Words, Dictionaries and Corpora: Innovations
in reference=Proceedings
scienceof ASIALEX 2015, HONG KONG

PROCEEDINGS OF ASIALEX
2015 HONG KONG
Edited by:
LI LanJamie Mckeown
LIU Liming

Department of English
Hong Kong Polytechnic University

Words, Dictionaries and Corpora: Innovations in reference science

Proceedings of ASIALEX 2015
Hong Kong

Edited by LI Lan, Jamie MCKEOWN and LIU Liming
Hong Kong Polytechnic University
June 2015

©The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 2015

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilize inany form or by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.

ISBN 978-962-367-790-5
Printed and bound in Hong Kongii

PREFACE
The 9th International Conference of ASIALEX was held at the Hong Kong
Polytechnic University on 25-27th June 2015. The theme of the conference is Words,
Dictionaries and Corpora: Innovations in reference science.
The response to the call for papers was encouragingly strong, and seventy-five percent
of presenters contributed a full paper. The range of the topics covered by theconference is rich and will certainly deepen our understanding of semantics,
dictionaries and computational lexicography. The proceedings have six sections: 1)
General lexicographic studies; 2) Pedagogical lexicography; 3) Corpus andcomputational lexicography; 4) user studies; 5) Terminologies and lexical studies and6) e-dictionaries.
The ASIALEX 2015 was sponsored by the Department of English, and also the PolyU
Funding for Prestigious International Engagements. I am grateful to the generous
institutional support which made this international event possible. Teamwork,
patience and tireless effort are the key to the success of the conference and theProceedings. I would like to express my particular thanks to the organizing
committee: Prof Huang Churen, Professor Martin Warren, Miss Ye Meng, Mr Liu
Liming, Mr Jamie Mckeown. We were a small team running a big conference.

LI LanConvener of ASIALEX2015, Hong Kong
June 2015i

CONTENTS
PREFACEKEYNOTE SPEECHES
Thirty Years of User Studies – And what we still need to find out
Hilary Nesi

1

A New Concept and a New Format in Bilingual Lexicography: Reflections on the Making of A
Comprehensive Chinese-English Dictionary
CHAN Sanwai
9

SECTION 1 GENERAL LEXICOGRAPHIC STUDIES
Adaptability of the Bilingual Theory to Dictionary Making And the Genesis of a New Kind
Dictiona
Ali Aycan KOLUKISA

22

Bilingual Dictionary and Encyclopedia – Where goes the line? Cultural specificities as sources ofdilemmas and solutions proposed
Mats-Peter Sundström
35
Roles That Labels in Dictionaries Are Expected to Play
Masaaki Ogura

44

Strict Corpus-based Lexicography and the Development of Dictionaries in the South African
Indigenous Languages
MV Mojela
48
Comparing Japanese-English Dictionary Entries of English Loanwords with Corpus-Derived
Lexical Profiles
Keith Barrs
55
The Possibility of Building a Dependency-based Japanese-English Construction Dictionary
Masanori Oya

61

The Crowdsourced Compilation of the China English Dictionary
QIN Xiaohui74

A Dictionary of Hong Kong English vs The GloWbe Corpus?: Triangulating sources oflexicographic evidence
Vincent B Y Ooi

80

Proverbs in A Comprehensive Indonesian-English Dictionary: Critical evaluation on culturalbound phraseology
Dora Amalia
90
Cuyonon and Tausug Cultural Dictionaries: Databank for determining mutual intelligibility of
two indigenous Philippine languages
Rosario B. Dizon, Mary Ann S. Sandoval, Myrna Halim, Lydia L. Mata and Ser Robert David B.
Dizon
97

ii

Forms of Address in French-Korean and Korean-French Dictionaries from the Perspective of a
French Learner of Korean
NAM Kilim
114
The Development of the Dictionary of the Usage Frequency of Basic Korean Vocabulary and Its
Application to Korean Lexicology
KIM Jinung and SEO Sang-Kyu
124
Problems and Countermeasures in Chinese Lexicography Modernization
KANG Shiyong

133

Where Do We Go from Here?
Ari Kernerman

140

SECTION 2 PEDAGOGICAL LEXICOGRAPHY
Lexicography as a Teaching Tool: A Hong Kong case study
James Lambert

144

Grammatical Items Used in EFL Dictionary Examples: From the Japanese EFL Learner
Perspective
Yasutake ISHII

154

Where is the place for slang? An analysis of labeling of restrictive word usage in monolingualEnglish learners’ dictionaries
Susanna Bae and Young-kuk Jeong
162
The Research on the Name Information in the Commercial Press Learner’s Dictionary ofContemporary Chinese
HE Shan173

Two Innovations in Pedagogical Dictionaries
Geoff Toister

182

A New Trend in Lexicography: Bringing Semantic Prosody into Learner’s Dictionary
Jusong WANG

189

Anglocentrism in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English
Hai XU and Martin Weisser

195

Pragmatic Information in Learner’s Dictionaries: RedefinedAnmin WANG

204

SECTION 3 CORPUS AND COMPUTATIONAL LEXICOGRAPHY
Crowdsourcing Microdata for Cost-Effective and Reliable Lexicography
Martin Benjamin213

Comparison of Dictionary Use and Corpus Use: Different effects on learning L2 phrases
Yoshiho Satake

222

House M.D. Corpus Analysis: A Linguistic Intervention of Contemporary American English
Locky LAW
230

iii

Building an English-Filipino Tourism Corpus and Lexicon for an ASEAN Language Translation
SystemCharmaine S. Ponay and Charibeth K. Cheng
250
Japanese Idioms in Corpus Data and Dictionaries: Variability and Patterning
Priscilla Ishida261

A Corpus-based Difficulty Level Evaluation of Example Sentences with the CEFR Levels in
CALD4
Yoshiyuki Notohara

273

A Corpus-based Study of Noun-adjective Continuum in Japanese and English
Masayuki HIRATA and Alex Chengyu FANG

281

Lavender Filipino: Computational Models of Twitter Swardspeak
Nathaniel Oco, Raymart Fajutagana, Christine Mae Lim, Judi Diane Miñon, Julie-Ann Morano and
Ryan Christian Tinoco
302
The Old and New Tagalog Orthography: A computational comparison
Manolito Octaviano Jr., Nathaniel Oco and Rachel Edita Roxas

311

FilCon: Filipino sentiment lexicon generation using word level-annotated dictionary-based andcorpus-based cross lingual approach
Darlan Keen Domingo, Nyker Matthew King, Jerome Lorenzo Lopez, Alexandra Mondares andCharmaine Ponay
317

SECTION 4 USER STUDIESAn Empirical Study of English Corpus as a Reference Tool for PhD Students
LI Lan331

Using Dictionary for Learning English: a Case Study of Non-English Major Students at People’s
Public Security University of China
LI Xiu-ping344
The L1 Guide to the Usage of an EFL Dictionary: The case of the Japanese Guide to the Usage of
Oxford Wordpower Dictionary
Shigeru Yamada
352
Meeting More Readers’ Needs: the YES-CEDICT Chinese Dictionary
Xiaoheng ZHANG

355

Lexicographic Needs in Turkic Republics
Baktygul KULAMSHAEVA

361

SECTION 5 TERMINOLOGIES AND LEXICAL STUDIESA Contrastive Study of Phraseological Units among Andalusians and the Fluminense people
Rita Giovana M. Ferraro
369
Phraseology and Terminology in LSP: Implications for lexicography
Jirapa Vitayapirak

377

Equipping Students with Lexicographical Means to Tackle Collocation Problems
LIU Liming

382

iv

Compilation of Traditional Building Construction Terminologies in Tamil
Saravanan RAJA

391

A Study of The Prototypical Definition of the “walk” Headword Based on the Characteristic of
its Non Self-Sufficiency
FENG Haixia
403
A Comparative Study of War Metaphors in Business and General News Articles Using a
Dictionary-based Database
ZHONG Xian

411

A Diachronic Comparison of the Strategies Adopted by The New York Times in Translating
Expressions with Chinese Characteristics
LIU Meiyan

425

The Effects of Task Types on Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition through L2 Listening
YUAN Ximing

435

SECTION 6 E-DICTIONARIES
Improving an Electronic Dictionary for Morphological Analysis of Japanese: Use of historicalperiod information
Tomoaki KOUNO and Toshinobu OGISO
441
Portable Electronic Dictionary (PED) Use in Spanish as Second Language Students in Japan
Lidia SALA CAJA
450The Design of an App for Learning Chinese Idioms
Shan WANG and Yujia WU

460

An Electronic English Frequency Dictionary of Age Groups
LI Hanhang John

469

LINE Dictionary: More than a dictionary
Tae-hoon LEE and Eun-joo JEON

481

Spelling Variation Problem in Persian: Automatic Development of a Spelling Database for a
Digital Dictionary
Saghar Sharifi, Marziye Sanaati and Masood Ghayoomi
488
Towards Automatic Translation from Sanskrit to English
Chitresh SONI, Girish Nath JHA, Naveen Kumar JHAv

498

Thirty Years of User Studies – And what we still need to find out
Hilary Nesi
Coventry University, UK
h.nesi@coventry.ac.uk
Abstract
The main - perhaps the only - reason for investigating dictionary use is in order to improve users’
consultation methods, and to meet their consultation needs more closely. This is easier said than done,of course, given that there are so many different types of user consulting dictionaries in so manydifferent contexts, for so many different purposes, and with such differing levels of knowledge andexpertise. Moreover although the research area is still relatively young (very few empirical studies
were conducted before the 1980s) it spans a period of great technological change and has experimented
with a wide range of methodologies, so that studies purporting to address similar research questions, insimilar contexts, have sometimes arrived at very different conclusions.
Focusing particularly on dictionaries for learners of English, this paper will trace developments in user
studies over the past thirty years, and will attempt to identify conclusions we can all agree on, claims
that remain contentious, and important questions that still remain to be answered. It assumes that the‘perfect’ dictionary consultation is the one which provides the best answers, in the least obtrusive way.
Keywords: users, research, English language learners

1. Introduction
The study of dictionary use should be an indispensable part of the dictionary-making process;there is no point in changing dictionary design if the changes do not make dictionary
consultation more useful, efficient and pleasurable, and these effects can only be monitored
by examining user attitudes and behaviour. Although lexicographers and teacher informants
might be able to deduce indirectly what lexical information specified groups of users need(c.f. Tarp 2014), without empirical investigation it is impossible to tell how these users might
respond to different methods of information provision, affecting, for example, defining
language, the macro and micro-structure, and the encoding of grammatical and phonologicalinformation. In many ways the process of dictionary creation is analogous to the process oflanguage course design. Designers start by devising a sort of content ‘syllabus’ based on
perceived user needs, but the success of the product depends on user-appropriate
communication of this content: the pedagogical methods, the learning materials, the mode ofdelivery. Dictionary evaluation, like language course evaluation, must be made in terms ofwhat end-users think and do.
The study of dictionary use is an art rather than a science, however. We expect the findings
reported by corpus linguists and language engineers to be replicable by other researchers, andwe expect to be able to build on these findings to create ever more informed linguistic
descriptions. Studies of dictionary use, on the other hand, are heavily influenced by local
circumstances and the methodological choices of individual researchers. Findings are often
open to interpretation, are difficult to replicate, and may or may not be generalizable to othercontexts. This is because of variation in learner backgrounds (for example their first language,
proficiency level and dictionary skills), the research instruments (whether the study
investigates user preferences, user consultation practices or dictionary usefulness in aparticular kind of language task), and the actual dictionaries under investigation.
Perhaps we should accept that it is impossible to prove beyond doubt that one approach todictionary design is superior to another, given that the variables in contexts of dictionary use
are complex and difficult to isolate for controlled experimentation. However, as with other1

types of pedagogical research, there are also serious resource issues that impede thedevelopment of best practice. Unlike dictionary development projects, user research is rarely
funded from the public purse, and although it is good that publishers sometimes support thepiloting of dictionary products, too much commercial involvement can run the risk ofcompromising study design. The lack of resources particularly hinders user studies, where edictionary software and hardware are needed to replicate natural dictionary access conditions.
All these considerations reduce the impact of user studies, despite their very great informative
potential. Dictionary use researchers are also often teachers, and the insights they gather
regarding user behaviour will feed back into classroom practice (see, for example, Bae 2014),
but Lew and Dziemianko (2006: 277) claim that ‘few modifications to the learners’ dictionary
design are supported by published results of experimental research on how learners really use
dictionaries’. This paper examines trends over 30 years of research into the use of dictionaries
for learners of English, aiming to identify some common ground on which teachers andlexicographers can build, and some potentially fruitful future research directions.
2. Some areas of general consensus
2.1 Monolingual v. bilingual dictionaries
A large proportion of the research into dictionary use has focussed on monolingual
dictionaries for advanced learners of English. This is partly because each new edition of these
dictionaries has tended to introduce some innovation worthy of investigation, such as the
restricted defining vocabulary introduced by Longman in 1978, for example, or the ‘extra
column’ introduced by COBUILD in 1987. It is also because, as has often been noted (e.g. by
Lew 2011, 2015; Nesi 2013), participants in studies of dictionary use tend to be linguisticallyadvanced university staff and students rather than a true cross-section of the dictionary-using
public. The researchers themselves are based in universities, and they make use of theresources nearest to hand. Also, in most educational contexts printed monolingual dictionaries
are more readily available to researchers as class sets; in multilingual research settings thealternative to a set of monolingual dictionaries would usually be a number of different
bilingual dictionaries, of differing styles and quality, perhaps in languages unknown to theresearcher.
Many studies have reported that educators hold monolingual advanced learners’ dictionaries
in higher esteem than bilingual dictionaries (for example Waring 2001; Boonmoh & Nesi
2008; Chan 2011, Bae 2014), although bilingual dictionaries do seem to enjoy high statusamongst Japanese teachers, according to research emanating from Japan (see for example
Nakao 1998). These preferences may distort the findings of research into dictionary use,
especially if the researcher is also a teacher of the research participants, as is often the case.
Respondents in questionnaire surveys may exaggerate their use of monolingual as opposed tobilingual dictionaries in order to present themselves as good students, and in observational
studies they may hide from sight their bilingual dictionary use. This bias can affect learner
behaviour even in studies where the researchers state no preference for any particular
dictionary type; Nesi and Haill (2002), for example, found that participants in theirnaturalistic study tended to report on their use of monolingual rather than bilingual
dictionaries, presumably because they felt that bilingual dictionaries would be of little interest
to their teachers.
There is, however, overwhelming research evidence that learners prefer to use bilingual
dictionaries (Tomaszczyk, 1979; Baxter, 1980; Bensoussan, Sim & Weiss 1984; Atkins &Varantola 1998; Komuro & Yamada 2000; Thumb 2004; Wingate 2002; Yoon 2014).
Learners have difficulty with the metalanguage of monolingual dictionaries, and lack thegrammatical knowledge to make sense of grammar codes (Neubach & Cohen 1988; Nesi &Haill 2002; Thumb 2004; Miller 2009), and although there is some evidence thatmonolingual dictionary use increases at more advanced proficiency levels (Battenburg 1991;
2

Atkins & Varantola 1998), bilingual dictionary use also persists at advanced levels, often in
combination with other types of reference material (Atkins & Varantola 1998; Yoon 2014).
Particularly positive findings have been reported in user studies of bilingualised dictionaries,
by Thumb (2004), Dídac et al. (2006) and Batia Laufer and her associates (Laufer &Melamed 1994; Laufer & Hadar 1997, Laufer & Levitzky-Aviad 2006), although this type ofdictionary is not available for some languages and it does not seem to have been very widely
investigated.
2.2 Print v. electronic
In the past many students simply bought the print dictionaries that their teachers
recommended, and teachers thus had considerable power over dictionary ownership and use(see, for example, Chi 2003). The debate over whether to recommend bilingual ormonolingual dictionaries may no longer have much relevance, however, given that pocket
electronic dictionaries (PEDs) typically contain both bilingual and monolingual sources (oldand new), and users now increasingly access free online ‘aggregate’ dictionary sites which
provide links to multiple types of reference tool, including bilingual sentence banks.
Nevertheless, as in the pre-electronic era, much metalexicographic attention still tends tofocus on the use of monolingual advanced learners’ dictionaries, on CD-Rom (e.g. Nesi 2010,
Dziemianko 2012), in PEDs (e.g. Chen 2010) and online (e.g. Dziemianko 2010, 2011).
Prestigious monolingual dictionaries are certainly easier to work with for research purposes,
and teachers’ and researchers’ suspicions of popular bilingual e-dictionary content have been
justified, at least in some cases. Scanning mistakes occur when converting old paper-based
bilingual dictionaries to electronic form, for example, (Boonmoh et al. 2005; Nesi &Boonmoh 2009), and there are wildly inaccurate automatic translations of web content insome popular online dictionaries (Nesi 2012). Mair (2007) blames automatic translations inaggregate dictionaries for the spread, in China, of “absurdly crude English mistranslations inbizarrely inappropriate contexts”.
Entirely excluding less prestigious bilingual e-dictionaries from experimental user studies
seems to be a mistake, nevertheless, because these are the dictionary types which are accessed
most frequently around the world under non-experimental conditions. The developers of theaggregate dictionary Jin Shan Ci Ba, for example, claim that it is used by more than twenty
million people in mainland China (Nesi 2012). Research findings indicate that bilingual edictionaries are chosen in preference to monolingual e-dictionaries not only because they areeasier to understand but also because they are more in evidence on aggregates sites, andbecause they often contain additional features such as corpus data, wordlists, language tests,
games, and personal organizer functions. Thai research participants in Nesi and Boonmoh’s
study (2009), for example, using the default settings for local English-Thai and Thai-English
dictionaries in their PEDs, and claimed never to consult the monolingual dictionaries content.
Similarly students introduced to the Macmillan learners’ dictionary on CD-ROM (Nesi 2010)
acknowledged the superiority of its lexicographical content, but still opted for the bilingual edictionaries on their hard drives and in their PEDs because they were easier to access, andcontained more extra facilities. Yoon (2014) found that her Korean participants generally
chose to use the Naver online Korean-English dictionary as opposed to the Longman
Dictionary of Contemporary English.
Although in the early days many teachers were against e-dictionaries, the new generation ofdigitally-savvy teachers seems to be reconciled to their use, and more than half the teachers in
Bae’s survey (2014) reported that they no longer used print dictionaries at all. When edictionaries first became available teachers were worried about a loss of depth of learning if
dictionary consultation became faster and easier (Taylor and Chan 1994, Sharpe 1995,
Stirling 2003). This seems to be because of ‘involvement load’ (c.f. Craik & Lockhart 1972),
a hypothesis Koyama and Takeuchi (2004) cite to explain why their research participantsretained information better from paper dictionaries than from PEDs. Although easy access to3

e-dictionary information seems to encourage learners to make more frequent consultations(Nesi 2000; Ronald & Ozawa 2008, Lew 2013) it may also discourage them from recording
consultation outcomes (Boyd 2011) and thereby consolidating the information they haveacquired. However the majority of empirical studies (e.g. Nesi 2000; Koyama & Takeuchi
2003; Kobayashi 2007; Xu 2010; Chen 2010, 2012; Dziemianko 2011, 2012) have found little
or no difference in task performance when learners use dictionaries in paper or electronic
form.
Interestingly, although CD-Roms are frequently used in studies of e-dictionary use, this seems
to be the format least preferred by teachers and learners. In Bae’s survey of Korean teachers(2014) over 70% were found never to have used a CD-Rom dictionary, and in Boonmoh andNesi’s survey of Thai students (2008), only about a quarter acknowledged ownership of amonolingual dictionary CD-Rom, even though the majority owned a print copy of theLongman Active Study Dictionary which came with a copy of the CD-Rom attached to thefront cover. This lack of interest in CD-Roms may partly be due to access problems; many of
the students in Boonmoh and Nesi’s survey did not have their own computers, and evenlaptop users might find CD-Roms less portable than print dictionaries, or mobile dictionary
devices. Portability is becoming more and more important; modern learners expect to be able
to consult online sources on the move, via their smart phones, and this in turn has increased
the range of activities which can feasibly be assisted by dictionary consultation; dictionaries
with audio functions can now support conversations and service encounters. Experimentswith dictionary users are lagging behind in this respect as they still generally focus solely on
reading and writing tasks.
2.3 Dictionary skills
There is now abundant empirical evidence to suggest that dictionary skills can be taught
effectively (Kipfer 1987; Bishop 2001; Carduner 2003; Chi 2003; Lew and Galas 2008;
Miller 2009; Bae 2014; Liu 2014). A number of writers have developed taxonomies of thereference skills needed for successful dictionary consultation, for example Scholfield (1982),
Bogaards (1993), Nesi (1999), Lew and Galas (2008) and Bae (2014). Tono (2001)
complained about the lack of any reliable way to measure dictionary using skills, but thisproblem has been partially addressed by Gavriilidou (2013), who presents a standardisedskills assessment instrument based on suggestions in the prior literature. Gavriilidou’s
instrument seems more appropriate for print dictionary use, however, with references tobuying dictionaries in bookshops and attending to alphabetical order and letter distribution.
Lew (2013) provides a more thorough account of dictionary skills in the context of online
dictionaries, building on previous taxonomies and the attempts by Engelberg and Lemnitzer(2009) and Pastor and Alcina (2010) to classify electronic dictionary search techniques.
3. Future directions
User studies have tended to concentrate on the skills at the centre of Nesi’s taxonomy (Stage
Three: locating entry information), and in recent years the range of research methods to
explore user behaviour in this area has greatly expanded. Now, in addition to questionnaires,interviews, and paper-based tests, researchers use think-aloud techniques (e.g. Thumb 2004;
Nesi & Boonmoh 2009), online quizzes (e.g. Nesi & Tan 2011), log-file analysis (e.g. De
Schryver & Joffe 2004; Verlinde & Binon 2010; Schoonheim et al. 2012; Koplenig et al.
2014) and eye-tracking (e.g. Tono 2011; Lew et al. 2013). Still largely missing from this areaof investigation, however, are longitudinal studies which take into account the way users’
strategies develop as they increase their knowledge of the language and their reference tools.
Most studies only take a ‘snapshot’ of user skills, and conflicting results from different
studies may simply be due to the differing positions of participants on a learning curve,
disguising the fact that they are heading in the same direction.

4

Studies of the way users process dictionary entries have the potential to feed back into future
dictionary design. The fact learners’ dictionaries are now less heavily encoded suggests thatsome feedback from experimental findings has already occurred, despite the claim of Lew
and Dziemianko (2006:277) to the contrary. Equally important, however, are the skills areas
on either side of the central information location stage. Nesi’s six-part taxonomy (1999)
includes ‘before study’ and ‘before consultation’ stages, involving the interpretation andrecording of entry information and a general understanding of lexicographical principles, andpost consultation stages involving the recording and evaluation of dictionary information.
These areas have been less well investigated, as Tarp (2014) points out, although the ability toevaluate consultation situations and to apply dictionary information to new contexts seems tobe particularly important now, as users gain easier access to a far wider range of resources,
often of very varying quality. Whereas in the past the authority of dictionaries was rarely
questioned, digital resources require ‘a more pragmatic and less ideological or dogmatic viewof dictionaries’ (Lew and de Schryver 2014: 342). Bae and Nesi’s (2014) study of dictionaryrelated online queries suggests that UK/Irish users of Yahoo! Answers feel more empowered
to challenge lexicographical sources than Korean users of Naver Knowledge-iN. Researchers
should perhaps keep a more watchful eye on users’ evaluative behaviour, with a view tobuilding evaluative strategies into dictionary training programmes, as Bae (2014) has done.
User studies matter. Monolingual learners’ dictionaries have evolved over time to meet userneeds, possibly in response to findings from such studies, but as we have seen monolingual
dictionaries are not the first choice for most learners, and while the monolingual dictionaries
have been evolving many more bilingual and multilingual dictionaries have become available
to users in digital form. Perhaps future user studies will have some influence on the future
design of some of these products, but an immediate concern is to investigate users’ strategies
for coping with the massively increased range of consultation options. E-dictionary
consultation is rather a private matter, especially if it is conducted via mobile devices such as
smart phones, but if teachers can find out what resources learners naturally turn to, and why,
they will be in a better position to guide them in their information selection, helping them toapply information appropriately, and adopt, when necessary, a more critical stance.
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8

A New Concept and a New Format in Bilingual Lexicography:
Reflections on the Making of A Comprehensive Chinese-English
Dictionary

Chan Sin-wai
Department of Translation
The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Abstract
This paper is a reflection on the compilation of my newly published dictionary entitled A
Comprehensive Chinese-English Dictionary, which focuses on the holism and interconnectedness ofdictionary entries. Most Chinese-English dictionaries on the market follow a certain method forarranging their entries, such as those based on romanization, number of strokes, or radicals. Currently,
the most popular, as well as the most widely used, method is the Hanyu Pinyin romanization. What ismost undesirable about this method, however, is that entries are listed alphabetically according to theromanization of the first character, which results in the separation of terms related to the entries (suchas negatives and adjectives) due to the variations in the positions of the key characters, making it
impossible to see their holism and interconnectedness.
In my dictionary, the holism of entries can be clearly observed in the normal and reverse orderarrangements for both single-character and multiple-character entries. In addition, all entries arearranged according to the four tones of Hanyu Pinyin for easy consultation. At the same time, themethod of semantic analysis in linguistics has been applied in the reverse part, arranging multiplecharacter entries with key characters in different positions according to Hanyu Pinyin, which
systematically shows the interconnectedness of the listed entries. It is hoped that the application of theconcepts of holism and interconnectedness, and the arrangement of entries according to Hanyu Pinyin,
will represent a breakthrough in dictionary format and a whole new concept in bilingual lexicography.

Introduction
This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of the first Chinese-English dictionary
compiled by Robert Morrison in 1815. The present work, A Comprehensive Chinese-English
Dictionary 《順逆序漢英大詞典》, celebrates this anniversary by introducing a newconcept and format in the compilation of a new-style Chinese-English dictionary. The newconcept is semantic, grouping expressions with related meanings under the same headwords;
the new format is holistic, arranging entries in both normal and reverse sequences to give alarger context for users to understand the semantic, pragmatic, and cultural connotations of
the headwords in their entirety. This paper is my personal reflections on the making of this
dictionary which comprises 60,000 single-character headword entries and multiple-character
sub-entries, 420,000 English equivalents, 2 million words, and 3,500 pages.
A New Concept: Semantic interconnectedness
The need for a new concept in the compilation of Chinese-English dictionaries is obvious, as
all dictionaries since 1815 have used either the method of Romanization or other methods ofconsultation that are mainly phonetics-, stroke-, or radical-based, but not linguistics-based or,in particular, semantics-based. The emphasis that this dictionary places on the semanticinterconnectedness of its entries is not only its major characteristic, but this also presents a
totally novel concept in bilingual lexicography.
9This new orientation towards semantic relations of the entries arises out of the over-emphasison the use of Romanization systems as the sole or main consultation method. In fact, the useof Romanization methods in arranging entries in Chinese-English dictionaries targeted mainly
at foreigners and learners of Chinese and applied ever since the publication of Morrison’s first
Chinese-English dictionary. This was closely related to the development of China’s relations
with foreign countries since the early sixteenth century (Chien and Creamer 1986). Later, theforeigners who entered China for culture, missions, technology, and business, before and after
the Opium War (1839-1842), found it necessary to learn both spoken and written Chinese. It
was therefore no mere coincidence that Robert Morrison (1782-1834), a Scottish missionary,
became the first person to compile A Dictionary of the Chinese Language, which was
published from 1815 to 1823 in three parts. The entries in this dictionary were arranged
according to his own Romanization system. Thomas Francis Wade later refined Morrison’s
scheme, and Herbert Allen Giles, through his Chinese English Dictionary, further popularized
Wade’s system, to form the Wade-Giles system, which became the dominant Romanization
system for Mandarin. Seen in a historical context, Chinese-English dictionaries in thenineteenth century were mainly produced by missionaries such as Medhurst (1848), Williams(1874), and Goodrich (1891) to help promote Christianity and enable foreigners to learn
Chinese language,. Dictionaries produced in the twentieth century, on the other hand, wereoriented towards language learning and academic research, such as those by Fenn (1926) andMathews (1931). When China began to open up to the rest of the world in the 1970s, worldnews media started to replace Wade-Giles spellings with Pinyin, and academia soon fell into
step as well (Yu et al 1999). The majority of bilingual dictionaries published in the present
century use the Hanyu Pinyu Romanization (Cao 2002; Wu 2003, 2004). Taiwan, however, isan exception as the Wade-Giles system has been used from 1949 to the present. A typical
dictionary that used this Romanization was《 遠東漢英大辭典》(The Far East ChineseEnglish Dictionary) compiled by Liang Shih-ch’iu 梁實秋 (1997).
While the Romanization of the first character of an entry is a convenient way to find the word
we want to look up in a dictionary, it has the disadvantage of separating semantically related
entries due to the variations in the positions of the key characters, making it impossible torecognize their semantic relationships. This dictionary, therefore, arranges all entries
according to the tone order of the Hanyu Pinyin Romanization for easy consultation, while itapplies the method of semantic analysis in linguistics in the reverse part to arrange multiplecharacter sub-entries with key characters in different positions according to Hanyu Pinyin,
which systematically shows the interconnectedness of the entries listed.
Taking the multiple-character entries of the single-character entry shi 是 as an example, thefirst few entries in normal order are as follows:
shi fei bu fen 是非不分 cannot tell black from white; confuse right and wrong; confuse
truth and falsehood; fail to distinguish good from bad; fail to distinguish right andwrong; make no distinction between right and wrong;
shi fei bu ming 是非不明 have no sense of right or wrong; unable to tell right fromwrong;
shi fei dian dao 是非颠倒 confound right and wrong;
For entries in the reverse order, the emphasis is on the key characters shi 是 and fei 非of themultiple-character entry shi fei 是非. Regardless of the positions of shi是 and fei非, entries
with shi and fei are semantically related to the multiple-character entry shi fei 是非, and they
are arranged in Hanyu Pinyin Romanization according to the tone of the first character in an
entry. The following are examples of the multiple-character entry shi fei 是非 in reverse orderwith variations in the positions of the key characters of shi 是 and fei 非.
(1) _ _ shi fei 是非 (_ _ A B)
ban nong shi fei 搬弄是非 carry tales; create troubles and dissensions; indulge in tittle10

