Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (4th ed.)

Korea TESOL Journal, 2004 Volume 7, Number 1, pp. 165-171. [Review] Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (4th ed.) Della Summers (Ed.). Harlow, Essex, UK: Pearson Education, 2003. Pp. xvii + 1949. (ISBN: 0 582 77648 1 Flexicover + CD-ROM, 2.0 x 6.0 x 9.0 in.) Reviewed by David E. Shaffer Eight years is a full generation in dictionary terms, and 2003 marked the arrival of another – the 4th edition of Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDOCE4), the publisher’s advanced learner’s dictionary (ALD). Longman is known for the quality of the dictionaries that they produce, and the latest edition of LDOCE carries on that tradition. LDOCE-4 builds on the quality of its predecessor, LDOCE-3, to provide an ALD that is up-to-date, that provides more information in a larger variety modes, and is user-friendly. Throughout this review, LDOCE-4 will be compared with LDOCE-3 as well as with the other major ALDs. The review will look at individual entries for headwords, general features of the dictionary, and the packaging of the product. INDIVIDUAL ENTRIES LDOCE-4 contains references to 106,000 words and phrases, more than any of its counterparts – CALD 75,000, OALD 80,000, MED 100,000, CCED 110,000 – and it defines them with a defining vocabulary of only 2,000 words (pp. 1943-1949). Only CALD has a defining vocabulary so small; the other ALDs use a defining vocabulary of 2,500 or 3,000. This use of a smaller defining vocabulary makes definitions of words and phrases especially easy to understand. The way in which LDOCE-4 chooses to word its definitions is most appealing. It uses a mixture of phrasal definitions and sentential definitions, but does not include abbreviations that may lower readability (e.g., OALD; see examples below). LDOCE-4: cloud. 1. to make someone less able to think clearly or make sensible decisions. 2. If someone’s eyes or face cloud, or if someone clouds them, they start to get angry, sad, or worried. (p. 283) Korea TESOL Journal, 2004 Volume 7, Number 1, pp. 165-171. OALD: cloud. 1. if sth clouds your judgement, memory, etc., it makes it difficult for you to understand or remember something clearly. … 2. (of sb’s face) to show sadness, fear, anger, etc.; to make sb look sad, afraid, angry, etc. (pp. 223-224) CCED: cloud. 3. If you say that something clouds your view of a situation, you mean that it makes you unable to understand the situation or judge it properly. 5. If your eyes or face cloud or if sadness or anger clouds them, your eyes or your face suddenly show sadness or anger. (p. 275) CCED, on the other hand, uses sentential definitions for all of its word meanings. The use of sentential definitions requires additional text, and it has been found that this often tends to impede rather than aid in the understanding of word meanings (Wingate, 2002). LDOCE-4 therefore limits its use of sentential definitions to about one in ten, employing them only when it is considered that doing so leads to better understanding. All the major ALDs are now corpus-based, LDOCE-4 being based on the Longman Corpus Network of over 245 million words. The sense definitions of polysemous words are arranged according to frequency, with the most frequent sense appearing first. The consequence of this ordering is that figurative meanings appear first in some cases while literal meanings appear first in others. In LDOCE-4, more figurative meanings tend to appear first than literal meanings. The problem with this, as Van der Meer (1997) points out, is that the word which appears first tends to be considered by the learner as being the most important. But it is literal meanings that are basic and the sense from which figurative senses arise. If the basic sense appears first, this importance is expressed. However, in many cases in LDOCE-4 this relationship between figurative and literal meaning is lost due to sense ordering of more frequently used figurative meanings before literal meanings. For example, for mecca, it is the common noun that appears first and the proper noun second (p. 1023). Because of this order, the idea that mecca derives from Mecca is lost, making the sense of mecca less easily understood. This reviewer would prefer that a literal (basic) to figurative order for polysemous words be adopted. Unrelated senses of polysemous words, i.e., homographs, appear under the same headword if they are the same part of speech. Thus the definitions for fast (of movement), fast (of color), and fast friends all appear under the same headword. “Signposts,” or guidewords, highlighted in blue are employed to distinguish the different senses, but the practice of setting up separate headwords for semantically unrelated homographs, as done in CALD, seems more intuitive. It is very much worth mentioning, though, that the way the “signposts” are Korea TESOL Journal, 2004 Volume 7, Number 1, pp. 165-171. presented in LDOCE-4, in bold font and highlighted in light blue, is a great visual improvement over the dark-blue bold font of LDOCE-3 and makes its guidewords much easier to detect than those of any other ALD. However, what detracts from this is that LDOCE-4 has, based on frequency of use, chosen to intersperse phrasal expressions among the difference senses of a headword, making it more