Article for translators: Glossary Mining - Part 7: Brush Up Your English

Glossary Mining - Part 7: Brush Up Your English

By Lee Wright,
American Translators Association,
Alexandria, VA, U.S.A.

http://www.atanet.org/

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As indicated in the title, the English language is the topic of this final installment in the series on resources available on the Web for translation purposes. It is hoped that the information will prove equally valuable both for translators working into English (i.e., their mother tongue) and for those translating from English into another language. Although writing usage and vocabulary are primarily emphasized, a number of other aspects often come into play during the translation process. These include slang and idiomatic expressions, acronyms and abbreviations, collocations and collective nouns, etymology, and history of the language. The article concludes with a selection of URLs for Web sites that contain information about differences between US English and “the King’s/Queen’s English,” as well as several more esoteric or entertaining sites pertaining to the English language.

To start with, of course, translators always need to consult dictionaries in order to identify the meanings of words encountered in their source documents. In this regard, you can find quite a large number of on-line resources that provide definitions and other information about English lexical items. Here is a sampling of the most reliable URLs.

http://dict.die.net/a/

http://www.linguasphere.org/dictionary/a.html

http://www.askoxford.com/?view=uk

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/default.asp?dict=P

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/dictionary/dictionaryhome.aspx

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/.../content_a.html

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Main_Page

http://www.onelook.com/

http://www.bartleby.com/61/

American Heritage dictionary

http://www.m-w.com/

Merriam-Webster dictionary

http://www.wordsmyth.net/

Requires a subscription

http://www.yourdictionary.com/

combination dictionary/thesaurus + glossaries of specialized terms

e.g., http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/southernese.html

Glossary of Quaint Southernisms

http://wordnet.princeton.edu/perl/webwn

A machine-readable lexical database organized by meanings developed at Princeton Un iversity

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/.../content_a.html

Lots of “esoteric” or infrequently used lexical items

http://www.synonym.com/synonym/

Synonyms, antonyms & definitions

Specialized references that provide information about slang and idiomatic expressions constitute a subcategory of “regular” dictionaries. Here again, there is no shortage of on-line resources for this particular subject.

http://www.doubletongued.org/index.php/dictionary/alphabet/A/

http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/a.htm

UK slang

http://www.alphadictionary.com/slang/

Historical US slang

http://www.manythings.org/slang/

http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/

http://www.lexscripta.com/desktop/dictionaries/slang.html

All varieties of English represented

http://onlineslangdictionary.com/browse/a

http://www.slanginsider.com/

http://www.slangsite.com/slang/A.html

http://www.notam02.no/~hcholm/altlang/

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/6720/

The Idiom Connection

http://www.intercom.net/user/logan1/glossary.htm

Yet another type of on-line resource are dictionaries of acronyms and abbreviations like the following ones.

http://www.abbreviations.com/

http://www.acronymfinder.com/

http://www.acronyma.com/?language=en

7 languages

http://www.businessballs.com/acronyms.htm

includes some humorous ones

http://www.astro.umd.edu/~marshall/abbrev.html

http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/

A third subcategory of reference tools for English is the thesaurus. Of course, just about everybody is familiar with the venerable Roget's, which is also available in on-line format complete with hyperlinks from the headwords to the main entries. The other five URLs listed below provide excellent complementary resources in this area of language usage. The last one is included just because it’s quadrilingual instead of monolingual, which is a rarity among thesauri.

http://www.cs.utexas.edu/.../roget-taxo.html

Roget’s thesaurus headwords with hyperlinks

http://www.visualthesaurus.com/index.jsp

Really nifty visual thesaurus; requires subscription for access

http://dictionary.amcd.co.uk/thesaurus.php

http://www.lingvozone.com/free-online-thesaurus

http://encarta.msn.com/thesaurus__/thesaurus.html

http://www.online-thesaurus.net/search/

Quadrilingual (E, F, G, S)

Many (if not most) of the Web sites dealing with English grammar and usage are directed at speakers of other languages who are learning English. Nevertheless, they generally contain a great deal of useful information for native speakers who need to clarify a given usage question (e.g., the difference between restrictive and non-restrictive clauses). The first five URLs are my personal favorite sites, but you should also check out the others because each one is a little different.

http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/

my personal favorite

http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/

The runner-up

http://www.englishpage.com/

http://aliscot.com/bigdog/

Basic & advanced English grammar

http://www.wsu.edu/~brians/errors/errors.html

Common usage errors

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/dictionaries/english/

http://www.eclecticenglish.com/index.html

http://papyr.com/hypertextbooks/grammar/

http://www.usingenglish.com/glossary.html

Grammar terminology

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammar

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_grammar

http://www.englishpage.com/grammar/

http://www.speakspeak.com/html/d10_english_grammar.htm

http://www.eslbase.com/grammar/

http://www.english-the-easy-way.com/index.htm

http://www.usingenglish.com/articles/

http://english-zone.com/index.php

Claims to be the best site for English grammar and usage

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/frames/glossary.htm

http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/grammar/archive/mainindex_wide.html

http://www.refdesk.com/factgram.html

http://www.arts.uottawa.ca/writcent/hypergrammar/

University of Ottawa

http://ei.cs.vt.edu/.../tc_2_Usage.html

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/

http://www.bartleby.com/64/

American Heritage guide to usage

http://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/

http://www.englishgrammartutor.com/Grammar%20Book.htm

The Well-bred Sentence

http://www.bartleby.com/usage/

http://www.english.uiuc.edu/.../grammar_handbook.htm

University of Illinois writer’s grammar handbook

http://www.englishrules.com/writing/

http://www.yourdictionary.com/library/index.html#dr

“language library”