tattle; make mischief; make mischief through tittle-tattle; sow discord throughgossip; stir up trouble by gossip; tell tales;(2) _ shi 是 _ fei 非 (_ A _ B)
jin shi zuo fei 今是昨非 come to realize how wrong one has been all these years;
realize how one has been wrong; wake up to one’s past folly after realizing what
is right today; things of the present are right and those of the past are wrong;(3) _ shi fei 是非 ( _ A B)
re shi fei 惹是非 incur unnecessary trouble; provoke a dispute; stir up ill will; stir up
trouble;(4) shi shi fei fei 是是非非 (AABB)
shi shi fei fei 是是非非 gossips; scandals;
Other examples that could be cited include:(5) _ B _ A[tu li 图利] desire to make money; plan to make money;
唯利是图 be bent solely on profit; be interested only in personal gain; blind to all but
one’s own interest; care solely for profit; have an eye to the main chance; plan only how
to get money; pursue profit as one’s only aim; put profit-making first; scheme after
nothing but gain; seek nothing but profits; seek only profit; intent on nothing but profit;
This keyword approach to entry treatment is useful in dealing with the following variations.
(1) Variations in an Idiom
Variations in the positions of the keywords in an idiom will not result in the separate
appearances of these entries as the meanings of the expressions are the same. Da yu qing
pen大雨傾盆, for example, means: “it is raining like billy-o; it rains cats and dogs; rain
pitchforks; the rain falls in sheets; the rain is pelting; the rain teems down”. This idiom canalso be expressed inversely as qing pen da yu傾盤大雨, or “torrential rain”. Another example
is bu shi yi ding不識一丁, which means “illiterate; not to know a single word”. This
expression can also be written as yi ding bu shi一丁不識: “not know B from a battledore; notknow beans; not know chalk from cheese; not know one’s ABC”.
(2) Variations in the Positions of the Key Words in Common Expressions
With this semantics-oriented approach, expressions with the same keywords are listed under
the relevant entries. Take da xiao大小 under the headword da 大as an example. If A is da 大,
B is xiao 小, then the normal sequence for da xiao 大小as a compound expression can be
AB_ _ , such as da xiao bu yi大小不一 (not uniform in size); da xiao he shi大小合適 (size tofit); da xiao shi zhong大小適中(moderate size; right size); da xiao xiang tong大小相同 (ofuniform size); and da xiao you zhi大小由之(can fit any size).
Entries in the reverse-order sequence of da xiao大小 (AB) can have more variations.
(a) A _ B _da chun xiao ci 大醇小疵 sound on the whole though defective in details; with great
purity and small flaw;
da jing xiao guai 大驚小怪 bark at the noon; be surprised at sth normal; get excitedover a little thing; great alarm at a little bogey; make a fuss about nothing; make agreat ado over sth; make a rare fuss over sth; much cry and little wool;da ti xiao zuo 大題小做 little about a major issue; make little of; treat major issues
light;(b) _ A _ B
hua da wei xiao 化大為小 turn big issues into small ones;
ke da ke xiao 可大可小 changeable; elastic;mei da mei xiao 沒大沒小 impertinent; impolite to an elder; imprudent; show norespect for one’s elders;11yi da qi xiao 以大欺小 bully the weak for being strong; the big bullies the small;qi da ba xiao 七大八小 objects of various sizes thrown together;qi da jiu xiao 棄大就小 exchange the great for the small; leave big shots alone and go
for the small fry;yi da ya xiao 以大壓小 the big coerce the small;yi da yi xiao 以大易小 exchange the great for the small;you da you xiao 由大由小 may be large or small;(c) _ AByuan da xiao 原大小 life-size;(d) _ _ AB
ge zhong da xiao 各種大小 every shape and size;
jia jiao da xiao 夾角大小 corner dimension;
mo li da xiao 磨粒大小 abrasive grain sizes;
qi shi da xiao 氣室大小 air cell size;
shi wu da xiao 實物大小 life-size;
zhen ren da xiao 真人大小 life-size;(e) _ _ _ A B
chuang hu de da xiao 窗戶的大小 size of a window;
mao xi guan da xiao 毛細管大小 capillary dimension;(f) _ B _ A
qi xiao jiu da 棄小就大 lose a fly to catch a trout; one has to make sacrifices in orderto succeed;
wei xiao shi da 為小失大 lose a lot to save a little; lose a pound in trying to save apenny;
yi xiao bo da 以小博大 throw out a sprat to catch a herring;
yin xiao shi da 因小失大 lose a big opportunity because of a trifle consideration; lose agreat deal through trying to save a little; lose much because of a small thing; lose
the greater for the less; lose the main goal because of small gains; pay too big a
price for mere trifles; penny-wise, pound-foolish; suffer a big loss for a little gain;
try to save a little only to lose a lot;
you xiao bian da 由小變大 change from being minor to being major; from weak tostrong; grow from small to big;
you xiao dao da 由小到大 grow big from being small; grow from small beginnings
into a mighty force; grow from small to big; grow in size;(g) _ B _ _ A
jian xiao bu jian da 見小不見大 fail to see the wood for the trees; strain at a gnat andswallow a camel;
Another example is the sub-entry che ma 車馬 (chariots and horses), whose reverse-order
entries are as follows:bi che nu ma 弊車駑馬 a decrepit cart drawn by a lean horse;
che shui ma long 車水馬龍 be crowded with people and vehicles; be thronged withvisitors; endless stream of carriages and horses; heavy flow of traffic; heavy
traffic; incessant stream of horses and carriages;
qian che wan ma 千車萬馬 a thousand coaches and ten thousand horses;
su che bai ma 素車白馬 plain cars and white horses － in a funeral procession;
xian che nu ma 鮮車怒馬 lead a luxurious life; new carriage driven by fat horses －lavish service;
xiang che bao ma 香車寶馬 fragrant carriage and precious horse －the beautiful
carriage of women;(3) The Treatment of Sentence Patterns
12This keyword approach allows us to treat sentence patterns in a systematic manner. The mainidea is to identify the keywords in a sentence pattern and give their common collocates toform entries.
dui … biao shi 對…表示 (show…to…)
dui … biao shi fan dui 對...表示反對 declare oneself against…; show one’s objection
to…;
dui…biao shi tong qing 對…表示同情 express sympathy with…; show sympathy
toward…;
dui … biao shi wei wen 對...表示慰問 extend one’s sympathy to…;
dui … biao shi yi han 對...表示遺憾 proffer regret at…;
cong…dao…從...到… (from...to…)
cong gu dao jin 從古到今 from ancient to modern times;
cong ri chu dao ri luo 從日出到日落 from dawn till dusk;
cong shang dao xia 從上到下 from above down; from top to bottom;
cong sheng dao si 從生到死 from the cradle to the grave;cong tou dao jiao 從頭到腳 from head to foot;cong tou dao wei 從頭到尾 from beginning to end; from first to last;cong wu dao you 從無到有 grow out of nothing;cong xiao dao da 從小到大 develop gradually; expand from small to big;cong zao dao wan 從早到晚 from dawn to dusk; from morning till night;(4) The Treatment of Set Expressions with a Certain PatternThis refers to set expressions with key words in a relatively fixed pattern, such as
bu…bu…不…不… (neither…nor…; not...or…). Expressions with bu…bu…不…不…
include the following:
bu bei bu kang 不卑不亢 neither cringing nor arrogant; neither haughty nor humble;
neither haughty nor pushy; neither servile nor overbearing;bu fei bu fa 不悱不發 will not explain to sb not determined to learn;bu fen bu qi 不憤不啟 would not explain unless one is desperately anxious to learn;bu jiao bu zao 不驕不躁 free from arrogance and rashness; guard against self-conceit
and rashness; not proud or touchy;
bu kang bu bei 不亢不卑 in a happy medium between pride and humility; neither
haughty nor humble; neither overbearing nor servile; neither proud nor humble;
neither supercilious nor obsequious;
bu lun bu lei 不倫不類 (1) beyond standard; neither fish nor fowl; nondescript; (2)without sense or order;
bu pian bu dang 不偏不黨 fair to all; without wavering to one side or the other;bu pian bu yi 不偏不倚 avoid leaning to either side; even-handed; free from any bias;
hold the scales even; impartial; not to take sides; not to throw one’s weight either
way; partial to one; show no partiality to either side; unbiased; without partiality;(5) The Treatment of Infixes
This keyword approach allows entries with infixes to be placed in the same heading, such as
做好 do sth well, and 做不好 cannot do it well.
(6) The Creation of New Sub-entries for Easy Consultation
For easy consultation, it is necessary to create new sub-entries to put entries with the same
key words under the relevant headwords. Take bu zhu 不住 as an example. 不住 can be
defined as “ceaselessly; continuously;” it can also be translated as “cannot”. The following
are examples of the new entry bu zhu 不住 when used as a suffix.
13

ai bu zhu 挨不住 can no longer endure;bao bu zhu 保不住 cannot be defended; there is no guarantee that;bei bu zhu 備不住 maybe; perhaps;
beng bu zhu 繃不住 unable to bear; unable to endure;bie bu zhu 憋不住 cannot help; cannot suppress;
bei bu zhu qi 憋不住氣 cannot hold one’s anger any longer; ready to burst;
cang bu zhu 藏不住 cannot be hidden;
chi bu zhu 吃不住 unable to bear or support;
dai bu zhu 待不住 cannot stay long;dang bu zhu 擋不住 hindering; impeding; incapable of blocking; stopping;di bu zhu 敵不住 no match for;jia bu zhu 架不住 (1) cannot stand the pressure; cannot stand up against; cannot sustain
the weight; (2) cannot compete against; no match for;ting bu zhu 挺不住 cannot stand it; cannot take it any more;
wu bu zhu 摀不住 cannot be concealed;zuo bu zhu 坐不住 cannot sit still; cannot stay long; restless;
Another example of entry creation is qi ba 七八 ((1) seven or eight; (2) seventy or eighty percent; (3) probably), which illustrates to some extent the use of numerals in some set
expressions. The following are examples:qi ba cheng 七八成 (1) seventy or eighty per cent; (2) extremely likely; possibly;
probably;qi ba yue de nan gua – pi lao xin bu lao 七八月的南瓜─皮老心不老 pumpkings in theseventh or eighth month of the lunar year ─ (fig) the skin is old but the heart isyoung; (fig) old in age but young at heart;jia qi jia ba 夾七夾八 at random; cluttered; confused; incoherent; talk incoherently;
luan qi ba zao 亂七八糟 a fine kettle of fish; a glorious mess; a nice kettle of fish; apretty kettle of fish; all in a tumble; at sixes and sevens; chaotic; higgledypiggledy; in a clutter; in a littler; in a mess; in a muddle; in a pickle; in a state; inan awful mess; in complete confusion; in wild disorder; jumbly; make a mess ofsth; make hay of; rough-and-tumble; topsy-turvy; upside down;
luan qi ba zao de 亂七八糟的 higgledy-piggledy;
luan qi ba zao shuo yi tong 亂七八糟說一通 make a chaos of utterances;fang jian luan qi ba zao 房間亂七八糟 one’s room is a dump; one’s room is amess; one’s room is topsy-turvy;
gao de luan qi ba zao 搞得亂七八糟 make a mess;jiang ji hua gao de luan qi ba zao 將計劃搞得亂七八糟 mess up one’splans; throw one’s plans into confusion;
xin li luan qi ba zao 心裏亂七八糟 feel all hot and bothered; feel very perturbed;
Holism in Chinese-English Dictionaries
It goes without saying that all Chinese-English bilingual dictionaries on the market, including
the popular ones such as those compiled by Hui Yu 惠宇 (《新世紀漢英大詞典》(A New
Century Chinese-English Dictionary) (2003)) and Wu Guanghua 吳光華(《漢英綜合大辭典》(A Comprehensive Chinese-English Dictionary) (2004)), do not truly
present the headwords in a context large enough to see how these single-character entries
combine with other single or multiple characters to form character combinations that aresemantically related to the headwords. In other words, the headwords and their sub-entries do
not give a general background to understand the lexical, semantic, and cultural aspects of theentries. It is therefore necessary to treat headwords in bilingual dictionaries in a holisticmanner.
14

This dictionary addresses the issue of holism through the arrangement of the single-character
headwords and multiple-character sub-entries in both normal and reverse sequences. Thisdictionary may not be the first dictionary to put entries in reverse order (Yu et al 1986; Cao2002), but it is probably the first dictionary to use the reverse order at multiple linguistic
levels to allow the incorporation of pre- / post-modifiers, collocates, and measure words.
For single-character or headword entries, entries in the reverse order are listed after the last
multiple-character entries, which are arranged in normal sequence. Taking the entry of pai排
as an example, its definitions are as follows:
pai【排】(1) arrange; arrange in order; put in order; sequence; (2) line; rank; row; (3) a clip of; aline of; a rank of; a row of; (3) platoon; (4) rehearse; (5) raft; (6) blow down; blow off;
discharge; drain off; (7) discriminate against; eject; exclude; get rid of; reject; repel;
shut out;
The entries of pai 排 in the normal sequence are as follows:
pai ban [排班] (1) fall by rank; fall in line; (2) arrange turns of work;
pai zi [排字] compose; typeset; typewrite;
pai zi gong 排字工 compositor; typesetter;pai zi gong ren 排字工人 compositor;
pai zi ji 排字機 composing machine; compositor; typesetter; typesetting machine;
she ying pai zi ji 攝影排字機 photographic typesetter;yi tai pai zi ji 一台排字機 a typesetting machine;
pai zi jia 排字架 composing frame;
pai zi pan 排字盤 composing stick;dian nao pai zi 電腦排字 computerized typesetting;
The entries in the reverse sequence are as follows:ai pai 挨排 arrange; make arrangements for;an pai 安排 arrange; arrange for; arrangements; cuddle up; find a place for sth; fix; fixsth; fix up; lay on sth; lay out; make arrangements for; manage; plan; tee up;bian pai 編排 arrange; lay out; make up sth;bing pai 冰排 ice floe; ice raft;
Multiple-character sub-entries are also arranged in both normal and reverse sequences, suchas xiao hua消化.
xiao hua dao chu xue 消化道出血 alimentary canal haemorrhage;
xiao hua li 消化力 digestion;
xiao hua liang hao 消化良好 eupepsia;
xiao hua qi guan 消化器官 digestive organs;xiao hua zheng chang 消化正常 eupepsia;
xiao hua ye 消化液 digestive juice;jian xing xiao hua 鹼性消化 alkaline digestion;
ren gong xiao hua 人工消化 artificial digestion;suan xing xiao hua 酸性消化 acid digestion;
xi jun xiao hua 細菌消化 bacterial digestion;
xu yang xiao hua 需氧消化 aerobic digestion;
yan yang xiao hua 厭氧消化 anaerobic digestion;
This normal-reverse arrangement to show headwords in a holistic manner is fully justified.
15

First, characters are no longer understood in a unidirectional manner. Take the character da
答 as an example. If entries are arranged in a normal sequence, they would be as follows:da【答】(1) answer; reply; (2) reciprocate; return a visit;
da an [答案] answer; key; solution;
ti gong da an 提供答案 furnish an answer; supply an answer;
zheng que da an 正確答案 correct answer;
da bai [答拜] pay a return visit; return a courtesy call;da bian [答辯] reply in support of one’s ideas; reply to a charge;
da bian quan 答辯權 right of reply;
kou tou da bian 口頭答辯 verbal defense;
zuo kou tou da bian 做口頭答辯 make verbal defense;da ci [答詞] answering speech; reply; speech in reply; thank-you speech;da dui [答對] answer; reply;
da fu [答覆] answer; reply;
dian hua da fu 電話答覆 answer by telephone;
han hu de da fu 含糊的答覆 dubious answer;
jian duan de da fu 簡短的答覆 brief answer;
jin shen de da fu 謹慎的答覆 cautious;
jin zao da fu 盡早答覆 make a reply as early as possible; reply at one’s earliest
convenience;
ju li da fu 據理答覆 give a reasonable answer;
ken ding de da fu 肯定的答覆 affirmative answer; affirmative response;
kou tou da fu 口頭答覆 answer orally; give an answer by word of mouth; oral answer;li ji da fu 立即答覆 immediate answer; prompt answer;
ma shang da fu 馬上答覆 make an answer straight off;
man yi de da fu 滿意的答覆 favourable answer;
ming que de da fu 明確的答覆 categorical answer; distinct answer;
mo hu liang ke de da fu 模糊兩可的答覆 ambiguous answer;qi dai da fu 期待答覆 expect an answer;que ding de da fu 確定的答覆 decided answer;
shan shuo qi ci de da fu 閃爍其詞的答覆 evasive answer;shou dao da fu 收到答覆 get a reply; have a reply; receive a reply;
shu mian da fu 書面答覆 give an answer in writing;yao qiu da fu 要求答覆 want an answer; request a reply;
zhan ding jie tie de da fu 斬釘截鐵的答覆 categorical answer;
da hua [答話] answer; reply;
da juan [答卷] answered examination paper;
wan cheng da juan 完成答卷 finish one’s answer to an examination paper;da li [答禮] return a salute;da lu [答錄] answer and record;da lu ji 答錄機 recorder; recording machine;
duo sheng dao da lu ji 多聲道答錄機 multichannel broadcast recorder;
li ti sheng da lu ji 立體聲答錄機 stereo recorder;
da xie [答謝] acknowledge; express appreciation; reciprocate;da yun [答允] undertake;
When entries in the reverse order are also listed, then the lexical contents of the headword 答
are greatly enhanced.
16

bao da 報答 repay; requite;bi da 筆答 reply by writing in examination papers;chou da 酬答 (1) thank sb with a gift; (2) respond with a poem;
dui da 對答 answer; reply;
hui da 回答 answer; reply;
jie da 解答 answer; explain;
wen da 問答 question and answer;
ying da 應答 answer; reply;
zeng da 贈答 present each other with gifts, poems, etc.;
Second, this holistic approach to entry presentation provides information on the semantichierarchy of a headword. More specifically, it shows both the superordinates 上義詞 and thehyponyms 下義詞.
For instance, gou 狗 is a superordinate. Entries relating to gou put in the normal sequence
could be gou dan bao tian狗膽包天, gou er狗兒, gou fei狗吠, gou gou ying ying狗苟蠅營,
gou jiao狗叫, gou niang yang de狗娘養的, gou pa shi狗爬式, gou pi狗屁, gou shi狗屎, gou
shi bu shi狗噬不食, gou shou zhu ren xiu狗瘦主人羞, gou tou shu qie狗偷鼠竊, gou tuizi狗腿子, gou wei xu diao狗尾續貂, gou wo狗窩, gou xue狗血, gou yao狗咬, gou zai
dui狗仔隊, gou zai zi狗崽子, gou zao狗蚤, gou zhang jia – chu yang xiang狗長角─出[洋](羊)[相], gou zhi狗彘, and gou zui狗嘴.
With the addition of entries in the reverse order, a number of hyponyms are included,
providing a large lexical context to understand the character gou.
ba er gou 巴兒狗(1) lapdog; (2) Pekingese; (3) flatterer; sycophant; toady;ba er gou 叭兒狗 (1) lapdog; (2) Pekingese;bai gou 白狗 white dog;
ben gou 笨狗 big mastiff;
feng gou 瘋狗 mad dog; rabid dog;ha ba gou 哈巴狗 (1) Pekingese; (2) sycophant; toady;hai gou 海狗 fur seal; ursine seal;
kan men gou 看門狗 watchdog;
la chang gou 臘腸狗 sausage dog;lang gou 狼狗 wolfhound;
lie gou 獵狗 hound; hunting dog;lou shui gou 落水狗 dog in the water;
xi shi gou 西施狗 shitzu;
xiao gou 小狗 doggi;
xiao ling gou 小靈狗 whippet;
ye gou 野狗 wild dog;
yi tiao gou 一條狗 a dog;
yu gou 魚狗 kingfisher;
zou gou 走狗 flunkey; lackey; running dog;
Another example is bu布. As a headword, it has
yi ceng bu 一層布 a ply of cloth; a thickness of cloth;yi kuai bu 一塊布 a piece of cloth;yi kun bu 一綑布 a bale of cloth;yi ma bu 一碼布 a yard of cloth;yi pi bu 一匹布 a bolt of cloth; a roll of cloth;17

When bu 布 is combined with liao料, we have bu liao布料, which could have the following
measure words:
bu liao [布料] cloth; ;yi duan bu liao 一段布料 a length of cloth; a piece of cloth;yi fu bu liao 一幅布料 a breadth of cloth; a piece of cloth;
The display of measure words in individual entries does not mean that the measure words do
not exist as independent entries.
Take yi ceng一層 as an example.
yi ceng 一層 (1) one floor; one story; (2) a stratum; (3) a bed of; a blanket of; a cloak
of; a coat of; a curtain of; a deck of; a film of; a flake of; a floor; a floor of; a layer;
a layer of; a level of; a line of; a mantle of; a ring of; a story; a story of; a veil of;
Fourth, the cultural aspects of a character can also be shown through the reverse-orderarrangement.
Shen神 illustrates this fact. In this dictionary, there are 80 entries for shen神, including
shen bing神兵, shen bu an ti神不安啼, shen bu shou she神不守舍, shen cai神采, shenchi神馳, shen dian神殿, shen en 神恩, shen feng神峰, shen feng神鋒, shen fo神佛, shenfu神父, shen gong神功, shen guai神怪, shen gui神龜, shen gui神鬼, shen han神漢, shen hu
qi ji神乎其技, shen hu qi shen神乎其神, shen hua神化, shen hua神話, shen hun神魂, shen
ji神機, shen ji神蹟, shen jiao神交, shen jing神經, shen kan神龕, shen li 神力, shenliao神聊, shen ling神靈, shen mi神秘, shen miao神妙, shen miao神廟, shen min神民, shen
ming神明, shen mou mo dao神謀魔道, shen niao神鳥, Shen Nong 神農, shen nü神女, shenpin神品, shen po神婆, shen qi神奇, shen qi神祗, shen qi神氣, shenqing神情, shenquan神權, shen ren神人, shen se神色, shen shang神傷, shen sheng神聖, shen shi神示, shenshu 神術, shen si神思, shen si神似, shen su神速, shen suan神算, shen sui神髓, shen tai神態,
shen tong神通, shen tong神童, shen wang神往, shen wei神威, shen wei神位, shen wu神巫,shen wu神武, shen wu神物, shen wu神悟, shen xian神仙, shen xiang神像, shen xiao神效,shen xue神學, shen yi神醫, shen yi神異, shen yi神意, sheng yong神勇, shen you神遊, shen
you神佑, shen yu神宇, shen yu神諭, shen zhi ren yuan神職人員, shen zhi神志, shen zhi
神智, and shen zhu神主.
ai shen 愛神 Amor; Cupid; Eros; God of Love; Venus;
an shen 安神 (1) calm one’s nerves; (2) relieve uneasiness of body and mind;
ao shen 媼神 Goddess of the Earth;bai shen 拜神 worship gods;
cai shen 財神 (1) God of Wealth; (2) money-makers;
cao shen 操神 tax on one’s mind; bother; trouble;
chu shen 出神 abstractedness; abstraction; aphelxia; be lost in thought; in a trance;spellbound;chuan shen 傳神 lifelike; vivid;
ding shen 定神 (1) collect oneself; compose oneself; pull oneself together; (2) collectone’s thoughts; concentrate one’s attention; take a grip on oneself;
fei shen 費神 (1) may I trouble you to do sth; would you mind doing sth for me; (2)waste of energy;
fen shen 分神 give some attention to;feng she 丰神 manner;
gui shen 鬼神 ghosts and gods; spirits; supernatural beings;
hai shen 海神 Neptune; Poseidon;
huo shen 火神 God of Fire;jing shen 精神 (1) consciousness; dauber; gist; mind; spirit; (2) essence; gist; spirit;
substance;lao shen 勞神 a tax on one’s mind; bother; trouble;
18

liu shen 留神 careful; keep one’s eyes on the ball; keep one’s eyes peeled; look out for;look sharp; take care;men shen 門神 door-god;ning shen 凝神 with concentrated attention;nüshen 女神 goddess;qi shen 棲神 cultivate one’s mind; discipline one’s mind;
qing shen 請神 call up an evil spirit;
qiu shen 求神 beg the gods;
ru shen 人神 man and God;ru shen 如神 like god;ru shen 入神 captivated; deeply absorbed in; enthralled; entranced; spellbound; withecstasy;
shan shen 山神 mountain deity;shang shen 傷神 be nerve-racking; overtax one’s nerves;
shi shen 失神 (1) absent-minded; careless; inattentive; (2) in low spirits; out of sorts;
si shen 死神 a pale horse; dead; Mr Mose; old floorer; old man Mose; old Mr Grim;
the great leveller; the great whipper-in; the graim monarch; the Grim Reaper;si shen 祀神 worship gods;
song shen 送神 send off the gods after the offering of sacrifices;
tao shen 淘神 bothersome; trying;ti shen 提神 arouse; elate; give oneself a lift; refresh oneself; stimulate;tian shen 天神 deity; god;tiao shen 跳神 sorcerer’s dance in a trance;
tong shen 通神 capable of buying the gods ;wen shen 瘟神 God of Plague;
wu shen 巫神 sorcerer; wizard;
xin shen 心神 mind; mood; state of mind;
xing shen 形神 body and spirit;
xing shen 醒神 induce resuscitation;
xiong shen 凶神 demon; evil spirit;
xiong shen 兇神 demon; fiend;
yan shen 眼神 (1) expression in one’s eyes; gleams of the eyes; light; (2) eyesight;
yang shen 養神 have mental relaxation; repose; rest to attain mental tranquility;
yi shen 一神 monotheistic;
yi shen 怡神 inspire peace and harmony in one’s mind;
yi shen 頤神 have a mental relaxation; rest one’s mind;
you shen 有神 (1) full of spirit; (2) miraculous;
zao shen 灶神 kitchen god;zou shen 走神 absent-minded.
Conclusion
The concepts of semantic interconnectedness and holism are the two linchpins of this
dictionary. They offer changes to what has been practised for two centuries in theworld of Chinese-English dictionaries. It is hoped that this dictionary will herald a new
trend in the compilation of printed Chinese-dictionaries that are both phonetics-based
and semantics-based, offering an easy consultation method and a wealth of semantic
information for users to know the linguistic and cultural connotations of words in aholistic context.

19

References
Cao, Yamin 曹亞民 (2002) 《漢英大辭海》(The Chinese-English Word-Ocean), 2 volumes,
Beijing: Chinese Medicine Press 中國中醫藥出版社.
Chien, David and Thomas Creamer (1986) ‘A Brief History of Chinese Bilingual
Lexicography’, in Reinhard Hartmann (ed) The History of Lexicography, Amsterdam
and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, 36-45.
Dai, Mingzhong 戴鳴鐘 and Dai Weidong 戴煒棟 (comps) (1991) 《漢英綜合辭典》(AComprehensive Chinese-English Dictionary), Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language and
Education Press 上海外語教育出版社.
DeFrancis, John (comp) (1996) ABC Chinese-English Dictionary (《汉英词典》). Hawaii:
University of Hawaii Press.
Fenn, Courtenay H. (1926/1942) The Five Thousand Dictionary, Cambridge, Mass: Harvard
University Press.
Goodrich, Chauncey (1891/1965) A Pocket Dictionary (Chinese-English) and Pekingese
Syllabary, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Hui, Yu 惠宇 (2003) 《新世紀漢英大詞典》(A New Century Chinese-English Dictionary),
Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Learning Publishing House.
Liang, Shih-ch’iu 梁 實 秋 (1997) 《 遠 東 漢 英 大 辭 典 》 (Far East Chinese-English
Dictionary), Taipei:the Far East Book Co., Ltd..
Mathews, Robert Henry (1931/1972) A Chinese–English Dictionary ( 《 汉 英 字 典 》 ),Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
Medhurst, Walter Henry (1848) English-Chinese Dictionary, Shanghai: Mission Press,
Availablefrom:
http://archive.org/stream/englishandchine00medhgoog#page/n5/mode/1up.
Morrison, Robert (1815) A Dictionary of the Chinese Language in Three Parts, vol. 3,
English and Chinese, Macao: P. P. Thoms, The East India Company Press, Available
from: http://archive.org/details/p1dictionaryofch01morruoft.
Williams, Samuel Wells (1874) A Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language; Arranged
according to the Wu-Fang Yuen Yin, with the Pronunciation of the Characters as Heard
in Peking, Canton, Amoy, and Shanghai, Hàn Yīng Yùnfǔ 《汉英韵府》, Shanghai:
AmericanMissionPress,
Availablefrom:
http://archive.org/details/syllabicdictiona00willrich.
Wu, Guanghua (ed) (2003) 《漢英辭典》(新世紀版) (Chinese-English Dictionary,New
Century Edition), Shanghai: Jiaotong University Press 上海交通大學出版社.
Wu, Guanghua (ed) (2004) 《 漢 英 綜 合 大 辭 典 》 (A Comprehensive Chinese-English
Dictionary), 3 volumes, Dalian: Dalian Polytechnic University Press 大連理工大學出版
社.
Wu, Jingrong 吳景榮 (1979) The Pinyin Chinese-English Dictionary (《汉英字典》), HongKong: The Commercial Press.
Yong, Heming (2002) 〈羅伯特莫禮遜其人其典〉(‘Robert Morrison – A Brief Biography
and his Dictionary’), Lexicographical Studies 4: 121–125.
Yu, Shaosheng 余耀生, Sheng Peilin 盛培林, Yin Peijie 印丕傑, Ding Feng 丁鋒, Yu Rui 俞銳, and Chen Yijing 陳一晴 (1999) 《漢英實用辭典》(Quaille’s Practical ChineseEnglish Dictionary), Hong Kong: Asia 2000 Ltd and Maison d’editions Quaille 開益出
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20

Yu, Yunxia et al 余雲霞等 (comps) (1986) 《漢英逆引詞典》(A Reverse Chinese-English
Dictionary), Beijing: The Commercial Press.

21

Adaptability of the Bilingual Theory to Dictionary Making
And the Genesis of a New Kind Dictionary
Ali Aycan KOLUKISA
Nevsehir Haci Bektas Veli University, Turkey
akolukisa@nevsehir.edu.tr / kolukisa_aycan@hotmail.com
Abstract
Dictionaries have been good references for a long time. When learning a new language, they becomemuch more important to the users of them. Since the innovation of West and Hornby’s Learner’s
Dictionaries, the main characteristics and the methods used in Learner’s Dictionaries has remained
almost the same. Actually these methods and techniques are the things what really make them the bestin class. But it is not so easy to find a Learner’s Dictionary when you are learning a foreign language
other than English. There are of course dictionaries in other languages, but most of them are bilingual.
Some people find bilingual dictionaries very useful especially at the beginning of their learningjourney. But as users increase their competency in the use of the foreign language, the more it becomes
obvious that bilingual dictionaries have a number of salient handicaps. After a while, many users
abandon bilingual dictionaries and prefer the use of monolingual dictionaries written in the target
languages. This research tries to understand the problematic nature of bilingual dictionaries in a deeper
sense and suggests a new method to solve the problems identified. In drawing upon theories ofbilingualism, from Weinreich (1953) to Pavlenko (2009), a new method of dictionary making isdeveloped, which, it is hoped, will start a new era for bilingual dictionaries.
Keywords: bilingual dictionary, bilingual theory, polysemic method, concept, user.

1.

Introduction

Weinreich (1953: 9-10) introduces three different types of bilingualism. These are called in Weinreich as“A. Coordinative”, “B. Compound” and “C. Subordinative”. And he gives examples as follows. If wesummarize Weinreich’s three types of bilingualism: A-type of bilingualism, which is called“Coordinative”, has two different concepts and two different signs in each language
which are connected separately in abilingual mind. B-type of bilingualism,
called “Compound”, consists of one setof concepts equal to each other in two
languages which can also be regarded as‘one concept’, and two different signs ineach language. And finally C type ofbilingualism, called “Subordinative”, iscomposed of one concept, one sign inmother tongue, and another sign that islearned in the target language as anequivalent of the sign in the mothertongue. In Woutersen et al. (1994),
Weinreich’s these tree types ofbilingualism are modelled as seen in theadapted figure at the left. However in
Woutersen “Coordinative” type is named
as “Coordinate”.
Afterwards, Potter et al. (1984) proposed the “concept mediation” and “word association” model. And
with the effect of the research seen in Potter et al. (1984), Kroll&Stewart (1994: 158) proposed“Reversed hierarchical model of lexical and conceptual representation in bilingual memory”, which
represents those two models within the same model, not separately as seen in Potter et al. (1984). It canbe said that this was a very salient theory to be able to understand a bilingual mind, and this theory also
led Pavlenko (2009) to reach her own model. On the other hand, Kroll&Stewart (1994) suggests that22

the bilingual mind keeps the lexical items separately however the concepts related to these lexical
items are just stored in one place. As seen in the adapted figure at the left, the storage of L1 represents
the lexical items in mother tongue and the storageof L2 represents the lexical items in target language.
The biggest storage at the bottom represents theconceptual memory. As one can see from the figure,L1 and L2 are separate storages whereas theconcepts are stored only in one room. Moreover it isassumed in the model that the lexical link from L2 to
L1 is stronger than the lexical link from L1 to L2, andthe link between L1 and conceptual memory is also
regarded to be stronger than the link between L2 andconceptual memory (Kroll&Stewart, 1994: 158). The
weaker link from L1 to L2 is shown in the figure by
the broken line, to reflect the fact that during L2
learning, bilinguals associate every newly learned
word in the L2 with its L1 translation equivalent(Heredia&Cieślicka, 2014: 27). And this also
explains why the L2 to L1 link is stronger, because
every L2 word is mapped onto its L1 equivalent(p.27). The link between L2 and the Concepts is
also shown by the broken line in the figure, to beable to reflect the bilingual’s inability to directly
access the concepts of the words stored in L2 (p.28).
However, these facts can only be valid at the beginning of the learning process of L2. Indeed, it isthought that it is not easy to apply this strength-degree mechanism of Kroll&Stewart (1994) toadvanced bilinguals. Furthermore, it is not possible to think the same process as valid for all kinds ofwords. For cultural words for example, it would be very absurd to expect an exact translation. Whilelearning Japanese, the words samurai and tsunami might be a good example of it, as stated in Kolukisa(2015a: 665-666).
On the other hand, in Pavlenko (2009) a modified version of Kroll&Stewart’s RHM is seen. The model iscalled as “Modified Hierarchical Model (shortly ‘MHM’)” in Pavlenko (2009: 147). There are differences
between the models of Kroll&Stewart’s “Reversed Hierarchical Model (shortly ‘RHM’) and MHM. We
can briefly say that the most important part of Pavlenko’s modification is the separate room for sharedconcepts. Moreover, it is seen that “the distributed conceptual model” of De Groot (1992) and “Theshared asymmetrical model” of Dong et al. (2005) have been the base of Pavlenko’s modification.
At the left side, an adaptation of Pavlenko’s Modified
Hierarchical Model is seen. The most outstanding
part of this model is the separation of the rooms forthe categories. There is also a separate room for theshared categories. Thus it enables to separate the
Lexical Links
specific concepts according to the languages. It isalso important to be able to show the process of
vocabulary development in L2. About conceptual
transfer of MHM, Pavlenko says:
Conceptual
Conceptual
Links

Links

“…distinguishing feature of the MHM is the recognition of
the phenomenon of conceptual transfer, which in turn ispredicated on the differentiation between semantic andconceptual levels of representation”. The term semantic
representation refers here to the largely implicit knowledgeof: (1) the mapping between words and concepts determining
how and which particular concepts are expressed by aparticular word via polysemy or metaphoric extension and(2) connections between words, which account forphenomena such as collocation, word association, synonymy
and antonym.” (Pavlenko, 2009: 148-149).

In regards to specific language or cultural words, Pavlenko (2009, 147) also says “only one language
may have the necessary word forms, while activation of lexical links in the other language would
fail”. In this case, it is seen that the bilinguals prefer almost lexical borrowing or loan translation

23

(Pavlenko, 2009: 147). She also gives the example of “chashka” in Russian, and “cup” in English, to beable to show the restructuring observed at the conceptual level (see. Pavlenko, 2009: 149). Furthermore,in Pavlenko’s original figure, the boundary of L2 specific category room is shown by the broken line toshow the development process of the L2 categories.
The models mentioned above are usefeul in oder to understand the bilingual mind, however, it is thoughtthat their area of usage could possibly be expanded, if they are developed. In this paper, it is thought thatafter the required revisions and explanations about the polysemy, concept and word meaning, it will
become possible to apply the Pavlenko’s model to Lexicography.

2.

