Reviewed by Jyh Wee Sew: Collins Easy Learning Dictionary: English-Malay Malay-English

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Collins Easy Learning Dictionary: English-Malay Malay-English.

Glasgow: HarperCollins Publishing. 2005. 1091 pp.
Reviewed by Jyh Wee Sew
The editorial consultant of this dictionary is Nigel Phillips while the editorial team
comprises Tan Ling Ling, Azlina Musa, and Maggie Seaton. This dictionary contains
select usage of grammatical features. It is pointed out that a one-to-one equivalent is
not the communicative norm in cross-referencing between languages. Following the
first section there is the English-Malay dictionary, which runs into more than 500
pages. The layout is such that an entry of English is categorised according to its part
of speech: each entry of the English lexical bases is followed by the Malay equivalent.
An English phrasal construction of the word is provided and the Malay equivalent of
the construction completes the dictionary entry. In the case of polysemy, different
meanings of a particular word are identified and explained. Similarly, each denotation
is complemented with an example of English usage and it is followed by its Malay
translation. This structure is useful to enable learners to recognise the Malay meaning
of the English word and at the same time verify its usage in both languages. A few
Malay terms found their way into the entries of English lexicon, namely batik (p. 49-
50), sarong and sate (p. 396). There is no entry of amuck (uncontrollable), kampong
(village) and raja (king). These terms might be peculiar to the varieties of English in
Southeast Asia, particularly in the former colonial states of English empire. Hurricane
is glossed as ribut taufan in Malay (p. 226) but the impact of the Malay meaning
seems less severe in comparison to tsunami, which struck the Malay Archipelago and
left an incredible impact to the Malay peoples on 26 December 2004.
Grammar points on English usage are also present (527 -561). In comparison,
they are nearly three times more than those of Malay. The Malay-English section
provides an additional 523 pages. A caution in the first section includes the need to
select the accurate denotation for a particular word: presenting the varying meanings
of a word, first, provides clarity to the basis underlying the structural categorisation of
multiple meanings in a word.
Malay polysemy is a natural semantic outcome due to affixation. The meanings
of berada, i.e., the affixation of ada (to have) with the intransitive affix ber- is
captured in examples like She was here yesterday (Dia berada di sini kelmarin) and
My grandparents were quite well-off (Datuk dan nenek saya agak berada p. 564, my
emphases). However, only the former of the two meanings, i.e., to be is singled out as
the semantic equivalent for berada in the dictionary. The Malay word main (play) has
a list of meanings derived. For example, the nominal derivations of game (permainan)
and toy (mainan) from the verb play (main) in Malay are good entries that might not
be discernible to younger native speakers, who prefer English to Malay as the main
medium of verbal communication. Additional elaboration could differentiate bermain
a playing act from bermain-main a playful act. The reduplication of bermain implies
triviality and aimlessness in a progressive manner (Sew 2007).
Partially reduplicated terms are a result of the Malay language engineering
effort since 1980s. Some of such more up-to-date terms are captured in the dictionary
(p. 1044) with entries like tetikus (mouse for computer), tetingkap (window for
computer), and tetua (freckles). All these terms are glossed as kata nama (noun),
while they could be further classified as kata nama berganda (reduplicated noun).
New terms that could be included in the next edition would be sesawang (pop-ups on
internet, sawang in Malay refers to cob-web), lelaman (websites, although laman as a
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term for homepage is registered in the dictionary, p. 820). While pawagam

(panggung wayang gambar) the Malay acronym for cinema is recorded jabanah
(jambatan bawah tanah) the acronym for tunnel is yet to find its way into the
dictionary.
A shaded section is created in the dictionary to supply information on
ambiguous entries that either do not have an equivalent or reflect different meanings
in different syntactic constructions. This welcome feature of the dictionary as the
complexity of Malay lexicon is teased out for users, who might be perplexed with the
idiomatic usage of certain words. In one of the shaded explanations, papan is
associated with the classifying of firecracker (mercun) in Malay. An additional
reference associated with papan in noun classification is petai (smelly beans, a
vegetable known to curb high blood pressure). Incidentally, there is no entry of petai
in the dictionary. While belacan (shrimp paste) and roti (bread) are included there is
no mention of rojak (a sweet sour mound of Malay salad). The lacking in food terms
that coloured Malay culture could be further expanded in the second edition of this
dictionary. The original sound symbolic Malay reduplicated lexical freezes are
preserved in the dictionary. Some of the chiming and rhyming Malay lexical freezes
listed are geli-geleman (revolted, p. 692), gerak-geri (movements, p. 697), tergopoh-
gapah (hurriedly p. 704), gotong-royong (co-operative effort p. 705) and gunung-
ganang (mountain range p. 709; see Sew 2005 on the iconicity of these lexical
freezes). The parameter that delimits complex Malay idioms in the dictionary
regulates the scope of explication. There is no inclusion of Malay proverb beyond
basic collocations that have become lexicalised in the Malay lexicon. An additional
strength of this dictionary is its simplicity. It avoids cramming historical and cultural
details in the explanation of Malay words (cf. Sew 2006). This gives users a direct
access to the Malay and English denotations of either English or Malay words. The
layout is pleasing to the eyes with perceptible structuring that uphold comprehension.
This volume should be part of the collection in all major libraries and centres of
Southeast Asian Studies.
References
Sew, Jyh Wee. 2007. Reduplicating Nouns and Verbs in Malay: A Conceptual
Analysis. Kuala Lumpur: University Malaya Press.
Sew, Jyh Wee. 2006. Review of Susan Keeney, Kit Leee, Hassan Md. Ali et al., &
Asmah Hj. Omar. California Linguistic Notes 31: 1-25.
Sew, Jyh Wee. 2005. Iconicity. In Philipp Strazny (ed.), The Encyclopedia of Linguistics
Vol. 1. New York: Routledge. 487-488
Reviewer's address
Jyh Wee Sew

Centre for Language Studies
National University of Singapore
9 Arts Link, AS4 02-05
Singapore 117570
[email protected]
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About the reviewer
Jyh Wee Sew has a double-major degree specializing in Malay and Education and
postgraduate training at Kent Ridge and Dunedin. His work experience includes Subject
Head with MOE (Ministry of Education), External Examiner of Malay with SEAB
(Singapore Examination and Assessment Board), and Field researcher with NUH
(National University Hospital). His second book Semiotik Persembahan Wacana
[Semiotics of Discourse Performing] will be published by University Malaya Press.

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Collins Easy Learning Dictionary: English-Malay Malay-English.

Reviewed by Jyh Wee Sew

term for homepage is registered in the dictionary, p. 820). While pawagam

Jyh Wee Sew

About the reviewer

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