Natural Language Searching in Onomasiological Dictionaries

When consulting a dictionary, people can find the meaning of a word via the definition, which usually contains the relevant information to fulfil their requirement. Lexicographers produce dictionaries and their work consists in presenting information essential for grasping the meaning of words. However, when people need to find a word it is likely that they do not obtain the information they are looking for. There is a gap between dictionary definitions and the information being available in peoples' mind. This paper attempts to present the conceptualisation people engage in, in order to arrive at a word from its meaning. The insights of an experiment conducted show us the differences between the knowledge available in peoples' minds and in dictionary definitions.