Exploring bilingual dictionaries : a case study of al Mawrid Arabic English Dictionary

Abstract EN

In the current paper we aim to carry out an analysis of Al Mawrid Arabic English dictionary.

We will study both the macrostructure and the microstructure of Al Mawrid Arabic English dictionary starting from its general organization to its headword entries.

We have chosen as a sample of the dictionary: The عين part (from page 740 to page 770).We have taken the thirty first pages of this section and tried to analyze them at the lexicological level.

Our paper is not entirely based on theoretical constructs, but also on the detailed examination of dozens of words and their translations in Al Mawrid Arabic English bilingual dictionary.

Our aim is to reach some conclusions that would help to improve Al Mawrid Arabic English dictionary.

We have organized our study in three main parts: First we will try to answer this question: Which kind of bilingual dictionaries Al Mawrid Arabic English dictionary is? Second, we will go onto the details examining each feature of the dictionary relying only on the part of the dictionary delimited above.

We will deal with the issue of translation equivalence which represents a core issue in bilingual lexicography.

Then, we will compare Al Mawrid with another Arabic English dictionary recognized as being the best in the field which is Hans Wehr Arabic English dictionary.

We will then deal with some findings and conclusions.