Collins Cobuild York New Student's Dictionary
تاريخ النشر: 01/01/1999
الناشر: مكتبة لبنان ناشرون
نبذة نيل وفرات:A dictionary is probably the single most important reference book that a student of English can buy. This dictionary is especially important, because for many of its users it will be the first dictionary entirely in English that they use.
Like all CoBuild Dictionary, the New Student's Dictionary is based ...on the analysis of real langauge in use. Over the last few years, we have bhilt up a huge collection of text, both written and spoken, called the Bank of English. At present, the Bank of English stands at over 320 million words, and it forms the basis of all the statements that CoBuild makes about the language. It enables the dictionary writers at CoBuild to explore the way in which the language works, and reveals the patterns and systems that underlie the English language.
Because it is all held on computer, The Bank of English provides very fast and accurate access to all sorts of information about the language. One very significant area is word frequency. This information is absolutely vital in helping to prepare dictionary entries, both because it helps in the selection of words that are suitable for use in didctionary definitions, and because it provides a sensible list of words that need to be included and defined.
The words explained in this dictionary account for over 90% of the language that is written and spoken. That is because there is a relatively small number of words which are not used very frequently. For example, in this introduction, there are 743 words in total. Of these, the word 'the' occurs 61 times, while 169 words cccur only once. In fact, there are only 275 different words in the whole of the introduction. In a much larger amount of text, the words that do not occur very frequently are much less important. That is why this dictionary concentrates on the words that occur over and over again, and why the entries represent the language that students really do need to know and to use.
One of the primary purpose of a learner's dictionary such as this one is to provide information about these words that the user already 'knows', as well as to provide information that the user does not know. Many words have several uses and meanings, and we do not really 'know' a word until we are familiar with its full range of meaning and grammatical behaviour. The information in this dictionary has been carefully chosen and presented in order to enable the dictionary user to be a language user, that is, it enables the student to write better English as well as understand English better.
The entries provide a detailed account of the main uses and meanings of each word. Each of the forms is listed at the start of each entry, along with information about variant spellings where they exist. explanation are written in full sentences, and reflect typical grammatical behaviour as well as providing a clear description of meaning. And of course, the thousands of examples are taken directly from The Bank of English, showing typical patterns of use and grammatical structure.
As well as continuing the traditions which have become the hallmark of CoBuild dictionaries over the last 10 years, this new edition of the Student's Dictionary has a number of new features. The most immediately noticeable is the use of colour, which has been introduced to help the entries stand out on a page. Colour is also used in many of the illustrations as a means of highlighting the elements that are being illustrated.
There are a number of usage notes throughout the text which supplement the information already provided in the dictionary entries, and which, in many cases, draw together information that helps to clarify the distinctions that exist between some items.
In the early pages of the book there is a Practical Guide to Using the Dictionary: this lists all the important features in the dictionary, and provides exercises to help the user become more proficient in dictionary use. إقرأ المزيد