Harrap's New Collegiate French and English Dictionary (review)

320Reviews are sufficient guides to the revision which they should undergo. One suggestion concerning substance in Traupman's dictionary: he glosses Latin Nabataea as 'Nabataea (ancient Arab kingdom S. E. of Palestine)'. Although Nabataea was located in Arabia Petraea, there is no evidence that the Nabateans were Arabs. On the contrary, since their language is a variety of the Aramaic branch of Northwest Semitic (whereas Arabic is a variety of South Semitic), it is most unlikely that they were Arabs. * * * Harrap's New Collegiate French and English Dictionary. Peter Collin, Helen Knox, Margaret Ledésert, René Ledésert, eds. London: Harrap, 1982. Published in North America by National Textbook Company, xxii + 983 + 798 pp. $27.95. A primary characteristic of the well-written bilingual dictionary is quick retrievability of the linguistic information that the user is seeking. As long ago as Antonio de Nebrija's bilingual lexicon of Spanish and Latin in the late fifteenth century a landmark improvement was added to the apparatus needed for that end: the usage discrimination, couched in the language of the entry for maximum effectiveness. Words do have a first meaning, but polysemy soon encroaches upon it, and the reader who does not know the target language well needs help in his own language to select the translation his context requires. This dictionary, a condensed version of Harrap's New Standard French and English Dictionary, was unfortunately not compiled with the above dictum constantly held in sight of the writers. There are many instance of precise observances of the tenet, and these articles are brilliant examples of the lexicographer's art at its finest; on numerous occasions, however, the usage discriminations are written in the language of the translation, diminishing their usefulness and adding another pitfall as well: the possibility of spurious meaning on the target side of the equation not elicited by the source entry. Reviews32 1 The following equivalences demonstrate this weakness: inflict v. tr. faire (une blessure à qn); faire subir, occasioner (du chagrin à qn) The English speaker composing in French will not be able to discriminate between 'faire', 'faire subir', or Occasioner' in his rendering of she inflicted a great deal of suffering and his shot inflicted a flesh wound unless he knows the meaning of the usage discriminations. He must do the lexicographer's work for him by translating the usage discriminations himself. He might also think that 'faire une blessure à' is an alternate translation, especially since such parenthetical additions are occasionally the style. For example, conclave n., where noun and particularizing phrase together, 'réunion (à huis clos)' are the equivalent of the source concept. Despite this inconsistency of language where usage discriminations are concerned, Harrap's New Collegiate French and English Dictionary is remarkably sensitive to nuances of meaning, as the following entries show: dim a. (light) faible, pâle; (color) effacé; (sight) faible, trouble; (forest, room, lighting) sombre; (sound) sourd, mat; (outline, memory) vague, faible, estompé; (intelligence) vague, confus cinglant a. lashing (rain); cutting, biting (wind); bitter (cold); stinging, cutting, scathing (remark) And beyond such accurate treatment of the individual word, the work has taken a giant step in the right direction by including numerous bilingual utterances at phrase and sentence rank, providing an extremely good fit between the two languages and allowing the user to combine words with an eye to native syntax. Hence under côté the distinction between tout à côté 'quite near' and à côté 'next door' is observed; the lemma premier provides the difference between les premiers venus 'the first to arrive' and Ie premier venu 'anybody'; the articleyâce distinguishes between regarder les choses en face 'to face facts' and regarder en face 'to look in the face'. Dédire shows the minimal pair se dédire d'une affirmation 'to take back what one has said' and se dédire d'une promesse 'to go 322Reviews back on one's word'; radiantly is glossed 'd'un air radieux', whereas radiantly happy elicits 'rayonnant de bonheur'; objects in a row requires 'en rang'; Sundays in a row needs 'de suite'; changer de main translates 'to use the other hand', but changer de mains renders 'to change hands'; under the entry raison the...