Non-standard dictionary definitions: What they cannot tell native speakers of Polish
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Date
2006
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Publisher
Cadernos de Traduçao
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Abstract
Recently, a new defining format has been gaining in popularity
in abstract noun entries of monolingual English learners’ dictionaries: a
single-clause when-definition. The present study attempts to investigate the
role of the definition of this format, placed in a complete microstructure, in
conveying information on the syntactic class of nominal headwords. To
achieve this aim, tests were designed and run on several groups of Polish
learners of English at the intermediate level. Balanced parallel forms were
employed, where single-clause when-definitions were contrasted with their
closest analytical analogs in full dictionary entries. It was found that both
the new and the classical definition formats resulted in comparably frequent
correct POS identification of the headword nouns. This is in stark contrast
to the results yielded by Lew & Dziemianko’s research (in press), which
has inspired the present analysis, where the definition formats were investigated
in isolation from other components of the microstructure. Analysis
of the consultation behaviour suggests that the syntactic label was the only
element of the entry consulted with any frequency, which suggests that the
subjects may have approached the task as a metalexicographic exercise.
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Keywords
Definition, Folk defining, Lexicography, Syntactic information, Syntax, Monolingual dictionary, Definition format, Learner's dictionary
Citation
Cadernos de Traduçao 18. 275-294.