When you are explaining the meaning of a word: The effect of abstract noun definition format on syntactic class identification
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Date
2006
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Edizioni dell'Orso
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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 and 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.
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Lexicography, Definition
Citation
Corino, E. -- Marello, C. -- Onesti, C. (eds.) Atti del XII Congresso di Lessicografia, Torino, 6-9 settembre 2006. Allessandria: Edizioni dell'Orso, 857-63.