difficult to find the sense one is searching for. For example, for the headword fast (adj.), the first ten senses include five with signposts and five expressions including fast: 1. MOVING QUICKLY, 2. IN A SHORT TIME, 3. CLOCK, 4. fast track, 5. fast road, 6. fast film/lens, 7. COLOUR, 8. SPORTS, 9. fast and furious, 10. sb is a fast worker. Having the expressions employing the headword, in this case fast, follow the signpost senses would do more to facilitate finding the sense of the word one is looking for than strictly following frequencies of use when so many different uses are involved. Phrasal verbs, however, do follow at the end of a headword entry in a separate group. LDOCE-4 covers both British and American English. (Australian senses of headwords are also included.) When British and American pronunciations of a headword differ, the British pronunciation precedes the American pronunciation. The same ordering is followed for the different senses of headwords; e.g., the British English meaning of flat (=apartment) appears before the American English one (=flat tire). Definition text is also written in British English. This preferential treatment accorded British English may be a mild inconvenience for the many learners of American English, such as in Korea, but it is to be expected of a British-based publisher. The new edition of LDOCE boasts of 106,000 words, 26,000 more than in LDOCE-3. It does quite well in including new words and word senses that have recently come into use in English. Among six new words referring to people – alpha male, anorak (BrE), cybersquatter, cyberterrorist, cyberwidow, digerati – LDOCE-4 contains all but digerati. By comparison, CALD contains only two; MED has three; and the earlier publications, OALD and CCED, one each. GENERAL FEATURES What is very noticeable when paging through LDOCE-4 is that it contains more boxed material set off from the individual entries. Included in LDOCE-3 were only Usage Note boxes; LDOCE-4 contains Word Choice boxes (close/shut, clothes/ clothing/cloth), Word Focus boxes (containing synonyms and other words related to a Korea TESOL Journal, 2004 Volume 7, Number 1, pp. 165-171. headword), a limited number of Grammar boxes (when to use the; they, them, their as singular), collocation boxes (heavy traffic/heavy rain/heavy fighting/heavy drinking/heavy fine), and Spoken Phrases boxes (for heaven’s sake/heaven (only) knows/heaven help sb/heaven forbid). This select, boxed material all consists of very useful information, but is somewhat limited in number of boxes and scope. The Word Choice and Grammar boxes do include some common errors, but to a limited degree. The common confusion between the usages of fun and funny, for example, is not treated. Separate and numerous “common learner error” boxes such as those employed in CALD would be a welcome addition to LDOCE-4. Also absent are the useful Metaphor boxes found in MED, even though it has been shown that conventional metaphor is central to the way we use language (Lakoff & Johnson, 1980). A Metaphor box in MED, for example, explains that “being angry is like being hot or on fire (fiery temper/heated argument/flare up/boil”; p. 46). LDOCE-4 would have also done well to have included some additional information boxes such as those included in OALD: Vocabulary Building boxes (bunch/bouquet/bundle), British/American boxes (holiday/vacation, have you got/do you have), and Word Family boxes (force/forceful/forcible/enforce). LDOCE-4 does include word frequency boxes, for both spoken and written use, that are very useful. However, they are very limited in number and space consuming. The frequency grids of LAAD or the frequency bands employed in CCED, both located in the page margins are much more thorough in representing word frequencies. LDOCE-4 does, however, represent the 3000 most common words in spoken English with red, instead of blue, headwords followed by coded information. LDOCE-4 bills itself as “the living dictionary” with “full colour throughout,” and it is not an overstatement to say that it lives up to its billing. The colors and shading make LDOCE-4 distinctly more reader-friendly than its competitors. The change from the dark blue of LDOCE-3 makes the headwords seem to say “look at me” instead of making the reader have to look for them. Different shadings of the boxed information make it readily distinguishable from other text. But what makes LDOCE-4 most alive is its full-color illustrations dispersed throughout its pages. Instead of limiting illustrations to nouns, a substantial proportion are of verbs (polish, shiver, share) and adjectives (injured/wounded, taut/slack) to make an understanding of them much easier. LDOCE-4 has dispensed with the full-color pictorial sections bunched together in the center of many recent ALDs and instead placed full-color pages by the appropriate headword so Korea TESOL Journal, 2004 Volume 7, Number 1, pp. 165-171. that they are readily available when the learner needs them. Although LDOCE-4 compares well with most other ALDs in its treatment of grammar, it is not as extensive as CCED. An “advanced” learner’s dictionary should tell us, for example, that rumored occurs only in the passive form and that abreast of is a phrasal preposition; LDOCE-4 does not. Impressive, though, are its sixteen pages of Language