Morphology In Cognitive Learner's Dictionary

English, as the most "international" language of the world, has the largest number of foreign language (FL) and second language (SL) learners. English vocabulary, due to its large size, has been an obstacle for nonnative learners. Although learner's dictionaries have made great progress in helping EFL/ESL learners to learn the English language, they still have many inadequacies especially in vocabulary acquisition. This situation calls for a new (sub)type of learner's dictionary designed for EFL/ESL learners to enhance the cognitive effect of English language learning. Some researchers have made theoretical explorations in this field, though there has not appeared so far such a learner's dictionary called 'cognitive'.The cognitive learner's dictionary is an innovative change from traditional learner's dictionaries in that it aims at helping non-native learners with language learning especially vocabulary acquisition. On one hand, it lays emphasis on the referential side of the learner's lexical competence. On the other, it explores the relationship .between language and cognition, regarding language as the construction of meaning through the creation or use of decoding/encoding, in the process of which cognition plays a vital role.From a cognitive perspective on lexicography, the present thesis focuses on morphology and its application to cognitive learner's dictionary. Based on the literature review and the critique of their inadequacies in cognitive approach, it proposes a theoretical framework for the study in the expectation that learners canAbstractachieve a synergistic effect in enlarging their vocabulary and improving its qualitative aspects.This thesis attempts to investigate and answer the following research questions:1. How can morphology research be incorporated into a cognitive lexicography?2. How can the mechanism of human cognition in word processing be applied to vocabulary acquisition in learner's dictionary?3. How can the arrangement of human mental lexicon be imitated in the authentic dictionaries so that words are no longer a simple list of things that are separated, but a list of rules under which words are closely related with each other.This thesis aims at exploring morphology in cognitive learner's dictionary by three ways:1. For the word entries,Sets a column for the entries of morphologically complex words, which includes word structure analysis, base meaning and word relatives.2. For the morpheme entriesBuilds a systematics of criteria for the entries of bound morphemes including the collection of material, preferably from the corpus of morphology, the selection of morpheme entries, principally consistent with the selection of word entries; the construction of entries, and the arrangement of the entries.3. For the whole system of word architectureBuilds a system of word structure rules, which will be put backward in an appendix of the cognitive learner's dictionary, so that learners can have an overall understanding on the formation process of English words.IVAbstractThis thesis has, we believe, solved some problems existing in the present learner's dictionaries and developed some models and strategies, as well as built some criteria and principles for the development of cognitive learner's dictionary. We have also raised some questions in the relevant and interdisciplinary areas, which will expect continually further theoretical and empirical researches and experimental studies in these fields.