On Defining Styles And Their Refinement In Monolingual Dictionaries For Medium-and-Advanced Learners

Defining occupies a crucial position in the compiling work of dictionaries. In other words, the essential function of dictionaries is giving definitions. Depending on the nature, scope and intended users of different kinds of dictionaries, definitions are formulated in different styles, that is ,by taking different approaches and choosing different types of languages. Apparently, different definition styles lead to different influences to the effect of definitions on dictionaries and further on language learners. Research on choosing appropriate definition styles for dictionaries and the effect of different definition styles on language learners is therefore of indispensable value to lexicographical theories.This thesis, a qualitative study, is supposed to explore the defining properties of the current monolingual dictionaries for medium-and-advanced learners (MDMAL). For this purpose, the most popular monolingual dictionaries both in English and Chinese are collected and examined. The current defining styles are classified into phrasal definitions(PD) and sentence definitions(SD) and the former can be further divided into functional defining, object-directed defining etc. and the latter is further divided into simple -sentence definitions and compound sentence definitions.The remarkable merits of PD are conciseness and substitutability and their weaknesses are user -unfriendliness and inadequate contextual information.As for SD, the main merits are availability of contextual information and unbroken thought flow and colloquialism, etc. The main demerits of this defining style are space-consuming, over-restriction, etc. On dissecting the advantages and disadvantages of the two defining styles, the author draws the conclusion that a combination of the two defining styles may be a viable alternative. In the end , two approaches to refining the MDMAL definitions, computer assistance and cognitive theories, are suggested.This thesis is composed with five chapters which run as followsChapter One : Introduction This part lays the theoretical foundations of this thesis. It gives a brief introduction to the history of the learner's dictionaries and the BIG FOUR, the most popular MDMAL in market. It tries to clarify the applied concepts like the defining nature of the MDMAL, differences between logical definitions, lexicographical definitions and encyclopedic definitions and the required principles of the MDMAL ,so on and so forth.Chapter Two: The Two Major defining styles of MDMALThis chapter forms the major part of the thesis. The major ways of defining will be dissected into phrasal defining and sentence defining. At the end of the chapter a case study on the current defining ways in the MDMAL will be conducted in form of table.Chapter Three: Critical views on MDMAL defining stylesFlaws in the defining perspective of the current learner's dictionaries are discussed in this chapter. And the flaws fall into two categories: microstructure and macrostructure. At the end of this chapter some personal suggestions as countermeasures are offered.Chapter Four: Some approaches to refinement of MDMAL Definitions A new experimental defining style and the application of computer in upgrading the defining work are presented in this chapter. Three categories of cognitive linguistics are to be introduced in this chapter : image schema, prototypical theory and metaphor theory. Then the author will use specific examples to testify to the fact that theories of cognitive linguistics may help us improve the defining from the perspective of the MDMAL readers.Chapter Five : ConclusionThis chapter arrives at the conclusion based on the analysis in the previous chapters and presents the limitations, i.e. unaddressed problems of this thesis...