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/.../English.topicArticleId-28962.html

Also has separate sites for grammar & writing

Usage guides also include a subcategory, namely style guides and manuals. Some of them are intended for “everyday” writing purposes, while others are oriented toward specialized writing needs (e.g., technical, medical, business). A number of universities and government agencies have prepared style manuals for internal purposes, but a few are also available to the public on the Web. Here are a few of the most helpful resources in this category.

http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/contents.html

http://www.isat.jmu.edu/.../ISATStyleManual.htm

http://www.rbs0.com/tw.htm

http://www.ent.ohiou.edu/~valy/techwrite.html

http://stipo.larc.nasa.gov/sp7084/sp7084cont.html

NASA technical writers handbook (grammar, punctuation & capitalization)

http://www.writing.eng.vt.edu/

http://dictionary.reference.com/writing/styleguide/

http://garbl.home.comcast.net/stylemanual/

http://www.gpoaccess.gov/stylemanual/browse.html

US Government Printing Office

http://main.uab.edu/show.asp?durki=7713

University of Alabama

http://dictionary.reference.com/writing/styleguide/

http://abacus.bates.edu/.../HTWgeneral.html

http://www.oup.com/us/samplechapters/0841234620/?view=usa

http://www.guardian.co.uk/styleguide/0,,184913,00.html

Obviously emphasizes UK English usage.

http://www.io.com/~hcexres/textbook/

A very good text on technical writing

On-line resources that focus on specific usage aspects of the language can offer invaluable help for both native and non-native speakers. Collocations in particular (e.g., what prepositions combine with what verbs) sometimes pose knotty problems that can be easily resolved by consulting one of the following references.

http://www.better-english.com/strongcoll.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_noun

http://www.englishpage.com/prepositions/phrasaldictionary.html

Phrasal verbs

http://www.englishpage.com/prepositions/verb_preposition.html

http://www.phrasalverbdemon.com/dictionarya.htm

http://www.englishmed.com/resource-centre/collocations/

http://www.oceansiderevolution.com/verbage/

Not everybody is a devotee of English etymology like me, but if you are, you can find some very helpful (and occasionally entertaining) resources at these Web sites.

http://wordwizard.com/

http://www.mindlesscrap.com/origins/moreorigins.htm

http://www.etymonline.com/

http://www.takeourword.com/arc_logi.html

A weekly Web-zine

Similarly, I have a personal liking for the area of language history, not only that of my target language (Spanish) but also the history of the English language, so I have collected a small number of good sites that deal with this particular topic, as follows.

http://www.krysstal.com/english.html

http://www.anglik.net/englishlanguagehistory.htm

http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~cpercy/hell/

History of the English language from a Canadian standpoint

Of course, on occasion you might need to translate from British English to the American variety, or perhaps vice versa. Here again, these sites will help you with deciphering some of the significant differences.

http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwesl/egw/jones/words.htm

http://www.peak.org/~jeremy/dictionary/dictionary/dictionary.php

http://www.krysstal.com/ukandusa.html

http://www.effingpot.com/

http://english2american.com/dictionary/a.html

http://www.hps.com/~tpg/ukdict/

http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/index.htm

English from a British point of view – Also includes topical words, turns of phrase and weird words.

In conclusion, just to prove that the study of English can be lots of fun, don’t fail to explore some of the following miscellaneous sites. You’ll be amazed how much you can learn about the language from them!

http://alt-usage-english.org/index.shtml

http://www.dsl.ac.uk/dsl/

Scots language

http://dictionary.reference.com/help/faq/language/index.html

What’s the difference between…?

http://phrontistery.info/ihlstart.html

International House of Logorrhea

http://www.rinkworks.com/words/

http://www.keystothepast.info/...Anglo-Saxon

Anglo-Saxon lexicon

http://www.homestead.com/englishheathenism/glossary.html

Anglo-Saxon heathen terminology (!!)

http://www.keystothepast.info/...&letter=A

Old English lexicon

http://home.earthlink.net/~skilton/dictionary.html

Bureaucratese dictionary

http://www.heptune.com/english.html

Cheesy American English usage

http://www.emis.de/monographs/Trzeciak/

“Mathematical English” glossary

http://users.wpi.edu/~nab/sci_eng/index.html

Scientific English

http://rinkworks.com/dialect/

Converts standard English to a variety of dialects

http://www.aaaugh.com/dictionary/

The Foolish Dictionary EXAMPLE: WEEDS Found in gardens and widows. For removing easily, marry the widow.

http://engrish.com/

So, now I have finally reached the end of the mine shaft, although the ore certainly is not totally played out. You never know when you might hit another mother lode somewhere down the line, so it doesn’t hurt to keep digging.

This article was originally published in The ATA Chronicle.
www.atanet.org/chronicle