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《牛津高階英語(yǔ)詞典》（第8版）使用心得（ George Chen） 如果說(shuō)辭典界有什么事情發(fā)生，而可以稱得上是重大消息，OALD 推出新版絕對(duì)夠資格排得上前三名。學(xué)習(xí)型辭典在市場(chǎng)上的主流地位，任何新舊更替，必然引起話題，元老級(jí)的 OALD 新版上市，當(dāng)然更加受矚目。這些辭典的前世今生，我在過(guò)去談學(xué)習(xí)型辭典時(shí)，已著墨許多，這里就不再多談，有興趣的讀者不妨參考過(guò)去我談?wù)搶W(xué)習(xí)型辭典的文章，或者本文末尾，我所列的幾本參考書籍。 我直接進(jìn)入主題，先從印刷版的前后版比較起，距離上一版大約五年了，五年的時(shí)間醞釀一個(gè)新版，差不多是個(gè)恰當(dāng)?shù)臅r(shí)間。這次新版與舊版版面比較，差別不大， 新字增加這必然要有的。辭典封底的文字宣稱有 1000 new words and meanings，新字真的不是我很在意的部分，不過(guò)還是未能免俗，稍稍看一下，底下這些都是新加入的字：biofuel, malware, blogosphere, robocall, slow food, Skype, upsell, …我又從 Susie Dent 的 The Language Report 這本專聊新字的書找了一些，在這本 OALD8 里檢驗(yàn)。Family 與 friend 結(jié)合的 framily 沒(méi)有；已經(jīng)炒熱過(guò)不少新聞的 cyberbullying (網(wǎng)絡(luò)霸凌)，也找不到。elephant in the room 收進(jìn)來(lái)了，有異曲同工之妙的 moose on the table 還付諸闕如，可惜。botnet 收進(jìn)來(lái)了，卻沒(méi)有在 zombie 底下加上計(jì)算機(jī)相關(guān)的新定義，又是另一個(gè)可惜之處。新字是個(gè)永遠(yuǎn)填不滿的無(wú)底洞，所以新字的話題看看就好。 總頁(yè)數(shù) 1938，與舊本相比，多了 30余頁(yè)。二千頁(yè)差不多是辭典容納量的上限，再多，不易攜帶；再少，怕內(nèi)容單薄。除了幾本雙解辭典之外，英文學(xué)習(xí)型辭典差不多都是這等規(guī)模。有限的紙面空間，多了新數(shù)據(jù)，勢(shì)必在別的地方刪除相同份量的數(shù)據(jù)。所以，印刷版末尾處看到 Visual Vocabulary Builder Contents 變得充實(shí)，我們也大膽推估，其它必有別的數(shù)據(jù)被刪減了。 另外，紙本內(nèi)容多了 32頁(yè)的 Oxford Writing Tutor 是個(gè)不錯(cuò)的寫作指南。但要注意的是，那 32頁(yè)是一份導(dǎo)引，要讀過(guò)而能吸收，能發(fā)揮作用，學(xué)習(xí)者本身基礎(chǔ)不能太差，至少要有一定程度的閱讀資歷，或者已經(jīng)多多少少有寫作經(jīng)驗(yàn)。畢竟，那是規(guī)范、指南，只能引導(dǎo)，無(wú)法創(chuàng)造。這種英國(guó)式的規(guī)范，對(duì) IELTS 考試很有幫助。如果大家還記得，MED2 中間夾頁(yè)也有 50 頁(yè)的 Improve your writing Skills，兩者之間有部分觀念共通的地方，我建議有寫作需求者兩份資料都好好看過(guò)，特別是有學(xué)術(shù)性寫作需求的人。 常用字標(biāo)示，我常說(shuō) OALD7 雖然標(biāo)榜著 Oxford 3000 的基礎(chǔ)用字，這方面的研究，A S Hornby 確實(shí)也是少數(shù)的先驅(qū)者之一。但是辭典上的標(biāo)示，就只有鑰匙的符號(hào)標(biāo)注在那三千個(gè)字上，相較于 LDOCE5 分口語(yǔ)與書寫，又分一千到三千，OALD7 的做法顯得草率了些，OALD8 終于有了些改進(jìn)。三千個(gè)常用字，大多都是一字多義。一個(gè)字進(jìn)入了三千個(gè)常用字范圍內(nèi)，可能只是當(dāng)某幾個(gè)定義解釋時(shí)才是常用的，當(dāng)成其它意義時(shí)就不是。因此，OALD8 的常用字標(biāo)示直接深入到某個(gè)字的某個(gè)定義，學(xué)習(xí)者看到某個(gè)字是常用字，還要留意一下，到底當(dāng)哪個(gè)定義解釋時(shí)才算常用字。 我們來(lái)看光盤吧。就像前面說(shuō)的，紙版辭典要在有限的頁(yè)面空間塞進(jìn)夠多的信息，取與舍之間確實(shí)是很大的學(xué)問(wèn)。這陣子看了不少 B. T. Sue Atkins 與 Michael Rundell 合寫的 The Oxford Guide to Practical Lexicography (OGPL)，這本書詳細(xì)介紹了整本辭典編輯過(guò)程，從最開始的規(guī)劃，到語(yǔ)料庫(kù)的設(shè)置取樣，一直到編輯成書。其實(shí)，傳統(tǒng)辭典學(xué)算是成熟的，我們也從實(shí)際的印刷版成品看到，新觀念導(dǎo)入的幅度并不大。 然而，到了光盤則是一個(gè)大不相同的世界，很多傳統(tǒng)辭典學(xué)的觀念恐怕都要重新思考。至少，我看到很多可以改進(jìn)的空間。舉個(gè)最簡(jiǎn)單的現(xiàn)成例子讓大家看看，同樣是 Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th edition (COED11)，2004 年七月上市的 1.0，與 2009 年八月的 v2.0 比較，接口文字的安排新版退步了，一個(gè)很簡(jiǎn)單的要點(diǎn)：不同定義換行從頭寫起。OGPL 里強(qiáng)調(diào)過(guò)，但因紙版篇幅有限，無(wú)法讓每個(gè)新定義、新例句換行從頭寫。但是光盤呢？這樣的疏忽有點(diǎn)不可原諒。 未換行的老毛病，OALD7 照犯不誤，還好 OALD8 改過(guò)來(lái)了。