Towards The Definition Patterns Of X-ABLE Words In English Learners’ Dictionaries Based On Categorization

X-ABLE words are frequently used in English and are of a large proportionin English derivatives. It has been discovered that meanings of X-ABLE wordsare complicated, vague and variant. Besides, these words are characterized bytheir own word-formational or etymological traits, making English learners find itsometimes hard to genuinely comprehend and memorize most of them, especiallythose semantically and morphologically unanalyzable ones. Investigations onsome current English learners’ dictionaries have shown that X-ABLE words,which belong to the same conceptual category or subcategory, are not definedaccording to one uniform set of principles. Prototypic and non-prototypicproperties are not always embodied. Besides, the lack of word-formational rulesin definitions is believed to be of no help to learners’ vocabulary acquisition.Based on these problems or vacancies, the present study, in conformity to certainlexicographic principles and approaches, will put forward new definition patternsfor this group of words based on categorization and prototype theory.First of all, the meaning generative mechanism and predictability of X-ABLEwords are explored and classified meticulously and comprehensively fromcognitive perspectives. After that, the system of words are categorized into eightcategories. The degree of prototypicality in each category is determined by thepredictability or analyzability of the meaning of an X-ABLE judging by its form.Definitions of some typical member words in the same category will be extractedfrom OALD and LDOCE and will be compared to draw conclusions about theirdeficiencies. Then prototypic features and non-prototypic features of eachcategory or subcategory will be observed, analyzed and concluded. Respectiveprinciples and approaches for each category will be stipulated, based on whichdefinitions patterns will be proposed.Through the above analysis, major findings include:1) the current linguisticor lexicographic explorations into X-ABLE words are apparently insufficient in terms of either the depth or the breath, and need to be enriched by a moremeticulous and comprehensive research;2) categorization and prototypic theorieshaven’t been applied to define X-ABLE words in the existing English learners’dictionaries; common features and distinctive features aren’t revealed by means ofdefinition;3) the existing learners’ dictionaries don’t pay much attentions torepresenting word-formational rules or morphological information in definitions;the most obvious treatment they do about morphology is to list derivational wordsat the end of an entry; but rare hints or explanations about word formation areprovided in the definition of the derivative itself; it is especially true of X-ABLEwords that derived from Latin words;4) the definition patterns put forward basedon categorization and prototypic theories are more uniform and conciser; thecommon feature and distinctive features of each word can be prominentlyreflected in the definitions.