What Should a Learner's Dictionary Include?

V.1.5. Illustrative Examples of Usage

We close our analysis in the semantic domain with illustrative examples of usage, which are perhaps the most important feature a learner’s dictionary must exhibit. A learner may understand the meaning of a word through paraphrase, yet he may be unable to use it correctly and appropriately. A review of the most recent English-English learner’s dictionaries would tell us that the current trend is towards using authentic illustrative examples of actual use by native speakers of English. The following table shows the extent to which the three dictionaries have used this method:

Table (5)

The Percentage of Using

the Illustrative Examples Method in the Three Dictionaries

Once again, we have to consider an important question: do the three dictionaries use the method of illustrative examples to the optimal degree? Or in other words, is this method efficiently utilised?

In order for an illustrative example to function efficiently, it should (among other things):

1-be actually said by a native speaker (it should not be the lexicographer’s own invention)

2-provide the user with some basic syntactic characteristics of the word.

3-provide the user with some basic semantic characteristics of the word (collocations, idioms, etc)

4-Social Use

Syntactic properties include questions on transitivity, word order, countability, gradability etc. This information has been on the whole provided in examples by the three dictionaries.

Take for instance the following examples:

1- Buy (v)

- Let me buy you a drink (CCELD) è “buy” + Oi + Od

- Money can’t buy happiness (OLDCE ) è “buy” + Od

Notice also the following self-explanatory example given by CIDE:

- He bought his mother some flowers/ He bought some flowers to his mother.

2- Cybernetics (n)

CCELD is the only dictionary here that illustrates the use of the word. This use, however, seems to be a luxury. “The world of cybernetics” or “the cybernetics department” are unlikely to add to our knowledge of the word in terms of its syntactic or semantic properties. For that reason, it seems that CCELD and OLDCE have preferred not to give any example.

3- Dwell (v)

There are three examples in CIDE, and one in each of COBUILD and OLDCE. CIDE stresses two important uses of the verb “dwell”, so we can say: “dwell in + Place” or “Dwell with + Someone”.

4- Exult (v)

Examples have been given in each dictionary illustrating how to use the word with ‘in/at’. CIDE, however, adds ‘exult over’.

5- Owe (v)

Notice:

- We owe you our thanks / We owe our thanks to you (CIDE)

- I owe my parents an enormous amount / I owe an enormous amount to my parents. (CIDE)

One way of examining the efficiency in using the illustrative examples methods is by answering the following question: How many idioms and expressions or collocations have I learnt from the examples provided in the three dictionaries? The answer is illustrated through the following table:

Table (6)

The Efficiency of the Illustrative Examples Method

The above table tells us that CCELD and CIDE are more useful than OLDCE on terms of illustrative examples efficiency. It is worth mentioning that OLDCE seems to be focusing, in an unjustifiable manner, and relying on condensed examples and phrases rather than clauses or complete sentences.

III.2 Grammatical Information

One of the main properties that distinguish a learner’s dictionary is that grammatical information is more detailed than an ordinary dictionary. Part of speech, for instance, could be said to be ancillary in any dictionary but the learner’s. Take the following example:

In Arabic, to use the word "تنكر" is used as an intransitive verb, while in English the counterpart of this word is usually transitive:

- تنكر الرجل بثياب شرطي.

- The man disguised himself as a policeman.

Should a learner’s dictionary be oblivious to this fact, it would be more amenable to causing perplexity and language interference problems in the use of words by a non-native speaker.

It is interesting to note that CIDE disperses many syntactic rules and grammatical information, not only within word entries, but also in the course of its body. After explaining the word “compare”, for example, CIDE draws a frame in which the concept of comparing and grading is explained and discussed elaborately.

In the ensuing sections of this part, we shall look into three basic elements of grammatical properties of words, i.e. the part of speech, verb argument structure and classification of lexemes (other than verbs).

Grammatical information is restricted in this paper to: part of speech, verb argument structure and grammatical classification of non-verbs.

V.2.1 Part of Speech

The part of speech has been fully observed by the three dictionaries with respect to all words of the present corpus. CCELD, however, has an advantage over the other two dictionaries for its clear labeling of the part of speech. All labels referring to nouns, adjectives, verbs, etc. are placed on the left margin with respect to each sense of the word, so these labels are easy to notice and easy to understand. The other two dictionaries have preferred to place the label directly after the pronunciation or the sense of the word.

V.2.2 Verb Argument Structure

The most detailed grammatical information in a learner’s dictionary is that given to verbs since:

“verb syntax is essentially the syntax of the clause, and it is where there are probably more differences between languages. The verb lexeme in a clause determines the potential occurrence of the other elements in the clause.”

(Jackson, 1996:180)

Of the twenty six words of the corpus, only six words are verbs. These are: buy, dwell, exult, nurture, owe and utilise. Other words of the corpus that could be used as nouns are excluded, simply because they have been randomly chosen as non-verbs.

As we have mentioned earlier, grammatical properties, including verb argument structure, are clearer in CCELD than the other two dictionaries. Not all the selected verbs are covered in terms of their arguments. Consider the following table:

Table (7)

Verb Argument Structure

The verb ‘buy’ is excluded form the verb argument structure analysis.

1-Dwell (v)

CCELD states that “dwell” is followed by an adverbial, but the illustrative example is a bit “syntactically” perplexing. The problem is with the word “somewhere”, for this may impede a learner’s interpreting of the word. After reading the definition of the word, an Arab EFL learner has produced the following sentence ‘which is totally erroneous’:

* He has dwelt Amman.

S V ‘somewhere’

OLDCE, on the other hand, does not state that ‘dwell’ could occur in an NP-VP-PP structure, through it does say that ‘dwell’ is intransitive.

The problem is resolved in CIDE, which states that ‘dwell’ is a verb that is ‘always’ followed by an adverb or preposition. Two illustrative examples are given to show how the word is used with the prepositions ‘in’ and ‘with’.

The word ‘dwell’ should have been syntactically defined as: int., V+A/PP.

2-Exult (v)

The syntactic information regarding ‘exult’ is made implicit, through illustrative examples, in CIDE and in OLDCE, the latter of which provides some vague symbols like ‘I, Ipr, It’. Although illustrative examples help us understand the syntactic properties of the word in CIDE and OLDCE, these properties seem to be much clearer in CCELD. Consider the following syntactic features of ‘exult’ as mentioned in CCELD:

a-The first sense of ‘exult’ is usually used with an adverb

b-The second sense of “exult” is used after a quotation

c-The third sense of ‘exult’ is usually used with an adverb

3- Nurture (v)

There is nothing remarkable concerning the syntactic properties of this word, as the three dictionaries mention that it is transitive and takes an object.

1-Owe (v)

CIDE states that the word is stative and cannot be used in the progressive tense as to say: “is owing”. This has been indicated by the mentioning of: ‘[T not be owing]. CCELDhowever is more elaborate and clear in terms of the syntactic features of the different senses when specifying the following arguments:

a. V+O b. V+O+O c. V+O+A (to) d. V+O+O

e. V+O+O f. V+O+A+ (to)

OLDCE is still vague in its representation as it provides mere symbols lacking illustration, which is not a good feature of a learner’s dictionary.

2-Utilise (v)

Nothing of much importance could be said regarding this word, as the three dictionaries state that the word is transitive, and provide illustrative examples.

It seems, however, that none of the three dictionaries have indicated whether a verb is stative (cannot occur in the progressive) or dynamic (can occur in the progressive).

V.2.3 Classification of Non-verb Lexemes

Here, we talk about noun countability and adjective gradability. These two features should be observed in learner’s dictionaries, because of the lack of a one-to-one correspondence among words of different languages in this regard.

Beside verbs, the twenty-six-word corpus incorporates twenty nouns and adjectives. By observing the countability of noun, a learner becomes sure that he may derive a plural of this noun, or use an indefinite article before it. Gradability, on the other hand, would inform us if we can derive the comparative and superlative forms by adding ‘-er’ and ‘est’ respectively, or pre-modifying it by “very”. The three dictionaries, once again, differ in using this method. The following table is illustrative:

Table (8)

Classification of Lexemes (Other than Verbs)

CCELD, therefore, makes more use of the classification feature. The opposite is true for OLDCE, which does not seem to rely to a large degree on countability and gradability.

As for adjectives, Quirk et al (1972) observe that:

Two adjectives appear in the corpus, namely “hypochondriac” and “xenophobic”. None of the three dictionaries provide an explicit explanation on the correct use of these adjectives (i.e. in terms of attributivity and predicativity). CCELD and CIDE at least illustrate through examples how these adjectives are used predicatively. OLDCE is short on this specific point.

The three dictionaries, on the whole, are not satisfactory when it comes to specifying the kinds of adjectives.

CIDE, however, is (grammatically speaking) distinguished from the other two dictionaries with an important and significant feature. It does provide every now and then grammatical and syntactic information that would be of great assistance to the learner. Check the said dictionary and consider, for instance, the front matter (pages xiii-xviii). It includes brief but simple and easy-to-grasp information on word classes: their forms and functions.

V.3. Morphological Information

Morphology deals with the internal structure of words in terms of their derivations and inflections. The question that arises in this study regarding morphological investigation is: does a dictionary provide the learner with the derivations and inflections of a word?

Table (9) below shows how CCELD has been keen in providing all possible morphological information of the word within the same entry. This does not seem the case with CIDE and OLDCE.

Table (9)

Morphological Information (Derivation and Inflection)

Examples form CCELD are: ‘awnings’ for ‘awning”, ‘bought’ for ‘buy’, ‘exulting’ for exult’, etc. An example for CIDE is: ‘itinerarition’ for ‘itinerary’. As for OLDCE , an example is ‘lustrously’ for ‘lustre’.

V.4. Ancillary Information

It is true that paraphrase is perhaps the most important part of the definition of a word, but it is also a fact that in most dictionaries, lexicographers tend to provide some additional ancillary information. Such ancillary information may provide the learner with a further degree of knowledge concerning the word in question. These pieces of information are ancillary, as they may be omitted altogether from the entry without affecting the learner’s understanding of the word.

A problem, however, may arise on the surface if we take into account the diversity of learners’ levels of education. A beginner, for instance, may find every single detail important for learning the word, while an advanced learner may find a lot of methods in dictionaries nothing but a luxury, that he can do without.

Ancillary information may include regional dialects, pronunciations, variations of usage, formality and technicality etc. For the purposes of the present study, ancillary information will be restricted to pronunciation and variation of usage.

V.4.1 Pronunciation

With regard to the British pronunciation, all words of the corpus have been observed in CCELD and CIDE. As for OLDCE, it ignores one single word only, that is ‘xenophobic’.

Beside the British pronunciation, CIDE provides for American and Australian pronunciations where applicable. Examples are: ‘awning’, ‘cybernetics’, ‘gutter’, ‘quirk’, etc.

CCELD observes the British pronunciation only, simply because it states that the dictionary is directed for those who are mainly interested in learning British English.

The three dictionaries use the same standard phonetic symbols.

V.4.2 Variation of Usage

It has been stated above in II.1 that American English and British English may differ in using the same word semantically and syntactically. It has also been stated that a good learner’s dictionary may have to mention these differences of usage. The term ‘variation of usage’ will be used here to refer to either of the following two notions: (1) variation in spelling, and (2) syntactic and/or semantic variation in usage.

Table (10):

Variation of Usage

In this arena CIDE, dominates. 30.77% of the total words in the corpus have been observed in terms of variation of usage among British English, American English and Australian English. Consider the following for examples pertaining to the present analysis:

1-Awning (n)

CIDE draws the attention of the learner that this word is mainly used in British English, while other synonyms are used to refer to the same meaning in Australian English “sunshade” and Australian English “sunblind”. English and American pronunciations are provided.

2- Buy (v)

CIDE observes that the following expressions, that involve the verb ‘buy’ are used only in British English:

- We bought in (=bought for future use)

- You buy yourself (=you pay a sum of money so that you can leave earlier)

It also observes the following expression as used in informal American English:

- You buy the farm (you die)

3-Fuse (n)

CCELD states one of the senses of the form as used in informal English. CIDE, however, observes the following usage:

The fuse ­has gone / has broken (British and Australian English) (The neutral expression is “The fuse has blown”)

4-Justice (n)

Consider the following usages observed by CIDE and CCELD:

- ‘Justice’ is a judge (American English)

- ‘Justice’ as a part of a title of a judge (British English) [CIDE adds that it is also used as such in Australian English)

- ‘Justice of the peace’ (American English as CIDE specifies)

Of the three dictionaries, OLDCE does not seem to give much consideration to this method.

[1] Number of Words using the Illustrative Examples Method