另外一個(gè)鼠標(biāo)滾輪控制的問(wèn)題，最嚴(yán)重的時(shí)候，好幾套光盤軟件像得瘟疫一般，全部都碰不得滾輪，一碰立刻讓使用者迷失在字里行間。過(guò)去幾年來(lái)，新版一出，見(jiàn)到這問(wèn)題，我就連絡(luò)出版商；這幾家光牒辭典的共同軟件開發(fā)商，法國(guó) IDM 公司也被我煩過(guò)。如果這問(wèn)題再犯，那真的是不可原諒，不是疏忽而已，而是麻木。做好這些，頂多算是達(dá)到最基本的要求而已。 既然幾個(gè)老毛病都解決了，OALD8 光盤算得上完美嗎？很不幸，從使用者觀點(diǎn)來(lái)看，又出現(xiàn)了一個(gè)讓人很難接受的問(wèn)題點(diǎn) ── 字體。到目前為止，六套學(xué)習(xí)型辭典，OALD7, MED2, LDOCE5, Cobuild5, CALD3, MWALD，全部都用 Ariel 系列的字體，OALD8 卻突發(fā)奇想，采用了 Times Roman 系列字體，再加上例句以斜體字呈現(xiàn)，那真是大災(zāi)難，看看我取樣的畫面吧。我同時(shí)提供一個(gè) OALD7 的畫面，大家可以比較看看。 我補(bǔ)充一下，這里提供的 OALD7 接口是修改過(guò)的。最初的 OALD7 本來(lái)鼠標(biāo)滾輪完全無(wú)動(dòng)作，現(xiàn)已修改完成，而且右欄與上頭橫幅標(biāo)題都做成可開關(guān)的方式。接口簡(jiǎn)潔許多，雖然還沒(méi)做到該換行的地方換行，但是 Ariel 單線條字體，簡(jiǎn)勁清晰，看起來(lái)眼睛舒服多了。七版字體大小沒(méi)辦法記憶，每次開啟，都要先放大字體到適當(dāng)大小，只要關(guān)閉該軟件再重開，又要重新放大字體，這問(wèn)題八版倒是處理好了。 在這一版的光盤上，Dictionary 與 Cultural Guide (CG)融合得更緊密，這點(diǎn)值得嘉許。在 OALD7 上面查詢時(shí)，某些詞條其實(shí)已經(jīng)有 CG 的詳細(xì)內(nèi)容，但除非查詢者切換進(jìn)入CG，否則光在辭典部分查詢，看不到這些訊息。OALD8 將部份CG內(nèi)容直接融合進(jìn)辭典的收錄內(nèi)容，部分則提供類似網(wǎng)頁(yè)連結(jié)的方式將數(shù)據(jù)內(nèi)容呈現(xiàn)在右側(cè)動(dòng)態(tài)窗口里，使用者比較容易整合查詢。而且，舊版里 Cultural Guide 所收錄的條目都沒(méi)發(fā)音；新版除了與辭典整合更好之外，所有條目都提供了語(yǔ)音。 七版時(shí)，有好多字英式發(fā)音與美式發(fā)音的音量相差很大，這么明顯的缺失，讓人很懷疑七版的制作質(zhì)量。新的OALD8 發(fā)音質(zhì)量提升不少，英美發(fā)音音量差別的問(wèn)題幾乎聽不到了。經(jīng)過(guò)比對(duì)，八版的聲音檔案與 Oxford Collocation Dictionary, 2nd edition 這套辭典的語(yǔ)音檔案是同一套。七版里有很多附加詞條，如附加在 avenge 底下的 avenger；average 底下的 averagely，諸如此類，原本沒(méi)有語(yǔ)音可聽，八版都加上了。 2005 年七月 OALD7 上市時(shí)，我寫過(guò)使用心得，很多地方，我拿 OALD7 與 LDOCE4 比較。當(dāng)時(shí)我手上的 LDOCE4 是一片光盤的原始四版，其實(shí) 2005 年四月，兩片光盤的 LDOCE4v2 已經(jīng)上市，只是臺(tái)灣市場(chǎng)通路經(jīng)過(guò)刻意操作，這個(gè)版本遲了近一年才在臺(tái)灣上市。我的 LDOCE4v2 是 2006 年一月才從 Amazon UK 買進(jìn)，拿到手時(shí)才驚覺(jué)，LDOCE4v2 相對(duì)于 LDOCE4 的進(jìn)步幅度甚至超過(guò) Cobuild4 到 Cobuild5 的程度。 從 LDOCE4v2 到 LDOCE5 又是一個(gè)級(jí)距的進(jìn)步，朗文辭典近年的版本每一新版都有創(chuàng)舉，幾乎讓對(duì)手望塵莫及，整句發(fā)音的聲音檔案，至今無(wú)人能及。即使更入門等級(jí)的 Longman Active Study Dictionary, 5th edition (2010 年 2月出版)，也給了例句整句發(fā)音，而且相較于 LDOCE5，發(fā)音速度特地放慢，體貼初學(xué)者的用心令人佩服。 LDOCE5 的成就，成了許多光盤辭典的假想敵與追隨目標(biāo)，接下來(lái)一些使用上的觀點(diǎn)，多少會(huì)與 LDOCE5 比較。OALD8 整體而言，算是及格了，除了字體我一直有適應(yīng)上的困難外，整體版面編排還是不夠好。正常的畫面兩欄顯示，右側(cè)可以再開出一欄，機(jī)動(dòng)顯示「字源」、「動(dòng)詞變 化型」、「外加例句」、thesaurus 等等的資料。右側(cè)字段的寬度是可調(diào)的。LDOCE5 最初版本也是右欄與上列橫幅占據(jù)太大空間，經(jīng)過(guò)網(wǎng)友修改，同時(shí)改正鼠標(biāo)滾輪問(wèn)題，已經(jīng)從 70分提升到 90分了。 我個(gè)人強(qiáng)烈建議，所有使用 LDOCE5 的人都下載修正程序，把接口改一改會(huì)更好用。本文里，如果提到 OALD8 與 LDOCE5 比較，我都是拿修正過(guò)的 LDOCE5 當(dāng)比較對(duì)象。從 OALD7 到 OALD8 定義與例句已能分行處理，值得鼓勵(lì)；然而，英國(guó)發(fā)音、美國(guó)發(fā)音、VERB FORMS, WORD ORIGIN, THESAURUS, EXAMPLE BANK 都獨(dú)列成一行，而把定義、例句這些「本文」擠到下面，這顯然也是另一項(xiàng)缺失。 VERB FORMS, WORD ORIGIN 這類的「補(bǔ)充訊息」模仿網(wǎng)頁(yè)連結(jié)的方式，點(diǎn)選了就打開右欄，讓數(shù)據(jù)出現(xiàn)在那里。