False friends in dictionaries. Bilingual false cognates lexicography in Poland

This paper presents the bilingual false friends lexicography of Poland in the last 15 years. The dictionaries of false cognates have been produced in great numbers to put the authors' theoretical research in false lexical equivalence into practice, as well as a reflection of the marked tendency to produce specialized dictionaries and as a useful practical tool in foreign language teaching and learning, translation and interpreting. 12 dictionaries are analysed: their macro- and microstructure reveals differences in understanding this lexical phenomenon as well as minimalist and maximalist ways of describing false cognates in dictionaries. The paper is an attempt to cover all aspects of the description of false friends as they surface in the analysed material. It highlights the major problems relating to the accurate and exhaustive presentation of false cognates in dictionaries in terms of pronunciation, grammar, semantics and collocations and shows where improvements might be implemented.