The Treatment of Unpassivisable Verbs in Dictionaries Hani Abu Mathkour University of Jordan December, 2005 This study sought to answer the following questions: How do dictionaries (monolingual and bilingual) treat the verbs which do not passivise? What sort of information do these dictionaries provide for Arab EFL learners on the non-passivisable verbs? Do the inadequate syntactic information on these verbs in dictionaries constitute a potential source of error for Arab EFL learners? The researcher hinged on a set of unpassivisable verbs. The information on these verbs were evaluated in mono- and bilingual dictionaries. The results showed that monolingual dictionaries provide more information than the bilingual one do. Further, bilingual dictionaries might trigger off errors by EFL learners. 1. Introduction "'The dictionary' is the widespread belief that the dictionary- maker or lexicographer is vested with a special prerogative: the he ascends the mountain of his deliberations and comes down with the tablets enshrining the Word and its Correct Meaning, Correct Spelling, Correct Pronunciation." (Quirk 1962:143) A dictionary seems to be "the most likely book to be found in the majority of English homes" (Jackson 1988:35). The status of English dictionary is applicable to the homes of EFL learners under the sun. When a learner is having difficulties with an English word s/he resorts to any obtainable dictionary. The degree of difficulties could confine the choice of the consulted dictionaries. For Jordan, EFL learners in most cases consult a dictionary when they are not acquainted with the meaning of a word. According to Diab and Hamdan(1999:298), "the need for semantic information remains the prime motive for dictionary use."