但是這「啟動(dòng)連結(jié)」貫穿整個(gè)橫向空間，很多時(shí)候，我并不想打開右欄看數(shù)據(jù)，卻因?yàn)椴恍⌒狞c(diǎn)了鼠標(biāo)左鍵，右欄于是打開，這設(shè)計(jì)真的讓人很煩。這些排列與啟動(dòng)連結(jié)問(wèn)題，再加上字體問(wèn)題，都留下許多可以改進(jìn)的空間。 OALD8 的問(wèn)題還有哪些呢？Guide word 標(biāo)示不夠顯眼，牛津辭典稱之為 Short cuts，也就是一字多義的詞條，為了讓各個(gè)定義的「大意」搶先曝光而給的簡(jiǎn)短說(shuō)明。LDOCE5 深藍(lán)色底白色字，非常顯眼，另外還在詞條標(biāo)題底下設(shè)置一個(gè) Menu，可以點(diǎn)選把 Guide word 呈現(xiàn)在另一個(gè)彈出式窗口。MED2 也是把 Guide word 提列到最前面的 Menu里。這些的設(shè)置，都是為了讓查詢者在最短時(shí)間搜尋到他想要找的數(shù)據(jù)，頁(yè)面的導(dǎo)覽便利度也增強(qiáng)許多。 看看這樣的句子：Now, as the Yankees take the field in their showdown with the Cubs, the crowd boos Ruth. 我想問(wèn)的是 take the field 是什么意思？如果你進(jìn)入 take 里面找，從頭看到尾要花多久時(shí)間？最后發(fā)現(xiàn) take 里沒(méi)有相關(guān)資料，又改到 field 里找，再一次從頭看下來(lái)，全部要花多少時(shí)間？如果查詢的是紙版辭典，標(biāo)準(zhǔn)查詢程序是這樣沒(méi)錯(cuò)。但是使用光盤辭典，必須要有完全不同的思維，簡(jiǎn)單來(lái)講，接口的設(shè)計(jì)要做到十秒鐘之內(nèi)讓查詢者知道這本辭典有或沒(méi)有收錄，有的話，讓眼睛能看到那筆資料。 就上面這樣的查詢需求而言，從 OALD7 到 OALD8 都是相對(duì)比較弱的，也就是，在辭典里把想要的數(shù)據(jù)找到，要花比較長(zhǎng)的時(shí)間。要達(dá)到快速查詢這樣的目的，得靠辭典設(shè)計(jì)方與使用方共同努力。比較高階的辭典，像 SOED6, OED2v4 都有設(shè)置 Find in entry 的搜尋框，讓查詢者在打開的詞條訊息里迅速找到想找的數(shù)據(jù)。 搜尋能力從七版到八版明顯退步了，尤其詞組搜尋，舉例講，查詢 beef up, root out, hunt down，OALD8 完全沒(méi)有反應(yīng)，但這些在 OALD7 上面很快可以查得到，其它像 LDOCE5, MED2, CALD3 這幾套光盤辭典，也都可以很快查到。另外幾個(gè)查詢，OALD8 的反應(yīng)是這樣的，查 call for，出現(xiàn) call 當(dāng)動(dòng)詞的內(nèi)容，call for 在哪里？查詢者得自己接下去用眼睛搜尋；查詢 carry out，出現(xiàn) carry-out，如果要找到正確的 carry out，必須查 carry 當(dāng)動(dòng)詞的用法，然后再卷動(dòng)文字用眼睛搜尋；查詢 face the music，OALD8 會(huì)帶你到 face 當(dāng)動(dòng)詞的地方，然后還是一樣，查詢者自己接下去找。 上面這些問(wèn)題，OALD7 都可以立即而精確查出想要的內(nèi)容，OALD8 卻是往后倒退一大步。其它幾套光盤辭典應(yīng)付類似的查詢，表現(xiàn)得都還不錯(cuò)，別套光盤辭典五秒鐘能解決的，到這新版，三分鐘未必可以找到正確數(shù)據(jù)。光盤版的辭典，出現(xiàn)這種問(wèn)題，不是新聞，我個(gè)人十多年來(lái)的觀察，不斷在印證這樣的歷史，新功能、好功能來(lái)來(lái)去去。這一版不錯(cuò)，完全不能保證下一版還會(huì)不錯(cuò)。 LDOCE5 加入許多 Collocations, thesaurus, phrase bank, example bank 這些紙本所沒(méi)有的資料，算是掌握了光盤的優(yōu)點(diǎn)而能充分發(fā)揮。OALD8 與 OALD7 最明顯的差別，也是這些外加數(shù)據(jù)，我們深入內(nèi)容來(lái)看看吧。Example bank 給的是額外的例句，這部分改進(jìn)了不少，舉例講，vow 這個(gè)字，OALD7 只給三個(gè)算是 collocation 的組合，而且不分名詞與動(dòng)詞的差別。八版則分別針對(duì)名詞與動(dòng)詞給外加例句，其它字詞所添加的額外例句增加了不少。整體而言，例句增加的數(shù)量不少。但即使這樣，也才差不多拉近與 LDOCE5 的差距。 二百多組的 synonym 提供同義字與字詞辨正數(shù)據(jù)，一組字如果包含五到六個(gè)字，那么總共有大約一千余字含括在 synonym 的討論范圍內(nèi)。thesaurus 的數(shù)據(jù)有點(diǎn)類似 synonym，只是字詞辨正的深度降低許多，大部分只以列舉的方式提供同義字。 Collocations 該給的是搭配數(shù)據(jù)，所謂的搭配，OCD2 已經(jīng)提供了非常多的現(xiàn)成用例，以 sense 這個(gè)字為例，與動(dòng)詞搭配可以有 have ~, lose ~, heighten ~, sharpen ~ 等好多組合，搭配形容詞可以有 acute ~, developed ~, keen ~ … 等等的組合 (以上這些取材自 OCD2)?？墒窃?OALD8 底下，找到 sense 這個(gè)字時(shí)，發(fā)現(xiàn)它竟然沒(méi)有提供 collocations 的外加資料，但有 thesaurus。打開 thesaurus 資料看，卻看到了 a strong sense/feeling /impression/idea/sensation，也有 get/give sb/leave sb with/convey a/an sense/feeling/impression/idea。部分屬于搭配的訊息，其實(shí)是藏在 thesaurus 里。 我們看看有提供 collocations 數(shù)據(jù)的詞條，內(nèi)容整理的如何。