From paper to online dictionary: Development of user’s lexicographical culture

The article discusses the structure of the digital lexicographical culture and contrasts two perspectives: the perspective of a lexicographer of a digital dictionary and the perspective of a user of this dictionary. The digital dictionary culture is examined from a user’s perspective, and dictionary skills are considered as a response to the expansion of the functionalities of digital resources. If lexicographers increase the number of open access online dictionaries and deliberately overload their entries with additional content, one needs to understand what competences users should master to select a reliable dictionary and to retrieve required information effectively. In the current literature on dictionary use, the most important criteria of a good dictionary for users are authority, reliability, and up-to-date content. Integration of multimedia features in the dictionary entry is less important for users. These criteria are discussed in the article for eight open-access French dictionaries with different types of online interface: bilingual (Yandex, Google, Multitran, Reverso) and monolingual (Wiktionnaire, Larousse, Robert, Trésor de la langue française informatisé). The criterion of reliability as the most valued is specified in the article for French dictionaries. A comparative analysis of the microstructure of these dictionaries reveals that five dictionaries satisfy the criteria of authority and reliability. If these criteria are not sufficient for selecting a dictionary, the reasons for selection might be based on expanding affordances of digital dictionaries. The entry in an authoritative online dictionary with reliable and up-to-date content includes optional elements or elements that are not characteristic for printed dictionaries. By expanding their functionalities, online dictionaries are becoming more than only a reference tool, as they have been in print-only days, but are turning into educational resources and resources for linguistic research. Exhaustive examples and hyperlinks to external resources included in a dictionary entry allow the users to form linguistic corpora for synchronic and diachronic studies. Expanding affordances that digital dictionaries give to users entails expanding the digital lexicographical culture. Users need linguistic competences to select a reliable digital dictionary, and pragmatic competences enable them to successfully deal with the reference as well as educational or research dictionary resources for diverse tasks they require. The article concludes that digital dictionary skills are necessary for users in order to use all affordances provided by lexicographers, and these skills should be purposefully taught. The complexity of dictionary functionalities requires a mediator that would engage in the dialogue between the lexicographer and the user, and would share with them the responsibility for the effective dictionary use. The author declares no conflicts of interests.

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