LAS LENGUAS INGLESA Y ESPAÑOLA de Delfín Carbonell

I know of Urban Dictionary in English, a travesty of lexicography. Penned by linguistically ignorant native speakers, the result is a jumble of nonsense: ill-conceived definitions, riddled with errors in grammar and spelling, where solecisms abound. It would be acceptable as a source of laughter and merriment, but indeed not of credible and serious word information. I have recently discovered that Spanish has a sort of counterpart to the Urban: "Diccionario abierto y colaborativo." All the above apply to this dictionary. Looking for a bona fide equivalent to the English expression: "not to be the sharpest pencil (crayon, knife) in the box," I stumbled upon this in the Diccionario abierto: "No ser el lápiz más afilado del estuche. Dícese de una ingeniosa [¿?] expresión colloquial y de cariz cómica [sic], que ha sido popularizada en las redes sociales, en la que se refiere sobre [sic] una persona que bien no es muy inteligente o bien le falta agudeza mental....

Let us compare dictionary definitions of two different idiomatic phrases in English and Spanish that have the same meaning:  Brindis al sol. Cosa que se hace o se dice con fines puramente testimoniales, a sabiendas de que no tendrá ningún efecto. Pie in the ski. The illusory prospect of future benefits: Political promises are often a pie in the sky. Brindis al sol Pie in the sky Esperemos que esto no sea sólo un brindis al sol Let’s hope this is not just a pie in the sky — “Quien hace demagogia lanza un brindis al sol.” Álex Grijelmo, La seducción de las palabras , 2000, Esp. Pie in the sky Brindis al sol Let’s hope this is not just a pie in the sky Esperemos que esto no sea sólo un brindis al sol — “This may sound like pie in the sky. But in fact, there's already a huge, well-organized, well-funded movement to repeal…” foxnews.com, 07/02/2012. US. 

Translators and interpreters are assigned to work from a foreign language into their mother tongue. The idea behind this is that their knowledge of their mother tongue is better and it will be easier for them to find equivalents from the foreign language. This conceit may not be true because a native Spanish speaker translating from English may have inadequate knowledge of his own language, due to age, education, and culture. To assume that it is easier to interpret or render into one's native language may be a mistake. The horizon of an interpreter's language is not the horizon of language. A good array of reference tools may be necessary to compensate for the inadequacy or shortcomings of the translator's mastery of his mother tongue. I am confronted by this daily, in books, newspapers, and television, where I detect poorly translated idioms, proverbs, and sayings, mainly because of ignorance. But who is qualified to vet these translations? Are they ever vetted? The damag...

  In my quest for adding new words to my vocabulary, I find that the definitions given by dictionaries are not enough to grasp the meaning. I have the upper hand because I can rely on bilingual dictionaries also, which might help elucidate the idea the word is trying to convey. Take the word figment which, according to The Random House Webster´s Unabridged Dictionary is: "a mere product of mental invention; a fantastic notion: The noises in the attic were just a figment of his imagination." Can I then say "What you are saying is a figment"? Collins explains: "A fantastic notion, invention, or fabrication: a figment of the imagination." Webster´s New Worl Dictionary defines it as: "To make, device, something merely imagined or made up  in the mind." Can I say that your story is a figment? Elizabeth McCracken published a book in 2008 entitled: An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination: a Memoir . And Shells Walter, also in 2008, published: F...

The English version of the title may have thrown you astray to think that this post deals with the meaning of what we all call "life." The Spanish version, however, sets things right because there is no definite article. I mean to inquire into the meaning of the word "life" when we say that "life is difficult," for instance. Bilinguals have the upper hand over monolinguals in many ways, but also in parallel lexicography. We are able to compare definitions and see the extent to which they differ from language to language.  "Facultad para crecer, renovar la propia sustancia, reproducirse, etc. que tienen los animales y las plants." Dicc. de María Moliner. "The sum of the distinguishing phenomena of organisms, esp. metabolism, growth, reproduction, and adaptation to environment." So says The Random House Dictionary .  When we seek the meaning of a word in one language, we can search for its meaning in the other language, thus getting a bet...

You must have guessed by now that I am fond (enamored) of dictionaries. I find them riveting sources of information. I find in them answers to all my questions, even my ontological questions. The answers are there, ensconced in their pages, but we must learn how to find them, a task which is not always easy. For example, if we search the word "desert" ( dézert ) we will find  "a region so arid because of little rain..." The verb is "to desert" ( dizért ), "leave without intending to return"... and many other definitions. Is that all? No, because at the very end of the entry for "desert"... we find: "Often deserts, reward or punishment that is deserved: get one´s just deserts." And here we find, at the end of an entry, almost hidden, the meaning we were looking for, the exact equivalent for "el merecido, justo, castigo." David got his just deserts for taking the money", "David recibió su justo castigo por ll...

