The dominant narrative on the origins of English monolingual learners’ dictionaries (MLDs) attributes their development to the EFL teaching and research by West, Palmer and Hornby in the early twentieth century. To date, the pedagogical features of bilingual dictionaries and their value as precursors to learners’ dictionaries have been largely overlooked. In this study, we revisit the genesis of English MLDs by tracing some of their key design features in early pedagogical English-Japanese dictionaries. A historical overview reveals that Japanese bilingual lexicographers in the early twentieth century were already aware of learners’ needs in English production. Further evidential comparison is made between two archetypal examples of early pedagogical English-Japanese dictionaries and English MLDs: namely, Saito’s Jukugo-Hon’i Eiwa-Chu-Jiten (“Saito’s Idiomological English-Japanese Dictionary”) (1915) and Hornby’s Idiomatic and Syntactic English Dictionary (1942), respectively. The findings clearly demonstrate that the former has manifested in its entries information category (syntactical and phraseological) and manner of information presentation similar to those found in contemporary English MLDs. We argue that an embryonic form of English MLDs can be observed in those highly innovative early pedagogical English-Japanese dictionaries, and that the historical study of the origins of English MLDs should not ignore their pioneering efforts. This study can shed new light on the historical research on EFL dictionaries. These early Japanese lexicographical practices also offer plenty materials for reflection on contemporary bilingual learners’ dictionaries.

中文翻译：

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重新审视 EFL 词典编纂的起源：早期英日教育学词典的开创性努力


关于英语单语学习者词典 （MLD） 起源的主流叙述将其发展归因于 20 世纪初 West、Palmer 和 Hornby 的 EFL 教学和研究。迄今为止，双语词典的教学特征及其作为学习者词典前身的价值在很大程度上被忽视了。在这项研究中，我们通过追溯早期教学法英日词典中的一些关键设计特征，重新审视了英语 MLD 的起源。历史概述表明，20 世纪初的日本双语词典编纂者已经意识到学习者在英语生产中的需求。对早期教学英日词典和英语 MLD 的两个典型例子进行了进一步的证据比较：分别是斋藤的 Jukugo-Hon'i Eiwa-Chu-Jiten（“斋藤惯用语英日词典”）（1915 年）和霍恩比的惯用语和句法英语词典（1942 年）。研究结果清楚地表明，前者体现在其条目信息类别（句法和短语）和信息呈现方式上，类似于当代英语 MLD 中的那些。我们认为，在那些高度创新的早期教学法英日词典中可以观察到英语 MLD 的雏形，并且对英语 MLD 起源的历史研究不应忽视他们的开创性努力。这项研究可以为 EFL 词典的历史研究提供新的思路。这些早期的日语词典编纂实践也为反思当代双语学习者词典提供了大量材料。