Polysemy, concept and the word meaning

The concet of polysemy relates to the phenomenon of a single word containing more than one meaning.
In Carter&McCarthy (1988: 19) it is written that when Ogeden and Richards produced the Basic
English word list in 1930, they thought that the core meaning of the words that they offered for the
project, was more important and prior than the others. As seen in Ogeden and Richards, in most cases,
the meaning of a word is divided into two. In short, a word was seen to have two meanings:“denotation” and “connotation”. In Akimoto (2002: 107) “denotation” is defined as a meaning which isregarded as common by a great number of people, and “connotation” is defined as the secondary
meaning that is identified by the culture and individuals. In Cowie (2009: 64) also it is said that
“denotation constitutes the basic conceptual level of meaning, connotation the equally vital associative
level”. And for the term “connotation”, Jackson (1988: 58) says “connotation relates to the associations
that a word has over and above its denotation”. So from these descriptions it is possible to think“denotation” as a “core meaning” of a word, and “connotation” as the meanings which stratify over thatcore meaning. We will call all these connotations that stratify over the core meaning as “expanding
meanings” in this paper.
Demirci (2014: 198) says, when a word has come into existence, the meaning that it represents is considered
to be its real or basic meaning, and this real or basic meaning can be found at the top or fist rank of thedefinitions in dictionaries. After calling them as core and expanding meanings in this paper, we can briefly
say that core meaning is generally represented by ① and found at the first rank, whereas expanding
meanings are shown by ②, ③, ④, ⑤, etc. in dictionaries and found at previous ranks as seen in figure 1.
Figure 1 is adapted from Kolukisa (2015b:
153). As seen in the figure, the core meaningis the first meaning explained in dictionaries.
And the expanding meanings follow the core
meaning as if they are stratifying over thecore meaning. On the other hand, figure 1 is
the illustration of a polysemous word. Of
course, there are words also which have onlya single meaning in dictionaries. But the
number of these words are not as many as
the polysemous words. So the biggest
problem as we will discuss later in thispaper, is the method used in the definitionsof the bilingual dictionaries, while they aretrying to explain the headwords. For we will
discuss it later, let me explain first how thepolysemous words are treated and handled atconceptual level in our minds. But before
doing this, I think a degree of clarification isneeded.
In the book of “Key Terms of Semantics”, concepts are defined as mental representations of knowledge
about categories of entities and experiences (Murphy&Koskela, 2010). And as an example elephant isgiven:“The concept ELEPHANT incorporates information about the size, body shape, colour and typical habitats ofelephants. The concept allows us to identify and categorize things in the world as elephants, label them by the
linguistic form elephant and make INFERENCES about them” (Murphy&Koskela, 2010: loc.373).

From the description, it is possible to say that concepts allow us to recognize the real world around us.
And also in Jackendoff (2012: 73) language is regarded as a system that links concepts and thoughts with24

pronunciations. So it means that the words belong to real world whereas the concepts belong to ourmental world. Murphy G.L. (2002: 385) also says, “By concept, I mean a nonlinguistic psychologicalrepresentation of a class of entities in the world”. It can be said that our approach in this paper and thedescriptions seen in Murphy G.L. (2002) are very alike. It is known through experiments that while weare learning our mother language, it is possible to build up concepts first even though we do not haave thewords to label at early ages (see also. Bloom, 2001: 1101). To be able to reach the same conclusion it
might be felicitous to make an inference from our experiences of seeing toddlers giving different soundsets, or words in toddlish, to label the particular objects around themselves just before they start to speak.
If we had learned the words first, then labeling the objects differently in toddlish would not be possible.
However this can be said only for the early stages of our first language acquisition process. Because,
when we grove older, we can hear and memorize the words before even an exact existence of concepts.
We can even keep them in our minds for a later reference or to make a future combination with a concept.
Magical spells that have no meaning might be a good example of it.
Figure 2, illustrates the concept. However, different to the previous
researches (see. Pavenko, 2009: 151), figure 2 is the illustration of amonosemic concept. In this paper, two different types of concepts
are proposed. These are “monosemic” and “polysemic” concepts,
representing the “monosemous” and “polysemous” words. In orderfrom top to bottom, Figure 2 represents the external part, internalpart and the inner side (i.e. the ‘content’) of a monosemic concept.
It is thought that, every concept is like a container and the core-partis always filled with mental-liquid like water which symbolized themental equivalent of what it represents in the real world. So, for amonosemic concept, as long as it represents only one thing, it has
only one core-part always filled with water. I do think that concepts
in our minds are three dimensional objects as illustrated in figure 2,
whereas the lexical meanings of words have only two dimensions.
Although we symbolize the concepts in our minds as cylindricalcontainers, it is just a symbolization to be able to make ageneralization to explain how the process works. On the other hand,
it is not actually possible to say that every concept is the same inshape. Figure 2 is only an illustration of a monosemic concept.
However, most words in the real world have polysemy.
According to this paper, just like the words in real world, it isthought that also the concepts have polysemic structure as seen in
figure 3 below. Figure 3 is the illustration which shows the inside ofa polysemic concept. It is suggested that the core part of a concept
is always filled with water for its identitiy, however the other parts
are ready to be filled with water as seen in figure 3. In other words,
the core part of a concept always stays filled with water what shows
the unmarked and most admitted shape of that concept just like thereflection of the core meaning of a word. However, the water inside
the core part of a concept is unlimited, so that it can fill any otherpart of that concept. When a polysemous word is used under a realspeech situation in real word or in a context, then the selection ismade and the selected part of the concept is filled with water. When
this happened, also the core part of the concept stays filled withwater, because, it is thought that every expanding area gets its
origin from the core meaning (see. Kolukisa, 2015b: 153). There isanother illustration of this process at the left in figure 4. Figure 4
shows just what we explained here. You may also wonder how apolysemic concept is linked to a polysemous word and how thismechanism works. We will explain it with the help of figure 5
below. However, briefly we can say that our approach is‘cognitional’ rather than directly ‘cognitive’. This is due to the fact
that, in some aspects our approach is very close to cognitive
linguistics, whereas in some parts it is very close to ‘psychology’and ‘psycholinguistics’. In this paper it is proposed that when the25

words are used under a real speech situation meanings of the words
become clear according to the function of the model that I call“Access and Fetch”. Access and Fetch Model (shortly ‘AFM’) is
originally created and explained here with the help of figure 5
below, to be able to make the relations between concept and word
clear.
Murphy G.L. (2002: 389) saysthat there is a one-to-one mapping
between words and concepts, and hefigures it as: “Word 1 <====>
Concept 1”, “Word 2 <====>
Concept 2”, “Word 3 <====>
Concept 3”, “Word 4 <====>
Concept 4”, “Word N <====>
Concept N”. We can briefly say that
our approach in this paper is very
alike. However, our explanation
about how the concepts and the words
are combined when the polysemy hastaken place, is different. Figure 5
explains how the concepts and words
are combined. The model is created todemonstrate the polysemy seen atboth lexical and conceptual level.
Unlike the present studies, it isthought that polysemy is not aphenomenon seen only at lexicallevel. It is claimed out in this paperthat it also occurs at conceptual level. As seen in figure 5, every expanding meaning is a layer
constructed over the core meaning. We named the core area here with the letter “X” and the otherexpanding areas stratifying over the core meaning as “x+a 1”, “x+a2”, “x+a3”, “x+an” as explained in
Kolukisa (2015b: 153). “X” is just a symbol and may change to “Y”, “W”, or etc. as the words andcorrespondingly the concepts change. On the other hand, although Kolukisa (2015b: 153) explains thepolysemy seen at both conceptual and lexical level, there is not an exact explanation of how these two
are related and work. In this paper, it is thought that we can explain the relations and procedures seen atboth conceptual and lexical levels thoroughly by using AFM. In this model, the word itself actually isjust like an empty dummy container, as long as it is not in use. And when we use the word in sentence
or in a real speech situation than just like the process seen at phoneme restoration effect inpsycholinguistics, it is thought we just send an access signal to our mind, (lit. to ‘conceptual memory’)so that to be able to find and fetch the suitable meaning of a polysemous word. In other words, when
we hear or start to utter a word, our minds find the concepts of these words first and work like acomputer by analyzing and selecting the area of each concept which is to be filled with water according
to the context or situation. And after the selected area of the concept is filled with water, then the same
signal is loaded up with the corresponding area code of the polysemous word. Thus the meaning has
become selected and coded at lexical level. For instance, before using the word “dream”, we cannot
know which area is active, unless it is used under a real speech situation or in a sentence. Let’s see how
it really works with the help of word “dream”.
Firstly we should have alook at the dictionary to beable to see how this word is
explained in own motherlanguage. An explanation fromthe The American Heritage
Dictionary for the word
“dream” is seen in figure 6.
However, as a matter ofconvenience, we will handle
only the noun form of it here.
In figure 6, the core meaning
is symbolized with “X” and26

the other expanding meanings
are illustrated as stratifying
layers over that core meaning.
Now, suppose that we’ve just used the word “dream” in a sentence as follows: “Being a doctor was mydream”. When we hear this sentence, a signal is sent to our mind first to detect which words are in use,
and in what combination they are used. Then the Access and Fetch procedure takes place. It actually
starts and finishes in a very short time, so that we can easily understand what the context really is.
Here let’s focus on just the word “dream”. The process is illustrated in Figure 7 below.

In Figure 7, the Access and Fetch
mechanism is illustrated when it is inuse. After the signal is sent, our mind
starts to analyze all the areas of theword “dream” to be able to find themost suitable one for the context or
speech situation. At this point, we
generally refer to all the meaning areasof that word, some of which are evennot included in dictionaries. Then after
making an elimination, just the suitablearea of the concept is filled with water.
Thus a ‘fetch’ signal is sent back fromthe filled area of the concept to theequivalent meaning area of the word
“dream”, correspondingly. As a resultof this process, only the meaning “anambition; aspiration” has become
selected. So, the Access and Fetch –procedure becomes completed and thenwe can say that the word “dream” isAccessed and Fetched.
Actually when we use apolysemous word in our daily life,
our brain tries to apply every area tothe context at the background, to beable to find the most suitable one for thesituation, however we do not realize it for it is a very fast process. We can also say that the connections
with other words are very identificatory on finding the suitable meaning area of a polysemous word.
From this point of view, it is supposed that our brain does not need to make a very heavy process when
we use the collocations of the words. Because, only one fixed meaning area of a word is used when weuse a collocation.

3.

Monosemic method -in use today, vs polysemic method -for the future of bilingual
dictionaries

Only in a very few research the terms “Monosemic Method” and “Polysemic Method” are being used.
For example, the term “Monosemic Method” is seen in studies such as Gobbo (2009: 98),
Miháltz&Prószéky (2004: 176); and the term “Polysemic Method” in Kornai (2008: 488). However,
our approach to these terms would be a little bit different than the previous studies, although there arealso some points in common (see. Katz&Fodor, 1963; and Kornai, 2008). The approach of this paper
to these terms are explained separately in detail below.

3.1. Monosemic method
Monosemic method discussed here is the method ofgiving the equivalent of a headword in a target language. Thismethod is seen almost in every bilingual dictionary of today.
The method is preferred and used for example, while
explaining a headword of L1 in L2, or conversely, while
explaining a headword of L2 in L1. Every headword is27

explained with its equivalent translation in the target language.
As an example, we can give the noun forms of the word
“oxygen” in English for L1, and the word “kislorod(кислород)” in Russian for L2. The monosemic method used
in a bilingual dictionary is symbolized in figure 8. In figure 8,
the English word “oxygen” is equalized to Russian equivalent“kislorod”. Making “one-to-one” matching of L1 and L2 is a very simple method used in bilingual
dictionaries of today. Actually we should admit that this method works very well if the words in L1 andL2 are both monosemous. If you look up the word “oxygen” in a monolingual dictionary such as The
American Heritage Dictionary, Concise Oxford English Dictionary or Oxford Dictionary of English(2nd Ed.), etc., you will probably find only one definition for the term “oxygen”. And this will bealmost the same if you look up the word “kislorod (кислород)” in a Russian monolingual dictionary.
So it could be roughly said that, Monosemic Method is useful while explaining monosemous words. It
might be easy to find monosemous words if you are looking up a word in a dictionary of special terms ofa specificfield. On the other hand, it is notvery easy to find monosemouswords in a normal monolingual, andalso in a bilingual dictionary. Even
the word “oxygen” has more than
one meaning if you look it up in
Meriam-Webster Dictionary or
OED Online. For the real situation
at present, Monosemic Method
explained in this paper is almost
being used to explain every word inbilingual dictionaries, however, thebiggest problem of this method is
the polysemy of the words seen at
definitions. As stated in Kolukisa(2015b: 148) “although bilingual
dictionaries of today have foundsome solutions to the polysemy of
the headwords, they seem to haveignored the same polysemic
problem when it is seen at thedefinition words” (Kolukisa, 2015b:
148). In figure 9, Monosemic Method
Used in Bilingual Dictionaries is
illustrated. Monosemic Method could be effective to equalize the monosemous words in L1 and L2,
however, when the same method is used for explaining the headwords with polysemous words in thedefinitions, it causes some problems and conceptual deviations1.
3.2. Polysemic method
Polysemic Method that we will discuss here is a new method for bilingual dictionaries. This method isseen first in Kolukisa (2015b), however, there is no special term in Kolukisa (2015b) to name thismethod. Polysemic Method called in this paper, is a special method proposed for the polysemous words
used at definitions. It is main aim is to prevent the conceptual deviations and ambiguities, while
making an equalization between the headwords and the target words. For example,
suppose that we look up the adjective
pretty. (adj) 1 a きれいな，かわいらしい，可憐な
form of the word ‘pretty’ in；〈物・場所など〉きれいな，こぎれ
Kenkyusha’s English – Japanese
いな，美しいDictionary For The General Readerb 〈男が〉しゃれた，いきな；〈男(3rd Ed.), you will probably findが〉にやけた．
2 a 《見た目・耳に》ここちよい，気definitions as seen in figure at the left.
持のよい，おもしろい；けっこうな，
According to this bilingual dictionary,
すてきな，みごとな，うまいthe word ‘pretty’ has four differentb [iron] とんでもない，ひどい
3 《口・方》 〈数量・範囲など〉かなりの1
The term “conceptual deviation”
for the problems of bilingual dictionaries, is seen first in Kolukisa (2015b) .
4 技巧的な，巧妙な；最適の，おあつ
らえむきの．
28
Shortened definitions from Kenkyusha’s English – Japaneserd
Dictionary For The General Reader (3 Ed.).

meanings in Japanese. Now let’s lookat the first core meaning in 1a.
According to 1a ‘pretty’ is equal to theJapanese words seen below. And at thefirst rank of 1a, ‘Pretty’ is equalized
to Japanese word Kirei (na)’. Then myPretty 1a. = Kirei (na)Pretty 1a. = Kawaii
Pretty 1a. = Karen (na)Pretty 1a. = Kogirei (na)Pretty 1a. = Utsukushii

question here is, “Do you really think that we can use ‘pretty’
everywhere that we can use ‘kirei’ in Japanese?”. The bilingual
dictionary says they are equal, meaning we should be able to use themas direct equivalents. Now, at this point, let’s have a closer look at thedefinitions of the word ‘kirei’. It is better to see how the word ‘kirei’ istreated in a monolingual dictionary of Japanese. In the dictionary of
Digital Daijisen the word ‘kirei’ is definied with seven different
meaning areas.

き‐れい【X 綺麗／奇麗】〘形動〙文〘ナリ〙
１ 色・形などが華やかな美しさをもっているさま。
２ 姿・顔かたちが整っていて美しいさま。
３ 声などが快く聞こえるさま。
４ よごれがなく清潔なさま。
５ 男女間に肉体的な交渉がないさま。清純。
６ 乱れたところがないさま。整然としているさま。
７（「きれいに」の形で）残りなく物事が行われるさま。すっかり。

Shortened definitions from Digital Daijisen, December 2014.
So, when a monolingual method is used in a bilingual dictionary, although it is not realized veryclearly till now, the equalization of L1 and L2 actually has been made as in figure 10. Then theword ‘pretty’ can be seen to have seven meanings at once. However, the word ‘pretty’ doesn’t haveso many meanings in English. A similar figure is also seen in Kolukisa (2015b: 156), to be able toshow the conceptual deviations between the Turkish word ‘güzel’ and the Japanese word ‘kirei’. As
understood from the figure 10, although there are some overlapping meaning areas inside theJapanese word ‘kirei’, we cannot say that the whole parts of ‘kirei’ are overlapping. The meaning
areas “x+a3”, “x+a4”, “x+a5” and “x+a6” do not match with the meaning of ‘pretty’. However, while
making an equalizationwiththemonosemic
method in a bilingual
dictionary, it is notpossible to show both theoverlapping and nonoverlappingparts
separately. Moreover, it isfound out that most of the
missuses of the targetwords are caused by thenon-overlapping meaning
areas of the words in
definitions (see. Kolukisa,2013). On the other hand,
it may be that the editors
and the writers of thebilingualdictionaries
should have realized thishandicap,
becauseinalmost every dictionary,and especially in thebilingual ones, there are29

lots of sample sentences tobe able to show the correct
usage of these words.
However, showing andgiving examples only forthe overlapping parts do
not explain the nonoverlapping parts. Here to
be able to explain Polysemic Method, we should fist see how we make an equalization while we arelearning a new vocabulary in target language by the help of a bilingual dictionary.

In Figure 11, we see the word ‘pretty’ explained in the dictionary and at the right of the figure themeaning areas that we arranged according to the dictionary definitions are being monitored. Figure 12
shows the equalization at the lexical level and also the overlapping and non-overlapping parts of thewords ‘pretty’ and ‘kirei’. As understood from Figure 12, non-overlapping parts are much more thanthe overlapping parts. However, dictionaries of today only are capable of only showing the overlapping
parts.
Now let’s think whether there might be a way to be able to show both the overlapping and nonoverlapping parts of L1 and L2. It is thought that an adaptation of Pavlenko’s MHM might be very
helpful to be able to solve this problem.

30

In Figure 13, you see the adaptation of the Modified Hierarchical Model seen in Pavlenko (2009: 147),
for the vocabulary learning through the bilingual dictionaries. As understood from the figure, it isthought that we actually make an equalization at the conceptual level first as seen in figure 13 and thenwe carry it to lexical level. In lexical level we just label the words. After the conceptual equalization
process, every L2 word in our lexical memory is actually labelled as ‘L1 Equalized’, however not all
the parts of the meaning areas. Because, as explained above and in figure 13, all the meaning areas of
the two words do not overlap. So it is thought that we label the overlapping parts of an L2 word as ‘L1
Equalized’ and keep it in ‘L2 Words’ room, and equally we also label the non-overlapping parts of that
L2 word, however we keep these parts separately in ‘L2 Specific’ room. On the other hand, L1 words
that completed this equalization process successfully, are also labelled as overlapping and nonoverlapping and only the overlapping parts are kept in ‘L2 Equalized’ room. Moreover, L2 specificwords, such as culture related ones, are labelled and kept in this ‘L2 Specific’ room. And L1 specificwords, non-equalized L1 words and non-overlapping parts of the equalized words of L1 are also alllabelled and kept in ‘L1 Words’ room. We do not need to create a specific room for these kinds of L1
words, for we do not make a separation when we acquire our first language. So, creating only an ‘L2
Equalized’ room in L1 would be enough.
Accordingly, it is thought in this paper that the bilingual dictionaries should show not only theoverlapping parts, but also the non-overlapping parts of a concept, when an equalization is madebetween L1 and L2, or L2 and L1. This is what we call in this paper as Polysemic Method.
4.

Polysemic method and the genesis of a new kind of dictionary

In the previous section, we explained how the bilingual theory might be adapted to bilingual
dictionaries. Now, we can show perceptibly what the Polysemic Method really is. In Figure 14, you see
the genesis of a new kind of dictionary through the application of this Polysemic Method. This new
kind of dictionary shows not only the overlapping parts but also the non-overlapping parts of L1 andL2. The definitions of ‘kirei’ are quoted wholly again from Japanese monolingual dictionary Digital
Daijisen (2014) deliberately, to make the method more understandable.

31

As one will understand from the figures that we explained up to now, our new kind of bilingual
dictionary is capable of showing the non-overlapping parts that we explained in figure 12, as well as it
is able to explain the overlapping parts. Non-overlapping meaning areas of the word ‘kirei’ are shownat the right top of the figure 14 with a “×” mark at the beginning. Moreover, these meaning areas arealso explained with the possible equivalents instead, in the “Note” part of the definitions.
On the other hand, you may think that such kinds of information occupy too much space in the
dictionary, and giving just the examples or the real usage of the overlapping parts would be enough.
However, if you think that a person can create countless sentences, you will soon realize that justgiving the examples of the overlapping parts won’t make any use or prevent the learners using thatword with the effect of their own mother language, as demonstrated in Kolukisa (2015b, and 2013). So,
to be able to prevent the misuses we need both methods and technics together; giving examples of both
overlapping and non-overlapping parts, and also showing not only the overlapping parts but also thenon-overlapping parts together in a bilingual dictionary. If you are worried about the sufficient space indictionaries, there might be also some other economic ways of applying this Polysemic Method tobilingual dictionaries, as seen in figure 15 below. However, when we use this Polysemic Method in abilingual dictionary, we should not forget that we have to apply this method to every definition word.
Thus, we can provide an all-encompassing bilingual dictionary.

In Figure 15, you see another way of applying the Polysemic Method to bilingual dictionaries. Thismethod is much more economic however, it lacks of the detailed explanations. As understood from thefigure, some of the definitions may not have any non-overlapping parts.
5.

Conclusion

Bilingual dictionaries of today try to teach the equivalents of the words of a language in anotherlanguage. By doing this, they make an equalization of concepts which belong to two different cultures
and two different languages. The fact that that these concepts are formed in different cultures, means
they are not as exactly as the same. So while making an equalization of two different words which
belong to two different cultures, it is not possible to make a one-to-one mapping all the time forpolysemous words. Dictionaries of today should have realized this problem long before, because they
have produced some solutions such as giving lots of examples, usages and the collocations of theheadwords with the explanation in the definitions. However, as a result of the technics and the methods
used in these bilingual dictionaries, a very big handicap has come into existence in the way of theirtreatment to polysemy in definitions.
This paper proposes a new solution method for the handicap seen in bilingual dictionaries. The new
method is developed by addapting the bilingual theory and the model seen in Pavlenko (2009), and it isnamed as Polysemic Method in this study. As explained above, it is not very easy to find monosemouswords in dictionaries. However the bilingual dictionaries of today treat every definition word as if they
all are monosemous. As a result of this, also as stated in Kolukisa (2015b), conceptual deviations reallycause the misuse and the mother tongue oriented usages of the headwords. Such kinds of misuses havebeen found in the sentences of the Japanese learning students, as explained and presented in Kolukisa(2013). So as a solution to this handicap the Polysemic Method is created.
By using the Polysemic Method explained in this paper, it becomes possible to show both theoverlapping and non-overlapping of the words in L1 and L2. It is believed that using this method in
bilingual dictionaries, will become a revolution and help the users to understand the concepts of a new
language much better. Finally it will enable the users to have a good command of vocabulary and32correct usages of the words in the target language. Thus the errors made by the users of the bilingual
dictionaries will be prevent and as a further outcome hopefully it may also be a great use in translating
programs.

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Potter, Mary C., So, Kwok-Fai, Eckardt, Barbara Von and Feldman, Laurie B. 1984. Lexical andConceptual Representation in Beginning and Proficient Bilinguals. Journal of Verbal Learning
and Verbal Behavior 23: 23 – 38.
Weinreich, Uriel. 1953. Languages in Contact. NY: Mouton Publishers.
Woutersen, Mirjam, Cox, Albert, Weltens, Bert and Bot, Kees De. 1994. Lexical aspects of standard
dialect bilingualism. Applied Psycholinguistics 15: 447 – 473.

33

Dictionaries
The American Heritage Dictionary (5th ed.). 2012. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
NY: Dell.
Concise Oxford English Dictionary. 2011. UK: Oxford University Press.
Oxford Dictionary of English (2nd Ed.). 2003. Oxford University Press (electronic version).
Meriam-Webster Dictionary. 2015. Meriam-Webster Inc. (electronic version, 2.0).
OED Online. Oxford University Press, March 2015. http://www.oed.com/
Kenkyusha’s English ‐ Japanese Dictionary for the General Reader (Third Edition). 2013. Kenkyusha
Publishing (oneswing electronic version).
Digital Daijisen. 2014. Shogakkan (electronic version).

34

Bilingual Dictionary and Encyclopedia – Where goes the line?
Cultural specificities as sources of dilemmas and solutions proposed
Mats-Peter Sundström
European parliament, Swedish translation unit
matspeter.sundstrom@europarl.europa.eu
Abstract
This paper aims to shed light on the border zone between dictionaries and encyclopaedias, with regard
to bilingual dictionaries. More specifically, the intention is to discuss the occasional desirability andnecessity to introduce encyclopaedic elements into bilingual dictionaries. Irrelevant though this issue
may seem at first glance, given the obvious fact that in bilingual dictionaries the headwords are defined
through the equivalents they are supplied with, there are, nonetheless situations where comments of anencyclopaedic nature are called for, viz. 1) cases where the headwords refer to objects, practices,institutions etc. specific to the source language culture and hence lacking target-language equivalents;
2) cases where the source language has words or set expressions referring to universally known
phenomena which, however, lack exact target language equivalents (as an illustration reference may bemade to the Finnish verb tarjeta which means 'be able to endure low temperatures without feeling
uncomfortable') and 3) cases where comments of a pragmatic nature, relating to the use of a particular
lexeme may be called for (like for instance, although the Swedish noun toalett finds an semantic
equivalent in the English toilet, the latter is often best avoided in social conversation, where words like
restroom or bathroom provide more appropriate substitutes. With the advances made in electronic
dictionary editing, possibilities for such comments are well-nigh exhaustible and this paper intends topresent a few suggestions regarding their implementation.
Keywords: lexical anisomorphism, pragmatic information boxes

1. Introduction
During the earlier stages of a budget period, Grandfathering means allowing the holder of agiven right, concession etc. continue having this right or concession, whereas gold plating(apart from its literal sense) is an ironic way of referring to excessive or unnecessary
regulation and greenwashing means making an activity seem environmentally sound just for
appearance's sake. Then there are multiword items like sunset clause (a provision to the effectthat a regulation, system etc. will automatically cease to be in effect after a given period oftime) or plain vanilla (as in plain vanilla solution i.e. a conventional solution, conforming totraditional patterns), just to mention a few.
Since the overwhelmingly predominant language of the international scene is English, it is
only natural that these lexemes should mainly be confined to the English language. In thesecases the non-English dictionary user may need for receptive purposes a kind of half-way
house between a dictionary article and an encyclopaedic presentation, to allow for a proper
understanding of the lexemes concerned.
3. Emotion-triggering phrases
Some of the notoriously trickiest lexical items to deal with are stock phrases of a kind I havechosen to call emotion-triggering phrases. As the description selected suggests, they have as
their main objective, not so much to communicate a given factual content but rather totransfer an emotional reaction to the receiver or trigger a similar reaction in him. Oftenenough, they are typical of one given language and lack equivalents in any other language.
Here, the bilingual lexicographer finds himself at his wit's end, unless a concise description of
their actual use can be added. And so, as McCreary pointed out, ”foreign language learners
35[...] are likely to search for them in a bilingual dictionary a few times before being
discouraged at the generally spotty coverage” (McCreary 2007:87). In other words they
amply illustrate the point made by Ariel about ”cases where 'what is said' is arguably richer
than the encoded semantic meaning” (Ariel 2008: 295).
Below, four examples of the above-mentioned tendency will be provided, drawn from four
different languages. The first will be taken from the Swedish language:
Surt, sa' räven om rönnbärenThis expression would translate mechanically into English as[They are] sour said the fox about the rowanberries.
Here, any attempt at finding an exact English translation is bound to fail. We simply have to
examine on what occasions the expression is used and then arrive, if not at an equivalent, thenat least at an explanation. Consider the following context.
Well, you didn't get to go to Paris, did you, and now you keep telling everyone that there is,after all, nothing much to see in that city. 'Surt, sa' räven om rönnbären', huh?
In other words, this expression is used to indicate the realisation that someone is not being
sincere in assuring that a certain experience he could not have was not worth very much, after
all. It comes close to being a statement like Stop pretending, we all know you were yearning
to do this or that thing and now you are just trying to hide that not succeeding in doing sobothers you something awfully!
Something similar is true of the Finnish
Ei kannettu vesi kaivossa pysy
Literally, water that is carried [to the place from elsewhere] will not stay in the well.
Here, similarly, the whole is something vastly different than the sum of its parts. Obviously, it
is not possible to create a wellspring by digging a hole in the ground and filling it with water
brought there from elsewhere, as this water will be absorbed by the surrounding layers ofearth, but why should there be any need to say so explicitly? – In fact, this saying carries amessage of resignation and an element of Well, I told you so, didn't I, used as it is to indicatethat changes or reforms cannot be imposed from the outside if there is no intrinsic support ormental preparedness for them. Cf below:
Well, well, well ... They encouraged legislative amendments, they initiated training
programmes for professional law enforcers and much more in order to fight corruption in X
country but nothing came of it all. But of course: ei kannettu vesi kaivossa pysy!
Or yet another illustration, this time from Polish.
Hulaj dusza, piekla nie ma!
Literally merry goes life, [my] soul: there is no hell.
This basically denotes a kind of reckless way of acting or living as if there were no tomorrow.
Again, an illustration

36

So the X family inherited one million euros and then what? Well: hulaj dusza, piekla nie ma!
In less than a year they had run through all their wealth and racked up a mountain of debt so
now the banks are threatening them with foreclosure.
And finally and evidently, there are a great many English expressions also that fall within thesame category of expressions that cannot be readily rendered into other languages. Consider
this Get a life! – While assuredly thousands of, for instance, Finnish or Swedish speaking
teenagers may have feel sorely tempted to fire off this phrase into their parents' very faces,
they have not been able to, owing to the lack of an even remotely similar standard phrase in
their own native languages. – According to Wikipedia, the phrase is used to describe a person
who ”is devoting an inordinate amount of time to trivial or hopeless matters” or ”people whoare viewed as officious or meddling in the affairs of others” .
– In every one of the four cases quoted above, it is hardly possible to fulfill the role of abilingual dictionary for productive purposes. The lexicographer will have to confine
himself/herself to telling the dictionary users that the phrase in question is so specific to agiven language as to thwart any attempt at seeking equivalents. This goes a long way towards
to confirming the relevance of Adamska-Salaciak's statement: ”Failure to allow for nonnatural equivalence manifests itself in the unrealistic expectation that equivalents are always
there, merely awaiting discovery” (Adamska-Salaciak 2010:399). All this bears out the point
made by Moeimam and Steinhauer to the effect that ”For the receptive dictionary this is notmuch of a problem, but for the user of the productive dictionary such a description is only
useful when [the lexicographer] has to explain the meaning of an item to a [target-language
speaker]. As a translation equivalent, however, the circumscription will rarely be adequate”(Moeimam and Steinhauer 2007:288).
For the purposes of a dictionary for receptive purposes, however, modern computer-based
editing offers well-nigh limitless possibilities. Dictionary articles in which either focalisingwords or emotion-triggering phrases occur can be supplied with boxed-in miniature fact
sheets, where a concise explanation of their use is provided, followed with a number ofattestations from actual usage. In so many words: supplied with pragmatics boxes, to use theterm coined in the introduction. This solution was in fact proposed by the present author at theprevious Asialex conference (cf. Sundström 2013:22). At this point modern technology offers
us all but inexhaustible possibilities, as lexicographers no longer are bound by the constraints
imposed by the printed format. Additional information on headwords in bilingual dictionaries
can be added basically at will, as was indicated by Yamada ”pragmatic information inelectronic dictionaries is unlimited” (Yamada 2014). – Such information boxes or frames areused, for instance, in the general dictionary of the Swedish Academy (Svenska Akademiens
Ordbok). This is a monolingual dictionary of the Swedish language, with not only descriptive
but also normative functions. Technically, these boxes are rectangular spaces in immediateconnection with the lexemes they refer to. Printed on a grey-coloured background they
discuss given lexemes and add comments and recommendations about their usage. Somethingsimilar could no doubt also be introduced on a larger scale in bilingual dictionaries, notably
those in electronic format.
This only remaining problem is that of making dictionary users aware of this potential. As
was quite tellingly pointed out by Frankenberg-Garcia ”little of the spectacular improvementsthat have taken place over the past decades have had much influence on actual dictionary-use
behaviour” (Frankenberg-Garcia 2011:98). In this context, the systematic integration of
dictionary-use into foreign language teaching is more than desirable. All the more so, sincephrases of the kind discussed above most probably are far more common when the source andtarget languages are structurally and culturally far from one another, as is the case for instancewith European and Asian languages.

