ÿþ<HTML> <HEAD><TITLE>Software review: Grand Bilingue - Dictionnaire de la sant&#233;. </TITLE></HEAD> <BODY BGCOLOR="#3299CC"> <P> <Font size="4"><B>Grand Bilingue - Dictionnaire de la sant&#233;</B></Font> <BR> Reviewed by Fran&#231;oise Herrmann <BR></P> Mysoft Innovation & Ing&#233;nierie Logiciels. <BR> Version 3.1, 1995-2003<BR> Price : &#36;70<BR> Sofworld member price: &#36;64<BR> Available from <A HREF="http://www.sofworld.com"> www.sofworld.com </A> <BR> </P> <P><HR WIDTH=300 Align=CENTER></P> <P><SPACER TYPE="horizontal" SIZE="36"> <P><SPACER TYPE="horizontal" SIZE="36">The <I>Grand Bilingue - Dictionnaire de la sant&#233;</I> on CD-Rom lies at the intersection of two collections from different media traditions. In the electronic media tradition, the <I>Grand Bilingue</I> belongs to an electronic dictionary collection. In the print media tradition the contents of the <I>Grand Bilingue Dictionnaire de la sant&#233;</I> belong to the <I>Words</I> printed dictionary collection, published by Éditions Ellipses in France. The <I>Grand Bilingue</I> electronic dictionary collection regroups 5 bilingual English<>French dictionaries: <I>Dictionnaire des affaires, Dictionnaire juridique et &#233;conomique, Dictionnaire d'informatique, Les Dictionnaires de l'Entreprise (Affaires, Juridique, Informatique), </I>and the <I>Dictionnaire de la sant&#233;</I>, which is reviewed here. These otherwise separate dictionary tools constitute an electronic collection in that each may be consulted using a single <I>Grand Bilingue</I> platform. The contents of the <I>Grand Bilingue Dictionnaire de la sant&#233;</I> also draw on a print collection of bilingual dictionaries called <I>Words</I>, and in particular the <I>Sciences de la sant&#233;</I> volume, compiled by a joint team of linguists and medical professionals <sup>(1)</sup>. The expanded Version 3.1 of the <I>Grand Bilingue Dictionnaire de la sant&#233;</I> contains 110,000 translations, which span a definitely modern scope, including preventive care, medical ethics, humanitarian medicine, alternative medicine and healthcare. </P> <P><SPACER TYPE="horizontal" SIZE="36">The <I>Grand Bilingue Dictionnaire de la Sant&#233;</I> is PC-based. It runs with Windows&#174; 95, Windows&#174; 98, Windows&#174; Millennium, Windows&#174; 2000, Windows&#174; XP or Windows&#174; NT, and requires 8 MB of RAM and 6 MB of hard drive space when you store the application on your computer. Technically, the installation is designed to be quick and easy with a standard installation Wizard. Once installed you may call up the program from the start menu or directly from the toolbar of major applications such as Microsoft&#174; Word, Outlook, Lotus, Word Pro or Corel® WordPerfect. </P> <P><SPACER TYPE="horizontal" SIZE="36">The most innovative design feature of the <I>Grand Bilingue Dictionnaire de la Sant&#233;</I> is the single access platform to several dictionaries. Assuming that you purchase the 5-volume collection of <I>Grand Bilingue</I> electronic dictionary tools, you then have access to any one of the dictionaries using the same window. This bypasses the extra step of calling up each of the dictionaries separately, saves time, and ultimately helps to un-clutter your desktop when you are working on a document that spans several lexical domains. A second innovative feature resides in the "P" (for "Personalization") function, which allows you to add your own entries to the dictionary. The "P" function opens as a small window with two fields, one marked with a French flag icon and the other with an American flag icon. These fields allow you to type in a word or expression that is not contained in the corpus, along with the translation, both of which you will then be able to retrieve using the search functions of the tool. Beyond these two innovative features, the design of the application is congenial and transparent, which means that once you have launched the dictionary, you