A Research On Illustrative Examples In Chinese-English Dictionaries For Chinese Users

As an important information category in general language dictionaries, the illustrative example plays a key role in the quality of such dictionaries by supplementing the definition and supplying more linguistic data about the entry unit. Illustrative examples are of great help to dictionary users both in their reception and in their production activities. Researches have been done on the types, functions, etc., of illustrative examples by scholars, both at home and abroad.However, issues concerning illustrative examples in C-E dictionaries for Chinese learners have hardly been touched upon thoroughly in the lexicographical circle in China. In view of the popularity of C-E dictionaries for Chinese learners, the present author attempts to make a detailed investigation into illustrative examples in such dictionaries in the hope of contributing to the improvement of them.The present author has taken a multi-disciplinary approach in the exploration of illustrative examples, using theories of semantics, pragmatics, corpus linguistics and lexicography. Generally speaking, illustrative examples fall into different types according to different criteria. By context we get two kinds of illustrative examples: those that explain grammatical context and those that reflect the culture of the target language. By source we have another two kinds of illustrative examples: quotations and invented examples. By form we have sentence examples and phrase examples. By the semantic compatibility of grammatically adjacent words, we can classify illustrative examples into free collocations, restricted collocations and idioms.Illustrative examples serve one or more of the following functions: to reflect semantic information, to reflect cultural information and to reflect pragmatic information.Concerning semantic information, illustrative examples may reflect conceptual meaning, connotative meaning, affective meaning, reflected meaning, collocative meaning and stylistic meaning. As to cultural information, illustrative examples may offer information about literary works and things or festivals with Chinese characteristics. Sometimes, illustrative examples provide users with pragmatic information which can help users produce English appropriately. Appropriate examples must reflect positive viewpoints, be closely related to definitions, be appropriate concerning contexts, and have clear meaning. To select appropriate examples for C-E dictionaries, lexicographers should endeavor to provide typical, informative and integrated examples, and show grammatical information and pragmatic information through examples.By making case studies of existing C-E dictionaries, the present author has dealt with two major issues concerning illustrative examples. The first issue concerns the source of examples. The author laments over the scarce use of corpora in the lexicographical practice of China and strongly recommends the building up of a corpus for selecting illustrative examples in the compilation C-E dictionaries for Chinese learners. The second issue covers problems with illustrative examples in existing C-E dictionaries. The problems include the insufficiency of examples, superabundance or repetition of examples, improper translation of examples and problems with equivalents in examples. The corresponding remedies for these problems are to give examples according to the complexity of an entry word, to bear space limit in mind, to further improve compilers'language skills, and to present examples that contain the same equivalents as the ones in the definition part. As to the last remedy, it would be even better if the equivalents in the examples have the same part of speech as those equivalents in the definition part.