37

Pragmatics boxes could be seen as a kind of cross between pragmatics information notes andextralinguistic comments. Needless to say, then can serve a range of other purposes also thanjust clarifying by contextualisation lexical items of the kind referred to in the above two
sections. To the present author, essentially three such purposes present themselves, viz
frequency information, warnings of possible double entendres and, finally, clues about
cultural connotations.
4. Usage frequency information
To probably anyone with some experience of translation it is a well-known fact that there areexpressions in language A that in principle lend themselves perfectly well to word-for-wordtranslation into language B, but even so, such a translation, while grammatically andsemantically correct, would seem unidiomatic or even unnatural. Translations are often rifewith examples, something which goes a long way towards proving Sumiyoshi's statement to
the effect that ”valency patterns are to be fully covered in dictionaries” (Sumiyoshi
2013:273).At its simplest expression we may take the lexeme selon in French or wedlug in
Polish, both for all practical purposes corresponding to the English according to. Now, as
native English speakers are instinctively aware of, this prepositional expression does notnormally occur in connection with the first person pronoun, at least not in the singular. In
other words then, a construction such as *according to me would appear unidiomatic, whereas
such one-to-one equivalents as selon moi in French or wedlug mnie in Polish would be
perfectly normal. In fact, as a Swedish-language translation assistant at the European
Parliament pointed out to me, if in a discussion someone said enligt min åsikt. i.e. 'according
to my opinion', the utterance would appear to her as a perfectly appropriate comment,
whereas enligt mig, i.e. 'according to me' would make the speaker come across as an
unbearable know-it-all! (Jalava 2014). To inform French or Polish users of this particular
aspect of English (and, if need be, Swedish) pragmatics, recourse could be had to a device
commented on by Chan: ”Another issue concerning learner's understanding of word use fromdictionary information [...] is the inclusion of common mistakes boxes. These boxes are auseful means of highlighting common mistakes made by target users of the dictionary” (Chan2012:87).
At this stage it should be emphasized that the idea of common mistaken need not be taken as
as a reference to grammatical errors, as seen above. Another example of this aspect is theoveruse of certain words. For example, in European Union texts translated into Swedish theEnglish verb promote is habitually rendered into the target language as främja somethingwhich from a purely semantic point of view is perfectly impeccable. However, in texts
spontaneously generated in Swedish, the idea contained in the English promote would
probably rather be expressed by a different construction, namely verka för or arbeta för, bothliterally corresponding to the English work for. Thus the notion ofpromote international understanding
if originally produced in Swedish, would most likely come out as verka(arbeta) för
internationell förståelse i.e. in English work for international understanding.
Somewhat similar is the case with the English verb secure. While in contexts such as secureadequate health care it would be perfectly possibly to translate the core verb into Swedish bymeans of equivalents such as säkerställa (derived from säker meaning 'secure') or se till att(literally 'see to it that'), a native user of Swedish wishing to express the underlying idea
would primarily be most likely to use the verb ordna med (literally *arrange with), as in38

Vi ska ordna med adekvat hälsovård

... which in turn would come across in English back translation We shall arrange for there to
be adequate health care. Although formally correct, it would not be very likely to occur, atleast not in texts of the kind seen at the European Parliament. – Conversely, in the words of atranslator colleague of mine, a former Swedish prime minister was once reproached for using
lexical items too typical of the Swedish-language translations at the European Union and thus
not native-like! (cf Wolmerud 2015).
An objection may of cause be raised, in so far as, on the surface level, the English secure
seems to be invested with a stronger element of assurance (”we shall not only arrange it, weshall make sure it is there”) but the question is whether in fact this point is of relevance. After
all it may be assumed that in contexts of the kind quoted the Swedish ordna implies the sameelement of assuring something as the English verb secure carries explicitly. This fact mightwell be included as an assurance to linguistically perhaps somewhat insecure dictionary users,
again in a ”mistakes box”, which far more appropriately might be called a ”hints for practicallanguage use box”. – However, caution must be exercised in an actual translation situation,
since it may be very difficult to justify the use of a more native-like construction that does
not, in purely semantic terms, quite correspond to the source language, although it is very
likely to be used to communicate what is essentially the same message. For as was pointed
out by Ishikawa: ”Language is not merely a simple tool that represents the world It controls
the way people feel about the world.” (Ishikawa 2013:222).
However, as is well known, in certain fixed expressions used on particular occasions, thelexical items of a language A as compared to language B may vary considerably as far as
lexical meaning is concerned and still be used to communicate the same message. A couple ofillustrations from concrete real-life situations: At the end of a restaurant meal the waiter may
ask the client in French Ca etait?, that is Was it? or in Finnish Maistuiko? i. e. Did it taste? –and both expressions convey the question Was it good? Likewise, English-speaking children
bored during a long car journey will usually ask Are we there yet? whereas their Polishcounterparts would say Daleko jeszcze? which in turn means Far away still? Or as a final
illustration: the sign warning people to keep away electric installations will in French bear the
text of Danger de mort i.e. Mortal danger and in German Lebensgefahr, approximately
Danger to life whereas an English warning sign will confine itself to simply informing about
Danger, without classifying the exact danger level. – Such pragmatics related aspects lendthemselves ideally to inform about in pragmatics information boxes of the kind proposed.

5. Warnings for double entendres

Users of bilingual dictionaries wishing to express themselves in the language that is not theirown (whether source or target language) may need warnings enabling them to avoid potential
embarrassing situations that may arise involuntarily owing to the existence of hidden
undermeanings. – The present author recalls a situation where a teacher admonished a class ofupper-secondary (”senior high school”) students in a Swedish-medium school in Finland forusing an excessively colloquial, if not slangy, language in their essays written in preparation
for their national matriculation exam and told them to use a language more fit for grown-up
people when dealing with serious themes. Then, by way of explanation to an American
foreign student, she translated her statement into English as a request for the students to use
more adult language in their texts. The result was unmitigated merriment, owing to thespecific connotations this phrase has acquired in connections such as this movie contains
adult language. – Somewhat similar was the case with a non-native speaker of English
wishing to write a letter to congratulate a female colleague on account of her getting married
39and, among many others things wished her a happy change of life, which is an all but literaltranslation of the French un changement heureux dans ta vie ... blithely unaware of the factthat the English phrase change of life, is usually perceived as synonymous with menopause.
Appropriate fact boxes in connection with the key lexemes adult and change respectively
could have prevented these rather awkward situations. In this same category also fallexamples such as the English noun toilet, which, although a perfectly polite technical word isoften avoided in social conversation where nouns such as restroom or bathroom are usedinstead, a fact the dictionary user might find helpful to be informed about. In all these cases, apragmatics information box has its potential role to play.
Sometimes, incidentally, it may be warranted to include information to the effect that a given
lexeme is free from under-meanings. For such information a pragmatics information box isalso well suited. To give just one example: Swedish learners of English may find it helpful to
be told in a dictionary involving the two languages concerned that the English noun party isperfectly neutral, as opposed to the Swedish loanword of party which very often comes withovertones of a posh lifestyle of ”life in the fast lane cum liquor galore”, and thus, it isperfectly possible in English to use party in references to staid and very formal social
functions. – Strikingly enough, something similar is true of the noun fest: while in the English
language its use is essentially reserved for ironic and pejorative occasions (cf. drinkfest,
gossipfest, sobfest etc.), in the Scandinavian languages, Swedish included, it is the normal
word to designate a party. – As a side remark, against this background it is easy enough tounderstand the somewhat confused reaction, in English-language readers when confronted
with the fact that a vintage car speed gala, or racing gala, was referred to in Swedish
newspaper articles as a fartfest (fart being Swedish for speed) ... Again, pragmatics
information boxes no doubt have a role to fulfil.

6. Clues about cultural connotations
At this point we come to straddle the bordering line between a dictionary and anencyclopaedia quite markedly. Obviously, the possibilities of adding remarks about cultural
specificities that go along with various lexemes are well-nigh infinite. Consider for instancethe names of the colours. In the English language, for instance, blue comes with connotationsof sadness and melancholy, as in feel blue or the baby blues, the latter a colloquial expression
for post-partum depression, whereas a colloquial expression for post-partum depression,
whereas yellow, unlike in many other languages, sometimes has decidedly unpleasantconnotations, as in the yellow press or turn yellow, in the sense of 'lose courage'. Somethingsimilar could be said of nouns denoting various animals. In English a bear connotes withsomeone grumpy or ill-tempered, whereas in both Finnish and many Slavic language, thecorresponding noun brings to mind associations of someone strong and rather sympathetic.
Sometimes the cultural aspects relating to lexemes are clearly extralinguistic. Initially,mention could be made of such a seemingly uncomplicated English word as chicken soup. In
many parts of the English-language culture, this particular food is traditionally regarded as ahome remedy for the common cold. Adding a comment about this might facilitate the nonnative English language user's understanding of why, for instance, a news item warning forthe spread of the 'flu may end on a familiar note to the effect that chicken soup will be in highdemand in the upcoming season, and also to grasp the allusion effect when a publishingcompany selling inspirational ”feel-good” books advertises under the words of ”Chicken soupfor the soul”
A case in point to illustrate this interface between lexicon and extralinguistic reality is theFinnish lähiö sometimes translated into English as suburb. The problem with this choice ofequivalent is that a Finnish lähiö looks vastly different from notably an American suburb.
Instead of being compose of largish, one-family houses usually well spaced-out from each40

other, the Finnish lähiö will most likely consist of a few dozen multi-storey blocks of flats
grouped around a shopping mall of modest size. Arguably, suburb may not even function as avery good equivalent of lähiö. – Another example is offered by the Finnish noun vappu andits English equivalent May Day. While the denotational equivalence is indisputable, therespective associations evoked by these two words are for the most part quite different.
Whereas the English May Day is likely to primarily evoke associations of the international
labour movement, left-wing politics and demonstrations (something which indeed used to betrue of vappu in Finland until a generation or so ago), in modern Finland vappu is a rather
carnival-like family event.
7. Keeping the distance between dictionary and encyclopaedia
As far as the last example in the previous paragraph is concerned, we are clearly approaching
the demarcating line between editing a bilingual dictionary as opposed to editing anencyclopaedia. It may well be called into question whether not actually the provision of
information, such as data concerning the nature of vappu in Finland as opposed to May Day isirrelevant for the lexicographic purposes. This issue is certainly not straightforward. On the
one hand, there is no exact line to be drawn between a dictionary and an encyclopaedia. On
the one hand, there are cases where the overstepping of this boundary line, no matter how
vague and blurred, is rather manifest. Consider this example from an otherwise very
meritorious Polish-Swedish dictionary:
The headword Wisla, the name of a Polish river usually referred to as the Vistula in English,
supplied with the Swedish equivalent Weichsel i.e. the German name of the same river,traditionally used also in Swedish, and then, in boldfaced fine print: Polens längsta flod,
1047 km, in other words Poland's longest river, 1047 km [long]. – Although perhaps acomment about the river being the longest in Poland may be warranted, giving exact
information as to its length hardly falls within the lexicographer's remit any longer. Then,again, in a context like this, exact numerical information may be called forwiorsta verst ryskt längdmått, 1066,8 m
or in other words, telling the dictionary user not only that wiorsta is a Russian length
measurement unit, but also giving its exact dimensions; information that could be well needed
in a translation situation if the translator wishes to express a distance in a manner morefamiliar to the readers/listerners.
8. Conclusion
Throughout this paper, quite a forceful case has been made, at least implicitly, for”pragmatics boxes”, as they were called in the introduction. However, we must be aware of
their limits. For one thing, they may make the procedure of consulting a bilingual dictionary
unnecessarily complicated by burdening the dictionary user with a multitude of information
perhaps difficult to handle. Secondly, if taken to extremes, they will slow down the dictionary
editing process. After all, a dictionary is normally edited according to a set timetable, leaving
little or no time for the editors to conduct overly comprehensive searches, even in these daysof the Internet with all its accompanying search engines. Care must also be taken to make surethe attentive dictionary users realises that the explanations provided in such a box are
indicative and not exhaustive. Finally, but certainly not least importantly, we must not lose
sight of the obvious fact that not even the most ambitiously structured dictionary, whether
monolingual or bilingual, whether in electronic or in paper format, can ever be a substitute for
actual language learning and for practical experiences of the language other than the user's
mother tongue. They are an aid on the road to a goal – but neither the road nor the goal itself.
Even so, by judiciously exploiting the possibilities offered by modern information technology
and pairing them with lexicographic skills, chances are that future dictionary users will41

approach the goal of language mastery (yes, approach it, not attain it, given that its fullattainment is impossible!) along a multilane expressway rather than a winding country byway
and this in itself is certainly no mean accomplishment.
Acknowledgements
My sincerest thanks are due to all my colleagues at the Swedish translation unit of European Parliament, who
despite an often staggering workload willingly shared language related experiences with me, thus facilitating thecompilation of this paper.

References
Adamska–Salaciak, Arleta. 2010. Examining Equivalence. International Journal of
Lexicography 23(4): 387–409.
Allén, Sture et al. 2009. Svensk ordbok utgiven av Svenska Akademien. Stockholm: Svenska
Akademien.
Ariel, Mira. 2008. Pragmatics and Grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Chan, Alice Y. W. 2012. Cantonese English Learners' Use of Grammatical Information in a
Monolingual Dictionary for Determining the Correct Use of A Target Word.
International Journal of Lexicography 25(1): 68–94.
Frankenberg-Garcia, Ana. 2011. Beyond L1–L2 Equivalents: Where do users of English as aforeign language turn for help? International Journal of Lexicography 24(1): 97–123.
Ishikawa, Yuka. 2013. Gender stereotypes seen in dictionary descriptions published in Japan.
In Lexicography and Dictionaries in the Information Age. Selected papers from the 8th
Asialex International Conference, 272–277. Airlangga University Press, Surabaya.
Jalava, Margita. 2015. European Parliament translation assistant Margita Jalava, oral
communication to author, Mar. 17 2014.
Kubitsky, Jacek. 2000. Slownik polsko-szwedzki. Polsk–svensk ordbok. Stockholm: Natur och
Kultur.
McCreary, Don. 2007. Review of Renata Szczepaniak The Role of Dictionary Use in theComprehension of Idiom Variants. International Journal of Lexicography 20(1): 87–
92.
Moeiman, Susi and Steinhauer, Hein. 2007. The Dutch–Indonesian Dictionary Project.
International Journal of Lexicography 20(3): 275–293.
Sumiyoshi, Makoto. 2013. A corpus-based study on phrases and their valency pattern:
Toward the improvement of dictionaries. In Lexicography and Dictionaries in the
Information Age. Selected papers from the 8th Asialex International Conference, 222–
227. Airlangga University Press, Surabaya.
Sundström, Mats-Peter. 2011. Translations in international organisations: non-native
character of target language texts an inevitable result? Translation Quarterly 61,
September 2011. Papers from the FIT Sixth Asian Translators' Forum.
Sundström, Mats-Peter. 2013. Illustrative phrases: a complement to a bilingual dictionary as
language learning resource. In Lexicography and Dictionaries in the Information Age.
Selected papers from the 8th Asialex International Conference, 20–26. Airlangga
University Press, Surabaya.
Wikipedia the free encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Get_a_life_(idiom) Accessed
7 May 2015.
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to author, Aug. 24 2014.

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43

Roles That Labels in Dictionaries Are Expected to Play
Masaaki Ogura
The University of Tokyorrtrnrrtrn@ogdict.com
Abstract
A dictionary is a source of knowledge or information by virtue of being a collection of references. In
fact, its attitude toward language has often been discussed. The issue of prescriptivism versus
descriptivism is one of the main issues in this regard. One of the major cases of this controversy
emerged after Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (W3) came out in 1961. This dictionary,
being regarded as “too permissive” from a prescriptivist point of view, caused a debate from a varietyof perspectives. As Gold (1985) points out, several points such as under-labelling, pronunciation,
capitalization, and omissions were criticized. This paper attempts to consider the role that “labels,” inparticular, play and are expected to play in relation to the notion of prescriptiveness anddescriptiveness. First, some aspects of labels in W3 are discussed in comparison with other dictionariesof the same vintage. Then, a discussion of the process of prescriptivism being generated is undertaken
by considering the transitory properties of labels. The author seeks to explore where descriptivism turns
into or meets prescriptivism and vice versa. Further focus will be on the continuity if any, between
these two concepts from the perspectives of the user and the author.
Keywords: label, prescriptivism, descriptivism,Webster’s Third

1. Introduction
Much has been debated over the roles that dictionaries are supposed to play including theissue of prescriptivism versus descriptivism. To some extent, they act as guides and servevarious functions. Simply put, prescriptive dictionaries incorporate “good” words and rule out“bad” words, or show an attitude of disapproval to “bad” words. In contrast, descriptive
dictionaries include every usage, independent of their “goodness” or “badness” (Béjoint 2010:80). Of course, these notions are not dichotomous, and the continuum existing between themhas already been discussed (Beal 2004). Some scholars have already put forward someconcepts that lie behind the continuum (Bergenholtz 2003; Balteiro 2011; Gally 2011).
However, the exact meeting point of prescriptivism and descriptivism has not been
meticulously discussed. This paper attempts to discuss the roles that labels in dictionaries are
expected to play and to locate “labels” on the continuum. Béjoint (2010) defines labels as thefollowing:
A usage label is a noun or an adjective indicating the kind of context in which the word isnormally used: slang, literary, American, Medicine, etc. Usage labels are usually abbreviated(sl, Iit, US, med, etc.). They are of different kinds, social, geographical, stylistic, etc.,
corresponding to different varieties of the language. (Béjoint 2010: 34)
This suggests that labels have multiple roles, which indicates the characteristics of words in
dictionaries. At the same time, however, the connotations that labels could have varied fromone dictionary to another. Such connotations are more or less independent and contextual, andit can be said that labels do not mean much and the details are often obscure” (Landau 2001:
453). But as already pointed out, labels more or less assume prescriptive meanings, and this is
closely reflected in the controversy over Webster’s Third New International Dictionary (W3),which was judged to be highly descriptive. The dictionary was criticized for some of its
aspects and under-labelling was one of them (Gold 1985). The fact that under-labelling cameunder criticism means that the labels showed themselves to be an indispensable component ofdictionaries, which people hoped would guide them to the “right” use of the language.
2. Webster’s Third New International Dictionary and its controversy

44

W3, after its publication, became the target of debate regarding its descriptive attitude. One of
the major cases related to the descriptive attitude was the inclusion of the word ain’t which
was very much criticized for being listed in the dictionary. Some people seemed to havethought that it was the first dictionary ever to record the word, which, as Skinner (2013)
points out, was factually mistaken. Putting this point aside, the tumultuous response to theword suggests that part of journalism expects dictionaries to choose the “right” words forinclusion. The attitude of Philip Gove, the editor of the dictionary, is well described in thefollowing:
Gove knew that even the simplest words defied the neatness of definitions and categories andusage labels, all desperately trying to pinpoint when, where, and under what circumstanceschair or apple or girl may be used. (Skinner 2013: 12)
From the above statement, we know that Gove did not believe that labels do not work in the
expected manner. However, this, in turn, makes the labels existing in W3 worth discussion interms of the fact that they were not excluded and of the roles they could play. In what follows,
we are going to see briefly what kinds of labels are seen in W2 and W3. But before that, it is
to be noted that words labeled rare in W2 were eliminated from W3. It implies that ain’t was
relatively in wide use and hence Gove thought it to be entitled to inclusion. Hayakawa (2015)
observes that the usages followed by W3 were from the middle of the 20th century. It follows
that even slangs were chosen to be listed in the dictionary if they were thought to be in wide
use at the time when he was compiling the dictionary.
3. Prescriptivism, descriptivism, and their continuum
3.1 Prescriptivism and descriptivism
It has already been pointed out that the conceptual border between prescriptivism anddescriptivism is not clearly defined. Beal (2004), for example, is skeptical about “the binary
opposition of prescriptive/descriptive” (Beal 2004: 122–123) in terms of prescriptive
grammar. However, it is not specifically stated what kinds of notions or concepts could lie
between the two. As for this, some authors have proposed several notions. One of them is“proscriptive,” explained by Bergenholtz (2003), by which lexicographers “tell the user thatvariant he should choose if there is more than one possibility” regarding language variations.
In a similar manner, Balteiro (2011) argues for “descriptive prescriptivism” which focuses onwhether a particular usage would be accepted or refused by a particular group of people.
These are based on prescriptivism on the one hand and descriptivism on the other hand.
However, Vorlat (1998) has a slightly different view in which categories of grammar are
divided into descriptive, normative, and prescriptive modes. This categorization has been
mentioned because normative and prescriptive modes, which are sometimes put together, aretreated separately here: normative refers to being based on language use, favoring the usagesof some groups, and often having pedagogical purposes; while prescriptive refers to being
based on usages but on a set of logical (or other) criteria (Vorlat 1998: 485–486). In thissense, Vorlat sees prescriptivism in a narrower sense than conventionally argued. Of course,
we should note the concept beyond this prescriptive-descriptive issue, which Gally (2011:128) calls “preemptivism.” However, this is a side issue.
3.2 Where do prescriptivism and descriptivism meet?
As stated above, details of the prescriptive-descriptive continuum are yet to be discussed
intensively. It seems the issue is still dependent on authors— what is their basis for the terms“prescriptive” or “descriptive.” Here, the author proposes a provisional framework for thecontinuum in terms of the extent to which the author’s “subjective” judgments are involved.
They are: (A)“ideal, logical prescriptivism,” (B)“non-variational prescriptivism,”(C)”variational prescriptivism,” (D)“descriptivism with socio-linguistic prescriptivism,” and(E)“non-judgmental descriptivism.” (A) refers to extreme prescriptivism where all
lexicographical judgments are based on the author’s subjectivity or linguistic preferences.
45

Next comes (B), where the author resorts to actual linguistic phenomena that are preferred by
the author or a particular group, but does not accept linguistic variations. In (C) linguistic
variations are accepted but still recommendations are made as to which variations should bechosen. (D) relates to the description of actual linguistic variations and explains to readerswhether a particular language use is accepted by a certain group or not, with the author’s
subjective judgment least involved. (E) can be defined as extreme descriptivism where all the
language variations become the target of inclusion. Practically speaking, (A) and (E) arealmost impossible. Thus, (B), (C), (D) are what should be noted in discussing the propertiesof dictionaries. Please note that (C) has close relations with (B) and (D). In variationalprescriptivism, the types of language to be chosen must be based on some criteria. When thecriteria are subject to the author’s linguistic view, it comes close to (B) while more emphasizeon actual language shows the characteristics of (D).
4. Prescription in description
In W3 controversy, the opponents seemed to have considered that “bad” words are not entitledfor inclusion in dictionaries and that if they are to be described, they need to be labeled in aprescriptive manner. This is why underlabelling bore the brunt of criticism. The inclusion of aparticular word means that the lexicographer thought that it merited inclusion. Hence, itmatters how the word is being dealt with or described, and labels play a pivotal part in thisregard. It should be noted here that there are some stages in the process of inclusion of aparticular word. The first stage involves the choice of inclusion while the second phase isconcerned with how the word is described. After considering this point, we can see that theword ain’t was criticized in both terms. The criticism was aimed at the fact that ain’t andother “bad” words were chosen to be included in the dictionary and at under-labelling. Let uscompare the description of ain’t in Fowler’s Modern English Usage and in W3. W3’s
definition of ain’t is as follows:
Though disapproved by many and more common in less educated speech, used orally in mostparts of the United States by many cultivated speakers especially in the phrase ain't I.
On the other hand, Fowler’s definition is written as follows:(a) A(i)n’t is merely a colloquial, and as used for isn’t is an uneducated blunder and serves
no useful purpose. But it is a pity that a(i)n’t for am not, being a natural contraction andsupplying a real want, should shock us as though tarred with the same brush.
Here, we can see that the definition of the word in Fowler is quite emotional and shows
despise to the use of ain’t. This might corresponds to (B) in the continuum described in theprevious section, though it is possible that Fowler made this definition in response to Gove’s“generous” attitudes. Turning to Gove’s definition, we can see that it is hasty to conclude that
Gove was not prescriptive. He did not only describe that the word was used but also that theuse was disapproved. This kind of explanation might be termed as “social prescription.”
Looking at some other word descriptions, we can see that Gove was not prescriptive merelyin that he did not put inherent value judgment on words themselves. Rather, he showed aprescriptive attitude in terms of responses caused by a particular word among people in asocial context. Considering this would introduce us to “social prescription” in discussing theprescriptive-descriptive issues. Labels that show social prescription appear, for example, on
the definitions of chink, Cajun, bugre, brummagem, and Asiatic. In W2, these words weremerely labeled as slangs or even not labeled that way. These changes of description could
show that W3 worked on to describe how a particular word could cause certain responses in asocial context.

5.

Conclusion46

So far, as shown by some examples mentioned in this paper, some definitions in W3 describesocial prescription, which means how a particular use of language would be accepted orinterpreted in a certain society or community. It is true that W3 was criticized for its
underlabeling—expressions such as “taken to be offensive” or “disapproved” should beconsidered to be a label in a broader sense. In addition, this paper has shown that labels
should be divided into linguistic labels, which concern the rule of usage or grammars, andsociolinguistic labels, which relate to how a language is interpreted in a social context. The
words discussed here are often deemed improper from prescriptivism, but W3, which is aseemingly descriptive dictionary, also imposes some prescriptions on these words. This showsthat labels in dictionaries have a transitory nature or have room for diverse interpretations,which accommodates both prescriptivism and descriptivism. It means that the place of thistransition would matter. It could be in the middle part of the continuum, which is around (C)and highly concerns social prescription. The meaning of this prescription is not only based on
the judgment the author makes but also on the reader’s interpretations. To put it another way,
whether a particular entry or part of the entry is descriptive or prescriptive is highly
contextual. Therefore, it is expected that a more contextualized framework of interpretation isneeded to discuss the attitudes adopted by dictionaries.
References
Balteiro, Isabel. 2011. Prescriptivism and descriptivism in the treatment of Anglicisms in aseries of bilingual Spanish-English dictionaries. International Journal of Lexicography,
24(3), 277–305.
Beal, Joan. C. 2004. English in modern times: 1700-1945. London:Arnold.
Béjoint, Henri. 2010. The lexicography of English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bergenholtz, Henning. 2003. User-oriented understanding of descriptive, proscriptive andprescriptive lexicography. Lexikos, 13(0).
Gally, Tom. 2011. Controversial Vocabulary in Monolingual Japanese Dictionaries. In
Lexicography: Theoretical and Practical Perspectives, ASIALEX2011 Proceedings,
120–129. Tokyo: The Asian Association for Lexicography.
Gold, David. L. 1985. The Debate Over Webster’s Third Twenty-Five Years Later:
Winnowing the Chaff from the Grain. Journal of the Dictionary Society of North
America 7.1, 225-36.
Hayakaya, Isamu. 2015. 英米における辞書の歴史[A History of English Dictionaries].
Tokyo: Texnai.
Landau, Sidney. 2001. Dictionaries. The Art and Craft of Lexicography, 2nd. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Skinner, David. 2013. The Story of Ain’t: America, Its Language, and the Most Controversial
Dictionary Ever Published. New York: HarperCollins.
Vorlat, Emma. 1998. Criteria of grammaticalness in 16th and 17th-century English grammar.
In M. Ryden., I. Tieken-Boon. van Ostade., & M. Kyoto. (Eds.), A Reader in Early
Modern English,485–496. Bern: Peter Lang.

47

Strict Corpus-based Lexicography and the Development ofDictionaries in the South African Indigenous Languages
V.M. Mojela
University of Limpopo, South Africa
victor.mojela@ul.ac.za
Abstract:
In this research, strict corpus-based lexicography refers to the use of the corpus as sole or major
requirement for the compilation of dictionaries for the South African indigenous languages. South
Africa has eleven official languages of which nine were previously marginalized. Before 1994, thecountry had only two official languages, i.e. English and Afrikaans. In order to have all languages
developed to fully-fledged official status, the 1996 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa
established eleven National Lexicography Units, or NLU’s, to compile dictionaries for all official
languages. Most NLU’s depend greatly on the use of established corpora, especially the University of
Pretoria corpora, as source for the compilation of dictionaries. Northern Sotho, like all the indigenous
languages, is still very much underdeveloped and the majority of its dialects have never been converted
to written form. As such, the vocabularies and structures of most of its dialects do not form part of theofficial written orthography of the language. Under the influence of factors which are mostly related topurism, the status quo is maintained and, ultimately, the lexicographers find it difficult to differentiate
between the compilation of comprehensive dictionaries and the compilation of the standard
dictionaries. The main objective of this research is to critically analyse the effects of depending solely
on the use of the established corpora in the compilation of dictionaries for the South African
indigenous languages.
Keywords: corpus-based, lexicography, standardization, dialect, orthography

Introduction
The first written documents in all the South African indigenous languages were done by theEuropean missionaries. As a result, the areas which were fortunate to be the first to havemissionary stations were the first to have their dialects documented. These written documents
were the first literature to be used in the churches and schools, which were built in thesemissionary stations to provide education for the communities. Ultimately, the written
documents which were based on the dialects spoken in the vicinity of the missionary stations
were used as education materials, thereby elevating the ‘vicinity’ dialects above the majorityof the dialects which were not documented due to their remoteness from the missionaries.
Consequently, these ‘vicinity’ dialects became the ‘languages’ associated with education,
development and prestige. By virtue of being documented, these ‘vicinity’ dialects graduallybecame elevated to be regarded as standard ‘languages’ at the expense of the overwhelming
majority of the dialects which were never converted to written forms due to their remotenessfrom the missionary stations. This is exactly what happened to the Northern Sotho language
which has 30 dialects spoken basically in the Limpopo Province of the Republic of South
Africa. The Northern Sotho standard language is dominated by few dialects like Sepedi,
Sekone and the dialects spoken in the Mphahlele, Mokopane, Moletji, Matlala and Polokwane
areas. These are the areas which were first to have missionary activities during the early 19 th
and 20th Centuries, especially the missionaries of the Berlin Evangelical Missionary Societies
who were the first to document the Northern Sotho language. These ‘prestige’ dialects are justa fraction of the Northern Sotho dialects spoken in the Sekhukhune district, the Southern partof the Capricorn district and the Eastern part of the Waterberg district of Limpopo Province,
which excluded the entire majority of the Northern Sotho dialects spoken in the North and theWestern part of the Waterberg district, the Northern part of the Capricorn district, the wholeof the Mopani district and the whole of the Mapulaneng district in the Mpumalanga Province.
48

Most of these marginalized dialects are totally different from the standard language, which
can practically be regarded as a foreign language to these communities.
This is the situation which the lexicographers find themselves when compiling dictionaries
for the South African indigenous languages, i.e. of having and using one-sided andunbalanced electronic corpora, which are solely based on standard languages which arepractically not reliable representative of the languages they are meant for.
1. What is Corpus-Based lexicography?
1.1 Defining Corpus
The term corpus is defined by various linguistic and lexicographic scholars such as, inter alia,
Watson (1976), Kennedy (1998), James (1994), Gouws and Prinsloo (2005), as a body of
written or spoken text. For instance, Watson (1976: 243) describes corpus as:‘ a body of writings of a particular kind, or on a particular subject’.
James et al (1994:4), give an intensive description of the term, corpus, as follow:‘In recent usage (the term corpus) has tended to refer to a comprehensively
documented and structured collection of complete texts, or extracts from larger texts,
whose components are generally separately accessible’
According to Kennedy (1998:1):‘A corpus is a body of written text or transcribed speech which can serve as a basis forlinguistic analysis and description.’
The most direct and unambiguous description of the term, corpus, is given by Gouws andPrinsloo (2005:21) in their latest publication, Principles and Practice of South African
Lexicography:‘The collection of written and spoken material from the sources earmarked for thedictionary basis. Data is compiled and stored as a lexicographic data basis whichshould preferably be an electronic corpus’.
In accordance with this definition, corpora are supposed to be compiled from both written andoral materials. But, on the contrary, it is not always easy to compile corpora for the languages
or dialects which have no orthographies or written forms. Gouws and Prinsloo (2005:21-22)
say the following in this regard:‘Unfortunately most corpora around the world lack sufficient data from spoken
sources. The reason for this is that there are many logistical problems and ethicalfactors involved in the collection of spoken data. It is also much more expensive andtime consuming to enlarge the corpus with spoken data compared to data available inelectronic, printed or even handwritten format. Extending the corpus with data
already in electronic format such as texts downloaded from the internet or texts
already available on computer disk is relatively easy. Printed matter which is notavailable in electronic form can be relatively and easily computerized by means of
Optical Character Recognition (OCR), commonly referred to as 'scanning'.
In the context of the South African indigenous languages, corpus based lexicography can be
described as the compilation of dictionaries on the basis of a well-established corpus,
especially a written standard corpus. The established corpora in the South African indigenous
languages are usually electronic corpora. In accordance with this system, the lexicographers
compile dictionaries using only the already published corpora which, as a matter of fact, werecompiled only from written documents. The Sesotho sa Leboa National Lexicography Unit
and the other National Lexicography Units for the previously marginalized indigenous
languages, use an electronic corpus which is based on the standard language when compilingthe Northern Sotho dictionaries, especially the so-called University of Pretoria Sepedi Corpus,
49

(today called Pretoria Sepedi Corpus or PSC). This is an electronic corpus which was, mostly,compiled by the non-mother-tongue speakers of Northern Sotho who relied entirely on
written documents and the Northern Sotho published literary works as the main sources of
information. The disadvantage of relying entirely on the PSC is because the documented
materials in Northern Sotho are based solely on the Standard Language which has excluded
the majority of the Northern Sotho dialects. Therefore, the use of the PSC as the only sourceof information for dictionary writing in Northern Sotho results in the production of one-sided
dictionaries which cannot be regarded as ‘ balanced and representative’ of the entire
vocabulary of the Northern Sotho language.
1.2

What is electronic corpus?

De Schryver and Prinsloo (2000:90) define electronic corpus as a documented electronicarchive material which is incorporated into a machine-readable form:‘Archive materials are incorporated into an electronic text corpus which in turn isprocessed in a database. It is precisely as a result of the ‘machine-readable form’ thatcurrent corpora are referred to as electronic corpora’ (De Schryver & Prinsloo,
2000:90)
According to Gouws and Prinsloo, (2005:21):‘An electronic corpus can be defined in an oversimplified way as a computerizedcollection of texts, such a collection of texts can, for example, consist of taperecordings of conversations and written texts which have been typed into thecomputer’The majority of the corpora for the nine South African indigenous languages are electronic
corpora, and most of the corpora are electronically recorded in the University of Pretoria
Corpora database. The importance of these corpora is emphasized by most scholars like Moon
(1998), De Schryver & Prinsloo (2000), etc. Moon (1998:47) stresses the growing importanceof corpora-based lexicography as follows:‘The crucial point here is that corpora are used, and are now widely accepted as
valuable, arguably essential, resources in serious linguistic description of any kind’
The importance of corpus-based lexicography in the compilation of dictionaries for the
African Languages is further described by De Schryver and Prinsloo (2000:90) in thefollowing citation:‘If Scholars of African languages are to take their rightful place in the newmillennium, it is plain that the active compilation, querying and application ofelectronic corpora should become an absolute priority’

1.3Electronic Corpora and standard languages in the South African context

Language standardization can be viewed upon as a continuous process whereby conventional
forms of a language are established and maintained. In accordance with this definition,
language standardization, especially the codification as well as status and corpus planning, is
supposed to be a continuous process in order to facilitate language development. With regard
to this continuous development in the South African indigenous languages, standardizationand corpus development continue to favour the ‘privileged’ dialects, i.e. the documented
dialects. Corpus planning and standardization were supposed to mean incorporation of thevarious vocabularies of the dialectal varieties existing in the languages to facilitate growthand developments of the corpora, but the fact that the existing electronic corpora are only
based on the existing standard languages which are not balanced and representative meansthat the marginalized dialects continuously remain side-lined. For instance, the following
50

examples, by Mojela (2008), are standard lexical items with their ‘undocumented’ dialectal
variants in the Northern Sotho language, but due to the fact that these dialectal variants were
never accepted as part of the standard vocabularies, apparently because their dialects are notdocumented, these terms continue to be outside the standard language, and therefore, continue
to be side-lined by the Northern Sotho corpus:
Dialectal (NS)Khepepe (Khelobedu)
Malobane (Sepulana)
Melothi(Seroka)
Pikiri(Sepulana)
Mmankhoṱo (Seroka)
Mokhope (Khelobedu)
Kotapeni (Sepulana)
Mmidi(Sepulana)
Tholi(Sepulana)
2.

