Oxford Reference titles

From the extensive list of reference books in MobiPocket format we selected 2 more titles this month: Oxford Collocations and Dictionary of Psychology.

If you are a student of English the Collocations dictionary is a must and we’ll explain why.

Oxford Collocations

The word “collocations” was new to me when I came across the term perusing the extensive catalogue of MobiPocket ebooks.

From my limited knowledge of Latin I could figure out that it had something to do with the placing of words together. And that’s what it really is.

In idiomatic English (and in any other language for that matter) certain words are always used together. They sort of belong together. Like “humble” & “abode”.

When English is your mother tongue you know instinctively what goes with what.

For others it can be a struggle to come up with the right expression.

I know this from first-hand experience as English is not my first language so that’s why this book appeals to me so much!

This very helpful reference book contains about 9000 “head words”. They make up some 150,000 collocations which form the building blocks of the English language. Add to this some 50,000 examples and you have a fair idea of how to properly use these words.

If you are a writer you’ll do well with a book like this. In fact, it’s pretty essential.

Any points of criticism?

If this book is aimed at students of English, which it is, why doesn’t it have a list of all the abbreviations it uses??

How do you figure out that “sth” means “something”? Sometimes you can tell by the context, of course, but wouldn’t it be much better to either have a list in the front, or hyperlink the terms?

The same applies to abbreviations which are fairly standard, like ADJ or ADV in a study of language…

Any student of Psychology absolutely needs to have a good Dictionary for all the terms, jargon and abbreviations he’ll encounter. But also if you have a passing interest in the workings of the human psyche you’ll find this Dictionary quite helpful. I certainly did and I never did go much beyond Psych 101 in College.

Psychology has always fascinated me – even before Dr Phil started his wildly popular TV shows. (When ever they plan an update to this work they should include some of his “Phil-isms”…)

This particular Oxford tome really does justice to the publishing house’s reputation, unlike a couple of earlier titles we reviewed.

There are an amazing 10,000 plus terms, a long list of abbreviations and acronyms and clear illustrations where necessary.

And the price is just right for these titles. (USD25 and USD20 respectively)

Have a look at the screenshots for more detail.

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