LINGUIST List 12.238

Tue Jan 30 2001

Review: Old French-English Dictionary

Editor for this issue: Terence Langendoen <terrylinguistlist.org>



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  • PezBoySka, Review: Old French-English Dictionary

    Message 1: Review: Old French-English Dictionary

     Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2001 22:24:45 EST
    From: PezBoySka <PezBoySkaaol.com>
    Subject: Review: Old French-English Dictionary


    Alan Hindley, Frederick W. Langley, and Brian J. Levy, eds. (2000) Old French-English Dictionary, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 621 pages, 85 GBP (Approximately 125 USD).

    Reviewed by: Jed Evans, Independent Researcher

    Synopsis:

    Compiled from a broad range of texts across the span of Old French literature, the Old French-English Dictionary from Cambridge University Press is a useful lexical tool for students of Old French, medievalists and scholars of other fields. It contains numerous alternate spellings when they are found and a number of contextual meanings when necessary. The book is divided into two sections, the Introduction and the Dictionary. The introduction gives a list of the abbreviations used in the dictionary, a bibliography of related works and some information on the aim and structure of the dictionary. Each of the approximately 60,000 entries contains a headword, the grammatical function of the word, and the primary definition, followed by alternative definitions and/or idiomatic usage. In addition, the typeface is clear and legible with boldface entries.

    Review:

    This is a dictionary that meets its goals very well. The editors state, in the introduction, that their aim was to create a single-volume dictionary to facilitate the needs of a broad range of individuals and supply readers of a variety of genres with ample lexical information. The dictionary then goes beyond that and simplifies the task of the reader and the philologist, supplying alternative spellings and usage information. The English equivalents are often conveniently given in cognate form and with synonyms, so as to dispel any lack of comprehension while, at the same time, increasing its value as a learning tool. Though excellent in some applications, the dictionary can be disappointing in others. For example, the dictionary very rarely cites irregularities and boasts no appendices for the treatment of such things, which might help the very audience it is intended to reach. In addition, the dictionary omits a great deal of information that is included in the database from which it was compiled. Word origins are entirely omitted, which would seem rather disappointing, not only for the philologist and the linguist but also for the historian or the Anglophone reader. And, though it might have been perceived to be overzealous, some explanatory notes on pronunciation would have been useful in the introduction, to explain differences in spelling and dialectal discrepancies. Available data that were not included in this dictionary were the following: date of first appearance, dialectal prominence, and citations from the corpora. A great deal of this information would be useful for numerous readers.

    In summation, I would recommend this dictionary to casual readers of Old French as a practical translating tool. In addition, Anglophone users might find this volume less taxing than a more versatile francophone one. However, I would not recommend this dictionary to individuals with more complicated tasks than translation. Though a rather good value for the casual reader, this dictionary is short on the details that make for a truly versatile lexicon.

    Jed Evans is a senior at Syosset High School in Syosset, NY who is currently working on a comparative linguistic survey of the French language from the Dark Ages to the Twentieth Century and beyond. He can be reached at pezboyskaaol.com.