Standard (NS)BenemaabaneSejagobe
komiki
Leribiši
MorulaAfokhatha
LefelaBopi(English)(‘small truck’)(‘yesterday’)(‘greedy’)(‘cup’)(‘an owl’)(‘Marula beer’)(‘avocado’)(‘mealie’)(maize meale)Comprehensive dictionaries versus standard dictionaries

The term comprehensive is defined by various dictionaries to mean ‘to be as broad or as
inclusive as possible’. A comprehensive dictionary is, therefore, a dictionary which isadequately inclusive to include the entire vocabulary of the language. This type of dictionary
is expected to have almost all the vocabulary of the language as against specialized
dictionaries which contain specialized vocabulary on specific subjects and the standard
dictionaries. The standard dictionaries are primarily regarded as dictionaries which containthe vocabularies of the standard languages. This implies that most dictionaries which arecompiled on the basis of the established corpora in the indigenous languages today may be
regarded as standard dictionaries because most of the electronic corpora are compiled fromdocumented standard materials, leaving out the majority of the dialects which are still not
documented. Gouws & Prinsloo (2005:50) describe a standard dictionary as follow:‘The macrostructure primarily represents the standard variety of a treated language
although a number of high usage frequency items from non-standard varieties, e.g.
slang or special fields, may also be included This simply meaning that, basically, thelemmatized vocabulary in the macrostructure of a standard dictionary should havegone through standardization via the accreditation authorities to qualify for inclusionin the Standard Dictionaries’
3.

Purism as marginalizing factor in the standardization of languages

In Northern Sotho, the missionary works formed a base for a one-sided standardization by
converting only few dialects into written forms and creating an elite group within thecommunities they operated, who later continued to participate actively in the development
and the standardization of the language. Unfortunately, this led to the rise of purism because
these elite groups did not have an intention to develop the language by including the Northern
and the Eastern dialects in the standard Northern Sotho. With regards to the South African
indigenous languages this type of purism, or dialectal exclusions, is manifested through51

intensive marginalization of other dialects by most standardizing authorities. In most cases,
the standardizing officials tend to standardize their own mother dialects at the expense of
those dialects which are not adequately represented in the standardizing bodies. Dialectal
exclusions in Northern Sotho, for instance, resulted in an unbalanced one-sided Standard
Language which is presently being disowned by most of its own dialectal communities, suchas the Balobedu, Mapulana, Baṱokwa, etc. A huge gap existing between the standard Northern
Sotho and many of its own dialects has created a situation where a standard language looks
like a complete foreign language to most of the marginalized Northern Sotho communities.
The following are examples of the marginalized dialectal terms which are spoken by the
majority of the Northern Sotho communities in the Northern part of the Capricorn and the
Lowveld areas of Limpopo and Mpumalanga (Mojela, 2013:290):
Standard NS

Khelobedu dialect(English)mopanileribiši
mmankgagane
hlapi
betha/itiya
legotlo
legapunonamokgaditswanamoṱhanare
mmankhoṱo
molemakhobe
moṱa/tiyalehoṱo/peba/manṱoro
lesalabukholophana
mphekwa(mopani tree)
(owl)
(bat)
(fish)(hit)(mouse)(watermelon)(be fat/gain weight)(lizard)4.

The consequences of corpus-based lexicography in the SA indigenous languages

Corpus-based lexicography in languages like Northern Sotho leads to the publication of
dictionaries which are not only unbalanced, but are also not representative of the language
because most of its dialectal vocabularies will not form part of the lemmatized vocabulary inthese dictionaries. This is due to the fact that most compilers of electronic corpora in theSouth African indigenous languages depend solely on the standard languages which are also
not balanced and not representative of the majority of their dialects.
4.1

The issue of balanced and representative corpora

With regard to the importance of a ‘balanced’ and ‘representative’ corpus, Summers(1993:190) says the following:
The idea of representativeness has been central to our thinking about the structure of
the corpus. We believe that unless the corpus is representative, it is ipso facto
unreliable as means of acquiring lexical knowledge. Our answer to the question:“Representative of what?” would be “Representative of the standard language” in a
general sense, not restricted to a regional variety-, or a narrow range of text types’
Emphasizing Kennedy’s (1998:20) argument regarding the importance of balanced andrepresentative corpora, Mojela (2013) says the following in this regard:‘A normal and appropriate general corpus for a language needs to be balanced andrepresentative. According to Kennedy (1998: 20), "a general corpus is typicallydesigned to be balanced, by containing texts from different genres—including spoken
and written". Kennedy (1998:52) further emphasizes that "for a corpus to be'representative' there must be a clearly analysed and defined population to take the52sample from.’
Gouws and Prinsloo (2005:25) confirm the importance of a balanced and representative
corpus for the South African indigenous languages as follows:‘Important for lexicographic work in South Africa is that corpus compilers should besensitive to all of these aspects, i.e. to build as far as possible, corpora that are big
enough, well balanced and representative so that valid conclusions for lexicographic
purposes can be drawn.’
Unfortunately, this is not the case with most indigenous languages, like Northern Sotho,
whose standard language is solely compiled from the published documents which are basedon the documented dialects. Indeed, the majority of the dialects which were never converted
to written form are still marginalized. Consequently, the dictionaries which are compiled
solely on the basis of the established electronic corpora, like the PSA, also exclude thesemarginalized vocabularies and therefore, also becoming ‘unbalanced’ and ‘unrepresentative’
dictionaries for the Northern Sotho communities.
4.2

Rise of nationalism and rejection of the standard language

The issue of the 'unbalanced' and 'unrepresentative' corpora, which resulted from a one-sided
standardization, has led to the emergence of a nationalistic spirit among the marginalized
communities. The emerging elite groups and the magoši (traditional leaders) from areas suchas Bolobedu, Makhutšwe, Botlokwa, Senwabarwana, Mapulaneng, etc. have already started
questioning the validity of incorporating their dialects in the Northern Sotho standard
language, which is not only lexically and morphophonologically foreign to them, but in allpractical respects, too different from their dialects.
5.

Conclusion

This research demonstrates that corpus lexicography in the South African indigenous
languages, like Northern Sotho, is not always possible, because there are still many dialects
within these languages which are not included in both the official orthographies and thestandard languages. Since the corpora are compiled mostly from the written languages andfrom published materials, the dialects which did not have written forms or published materials
will not always be included in the corpora. Even though sometimes oral materials werecollected and included into the corpora, very few of these published materials were recordedin languages like Northern Sotho. This is because, up to this moment, almost all the available
Northern Sotho corpora do not have anything related to the marginalized dialects like
Khelobedu, Sepulana, Seṱokwa, Sehananwa or Sephalaborwa. As a result, the available
Northern Sotho corpora do not conform to the lexicographic principles of 'balance' and'representativeness'. The standard language is neither balanced nor representative because it
reflects less than half of its dialects.
In conclusion, this research recommends further research and a thorough revision of theofficial orthography and the standard language to incorporate all the omitted dialects into theNorthern Sotho language, before prescribing strict corpus-based lexicography. This will not
only silence the emerging nationalistic spirit which threatens to divide the language, but will
also double the size of the Northern Sotho corpus.

53

References
Gilles-Maurice de Schryver & D.J. Prinsloo, 2000. The compilation of electronic corpora,with special reference to the African languages. Southern African Linguistics andApplied Language Studies 18: 89 – 106.
Gouws, R.H. and D.J. Prinsloo. 2005. Principles and practice of South African lexicography.
Stellenbosch: SUN PReSS.
James, G. et al, 1994. English in computer science: A corpus-based lexical analysis. HongKong: Longman Asia Limited.
Kennedy, G. 1998. An introduction to corpus linguistics. London/New York: Longman.
Mojela, V.M. 1991. Semantic changes accompanying loan-words in the northern Sotho
lexicon. Unpublished M.A. Thesis. Pretoria: Vista University.
Mojela, V.M. 2005. Standardization and the development of orthography in Sesotho sa Leboa— A historical overview. Pretoria: University of Pretoria.
Mojela, V.M. 2008. Standardization or stigmatization? Challenges confronting lexicography
andterminography in Sesotho sa Leboa. Lexikos 18: 119-130
Mojela V.M. 2013. A balanced and representative corpus—The effects of strict corpus-based
dictionary compilation in Sesotho sa Leboa. Lexikos 23: 286-296
Moon, R, 1998. On using spoken data in corpus lexicography. In Thierry et al (eds),
Fontenelle, 347 – 355.
Webb, V. 2005. The standardization of African languages in South Africa. Pretoria:
University of Pretoria.
Rooney, K. (ed.). 2001. Encarta Concise English Dictionary. London: Bloomsbury.
Summers, D. 1993. Longman/Lancaster English Language Corpus – Criteria and Design,
International Journal of Lexicography 6(3): 181 – 208)
Watson, O. (ed.). 1976. Longman Modern English Dictionary. Harlow: Longman.

54

Comparing Japanese-English Dictionary Entries of English
Loanwords with Corpus-Derived Lexical Profiles
Keith Barrs
Hiroshima Shudo University, Japanbarrs@shudo-u.ac.jp
Abstract
When loanword descriptions in Japanese-English dictionaries are compared with corpus-derived
lexical profiles of their collocational and grammatical behaviour, important differences becomesapparent. In the face of the wealth of corpus data about the loanwords that can be generated rapidly
and presented systematically by modern corpus software tools, lexicographic descriptions in
dictionaries seem minimal and unstructured. In particular, corpus data on individual loanwords can be
combined into a systematic analysis of groups of loanwords, in order to see if any patterns emerge in
relation to their behaviour in the language. This can help to draw out information about the semantic
and pragmatic properties of the loanwords, something that is largely absent from Japanese-English
dictionaries. This study looks at the kind of analyses that can be made of English loanwords inJapanese using corpus data, compared with the available descriptions in popular Japanese-English
dictionaries. It raises the questions of whether or not these dictionaries are fit-for-purpose in describing
the loanwords, and discusses the implications for English-speaking learners of Japanese.

Keywords: English loanwords, Japanese language, dictionaries, corpus, word sketches

Introduction
The Japanese language is home to tens of thousands of English loanwords, many having become
highly frequent in the lexicon (Stanlaw, 2004). Whilst some function primarily to fill lexical gaps
created with the importation of new products and ideas, others are used for more stylistic purposes,
such as providing ambiguity of expression and creating images of modernity. Because of theadaptations made to the words as they are borrowed from English and integrated into Japanese, it is
widely acknowledged that a one-to-one meaning association between the borrowed word in Japaneseand the source word in English cannot be automatically assumed (Irwin, 2011; Kay, 1995; Ringbom,
2007a). For whilst there are many examples of word pairs which are indeed highly similar in form andmeaning, such as バナナ (banana) in Japanese borrowed from ‘banana’ in English, there are manyothers which have been adapted phonologically and semantically to an extent that obscures theirEnglish origins. Such an example is リストラ (risutora), shortened from English ‘restructuring’,
which can be used euphemistically to describe a loss of jobs at a company due to its internal
restructuring processes.
A great number of these loanwords have made their way into the core of the Japanese language.
Daulton, for example, found that 1356 of the most frequent 3000 word families (45.2%) extracted fromthe British National Corpus had loanword forms in Japanese (2008, p. 83). As a result of their highfrequency, many English loanwords are regularly encountered throughout Japanese society; innewspapers, in song lyrics, in government reports, on product packaging, on shop signs, and on
clothing (Backhaus, 2007; Barrs, 2011). This then predictably impacts on language education, when
Japanese-speaking learners of English (JLOE) and English-speaking learners of Japanese (ELOJ) may
identify cross-linguistic lexical similarities when they bring their existing L1 knowledge to bear on thelearning of the L2 versions of the words (Nation, 2008; Ringbom, 2007a, 2007b). In such learning
situations, the fact that one-to-one meaning associations do not always occur between the loanwords
and the original English words (Irwin, 2011; Kay, 1995) makes dictionaries an important reference
tool. This article focuses specifically on ELOJ, looking at whether or not Japanese-English dictionaries
are fit for purpose in assisting learners to identify similarities and differences between the English andJapanese versions of the words.

55

Coverage of English loanwords in Japanese-English dictionaries
Before investigating the adequacy of lexicographic descriptions of English loanwords in JapaneseEnglish dictionaries, it is necessary to check how well these dictionaries account for the loanwords
found in Japanese society. The web corpus, jpTenTen11, was chosen as a source of attested loanwords
in Japanese society for the following three reasons. First, at over 10 million tokens, it is an ultra-large
scale corpus covering an extensive range of genres found on the web, such as adverts, blogs, news
stories, discussion forums, and comment threads. It is currently the largest available corpus of Japanese
language data used in Japanese corpus linguistics research. Secondly, it is part of the TenTen family of
10-billion token web corpora, housed in the Sketch Engine corpus query system, which have all been
designed, compiled, processed, and re-analysed by experts using the available software tools for eachlanguage. Thirdly, because the corpus is housed within a state-of-the-art corpus query system, it ispossible to query it using a range of powerful techniques such as generating ’sketches’ of the words’
collocational and grammatical behaviour in the corpus.
To extract frequent English loanwords from this corpus, the following process was followed.
Loanwords in Japanese are predominantly written in katakana script, greatly assisting a computer’sability to identify and retrieve them. However, there are cases where loanwords are more commonly
found in other scripts (especially in the case of loan translations such as 空港 (kuukou) composed of
the kanji characters representing ‘air’ and ‘port’ from English), and also where katakana is frequently
used to write words of Japanese/Chinese origin, such as ネコ (neko) meaning ‘cat’. Accordingly, forthe purposes of this research an ‘English loanword’ was defined in a three-step process. First a list of
katakana strings was extracted from the most frequent 10,000 lemmas in the jpTenTen11 using a
regular expression (a text string for describing a search pattern). The resulting list of katakana lemmas
was then tagged for language origin using the unidic Japanese dictionary. This dictionary has beenused extensively in Japanese corpus linguistic research, most notably in the compilation of the
Balanced Corpus of Contemporary Written Japanese (BCCWJ). This filtered the list into katakanalemmas which could be classified as part of the ‘foreign loanwords’ lexical stratum (gairaigo inJapanese). The overwhelming majority of loanwords in Japanese are from English, and the third step
involved manually discounting non-English lemmas from the list as and when they were identified, bycross-referencing them with a standard Japanese dictionary which tags loanwords with their languageof origin. For example, the loanword テーマ (teema) is tagged as being derived from German ‘Thema’rather than English ‘theme’, and was therefore discounted from the list.
To investigate the coverage of English loanwords by Japanese dictionaries, the top 100 and bottom 100
loanwords on the list created in the previous step were analysed. Each loanword was searched across acollection of six dictionaries: (1) 大 辞 林 第 ３ 版 (daijirindaisanban) ‘Great Forest of Words, 3rd
Edition’ (Japanese monolingual dictionary), (2) コ ン サ イ ス カ タ カ ナ 語 辞 典 第 4 版(konsaisukatakanagodaiyonban), ‘Concise Katakana Words Dictionary, 4th edition’ (loanwords
dictionary), (3) グ ラ ン ド コ ン サ イ ス 和 英 辞 典 (gurandokonsaisuwaeijiten) ‘Grand Concise
Japanese-English Dictionary’ (Japanese-English dictionary), (4) ウ ィ ズ ダ ム 和 英 辞 典 第 2 版(wizudamuwaeijitendainiban) ‘Wisdom Japanese-English Dictionary, 2nd Edition’ (Japanese-English
dictionary), (5) コ ン サ イ ス EX 和 英 辞 典 (konsaisuEXwaeijiten) ‘Concise Japanese-English
Dictionary’ (Japanese-English dictionary), and (6) デ イ リ ー コ ン サ イ ス 和 英 辞 典 第 5 版(deirikonsaisuwaeijitendaigoban), ‘Daily Concise Japanese-English Dictionary, 5th Edition’ (JapaneseEnglish dictionary). It was possible to search across all these dictionaries at once, for each word,
through the 三省堂 (Sanseido) Web Dictionary online interface. The monolingual ‘’Great Forest ofWords’ dictionary and specialised loanword ‘Katakana Words’ dictionaries were used as a base withwhich to compare the coverage in the four Japanese-English dictionaries. These two dictionaries aremuch larger than the Japanese-English dictionaries and were therefore expected to have a better
coverage of the loanwords. However, they are not likely to be the first choice for ELOJ, especiallybeginner learners, because they are Japanese monolingual resources.
The dictionaries were checked to see if they had listings for each of the 100 loanwords at the top andbottom of the list. Many loanwords have several meanings which may be listed separately, dependingon the methodology followed by each dictionary, and in some cases the same katakana orthographic
form is used to represent different source words (such as バス (basu) used for English ‘bath’, ‘bus’ and‘bass’). However for this stage of the analysis these differences were not considered important. Rather,56the dictionaries were checked only for an exact match with the katakana script representation of theloanword in the corpus. The results of the coverage analysis are shown in Table 1.

TOP 100
YES
Daijirin
100
Katakana
100
Grand Concise 98
Wisdom97
EX
93
Daily Concise 86
TOTAL (%)
574 (95.7%)

NO
0
0
2
3
7
14
26 (4.3%)

BOTTOM 100
YES
NO
99
1
100
0
98
2
91
9
89
11
69
31
546 (91%) 54 (9%)

TOTAL YES (%)
199 (99.5%)200 (100%)
196 (98%)
188 (94%)182 (91%)
155 (77.5%)1120 (93.3%)

Table 1 The number of hits for the 200 loanword sample in six Japanese dictionaries.
The results show that, as expected, the monolingual dictionary and specialised loanword dictionary
have the best coverage of the loanwords that appear in the jpTenTen11 corpus. The single loanword
with no exact match in the Daijirin dictionary, ウォーター (wootaa), from English ‘water’, is becauseof the fact that this word has several possible orthographic representations. The word is indeedrecorded in ‘Daijirin’ with the form, ウオーたー (uootaa) (the difference is with the size of the second
character, ォ or オ, which would alter the pronunciation from wo to uo). This in itself is interesting andmay indicate a possible mistake with the orthographic listing of this loanword in the dictionary,
revealed through reference to a corpus, because there are 128,436 hits (12.4 p/million) for ウォーター(small ォ) in the jpTenTen11 compared to only 5,853 (0.6 p/million) for ウオーター (big オ). Taking
this analysis further, the corpus includes 2,758 hits (0.3 p/m) for ウォータ (a short タ (ta) rather thanlong ター (taa), but this orthographic form is not listed in any of the six dictionaries. The number ofhits in the corpus may be just about large enough to suggest that this form should be listed as analternative representation in the dictionary entry. The form ウオータ (with big オ (o) and short タ(ta)) only has 12 hits (o.o p/m) which could be fairly safely categorised as orthographic (i.e. spelling)errors. Accepting that ‘Daijirin’ records one variant orthographic loanword form of the English source
word ‘water’, the combined coverage in the monolingual and specialised katakana dictionaries of the
200 loanword sample is 100%.
The Japanese-English dictionary with the most coverage of English loanwords is the ‘Grand Concise’with 98%, and the one with the least is the ‘Daily Concise’ with 77.5%. This is a direct result of thesize of the dictionaries, with the ‘Grand Concise’ having 210,000 entries compared to 70,000 in the‘Daily Concise’. Taken together, the four Japanese-English dictionaries have 90.1% coverage of the
200 corpus-extracted loanwords, and the six dictionaries combined have coverage of 93.3%. Overall it
is clear that the Japanese-English dictionaries have very good coverage of frequent English loanwords,
with fluctuations in the extent of coverage by each dictionary being a result of their overall size. The
next question to investigate is about the quality of the dictionary entries of the loanwords, whencompared with corpus-derived lexical profiles.
Comparing loanword dictionary entries with corpus-derived lexical profiles
Advances in the size and quality of corpora, along with the software tools used to access them, haveallowed significant advancements in the investigation of vocabulary. This is particularly evident in thedevelopment of ‘word sketches’ produced by the Sketch Engine corpus query software, which give an
overview of how words behave in a corpus. Word sketches are defined as “one-page automatic,
corpus-based summaries of a word’s grammatical and collocational behaviour” (Kilgarriff, Rychlý,Smrž, & Tugwell, 2004, p. 1). These word sketches can be produced for any lemma in any corpus
uploaded or already housed within the Sketch Engine, and can therefore be produced for English
loanwords in Japanese in the jpTenTen 11 web corpus.
Word sketches were generated for the top 30 and bottom 30 loanwords on the list used in the preceding
part of this article. The purpose was to use corpus methods to derive lexical profiles of the loanwords,
and then to conduct an exploratory analysis into what these profiles can reveal about the behaviour of
the words. The corpus-derived profiles would then be compared with the loanwords’ entries in

57

Japanese-English dictionaries. This was in order to assess the quality of the lexicographic descriptionsin the dictionaries. The following discussion focuses on the English loanwords that exhibited aparticularly interesting grammatical and collocational patterning in their word sketch, when comparedto the other loanwords on the list.
The word sketch function of the Sketch Engine presents a one-page summary of the most salient
grammatical relationships within which the loanwords participate in the corpus. The grammatical
relationships (called ‘gramrels’) are presented in order of frequency, with the list of collocates in eachgramrel ranked by a salience score (using a form of the LogDice coefficient). Each word sketch wasthen manually analysed, and the top ten most frequent gramrels were recorded for each loanword.
These gramrel rankings were then analysed to investigate whether or not any patterns could be seen in
how the loanwords behave in the corpus. Even in this small-scale analysis of 60 frequent English
loanwords in Japanese, a large number of discoveries were made when examining their grammaticaland collocational behaviour. The following discussion focuses only on the most frequent gramrel ofeach loanword, with further studies planned for investigating the gramrels in more depth.
Of the 60 loanwords investigated, 47 (78.3%) had ‘particle’ as their most frequent gramrel, making thisthe unmarked grammatical relationship of the loanwords. The 13 loanwords without ‘particle’ as themost common gramrel can be considered the marked examples, indicating that these loanwords are
behaving somewhat differently from the others. 12 (20%) of them have ‘noun/noun’ (indicating acompound noun relationship) and one (1.7%) has ‘N_Adj’ (indicating the loanword is modified byanother noun acting as an adjective). Therefore, two dominant patterns of loanword behaviour basedon the most frequent gramrel emerge from the word sketches.
For the 47 loanwords with ‘particle’ as the most frequent gramrel, this means that the loanword was
immediately followed by any one of a large number of grammatical particles that show the relationshipbetween the loanword and the rest of the sentence. Examples include case markers such as に (ni)indicating direction, を (wo) indicating the loanword is the subject of a following verb; and sentence
ending particles such as か (ka) indicating a question. The fact that the loanwords are most frequently
associated with a large range of grammatical particles shows that they have a wide range of functionsin the language. This indicates that the loanwords have been fully integrated into the syntax of theJapanese language.
It seems that when ‘particle’ is the most frequent gramrel, the loanword is being used primarily in
relation to its semantic properties; in other words it is being denotatively used to refer to an object,
concept or idea expressed through the loanword. Examples of such loanwords are include ブログ(burogu, ‘blog’), which is ‘read’, ‘uploaded’ and has ‘articles posted to it’; デ ザ イ ン (dezain,‘design’) which is ‘created’, and used to ‘make decisions’ and ターミナル (taaminaru, ‘terminal’)
which is ‘visited by travellers’, and ‘networked with computers’. Looking at one example in moredetail, the three most common particles of the loanword サービス (saabisu, ‘service’) are を (wo), な
ど (nado), and や (ya). Going into some of the concordance lines for each of the particles (of which
there are often tens of thousands) shows that wo indicates the loanword is playing the role of subject ofa verb (e.g. サービスを利用する, saabisu wo riyou suru, ‘to use a service’), nado indicates that the
loanword is being put forward as a prototypical example, and ya indicates that it is part of a list (e.g. サービスや商品, saabisu ya shouhin, ‘service and products’).
The other dominant pattern, that of ‘noun/noun’ as the most frequent gramrel, shows a different
grammatical behaviour of some of the loanwords. Here, the loanword is joining with another noun toform a new compound noun. As such, the loanword is acting as an adjectival noun. This means thatrather than acting as a standalone thing in its own right, such as a blog, design, or terminal, theloanword is used more for its ability to modify a different noun. Examples of this group are ソフト(sofuto, ‘soft’), ベイ (bei, ‘bay’), ミステリー (misuterii, ‘mystery’), and インターナショナル(intaanashonaru, ‘international’) which collocate with other words to make compounds such as ソフ
トドリンク (sofuto dorinku, ‘soft drink’) and インターナショナルスクール (intaanashonaru
sukuuru, ‘international school’).
The behaviour of this group of loanwords is particularly interesting when looking at the types of words
which appear as the frequent collocates in the ‘noun/noun’ gramrel. For some of the loanwords, they58

seem to only collocate with other loanwords. When this happens, it tends to be the case that many ofthe loanword collocates have viable alternative expressions in the native language; often termed
semantic near-equivalents (Onysko & Winter-Froemel, 2011). In these cases it therefore appears thatthe loanword is fulfilling a more pragmatic than semantic function; in other words, the loanword isbeing selected instead over a viable native term in order to imbue some stylistic effect in the particularinstance of language use. For example, in the word sketch for the loanword ベイ (bei, ‘bay’), it isshown to collocate with 22 other loanwords. Many of these, such as シティー, (shitei, ‘city’) and サ
イド (saido, ‘side’), have regular alternative expressions in the native Japanese vocabulary. The
remaining collocates are one English initialism (FM) and two kanji character compounds (proper nounplace names). When it collocates with the other loanwords it seems to be adding amodern/international flavour. For example, the compound ベイタウン (bei taun, ‘bay town’) is usedin the corpus to describe a living area in Chiba, Japan designed on a foreign city planning model andwhich includes many foreign food stores, coffee shops and international restaurants. In this example,
bei could feasibly be replaced with the native word 湾 (wan, ‘bay’) and taun could be replaced with 町(machi, ‘town’), but this compound is not attested in the corpus.
It is clear that a word sketch of a loanword provides an abundance of interesting data concerning how
the word behaves in the corpus. Firstly, we can get a clear idea of the frequency of the loanword in the
corpus. Then we are able to see which gramrels the loanword participates in, and these are ranked in afrequency order. Then within each gramrel we can see a list of collocates, this time ranked by asalience score, which allows the disambiguation of different senses of the word and an overall idea of
how the word is being used. Focusing in on particular features of the word sketch, such as the type of
collocates in each gramrel, allows a deeper analysis of issues such as the semantic and pragmatic
properties of the loanwords.
When these lexical profiles are compared with dictionary entries for the loanwords, it is clear that
language learners are limited in the quality of the dictionaries’ lexicographic descriptions. To begin
with, none of the Japanese-English dictionaries used for this research record any frequency data for the
loanwords. This means that the learner has little idea whether a loanword they have come across is afrequent part of Japanese and worth acquiring. Further, the dictionaries record very little systematic
grammatical data about the loanwords. Whilst basic details are given of the part of speech of theloanwords (most commonly, noun), there is no indication of any frequent grammatical patterns. In
terms of collocates, the dictionaries list a limited number of the more common collocational patterns,
but by alphabetical order rather than frequency or salience. This means that learners are unable todeduce any significant patterns in how the loanwords collocate with other words in the language.
Indeed, it was difficult to see any particular systematic handling of the descriptions of the loanwords in
the Japanese-English dictionaries. Not only did they differ between themselves in the extent of thelexicographic descriptions, but they also differed within themselves with it appearing as if there was no
particular rule on what to include in the description or how to present it.
Conclusion
The main result of this research, that the lexicographic descriptions of loanwords in Japanese-English
dictionaries are extremely minimal when compared with corpus-derived lexical profiles, is for the mostpart an expected and obvious finding. Corpus software allows the rapid and reliable summarisation of a
massive number of concordance lines, something that is far beyond the manual labour that continues to
go into Japanese dictionaries (Kilgarriff et al., 2014). Rather, the value of this research should be seenin the investigation of what corpus-derived data can reveal about how the loanwords are behaving in
the Japanese language. After generating individual word sketches, and then comparing them, patterns
begin to emerge about the grammatical and collocational behaviour of the loanwords, which can beinvestigated further by delving into the concordance lines. This kind of intricate picture of theloanwords in a language can be of great value to learners who may already be familiar with the words
as they exist in their L1, and who need to know how the L2 loanword forms may differ in semantic
and/or pragmatic functions.

59

References
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Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

Barrs, K. 2011. Unlocking the encoded English vocabulary in the Japanese language. English
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Daulton, F. E. 2008. Japan’s Built-in Lexicon of English-based Loanwords. Clevedon:
Multilingual Matters Ltd.
Irwin, M. 2011. Loanwords in Japanese. Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Kay, G. 1995. English loanwords in Japanese. World Englishes, 14(l), 67–76.
Kilgarriff, A., Baisa, V., Bušta, J., Jakubíček, M., Vojtěch, K., Michelfeit, J., … Suchomel, V.
2014. The Sketch Engine: Ten years on. Lexicography ASIALEX, 1, 7–36. doi:DOI
10.1007/s40607-014-0009-9
Kilgarriff, A., Rychlý, P., Smrž, P., & Tugwell, D. 2004. The Sketch Engine. In Proceedingsof the Eleventh Euralex International Congress (pp. 105–116). Lorient, France:
Information Technology Research Institute. Retrieved fromftp://ftp.itri.bton.ac.uk/reports/ITRI-04-08.pdf
Nation, I. S. P. 2008. Teaching Vocabulary. Strategies and Techniques. Boston, M.A.: Heinle.
Onysko, A., & Winter-Froemel, E. 2011. Necessary loans – luxury loans? Exploring thepragmatic dimension of borrowing. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(6), 1550–1567.
doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2010.12.004
Ringbom, H. 2007a. Cross-linguistic similarity in foreign language learning. Clevedon:
Multilingual Matters Ltd.
Ringbom, H. 2007b. The importance of cross-linguistic similarities. The Language Teacher,31(9), 3–5.
Stanlaw, J. 2004. Japanese English: Language and culture contact. Hong Kong: Hong Kong
University Press.

60

The possibility of building a dependency-based Japanese-English
construction dictionary
Masanori Oya
Mejiro University, Japanm.oya@mejiro.ac.jp
Abstract
This study explores the possibility of building a dependency-based Japanese-English construction
dictionary. Dependency Grammar (Tesnière 1959) has recently been attracting attention in the field of
theoretical linguistics and natural language processing. It assumes that the dependency relationshipbetween words in a sentence is the essential feature of syntactic analysis, and the syntactic structure in
the Dependency-Grammar framework is simpler than phrase-structure trees in that it does not containsyntactic categories such as NP or VP. This paper is a preliminary proposal to build a dependencybased Japanese-English construction dictionary, in which Japanese constructions (Goldberg 1995) arerepresented as dependency trees, and possible English translations are provided, which are also
represented as dependency trees. The paper is structured as follows. First, we examine the advantage ofDependency Grammar, mainly in terms of its familiarity with computational processing of linguistic
data. Second, we discuss the significance of dependency-based construction dictionaries, comparing
them with traditional word-based dictionaries. Third, we examine the results of a parallel-corpus-based
study that was conducted for this paper. In this research, the sentences that share a Japaneseconstruction noun-to natteiru were selected from a Japanese-English parallel corpus, and theconstructions that their English translations can take are provided as evidence that a Japaneseconstruction corresponds to more than one English construction. The results remind us of the simple,
yet often ignored, fact that we need to consider something other than word-to-word correspondence
when learning foreign languages. Finally, directions for future research are discussed.
Keywords: Dependency Grammar, Construction, Japanese-English Parallel Corpus,
Correspondence

One-to-Many

1. Introduction
This study explores the possibility of building a dependency-based Japanese-English
construction dictionary. Dependency Grammar (Tesnière 1959) has recently been attracting
attention in the field of theoretical linguistics and natural language processing. Because it
assumes syntactic trees for sentences that are simpler than phrase-structure trees, it has been
applied to a number of research fields, such as information retrieval or machine translation.
This research is an attempt to extend the research field of Dependency Grammar into
lexicography, with respect to constructions (in Goldberg’s (1995) sense) where there is no
one-to-one correspondence between the words in a source sentence and the words in a target
sentence.
The paper is structured as follows. First, we examine the advantages of Dependency
Grammar, mainly in terms of its familiarity with computational processing of linguistic data.
Second, we discuss the significance of dependency-based construction dictionaries,
comparing them with traditional word-based dictionaries, with respect to the syntactic
mismatches in Mel’čuk and Wanner (2006). Third, we examine the results of a parallelcorpus-based study that was conducted for this paper. In this study, sentences that share a
Japanese construction noun-to natteiru are selected from a Japanese-English parallel corpus,
and the constructions that their English translations can take are provided as evidence that aJapanese construction corresponds to more than one English construction. The results remind
us of the simple, yet often ignored, fact that we need to consider factors other than word-toword correspondence when learning or using foreign languages. Finally, directions for future
research are discussed.
2. Dependency Grammar
61

Dependency grammar focuses on the dependency relationships among words in a sentence.
Since it was first proposed by Tesnière (1959), a number of frameworks of dependency
grammar have been developed; for example, extensible dependency grammar (Debusmann2003), word grammar (Hudson 2010), and Stanford Dependency (de Marneffe and Manning2015). What is common among these different dependency representations of sentences isthat they can represent the syntactic structures of a sentence in a simpler manner than phrasestructure representation does, because typed-dependency representation does not containsyntactic categories such as NP (noun phrase) or VP (verbal phrase). In this research,
Stanford Dependency is chosen as the framework to represent the dependency relationships
among the words in a sentence, because it has been implemented into the Stanford Parser
allowing us to obtain typed-dependency representations for a fairly large number of sentences.
In addition, it has been applied to a variety of fields (mentioned later).
Stanford Dependency posits a typed-dependency representation for a sentence, in which thewords in a sentence of a language (or language in general) constitute a network of
dependency in which a given word depends on another word. The dependency relations are
categorized into different types. Figure 1 is a typed-dependency tree for a sentence.

Rootstudying
NSUBJ
I

DOBJ
AUX
am

grammarNN
construction

Figure 1 The typed-dependency tree for “I am studying construction grammar.”

Stanford Dependency has been applied to a variety of fields, such as text mining, sentiment
analysis, information retrieval, and textual entailment extraction. Detailed references ofstudies that use Stanford Dependency are found in de Marneffe and Manning (2015).
2.1 Syntactic mismatches between languages in the Dependency-Grammar framework
Dependency grammar has also been applied to the field of machine translation, and its
simplicity leads to the idea that the syntactic discrepancy between a source sentence and its
target counterpart can be represented in a simple, principled, and computable manner.
Mel’čuk and Wanner (2006) was one such attempt. This idea can also be applied for the
purpose of creating a construction dictionary, for reasons that will be discussed later. In thissection, let us summarize Mel’čuk and Wanner’s idea through a number of example JapaneseEnglish translation pairs.
Mel’čuk and Wanner (2006) defined the types of difference between a sentence in a source
language and its translation in a target language as follows:
The major types of syntactic mismatches (Mel’čuk and Wanner 2006: 82-83)
1. Conversion
2. Head switching
3. Lexical fission /fusion
4. Part-of-speech change
5. Function-word introduction62

6. Branch transposition
2.1.1 Conversion
In the syntactic mismatch conversion, the grammatical function of the source language isconverted into another function in the target language. For example, in the sentence below,
the Japanese noun hon with the nominative particle -ga functions as the subject, andcorresponds to the English ‘book’ as the object. In addition, the Japanese noun watashi withthe topic marker -wa functions as the topic of the sentence, and corresponds to the English ‘I’
as the subject.
(1)
watashi-wa
kono
I-top
this
‘I like this book.’hon-gabook-nomkiniitteiru
like

The typed-dependency trees for the source and target sentences are shown below: theconverted grammatical functions are emphasized in bold italics. In this study, the typeddependency representation of English is based on Stanford Dependency (de Marneffe andManning 2009), and that of Japanese is based on Oya (2014b).
Root
ROOT

Root
ROOT

kiniitteiru
NSUBJ
TOPIC

like
DOBJ

NSUBJ

watashi-wa hon-ga
DET

I

book
DET

kono
this
Figure 2 The typed-dependency trees for (1).

2.1.2 Head switching
In the syntactic mismatch head switching, the direction of a dependency in the source
language is reversed in the target language. For example, in the sentence below, the Japaneseword ryori ‘cooking’ depends on jouzu ‘good,’ and this dependency relationship is reversed
in English in which the word ‘good’ depends on ‘cook.’(2)
watashi-no
ani-waI-gen
brother-topic‘My brother is a good cook.’

TOPIC
ani-waPOSTP
watashi-no

ryori-gacooking-nom

jouzu-dagood-present

Root
ROOT

Root
ROOT

jouzu-da
NSUBJ

is
DOBJ

NSUBJ

ryouri-ga

brother
POSS

cook
DET

my
a
Figure 3 The typed-dependency trees for (2).

63

ADJ
good

2.1.3 Lexical fission
In the syntactic mismatch lexical fission, one word in the source language corresponds tomore than one word in the target language. For example, in the sentence below, the Japaneseverb wakatta corresponds to the English phrasal verb ‘turned out.’(3)
Taro-noiu
toori-datta-to wakatta.
Taro-partsayright-was-part turned.out‘It turned out that Taro was right.’
Root
ROOT
wakatta
COMP

Root
ROOT
turned
NSUBJ

XCOMP
PART

tooridatta-to
REL

It

out

be
AUX

iu
POSTP

to

ACOMP
true

Taro-noFigure 4. The typed-dependency trees for (3).

2.1.4 Lexical fusion
In lexical fusion, more than one word in the source language corresponds to one word in thetarget language. In the example below, the Japanese expression -nakereba naranai
corresponds to the English auxiliary ‘must.’(4)
Taro-wamotto benkyo-shi-nakereba
Taro-topic
more study-do-if.not‘Taro must study harder.’naranai.”
neg

Root
ROOT

Root
ROOT

naranai
ADVCL

study
NSUBJ

benkyo-shi-nakereba
TOPIC
ADV
Taro-wa

Taro

ADV
AUX
must

hardermotto
Figure 5 The typed-dependency trees for (4).

2.1.5 Part-of-speech change
In the syntactic mismatch part-of-speech change, a source word of a certain part of speechcorresponds to a target word of a different part of speech. In the example below, the Japanese
noun ame corresponds to the English verb ‘rain.’(5)
ame-gafutteiru.
64rain-nom‘It’s raining.’

fall.prog.

Root
ROOT
futteiru
NSUBJ

Root
ROOT
is
XCOMP

NSUBJ

ame-garainingIt
Figure 6 The typed-dependency trees for (5).

2.1.6 Function-word introduction
In the syntactic mismatch function-word introduction, a function word is added in the target
language. For example, the preposition ‘at’ and the article ‘the’ are added in the target
language.
(6)
kokuban-wo
mite kudasai
blackboard-acc look please‘Please look at the blackboard.’
Root
ROOT

Root
ROOT

kudasai
ADVCL

look

mite
DOBJ

PREP

ADV

at
POBJ

Pleasekokuban-wo

blackboard
DET

the
Figure 7 The typed-dependency trees for (6).

2.1.7 Branch transposition
In the syntactic mismatch branch transposition, a certain word in the source languagechanges its dependency head in the target language. For example, the Japanese word san-dai
depends on the verb motteiru, while the English word corresponding to san-dai does notdepend on the verb ‘has,’ which corresponds to the source verb motteiru, but on the noun‘cars.’(7)
watashi-no
chichi-wa
I-partfather-topic‘My father has three cars.’

kuruma-wo
car-acc

san-dai
three-class65

motteiru.
have

Root
ROOT

Root
ROOT

motteiru
TOPIC
chichi-wa
POSTP

has
ADV

DOBJ
kuruwa-wo

NSUBJ

san-daiwatashi-no

DOBJ

father
POSS

cars
NUM

My

three

Figure 8. The typed-dependency trees for (7).
2.2 Syntactic mismatches between the Japanese construction -to natteiru and its English
translations
What these syntactic mismatches tell us can be summarized as follows: one-to-one
correspondence between a source word and a target word cannot capture the discrepancy
between a source sentence and a target sentence. If we intend to compile a dictionary that
informs us of the correspondence between each construction of a source language and its
possible translations in a target language, just listing them is not helpful, because it does nottake the discrepancy into consideration. For example, the Japanese construction X-to natteiru(literally, ‘has become X’) has a variety of possibilities to be translated into English sentences,and the source verb natteiru does not necessarily corresponds to ‘has become.’ In the example
Japanese-English translation pairs (which are based on the sentences taken from the corpus
data mentioned below), the Japanese verb natteiru corresponds not only to ‘become,’ but also
to other verbs.
(8)genzai-wa
kono iken-ga
today-topic
thisopinion-part‘This opinion is accepted today.’teisetsu-to
accepted.opinion-part(9)
kugatsu-ni
okonaw-areru-no-ga
September-part hold-passive-part-part‘It is usually held in September.’natteiru.
become-present

tsuurei-tonatteiru
usual-part
become-present(10)
shiryo-toshitekichou-na
mono-tonatteiru
documents-part valuable-part thing-part
become-present‘They serve as valuable documents.’(11)
Sono zou-wa
monocoque-ni
chikai kouzou-butsu-tothestatue-topic
monocoque-partclose structure-thing-partpresent‘The structure of the statue is close to monocoque.’natteiru.
become-(12)
juyo-bunka-zai-tonatteiru.
important-culture-property-part become-present‘It has been designated as an important cultural property.’
It is not helpful to list the corresponding verbs as entries for the Japanese verb natteiru. Hence,
if we are to compile a construction dictionary that is really helpful for users, it is desirable to66

include the information about these possible constructions, along with the syntactic
mismatches in each of them. The next sections focus on the construction -to natteiru in a
corpus, and discuss the implications of the findings.
3. Corpus Analysis
3.1 Corpus Data
The corpus used in this study was the Japanese–English Bilingual Corpus of Wikipedia’s
Kyoto Articles, v. 2.01 (National Institute of Information and Communications Technology2011). Approximately 500,000 manually translated Japanese–English sentence pairs weretaken from Japanese Wikipedia articles on things or people that are related to Kyoto. These
articles were translated manually into English text by several translators, and native speakers
of English checked their quality (English articles were not used). This corpus contains 16
subcorpora according to topic (such as religion, famous people, and famous buildings). Oya(2015) used 5,000 sentence pairs randomly chosen from the subcorpus on Buddhism (26,890
English-Japanese pairs in total) for a different purpose; the present study covered the Japanese
sentences containing -to natteiru in the same subcorpus.
3.2 Extracting sentences containing -to natteiru
Both the English and Japanese sentences in the parallel corpus were parsed by two parsers:
the Stanford Parser (de Marneffe and Manning 2006; 2008; 2015) for the English sentences,
and Juman/KNP (Kurohashi and Nagao 1992; 1994; 1998; Kawahara and Kurohashi 2007)
for the Japanese sentences. Using Juman, a morphological analyzer for Japanese, an input
sentence was divided into morphemes. Juman’s output was then imported to KNP, adependency parser for Japanese, which outputs the dependency among words in the input
sentence. Then, Japanese sentences containing -to natteiru and their English translations wereextracted from the parser output by a simple Excel query. As a result, 2,325 sentences were
found to contain the -to natteiru construction.

3.3 Analyzing representative examples in terms of their syntactic mismatches
Because it is impossible to present all the Japanese-English pairs containing the construction to natteiru in this paper alone, let us consider some of their representative instances. This is a
first step to constructing a more comprehensive list of the correspondence patterns of theconstruction -to natteiru in Japanese and its English counterparts.
Each instance is analyzed in terms of which of the types of syntactic mismatch (introduced
above) are found in their typed-dependency representations, because the list is also intended
to function as a linguistically principled reference. The assumption is that we can categorize
the Japanese-English pairs in terms of the number of syntactic mismatches and thisinformation can be used for the benefit of language learners. In other words, we can alignJapanese-English pairs in the order of the structural discrepancies between them in terms ofthe number of syntactic mismatches (provided that the weight of these mismatches are thesame), and it is advisable to show these learners Japanese-English pairs that contain fewer
syntactic mismatches first, followed by pairs that contain more syntactic mismatches.
Caveat: It is self-evident that all the English definite and indefinite determiners are instancesof function-word introduction, because Japanese does not have any. It can be said that thesame is true for English pronouns, because it is often the case that Japanese sentences elide
pronouns. In addition to this, the dependency types used in Japanese and those in English are
not the same, and this means that there are many instances of conversion; hence, these
syntactic mismatches are not mentioned later in this analysis, unless they are worth special
attention.
First, let us consider the pair in (13) (=(8)) below:
67

(13)
genzai-wa
kono iken-ga
today-topic
thisopinion-part‘This opinion is accepted today.’teisetsu-to
accepted.opinion-partnatteiru.
become-present

Root
ROOT

Root
ROOT

natteiru
TOPIC
POSTP
POSTP
genzai-wa iken-ga teisetsu-to
DET

is
NSUBJ
opinion
DET

kono

XCOMP
accepted
ADV

This

today

Figure 9 The typed-dependency trees for (13).

Notice that the English counterpart does not contain the verb ‘become,’ the most basic
counterpart for the Japanese verb natteiru. Rather, the main verb of the English counterpart is‘is.’ The majority of sentence pairs found in the subcorpus contain this type ofcorrespondence. This reflects the linguistic insight that Japanese language prefers
naru/natteiru ‘become/be becoming’ where English does not use ‘become/be becoming.’(Ikegami 1981).
The dependency relationship between genzai-wa ‘today-topic’ and natteiru is not retained in
the English counterpart; the word ‘today’ depends on the past participle ‘accepted,’ as an
instance of Branch transposition.
The dependency relationship between teisetsu-to and natteiru corresponds to that between ‘is’and ‘accepted’; the noun teisetsu-to ‘accepted.opinion’ corresponds to a past participle‘accepted.’ This instance is a kind of lexical fission, where one word in the source language isdivided, yet only part of it corresponds to the word in the target language, and the rest is
missing (or elided because of repetition; e.g., ‘opinion’ in the example above).
Next, let us consider the following example (14)(=(9)):(14)
kugatsu-ni
okonaw-areru-no-ga
September-part hold-passive-part-part‘It is usually held in September.’tsuurei-tonatteiru
usual-part
become-present

Root
ROOT

POSTP

Root
ROOT

natteiru
POSTP

is
NSUBJ

okonawareru-no-ga tsuurei-to
POSTP

It

kugatsu-ni

XCOMP
ADV
usually

held
PREP
in
POBJ
September

68Figure 10 The typed-dependency trees for (14).

The dependency tree of the target sentence in (13) above preserves the structural setting of thesource sentence, except for the target subject ‘It’ and the preposition ‘in.’ Each word in thetarget sentence semantically corresponds to that of the source sentence, yet their parts ofspeech are different. First, the source noun phrase tuurei-to ‘usual-part’ corresponds to thetarget adverb ‘usual.’ Second, the source noun phrase okonaw-areru-no-ga ‘hold-passivepart-part’ corresponds to the target past participle ‘held.’ In other words, there are part-ofspeech changes along with functional-word introduction.
Next, let us consider (15)(=(10)) below; this example includes the syntactic mismatch headswitching and lexical fusion:(15)
shiryo-toshitekichou-na
mono-tonatteiru
documents-part valuable-part thing-part
become-present‘They serve as valuable documents.’
Root
ROOT
natteiru
POSTP
mono-to
ADJ

Root
ROOT

NSUBJ
It

serves
PREP
as
POBJ

kichou-na
POSTP

documents
ADJ

shiryo-toshitevaluable

Figure 11 The typed-dependency trees for (15).

Head switching occurs between the source and target sentence; the source dependency
relationship between shiryo-toshite ‘documents-as’ and kichou-na ‘valuable’ is reversed in
the target dependency (the word ‘valuable’ depends on ‘documents’). In other words, thepredicative adjective kychou-na in the source sentence is converted into the attributive
adjective ‘valuable.’ In addition, the source word mono-to ‘thing-part’ does not correspond to
any word in the target sentence. This is an instance of lexical fusion, where the word moto-to
fused with the target word ‘documents.’
Next, look at the pair (16)(=(11)) below. This example includes the syntactic mismatch
Branch transposition, along with others:(16)
Sono zou-wa
monocoque-ni
chikai kouzou-butsu-tothestatue-topic
monocoque-partclose structure-thing-partpresent‘The structure of the statue is close to monocoque.’69

natteiru.
become-Root
ROOT
natteiru
POSTP_TO

TOPIC
zou-wa
DET

Root
ROOT
is
NSUBJ

kouzou-butsu-to
ADJ

sono

structure
DET
The

chikai
POSTP_NI

PREP
of
POBJ

monocoque-ni

ADJ
close
PREP
to
POBJ

statuemonocoque
DET
the

Figure 12 The typed-dependency trees for (16).

The dependency relationship between zou-wa and natteiru is not retained in the English
counterpart; the word ‘statue’ depends on the preposition ‘of,’ which is introduced into theEnglish dependency tree (function-word introduction), and this preposition depends on theword ‘structure.’ This is one instance of Branch transposition.
The dependency relationship between chikai ‘close’ and kouzou-butsu-to ‘structure-thingparticle’ is not retained in the English counterpart; the word ‘close’ depends on the root verb
‘is.’ This is another instance of Branch transposition found in this sentence.
Lastly, let us consider the pair (17)(=(12)) below:(17)juyo-bunka-zai-tonatteiru.
important-culture-property-part become-present‘It has been designated as an important cultural property.’
Root

Root
ROOT

ROOT
natteiru
POSTP

has
NSUBJ

juyo-bunkazai-to

It

XCOMP
been
XCOMP
designated
PREP
as
POBJ
property

DET
an

ADJ
importantNN
culturalFigure 13 The typed-dependency trees for (17).

Along with the lexical fission of juyo-bunkazai-to into ‘important cultural property,’ thisexample contains a syntactic mismatch of interest. The word ‘designated’ in the target
sentence does not correspond to any word in the source sentence; this is an instance ofcontent-word introduction, which is not included in Mel’čuk and Wanner (2006). This
introduction seems to be driven by the semantics of the word juyo-bunkazai ‘an important
cultural property.’ As a matter of fact, things do not become cultural properties; they aredesignated as such by certain institutions such as local or national governments. The Japanese70word natteiru itself can cover the meaning ‘has been designated’ when it takes as its
complement something that should be designated. When translating such sentences, then theword ‘designated’ must be introduced. The same scenario applies to the introduction of theword ‘registered.’
The types of syntactic mismatch found in the example pairs above are shown in the following
table. The sentence pairs above are aligned from (13) to (17) according to the number ofsyntactic mismatches:
Table 1 The numbers of syntactic mismatches in each of the examples.
(13) (14) (15) (16) (17)Conversion
Head switching1
Lexical fusion
1
Lexical fission
1
1
2
Part-of-speech change
2Function-word introduction22
35Content-word introduction
1
Branch transposition
1
2
Sum
2
4
4
6
8

4. Discussion
All other things being equal, it can be said that we can align Japanese-English pairs in theorder of the structural discrepancies between them. As far as the example pairs in the previous
section are concerned, (17) shows larger discrepancy than (13) does. The validity of thisclaim remains to be proven through future research, and the scenario will be as follows: First,
Japanese leaners of English are provided with Japanese-English translation pairs of different
structural discrepancies in terms of the number of syntactic mismatches. Second, they are
asked to answer the question concerning which pairs are more difficult than others (how toconstruct such questionnaires should be discussed in future research). If their answers matchthe syntactic discrepancies in terms of the number of syntactic mismatches, then it will besafe to conclude that the claim is not rejected.
Through such a scenario mentioned above, it may be ascertained that the syntactic
mismatches are not equal; in other words, learners may consider some syntactic mismatches
more difficult than others. For example, learners find Japanese-English pairs that containhead switching more difficult than those that only contain function-word introduction, since
the latter preserves the structural setting of the source sentence. We need to conduct further
research to say for sure that this is the case, or which is more difficult than which at present.
The frequency of each syntactic mismatch with respect to noun-to natteiru in the parallel
corpus is not investigated in this research, because such a simple frequency is less informative
than the information that can be obtained through the scenario mentioned above. For example,
the fact that Function-word introduction is more frequent than Head switching does notnecessarily mean that the former is more difficult for learners to learn than the latter, or viceversa.
Putting aside the alignment of Japanese-English pairs in terms of the degree of syntactic
discrepancy, the information about each of the constructions in the source language and its
target-language constructions corresponding to the source constructions will serve as avaluable reference for the learners of the target language. The future direction with respect tothis aspect of the present research is to explore more of the other constructions in the source
language (Japanese in this case) and its one-to-many correspondence with a target language(in this case English), or with target languages. The results will be compiled into a71

construction dictionary that contains linguistically and pedagogically significant information.
Again, we need further investigation on the constructions contained in source languages andtheir corresponding construction in target languages.
5. Conclusion
This study explored the possibility of building a dependency-based Japanese-English
construction dictionary, with reference to a Japanese construction noun-to natteiru where
there is no one-to-one correspondence between the words in a source sentence and the words
in a target sentence. Mel’čuk and Wanner’s (2006) idea on syntactic mismatches between asource language and a target languages is applied into Japanese sentences containing theconstruction noun-to natteiru and their English translations in a Japanese-English parallel
corpus, and the result suggests that these syntactic mismatches can be part of important
information to be included into a Japanese-English construction dictionary. Finally, observing
only a tiny fraction of sentence pairs has reminded us of the simple truth that one-to-one
correspondence between source words and target words is an illusion. In order for us toemancipate ourselves from this illusion, and to compile future dictionaries of real significance,
we need to observe the linguistic facts concerning constructional aspects of, and syntactic
mismatches between, source and target languages. I hope this article serves as one of the firstattempts to explore them.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI, Grant Number
26370500.

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http://nlp.stanford.edu/manning/papers/LREC_2.pdf. Accessed 23 June 2012.
De Marneffe, Marie-Catherine and Christopher D. Manning. 2008. The Stanford typed
dependencies representation. In COLING Workshop on Cross-framework and Crossdomain Parser Evaluation. http://nlp.stanford.edu/pubs/dependencies-coling08.pdf.
Accessed 23 June 2012.
De Marneffe, Marie-Catherine and Christopher D. Manning. 2015. Stanford typed
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manual.
http://nlp.stanford.edu/software/dependencies_manual.pdf.
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Goldberg, Adele E. 1995. Constructions: A construction grammar approach to argument
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Hudson, Richard. 2010. An introduction to word grammar. Cambridge: Cambridge
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Ikegami, Yoshihiko. 1981. Suruto naruno gengogaku. Linguistic analysis of Japanese verbs
suru ‘do’ and naru ‘become.’ Tokyo: Daishukan.
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kakukaisekino tougouteki kakuritumoderu [An integrated probabilistic model for syntactic
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Kurohashi, Sadao and Makoto Nagao. 1998. Building a Japanese parsed corpus while
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73

The Crowdsourced Compilation of the China English Dictionary
Qin Xiaohui
University of Science and Technology Beijing, China
qinxiaohui@ustb.edu.cn
Abstract
From an Anglo-Saxon dialect to a world language, English has displayed incredible tolerance,
extensiveness and variance in the past 1500 years. Currently, in the context of English globalizationand localization, increasing linguistic and sociolinguistic attention has been paid to the structure anduse of non-native English varieties. Starting from the 1980s, the academic world saw the legitimacy ofChina English as a new English variety, to be established and consolidated in the sustaining discussion
and debates by domestic and overseas researchers. It is widely agreed that lexical features are the mostprominent evidence of an autonomous variety. The world has witnessed the compilation of English
variety dictionaries in inner circle and outer circle countries since the 19 th century. China English
words have been melting into English for thousands of years and have been recorded in authoritative
Monolingual English dictionaries and Chinese English dictionaries for hundreds of years. This paper
introduces the lexicographical principles and practice of the online China English Dictionary (bilingualEnglish-Chinese) in a crowdsourcing mode (a distributed problem-solving and production model inwhich solutions are produced from voluntary Internet users, also known as the crowd), with a focus onits genesis, macro-structure, micro-structure and mass contribution mechanism.

Keywords: China English Dictionary, crowdsourcing, China English variety, lexis

1. Introduction
For more than two millennia, successive languages have formed a of chain lingua francas:
Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Arabic, and French are examples at various periods and in different
parts of the world. However, there has never before been a single language which spread so
widely as English has done in the past century. One thing is clear in the trend: the moreregions English is extending to, the less its development is determined by the usage of its
native speakers. In other words, the control of the English language is passing to non-native
speakers of English-using communities in various continents, and the Englishes they speak
and use are nativized varieties each with its own flavor and characteristics. This paper isdirecting at one of these New English Varieties, namely, China English, and hopes to reveal
some of its recognizable features.
2. Genesis of the project
Thirty years ago, China English was identified by Karchu (1982, 1983, 2005) as one of theperformance varieties in the expanding circle. However, it is in these past three decades andin the expanding circle that the most extensive spread of English in terms of numbers of
speakers has occurred. Of all the exciting new stars, China is undoubtedly the most shining
one. Wei and Su (2012) have reported 390 million people who have learned English, andBolton and Graddol (2012) stated 400 million English learners in China, approximately athird of its population. Starting from the 1980s, the academic world saw the legitimacy ofChina English as a new English variety be established and consolidated in the sustaining
discussion and debates by domestic and overseas researchers.（Ge 1980；Cheng
1982；Cannon 1988；Sun 1989；Wang 1991；Li 1993, 2012；Jiang 1995；Du & Jiang
2001；Bolton 2003; Jenkins 2014）.

74

In terms of linguistic features at various levels (phonetics, phonology, grammar, semantics,
lexis and discourse), it is generally believed that lexical features are the most relevant
rationale for the autonomy of an English variety. Thus, the dimension of lexicography anddictionary compilation is of singular importance in the codification and recognition of World
Englishes. Since the 19th century, inner circle countries (US, Canada, Australia, New Zealandetc. ) have compiled their English dictionaries and outer circle countries (Singapore, South
Africa, Jamaica etc.) have followed their steps (Béjoint 2010, Bolton 2003). Chinese
loanwords have been melting into the English language for hundreds of years (OED，1933),
and have been included sporadically in classic English dictionaries and authoritative bilingual(Chinese-English, especially) lexicons since the appearance of A Dictionary of the Chinese
Language (Morrison 1815-1823). So far there has not been a comprehensive review of China
English vocabulary. It is in this context that the present project is initiated. Specifically, it isaiming to build a dynamic China English word inventory in a crowdsourcing mode.
3. The crowdsourcing mode
The term “crowdsourcing” is a portmanteau of “crowd” and “outsourcing”. It is a distributed
problem-solving and production model in which solutions are produced from voluntary
Internet users, also known as the crowd. This practice was originally applied in software andservice industries and currently expanded to various fields of society （Howe
2006，2008；Cove 2007；Brabham 2008；Callison-Burch & Dredze 2010；CallisonBurch & Zaidan 2011）.
Crowdsourcing combines the efforts of self-identified volunteers or part-time workers, where
each contributor adds a small portion to the greater result. The marriage of crowdsourcing andlexicography is an old one. The earliest example, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED, 18571928) is compiled on the basis of 6 million quotations solicited from the public. The modern
representative, the Wiktionary, is written collaboratively by volunteers. Its wiki
software, MediaWiki, allows almost anyone with access to the website to create and edit
entries. It is in this fashion that the China English Dictionary is intended and constructed.
4. The China English Dictionary
4.1
Technological framework
The China English Dictionary (which can be accessed at www.cnglish.org) is based onMediaWiki 1.23.2 with a framework of Nginx+PHP+Mysql. It is built upon Ubuntu
14.04（kernel version: 3.13）and deployed on the ECS service of Ali Cloud for Internet
Service. The overall system architecture is:75

Figure 1: The system architecture of the China English Dictionary

4.2 Macro-structure
As an online dictionary, the nature of digital media has made irrelevant all details of theframing structure of a traditional paper dictionary, what the sections are, or in what
sequence. The China English Dictionary is freed from the print space limit which has
haunted paper lexicon editors for hundreds of years. Therefore, it sets no limitation to thenumber of entries, and absorbs new words as soon as they appear. In other words, it isnever a static volume but always an in-progress project. The dictionary is intended for
Chinese-English bilingual speakers in the world and English learners, users andresearchers in China. Any words of Chinese origin which have entered the English
language through transliteration, translation or coinage are potential lemmas waiting to besought, edited, reviewed and expanded. The data sources are mainly published materials
reflecting Chinese-unique objects and concepts written by proficient bilingual speakers,
and include public or official English newspapers in China, Chinese-English dictionaries,
English monographs, literature written (translated) by Chinese, translated classic works,
English broadcasting and TV texts in China. In terms of lemmatization, the userfriendliness principle is at work, that is, all words, compounds and phrases will be treatedas independent headwords.
4.3 Micro-structure
The internal structure of each entry in the China English Dictionary provides a maximum
model which may not be fully needed in every single case. The outline of the model ispresented in the following: spelling, pronunciation, part of speech, other forms, origin
Chinese, definition, examples, derivatives and phrases, among which part of speech,
origin Chinese, examples are mandatory information. The “examples” consists of
quotation, its publishing year, the author, title, source and page number. This is in the
fashion of the Oxford English Dictionary for the same purpose of documenting thedevelopment of language through solid quotation evidence.

76

Figure 2 A sample editing page the entry “besiege Wei to rescue Zhao”

4.4 The collaborative mechanism
All the words are contributed, edited and revised by registered volunteers. A letter entitled“China English Needs You” on the website’s main page illustrates generally what China
English words are, where we can find China English words and how we edit a China English
word entry. Subsequent training manuals and rules will be released for editors as soon ascommon problems are detected and new technical codes developed. In China English
Dictionary, all edits are tracked and listed chronologically in the history tab. This ensures that
good articles are stored and readily accessible and bad edits are quickly revised. We assume
most participants are good willed and responsible. At this stage, whenever anything new isadded to the dictionary, a team of reviewers (or anyone who is interested) will check it andmake sure it conforms to our guidelines and policies. In case that vandalism does occur
culpable parties will be blocked by administrators (elected volunteers that have demonstrated
reliable editing qualities and steady performance levels).
77

Figure 3: Revision history record of the entry “besiege Wei to rescue Zhao”
5. Concluding remarks and future work
Variation in language structure and use is one of the prime characteristics of human language.
The present research, variation-oriented, aimed to examine the lexical features of the new
major China English variety by constructing a crowdsourcing-based dynamic platform to
document the development of China English words. The trial operation points to three urgent
issues in need of address: (1) comprehensive lexicographical policies including the status andverification of a China English word entry; (2) technological advances such as audio
pronunciation, automated detecting programs, and community codes such as voting rules anda hierarchy of editor positions; and (3) a more efficient quality control mechanism needs tobe specified which is critical to maintain the integrity and sustainability of dictionary.
Acknowledgements
This research is supported by the National Fund of Philosophy and Social Sciences and Fundamental ResearchFunds for the Central Universities.

References
Béjoint, Henry. 2010. The Lexicography of English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bolton, Kingsley. 2003. Chinese Englishes: A Sociolinguistic History. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Bolton, Kingsley & David Graddol. 2012. English in China today. English Today 28(3): 3-9.
Brabham, Daren. 2008. Crowdsourcing as a model for problem solving: an introduction andcases. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media
Technologies 14(1): 75-90.
Callison-Burch, Chris & Mark Dredze. 2010. Creating speech and language data with
Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. In Proceedings of the NAACL HLT 2010 Workshop on
Creating Speech and Language Data with Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, 1-12. Los
Angeles, California.
Callison-Burch, Chris & Omar F. Zaidan. 2011. Crowdsourcing translation: professional
quality from non-professionals. In Proceedings of the 49th Annual Meeting of the
Association for Computational Linguistics, 1220-1229. Portland, Oregon.
Cannon, Garland. 1988. Chinese borrowings in English. American Speech 63(1): 3-33.
Cheng, Chin-Chuan. 1982. Chinese varieties of English. In The Other Tongue: English acrossCultures, ed. Braj. B. Kachru,125-140. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
Cove, Sarah. 2007. What does crowdsourcing really mean. Wired News.
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2007/07/crowdsourcing?currentPage=all.
Accessed 19 June 2011.
Du, Rui Qing & Ya Jun Jiang. 2001. A China English research review in the past twenty
years. Foreign Language Teaching and Research (1):37-41.
Ge, Chuan Gui.1980. On Chinese to English translation. Translation Communication (2):1-8.
Howe, Jeff. 2006. The rise of crowdsourcing. Wired Magazine 14(6): 1-5.
Howe, Jeff. 2008. Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future ofBusiness. New York: Random House Digital, Inc.
Jenkins, Jennifer. 2014. Global Englishes: A Resource Book for Students. London and New
York: Routledge.
Jiang, Ya Jun. 1995. Chinglish and China English. English Today 11(1):51-56.

78

Kachru, B. Braj. 1982. (ed.). The Other Tongue: English across Cultures. Urbana: University
of Illinois Press.
Kachru, B. Braj. 1983. The Indianization of English: The English Language in India. Delhi:
Oxford University Press.
Kachru, B. Braj. 2005. Asian English: Beyond the Canon. Hong Kong: Hong Kong
University Press.
Li, Wen Zhong. 1993. China English and Chinglish. Foreign Language Teaching andResearch (4): 18-24.
Li, Wen Zhong. 2012. Corpus markup and annotation: China English Corpus as an example.
Foreign Language Teaching and Research (3):336-345.
Murray, J. A. Henry, Henry Bradley, William. A. Craigie and Charles. T. Onions. 1933. The
Oxford English Dictionary. 12 vols. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.
Wei, Rining & Jinzhi Su. 2012. The statistics of English in China. English Today 28(3): 1014.
Sun, Li. 1989. English variety study and English in China. Journal of Foreign Languages (2):19-25.
Wang, Rong Pei. 1991. China English is an objective variety. Journal of PLA University ofForeign Languages (1):1-8.

79

A Dictionary of Hong Kong English vs The GloWbe Corpus?:
Triangulating sources of lexicographic evidence
Vincent B Y Ooi
National University of Singapore
vinceooi@nus.edu.sg
Abstract
This paper addresses the general question of reconciling differing and competing sources of evidence
for ensuring that both frequency of occurrence and ‘socio-cultural salience’ are achieved in codifying aparticular variety of English. In so doing, it compares the efforts of Cummings and Wolf (2011) and
Davies and Fuchs (2015) with regard to Hong Kong English. Cummings and Wolf (2011) look at
various sources of evidence for their selection of entries in the dictionary, and lexical items are also
given a frequency rating based on their ‘brief Google.hk surveys’ (the highest two tiers having morethan 1000 occurrences on Google.hk). In this paper, ten selected lexical items from Cummings andWolf (2011) that have these high frequencies are compared with their respective (non-) occurrences inthe Hong Kong component of the GloWbe corpus that contains 1.9 billion words from 20 different
countries (Davies and Fuchs 2015:2). The texts in GloWbe are taken from various web pages andblogs that presumably represent both currency and socio-cultural salience. The selected lexical items
for discussion include the following: Mid-levels, dim sum, jetso, iron rice bowl, yum cha, wushu,
kowtow, qigong, laisee and Legco.

