demonstrated how a learner can hear the correct pronunciation, in American or British form, and can also record his own and check for accuracy. Hence the CD-ROM also doubles up as a language lab. These features make the CD interactive.

Rather than carry a heavy dictionary, handling one in this form is easier. A person with access to the computer and internet can easily maximise the use of the dictionary. Hence its usefulness to many people, especially advanced learners who wish to improve and broaden their vocabulary.

What were the difficulties in the design and development of the CD-ROM?

" Deciding what to put in became difficult. English has 600 million words. The dictionary has listed 50 million to 80 million words. The decision was based on listing the frequently used words and leaving out the less common. The framers had to put themselves in the learners profile and decide the words".

On the reach of the dictionaries. "We have supplied this dictionary to more than 100 countries. Around 2,000 dictionaries were supplied to Mongolia. We have supplied to almost every country in Europe, South America and Asia. That shows that even people with completely different language exposures can use them. Today with the increasing demand for English in day to day life, CDs are popular. Students are comfortable with the CDs rather than the books, and with the online dictionaries available on the Internet. The advantage of the Internet is that it can make available a fund of information to many people without the need for infrastructure".

When comparing the Cambridge Dictionary with Longman, or Oxford Learners Dictionary or even Collins Cobuild, Patrick Gillard says that every dictionary has its strength. Each specialises in some feature. All this is possible because of the collaborative efforts of computer software experts and lexicographers, where technology and scholarship blend to bring into being the era of online publishing, and the CD-ROMs that replace the hard copies of many books. Additions and new inputs and revisions can be made easily online. The cost of publishing is circumvented.

Gillard says that ten years back people would not have imagined that these changes would have overtaken our lives. With the advent of the Internet and the information technology boom the whole world has to come to grips with the changes that are evolving at a rapid pace. It is equally difficult to foresee the kind of changes that are likely to impact the world ten years from now. This generation of people are living in a vibrant world of flux and change. When dictionaries were published in hard copies, the database used to be stored in filing cabinets in a systematic manner. Perhaps over 20 million words could be laboriously collected and filed. But now the CD-ROM or the Web can store a vast corpus in compact form. There are many journals that are available online. Today many books are published only online. Paperless era is catching on fast. In developing countries, if the prohibitive cost of Internet access is overcome, perhaps reading books online, accessing information online will become more common.

This Cambridge International Dictionary of English is available online at http://dictionary.cambridge.org

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