- •VI. Etymological Survey of the English Word-Stock
- •§ 2. Semantic Characteristics and Collocability
- •4.Summary and Conclusions
- •§ 5. Causes and Ways of Borrowing
- •6. Criteria of Borrowings
- •§ 12. Influence of Borrowings
- •13 Summary and Conclusion
- •VII. Various aspects of vocabulary units and replenishment of modern english word-stock
- •Interdependence of various aspects
- •Replenishment of modern english vocabulary
- •§ 7. Structural and Semantic Peculiarities of New Vocabulary Units
- •Ways and means of enriching the vocabulary
- •§ 8. Productive Word-Formation
- •§ 9 Various Ways of Word-Creation
- •§10 Borrowing
- •§ 13. Intrinsic Heterogeneity of Modern English
- •§ 14 Number of Vocabulary Items in Actual Use and Number of Vocabulary Units in Modern English
- •§ 15. Summary and Conclusions
- •VIII. Variants and Dialects of the English Language
- •§ 1. General Characteristics of the English Language in Different Parts of the English-Speaking World
- •§ 3. Some Points of History of the Territorial Variants and Lexical Interchange Between Them
- •Local varieties in the british isles and in the usa
- •§ 4. Local Dialects in the British Isles
- •§ 5. The Relationship between the English National Language and British Local Dialects
- •6 Local Dialects in the usa
- •IX Fundamentals of English Lexicography
- •§1 Encyclopaedic and Linguistic Dictionaries
- •§2 Classification of linguistic Dictionaries
- •3. Explanatory Dictionaries
- •§ 4. Translation Dictionaries
- •§ 5. Specialized Dictionaries
- •§6. The selection of Lexical Units for Inclusion.
- •§ 7. Arrangement of Entries
- •§ 11. Choke of Adequate Equivalents.
- •§ 12. Setting of the Entry
- •§ 13. Structure of the Dictionary
- •§ 14. Main Characteristic Features
- •§ 15. Classification of Learners Dictionaries.
- •§ 16.Selection of Entry Words.
- •§ 17. Presentations of Meanings.
- •§ 18. Setting of the Entry
- •§ 19. Summary and Conclusions
- •X. Methods and Procedures of Lexicological Analysis
- •§ 1. Contrastive Analysis
- •§ 2. Statistical Analysis
- •§ 3.Immediate Constituents Analysis
- •§ 4.Distributional Analysis and Co-occurrence
- •§ 5. Transformafional Analysis
- •§ 6. Componenfal Analysis
- •§ 7. Method of Semantic Differential
- •§ 8. Summary and Conclusions
- •I. Introduction
- •II. Semasiology Word-Meaning
- •Types of Meaning
- •Word-Meaning and Meaning in Morphemes
- •Word-Meaning and Motivation
- •Change of Meaning
- •Meaning and Polysemy
- •Polysemy and Homonymy
- •Word-Meaning in Syntagmatics and Paradigmatics
- •Meaning Relations in Paradigmatics and Semantic Classification of Words
- •III. Word-groups and phraseological units Some Basic Features of Word-Croups
- •Meaning of Word-Groups
- •Interdependence of Structure and Meaning in Word-Groups
- •IV. Word-structure
- •V. Word-formation
- •Various Ways of Forming Words
- •Affixation
- •Conversion
- •Word-Composition
- •Etymological survey of the english word-stock
- •Words of Native Origin
- •Borrowings
- •VII. Various aspects of vocabulary units and replenishment of modern english word-stock
- •Interdependence of Various Aspects of the Word
- •VIII. Variants and dialects of the english language
- •Learner's Dictionaries and Some Problems of Their Compilation
- •X. Methods and procedures of lexicological analysis
§ 16.Selection of Entry Words.
Compilers of learner's dictionaries have to tackle the same cardinal problems as those of ordinary explanatory and translation dictionaries, but they often solve them in their own way, besides they have some specific policies to settle on to meet the needs of language learners to whom the book will be addressed. The common purpose of learner's dictionaries is to give information on what is currently accepted usage, besides most compilers seek to choose
229
the lexical units that foreign learners of English are likely to need. Therefore not only are obsolete, archaic and dialectal words excluded, but also technical and scientific terms, substandard words and phrases, etc. Colloquial and slang words as well as foreign words of common occurrence in English are included only if they are of the sort likely to be met by students either in reading or in conversation. Moreover some of the common words may be omitted if they are not often encountered in books, newspapers, etc. or heard over the radio and in conversation.
