On The Pragmatic Information Of Idioms In English-Chinese Learner's Dictionary

Pragmatic information is playing a more and more vital role in second language acquisition. In order to help learners better study English, compilers of learner's dictionary are paying special attention to the treatment of pragmatic information.Idioms are not only a significant constituent of glossary but also the essence of culture carrier in a language. The quality of the treatment of idioms relates to idioms themselves, as well as the quality of the entire dictionary. Contemporary researchers are deepening their study on idioms, but both theoretical and practical research on the PI of idioms in dictionaries is rarely seen. This thesis tries to explore the PI of idioms in ECLDs, mainly concerning the following contents: â‘ what sorts of PI idioms include â‘¡the needs of advanced English learners of China in PI of idioms â‘¢how to scientifically present the PI of idioms for dictionary users in ECLDs. Based on the theory "Communicative Competence", the writer has put forward a systematic classification of PI of idioms and made a detailed comparison on the treatment of PI of idioms between Big5 and three China-made ECLDs. Finally an idealized presentation model, unifying the good points of the two types of dictionaries, has been proposed and concretely explained together with three idealized samples of the treatment of idioms.