On The Construction Of The Cross-reference System In The Chinese-English Learner's Dictionary For Chinese EFL Learners

The compilation of Chinese-English dictionaries has experienced a brilliant history since the late Qing dynasty.Although many Chinese-English dictionaries have been published over the past few years,the Chinese-English learner's dictionary designed for Chinese EFL learners is absent.Students,college students in particular,make up large proportions in the market of Chinese-English dictionaries.Nevertheless,general-purpose Chinese-English dictionaries cannot fully satisfy their demands of learning and using English.Accordingly,it is essential to compile the Chinese-English learner's dictionary for Chinese EFL learners.The cross-reference performs various roles in a dictionary,such as decreasing repetitive treatment in entries to save space,locating dictionary information to strengthen its retrieval or linking dictionary lexical items.Cross-reference systems in most Chinese-English dictionaries are not good enough to meet the needs of EFL learners.The compilation of a successful Chinese-English learner's dictionary requires a complete and rigorous cross-reference system.However,few researchers have discussed cross-references in the Chinese-English learner's dictionary.They only point out the necessities of structuring cross-references rather than provide the detailed description of ways to construct them.Hence,the author of this thesis aims at establishing a relatively thorough cross-reference system for the Chinese-English learner's dictionary with the purpose of offering suggestions for cross-references in dictionaries of this kind.To fulfill the goal,this thesis explores the undermentioned questions:(1)What is the relationship between the cross-reference system and the relevance theory,the cross-reference system and the mental lexicon?(2)How do four Chinese-English dictionaries and Modern Chinese Learner's Dictionary treat cross-references?(3)What are the functions and characteristics of cross-references in the Chinese-English learner's dictionary?(4)What are the criteria for structuring cross-references in the Chinese-English learner's dictionary?(5)What are the cross-referred words,the types and markers of cross-references in the Chinese-English learner's dictionary?The present study is on the basis of the relevance theory and the mental lexicon.The author of this thesis has attempted to address the relationship between the cross-reference system and them.They can provide guidance to the construction of cross-references in the Chinese-English learner's dictionary.Due to the fact that none of the Chinese-English learner's dictionary for Chinese EFL learners has been published so far,four Chinese-English dictionaries are chosen for reference.The author of this thesis adopts the method of dictionary text study.The dictionary cross-reference systems in Chinese-English Dictionary(the 3 rd compact edition),The Chinese-English Dictionary(the 3rd edition),New Century Chinese-English Dictionary(the 2nd compact edition)and New Age Chinese-English Dictionary(the 2nd compact edition)are compared.To collect data on cross-references and establish a corpus about cross-references,the headwords starting with the letter B in the four Chinese-English dictionaries are studied and then totally 1,032 the same entry words in the part of the letter B of the four dictionaries have been analyzed.In addition,the cross-references in Modern Chinese Learner's Dictionary are studied to provide guidelines for the Chinese-English learner's dictionary.Based on quantitative and qualitative studies,the major findings of this thesis can be summarized as follows.First,the relevance theory and the mental lexicon offer guidelines for the establishment of the cross-reference system in the Chinese-English learner's dictionary.The cross-reference offered by the Chinese-English learner's dictionary is supposed to be of maximum relevance.For Chinese headwords,their cross-references should comply with the mental lexicons of native Chinese speakers.Thus,the cross-references are the most relevant.In terms of English equivalents,their cross-references should abide by the mental lexicons of Chinese EFL learners.In this way,the cross-references provided can be the most relevant.In addition,the representation of cross-references should be as explicit as possible.It is advised that a symbol or a marker of one word relation should be consistent.Second,a complete cross-reference system is absent in the four Chinese-English dictionaries.The four dictionaries stress the cross-references of headwords and provide the phonological,orthographical,semantic,grammatical and cultural cross-references to depict their dictionary word relations.They do not offer pragmatic cross-references.Moreover,the necessary cross-references for some English equivalents are disregarded.The information in the dictionaries are not fully used,especially the information in the outside matter,to be the materials of the cross-references.The indicators of four dictionaries to represent cross-references,explicit or implicit,though not perfect enough,are inspiring for the Chinese-English learner 's dictionary,such as the employment of diagrams and pictorial illustrations.Different approaches are taken by Modern Chinese Learner's Dictionary to constructing cross-references,like notes and columns.It is enlightening about the treatment of the Chinese-English learner's dictionary.Third,in the light of the theoretical framework and the dictionary text study,the author has attempted to depict characteristics of cross-references and put forth three criteria,namely,systematicness,representativeness and explicitness,for the cross-reference system in the Chinese-English learner's dictionary.Furthermore,a tentative model for structuring the cross-reference system in the Chinese-English learner's dictionary is advanced.The model has described the cross-referred words,the types and symbols of cross-references.This model focuses on the cross-references of Chinese headwords and English equivalents.A cross-reference should be offered if it could promote the comprehension and facilitate the production of English for Chinese EFL learners.Besides,the samples of cross-references are provided.This thesis has several implications.Firstly,it is a study grounded on the marriage between the relevance theory and the mental lexicon,which lay the solid theoretical foundations for constructing cross-references.Then,the research is conducted on the basis of data collected from the four Chinese-English dictionaries and Modern Chinese Learner's Dictionary.With data analyses,the real picture of the cross-reference system in these dictionaries is represented,which facilitates the discovery about existing problems and offers suggestions for the Chinese-English learner's dictionary.In addition to this,the author has presented criteria and suggested a tentative model that can guide the configuration of the cross-reference system in the Chinese-English learner's dictionary,providing answers to cross-referenced words,the types of cross-references and ways to represent them.It can be inspiring for the compilers of the Chinese-English learner's dictionary.