Space is further saved by omitting certain derivatives and compounds the meaning of which can be easily inferred.
Alternative spellings and pronunciations are avoided, only the more accepted forms are listed.
Various criteria have been employed in choosing words for learner's dictionaries. In the first place the selection of words is based on the frequency principle.
Frequency value, an important characteristic of lexical units, is closely connected with their other properties. That is why the word-counts enable the compiler to choose the most important, the most frequently used words.
However many methodologists and compilers of learner's dictionaries have a tendency to exaggerate the significance of the frequency criterion. The research done in different countries (in our country and in France, for example) has shown that the frequency tables, helpful as they are in the compilation of a vocabulary minimum, do not in themselves present the vocabulary minimum. While it is indisputable that every high-frequency word is useful, it is not every useful word that is frequent (e.g. carrots, fork, stamp, etc.). Consequently frequency cannot be the only point to be considered in selecting items for learner's dictionaries as well as for other teaching materials. It must be complemented by some other principles, such as the Words' collocability, sty-listic reference, derivational ability, semantic structure, etc.1
§ 17. Presentations of Meanings.
The order of arrangement of meanings followed in learner's dictionaries is usually empiric, that is beginning with the main meaning to minor ones. Besides the following principles of arrangement are considered proper for language learners: literal uses before figurative, general uses before special, common uses before rare and easily understandable uses before difficult. Each of these principles is subject to the limitation "other things being equal" and all are subject to the principle that that arrangement is best for any word which helps the learners most.
E.g. in Hornby's entry for commit the first meaning is 'perform' (a crime, foolish act, etc.) and its primary meaning 'entrust' is given as its second meaning.
230
But this is not always the case. For instance, the first meaning of the word revolution given by Hornby is 'act of revolving or journeying round' and not 'complete change, great reversal of conditions, esp. in methods of government', which is more common nowadays. Thus the compilers preserve the historical order of meanings in this case.
In monolingual learner's dictionaries the same types of definitions are used, as in ordinary monolingual explanatory word-books, but their proportion is different. Encyclopaedic definitions are usually used more rarely, the role of descriptive definitions is much greater.
Compare, for instance, the definition for coal taken from the Ladder Dictionary with that from COD given above.1
coal n. a black, hard substance that burns and gives off heat.
It would be wrong to think however that the definitions in learner's dictionaries are always less complete than in the dictionaries designed for native users. More often than not these definitions are not so condensed in form and they are more complete in content, because the compilers have to make up for the user's possible inadequacy in command of the language and lack of knowledge of some realia.
Compare, for example the two entries for prep given below:
COD //2 (abbr prep) preparation of lessons as part of school routine;
OALD [U]3 (colloq abbr prep) (time given to) preparing lessons or writing exercises, after normal school hours (esp at GB public or grammar schools): two hours' prep; do one's French
In learner's dictionaries cross-references are for the most part reduced to a minimum.
Compilers of learner's dictionaries attach great importance to the language in which the definition is couched, the goal being to word them in the simplest terms that are consistent with accuracy. Some compilers see to it that the definitions are couched in language which is commoner and more familiar to the language learner than the words defined.
Some lexicographers select a special defining vocabulary held to be the commonest words in English or those first learnt by foreigners. For example, in the International Reader's Dictionary the word-list of 4,000 items is defined within a vocabulary of 1490 words selected by West.
In some learner's dictionaries pictorial material is widely used as a means of semantization of the words listed. Pictures cannot only define meanings of such nouns as dike, portico, domes, columns, brushes, ., but sometimes also of adjectives, verbs and adverbs.
E.g. in Hornby's dictionary the definitions of the adjective concentrated, the verb clasp and the adverb abreast are illustrated with the pictures of concentrated circles, clasped hands, and boys walking three abreast.
231