Keywords: lexicographic evidence,· corpus, frequencies, GloWbe Corpus, Hong Kong
English, triangulation

1 Introduction
Meyer and Nelson (2006) detail the types of linguistic data – introspection, experimentation,and corpus – and some methodological issues that these types of linguistic evidence bringabout in support of linguistic claims. Such types of linguistic data may similarly count as
lexicographic evidence for the codification of lexemes in the dictionary. However, theproportion of these types of lexicographic evidence still varies among lexicographers, andthere is no necessary uniform practice for the corroboration of such varying sources oflexicographic evidence in order to achieve the valued social sciences notion of ‘triangulation’.
In this paper, some of these triangulation issues are discussed in terms of the codification of
10 lexemes in The Dictionary of Hong Kong English (Cummings and Wolf 2011) and theircorresponding (non-) occurrences in the Hong Kong English component of a recently
completed mega corpus, The GloWbe Corpus (Davies and Fuchs 2015). While it is obviousthat one is a dictionary and the other a corpus, this paper hopes to show that both enterprises
may benefit from and complement each other in the quality of their linguistic claims.
2 The Dictionary of Hong Kong English (DHKE)
Why single out The Dictionary of Hong Kong English (henceforth ‘DHKE’) for our
discussion on triangulation? Reasons include its methodology and various reviews by wellknown linguists and lexicographers.
In its introduction, the DHKE lists itself as the first reference dictionary of Hong Kong
English and that “only words and word senses that are particular to HKE (Hong Kong
English) or have a specific reference to Hong Kong are listed.” (p. xii) However,‘particularity’ does not mean ‘exclusivity’, and Cummings and Wolf acknowledge that these80terms may be similarly used in another (Asian) variety of English. The selection of entries ismade “from a variety of sources”, including English-language newspapers based in Hong
Kong, cartoons and literary works by local authors, government information, local student
essays, spoken language heard on TV, and internet websites. The authors mention having
consulted various literature on Hong Kong English, including “short lists” of Hong Kong
English words (encapsulated in Bolton 2003). Also, while the authors mention the use of
frequency information from the Hong Kong component of the International Corpus of English(Greenbaum and Nelson 1996), they seem to have mainly used “brief Google.hk surveys…atdifferent times in the year 2010” (p. xxvi) The top band includes “more than 10,000
occurrences on Google.hk” and the second next most frequent band includes between 1000
and less than 10,000 occurrences on Google.hk. While giving readers an idea of the frequencyof the items, Cummings and Wolf (2011) also acknowledge the limitations of such an
approach: the data from Google.hk are not exclusively curated for Hong Kong usage alone,
and the salience of items may vary over time in the media. Nonetheless, readers should still
be able to “fathom the importance of widespreadness” of the items included in the dictionary.
In other words, what has been employed is a mix of introspection, citational evidence (casualoccurrences in various print and spoken sources), a curated dataset (the ICE corpus), and a
non-curated dataset (“brief Google.hk” surveys). While the sources of citational evidence arelisted in DHKE, the proportions of these sources of evidence are not detailed. At the end of
the day, it would very much depend on the lexicographers’ overall experience and judgmenton the inclusion and treatment of these entries in the dictionary. In this regard, Salazar (2014:103) cites an article of mine (Ooi 2001) for necessitating both etic (outsider) and emic
(insider) perspectives in lexicography. Salazar concurs with me that such perspectives arenecessary for “the accurate description of the lexicon of world Englishes, including those of
the Southeast Asian region.” The distinction between ‘etic’ (from ‘phonetic’) and ‘emic’(from ‘phonemic’), first introduced by the late linguist Kenneth Pike, is to offer amethodological solution to the problem of objectivity in the social sciences. Applying this
distinction to lexicography, knowing the lexicographer’s etic and emic perspectives, i.e.
where s/he is ‘coming from’, would provide greater understanding regarding the inclusion,
exclusion, and treatment of entries in the dictionary. Applying this distinction to Cummings,
it would seem that the etic experience is somewhat complemented by a somewhat emic one ofhaving been in Hong Kong for 10 years; for Wolf, who is introduced as living in Germany, it
would very much seem to be mainly an etic experience of Hong Kong. And, in my case, it is
one of knowing Malaysian Cantonese natively, learning Malay (and English) in school in
Malaysia and Singapore, being exposed to both Mandarin and Cantonese Chinese in
Singapore for more than half my life, being a frequent visitor to Hong Kong during the past
10 years or so, and interacting with cousins in Hong Kong.
So, in reading through the approximately 460 entries selected for DHKE, one can safely saythat a number of them are certainly shared by both Malaysian and Singapore(an) English.
Such non-unique entries in DHKE include iron rice bowl (a term quite popular in Singapore
at one time), pajamas (U.S. spelling) or pyjamas (British spelling), bird’s nest, Hakka,
cheongsam, and bubble tea (which, anyway, is a term borrowed from Taiwan English). And,
while DHKE asserts that ketchup originates from either Hong Kong or Chinese English, both
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary and Dictionary.com cite Malay (‘kechap’ – fish sauce) as
the origin.
Notwithstanding such friendly ‘ownership’ disputes, the 10 lexemes for examination in thispaper will be based on the top two frequency bands used by the DHKE. This approach ismeant to offer a more up-to-date basis for comparison with the Hong Kong component of the
GloWbe corpus which was completed in 2013.
3 Global Web-based English Corpus (GloWbe)
81

The Global Web-based English Corpus (henceforth, ‘GloWbe’) contains approximately “1.9billion words of text from 20 different countries, which includes six Inner Circle and 14
Outer Circle countries” (Davies and Fuchs 2015:2), based on Braj Kachru’s well-known
distinction between countries in which English functions as a Native Language (hence, ‘Inner
Circle’ countries) and those that have English as a Second Language (hence ‘Outer Circle’countries). These 20 countries include the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia,
Ireland, New Zealand, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Singapore, Malaysia, thePhilippines, Hong Kong, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, and Jamaica.
In order to achieve the current size of the corpus, the only possible source is web pages (seealso Kilgarriff and Grefenstette 2003). Davies and Fuchs (2015) also explain that 60 per centof the corpus comes from blogs, so that informal language is represented “fairly well”. The
remaining 40 per cent consists of “more formal genres and text types.” Also, the curation ofthis corpus goes beyond what has been achieved in Cummings and Wolf’s brief surveys ofgoogle.com.hk. Davies and Fuchs (2015: 4) say that they use Google’s Advanced Search and“Limiting by Region” features in order to ensure that the web pages are correctly associatedfor the respective countries. They also remove “boilerplate” material (recurring headers,footers, sidebars etc. ), tag the entire corpus, and then import the texts into a database suchthat these texts from the various countries can be compared side-by-side in a normalizedmanner i.e. frequency per million words.
4 Discussion of 10 lexemes from DHKE
As mentioned in Section 2, lexemes that will be discussed in this section are first filtered fromthe top two frequency bands (reflected at the bottom right of each DHKE figure in thissection). In addition, the terms are selected based on what is felt about their distinctiveness
relative to other Asian varieties of English, notably both Malaysian and Singapore(an)English that I have first-hand knowledge of. This ‘feeling’ will then be gauged moreobjectively by means of the GloWbe corpus.
4.1 Mid-levels
The DHKE lists the term as follows (see Figure 1):

Figure 1 Mid-levels (DHKE)
Let us compare the corresponding evidence from GloWbe (see Figures 2 and 3):

Figure 2 Mid-levels (GloWbe)82

Figure 3 Selected concordance listing of Mid-levels (GloWbe)
GloWbe’s Mid-levels (ranked the highest in C&W) occurs 240 times for Hong Kong (out of
the 271 occurrences world-wide) – hence, there is a close fit between GloWbe and google.hk.
In other words, we can say that this term is very much particular//distinctive to Hong Kong
English. In addition, the concordance listing indicates that the term indicates richer
associations of ‘premium areas’, ‘preferred living quarters for expats’, ‘prime locations’ andeven ‘mums’ – beyond the mere collocate of ‘Western’ in DHKE.
4.2 Dim sum
In the GloWbe corpus, another popular term dim sum occurs only 529 times (for Hong Kong)out of 1584 times world-wide, showing that the term has spread to other countries such as the
UK, U.S., Canada, Malaysia and Singapore (see Figure 4)

Figure 4 dim sum (GloWbe)
DHKE has a section entitled “Hong Kong English words now used internationally”, and theterm dim sum is not in this section; the evidence from GloWbe shows otherwise. The term isalso found in both Dictionary.com and The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, with the origin
listed as “Chinese (Guangdong)”. The Guangdong part is corroborated in the corresponding
DHKE entry (see Figure 5), in which the source language is indeed Cantonese:

Figure 5 dim sum (DHKE)
DHKE further claims that the alternative spelling tim sum is “more common in Singapore.”
On checking GloWbe, there are only 2 and 4 instances of this term from Singapore andMalaysia respectively. Instead, the preferred term in Mandarin-speaking Singapore is dianxin (which occurs 5 times in Singapore, and 3 times in Hong Kong respectively).
4.3 jetso
At the other end of the spectrum, there is an apparent conflict between google.hk and
GloWbe, with the term jetso (‘a bargain or special discount’, Cummings and Wolf 2011: 86)
ranked the highest but not represented at all in the GloWbe corpus (see Figure 6):83

Figure 6 jetso (DHKE)
It would seem that Hong Kong bloggers (at least on the surface of it) do not tend to use theterm jetso to talk about bargains or special discounts. However, the term discount in GloWbe
shows that Hong Kongers do love their discounts, comparing favourably with a number ofother countries, i.e. Hong Kong (1528), Singapore (1367), Malaysia (1308), the Philippines(1110) and South Africa (762).
4.4 iron rice bowl
DHKE codifies this term as follows (see Figure 7):

Figure 7 iron rice bowl (DHKE)In Figure 7, the given example is not quite salient, as it is contained within quotation marks.
Beyond this, there is another entry section entitled “underlying conceptualization (generic)”.
As a reference dictionary for the lay reader, it would certainly be strange to include Lakoffianconceptual metaphors for which the reader could be confused regarding the ways in which theunderlying meaning is to be decomposed. In another entry (not included here because of its
low frequency), the term mafu (essentially a pimp) is said to be related to mafoo (a stable boy)and so the underlying conceptualization “sex is riding” makes one do a double take on theway in which this sentence is to be read and understood. Therefore, one must agree with
Béjoint’s (2011:478) comment that such notes are expressed “in a language that is too
formulaic and abstract for the users of such a dictionary, even though the information to beconveyed is relatively simple: basically, they say that ‘X is like Y’.”
Turning to GloWbe, my belief that the term is found in Singapore English is borne out (seeFigure 8):

Figure 8 iron rice bowl (GloWbe)
More interestingly, the term occurs 9 times in the UK component (see Figure 9):84

Figure 9 iron rice bowl (concordance, Great Britain section, GloWbe)
From this, one can glean that the term is not unknown to readers of The Guardian broadsheet.
4.5 yum cha
The lexeme yum cha (literally ‘drink tea’) is codified in the DHKE as follows (see Figure 10):Figure 10 yum cha (DHKE)
Before commenting on Figure 10, let us also take a look at the corresponding frequencies in
GloWbe (see Figure 11):

Figure 11 yum cha (GloWbe)
The combination of both Figures 10 and 11 indicates the term yum cha is indeed a well-loved
activity in Hong Kong. Among Singaporean and Malaysian Chinese, this activity is no lessloved but expressed in terms of going to the tea house and eating dim sum or dian xin. The
accompaniment of hot tea is usually a given, hence the apparent distinction between yum cha
and dim sum in the DHKE textual examples do not quite apply in Southeast Asia.
More surprising, though, the term yum cha occurs 74 times in Australia compared with 49
times in Hong Kong: it is certainly the preferred term to dim sum in the Antipodean country.
An explanation for this is not only the high numbers of Asian migrants (from China, Hong
Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia) to Australia but the activity being more blogged
about there (as a cursory concordance inspection of the 74 occurrences there shows).

4.6 wushu
The term wushu is generally understood as the Mandarin equivalent of kung fu, traditionally
its more codified counterpart (whose origin is Cantonese) in dictionaries. In Ooi (2001), I
noticed that the term kung fu was codified in a number of English learner dictionaries then,compared with wushu which was not. Nowadays, both The Merriam-Webster Dictionary (forU.S. English) and Dictionary.com (a popular dictionary found also in smart phones) indicatethat both terms are embraced in such native English contexts. In the DHKE, however, theterm kung fu is relegated to the list of “Hong Kong English words now used internationally”(which, actually, is also conflated with “Chinese English” words) while the term wushu isfound in the main text (see Figure 12):85

Figure 12 wushu (DHKE)
While this definition somewhat differs from the one found in the other two dictionaries (with“wushu” meaning Chinese martial arts collectively), the spelling as two words in the textual
example is out of sync with the lexical entry which indicates its preferred spelling as one
word (not two). Also, turning to GloWbe (Figure 13), we can see that the term wushu is by nomeans unique to Hong Kong English:

Figure 13 wushu (GloWbe)
GloWbe therefore indicates that the term is known in countries as far as Sri Lanka(abbreviated as LK) and New Zealand (abbreviated as NZ)
4.7 kowtow
In checking out the entry for kowtow and its accompanying illustration in DHKE (see Figure14), it is surprising to learn that the meaning also includes the first sense, i.e. the idea of‘knocking [one’s] bent index and middle fingers on the table to express gratitude to the person
who served the tea.”

Figure 14 kowtow (DHKE)
This practice of tapping one’s index and middle fingers on the table as an expression of polite
gratitude to the person refilling one’s teacup is commonly practised among Chinese
Malaysians too. The practice is said to have begun with the Qianlong Emperor who used totravel incognito and, when he poured tea for his retinue, would receive their tacit gratitude
through the use of this gesture.
A detailed examination of the entire Hong Kong concordance in GloWbe fails to turn up thisfirst textual meaning (see Figure 15):86Figure 15 kowtow (Concordance, Hong Kong component, GloWbe)
Instead, its metaphorical usage (in the sense of “political submission”) seems to be used morein a number of countries, including the United States (Figure 16) for which kowtow occurs 7
times more than Hong Kong:

Figure 16 kowtow (GloWbe)
With its well-known usage in Inner Circle countries, the term kowtow is well-codified invarious native English dictionaries and so (like typhoon) is no longer a mere Hong Kong
English feature. Following the DHKE structure, it should have been placed in the section
entitled “Hong Kong English words now used internationally.” Indeed, this section is
unnecessary – the words there should have been merged with the ones in the main text, with
the indication that such words have now become standard English ones.
4.8 qigong
The preceding remarks regarding the standardness of kowtow also applies to qigong, which islisted in DHKE as follows (see Figure 17):

Figure 17 qigong (DHKE)
The standardness of this term is well-attested in GloWbe, with an almost equal number of
entries (to the Hong Kong ones) in the North American and British contexts (see Figure 18):

Figure 18 qigong (GloWbe)
4.9 laisee/ red packet
This Cantonese term for red packet (a cash gift placed in a red or pink envelope, during
auspicious occasions such as Chinese New Year) is particularly Hong Kong English, whose
main substrate influence is Cantonese. One can predict its occurrence in other Asian contexts
which are heavily influenced by Cantonese, e.g. the Cantonese-speaking cities of Ipoh andKuala Lumpur. In Singapore, which is influenced more by Mandarin and Hokkien Chinese,87the preferred terms are hong bao and ang pow respectively. Both Figures 19 and 20 show theentries for lai see and red packet respectively in DHKE:

Figure 19 laisee (DHKE)

Figure 20 red packet (DHKE)
While red packet lists lai see as its definition, its textual examples are wholly positive.
However, lai see is also seen to have a negative nuance by being associated with its
underlying conceptualization of bribery and corruption (“A bribe is a gift”).
Turning to the GloWbe corpus, the distribution of lai see is as follows (see Figure 21):

Figure 21 lai see (GloWbe)
Without reproducing the attendant concordances here, the negative sense is indeed found in
the Hong Kong context (e.g. “in corruption and ‘lai see’ taking”); in Singapore and Malaysia,
though, there is no evidence of the bribe/corruption sense but instead there is the association
with a token sum of money (e.g. “He did not take any salary, not even lai see”) or “lucky
money” (“It is customary for married couples to give lai see”).

4.10 Legco
For me, this term – referring to the Legislative Council of Hong Kong -- is quintessentially
Hong Kong English. Evidence that this term has not found its way to standard English is that
it is not found in either Dictionary.com or The Merriam-Webster Dictionary (although one
can encounter it in freedictionary.com). Strangely, though, the term is not found in DHKE atall, despite occurring overwhelmingly 602 times for Hong Kong English in the GloWbe
corpus (see Figure 22):88

Figure 22 Legco (GloWbe)
Without again reproducing the attendant concordances from the various contexts, one can seethat the media in various countries which use the term Legco mainly report the occurrences inHong Kong (e.g. for India, there is the report on what “the President of the Legislative
Council (Legco), Mr Jasper Tsang Yok-Sing, said..”) Of course, there are local uses in othercountries such as Ghana, e.g. in the sentence “By 1960, LEGCO had an African majority.”
Focusing on blogs and web pages in the GloWbe corpus would mean that, in addition to local
news and events, global matters are also written about.
5 Conclusion
In this paper, we have shown that triangulation of lexicographic evidence exercised for a
project such as the DHKE can be more rigorous in the application of both emic and etic
perspectives – and the recourse to a curated dataset, i.e. the GloWbe corpus. However, in its
defence, the GloWbe corpus was not available in 2010 when the dictionary was being
compiled. And, in itself, the GloWbe corpus does have its limitations (see English WorldWide 36). Davies and Fuchs (2015:26) acknowledge that the corpus does not include spokenmaterial, and that “there may be speakers from other countries who may have posted to [thewebsite of a particular country].” GloWbe is best used as one of the relevant tools for the
discovery, comparison and codification of the various Inner and Outer circle varieties that it
purports to represent. Finally, the DHKE should be congratulated as a fine – though first –systematic effort at dictionary-making that showcases Hong English to the rest of the world.

References
Béjoint, Henri. 2011. Review of Patrick J Cummings and Hans-Georg Wolf A dictionary ofHong Kong English: words from the fragrant harbour. International Journal of
Lexicography, 476-480.
Bolton, Kingsley. 2003. Chinese Englishes: a sociolinguistic history. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Cummings, Patrick, and Hans-Georg Wolf. 2011. A dictionary of Hong Kong English: words
from the fragrant harbor. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Davies, Mark, and Robert Fuchs. 2015. Expanding horizons in the study of World Englisheswith the 1.9 billion word Global Web-based English corpus (GloWbe). English WorldWide 36:1, 1-29.
Greenbaum, Sidney, and Gerald Nelson. 1996. The International Corpus of English project.
World Englishes 15:1, 3-15.
Kilgarriff, Adam and Gregory Grefenstette. 2003. Web as corpus.
http://www.kilgarriff.co.uk/Publications/2003-KilgGrefenstette-WACIntro.pdf
Accessed 20 May 2015
Meyer, Charles and Gerald Nelson. 2006. Data collection. In Handbook of English
Linguistics, eds. Bas Aarts, 93-116. Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Salazar, Danica. 2014. Towards improved coverage of Southeast Asian Englishes in the
Oxford English Dictionary. Lexicography: Journal of Asialex 1, 95-108.
Ooi, Vincent. 2001. Globalising Singapore-Malaysian English in an inclusive learner’s
dictionary. In Who’s centric now?: The present state of post-colonial Englishes, ed.
Bruce Moore, 95-121. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

89Proverbs in A Comprehensive Indonesian-English Dictionary
Dora Amalia
The Language Agency of Indonesia
yayak_amalia@yahoo.co.id
Abstract
Proverbs are highly culture-bound expressions and have specific lexicographical aspects. The main
problem dealing with proverbs in bilingual lexicography is finding the right, one-to-one equivalents.
The aspects are mainly related to the culture of SL and TL. This paper discusses how the proverbs arehandled in an Indonesian-English dictionary, what kind of proverbs are selected, which methods areused to give cultural information to the user and some conclusion and suggestions relating to the case.
In Malay and western Indonesian, proverb has been very dominant in communication at least until
1970s. Young speakers of Indonesian are not so familiar with it and consider it as an old-fashioned way
in today’s communication. It becomes very compelling to find proverbs in a comprehensiveIndonesian-English Dictionary compiled by two American lexicographers published in 2004. Although
the exact number of proverbs in the dictionary is not clearly stated, with a brief review there are somethat are not found in Indonesian Big Monolingual Dictionary (KBBI).
This critical evaluation of the dictionary investigates the function of proverbs to give enough cultural
information about Indonesian. The research is done by collecting proverbs from three headwords, i.e.
air ‘water’, batu ‘stone’ and bunga ‘flower’. There 52 proverb samples from the lemmas, and only 16of the proverbs have one-to-one equivalents, whereas the others have only explanation and literaltranslation.
Keywords: proverb, culture-bound praseology, bilingual lexicography

1. Introduction
Proverb is generally considered as a brief saying in common use that conveys a moral. It
couches conventional wisdom in clever form and imagery, thereby making it memorable andeasy to pass on from one generation to another. In certain parts of the world, however, theequivalents of the word ‘proverb’ do not refer only to brief, witty saying, but also to extended
allusions like the parable, anecdote, or any series of allusive statements cited to demonstrate alesson in discourse.
In Indonesian culture, proverbs are especially used in predominantly illiterae societies. They
live especially in traditional occasion featuring use of indirectness, of which proverbs are atypical example. Indirectness constitutes a polite way of saying or asking for something.
Although it is diminishing nowadays with the progressive acquisition of western education,
for some Indonesian native speakers, especially the elder speakers, telling something directly,
straight to the point, is still considered rude. That is why, proverbs are very familiar among
them. Young speakers of Indonesian rarely use this kind of idiomatic expressions in their
daily communication.
2. Proverb as cultural truth, moral percept and persuasion
Proverbs state cultural truisms (Yankah 1994). The truism may be in the form of anempirically valid statement, or an existing superstition or social norm. It may even have aquestionable logic, or make an unverifiable claim. In any case, the proverb’s cultural validity
is hardly disputed.

90

The proverb may be either prescriptive or descriptive. It may advise a course of action by
drawing attention to the moral or ethical benefits that accrue when that suggestion is taken, or
allude to the negative consequences inevitable if a line of behavior is ignored. Rather than
explicitly prescribing behaviour, the proverb may be merely descriptive, highlighting acommon irony or tendency in life.
Generally, the element of education in the use of proverbs can be subsumed under therhetorical function: the use of proverbs to persude. The proverb user seeks to alter or reinforce
the listener’s conviction or attitude by referring him to lessons from parallel events in theproverb world. By getting the addressee to agree with the moral precept in the proverb used,
the speaker thereby hopes to win him over to his viewpoint. Thus in a situation where
someone has a big difficulties, it is said air diminum rasa duri, nasi dimakan rasa sekam‘drinking water like drinking thorn, eating rice like eating husk’ to emphasis that everything
become tasteless when someone in a serious trouble. The proverbs is used to describe thesituation. The message is keep away from trouble otherwise you will get into do not dosomething wrong otherwise
As stated earlier that proverbs are highly culture-bound expressions. From the viewpoint of
linguistics, proverbs are a central type of phrasemes. Despite the extensive literature on
proverbs, a generally acknowledged definition has not yet been arrived at. Many proverbs are
figurativeand have far-reaching cultural significance. They reveal all of the types of cultural
phenomena. They are not only aspects of material culture, but many proverbs are also directlyinterrelated with other culturally relevant texts. However, proverbs are most significantly
connected with aspects of culture-based social interaction. Proverbs are general statementsthat are believed to express a universal truth, i.e. they refer to allegedly shared knowledge
about rules governing social behaviour. Of course they do not allow the drawing of
conclusions about attitudes and values of an entire language community but only of specialgroups at a special times. Besides, provebs can have the illocutionary force of‘recommendation/recommending’. They can provide moral support for an argument or action
by referring to a generalised proposition and thus give advice on how to behave in certain
situations. Proverbs quote socially approved ideas that can be used instead of anargumentation; they can reveal traces of social concepts (of a special groups and/or former
times) and hand them down to future generations. An example of such model is the proverb
type.
3. Proverbs in bilingual dictionary
It is admitted by Atkins and Rundell (2008: 168) that “other phrasal idioms (proverb
included) are the most difficult MWEs to handle in lexicography. In the absence of hard dan
fast criteria, it is well nigh impossible to be wholly consistent”. In many cases, such obstacles
are presented by alternative components, parallel idioms, loose canonical forms, syntactic
restrictions on one hand, and morpho-syntactic flexibility on the other.
In A Comprehensive Indonesian-English Dictionary (henceforth CIED), the author, Stevens
and Schmidgall-Tellings, put many proverbs in the entry. They use several methods to explain
the meaning of the proverb that can be subsumed into three categories: 1) to chooose the rightor one-to-one equivalents in target language, 2) to translate the proverbs literally (word byword) and provide the explanation afterward, and 3) to explain the main point of the proverbs.
The research begins with collecting all the sample proverbs from CIED and list them paralellto their equivalent or explanation. From 52 proverbs there are only 16 having one-to-one
equivalents. The other have translation and explanation (6) and only explanation (30). It canbe seen that the authors prefer to explain the meaning of the proverbs to provide theequivalents. Besides, translating the whole sentence word by word is apparently not a
preferred strategy. It seem that the authors want to convey the main points of the proverbs.
91Bilingual dictionary is all about seeking the right equivalents and that is the biggest problem
if we talk about proverb that is very highly culture-bounded. Here, the lexicographical aspects
of proverbs are interesting to discuss. Proverbs are based on a variety of cultural experiencesthat require exercise of individual discretion in various moments. Even in the same culture,
like Malay and Indonesian, it is uncommon to find proverbs stating apparently opposing
principles. Above all, if we talk about two different culture, Indonesia (Asia) and English(Europe).
As stated above, the authors of CIED use different methods dealing with different types ofproverbs. Providing explanation is the most commonly used because it is hard to find the rightequivalent.
One-to-one equivalents
Below a sample of five proverbs that have one-to-one equivalents in SL dan TL and thediscussion as follows.


Air kali tidak selamanya banjir  life’s not all beer and skittles

The Indonesian proverb literally means ‘river is not always full of water’ which implies thatlife is not always full of happiness and prosperity. Water is a symbol of prosperity, especiallywhen it is in dry season and there is water shortage. Meanwhile, to say the same meaning,
English proverb use beer and skittles. The words are shorthand for a life of indulgence spentin the pub. Skittles, also known as ninepins, which was the precursor to ten-pin bowling has
been a popular English pub game since the 17th century. The pins are set up in a square
pattern and players attempt to knock them down with a ball. It is still played but not so muchas previously. (www.phrases.org.uk/index.htm). The proverb is actually an advice or indirect
invitation not to be on spree because life is not always going well.
Mengungkit batu di bencah  to carry out a Sisyphean task

The Indonesian proverb literally means ‘to lift stones to the muddy ground’ which implies
something that is extremely difficult to do. To move your body in the muddy ground is sodifficult to do, let alone to lift stones. To say something very difficult or even impossible todo the authors use word Sisyphean which come s from Sisyphus in nominal form. Sisyphean(of a task) impossible to complete From the Greek myth in which Sisyphus was punished forthe bad things he had done in his life with the never-ending task of rolling a large stone to the
top of a hill, from which it always rolled down again. There is always an explanation behindthe proverb that can reveal way of life or cultural life of a society.
Menepuk air di dulang, tepercik muka sendiri  it is an ill bird that fouls its own nest

The Indonesian proverb literally means ‘if you clap water in the tray the water will splash
onto your face’. This proverb describes someone who did a bad thing, then the consequences
will be of him/her. The English proverb use a bird as the doer and its own nest as beneficiary.
In other words, only a foolish or dishonorable person would bring dishonor to his/her self or
his/her surroundings (www.oxfordreference.com). This is a condemnation of a person who
vilifies his own family, country, etc.
Sambil menyelam minum air  to kill two birds with one stone

The proverb has a meaning to accomplish two aims by a single action(www.thefreedictionary.com). This expression is quite widely used in daily communication,
92

even today. Young Indonesian speakers are quite familiar with this one. The literallytranslation of Indonesian proverb is ‘while diving drinking water’ which describe things thatcan be done at the same time. Meanwhile, in English equivalent, the same notion is expressedby killing two birds with one stone. It would be remarkable indeed if someone slinging astone at a bird got one bird, let alone two.
Membuang bunga ke jirat  to cast pearls before swine

The Indonesian proverb is literally translated into English as ‘to throw away flowers to tomb’.
It means to give something of value of someone who won’t appreciate it; to waste something
good on someone who doesn’t care about it. Flowers are something of great value as pearls inequivalent English proverb. Things which describe someone who doesn’t know or care about
the valuable things are tomb and swine.
The other methods employed in CIED in handling proverbs are by giving explanation. This isespecially done if SL lexemes lack exact equivalents in the target language or lack of one-toone equivalents by way of explanatory metalanguage. The SL proverbs of this type is asfollows.
 air dicindang tiada (tidak akan pernah) putus  said of relatives who make up
again after a short estragement
 bagai air di daun keladi/talas  inconstant, unstable, fluctuating, variable bermain air basah, bermain api letur(p)  every effort has its consequences
 batu hitam tak bersanding  to be deceptive in appearance
In this method of explaining, the lexicographer is just to inform TL pragmatics without giving
alternative expression. That indicates lack of lexicographer knowledge about TL or it’s
simply because there’s no appropriate equivalent.
On the other hand, there are also several proverbs that is merely translated literally into TL
without giving any information. It can be seen in the proverb air tenang menghanyutkan 
still waters run deep.
Arcaic forms
Because Indonesian proverbs live in iliterate society, no wonder that many arcaic form foundin the proverbs. Words like tuba ‘poison to catch fish’, beriak ‘to wave’, bersibak ‘to wave’,
pelimbahan, dicindang, berkumbah ‘to shower’, membandarkan ‘to lift’, dulang ‘food tray’,sekam ‘husk’, sauk ‘ladle’, lubuk ‘deep pool in a stream’, bendah, dan jirat ‘tomb’. The
words are hardly used in daily communication and considered as arcaic and considered as
foreign words.
It is quite strange to find more proverbs in this dictionary than the biggest monolingualIndonesian dictionay, KBBI. If we look closer to the preface of this dictionary, it was statedthat the data was collected from various sources, including old scripts that using the proverbs.
Among others are 1885 Dictionary of Islam by T.P. Hughes, 1950 Nuttige Planten van
Indonesie, the classic text Javaans-Nederlans Handwoordenboek and 1959 Malay-English
Dictionary by Wilkinson.
4. Conclusion and suggestion
Bilingual lexicography is all about finding right equivalents. This simple statement needfurther strategies and methods when dealing with various proverb situation. Like Atkins andRundell already said it is “the most difficult MWEs to handle in lexicography so it seems
impossible to be wholly consistent. It would be very nice if the lexicographer has a wide
knowledge about the culture, not only the language, of SL and TL. It will facilitate his/her
93

work to find the right equivalent of the proverb in TL. But the problem is not always about
the lexicographer’s capacity, but also the cultural aspect itself which is different in every
society.
It is suggested to use ilustrative methods to add information about one language. One-to-one
equivalent is not enough. To give additonal information, lexicographer should use
explanatory metalanguage too.
References
Yankah, K. 1994. Proverb in The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Volume 6. Ed.
R.E. Asher, 3386-3389. Oxford: Pergamon Press.

94Appendix Sample proverbs in CIED
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.

30.
31.

32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.

Air kali tidak selamanya banjir
Air laut siapa yang garamin
Air susu dibalas dengan air tuba
Air beriak tanda tak dalam
Air besar batu bersibak
Air cucuran atap jatuhnya kepelimbahan juga
Air dicindang tiada (tidak akan pernah)putus
Air dalam berenang/berkumbah, airdengkat bercebok
Air tenang menghanyutkan
Bagai air di daun keladi/talas
Bagai air titik ke batua)Bagai membandarkan air ke bukit
Bermain air basah, bermain api letur(p)Menepuk air di dulang, tepercik muka
sendiri
Air diminum rasa duri, nasi dimakan
rasa sekam
tak air hujan ditampung, tak air peluh
diurut//tak air palang dipancung
Pandai berminyak aira)Bagai mencencang air
Tambah air tambah sagu
Sekali air besar, sekali tepian beranjak/beralih
Ada air ada ikan
Bagai air jatuh ke pasir
Sambil menyelam minum air
Sauk air mandikan diriSeperti air basuh
Seperti air di atas bulu bebek
Batu bulat tak bersanding
Bak batu masuk lubang
Hujan emas di negeri orang, hujan batu
di negeri sendiri, baik juga di negeri
sendiri
Batu hitam tak bersanding
Seperti batu jatuh ke lubuk

Lempar(kan)batu,sembunyi(kan)tanganMencampakkan batu ke luar
Mengungkit batu di bencah
Patah batu hatinya
Menunggu angin lalu
Angin berputar, ombak bersabung
Tahu di angin berkisar
Tahu di angin turun naik
Ke mana angin yang deras, ke situ
condongnya

95Life is not always beer and skittles
Self-praises is no recommendation
To return good for evil
The empty vessel makes the greatest sound
Relationships fall apart after conflict
Like father, like son
Said of relatives who make up again after ashort estragement
To live within one’s mean
Still waters run deep
Inconstant, unstable, fluctuating, variablea) Constant dripping will wear away a stone;b) unteachable
To perform Sisyphean labor
Every effort has its consequences
It is an ill bird that fouls its own nest
Said of s.o. having difficulties so thateverything become tasteless
The end justifies the meansa) Toady; b) to flatter, cajole, wheddle
To carry coals to Newcastle
Increased work means increased income(so) many hands/men, (so) many minds
One can find the means of subsistence in every
country
It is like pouring water into a sieve
To kill two birds with one stone
To stand on one’s own two feet
Obtainable in abundance
Like water off a duck’s backA brave man fears nobody
To disappear
East, west, home’s best; be it so humble
there’s no place like home
To be deceptive in appearance
Vanished into thin air; spirited away; refers tos.o. who has left his kampung and never comesback again
Not willing to admit that one has commited an
act (or, a crime)
All lay goods on a willing horse
To carry out a Sisyphean task
His desire to finish the job etc. That he has
undertaken has completely diappeared
To wait in vain
Most difficult (of case)To know the capricious humor of people
To see it coming
He will turn with every wind that blows

41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
49.
50.
51.
52.

