Chapter 5 shifts the focus from the text to the reader (both the translator and the target-text reader) and the reading process. The misguided belief that reading is decoding and that there is an objective meaning hidden in the text has in turn facilitated the view that translation consists of recoding the decoded meaning into another language, namely, reproducing the objective meaning present in the source text. By providing a more accurate understanding of reading, this chapter presents a more accurate view of translation. It summarizes what reading as an interactive process means for the craft of the translator, including such concepts as background knowledge and its relation to specialized texts, new and old information, word meaning as activation of a potential meaning within a particular text, word meaning and dictionaries, and the translator as a reader. Additional topics discussed are reading and language directionality in translation; reading for translation purposes; and reading in translation process research.

This chapter gives an overview of dictionaries, broadly conceived to include monolingual and bilingual wordlists for readers at all levels, in the history of English from the beginnings of Anglo-Saxon literacy to the present day. It argues against a reductive view of dictionaries as primarily agents of standardisation and authority, expressions of the ‘dismal sacred word’. Its arrangement is roughly chronological, beginning with Anglo-Saxon glossography and the lexicography of later medieval English, before turning to the bilingual and monolingual English dictionaries of the early modern period; to the monolingual dictionaries of the eighteenth century; and to the relationship of lexicography to two very important aspects of Late Modern English, namely its pluricentricity and its use as an acquired language. It concludes with a last look at the relationship of English lexicography with the ‘dismal sacred word’.

This conversation between Ilan Stavans and Volker Harm starts with a survey on the history of German lexicography which, in a broader picture, is described as a process of emancipation from bilingual lexicography with Latin toward monolingual lexicography of German. The overview ranges from the glossaries of the Middle Ages, the sixteenth-century schoolmaster dictionaries of Dasypodius and Fries, the benchmark work of Adelung, to the monumental Deutsches Wörterbuch of the Brothers Grimm and their contemporaries, notably the dictionary of Daniel Sanders. It also includes a glimpse on recent online dictionaries such as DWDS, the Duden, and Wortgeschichte digital, the dictionary Harm is currently working on. The status of dictionaries in German culture, and especially the relation of Grimm’s dictionary toward its audience, is explored as well. Another focus is on the practice of dictionary-making. A brief insight is given into Harm’s work on several historical dictionaries – printed and online – his academic background, and what his motivation was to start with the very special job of a dictionary worker.

With over 6,000 languages spoken worldwide and a history of colonialism and nationalism, people commonly have proficiency in the indigenous language of a region or of a non-localized minority group (ethnic, religious, Deaf, etc.), as well as in a national language. Monolingual or multilingual, dictionaries are products of their sociolinguistic environment. Though dictionaries may be treated by the public as a way to make the language into a static, bounded entity, lexicographers must contend with a lack of clear boundaries as to where their object languages end, given that their language communities include multilingual speakers. Despite this widespread bilingualism, language contact has not been thoroughly treated in English-language literature on lexicography. This chapter synthesizes the different ways that language contact manifests itself through dictionaries. It demonstrates that the asymmetry between the social standing of languages in contact manifests itself in the production and composition of dictionaries. It explores the difficulties that come with establishing the boundaries of the object language, with particular attention to Creoles and signed languages. The chapter details the problems that such difficulties pose to dictionaries of foreignisms. We conclude with an exploration of how language contact can and should inform the future of dictionary creation.

Far from being cut-down versions of the adult form, children’s dictionaries constitute a distinct genre with their own history and methodology. The chapter charts their development, from Renaissance bilingual dictionaries to the present day, showing how they have evolved to reflect changing perceptions of childhood. It discusses the bewildering range of dictionaries now available for children as they progress from ABCs and picture dictionaries to those for school use and creative writing, including innovative subgenres based on fictional worlds and dictionaries supporting language revitalisation. Drawing on historical and contemporary examples, the chapter explores content and page design adapted to engage young readers. It considers how lexicographers aim to reflect the world as experienced by children, from the selection of headwords to the framing of definitions, using dedicated corpora and reading programmes. The tension between descriptive and prescriptive approaches is often acute in children’s dictionaries, for example over the inclusion of slang and taboo words, and lexicographers aim to balance young dictionary users’ needs against adult perceptions of what a children’s dictionary is for.

In early modern Europe, international communication in Latin was increasingly counterbalanced by the growth of language contact and exchange among Europeans who favoured the vernacular languages over the classical ones. Not surprisingly, this resulted in the production of dictionaries, initially bilingual and polyglot, and later monolingual, of a large number of languages. Given this context, this chapter studies how the English language and English lexicography were slowly involved in the development of the European tradition of dictionary-making. A number of polyglot, bilingual, and trilingual dictionaries are surveyed in order to show their reciprocal influences and the Continental impact on English dictionaries: in fact, polyglot dictionaries grew out of bilingual ones, bilingual dictionaries were made into trilingual ones, the wordlists of monolingual dictionaries were sometimes taken from bilingual ones, etc. It will also be shown how a few monolingual English dictionaries were related, directly or otherwise, to Continental sources. The chapter will finally focus on Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary in order to highlight how it was influenced by Continental models and how, in turn, it exerted its influence on European lexicography.