Page 185 - DLIS006_INFORMATION SOURCES AND SERVICES

Information Sources and Services

Notes
Example: Oxford English Dictionary’ and ‘Webster’s Third New International Dictionary’
fall in the group of descriptive dictionaries.
The following are some of the examples of dictionaries according to different sizes, volumes
and user’s age:

Oxford family of English Dictionaries. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Webster Family of American Dictionaries. Springfield, Massachusetts: G.C. Merriam:

Cassell’s New Latin-English, English-Latin Dictionary/by D.P. Simpson. London: Cassell,
1959
Allied Chambers Transliterated Hindi, Hindi-English Dictionary/Compiled by H.W.
Wagenaar/ed. By S. S. Parikh, New Delhi: Allied Chambers, 1993.

Modern Hindi-English-Hindi Dictionary/by C.B. Misra. Bangalore. Alok Bharti, 1991.

9.3.2 Special Dictionaries

The dictionaries, which are compiled for a special purpose of aspects of a language, are called
special dictionaries. Most of these aspects of words, which are separately dealt with in special
dictionaries, are also covered in general dictionaries. Hence, they are sometime known as
supplementary wordbooks.
Broadly we can divide these into three groups according to their content and scope:

(1) Dictionaries covering Specific Linguistic Aspects of the Words: These include dictionaries
of the following kinds:
(i) Dictionary of Punctuation: Punctuation is one of the important aspects of written
language which aids in understanding and correct reading of passages. It is set of
conventional signs, spaces and various typographical devices used in written and
printed texts.

Example: Punctuate it right/by Harry Show. New York: Barned & Nobel, 1963.
(ii) Dictionary of Pronunciation: Pronouncing dictionaries are exclusively with the
pronunciation of words. They aid us in understanding the correct pronunciations of
words, proper names of persons and places.

Example: How to pronounce it/by Alan Strode & Campbell Ross. London: Hamish
Hamilton, 1970.
(iii) Dictionary of Spellings: They include selected words giving priority to those which
are difficult to spell. They cover words which their pronunciation.

Example: Cassell’s Spelling Dictionary/comp. By Michael West. Longmans, 1964.
As the title suggests, it lists the American variations of British spellings in alphabetical
order.

(iv) Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms: Thesaurus, as discussed earlier is one of the
well-known sources for synonyms. General dictionaries usually give synonyms
and antonyms. There are numerous dictionaries devoted entirely to Synonyms and
Antonyms. These dictionaries are very useful to authors and enthusiasts of crossword
puzzles.

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