An Empirical Study Of POS Labeling Of Chemical Change-Words Of A Chinese-English Dictionary (3rd Ed.)

POS studies have been a hot and thorny issue of Chinese grammar studies for along time. As the further exploration on Chinese POS studies, the POS labeling ofthe discipline-related words have drawn linguists’ attention. However, systematicstudies of chemical words in Chinese-English dictionaries haven’t been conducted,let alone accurate data support.This thesis focuses on the labeling of103chemical change-words with chemicalmarkers from the perspective of Usage-Based Theory (UBT). With the other threedictionaries, this study conducts the comparative analyses on the synchronic anddiachronic levels, namely the second edition and the first edition of AChinese-English Dictionary are used for diachronic analysis and the ContemporaryChinese Dictionary is chosen to do synchronic analysis. This study examines theusage patterns of the103chemical change-words and has detailed data statistics andanalyses to ascertain comprehensive and scientific POS labeling of the chemicalchange-words.CED3, in which self-contradictory or inconsistent POS labeling phenomena arefound, is inclined to identify most of the chemical change-words as single verbs andneglects the multi-category characteristics of the words. Diachronic and synchronicanalyses also testify the POS labeling issues. From the perspective of UBT, thechemical change-words should be labeled as multiple words if they have beenrecategorized (conventionalization) during the process of dynamic categorization.This study stresses that the grammatical function is the primary criterion of the POSlabeling or identification. Large balanced Chinese corpora should be put into use fordictionary compilation.This thesis not only sheds light on Chinese and Chinese-English dictionarycompilation but also furthers the studies on modern Chinese grammar. Moreover, thisstudy also has reference value to some extent for the next edition of A Chinese-English Dictionary (3rdedition).