  Years ago and in Telemadrid, Fernando Sánchez-Dragó , the Spanish journalist, novelist, tv personality, and thinker had an evening news program that tried, successfully, to be culturally a notch above competitors. One evening, he interviewed the then popular sociologist Amando de Miguel and, as it was his custom, Fernando presented his guest with a book. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it was my  Diccionario del argot, el Sohez . Amando de Miguel said: "Let me see if this word is in here" and proceeded to flip pages in search of "the word". My blood froze in my veins. I knew that if the word was not included, the dictionary would lose all its credibility in front of thousands of viewers. Luckily the word was in the dictionary and I sighed with relief. But I never forgave Amando de Miguel for that. I suspected that he was hoping the word, whatever it was, was missing from my pages. However large a dictionary is, if the word you are looking up is not included...

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 che...

One of the problems Internet has is its lack of reliability. Any Tom, Dick and Harry can upload whatever and misguide would-be scholars in search of answers. We cannot take what we read online at face value. I am not attacking WordReference (Who is compiling WordReference ? Who is the author responsible for it? What methodology is being used?), I am simply stating that we must beware of this reference tool bearing translations or giving equivalencies. Yesterday the word "hoard" eluded me but the Spanish "acopiar" came to mind. So, I looked up "acopiar" in WR. What did I get in English? "couple", "join", "unite", "hitch", "connect". Obviously they are thinking of "acoplar", not "acopiar." I know the difference between "acopiar" and "acoplar"... but what about someone who does not? And this is only an instance. There are wrong entries and wrong equivalents galor...

Today I was in a frenzy, trying to discard books I no longer read or consult... and I came across one that gave me a lot of food for thought, about the passing of time and how everything changes and grows old. I know these are trivial and commonplace musings, but as I was, and am, in a brown study and I thought I would share my ruminations with you. The book in question is a classic, Everyman´s English Pronouncing Dictionary , by Daniel Jones . Here, and using the International Phonetic Alphabet we can learn how to pronounce words in English. There are no definitions and no notes, just phonetics (written phonetics). Daniel Jones was a British phonetician (1881-1967), inventor of the cardinal vowel diagram. He sponsored the British Received Pronounciation and set the foundations of Standard English for the UK. Yet his dictionary has become useless, worthless. The copy I have was issued in 1972. What a pity... technology has rendered his magnum opus obsolete and discardable.  ...

Diga JOURNAL en vez de yúrnal. Diga APRIL en vez de Eipril . Diga LEVEL en vez de lével. Diga SEATTLE en vez de sítel. Diga GRAHAM en vez de Grájam. Diga DEPARTMENT en vez de diparmen. Diga INTERESTING en vez interestin . Diga VAUGHAN (Von) en vez de vaugan. Internet nos ofrece diccionarios con pronunciación escrita y de viva voz. Podemos oír la pronunciación. No es necesario consultar la fonética con nativos.  Ya no tenemos excusas, como antaño, para emplear pronunciaciones de risa, carcajeantes. Ahora si pronunciamos mal es porque queremos y porque somos unos vagos. La pronunciación de viva voz de palabras en los diccionarios inglés-inglés está diseñada para nativos -no se lo pierda- y no sólo para extranjeros. Cuando no sabemos una palabra inglesa jamás trataremos de aventurar una posible pronunciación: iremos a un diccionario para cerciorarnos de cómo se pronuncia. Hay palabras que tienen hasta TRES pronunciaciones distintas. Les ruego encarecidamente que des...

How lucky we are with the technology we have at our command which provides learning tools our grandparents, and even parents, never dreamt of. Dictionaries are probably the most important tools in language learning . Dictionaries provide easy-to-understand definitions, examples of usage, points of grammar and even pronunciation. You can hear a word as it is pronounced, as many times as you want or need. And the best is that now, thanks to technology you can carry dictionaries on your cell phones. You can download dictionary applications and get information anytime, anywhere. It is like carrying a teacher in your cell phone. I urge you to download at least one bilingual dictionary and two monolingual dictionaries.  Consult them because they are the source of interesting information of all kinds. I actually force my students to download dictionaries , and ask them to check words instead of giving them the answer. Do not take my word for it, download a monolingual diction...