Monofunctional and polyfunctional information tools with an operative function.

Though a vast amount of dictionary analyses have been produced over the years, hardly any of these have mentioned the operative function, which has been overlooked in most lexicographical literature. With short analyses of 12 existing dictionaries ranging from the 18th century to the 21st century, this article shows that many dictionaries have indeed been produced to satisfy operative needs. Based on this result, it is clear that the operative function deserves a place in lexicographical theory. An interesting finding that came out of these analyses was that especially dictionaries from the 18th to the early 20th centuries (the old dictionaries) were written to accommodate several types of information needs that their users would come across in the real world, including operative needs, whereas the focus of most contemporary dictionaries is to satisfy linguistic information needs. This is an interesting change in focus, which this article criticises. Based on the abovementioned analyses, a number of questions are raised to guide future research into the operative function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]