Towards An Efficient Representation Of Lexical Collocations In ECLDs

An efficient representation of lexical collocations in a general English-Chinese learner's dictionary (ECLD) is desired for a modified lexical collocational behavior pattern and a heightened awareness of lexical collocations on the part of advanced Chinese EFL learners. To achieve this goal, the corpus-based approach is adopted in the present study, which consists of one theoretical research and two empirical researches. The theoretical research focuses on a working definition and categorization of lexical collocations tailored for a general ECLD by extracting essential factors from relevant theories.The first empirical research is to identify advanced Chinese EFL learners' reference needs for lexical collocations in a general ECLD. For this purpose, corpus retrieval tools such as Wordsmiths Tools and the Sketch Engine are used to assess advanced Chinese EFL learners' lexical collocational competence reflected in Chinese Learner's English Corpus (CLEC) in comparison to the native-speaker competence mirrored in the British National Corpus (BNC). The analysis results indicate that a confusion over the collocational range, a widespread ignorance of the idiom principle and a dim awareness of semantic prosody contribute to the deviant lexical collocational behavior of advance Chinese EFL learners detected in CLEC (ST4, ST5, ST6). A full display of the semantic, syntactic and stylistic features of lexical collocations in a general ECLD is highly desirable for advanced Chinese EFL learners.The second empirical research is to examine the representation of lexical collocations in three mainstream English Learner's dictionaries (ELDs), one authoritative collocational dictionary and three celebrated ECLDs and incorporate the current best practices into an operational model in a general ECLD which embraces the semantic, syntactic and stylistic features of lexical collocations. The two major semantic features, restricted collocability and semantic prosody, are respectively highlighted in the collocational glosses of Chinese equivalents and two newly coined signs indicating the favorable or unfavorable semantic prosody. Syntactic features find expression in illustrative examples and stylistic features in register labels. Base-oriented lexical collocation boxes are carefully designed to serve as a reliable and comprehensive guide to encoding tasks. Special devices are used in lexical collocational error warning notes to warn Chinese EFL learners against deviant lexical collocations in writing or translation.