Page 189 - DLIS006_INFORMATION SOURCES AND SERVICES

Information Sources and Services

Notes
Example: A Second Book of English idioms. Longman, 1956.

The Oxford Dictionary of Current Idiomatic English/by A.P. Cowie and R. Mackin.
London: Oxford University Press 1975-83.
It is a very useful reference book for advanced students and teachers. It is
comprehensive and gives detailed information on possible sentence patterns with
illustrative quotations from a wide range of 20th century writing.
(vi) Dictionary of Rhyming Words: These dictionaries are very useful to verse writers. They
differ from the general dictionaries in the nature of arrangement. In this dictionary,
all the rhyming words are grouped together.

Example: The Poet’s manual and Rhyming Dictionary/by Frances Stillman. New York:
Crowell, 1965.
(vii) Dictionary for Cliches: Cliches are expressions or ideas which have become outdated
due to their frequent use. They are the idiomatic phrases mostly found in writing
rather than speech.

Example: A Dictionary of Cliches with An Introductory Essay/by Eric Patridge. 5th ed.
London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1978.

It lists, defines and dates cliches which have been stereotyped by their repeated use.
(viii) Concordance: A concordance is an alphabetical index of important words used in a
particular work. Usually, it is followed by citation of the passages concerned.

Example: A Concordance of the Quran/by Hanna. E. Kassis. London: University of
California Press, 1983.
Words are listed under roots from which they originate.
(ix) Gradus: The word ‘gradus’ is used for a dictionary which aids in writing of poetry.

Caselet History of Tamil Dictionaries

amil is the Dravidian language with the most ancient literary tradition in India,
dating from the early centuries of the Common Era or before. It was one of the
Tearliest languages learned by Europeans and is the first Indian language to appear
in (western-style moveable-type) print (for example, the Vocabulario Tamulico com a
Significaçam Portugueza [D255] of da Proença of 1679.) Because of its ancient literature
and its spread both in ancient and recent times into Sri Lanka and southeast Asia, Tamil is
important as a historical language in the area between the Indian Ocean and the South
China Sea, and is studied by non-Tamils to a degree that is out of proportion to the size of
its population of speakers.
The non-Tamil who learns an Indian language other than Sanskrit or Hindi is immediately
aware of the problem of lack of adequate materials for learning the language, and especially
the lack of decent reference works. A dictionary whose point of departure is the vernacular
language (e.g. Tamil to English, Bengali to French) is usually more useful to a westerner
Contd....

184 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY