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

Categorization is a basic ability of human beings to understand the world,which is reflected in the study of word classes in linguistics.Among the discussion,the most prominent problem has always been the study of word class in analytic languages such as Chinese where a word can belong to multiple word classes.Word class study directly leads to the word class labelling in dictionaries.As a result,multiple class lexemes in Chinese and Chinese-English dictionaries have not been labelled properly.In the process of globalization,language acquisition and exchange becomes a norm,in which legal entries play an indispensable role in the negotiations of the economy,trade,culture and other aspects between countries.Thus the word class labelling of legal entries puts higher and more precise requirements in the Chinese-English dictionary.Therefore,guided by the Two-level Word Class Categorization Theory,this paper aims to study the word class labelling of legal act entries in the second edition of the New Century Chinese-English Dictionary based on usage pattern surveys in Sketch Engine.The group of words “X ? ” is used as a case study to show the detailed procedure of word class identification.The study has found that there exists inconsistency between word class labelling and its illustrations,also between symmetric entries.The results show the inappropriate handling of multifunctional entries in NCCED2.The reason behind might be not distinguishing two levels of word class categorization under the “Principle of Simplicity” and not fully adopting large-scaled corpora.With the guidance of the Two-level Word Class Categorization Theory,this research can explain and improve the word class labelling of legal act entries in NCCED2,and can also make a little contribution to the improvement of word class labelling in Chinese and Chinese-English dictionaries.