The Pragmatics of English-Persian Dictionaries: Problems and Solutions

Inspired by one of the most important contributions modern linguistics has made toward lexicography, the present study is an attempt to investigate the practice of the three most frequently used English-Persian dictionaries in incorporating pragmatic information. To this end, 101 pragmatically marked English words were randomly selected and the treatment of the bilingual dictionaries toward them was closely examined. The study revealed that although labeling is the most frequently used policy, it is still far from desirable as a strategy. The deficiencies can be attributed to the inadequate rate of labeling and inaccuracy and inconsistency in the use of labels. Besides, the study suggests incorporating pragmatic information in the translation equivalents through reducing the number of them to the ones which are good representatives of the specifications of the English word both semantically and pragmatically. Finally, as pragmatic translation equivalents can not be always established, the use of other strategies such as pragmatic examples and usage notes are also suggested. Adapted from the source document