Evolution of English-Persian general dictionaries A study of microstructure

The historical background of bilingual English-Persian general dictionaries in Iran has been started from more than two centuries ago. Earlier English-Persian dictionaries were published overseas out of the mainland of Iran, in England, especially in London and Oxford (e.g. J. Richardson 1871 -oxford) and then these efforts continued in Iran too (e.g. Farhad Mirza 1766- Tehran).Primer English-Persian dictionaries are subject-based references in the form of glossaries with translating purposes. But in the past 71 years, along with introducing linguistics as a science in Iran; and in the few recent years with lexicographical theories and modern lexicological aspects, a revolution occurs in creating these dictionaries in user-based form for meeting the educational needs of users. In the information age, there are more needs to more extended data of a word. In the past, these needs were limited to provide the equivalence, but now many types of data which are formed in a systematic structure are needed. So the microstructure of recent dictionaries have changed, base on lexicological aspects and lexicographical methods, to provide these modern needs in the modern era. In this research, the evolution in microstructure of English-Persian dictionaries is studied. The analysis of microstructure can indicate what types of data provided for an entry and what the systematic forms of this providing are used. This research is a case study that has a closer look to the pioneer dictionaries that was the origin of innovating and changing the trend of bilingual English-Persian lexicography.

Keywords:

bilingual English-Persian general dictionary , data information , lexicography , microstructure