依據(jù)印刷版書末附錄 R18 頁(yè)的記載，全書只提供了 43 個(gè) collocations 數(shù)據(jù)。我找到一筆附有 collocations 數(shù)據(jù)的詞條：crime，打開一看。 無(wú)論怎么看，都好像比較接近「主題式 thesaurus」的編排方式，而不是像 OCD2 呈現(xiàn)的數(shù)據(jù)那樣。 整體的感覺(jué)，synonym, thesaurus, collocations 這些資料，在OALD8 里出現(xiàn)了混雜交錯(cuò)的問(wèn)題，同時(shí)也有涵蓋性不足的疑慮。相形之下，LDOCE5 的針對(duì)性精準(zhǔn)多了，涵蓋面也更廣泛。當(dāng)然，拿 OALD8 比較 MED2, CLAD3, Cobuild5, MWALD 等幾套，表現(xiàn)并不算太差。 其它更多的功能，iWriter 是一套交互式的寫作練習(xí)工具，紙版里給了 Writing Tutor，讓學(xué)習(xí)者讀過(guò)后，到這里來(lái)搭配辭典內(nèi)容演練寫作。Visual vocabulary builder 則打散成更小單元，當(dāng)查詢到影像里的某個(gè)關(guān)鍵詞時(shí)，整幅影像就會(huì)跟著出現(xiàn)。 My topics 是個(gè)主題式的分類辭典，350 個(gè)小主題收納在 15個(gè)大主題里。這種分類方式，大致遵循 Peter Mark Roget 在 1852 年建構(gòu) thesaurus 的原始構(gòu)想，目前，CALD3 的 Smart thesaurus 架構(gòu)就與這里的很接近。 Advanced search 只提供最基本的功能，沒(méi)有 lemmatization 處理，查詢的結(jié)果也沒(méi)有色彩強(qiáng)化顯示。這項(xiàng)查詢?cè)?LDOCE4v2 里曾經(jīng)曇花一現(xiàn)，有過(guò)極佳的表現(xiàn)。但是就如前面提過(guò)的，好的功能、優(yōu)秀的功能來(lái)來(lái)去去，就是這么一回事。 整體而言，OALD8 的企圖心看得到，只可惜，在這零零星星的外加數(shù)據(jù)里還看不到完整性，前后相比，遺失的搜尋功能可能還更致命。我很想提醒，LDOCE5 整合了另一本一千五百多頁(yè)的 Longman Language Activator, 2nd edition，單獨(dú)來(lái)看，LLA2 已經(jīng)是一本相當(dāng)實(shí)用的工具書，與辭典整合在一張光盤，其所發(fā)揮的功能不只是一加一等于二，而是超過(guò)二。 Oxford 有 Learner’s Thesaurus，還有 Collocations Dictionary, 2nd edition，這兩本都極優(yōu)秀，任何一本整合進(jìn) OALD 都可以發(fā)揮一加一大于二的效果，這是 OUP 市場(chǎng)與企劃部門必須思考的問(wèn)題，以現(xiàn)在的方式，零星添加額外數(shù)據(jù)，恐難展現(xiàn)整體實(shí)用性。Longman 做得到，OUP 應(yīng)該也能做得到。 幾位網(wǎng)友提到售價(jià)，我在臺(tái)南敦煌也看到了，精裝本 NT$ 1,750，平裝本 NT$ 1,250。其它競(jìng)爭(zhēng)產(chǎn)品市價(jià)如何，出版社原始定價(jià)多少，這些都不難比較。 后記： 感謝牛津大學(xué)出版社臺(tái)灣分公司贈(zèng)書，讓我在第一時(shí)間能夠先睹為快。 附注： 推薦參考書籍： 關(guān)于辭典歷史與學(xué)習(xí)型辭典的參考書有： 1. English Dictionaries for Foreign Learners, A History, by A. P. Cowie 2. Dictionaries, The Art and Craft of Lexicography, 2nd edition, by Sidney I. Landau 關(guān)于辭典編輯的參考書籍： The Oxford Guide to Practical Lexicography, by B. T. Sue Atkins and Michael Rundell A Review of OALD8 by George Chen Wed Apr 07, 2010 1:55 pm If there is one event in lexicography history that can draw special attention, a new edition of Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary may well top the list. This review is not to focus too much on the history of learners dictionaries, though this is virtually the mainstream category in dictionary market. For anyone who is interested in how learners dictionaries evolve, a list of recommended references at the end of this article will meet your need. This review will compare OALD8 with many of its competitors such as, LDOCE5, MED2, CALD3, Cobuild5, MWALD, and even with its own predecessor. If necessary, non-EFL dictionaries will also be mentioned. Nearly five years have passed since the release of its predecessor, OALD7. In view of the intervals at which similar products update their products, five years are adequate for a