Optimization Of Entry Word Selection And Arrangement In BELDs

As heated the study on Business English worldwide is, few researches have beenconducted on Business English learners’ dictionaries (BELDs) from Chinese collegeBusiness English majors’ perspective. To be more specific, as the prerequisite for asuccessful dictionary, the study on entry word selection and arrangement in this fieldstill remains vacant. This thesis hence has proposed feasible ways to optimize entryword selection and arrangement so as to remedy the deficiencies in existing BELDs,both theoretically and practically.Three research questions were involved in this thesis.Firstly, in order to answer what the Chinese college Business English majors’specific requirements are for entry word selection and arrangement, direct observationand questionnaire survey were employed based on lexicographic function theory(LFT). Major findings include: Chinese college Business English majors expect moregeneral words and business terms with Chinese culture-bound meanings to beincluded in BELDs; they prefer to have the common sense of sub-technical termsincluded; and they are in favor of the nest-alphabetical method of entry wordarrangement.Secondly, a contrastive study was conducted so as to answer what the deficienciesare in the existing BELDs concerning entry word selection and arrangement from theperspective of Business English majors in Chinese colleges. From a systematicalanalysis through word class, lexical form, lexical structure, vocabulary types, andproper names under the guidance of Atkins and Rundell’s headword list model(2007:178), it has been proved that there is a huge gap between Chinese collegeBusiness English majors’ specific needs and current entry word selection andarrangement in BELDs.Thirdly, as for how to optimize entry word selection and arrangement to remedythe deficiencies in existing BELDs in accordance with the specific needs of Chinese college Business English majors，three principles for entry word selection have beenproposed—the principle of balance, the principle of high frequency, and the principleof specialism. And a tentative method to generate a headword list from a self-builtcorpus targeting Chinese college Business English majors has also been presented.In the end, some feasible suggestions have been proposed for optimizing entryword selection and arrangement in existing BELDs, based upon the specific needs ofChinese college Business English majors.