Collins Cobuild Advanced Learners English Dictionary +CD

Collins Cobuild Advanced Learners English Dictionary

The new edition of the dictionary is also available on CD-ROM. It is difficult to say whether the electronic dictionary will ever replace our familiar paper dictionaries; for a quick check on a meaning or usage a paper dictionary on your desk is simple and final, while the electronic version has a flexibility that the paper one cannot compete with. I would urge you to try out the electronic Cobuild, because when you become familiar with its structure and what it can do, you will find it very easy to consult, and you will be able to flick from place to place and reorganize the information in all sorts of ways.

The basis for the authority of Cobuild is the Bank of English, still the largest collection of data of its kind in any language, and now containing 520,000,000 words. Decisions about which words to include as headwords in the dictionary, which meanings to draw attention to, which phrases to recognize as settled expressions in the language, and many other issues, are directly informed by the Bank of English. The regular updating of this corpus ensures that this edition is up-to-date; new words and phrases constantly creep into the language, and sometimes establish themselves quickly, so the lexicographers keep a careful watch for them.

All the examples in this book are quoted from the rich selection that the corpus offers, and normally they are printed exactly as they occur in the text. In the choice of examples, we pay careful attention to collocation - the significant co-occurrence of words - so that the examples are not only natural forms of expression, but also are reliable models of usage. Important collocations are also highlighted in the definitions, giving help with set lexical and grammatical patterns.