new edition to be well prepared. Taking a closer look at the print version, one can hardly find obvious changes. According to the messages on back cover, 1000 new words and meanings have been added. We do see the following words show up in this edition: biofuel, malware, blogosphere, robocall, slow food, Skype, upsell, ... I chose a few words from The Language Report, edited by Susie Dent, and looked them up in OALD8. The interesting results were that "Carbon allowances" could not be found. "Cyberbullying", the issue that had hit the headlines from time to time, was not there either. Its good to see "elephant in the room" was included; however, "moose on the table" was still missing. No computing-related meaning was appended to "zombie", though "botnet" has been covered. However, in general, no need to be serious about new word topic, which is promotional hype in a way. This new edition has 1938 pages in total, a gain of over 30 pages in contrast to OALD7. A 32-page Oxford Writing Tutor is new to OALD8, from which learners of academic and formal writing can benefit greatly. I would recommend learners of writing should not forget another helpful guide, Improve your Writing Skills, in the middle of MED2. Oxford 3000 is the most important keywords from a foreign learners perspectives. Any headword of Oxford 3000 is shown with a key symbol following. It has been the best way OALD addressed word frequency until the 7th edition. In contrast, MED2 marks its frequent words with one to three stars; LDOCE5 highlights its frequency by using W and S to indicate written and spoken situation respectively, and 1 to 3 to indicate frequency range from 1000 to 3000. OALD7 appears to be the least accurate in marking word frequency. Now in OALD8, the key symbol goes into specific definitions, within polysemous entries, to mark the important ones. Lets take a look at the CD-ROM. As B. T. Sue Atkins and Michael Rundell have stated in The Oxford Guide to Practical Lexicography (OGPL), there is always the difficulty to cram more information into limited page space. Thats true. We can see by viewing the current dictionaries in the past few years that new ideas introduced to their print versions are rare. The world of paper dictionary is relatively mature in terms of modern lexicography. However, it is a totally different story when it comes to CD-ROM dictionaries. Many of the lexicographic concepts have to be reviewed and reinforced. A rule Michael Rundell stresses in OGPL says "Another option is to begin the description of each new sense on a new line. This is appealing: the page looks less cluttered and users find it easier to locate the meaning they want. But it all takes up space, and that means a reduction in the amount of information that can be included." Anyone can easily understand