---
title: "Bilingual Dictionaries — Atkins 1996"
description: "This is a programmatic paper on what bilingual dictionaries should become in the computer age."
authors: ["B. T. S. Atkins"]
year: 1996
venue: "EURALEX '96 Proceedings (Göteborg), pp. 515–546"
source: "https://euralex.org/publications/bilingual-dictionaries-past-present-and-future/"
licence: "EURALEX proceedings ≤2016: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0"
licence_url: "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/"
summary_licence: "Elamur Cosmic License"
canonical: "https://research.elamur.ai/free/papers/atkins-1996-bilingual-dictionaries/"
---
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# Bilingual Dictionaries: Past, Present and Future

**Authors:** B. T. S. Atkins · **Year:** 1996 · **Venue:** EURALEX '96 Proceedings (Göteborg), pp. 515–546 · **Licence:** [EURALEX proceedings ≤2016: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/)

**Links:** [Publisher's page](https://euralex.org/publications/bilingual-dictionaries-past-present-and-future/) · [OpenAlex](https://openalex.org/W2596968245)

**Citations:** 102 citations (openalex-snapshot · 2026-10-14) · 5 in our library, of the 140673 papers whose bibliographies we read

## Summary
This is a programmatic paper on what bilingual dictionaries should become in the computer age. The author argues that current dictionaries, even those published on CD-ROM, are essentially still the old printed texts. They take hardly any account of advances in lexical semantics. To create a truly new dictionary, she proposes describing the dictionary entry systematically along six dimensions:
- data type;
- information type;
- the function of this information for the user;
- mode of expression;
- the user's language (source language or target language);
- the purpose of consultation: encoding or decoding.

As an example, the author analyses the French word couche from the Oxford-Hachette French-English Dictionary. She also tabulates all the components of a traditional entry and uses this table to assess what in the current model should be kept and what should be improved. She then outlines the design of a new electronic dictionary, including a multilingual hypertext one. Word meanings in it are to be analysed on corpus material using Fillmore's frame semantics. The paper is valuable as a theoretical foundation for designing bilingual lexical resources geared to the needs of different users.

## Key points
- The author stresses that the data type (for example, headword or example) should be distinguished from the type of information it carries, and both from the function, i.e. from what the user can do with that information.
- The table of entry components covers:
  - IPA transcription and grammatical labels;
  - diatechnical, stylistic, register, diatopic, diachronic, evaluative labels;
  - sense indicators;
  - source-language and target-language collocates;
  - three types of examples: typical, problematic and idiomatic.
- The corpus base is Oxford University Press resources, in particular the British National Corpus. Frame analysis has so far been applied only to verbs; an example is the sense network of the verb crawl.
- Related prototypes:
  - a five-language lexicon of perception verbs and speech-act verbs from the DELIS project;
  - the Compass project (LRE 62-080);
  - the hypertext Dictionary of the Future, whose web version is hosted on the Berkeley server.
- Preliminary cost estimate: editing a monolingual hypertext dictionary of this type costs roughly as much as a large multi-volume academic dictionary. Bilingual and multilingual versions cost proportionally more.

*Our summary of the paper, in our own words — not its text. The work belongs to its authors; read it at the links above.*

Fields: [Linguistics & languages](https://md.research.elamur.ai/free/shelves/linguistics/)

## Cite

The paper itself, not this page. BibTeX from the library's record of the work.

```bibtex
@inproceedings{atkins1996bilingual,
  title = {{Bilingual Dictionaries: Past, Present and Future}},
  author = {Atkins, B. T. S.},
  booktitle = {EURALEX '96 Proceedings (Göteborg), pp. 515–546},
  year = {1996},
  url = {https://euralex.org/publications/bilingual-dictionaries-past-present-and-future/}
}
```

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## References

29 references, 0 of them with a card of ours. ↗ leads to the work, «find» searches for one we have no id for yet.

1. A1, В . P. F. (1983b). Dictionnaire de thème et dictionnaire de version. Revue de PhonétiqueAppliquée, Vols. 66-68: pp. 203-211. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=A1%2C+%D0%92+%2E+P%2E+F%2E+%281983b%29%2E+Dictionnaire+de+th%C3%A8me+et+dictionnaire+de+version%2E+Revue+de+Phon%C3%A9tiqueAppliqu%C3%A9e%2C+Vols%2E+66%2D68%3A+pp%2E+203%2D211%2E)
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3. Atkins, B . T. S. (1995). Analyzing the verbs of seeing: a frame semantics approach to corpus lexicography, in: S. Gahl, C. Johnson, A. Dolbey (eds.) Proceedings ofthe TwentiethAnnualMeeting ofthe Berkeley Linguistic Society, 1994. B L S , University of California, Berkeley, CA. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Atkins%2C+B+%2E+T%2E+S%2E+%281995%29%2E+Analyzing+the+verbs+of+seeing%3A+a+frame+semantics+approach+to+corpus+lexicography%2C+in%3A+S%2E+Gahl%2C+C%2E+Johnson%2C+A%2E+Dolbey+%28eds%2E%29+Proceedings+ofthe+TwentiethAnnualMeeting+ofthe+Ber)
4. Atkins, B . T. S., Charles J. Fillmore, John B . Lowe and Nancy Urban (1994) The Dictionary of the Future: A Hypertext Database. Pre-entation and on-line demonstration at the Xerox-Acquilex Symposium on the Dictionary ofthe Future, Uriage, France, (ms). [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Atkins%2C+B+%2E+T%2E+S%2E%2C+Charles+J%2E+Fillmore%2C+John+B+%2E+Lowe+and+Nancy+Urban+%281994%29+The+Dictionary+of+the+Future%3A+A+Hypertext+Database%2E+Pre%2Dentation+and+on%2Dline+demonstration+at+the+Xerox%2DAcquilex+Symposium+)
5. Atkins, B . T. S., Charles J. Fillmore and Ulrich Heid (1995) Lexicographical Relevance in Corpus Evidence, Deliverable D-IX-2 of DELIS Project (LRE 61.034). [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Atkins%2C+B+%2E+T%2E+S%2E%2C+Charles+J%2E+Fillmore+and+Ulrich+Heid+%281995%29+Lexicographical+Relevance+in+Corpus+Evidence%2C+Deliverable+D%2DIX%2D2+of+DELIS+Project+%28LRE+61%2E034%29%2E)
6. Atkins, B . T. S., Charles J. Fillmore, John B . Lowe, Marie-Hélène Corréard and Nancy Urban (1996) The Dictionary of the Future: A Multilingual Hypertext Dictionary. Sample entry available on WWW. [find](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Atkins%2C+B+%2E+T%2E+S%2E%2C+Charles+J%2E+Fillmore%2C+John+B+%2E+Lowe%2C+Marie%2DH%C3%A9l%C3%A8ne+Corr%C3%A9ard+and+Nancy+Urban+%281996%29+The+Dictionary+of+the+Future%3A+A+Multilingual+Hypertext+Dictionary%2E+Sample+entry+available+on+WWW%2E)
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