Functions of the electronic dictionary- an applied study on the dictionaries "Dalil Almaani" and "Al-Riyadh"

Technological progress and the emergence of artificial intelligence applications have led to the spread of electronic dictionaries and increased demand for them compared to paper dictionaries. Hence, this study is concerned with the lexical functions used in electronic dictionaries. The study chose two electronic dictionaries as applied material: the "Dalil Almaani" prepared by Abu Dhabi Center for the Arabic Language, and the "Riyadh Dictionary" prepared by the King Salman International Academy for the Arabic Language. The researcher preferred these two dictionaries; because the study distinguishes between two types of electronic dictionaries: There are electronic dictionaries prepared by converting paper dictionaries into an electronic format, such as the Dictionary of Meanings available on the Internet, which allows searching in a large number of traditional and modern dictionaries. And there are electronic dictionaries that build on linguistic corpus, and this is the type that the study focuses on. The study follows a descriptive approach with lexicography. It describes the dictionary functions used in the two dictionaries, and shows what the electronic transformation of the dictionary has allowed for achieving functions that were not used in paper dictionaries, or were used in other ways. It also explains the capabilities that have been developed to facilitate the research process. This study is divided into an introduction that presents the definition of the electronic dictionary, its features, and the difference between it and the paper dictionary, followed by an applied section that deals with the functions of the dictionary in the two dictionaries.