editors concern over a paper dictionary. A good example illustrates how careless editors made dictionaries. Here are two screenshots of Concise Oxford English Dictionary, v1.0, date of release: July 2004, and v2.0, date of release: August 2009. The good rule has been completely forgotten. Luckily, OALD8 even starts its examples on new lines, which was still not seen in OALD7, and even better the wheel on mouse is functioning well. Mouse wheel problem has been so tricky that epidemic is not an exaggerated term for it since most CD-ROM dictionaries suffered from it more or less for a long time. In OALD7, mouse wheel is not working at all. Even this function is revived, it just live up to the basic requirement. With the relief of the persistent problems, one might think OALD8 may be a perfect version. Just read on for more details. Among all six players in learners dictionary market, Arial font is used in most places to display the major contents, while this new version uses Times Roman font. It is really a disaster on seeing the examples displayed in italics. The two screenshots of OALD7 and OALD8 will show you the fact. The OALD7 screenshot shown here is a modified edition, in which top banner and right column are customizable. One can switch them on or off by clicking on the options at the top right corner. In addition to this, mouse wheel function has been restored. The thin-and-single-lined characteristic of Arial font make the whole typeface neat and pleasant to vision. In contrast, Times Roman font tends to be bulky and vague, not easy for eyes to tell the words. Times Roman font may be fine in paper version; however, computer screen displays any font and image in dot-matrix format. Reading the content of an entry on OALD7, a user will never know there may be related information in Cultural Guide. Now on OALD8, CG section is better integrated with dictionary. Some entries of CG are listed in alphabetical order with dictionary ones, some are displayed in right panel by clicking on CULTURE links. For quite a few entries, on OALD7, the problem of unequal volume between British and American pronunciations was easily noted. OALD8 has fixed these faults. More audio has been added to CG entries and most run ons in dictionary. Few can deny the fact that LDOCE5 enjoys an immense popularity among learners communities. From LDOCE4 to LDCOE4v2, and then to LDOCE5, each update demonstrated a great leap. The full-sentence audio, thesaurus, collocations, register remark, all contribute to its success, and makes it the archrival of all competitors. Given the ambition OALD8 has had, I will compare more features between the two. One thing worth mentioning is that the original LDOCE5 user interface is far from perfect. Someone has modified and improved it greatly. The major