Scholarly record

ON DATABASE REPRESENTATION OF DICTIONARIES

Miroslav Langer

Abstract

Most of bilingual or multilingual dictionaries, especially the printed ones can be represented as a simple relational database with two relations with cardinality 1:N for each side of the dictionary. This database structure is actually sufficient if the user needs only word to word translation and if they are experienced enough to choose a proper translation from mostly many synonyms. One step forward is a contextual dictionary. The translation is influenced by the context of the word, what can make the translation more precise compare to simple word to word translation. The database of this kind of dictionaries is mostly based on various previously translated texts like official documents, multilingual webpages, etc., and the translation is presented as two pieces of the corresponding texts in both languages. The user is able to check the translation in a wider context of presenting texts. However, the pieces of text may not be always correspondent and the translation is misleading. In this paper, we present model of database representing bilingual dictionary. Our model derives benefits from both mentioned models and it suppresses the disadvantages. The main idea is to focus on the translated word, which is additionally complemented by left or/and right context. Such translation can be easily supported and verified in linguistic corpora if there are any for considering languages.

Publication details

Back to publication list