Encoding Function Of Examples Of Learner’s Dictionaries From The User Perspective

One of the distinctive features of learner’s dictionaries is an abundance of illustrative examples which can function as aids to successful language comprehension and production. Monolingual learner’s dictionaries are chiefly designed to meet learners’ encoding needs. Two factors have shaped the present study into dictionary exemplification:the user-oriented lexicography and corpus-based lexicography. The user perspective started from the late1970s. Though recent years have witnessed continuous attention on the user-related research, lexicographers have not reached agreement on its research methods and efficiency. Many problems have not been adequately addressed in the literature of lexicographical exemplification; especially, the encoding function of examples in the context of China has not gained sufficient attention in literature.The purpose of the present study is to explore the encoding function of examples in learner’s dictionaries concerning Chinese learners’ reference needs. To do so, the author, firstly, reviews the development of learners’ dictionaries and finds that previous versions gave little attention to encoding function of illustrative examples and users’ reference needs. Then, example research from the user perspective is studied. In light of the limitation of questionnaires and experiments, this thesis adopts the learner corpus method to identify Chinese learners’needs for examples. Through the error analysis of CLEC, it is found that in encoding activity Chinese learners need more information about meaning, collocation, grammar and register of a target word. Finally, based on the above findings, this thesis makes a comparison between OALD8and LDOCE5in terms of example treatment and encoding information they present.The comparison indicates LDOCE5is more suitable for encoding. Firstly, in treating semantic information, this paper examines three aspects:derivates, polysemous words and synonyms. Both dictionaries show insufficient knowledge in illustrating derivates. LDOCE5does better than OALD8in providing examples for polysemous words and synonyms. Secondly, the quantitative and qualitative study of collocations in these two dictionaries indicates LDOCE5presents more invaluable examples than OALD8does. Besides, the former takes learners’ difficulties into account. Thirdly, seeing that syntactic information, the number of compound and complex sentences in examples is limited in both dictionaries. Simple sentence examples in LDOCE5have more adjuncts than in OALD8, which implies that the former intends to provide a relatively wider context. Finally, after the concordance of BNC and COCA, this paper concludes that LDOCE5puts more emphasis on presenting register information. What’s more, LDOCE5has taken learners’ difficulties into consideration by including grammar notes, collocation and register notes. Though both dictionaries have shown some clues that they attempt to meet users’ reference needs, in terms of encoding activity, LDOCE5is better than OALD8. However, Chinese users’ needs have not been fully fulfilled. Therefore, according to the results of this thesis, the author suggests some requirements for example selection in the hope of shedding light on the exemplification of learner’s dictionaries.