Different Types of Dictionaries

There is a vast amount of different dictionaries available for users of the English
language. All these dictionaries share the aspect that they provide information about
English words and items, but they are also very different and need to be
distinguished from each other. One may need a dictionary in one case and the same
dictionary may be absolutely useless when one tries to solve another problem.
“Monolingual learners’, general monolingual, and bilingual dictionaries present a problem:
in spite of what may be advertised on the outside cover of these texts, no single
dictionary can adequately serve all users. A variety of dictionaries is required to suit the
backgrounds, needs, and expectations of individual language learners” (BATTENBURG
24).
So different users and different questions require different dictionaries. One needs to
know where to find the information asked for in a particular case, and one certainly
needs more than one dictionary for different aspects of the English language. To
avoid getting lost here, it is necessary to distinguish between the different types of
dictionaries that exist.
This report provides some suggestions for distinction, amongst other things
established through empiric research.
First, an outline of the different types of dictionaries is given, including general
dictionaries (monolingual, bilingual), learner’s dictionaries, historical dictionaries and
encyclopedias.
Moreover, the typical structure of an entry in a dictionary is explained, because the
dictionary entries examined later are mainly checked according to these parts of an
entry; it is looked what parts they in- or exclude and how the parts are realized.
After the theoretical part, the empiric research is documented. Five dictionaries
(monolingual American and British, bilingual English-German, learner’s dictionary,
historical dictionary) and one encyclopedia are compared in the way that three
different items (general, encyclopedic, and regional) are looked up and the entries
are compared in order to find differences and in this way get a guideline how and
when to consult what dictionary.