miércoles, 17 de junio de 2020

A Phraseological Dictionary




I am updating my A Phraseological Dictionary, English and Spanish. I put it together between 1991-94 and it was published by Ediciones del Serbal in 1995, 25 years ago. It has been, and still is, one of my best productions, mainly because bilingual dictionaries often err in idiomatic turns of phrase, the most complicated part of parallel language comparisons. This Sunday morning, and while I was working on it, I was musing about the difference in procedure that has come about in 25 years. I did have a computer, an IBM PS1, with a one-giga RAM, which cost me almost an arm and a leg. Now I am using a HP Envy with 16 gigas of RAM. Internet then was a toddler and I had to rely on mountains of dictionaries to check and compare. Piles of them, which I had to buy. I also had to run to the National Library to check books I could not afford. I soon discovered that I had to have a separate file for each letter in each language, which meant I had to close file A, and open file M, to check whether the cross reference was right, or simply to make sure an idiom was included. Time consuming. Now I only have one file, using my Unialphabet System. And I have only one dictionary by my side, the original printed Diccionario fraseológico. My internet connection is fast and allows me to have the actual usage of English and Spanish at my fingertips.
You have no idea how much fun I am having checking on-line dictionaries! Technology has grown by leaps and bounds, but the core knowledge of "on-line lexicographers" has remained at a standstill. I fancy myself a bilingual lexicographer of sorts, with many shortcomings, but at least I try, and do not spare efforts to do a good job that will help those who compare English and Spanish.
I will soon start the very thankless and onerous task of finding a publisher.

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