The old favourite. But ask your friendly layman what sort of dictionaries, and you'll most likely be faced with the blank look again.
By and large, most translators will use large mono-lingual dictionaries
for their source languages. Examples of these are the Duden Deutsches Universal
Wörterbuch or Wahrig Deutsches Wörterbuch for German, or the Petit
Robert for French. In addition, most translators into English would say that no
office is complete without a good English monolingual.
This is where it
gets really complicated. Whereas with French and German, there are fairly
strictly organised bodies that control the language, in the Académie
Française and Duden, English is basically a law unto itself. There are,
of course, a few definite “authorities”, but, nevertheless,
differences are bound to arise. In Britain, many translators like the Collins
monolingual dictionary, which has recently been published in a
“Millennium” edition. This dictionary looks at the language primarily
from a British perspective, but also signals usage from Australia, South
Africa, New Zealand, Canada and the USA. The New Shorter Oxford English
Dictionary, which comes in two volumes or on CD-ROM is a more traditional
dictionary, with less emphasis on language use outside the UK. When dealing
with US English, translators are more likely to plump for an American
dictionary, such as the Random House, or Merriam-Webster.
In addition to
mono-lingual dictionaries, many translators will refer to manuals of style and
usage – or style guides. These range from the authoritative
Oxford-published “Fowler’s”, through the Duden series of
manuals, that includes volumes such as “Richtiges und gutes Deutsch”
and the “Stilwörterbuch”, to guides on writing “Western
European English”.
Especially during their formative years, many translators will also use general bilingual dictionaries. In this area. at least as far as English and most Western European languages are concerned, the translator has two options – Collins or Oxford. The dictionaries are usually compiled in collaboration with a foreign publishing house, so that Collins-Robert is a favourite French dictionary, whilst its German counterpart is the Collins-Pons. Translators who work in a specific area, such as Finance, or Automotive Engineering, will often use specialist bi- or multi-lingual dictionaries. One popular example is the Schaefer German-English “Wirtschaftswörterbuch”, which has just be republished in its sixth edition (an English-German volume is also available). Other specialist bilingual dictionaries include publications from specific international organisations, such the glossaries of the European Union.
Finally, many translators will have at their disposal a small library of tried and trusted reference works, such as encyclopaediae, dictionaries of quotations, dictionaries of literature, surveys of popular culture and much more besides. These references are often spotted in second-hand bookstores, or at car boot sales, and purchased “just in case”, but can be just as useful as a more mainstream dictionary.