De svenska LEXIN-ordböckerna ur ett (ställföreträdande) användarperspektiv

Abstract

Four dictionaries in the 'Lexin' series of 'immigrants' dictionaries' are investigated
from a user's point of view: the monolingual Svenska ord ('Swedish words', originally
with 17.000 lemmas), and the bilingual Swedish-Serbocroatian dictionary
(with 17.000 lemmas) and the Swedish-Somali and Swedish-Vietnamese dictionaries
(with 5.000 lemmas). It is claimed that the two bigger dictionaries constitute
excellent pieces of lexicographic work, while the smaller dictonaries suffer from
serious deficiencies. These two dictionaries are based on an abridged version of
Svenska ord, but the abridgement has not been performed in a professional way. It
is proposed that future bilingual lexin dictionaries should be produced by target
language experts in cooperation with the authors of Svenska ord. Also, the idea of a
special category named 'immigrants' dictionaries' is questioned. Basically, the principles
underlying work on dictionaries for immigrants are the same as the standard
principles underlying all work on bilingual dictionaries.