improvements are mouse wheel function repair, right panel hiding, and top banner hiding, to name a few. What OALD8 is to challenge is the modified LDOCE5. Though OALD8 remembers to start new examples from new lines, the British pronunciation, NAmE pronunciation, Verb form, Word origin, Thesaurus, Example bank, etc also take up a single line. With these hyperlink-like information wedged in between headword and definition, the contents look very scattered. Even worse, the area on which each hyperlink-like information can be clicked to trigger extra data display extends throughout horizontally. In normal operation, I keep clicking on these links mistakenly and open the dynamic right panel. What an annoying design! There are more to be desired with OALD8. The guide word, short cut as is named in OALD8, is not eye-catching enough. Just take a look at how LDOCE5 deal with it. Bright blue shading and white words in block capitals. In addition to this, a Menu link is ready to show a list in a pop-up windows. MED2 provides a Menu right below polysemous headwords to show guide words. Guide word is such a smart mechanism that can help dictionary user spot the information s/he wants in a shortest time. Lets look at a sentence like this: Now, as the Yankees take the field in their showdown with the Cubs, the crowd boos Ruth. A learner may want to know what "take the field" means. S/he is likely to browse all the contents under the headword "take", and fails to find a good match. Then s/he turns to the contents under "field". All this is a standard procedure in paper dictionary scenario. However, learners nowadays will never do it like this. The design of a CD-ROM dictionary is to fulfill this kind of search requirement. In other words, for any search, a good CD-ROM dictionary is supposed to let user know whether the word or phrase in search of is included or not. If yes, let user spot the information. And this task has to be done within 10 seconds. Given the tough search requirement, OALD7 and OALD8 are relatively less powerful. That is to say, one tends to spend more time to locate the word or phrase s/he is looking for in OALD7 and OALD8. It is sad to discover that OALD8 is even less powerful than its predecessor for certain searches. Take the following searches for example. What do the following phrases mean: "beef up", "root out", "hunt down"? OALD8 replies with zero result in response to the searches like these. Thus the software looks idle when these phrases are keyed in for search. All the other dictionaries, even OALD7, can deal with these searches very well. More phrases are used to test the power of OALD8, and the results are as follows: the response to the check "call for" brings user to verb section of "call." Where is "call for"? User can only browse for it with eyes. What