Dictionary Quality and Dictionary Design: A Methodology for Improving the Functional Quality of Dictionaries

Although recent dictionaries for the ESL market have been praised for their innovative design features, the prime concern of users, lexicographers and metalexicographers is the functional quality of the dictionary products provided for the market. The functional quality of dictionaries and the scientific assessment thereof forms the topic of this paper. The functional quality of dictionaries is defined in section 2. In section 3 the current methodological approach to assessing the functional quality of texts in the fields of web design, instructional design and document design is discussed and its relevance for dictionary design is indicated. Section 4 explicates in more detail how this methodology can be used to design functional dictionaries and to assess the functional quality of the design features of existing dictionaries.