Amonolingual learner's dictionary (MLD) is designed to meet the reference needs of people learning aforeign language. MLDs are based on the premise that language-learners should progress from abilingual dictionary to a monolingual one as they become more proficient in theirtarget language, but that general-purposedictionaries (aimed atnative speakers) are inappropriate for their needs.[citation needed] Dictionaries for learners include information ongrammar,usage, common errors,collocation, andpragmatics, which is largely missing from standard dictionaries, because native speakers tend to know these aspects of language intuitively.[citation needed] And while thedefinitions in standard dictionaries are often written in difficult language, those in an MLD use a simple and accessibledefining vocabulary.
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The first English MLD, published in 1935, was theNew Method English Dictionary byMichael West and James Endicott, a small dictionary using a restricteddefining vocabulary of just 1490 words. Since the end of World War Two, global sales of the MLD have run into the tens of millions, reflecting the boom in theEnglish language teaching industry.[citation needed]
Probably the best-known English monolingual dictionary foradvanced learners is theOxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary, now in its tenth edition. It was originally published in Japan in 1942 asThe Idiomatic and Syntactic Dictionary of English, written byA. S. Hornby and two collaborators. It was subsequently republished asA Learner's Dictionary of Current English in 1948, before acquiring its current name.
Other publishers gradually entered the market. TheLongman Dictionary of Contemporary English was published in 1978, and its most striking feature was the use of a restricted defining vocabulary, which is now a standard feature of learners' dictionaries. There are currently six major MLDs for advanced learners. In addition to the Oxford and Longman dictionaries, these are:
All of these dictionaries are available in hard copy and online.
Since the 1980s, the English MLD has, arguably, been the most innovative area in the field of lexicography, in terms of both the way dictionaries are written and the aspects of language which dictionaries describe,[citation needed] in particular the use of software in combination withtext corpora to:
MLDs were among the first dictionaries to appear on CD-ROM, with theLongman Interactive English Dictionary leading the way in 1993.[4] More recently the six MLDs listed above have become available infree online versions.
MLDs have been the subject of research into how people use dictionaries,[5] as well as the subject of scholarly work.[6][7] A standard book on the subject is Cowie 1999.[8]
The Internet offers a range of online dictionary resources. Some, like theOpen Dictionary of English, are explicitly designed as learner's dictionaries, and may even include built-in, adaptive tutoring.
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