Notes in the middle of the volume. They are clear and express some of the most recent linguistic thinking. For example, the explanation of idioms reflects the recent view: “Idioms can be seen as metaphors that have become fixed phrases…” (p. 976). THE PACKAGED PRODUCT Though we have a proverb warning us not to judge a book by its cover, this is not heeded by the majority of language learners. Among Korean English learners, the physical characteristics of a dictionary rank very high (Kent, 2002), and therefore, cannot be ignored. LDOCE-4 is a few millimeters taller than LDOCE-3 and about 200 pages thicker, making it as big as, or bigger than, any of its peers except CCED. Its size makes it still very practical for a desk reference but too large to be easily carried to and from school. However, electronic dictionaries have nearly replaced the print dictionary in the classroom already. The quality of the paper used, the type size, and the hue of the blue headwords all contribute to make the readability of LDOCE-4 even higher than that of LDOCE-3, and equal to or better than that of the other ALDs mentioned here. Web support for LDOCE-4 includes access to the entire dictionary at http://www.ldoceonline.com/ with accompanying technical support. A few teacher and student resources are also available, but these appear to be the same resources made available for LDOCE-3. The accompanying CD-ROM, however, is outstanding. In addition to containing the full text of LDOCE-4, it contains the full text of Longman Language Activator, 80,000 extra dictionary examples, and interactive exercises that include practice for several standardized tests. Headwords can be heard pronounced in both American and British English, and learners can record their own pronunciation for comparison. Priced at US$37.00 with CD-ROM at Amazon.com, LDOCE-4 is considerably more expensive than earlier published ALDs with CD-ROMs – CALD $21.78, CCED $20.99, MED $19.11, OALD $21.98 – but with time, it too will likely receive a discount Korea TESOL Journal, 2004 Volume 7, Number 1, pp. 165-171. off list price. [For more on OALD, CCED, MED, and CALD, see Shaffer (2000, 2001, 2002, 2003)]. LDOCE-4 is an ALD well worth its price – a dictionary that this reviewer has felt quite comfortable and satisfied with during months of test-driving, a dictionary no English learner should regret having available for improving their proficiency. THE REVIEWER David Shaffer holds a Ph.D. in linguistics and has been a professor at Chosun University in Gwangju (Korea) since 1976. In addition to semantics, his academic interests lie in TEFL methodology, teacher training, and Korean lexical borrowing from English. In recent years, he has been involved in the editing of Korea TESOL publications and is on the organization’s executive council. Email: disin@chosun.ac.kr REFERENCES Cambridge advanced learner’s dictionary. (2003). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Hornby, A. S., & Wehmeier, S. (Ed.). (2000). Oxford’s advanced learner’s dictionary of current English (6th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Kent, D. (2001). Korean university freshmen’s dictionary use and perceptions regarding dictionaries. Korea TESOL Journal, 4(1), 73-92. Gadsby, A. (Ed.). (2002). Longman advanced American dictionary. Harlow, England: Pearson Education. Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. Chicago/London: The University of Chicago Press. Rundell, M., & Fox, G. (Eds.). (2002). Macmillan English dictionary for advanced learners. Oxford: Macmillan Education. Sinclair, J. (Ed.). (2001). Collins COBUILD English dictionary for advanced learners (3rd ed.). Glasgow, Scotland: HarperCollins. Shaffer, D. E. (2000). [Review of Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary of current English (6th ed.)]. Korea TESOL Journal, 3(1), 106-110. Shaffer, D. E. (2001). Learner dictionaries for the millennium. [Review of Collins COBUILD English dictionary for advanced learners (3rd ed.) and Longman advanced American dictionary]. Korea TESOL Journal, 4(1), 181-185. Shaffer, D. E. (2002). [Review of Macmillan English dictionary for advanced learners]. Korea TESOL Journal, 5(1), 183-187. Shaffer, D. E. (2003). [Review of Cambridge advanced learner’s dictionary]. Korea TESOL Korea TESOL Journal, 2004 Volume 7, Number 1, pp. 165-171. Journal, 6(1), 161-166. Summers, D. (Ed.). (1995). Longman dictionary of contemporary English (3rd ed.). Harlow, England: Longman/Pearson Education. Van der Meer, G. (1997). Four English learner’s dictionaries and their treatment of figurative meanings. English Studies, 6, 556-571. Wingate, U. (2002). The effectiveness of different learner dictionaries: An investigation into the use of dictionaries for reading comprehension by intermediate learners of German. Tubingen, Germany: Max Niemeyer Verlag KEY TO ABBREVIATIONS USED CALD = Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. CCED = Collins COBUILD English Dictionary for Advanced Learners (3rd ed.). LAAD = Longman Advanced American Dictionary. LDOCE-3 = Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (3rd ed.). LDOCE-4 = Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (4th ed.). MED = Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners. OALD = Oxford’s Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English (6th ed.).