On The Difference-Oriented Treatment Of Verb Entries In English-Chinese Learner’s Dictionary

As a major subtype of learner lexicography,bilingual learner lexicography attributes its birth and development to its special users.This,combined with some peculiarities of dictionary-making itself,displays much more complexity.The compilation of bilingual learner’s dictionaries is influenced by various factors,among which differences pertaining to two languages and cultures,user groups,dictionary typology and entry types are the most crucial ones.They strongly influence the lexicographical practice.In essence,the complexity of bilingual lexicography is just how to adapt to the above differences,i.e.the differential compilation.It is of the utmost importance to carry out relevant theoretical and practical research so as to realize the differentiation of the lexicographical process and result.So far,the research on the issue of differentiation in bilingual lexicography has been mainly conducted to deal with differences concerning two languages and cultures,user groups and dictionary types.Nevertheless,the systematic research on the differentiation of entry types(i.e.differences in the cognitive features of dictionary entries),combined with that of two languages and cultures,user groups and dictionary typology,has so far been rather sporadic.In view of this status quo,the present study intends to do further research into the differential treatment of dictionary entries,because such kind of research is of great significance not only for the development of theorization of bilingual lexicography but also the advancement of lexicographical practice.Specifically speaking,the present study is to explore the differential treatment of verb entries in English-Chinese learner’s dictionaries(hereforth:ECLDs).It is interdisciplinary in nature.There are several reasons to choose verb entries as the research object.The usage of a verb is crucial to sentence production and comprehension in English.In addition,English verbs are complex for its morphological forms,categories,semantics and syntactic behaviour.The importance and complexity of English verbs make them the emphasis and difficulty of vocabulary acquisition for L2 learners.Thus,the treatment of verb entries is one of the essential tasks of compiling a learner’s dictionary.Unfortunately,for a long time,the grammar-motivated way of treating verb entries is predominant in the compilation of English monolingual learner’s dictionaries(e.g.verb patterns)and ECLDs(e.g.the distinction between intransitive and transitive verbs).Despite its advantages,the grammar-motivated way of treating verb entries ignores to a large extent the interdependencies between the lexical meaning(s)of a verb and its syntactic behaviour,and it leads to the neglect of cognitive motivation and systematicity in the description of verb behaviour.Compiled in this way,an ECLD,to a great extent,fails to present the cognitive features of English verbs.And this will limit its function in facilitating the Chinese upper-intermediate EFL learners’ acquisition of English verbs.Therefore,this dissertation attempts to explore the differential treatment of verb entries in ECLDs geared to Chinese upper-intermediate EFL learners.On the basis of literature review,the present author carries out a systematic exploration of the differential treatment of verb entries in ECLDs in terms of the justification for determining factors,establishment of the theoretical framework,construction of the technical model and strategies for lexicographical presentation.To identify the main determining factors is a precondition for researching the differential treatment of verb entries in ECLDs.The present author identifies three factors,i.e."entry types","user groups",and "textual presentation".These factors are regarded as the most important ones,because they are closely related to the crucial issues of dictionary-making.To be more specific,these factors correspond to three issues respectively,i.e."what to describe","describe for whom"and "how to describe".To address these issues,the present study brings forward the following answers:The differential treatment of verb entries in ECLDs should not only present the cognitive features of English verbs,but also take account of the reference needs of Chinese upper-intermediate EFL learners in the acquisition of English verbs.Moreover,the textual presentation should take into consideration the specificity of lexicographical translation in bilingual dictionaries.As for the establishment of the theoretical framework,based on the linguistic research into the syntactic-semantic interface,especially the event semantic perspective,this dissertation examines the cognitive features of verbal meanings,and establishes the theoretical frameworks for the differential treatment of verb entries in ECLDs.Specifically,the present author develops two theoretical frameworks for the compilation of verb entries,one for compiling a single verb entry and the other for compiling a group of synonymous verb entries,to deal with sense description and exemplification.As regards sense description,the present study discusses the applicability of event semantics to the sense division of verb entries,and proposes three basic rules:(1)systemically analyzing the cognitive features of verbal meanings from various English monolingual dictionaries;(2)contrasting the cognitive differences in the sense construal of the same verb in English and Chinese;and(3)taking account of the expectations of the target users.In terms of providing sense equivalents,the present study comes up with four methods of lexicographical translation,i.e."equivalent mapping","combinational mapping","supplementary mapping" and "domesticating mapping" from the perspective of event semantics.Concerning the exemplification,by combining the event semantics with the Theory of the Clausal Pivot,the present study initiates a new idea of selecting examples for verb entries.Meanwhile,the present study advocates that the translation of examples for verb entries should be done on the basis of the cognitive equivalence between the syntactic-semantic mapping rules of English and Chineseverbs.As for the construction of the technical model,the present study discusses the necessity,feasibility,and practicality of the newly-designed Verb Sketch System(hereforth:VSS)seriatim.Generally speaking,VSS is oriented towards the differential treatment of verb entries in ECLDs.It consists of the following main modules:"Lexical Units","Event Types","Roles","Syntax","Examples","Synonyms",and so on.The present author expounds the specific functions served by each module in the compilation of verb entries.VSS is supposed to provide the reliable language data for dictionary-making,and to display the actual usage of verbs for dictionary users.The exploration of the technical model is indispensable to contemporary lexicographical research,and is of technical importance to the final lexicographical practice.This dissertation further explores the application of the theoretical frameworks and puts the technical model into the practice of compiling specific verb entries.The present study lays down the general paradigm of differentially treating verb entries in ECLDs,i.e.linguistically-motivated and data-based.As regards the implementation,the paradigm can be explicitly specified into two strategies,namely the individual treatment of a single verb and the systematic treatment of a group of synonymous verb entries.By compiling a single verb entry call and a group of synonymous verb entries alarm,frighten scare,startle and terrify,the present author demonstrates the practicablity of the strategies in the lexicographical presentation of verb entries.This dissertation is of theoretical and practical significance for advancing bilingual lexicography.Theoretically,the present study develops a theoretical framework and a technical model for the differential treatment of verb entries in ECLDs.It helps promote the research on the issue of differentiation in bilingual lexicography.Practically,the present study puts forward two strategies for the lexicographical presentation of verb entries,i.e.the individual treatment of a single verb entry and the systematic treatment of a group of synonymous verb entries.It gives step-by-step instructions for the future compilation of verb entries in ECLDs.Moreover,the present study offers insight into how to facilitate the acquisition of English verbs by Chinese upper-intermediate EFL learners.Methodologically,the present study provides further reference for researching the differential treatment of entries of other word classes in ECLDs.