Why dictionary articles not written in natural language are difficult to understand.

What is it about?

Most articles in printed dictionaries are written in an artificially condensed language to save space. There are various ways in which the text in articles can be condensed and some article are so condensed that it is very difficult if not impossible for users to properly understand what the dictionary is telling them. The result may be that the dictionary is useless or leads users astray. This paper discusses the different types of condensation and their effects.

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Why is it important?

The main findings are that printed monolingual German dictionaries use too much textual condensation and that this approach makes it difficult for users to understand what the dictionaries try to tell them. In other words, the information costs incurred when consulting the dictionaries are too high.