Lexicographica : series maior
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145
The chapter provides a review of research literature on the use of electronic dictionaries. Because the central terms electronic dictionary and research into dictionaiy use are sometimes used in different ways in the research, it is necessary first of all to examine these more closely, in Order to clarify their use in this research review. The main chapter presents several individual studies in chronological order.
145
This chapter summarizes the typical steps of an empirical investigation. Every step is illustrated using examples from our research project into online dictionary use or other relevant studies. This chapter does not claim to contain anything new, but presents a brief guideline for lexicographical researchers who are interested in conducting their own empirical research.
145
To design effective electronic dictionaries, reliable empirical information on how dictionaries are actually being used is of great value for lexicographers. To my knowledge, no existing empirical research addresses the context of dictionary use, or, in other words, the extra-lexicographic situations in which a dictionary consultation is embedded. This is mainly due to the fact that data about these contexts are difficult to obtain. To take a first step in closing this research gap, we incorporated an open-ended question (“In which contexts or situations would you use a dictionary?”) into our first online survey (N = 684). Instead of presenting well-known facts about standardized types of usage situation, this chapter will focus on the more offbeat circumstances of dictionary use and aims of users, as they are reflected in the responses. Overall, my results indicate that there is a community whose work is closely linked with dictionaries. Dictionaries are also seen as a linguistic treasure trove for games or crossword puzzles, and as a standard which can be referred to as an authority. While it is important to emphasize that my results are only preliminary, they do indicate the potential of empirical research in this area.
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The first international study (N=684) we conducted within our research project on online dictionary use included very general questions on that topic. In this chapter, we present the corresponding results on questions like the use of both printed and online dictionaries as well as on the types of dictionaries used, devices used to access online dictionaries and some information regarding the willingness to pay for premium content. The data collected by us, show that our respondents both use printed and online dictionaries and, according to their self-report, many different kinds of dictionaries. In this context, our results revealed some clear cultural differences: in German-speaking areas spelling dictionaries are more common than in other linguistic areas, where thesauruses are widespread. Only a minority of our respondents is willing to pay for premium content, but most of the respondents are prepared to accept advertising. Our results also demonstrate that our respondents mainly tend to use dictionaries on big-screen devices, e.g. desktop computers or laptops.
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This chapter presents empirical findings on the question which criteria are making a good online dictionary using data on expectations and demands collected in the first study (N=684), completed with additional results from the second study (N=390) which examined more closely whether the respondents had differentiated views on individual aspects of the criteria rated in the first study. Our results show that the classical criteria of reference books (e.g. reliability, clarity) were rated highest by our participants, whereas the unique characteristics of online dictionaries (e.g. multimedia, adaptability) were rated and ranked as (partly) unimportant. To verify whether or not the poor rating of these innovative features was a result of the fact that the subjects are not used to online dictionaries incorporating those features, we integrated an experiment into the second study. Our results revealed a learning effect: Participants in the learning-effect condition, i. e. respondents who were first presented with examples of possible innovative features of online dictionaries,judged adaptability and multimedia to be more useful than participants who did not have this information. Thus, our data point to the conclusion that developing innovative features is worthwhile but that it is necessary to be aware of the fact that users can only be convinced of its benefits gradually.
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Questions of design
(2014)
All lexicographers working on online dictionary projects that do not wish to use an established form of design for their online dictionary, or simply have new kinds of lexicographic data to present, face the problem of what kind of arrangement is best suited for the intended users of the dictionary. In this chapter, we present data about questions relating to the design of online dictionaries. This will provide projects that use these or similar ways of presenting their lexicographic data with valuable information about how potential dictionary users assess and evaluate them. In addition, the answers to corresponding open-ended questions show, detached from concrete design models, which criteria potential users value in a good online representation. Clarity and an uncluttered look seem to dominate in many answers, as well as the possibility of customization, if the latter is not connected with a too complex usability model.
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The main aim of the study presented in this chapter was to try out eyetracking as form to collect data about dictionary use as it is – for research into dictionary use – a new and not widely used technology. As the topic of research, we decided to evaluate the new web design of the IDS dictionary portal OWID. In the mid of 2011 where the study was conducted, the relaunch of the web design was internally finished but externally not released yet. In this regard, it was a good time to see whether users get along well with the new design decisions. 38 persons participated in our study, all of them students aged 20-30 years. Besides the results the chapter also includes critical comments on methodological aspects of our study.
145
In this paper, the authors use the 2012 log files of two German online dictionaries (Digital Dictionary of the German Language and the German Version of Wiktionary) and the 100,000 most frequent words in the Mannheim German Reference Corpus from 2009 to answer the question of whether dictionary users really do look up frequent words, first asked by de Schryver et al. (2006). By using an approach to the comparison of log files and corpus data which is completely different from that of the aforementioned authors, we provide empirical evidence that indicates - contrary to the results of de Schryver et al. and Verlinde/Binon (2010) - that the corpus frequency of a word can indeed be an important factor in determining what online dictionary users look up. Finally, we incorporate word class Information readily available in Wiktionary into our analysis to improve our results considerably.