will not need to invest any time to learn how it works. The interface is simple and straightforward. [See figure 1]. And the one page Quick Start User flyer included in the packaging really does contain all that you need to know to use the tool. </P> <P><SPACER TYPE="horizontal" SIZE="36">The <I>Grand Bilingue</I> offers three search modes: open <I>[libre]</I>, root <I>[racine]</I> and string <I>[mot]</I>. In the open mode, you may search for any word or combination of words, regardless of their order. This is useful for locating expressions when you do not know under which word to search. For example say you are searching for a translation of the term <I>"cellule de Nageotte"</I> and you do not know whether to search <I>"cellule" </I>or <I>"Nageotte"</I>. You may type either or both in any order and the tool retrieves the expression and a translation. In the root mode you may search for any root word at least two characters long. Thus, you can type just the first two letters of any word searched, which saves time, especially with long words in medical terminology. Finally, in the string mode, you may search for any expression, with a parameter setting of up to eight words.</P> <P><SPACER TYPE="horizontal" SIZE="36">It is perhaps in terms of content that the <I>Grand Bilingue Dictionnaire de la sant&#233;</I> becomes more significant. I was able to test the tool during translation (French to English) of one medical epidemiology article, and a series of 10 vascular endoprosthesis evaluation reports for a total of 10,000 words. While my preferred tools for technical translations in the medical domain are always TERMIUM&#174; and the bountiful recesses of the web, I was both surprised and delighted to find some terms easily in the GB Dictionnaire de la santé that did not appear in TERMIUM&#174;, even if the reverse did not hold true. That is, there were many more words I found in TERMIUM&#174; which were not listed in the <I>GB Dictionnaire de la sant&#233;</I>. For example, among the time-saving and useful hits in the <I>GB Dictionnaire de la sant&#233;</I> (unlisted in TERMIUM&#174;), I found translations for the following French terms: <i>fibrino-cruorique</I> [fibrinocruoric], <i>albuminorachie</I> [protein level of cerebrospinal fluid], <I>pleiocytose</I>, [pleiocytosis], </I>crises convulsives subintrantes</I> [subintrant seizures], <I>tuphos</I> [typhoid state], <I>cellule de Nageotte </I>[Nageotte's cell], <I>mouvement choréique</I> [choreic movement] and <I>ballisme</I> [ballism]. While the <I>Grand Bilingue Dictionnaire de la sant&#233;</I> will supply you with neither context for the translations nor any definitions and explanations for a particular word or expression, this quick test of the tool suggested that this was definitely a useful supplement to a vastly larger corpus dictionary such as TERMIUM&#174;. And usage with subsequent translations in both the medical domain and with medical patents has consistently confirmed this initial experience. </P> <P><SPACER TYPE="horizontal" SIZE="36">In sum, for translators who do translations in the medical domain, the <I>Grand Bilingue Dictionnaire de la sant&#233;</I> appears as a useful supplement - in the manner of good glossaries - to major dictionary resources such as TERMIUM&#174;. Furthermore, if you were to decide on purchasing the whole collection of <I>Grand Bilingue</I> dictionaries, you would no doubt also enjoy the single platform access. </P> <P> <b>Figure 1: Interface of the <I> Grand Bilingue - dictionnaire de la sant&#233;</I></B></P <P><IMG HEIGHT=392 WIDTH=492 SRC="GBimage.jpg"> <P><B>Notes</B>:<BR> <sup>(1)</sup> Carnet, D., Foucher, G. Walker, P & L. Jeannin (2001) <I>Words: Sciences de la sant&#233;.</I><BR> Paris, France : Editions Ellipses.</P> <P><B><A HREF="Publications.html">Publications</A></B></P> <P><B><A HREF="Bookrev.html">Reviews</A></B></P> <P><B><A HREF="index.html">Home</A></B></P> </BODY> </HTML>