On The Optimization Of Collocation Representation In English-chinese Learner’s Dictionaries: From The Perspective Of Conceptual Metaphor

Collocations are essential components in an entry and one of the major informationconsulted in dictionaries by learners. However, insufficiencies are found in existingECLDs in terms of collocation treatment, which calls for urgent improvement. Thepresent study focuses on adjective-noun collocations in lexical collocations with theobjective of optimizing collocation representation in ECLDs, better improving therepresentation structure of ECLDs.Based on cognitive perspective and conceptual metaphor theory, the study fullyreveals the close connection between collocation and metaphor, attempting to applymetaphor to the optimization of collocation representation in ECLDs. The study is boththeoretical and empirical. The connection between collocation and metaphor istheoretically clarified, and a systematical analysis on the status quo of Chinese EFLlearners’ use of collocations and major causes for collocational errors is conductedbased on adjective-noun collocation samples extracted from CLEC. Besides, the studyinvestigates collocation representation in NECD, AECD, and ECPD. Finally,considering the theoretical analysis on connection between collocation and metaphor,the present situation of Chinese learners, and collocation representation in currentECLDs, the present study, based on dictionary structure, constructs a representationmodel for collocations.The study finds that collocation is a reflection of conceptual metaphor in culturalbackground. Exposure of conceptual metaphor underlying collocations in ECLDs, onone hand, is helpful for collocation acquisition, reducing learners’ memory burden. Afterall, most collocations are motivated and analyzable instead of fixed and inexplicable.On the other hand, learners may flexibly use collocations in that conceptual metaphorspresent learners the motivation for collocations, which helps learners produce moreinnovative collocations.The present study extends the application potential of conceptual metaphor inmeaning representation in dictionaries on theoretical level, and also provides guidelineson collocation representation for the new generation ECLDs on practical level.