An Exploration Of Usage Labels In C-E Dictionaries

Dictionaries are considered to be the best teachers to language learners. For competence in communication, appropriateness is much more important than correctness. To indicate usage information about appropriateness, dictionaries resort to usage labels.With the study of C-E dictionaries, we find that usage labels are widely applied, but the labeling practice is not consistent and many aspects need to be improved. A close look at the front matter of the three selected C-E dictionaries reveals that the labeling system is incomplete and in a disorder in C-E dictionaries.The present thesis studies the problems on usage labels in C-E dictionaries from two perspectives: macrostructure and microstructure. Through this study, the present author thinks that the macrostructure of a C-E dictionary should provide users with a general but complete picture of the usage label system. There are mainly three sections to present the usage label information in the front matter of a C-E dictionary. The first is to give a general introduction of usage labels information. The second is to design a special category for usage labels. The third is to make a list of all usage labels as a quick reference, so that users can find them quickly and conveniently. In the microstructure of a C-E dictionary, there are two problems. The first is what kind of entries need to be labeled. The second is how to label them. Because of sparse theoretical documentation on this topic, this thesis is an explorative study. Some suggestions to improve the current usage labeling practice in C-E dictionaries are given by the present author, but more studies in this field are needed.