Studies On The User-Friendliness Of The World’s Mainstream General-Purpose English-Japanese Dictionaries And Relevant English-Japanese Translation

As the single most important and influential global lingua franca English’s importance and influence have been skyrocketing worldwide ever since the end of the Second World War.This dissertation is intended to call people’s attention to the great importance and urgent necessity of improving the user-friendliness of English-Japanese and English-Chinese dictionaries to help the dictionary makers in Japan and China compile more and better user-friendly English-Japanese dictionaries and English-Chinese dictionaries to enable non-native English learners in Japan and China to improve their English as quickly and effectively as possible.By adopting such approaches as induction,deduction,qualitative analysis,quantitative analysis,survey,exemplification,and extrapolation,this author has made a series of systematic,comprehensive,and in-depth analyses of the user-friendliness of the world’s mainstream general-purpose English-Japanese dictionaries.The main user-friendly measures taken by the compilers of the world’s mainstream general-purpose English-Japanese dictionaries are as follows:1)providing users with the English definition(s)and the Japanese equivalent(s)of each English headword;2)defining each English headword in popular and easy-to-understand language;3)providing users with useful etymological information on some English headwords;4)providing users with rich pictorial illustrations;5)defining English headwords in full sentences;6)providing users with large numbers of special columns of grammar;7)providing users with large numbers of special columns of English synonyms;8)setting up many special columns of word webs;9)setting up many special columns of collocations or word partnership;10)improve the mediostructure of a dictionary by providing users with the homophones,antonyms and cross-references of some English headwords in addition to setting up many special columns of synonyms;11)making it more convenient for the users to consult dictionaries by printing twenty-six eye-catching colored blocks on the fore edge of a dictionary,each representing one letter of the English alphabet,to dramatically narrow the scope of search;12)increasing the portability of dictionaries by using lighter,thinner and more durable paper to print dictionaries;13)providing users with rich and useful front and back matter;14)increasing dictionary portability by binding dictionaries in lighter,thinner and more durable leather;15)using various easy-to-understand signs to guide users to their needed information as quickly as possible;16)using different colors to highlight some important information;17)using guidewords and linguistic signposts to guide the dictionary users to their needed information as quickly and smoothly as possible;18)arranging the senses of each English polysemant according to their frequencies;19)providing users with rich illustrative examples;and 20)making the font size of a dictionary as comfortable as possible to the eyes of users.The major findings of this dissertation are as below:Firstly,among the above main user-friendly measures,11),15),16),17),and 18)will make it easier for the users to find out their needed information as quickly and precisely as possible;1),2),3),4),and 5)will make it easier for the users to better understand and memorize their needed information as quickly and correctly as possible;and 6),7),8),9),10),12),13),14),19),and 20)will make it easier for the users to use their needed information as quickly and correctly as possible.Secondly,there is still much room for the user-friendliness of the world’s mainstream general-purpose English-Japanese dictionaries to be further improved.Lastly,dictionary compilers should make their utmost efforts to improve the user-friendliness of the English-Japanese translation in the relevant world’s mainstream general-purpose English-Japanese dictionaries as much as possible based on Pym’s theory of translation solutions in that it will dramatically improve the user-friendliness of these dictionaries and better satisfy the practical needs of the users.The user-friendliness of general-purpose English-Japanese dictionaries and other dictionaries will ultimately determine their make or break in the fiercely competitive dictionary market.