about the search for "carry out"? OALD8 shows us "carry-out". To find "carry out", user has to search "carry", and browse down, searching for "carry out" with eyes. Another search is for "face the music". OALD8 spots the verb section of "face". Likewise, users eyes have to take over the rest of the task. Whats wrong with OALD8? Other dictionaries are doing very well and react quickly to these searches. OALD8 may take user more than 3 minutes on a task that can be completed not more than 10 seconds on other CD-ROMs. Anyone who is new to CD-ROM dictionaries could be a little shocked on finding the flaw like this. However, what happens here is just the history repeating itself. The aforementioned "begin the description of each new sense on a new line" is just another vivid example. And we will have more in the following paragraphs. On LDOCE5 CD-ROM, collocations, thesaurus, phrase bank, and example bank are added to demonstrate the large capacity of the electronic media. LDOCE5 even stores its data on a DVD-ROM, which is 6 or 7 times the capacity of a CD-ROM. In recent years, more and more dictionaries provide extra data on CD-ROM. Some have substantially boosted the overall value, some have not. The key points are that how good the data are? How they are organized? How can they be searched? MED2 provides thesaurus, but not good enough. CALD3 offers Extra Examples, SMART thesaurus. Cobuild5 comes with a mini corpus, WordBank, which looks terribly chaotic, but proves extremely helpful since it is covered by full-text search. Most extra data on LDOCE5 DVD-ROM are useful, well organized, and friendly to search. OALD8 may have borne this target in mind in the process of revision. Lets take a look at how good they are. Example bank does contain more sentences than it did on OALD7. It is a vast improvement, but may just be enough to catch up with LDOCE5. Synonym section on OALD8 provides words of similar meanings in groups and explains the subtle nuances of meanings among words. The format of this section is very close to that of Oxford Learners Thesaurus. But there is thesaurus section on OALD8. What does this section provide? The words of close meanings are given in series, with related words showing up together. One might think they mix the functions of thesaurus and collocation. Two screenshots here show you why. Screenshot1, screenshot2. What do collocations data look like? Oxford Collocations Dictionary, 2nd edition may have demonstrated quite a few typical examples. When one checks "sense" in OCD2, s/he will see: have ~, lose ~, heighten ~, sharpen ~, ... (collocations with verb) acute ~, developed ~, keen ~, .... (collocations with adjective) One may be surprised to find there is no collocation information under the headword "sense" on OALD8. Instead, there is the