Every serious
student of a foreign language knows that stage of learning a language very well
when she has acquired a reasonable proficiency of the syntax and grammar of the
new language she is learning, but is yet to have command over a vocabulary
large enough for comfortably reading a newspaper article. The best friend of
the language learner at this stage of learning when she desperately needs to
add words and more words to her arsenal, is a thesaurus, preferably a bilingual
thesaurus, that deals with two languages, one of which the learner knows well.
But such a lexicon is a rarity and seldom found or discussed in the field of
lexicography.
For English-speaking learners
of the French language of the intermediate or advanced level, Marie Noëlle
Lamy’s The Cambridge French-EnglishThesaurus is an excellent handbook. This bilingual thesaurus
is arranged thematically with two alphabetical indexes: English-French and
French-English. The entries include not only words but analogous phrases and
expressions. A number of synonyms are included in each entry with their
translations which will give the user an idea of where to use them.
If you look up ‘wood’ in the
English-French index of this thesaurus, you’ll find two entries:
wood (forest) 18.8-18.9
wood (material) 26.3
The first group have words such
as forêt (forest), bois (wood), bosquet (grove)
under the heading Arbres
poussant ensemble (Trees growing together) as well as words
like bourgeon (bud), branche (branch), brindille (twig)
and tronc (trunk)
under the heading Parties
de l’arbre (Parts of trees).
In the second group under the
heading Matériaux (Materials),
you have bois (wood/timber), bois tendres (softwoods), bois durs (hardwoods).
These two entries illustrate
that the English ‘wood’ and the French ‘bois’ are not always equivalent in
meaning. Let’s consider a few simple examples of how a subtle distinction is
made between two words that mean almost the same:
habiter (to
live)
demeurrer [same
meaning as habiter but
more official term] (to reside)
AND
sauôl (drunk)
ivre [more
formal than sauôl] drunk
The thematic arrangement of the
words will help both the language student and the translator who appear
to be the target users of this book, to find words around an idea and discover
their subtle variations. This arrangement creates several layers of vocabulary
around an idea and the user can thus chose from a fairly large and flexible
stock of words and expressions. It is always easier to remember a new word in a
foreign language when you associate it with an idea. The entries also contain
idiomatic uses, metaphors, proverbs, famous quotations and usage notes,
although none of these are exhaustive.
Yet, with all its helpful
features, The Cambridge French-English
Thesaurus remains a limited resource. Simply, it leaves out
far too many words of both the languages. For example, you will find ‘wood’ and
‘bush’ but if you want to look up ‘thicket’ (fourré),
you won’t find it in the index. You won’t find Sylve (forest), or futaie (cluster
of tall trees) either.
This reviewer has no doubt that
the Cambridge University Press has the talent and the resources to make this
bilingual thesaurus a more thorough and inclusive tome in its future editions.
In its present form, it is an excellent lexicon for the English-speaking
learners of French but, if you are at an advanced level, you need to use it in
conjunction with a good French thesaurus like Larousse’s Le Dictionnaire des Synonymes et des Contraires or Le Robert’s Dictionnaire des
Synonymes, Nuances et Contraires and a good bilingual
dictionary (Oxford Harrap or Collins-Robert).
The conceptual world evolves
differently in different languages as a result of cultural and other
differences between two countries or two areas where the languages are used.
Marie Noëlle Lamy’s TheCambridge French-English Thesaurus makes an intelligent and
pioneering attempt to bridge that cultural gap. We will be happy to see more
such attempts in other languages too.
