On Improving The Microstructure Of C-E Dictionaries For The Foreign Learners Of Chinese-From The Perspectives Of Sense Ordering, Equivalent Selection And Discrimination And Pictorial Illustrations

The Chinese-English dictionaries for the foreign learners of Chinese are demanded by the development of teaching Chinese as a foreign language. Because whether a dictionary is good or not relies largely on the microstructure of the dictionary, this paper focuses on several key issues of the microstructure of Chinese-English dictionaries for the foreign learners of Chinese in order to improve the quality of such dictionaries.Firstly, this thesis mainly addresses to the issues such as sense ordering, equivalent selection, equivalent discrimination and pictorial illustrations, which are the primary components of the microstructure of a bilingual learner's dictionary. That is also why the studies of them are of great significance for the C-E dictionaries for the foreign learners of Chinese. Furthermore, the present thesis also proposes some suggestions on how to solve the problems arising in these issues, emphasizing the significance of the foreign readers' cognitive process when they are consulting a C-E dictionary and the characteristics of Chinese for solving these problems. Last but not least, the thesis is aimed to draw new ideas from various relevant subjects such as the cognitive linguistics, the corpus linguistics, the comparative studies of Chinese and English and the field of teaching Chinese as a foreign language, expecting to bring innovation to the lexicographical practice to certain degree. The writer hope that the discussion about how to achieve the improvement would benefit the compiling conduct of C-E dictionaries for the foreign learners of Chinese.This paper includes six chapters. What the chapters talk about is integrated in the discussion of the microstructure of Chinese-English dictionaries for the foreign learners of Chinese.Chapter One in an introduction, in which the main contents, ideas, significance, and way of analysis of the thesis are outlined.Chapter Two mainly discusses the question of how to present senses in a Chinese-English dictionary for the foreigners to learn Chinese, in which sense ordering also has pedagogical function. The thesis provides some ideas on how to organize and arrange senses with examples. Chapter Three goes deeper into the microstructure of the bilingual learner's dictionaries. Two working-together issues are concentrated on: equivalent selection and equivalent discrimination, which are closely linked with the quality of the microstructure. Their necessity and complexity result from the differences of the Chinese and English and the differences of the cognitive process of the readers. Properly handling these two problems in the dictionaries is helpful for the readers to correctly understand and avoid errors in practical use.Chapter Four demonstrates a less noticeable but no less important issue in the microstructure of the bilingual learner's dictionary. That is the application of the pictorial illustrations which shows both practical and theoretical lexicographical and pedagogical significance.Chapter Five highlights several other relevant issues functioning as bases or guidelines for the previous topics.Chapter Six draws conclusion out of the previous discussions and proposes possible suggestions that the future research can follow.The content of each chapter is independent but complementary and integrated into the microstructure of C-E dictionaries for the foreign learners of Chinese. In the main body of the thesis, the first three chapters concern the concrete issues of the microstructure, while the following chapters give possible considerations and proposals of these issues from various perspectives. Although it is impossible for the paper to cover every detail at once; the chosen topics have reflected the writer's opinions about how to improve the quality of the Chinese-English dictionaries for the foreign learners of Chinese to some degree.