Bilingual phraseological lexicography is a peculiar craft. It is not about definitions or paraphrasing, but rather paralleling idioms, colocations, turns of phrase, metaphors even, in two languages. I repeat: in two languages. If an idiom appears in English, it must also appear in Spanish. Cross-referencing is vital in this craft, and easier to check when using my unialphabet system. Each idiomatic phrase must be paralleled with the same meaning. This, trust me, is a feat difficult to achieve. If you fall off a turnip truck, you te caerás de un guindo, for example. If you have a horse-back opinion, es que tendrás ideas de bombero. And as we know the run-of-the-mill native speaker knows all about his language, and objections will always arise, so we must supply citations for the controversial posts. I have been working on my dictionary for over 4 years, 4-5 hours daily. The manuscript has, so far, 730,000 words. (I am just venting, don´t mind me.)
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