The Dictionary of Perspective can be explored digitally as a searchable reference database containing the complete unabridged Dictionary.
The Digital Edition contains 4,059 records, more than 4,000 terms, more than 1,200 types and forms, and more than 330,000 words devoted to the terminology, classifications, problems, phenomena and methods of perspective.
Unlike the printed edition, the Digital Edition does not require readers to work through entries in a fixed sequence. The Dictionary can be searched directly by headword, entry text, synonyms, antonyms, cross-references, related terms and classification.
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About the Dictionary of Perspective and Print Edition →
Digital and Print Editions
The Digital Edition and the printed Dictionary of Perspective provide two complementary ways of working with the same reference work.
- Digital Edition — search and interrogate the complete unabridged Dictionary as structured digital content.
- Print Edition — read and consult the published second edition as a 590-page reference volume.
The Digital Edition is especially useful when you want to locate a term quickly, compare related concepts, follow cross-references, investigate classifications or search across the full text of the Dictionary.
The printed edition provides the stable published reference form of the work and preserves the Dictionary as a conventional scholarly volume.
Searching the Dictionary
The search panel provides several ways of exploring the Dictionary.
The principal search scopes are Headword and Entry text. Additional related content can be included through the Dictionary’s extended search controls when available.
Searchable information includes:
- Headword
- Entry text
- Synonyms
- Antonyms
- Cross-references
- Related terms
- Classification
This makes the Digital Edition useful both for finding a known term and for investigating relationships across the terminology and classification of perspective.
Searching by Headword
Use Headword when you know all or part of the term you want to find.
A search can retrieve entries whose headwords match the term or phrase entered, making this the quickest way to locate a known Dictionary entry.
Searching Entry Text
Use Entry text when the concept you are looking for may occur within the body of one or more Dictionary entries rather than as a headword.
This allows the Dictionary to be searched as a connected body of reference material rather than only as an alphabetical list of terms.
Searching Related Content
The extended search controls allow researchers to investigate relationships recorded within the Dictionary, including synonyms, antonyms, cross-references and related terms.
These connections are particularly useful when several terms describe related ideas, when terminology has changed historically, or when an entry forms part of a wider group of concepts.
Classification
The Dictionary is not only a collection of definitions. It also provides a systematic classification of perspective terminology.
More than 1,000 entries are identified as named Types or Forms of perspective, while other entries describe phenomena, methods, functions, problems, concepts, instruments and related subjects.
Classification can therefore be used alongside text searching to narrow the results and investigate particular parts of the field.
Understanding the Search Results
A Dictionary result preserves the structure of the original entry and can include the headword, definition or explanatory text, cross-references, related terminology and classification information.
Not every entry contains every kind of additional information. The Digital Edition preserves the structure of the underlying Dictionary rather than artificially adding information that is not present in the original entry.
Using More Than One Search Scope
More than one search scope can be selected when a broader search is required.
For example, a researcher may search Headword and Entry text together, then use classification or related-content controls to narrow the results.
This turns the Dictionary from a conventional alphabetical reference work into a searchable research system.
Public Access and Membership
The Public Access Digital Edition allows visitors to explore the Dictionary online. PRC membership provides broader access to the Digital Edition and its search and navigation facilities.
The public and member interfaces use the same underlying Dictionary content, while access limits and available navigation differ according to the user’s access level.
Why the Digital Edition Is Different
The printed Dictionary of Perspective provides a stable scholarly reference arranged alphabetically as a published book.
The Digital Edition approaches the same body of knowledge differently.
Instead of following one predetermined sequence, users can move through the material according to their own research question — by headword, full entry text, relationships between terms and classification.
This makes it possible to discover connections that can be difficult to see in a printed dictionary: recurring terminology, related concepts, alternative names, groups of Types and Forms, and relationships between different parts of the field.
A Reference Work and a Research System
The Digital Edition of the Dictionary of Perspective is therefore more than an electronic copy of the printed work.
It provides a searchable structure through which the terminology and classification of perspective can be approached from many different directions.
The printed edition and searchable Digital Edition are complementary. The published volume provides a stable scholarly reference; the Digital Edition allows the underlying entries to be searched, filtered, compared and explored as interconnected data.