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Description:
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This book is concerned with bilingual thematic dictionaries (BTDs). The three
chief aims of the research project are: 1) to identify the characteristic features
of the bilingual thematic dictionary, 2) to gauge its usefulness, and 3) to make
suggestions as to how it could be improved. Various approaches are adopted in
order to reveal the nature of the BTD. The typological approach considers the
lexicographic genres (bilingual, thematic, and pedagogical) which have been
combined to create this hybrid reference work. Particular attention is paid to the
BTD's immediate forerunner and closest lexicographic relative: the monolingual
thematic learner's dictionary. Detailed textual analyses of contemporary
thematic dictionaries identify the characteristic features of the macrostructure,
microstructure, and other components from a structural perspective. In order to
evaluate the usefulness of the BTD features identified, the textual analyses are
supplemented by three pieces of user research involving a questionnaire (to
elicit learners' opinions), a test (on the effectiveness of the access structure),
and an experiment (to discover how a learner uses a BTD).
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