Optimizing The Presentation Of Derivational Affixes In ECLDs For Chinese EFL Learners

Derivational affixes (DAs henceforth) are important for learners of English to understand and increase their vocabulary. Although somewhat rule-governed, the highly polysemous and synonymous nature of DAs poses difficulties for both lexicographers and learners, especially for the EFL learners who have less background knowledge than native speakers. As essential tools for Chinese learners of English, English-Chinese Learner's Dictionaries (ECLDs henceforth) are expected to present sufficient information concerning DAs. Nevertheless, the current editions of English learner's dictionaries, especially ECLDs have not yet provided a systematic and comprehensive presentation of DAs. They, to some extent, ignore the Chinese EFL learners' difficulties in learning DAs and offer inadequate information which can hardly meet the needs of EFL learners in China. Hence, based on the previous research findings, the present study is made in an attempt to optimize the presentation of DAs in English-Chinese learner's dictionaries and some tentative principles are formulated to meet the practical needs of Chinese EFL learners.This thesis focuses on optimizing the presentation of derivational affixes in ECLDs. The study is conducted in three aspects: 1) Reviewing the theoretical studies made on derivational affixes from the perspectives of linguistics, SLA acquisition and lexicography; 2) Examining the current presentation of derivational affixes in ELDs and ECLDs; 3) Analyzing Chinese EFL learners' specific needs concerning the acquisition of derivational affixes. Based on the comparative study and experimental study, some tentative principles are offered for presenting derivational affixes in ECLDs to cater for the particular needs of Chinese EFL learners.