An Empirical Study Of Word Class Labeling Of Medical Entries In New Century Chinese-English Dictionary (2^nd Edition)

The study of word classes has a long history,which can be dated back to the ancient Greek and Roman times.Within over two thousand years'study,great achievements have been made on the study of word classes.However,word class categorization in analytic languages is still a hot and difficult issue.Modern Chinese is a typical analytic language and discussions on its word classes have never been disrupted since the publication of Ma's Grammar?1898?.The criteria for word class identification and the handling of multiple class membership are the two most controversial issues.These controversies have directly led to the chaos and confusion of word class labeling in Modern Chinese and Chinese-English dictionaries.Academic lexemes are an inseparable part of Chinese-English dictionaries,so the accuracy of their word class labeling have direct influence on the compilation of Chinese-English dictionaries.From the perspective of the Two-level Word Class Categorization Theory,this thesis investigates the word class labeling of medical entries in New Century Chinese-English Dictionary(2^nd edition)on the basis of large-scale balanced Modern Chinese corpora.In the meantime,word class labeling of shared medical entries in New Century Chinese-English Dictionary(2^nd edition)will be compared with that in The Contemporary Chinese Dictionary(7^th edition),Chinese-English Medical Dictionary and New Century Chinese-English Dictionary(1^st edition)so as to see if there are mislabeling problems.Besides,a corpus-based case study is taken as an example to illustrate the procedure of word class identification.It is found that word class labeling of medical entries in New Century Chinese-English Dictionary(2^nd edition)has generally obeyed the“Principle of Translating by Word Classes”,but there are inconsistencies in the word class labeling of symmetric medical entries.It is also found that there are many confusions in the word class labeling of shared medical entries compared with the other three dictionaries.According to our analysis,New Century Chinese-English Dictionary(2^nd edition)has not distinguished the two levels of word class categorization in its medical entries'word class labeling.It is possibly influenced by the“Principle of Parsimony”and has some deviation in the criteria and procedure of word class identification.This study can not only help to improve the word class labeling of medical entries in Chinese-English dictionaries and the compilation of Chinese-English dictionaries,but also to deepen the study of Modern Chinese word classes.