Lexicographical online sources in the work of the translator from the Lithuanian language

Abstract

The use of lexicographic sources plays an important role in the professional training and professional activity of translators not only in Ukraine but also abroad. The object of the article are online tools that can be used when translating from Lithuanian into Ukrainian. The purpose of the study is to outline the advantages and disadvantages of such tools. To achieve this goal a functional research method was used.

The results of the study. Despite the development of information and communication technologies, it is currently impossible to perform a translation of high quality without human participation. The quality of machine translation also depends on the language pair, so the Lithuanian-Ukrainian translation has to use an intermediary language (English, Russian or Polish). The resource called “Dictionary of the Lithuanian language” (Lietuvių kalbos žodynas) appears to be most useful in such circumstances. It contains several sections, including bilingual dictionaries for 17 language pairs. Though they do not include Ukrainian, but they include all three intermediary languages mentioned. The advantage of the bilingual dictionary is the large number of entries and meanings (direct and figurative, as well as ones in different contexts and grammatical forms), special markings, etc., also the search for dictionary entries by means of the basic Roman characters. Disadvantages include the illogical way of formatting the text and the lack of a hyperlink system that would allow the user to quickly jump to any other entry without entering a query in the search bar, as well as searching only the basic grammatical word-form. Other sections of the Dictionary of the Lithuanian Language also have the online translator (based on Google Translate), the training subportal with a complex structure, the dictionaries of terms, spelling, word forms, synonyms and antonyms. Given the high degree of inflectedness of the Lithuanian language, the dictionary of word forms is important, for it comprises all grammatical forms of inflected Lithuanian words included in the bilingual dictionaries. In general, the advantages of the “Dictionary of the Lithuanian language” are accessibility and intuitive interface, and the disadvantages make a large number of advertisements and a monolingual interface. The perspective research is possible as empirical study of the considered and similar resources in the context of their use in translation and education.