How To Incorporate Specific Usage Information In E-C Pedagogical Dictionaries

Usage is the habitual or customary way of using words as creating a right, obligation, or standard. It is deeply entrenched in the specific culture and society, the disparity between Chinese and English culture and society poses particular challenge in usage for Chinese EFL learners. The present thesis intends to probe into the question of how to incorporate usage information in E-C pedagogical dictionaries in order to meet the needs specific to Chinese EFL learners.The perception of usage varies between native speakers and EFL learners. In order to have a clear understanding of English usage for Chinese EFL learners, the thesis has delimited usage in E-C pedagogical dictionaries: both the content and its relations with usage in three other kinds of dictionaries-usage dictionaries for native speakers, EFL dictionaries published in the UK and E-J pedagogical dictionaries. Evidence shows that E-C pedagogical dictionaries and other kinds of dictionaries have a large proportion of overlap in usage. In spite of this, E-C pedagogical dictionaries have its particular usage problems to deal with in order to meet the needs of the EFL learners. Based on the distributional relations of the usage information between E-C pedagogical dictionaries and other kinds of dictionaries, some practical solutions to the inclusion of usage information in E-C pedagogical dictionaries, which are specifically designed for Chinese learners, are proposed.