Summing up

Learner’s dictionaries are dictionaries specifically compiled to meet the demands of the learners of English. The dictionaries may be classified in accordance with: 1) the scope of the word-list, and 2) the nature of the information afforded. Basic – elementary – pre-intermediate learner’s dictionaries as well as intermediate ones contain only the most essential and important words, whereas upper-intermediate – advanced learner’s dictionaries contain all lexical units that the prospective user may need. As to the information they provide all learner’s dictionaries may be divided into two groups: 1) those giving equal attention to the word’s semantic characteristics and the way it is used in speech; 2) those presenting different aspects of the vocabulary.

The Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English had enormous impact on English language teaching. It was based on the fundamental principles which make learner’s dictionaries different from all others. Among them is the principle of user-orientation (user-friendliness). The realization of the principle includes the use of the defining vocabulary in semantization, the learner’s oriented presentation of meanings and the deliberate set of philological citations and illustrative phrases.

Key terms: learner’s dictionary, basic – elementary – pre-intermediate, intermediate, upper-intermediate – advanced learner’s dictionaries, user-orientation (user-friendliness), openness, vocabulary control movement, Basic English, defining vocabulary, philological citations and illustrative phrases core or nuclear English.

Questions

1. What are the two main principles of classifying learner’s dictionaries?

2. In what way do dictionaries compiled to meet the needs of learners of different levels of the study of English differ in the scope of their word-list?

3. What words are usually excluded and included in learner’s dictionaries? What criteria are used for the selection of words in learner’s dictionaries?

4. What types of learner’s dictionaries can be singled out according to the information afforded in them? What are the peculiar features of the structure and content of the entry in learner’s dictionaries?

5. Comment on the order of arrangement of meanings in learner’s dictionaries?

6. What does the supplementary material include in learner’s dictionaries?

7. Take up the notion of user-orientation.

8. What do you know about Basic English and defining vocabulary?

9. Illustrate the use of the defining vocabulary in learner’s dictionaries.

10. Are there any peculiar features of illustrative material in learner’s dictionaries?

Modern Trends in English Lexicography Outline

1. Corpus linguistics and computational linguistics

2. Corpus-based lexicography

3. Computational lexicography. Electronic dictionaries

1. Corpus linguistics and computational linguistics

Modern trends in English lexicography are connected with the appearance and rapid development of such branches of linguistics as corpus (or corpus-based) linguistics and computational linguistics.

Corpus (or corpus-based) linguistics deals mainly with compiling various electronic corpora for conducting investigations in different linguistic fields such as phonetics, phonology, grammar, stylistics, graphology, discourse, lexicon and many others. Corpora are large and systematic enterprises: whole texts or whole sections of text are included, such as conversations, magazine articles, brochures, newspapers, lectures, sermons, broadcasts, chapters of novels, etc. A well-constructed general corpus enables investigators to make more objective and confident descriptions of usage of words, to make statements about frequency of usage in the language as a whole, as well as comparative statements about usage in different varieties, permits them to arrive at a total account of the linguistic features in any of the texts contained in the corpus; provides investigators with a source of hypotheses about the way the language works.

Computational linguistics is the branch of linguistics in which the techniques of computer science are applied to the analysis and synthesis of language and speech.

The use of language corpora and the application of modern computational techniques in various lexicographical researches and in dictionary-making in particular, have stipulated the appearance of corpus (or corpus-based) lexicography and computational lexicography.

Corpora occupy a special place in the study of language. The importance of corpora for language researches is aligned to the importance of empirical data. Empirical data enable the linguist to make objective statements, rather than those which are subjective, or based upon the individual’s own internalized cognitive perception of language. A large and well-constructed corpus gives excellent information about frequency, distribution, and typicality of linguistic features – such as words, collocations, spellings, pronunciations, and grammatical constructions.