Abstract

A dictionary is considered to be a main element towards understanding a foreign language, in this case English. In fact, it represents a link between words and their conceptual units that reflect standardised and specific meanings. Electronic dictionaries are a way of encoding all relevant information associated with lexical entries in a manner easily accessible to users. Nowadays, wide varieties of English dictionaries are electronically available on the web. Kent (2001:74) argues “…a benefit of utilizing the bilingual dictionary is that it allows learners to search for terms they wish to express in the target language…” This paper presents a project currently in progress at the Simón Bolívar University which has as main objectives: 1) to construct an electronic bilingual dictionary for International Trade; 2) to supply succinct definitions of terms used in international trade; 3) to support students, researchers, teachers and the trade community; 4) to demonstrate the effectiveness of hypertext in education and research. The dictionary will be based on the English language terminology for International Trade and will contain standard definitions of the terms accepted worldwide. The project has been divided into stages and will take at least three years to complete. Phase One is related to the planning and design; this is what we have been developing. The work consists of the preparation and designing of the dictionary, the selection of headwords, the development of computational support systems and the creation of templates that will be used when the complete dictionary will be compiled in the course of Phase Two. In Phase One, the corpora will be selected, classified and analysed in order to derive the headwords for the new dictionary.. The International Trade bilingual electronic dictionary will be based on a thorough revision of existing related materials in the field and its corpora will include a wide range of useful entries and web links. This bilingual dictionary will be available in print and electronic format.

Marina Meza, Susanna Turci
mmeza@usb.ve, sturci@usb.ve
Simón Bolívar University

A dictionary is considered to be a main element towards understanding a foreign language, in this case English. In fact, it represents a link between words and their conceptual units that reflect standardised and specific meanings. Electronic dictionaries are a way of encoding all relevant information associated with lexical entries in a manner easily accessible to users. Nowadays, a wide variety of English dictionaries are electronically available on the web. Kent (2001:74) argues that "…a benefit of utilizing the bilingual dictionary is that it allows learners to search for terms they wish to express in the target language…" This paper presents a project currently in progress at the Simón Bolívar University which has as main objectives: 1) to construct an electronic bilingual dictionary for International Trade; 2) to supply succinct definitions of terms used in international trade; 3) to support students, researchers, teachers and the trade community; 4) to demonstrate the effectiveness of hypertext in education and research. The dictionary will be based on the English language terminology for International Trade and will contain standard definitions of the terms accepted worldwide. The project has been divided into stages and will take at least three years to complete. Phase One is related to the planning and design; this is what we have been developing. The work consits of the preparation and designing of the dictionary, the selection of headwords, the development of computational support systems and the creation of templates that will be used when the complete dictionary will be compiled in the course of Phase Two. In Phase One, the corpora will be selected, classified and analysed in order to derive the headwords for the new dictionary. During Phase Two, the entries will be collected, organised and written for the printed and electronic versions. The International Trade bilingual electronic based dictionary will be based on a thorough revision of existing related materials in the field and its corpora will include a wide range of useful entries and web links. This bilingual dictionary will be available in print and electronic format.