Berjalan peliharaan kaki,
peliharaan lidah
Kaki naik kepala turun
Kaki untuk dipakaikan gelang

berkata

Bunga bukan sekaki
Tangan kanan jangan percaya akan
tangan kiri
Tangan mencencang bahu memikul
Lempar bunga dibalas lempar tahi
Membuang bunga ke jirat
Jauh bau bunga, dekat bau tahi
Bunga dipetik perdu ditendang
Bunganya dipersunting, pangkal bunga
diberaki
Bunga gugur petik pun gugur

96

Look before you leap
To bustle about
It’s like a blacksmith with a white silk apron
i.e. inappropriate“there’s more than one flower”
Don’t trust anybody
You have to be responsible for your actions
Repay good with evil; return evil for good
To cast pearls before swine
Familiarity breeds contempt
Aiming at making profits, being out for profit
making, wanting to live in clover
Aiming at making profits, being out for profit
making, wanting to live in clover
Nobody dies before his timeCuyonon and Tausug Cultural Dictionaries: Databank fordetermining mutual intelligibility of two indigenous Philippine
languages
Rosario B. Dizon (rbd_fil@yahoo.com)1,
Mary Ann S. Sandoval1 (maryzan@yahoo.com)
Myrna Halim1(darling 1223 @ yahoo. com)
Lydia L. Mata1 (mata_lydia@yahoo.com)
Ser Robert David B. Dizon2 (srdbd@yahoo.co.uk)
1
MSU-Iligan Institute Technology, the Philippines
2
Siliman University, the Philippines
Abstract
This paper examines and compares two southern Philippine languages namely Cuyonon and Tausug
through their cultural dictionaries which were the output of a previous research project entitled“Positive Expressions of Southern Philippines: Towards Compiling Cultural Dictionaries. The 200
Swadesh word-list formulated by Morris Zorc (1955) was used as comparable instrument to determine
the mutual intelligibility between these languages. The technique used in detecting genetic relationshipwas done by way of lexico-statistics, a glottochronology approach that can determine even thehistorical period when the languages under study were able to contact with each other. Results showthat there are only thirty (30) or 15 % probable cognates and one hundred seventy (170) or 85% non
probable cognates. This means that Tausug and Cuyonon languages are not mutually intelligible.
Statistical data revealed that the probable cognates are attributed on basic human activity, parts of thebody, nature and atmospheric elements. Numerals or count nouns belong to non probable cognates.
Findings show that it was not during trading empire when Jolo was the “center of trade” in the 18th
century that the possible link or contact between the two languages occurred. It may have happened as
early as the 10th century A.D. when Tausugs from Borneo crossed the land bridges via the islands
connecting Palawan that contact with the Cuyonons happened.
Keywords: mutual intelligibility, probable cognates, lexico-statistics, glottochronology

1. Introduction
Language is a vital part of man’s existence for it is his way of communicating or expressing
his thoughts. It is a basic ingredient of his life for by nature he is gregarious and he makes useof language to interact with people. However, the interaction can only be made possible if thecommunicators are using languages that are mutually intelligible.
This endeavor takes into consideration two language varieties: Tausug and Cuyunon. Tausug
is the dominant language of Jolo in Sulu archipelago, an island belonging
to Southern Philippines which is nearer to Sabah and Malaysia than to Manila. On the other
hand, Cuyunon is the language spoken in the Cuyo island and most parts of Puerto Prinsesa,
capital of the province of Palawan that stretches from Mindoro in the northeast to Borneo inthe southwest. It lies between the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea.
This is a descriptive research involving two languages examined from 4 speech communities 2 from Jolo, Sulu and 2 from Puerto Prinsesa, Palawan. The comparable data consisted of
200 Swadesh word - list from Zorc (1977) was used as instrument to determine the mutual
intelligibility between Tausug and Cuyunon.
Using glottochronology, the study sought to detect genetic relationship between two
languages through computational linguistics in an approach called lexico-statistics. This
involves quantitative comparison of common lexical cognates. With this technique, one candetermine the historical period when the languages under study were able to contact with each97

other and separated based on the analysis of their mutual intelligibility and statisticalcomparison of shared word listing.
Other support techniques used were inspection method (Gudschinsky, 1956) and rapid
appraisal. Both are sociolinguistic research approaches (Bergman 1991, Stalder 1996) which
utilized focus group and individual interview questionnaire. These approaches provided ageneral sociolinguistic profile or situation of speech varieties being studied. Informant
responses revealed patterns of contact and degree of lexical relationship. Researchers reliedon speakers’ utterances in determining the high lexical similarity and intelligibility of lexicalcases. An understanding of language vitality and viability are important to determine theenvironment of the speakers, thereby researchers can predict development or extinction ofrelationship between speech groups. Survival of the language has a direct bearing on theactive or passive language maintenance. These valuable pieces of information are needed inconfirming lexical relationships.
1.1. Objectives of the study
This study sought to determine the degree of mutual intelligibility of two indigenous
languages namely; Tausug and Cuyunon through lexico-statistics thereby reconstructing tosome extent the historical links between the said languages. Specifically, it desired to:
1. determine the lexical similarities/dissimilarities between Tausug and Cuyunon;
2. identify the percentage of cognates and non-cognates; and3. trace back historical, socio-economic and political factors that influencesimilarities/dissimilarities between Tausug and Cuyunon.
1.2. Significance of the study
 Results of this study shed light on the lexical relationship between Tausug and Cuyunon,
the active languages spoken in the southern part of the Philippines.
 The ethno-historical findings regarding these two indigenous languages are beneficial to
linguists considering that there is no existing glottochronological study yet similar to thepresent thesis.
 The codified dictionaries of these two languages with English and Filipino equivalent can
aid the non-speakers of Tausug and Cuyunon as well as the local and foreign tourists who
would want to visit the country.
 Finally, the collected vocabulary of both Tausug and Cuyunon languages can be used as
inputs for the modules and instructional materials’ development for K+12 curriculum,
literacy programs both for the out-of-school youth and adults. Results and findings of thisresearch can be used as data for language studies of linguists and cultural anthropologists.
1.3. Definition of Terms
Cognate. Word in one language which is similar in form and meaning to a word in anotherlanguage because both languages are related (Richards: 1992).It is also refers to a word thathas been inherited by two or more languages from parent language. In this study, it is thename for similarity in sound and spelling between Tausug and Cuyunon.
Dialect. The word refers to a variety of a language, spoken in one part of a country (regional
dialect), or by people belonging to a particular class (Social dialect or sociolect), which isdifferent in some word grammar, and/or pronunciation from other forms of the samelanguage. A dialect gains status and becomes the standard variety of a language (Richards:
1992).
Intelligibility. Degree to which a message can be understood. Studies of speech perception
point out that the intelligibility of speech is due to various factors including accent andintonation, the listener’s ability to predict parts of the message, the location of pauses in theutterance, the grammatical complexity of sentences, and the speed at which utterances are98

produced (Richards:1992). In this paper, it is the existing common understanding between
spoken and written Tausug and Cuyunon languages.

2. Review of Related Studies and Literature
In their research about the Papuan languages of Alor-Pantar, Holton, Klamer and Kratochvil(2005) assessed 17 Eastern Indonesian languages and had proven lexico-statistics a very
useful tool for genetic classification. The first attempt to examine internal sub-grouping ofthese languages was made by Stokhof (1975) based on lexicostatistical analysis of 117 item
Swadesh lists. Stokhof identified a number of lexical features. The data further helped him
resolve migration route question.
Ayotte, Michael and Charlene (2002) in their language surveys of Atong, Ambele and Menka,
Congo examined lexical similarities that existed between these languages and Ngwo. They
also examined the level of contact among the speakers, and the extent of understanding thatwould benefit Ngwo language development. Findings showed that the word list from the threelanguages shared many similarities. Probable cognates came from pidgin or trade terms,
church and intermarriages, as well as education terms. At home, with age-mates, in the field
and with traditional ceremonies, wider variety of mother tongue was spoken.
Other studies directly related to the present paper are that of Donohue, M. (2007) that traced
the phonological history of the non- Austronesian languages of Southern Indonesia. In thesaid research, investigators also discovered the migration route of trade and commerce andhow pidgin terms were creolized by the early peoples of this place. Pawley, A. (2001)
investigated the Proto TransNew Guinea obstruents: arguments from top-downreconstruction. This is a study in Melanesian linguistics as compiled by the Pacific
Linguistics Research School of Asian Studies of Australian National University. The
researchers realized that in some areas, language families have not been classified properly
and that there exists no classification of the world languages done by a single, consistentmethod as the lexico-statistics.
Gudschinsky, Sarah (2009) stated basic assumption in lexicostatistical investigation which
can easily be noted. She said that some basic core vocabulary of any language, on empiricalevidence, is much less to change than any parts. This concept is similar to Sapir’s idea of abasic nucleus of morphological structure. Terms for material culture, on the other hand, arefrequently borrowed along with other cultural items. This is the contrast between core
vocabulary and general vocabulary. There is also a presumption that the rate of loss of basic
vocabulary is approximately the same in all languages.
Baguio, Flores and Dizon (2010) study entitled Trilingual Dictionary revealed that thelanguage of Higaonons or Binukid / Higaonons have undergone changes from classic toactive. There is confusion in spelling and terms. Translation made by foreign missionaries
and the influx of people from coastal areas influenced the language change of the natives.
Such translation resulted in phonological changes. However, in the case of the Tausug
language, changes are not noticed in the language the past many years. Perhaps, it isbecause Tausug aside from being the lingua franca of the archipelago is also a dominantlanguage.
In this study, the lexical similarities between the Tausug and Cuyunon were compared andanalyzed on the basis of their probable cognates and probable non – cognate categories. . In
this aspect, mutual intelligibility, Brown (1998) emphasized that “intelligibility is mutual andinherent”.

99

2.1
Theoretical Foundation
Sapir, Edward (1921) founded the theory on linguistic relativism wherein he believed that themethods of comparative linguistics are equally valid when applied to indigenous languages.
He said “We see and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because thelanguage habits of our community predispose certain choices of interpretation,” (Sapir, p. 69).
This was supported later by Benjamin Lee-Whorf when he said that “we dissect nature alonglines laid down by our native languages.” Furthermore, by simple inspection and comparison,closely related native languages can be discovered. Sapir (1921) suggested that marked
similarities in the basic morphological structure of languages may indicate common origin.
The use of this principle increases the number of languages that can be postulated as
belonging to a given linguistic grouping, but it cannot tell however, when the relationshipbegan to diverge from one another.
This study was anchored on the principle of linguistic relativism believing that every
indigenous language has its own speech community that can develop its varieties throughcontact and time and later on be found probable cognates with other indigenous tongues likeCuyunon to Tausug and vice-versa.
Schematic Diagram

Figure 1 Diagram

3. Methodology
This study used the combination of qualitative-quantitative methods of research. It also madeuse of rapid appraisal method in gathering data (Stalder, 1996) utilizing group and individualinterview to provide the idea of the general sociolinguistic situation of the speech varieties
being studied. Informant responses revealed the pattern of contact and degree ofmultilingualism. Researchers relied on the speaker’s perception in conjunction with highlexical similarities to determine levels of mutual intelligibilities in both languages. An
understanding of language vitality was important in predicting active language maintenance.
Maintenance of the language has a direct bearing in the reconstruction of ethno-historical100building-up theory. Synchronic and diachronic analysis were also used in examining thehistorical past of contact between the two languages.
One essential step in making lexicostatistical comparison of two or more languages was thecollection of comparable word list that would provide a clear sure way of estimating linguistic
relationships even in the basis of relatively small data. A convenient list for this purpose is
the Swadesh 200 - word list. Using this tool formulated and tested by Zorc in 1954 has
several advantages: It is made up of chosen core vocabulary and has been tested forpercentage of retention in languages with written historical records; the list has been used in a
number of comparison so that results of comparison between Tausug and Cuyunon may becompared with studies already made in other languages.
Determining the probable cognates and non-probable cognates using the 200-Swadesh word
list was the next step done in order to ascertain the number of pairs of words which were
mutually intelligible or not.
Flow Chart of Activities. The following steps were taken in this study:

Figure 2 Flow Chart of Activities
3.1. Key Informants
The informants for the Tausug language are Hadji Anang Muabbad and Hadji Sakkim
Muabbad. They hailed from Bus-bus, Jolo. They were also the translators for the Swadesh
200-word basic vocabulary and originally categorized 245 SIL vocabulary. The translations
were properly validated by Ahmad Sapii and Abdurajik Sapii. The same informants also did
the evaluation and validation of the recorded texts.
The informants for the Cuyonon language are Mrs. Maryjane Parcon, a high school teacher
and Vicenta Ensigne, an administrative employee from Palawan State University. Mr. Romy
Daizon, his wife Mrs.Ellen Medes-Daizon also from Palawan State University were thevalidators. The coordinator was Prof. Teresita Tajolosa, PhD Linguistics whom we owe deep
gratitude for organizing a team to take care of putting everything in order including thecourier service.
101The criteria of choosing the informants were their exposure to other languages age, status in
the community, place of residence and the nature of their work. The informants were allnative speakers of their respective languages. The researchers investigated the informants their background, past experience, standing in their respective communities, cultural
background, interactions with the older members of the community, role of their work, theirrelationships with other business associates, and active participation with the members of
their religious congregation.

.
3.2. Research Locale
The study covered two locales: Jolo, Sulu for the Tausug Language and Puerto Prinsesa,
Palawan for Cuyunon language.
Jolo is the main center of Tausug language. It is mainly inhabited by the Tausugs who are
considered to be the original settlers of Jolo. The name “Tausug” is a combination of
two native terms, “tau” which means people and “sug” which means current. “Sug” is also
used in southern Sulu to mean the island of Sulu. The term ‘Tausug’ also refers to thelanguage spoken by the natives in the place. Hassan, 1975 (Gallman, 1977) states that in
Sulu, “Tausug” is the mother tongue of a quarter of more than a million and is the trade
language, as well as the lingua franca spoken throughout the archipelago.
There are 8 barangays in mainland Jolo. They are Alat, Asturias, Bus-bus, Chinese Pier, San
Raymundo, Takut-takut, Tulay, and Walled City.
Palawan, on the other hand, is a group of islands located in the southwest portion of thePhilippine archipelago. It is bounded on the north by Mindoro, the China Sea on the west, theSulu Sea on the east, and Borneo on the south with land area of 14,896.3 square kilometres
and a length of 425b km from tip to tip. (Ocampo, 1985).
There are 28 principal rivers of which the Babuyan River in central Palawan is the longest
measuring around 54 kilometers. These mountains and rivers have been one of the major
sources of of subsistence for the inhabitants of the island for thousands of years. Different
fresh water fishes and shells abound on the rivers and provide the protein, calcium and natural
iodine needs of the people.
The climate of Palawan is affected by the annual cycles of northeasterly wind and southwest
monsoon. During the months of January to April, the northeasterly wind brings cooler
temperature and less rain. The rainy season occurs in the months of May to December. The
west coast experiences more rain than the eastern portion which is shielded by the mountains
during the southwest monsoon.
The first Spanish account of Palawan appeared in 1521 when the surviving ships of Magellan
stopped for provisions at an island called Pulaoan.
In the middle of 16th century, due to political superiority, the Muslims of Borneo andMindanao exercised authority over the inhabitants of Palawan. Thus, the people gave tributeto the Muslims of Borneo, a custom that persisted until 1588.
The province is a melting pot of 81 different ethno-linguistic groups; Mcfarland (1980) listed
six Palawan languages on the basis of genetic classification: Kalamianon, Agutaynon, Batak,
Tagbanwa, Palaweno and Molbog. The first two form a northern grouping, while the otherfour are parts of the southern grouping. There are 52 dialects in the province, with Tagalog
102

being spken by 28 percent of the people. Other major dialects are Cuyunin (26.27 %),Pinalwan (11.08 %), and Hiligaynon (9.6%) (www.palawan.gov.ph 2005).

Figure 3 Map of Jolo, Sulu
3.3. Instrumentation
Translation to Tausug and Cuyunon of the 200 Swadesh lexical items was the initial task doneby the researchers. To have common understanding of meaning, they used Filipino languagein their translations.
The next step was the translation analysis for parrellism of equivalents from Tausug andCuyunon languages. Pairs of lexical items were identified whether probable cognates or nonprobable cognates. The determination of the cognates was done using Gudchinsky’s (1956)“inspection method”.
To determine the percentage of probable cognates, add all the pairs of words in Tausug andCuyonon that are perfectly similar and multiply the total by 100; and then divide the productby 200. The result is the percentage of the probable cognates. Meanwhile, get the frequency
of non-probable cognates by counting the dissimilar words from pairs of Tausug andCuyonon and then, multiply the product again by 200.
Thus,

103

Or,

Simply, the following is the formula in identifying the cognates:

4. Presentation and Analysis of Data
To show comparative illustration of two languages being studied, the researchers used the200-Swadesh list of Zorc (1954) as presented in Table 1.

Table 1. 200 Core Vocabulary of the Swadesh List for Tausug and Cuyunon Languages
Englishabove (adv. )alive (adj.)all (adj. )and (conj. )Tausughataas’ npc
buhi’ npc
katan’ npc
iban’ npc

Cuyunon
kabui
ubong
tanan

Filipino
sa itaas
buhay
lahat
at

at (prep.)back (n)bad (adj. )in’ npc
likod pc
mangih’ npc

sa
likod
masamabecause(conj.)

amu man yan npc

sa
likod
marimô/ beken ymayadsamorobelly (human body)
below (adv. )big(adj.)
bird (animal)
bite(verb)
black (adj.)
blood (human body)
blow (verb)
bone (human body)branch (noun)
breast(human body)breathe (breathe)burn (verb)
buy (buy)
chew (verb)
child (noun)choose (verb)

tiyan’ npc
hababa’ npc
malag’go npc
manuk-manuk npc
kutkut’ npc
hom’ npc
dugu’ pc
huyop’ pc
bukog’ npc
sanga pc
daghal’ npc
napas, hagok npc
sunog’ pc
bi’ni npc
sio’pa/supao’ npc
bata’ pc
pinih’ npc

tian
ibaba
mabaellamgamkagat
mangitit
dug’o
huyóp
tulan
sanga

bata
pilien/pilitiyansa ibabamalaki
ibon
kagat
itim
dugo
ihipanbuto
sanga
dibdibhumingapasobumilinguya
batapiliinclimb (verb)

dimag’ npc

sakaumakyatcloud(noun)cold(noun)

panganod pc
mahagpay’/ mahag’got
npc
mari’ npc
lutoon npc
mag-itong’ npc
tumangis, npc
iyutod npc
adlaw’ pc

panganodmaramig/ ramigulapmalamig

pakon
loto/paglutôbilang/numiro
tangisgirit
adlaw

halikamaglutobilangumiyakputulinaraw

come(verb)
cook (verb)
count (verb)
cry(verb)
cut/chop (verb)
day (noun)

104

agginawa
sunóg
agbacal/bacaldahildie (verb)
dig (verb)
dirty(adjective)dog (animal)
dream(verb)
drink(verb)
dry (verb)
dry up(verb)
dull (adjective)dust(noun)
earth (noun)
earthworm (insect)eat (verb)
egg (noun)eye (human body)fall (verb)
far (adjective)fat (adjective)
father (noun)fear (verb)
feather (noun)
fire (noun)
fish (noun)
flow (verb)

patay’ npc
kalot’ npc
malum’-mih npc
iruh’ npc
tagainop’ npc
ino’m pc
tahay’ npc
piatahay’ npc
pol-pol’ npc
bagon’bon npc
lupa ‘ npc
labod’ npc
kaon’ npc
itlog’ pcmata’ pc
nahulog’ hug npc
malayo’ npc
tambok’ npc
amah’ npc
mabugah’ npc
bahibu’ balahibo npc
ka’yo npc
isiah ‘ npc
labi’ npc

flower (noun)fly (verb)
foot/leg (human body)forest (noun)
four (count noun)
fruit (noun)
good (adjective)
grass (noun)grow (verb)
guts (noun)
hand (human body)he/she (pron)head (human body)head/hair (humanbody)hear (verb)
heavy (adjective)
hide (verb)
hit (verb)
hold (verb)
hot (adjective)
house (noun)
how (adv.)
hunt (verb)
husband (noun)

sumping’ npc
lupad’ npcsiki/bihtiis pc
kakahuyan’ npc
upat’ npc
bunga’ npc
marayaw’ npc
sagbut’ npc
tubo’ npc
isog’ npc
lima’ npc
siya’ npc
o-‘u npc
buhok’ npc
diongog’ npc
bug-at’ npc
tiapok’/tiao’ npc
tiodjo/kiogdan npc
kapotan’/kapot npc
mapaso’ npc
bay’ npc
unohon npc
piangita’ npc
bana’ npc

borak
lepad
sikê/batis
cagueban
apat
protasmayad
elamononkolay

I (proper noun)
if (conjunction)
inside (noun)
kill (verb)
knowledge (noun)lake (body of water)
laugh (verb)
leaf (noun)

ako’ npc
bang ‘ npc
halaum’ /sud npc
piatay’ npc
kaingatan’ npc
lanaw’ npc
katawa’ npc
dahon ‘ npc

aco

105

makalimaburing
ti’otaginep
inom/inem
iga

lugtâ/ kalibotan
ulolagokaen/kain
itlog
mata
lagpakmaraye cao
matambek
tatay
adlik
calayô
canen-canen
ilig v. i.

alimâ
lalakiolo/barot
bokpamatimabegatpalipidawid
mainitbalay
marasanopangayámasawang lalaki

sa siledpatay
kinaelamanleekmagkadlaw
daon

patay
hukayinmarumiaso
panaginip
inom
tuyo
patuyuinmapurol
alikaboklupa
bulatikumainitlog
matamadapamalayomatabaama
takotbalahibo
apoy
isda
agos
bulaklak
lipad
paa
gubat
apat
prutasmabutiDamo
Tubolakas-loob
Kamaylalake/babae
Ulo
Buhok
Dinggin
MabigatItago
Pagsuntok
Hinawakan
Maanghang
Bahay
Paano
Pangaso
Bana
Ako
Kung
SaloobPatayin
Karunungan
Lawa
Tawa
Dahon

left (adjective)lie down (verb)
lightning (noun)
liver (human body )long (adjectives)louse (insect)man (noun)meat/flesh (noun)
moon (heavenly body)mosquito (insect)mother (noun)
mouth (human body)name (noun)
narrow (adjective)
near (adjective)
neck (human body)needle (non)new (adjective)
night (noun)
no/not (adverb)
nose (human body )old (adjective)
one (count term)
open (verb)
other (adjective)
person (noun)
plant (plant)
pound/beat (verb)
rain (noun)
rat (animal)
red (adjective)
right (noun)road (noun)roof (house part)root (noun)rope (noun)
rotten (adjective)
salt (noun)sand (noun)say (verb)
scratch (verb)
sea (body water)see (verb)
sew (verb)
sharp (adjective)
shoot (verb)
short (adjective)
shoulder (human body)lawa’ npc
kumulang’ npc
kilat’ pc
atay npc
mataas’ npc
lisa’ npc
isogo’ npc
unod’ npc
bulan’ pc
hilam’ npc
inah’ npc
simud’ npc
ngan’ npc
masigpit’ npc
masuok’/daig npc
liog’ npc
jaum’ npc
ba’go pc
dom’ npc
bukun’di” npc
ho’ng npc
ma’as npc
isa’ npc
ukab’ npc
kaibanan’ npc
ho’ng npc
tanom’ npc
dok-dok’ npc
ulan’ npc
ambaw’ npc
pula’ pc
to-o’ npc
da’-an npc
atup’ npc
gamot’ npc
lubid’ pc
haloh’ npc
asin’ npc
buhangin ‘ npc
baytah’/laong npc
kiatol’/kia’mas npc
dagat’ pc
ki’ta npc
tahi’ npc
maha-it’ npc
timbakon npc
mahawpoh’ npc
abaga’ pc

shy/ashamed (adjective)

sipug npc

sick/painful (adjective)sit (verb)
skin (human body)sky (heavenly body)
sleep (verb)
small (adjective)saki’t npc
lingkod’ npc
pais’ npc
langit’ npc
to’-og npc
anak-anak’ npc

walâ
kelat/lenti
malabegkutô/kaymedlalaki
karmi
bulan
namok
nanay
babâ/sungad
aran
marapitlieg
tingway
bago
gabi
irong
malam/gurang
isarâ
abri
iba
tao
tanim
mabáyò
oran
ambe
pulâ

lubid

baras
makón
kalot
dagat
kitô
bidbidmatarem/tarem

abagâ

Kaliwahumigakidlatataymahaba
lisa
tao
karne
buwan
lamok
ina
bibig
pangalanmakitidmalapitleeg
karayom
bago
gabi
hindi
ilong
matanda
isa
bukas
iba
tao
tanim/halaman
dikdik
ulan
daga
pula
kanan
daan
bubong
ugat
lubid
panis
asin
buhangin
sabi
kamot
dagat
tingnantahimatalasbarilinmaiklibalikatmahiyainmaguráng
kulit
maeneyaen
maturogmaitê106

maysakitupobalat
himpapawid
matulog
maliitasôthis (pronoun)
thou (pronoun)
three (noun)
throw (verb)
thunder (noun)tie (verb)
tongue (human boy)tooth (human body)true/correct (adjective)
turn ( verb)
two (noun)
vomit (verb)
walk (verb)
water (body water)
we (excl.)(pronoun)
we (incl.) (pronoun)wet (noun)
what (pronoun)
when (pronoun)
where (pronoun)
white (adjective)
who (pronoun)
wide (adjective)
wife (noun)asu’ pc
has’ npc
simhot npc
lawa npc
lumurah’ npc
sipakon’ npc
piogah’ npc
diogsoan’/bio’noh npc
tindog’ npc
bito-on’ npc
tiakaw’ npc
bato’ pc
sup-sup’ npc
hubag’ npc
langoy’ pc
ikog’ npc
iyan’ npc
yadto’ npcsila” npc
marakmol’ npc
manipis’ pc
huna-hunaon,
pikilannpc
ini’ npc
ikaw’ npc
to-o npc
ti’luh/liabay npc
daog-daog’ npc
hukut’ npc
dila pc
ipun npc’
amo’ npc
lingi’ npc
dua’ npc
suka’ pc
manaw’ npc
tubig’ pc
kamo’/kato npc
kami’ pc
basah’ npc
ono’ npc
koh’-no npc
hanono/hariin npc
puti’ pc
hisiyo’ npc
maluag’ npc
asawa’ npc

wind (noun)
wing (noun)
woman (noun)

hangin’ npc
pikpik’ npc
babae’ npc

angen/eyep-eyepbabaíHanginPakpakBinibini

wood (noun)work (verb)

kahoy’ npc
hinang’ npc

caoy
buwát/ binuatan

Kahoy
Trabahoyawn (verb)
year (noun)

manghuy’-ab npc
tahon’ npc

dagun

Hikab
Taon

smoke (verb)
snake (animal)
sniff (verb)
spider (insect)
spit (verb)
split (verb)
squeeze (verb)
stab (verb)
stand (verb)
star (heavenly body)steal (verb)
stone (noun)
suck (verb)swell (verb)
swim (verb)
tail (noun)
that (2nd p) (pronoun)
that (3rd p) (pronoun)
they (pronoun)
thick (objects)
thin (objects)
think (verb)

107

palangamôbukaw-bukaw
durâpugainbunôtindegbiton
panakáw
batô
sipsiplangoy/eseb
daya
dato
sanda
madamelmanipisdia/daguedarwa
tatlô/tres
pilakdalegdeg
igot
dila
ipen
matod
biringdarwâ/dos
sukâ
panaw
tobig
kami
mabasa/botod adj.
anono
inoro
sadin
putî
sino
mawayangusok
ahasSinghot
Gagamba
Luwa
Biyakin
Piga
SaksakTayo
BituinMagnakaw
Bato
SopsopPamamaga
Lumangoy
Buntot
Iyan
Iyon
Sila
MakapalManipisIsipin
Ito
Ikaw
Tatlo
Ihagis
Kulog
Tali
Dila
Ngipintotoo/tumpak
Lumingon
DalawaSumukaLumakad
Tubig
Tayo
Tayo
Basa
Ano
Kalian
Saan
Puti
Sino
MalapadMaybahayyellow (adjective)you (pronoun)

bianing’ npc
ikaw pc

dulaw
ikaw

Dilaw
ikaw

Where

Table 2 Probable Cognatesback (noun)
blood (human body)taykod/likod pc
dugu’

likod
dug’o

likod
dugo

blow (verb)
branch (noun)
burn (verb)
child (noun)cloud (noun)day (noun)
drink (verb)
egg (noun)eye (human body)foot/leg (human body)lightning (noun)
moon (heavenly body)new (adjective)
red (adjective)
rope (noun)sea (body water)shoulder (human body)
smoke (verb)

liopad’/huyop’ pc
sanga pc
sunog’
bata’ pc
panganod/gabun pc
adlaw’ pc
ino’m pc
itlog’ pcmata’ pc
siki/bihtiis pc
kilat’ pc
bulan’ pc
ba’go pc
pula’ pc
lubid’ pc
dagat’ pc
abaga’ pc
asu’ pc

huyóp
sanga
sunóg
bata
panganodadlaw
inom/inem
itlog
mata/tao-tao
sikê/batis
kelat/lenti
bulan
bago
pulâ
lubid
dagat/laud
abagâ
asô

ihipan
sanga
paso
bata
ulap
araw
inom
itlog
mata
paa
kidlat
buwan
bago
pula
lubid
dagat
balikat
Usok

108

stone (noun)
swim (verb)
thin (objects)
tongue (human boy)vomit (verb)
water (body water)
we (inc. ) (pronoun)
white (adjective)
woman (noun)you (pronoun)
TOTAL =30

bato’ pc
langoy’ pc
manipis’ pc
dila pc
suka’ pc
tubig’ pc
kami’ pc
puti’ pc
babae’ pc
ikaw pc

bad (adjective)

mangih’ npc

belly (human body)big (adjective)
choose (verb)
cold (noun)
dirty (adjective)
dream (verb)
earth (noun)eat (verb)
far (adjective)
good (adjective)
head (human body)hot (adjective)
house (noun)
I (proper noun)leaf (noun)long (adjectives)
near (adjective)
neck (human body)old (adjective)
one (count term)
plant (plant)

tiyan’ npc
malag’go npc
pinih’ npc
mahagpay’/ mahag’got npc
malum’-mih npc
tagainop’ npc
lupa ‘ npc
kaon’ npc
malayo’ npc
marayaw’ npc
o-‘u npc
mapaso’ npc
bay’ npc
ako’ npc
dahon ‘ pc
mataas’ npc
masuok’/daig npc
liog’ pc
ma’as pc
isa’ npc
tanom’ pc

marimô/beken y
mayad
tian
mabaelpilien/pilimaramig/ramig
maburing
taginep
lugtâ/kalibotan
kaen/kain
maraye cao
mayad n.
olo/barot
mainit
balay
aco
daon
malabegmarapitlieg
malam/gurang
isarâ
tanim

rat (animal)see (verb)
sharp (adjective)
stand (verb)
star (heavenly body)thick (objects)
thunder (noun)
tooth (human body)wide (adjective)
TOTAL= 31

ambaw’ pc
ki’tanpc
maha-it’ npc
tindog’ npc
bito-on’ pc
marakmol’ npc
daog-daog’ npc
ipun pc’maluag’ pc

ambe
kitô
matarem/tarem
tindegbiton
madameldalegdeg
ipen
mawayangTiyan
malaki
Piliinmalamig
marumipanaginip
LupakumainmalayomabutiUlomaanghang
bahay
Ako
dahon
mahabamalapitLeegmatandaIsatanim/halaman
DagatingnanmatalasTayo
bituinmakapalkulog
ngipinmalapadibaba
matambekpugaindaya

sa ibabamataba
Piga
Iyan

batô
langoy/eseb
manipis
dila
sukâ
tobig
kami
putî
babaí
ikaw

Bato
lumangoymanipisDilasumuka
Tubig
Tayo
Puti
binibini
Ikaw

Table 3 Similar in First Syllable
masamaTable 4 Similar in Second Syllable
below (adverb)
fat (adjective)
squeeze (verb)
that (2p) (pronoun)
TOTAL =4

hababa’ npc
tambok’ npc
piogah’ npc
iyan’ pc

109

Table 5 Similar in Final Syllable
all (adjective)
cook (verb)
cry (verb)
fire (noun)fly (verb)
four (count noun)
hand (human body)head/hair (human body)
heavy (adjective)
kill (verb)
name (noun)rain (noun)
sleep (verb)
steal (verb)
that (3rd p) (pronoun)
walk (verb)
wet (noun)
what (pronoun)
wood (noun)
TOTAL = 19

katan npc.
lutoon npc
tumangis, npc
ka’yo npc
lupad’ npc
upat’ pc
lima’ pc
buhok’ pc
bug-at’ pc
piatay’ pc
ngan’ pc
ulan’ pc
to’-og npc
tiakaw’ pc
yadto’ npc
manaw’ npc
basah’npc
ono’ pc
kahoy’ pc

tananloto/paglutôtangiscalayô
lepad
apat
alimâ
bok
mabegat
patay
aran
oran
maturogpanakáw
dato
panaw
mabasa adj.
anono
caoy

lahat
maglutoumiiyak
apoy
lilipad
apat
kamay
buhok
mabigatpatayinpangalanulanmatulogmagnakaw
iyon
lumakad
basa
ano
kahoy

above (adverb)
alive (adjective)at (preposition)
because (conjunction
bird (noun)
bite (verb)
black (adjective)
bone (noun)
breathe (breathe)buy (buy)
climb (verb)
come (verb)
count (verb)
cut/chop (verb)
dig (verb)
dog (animal)dry (verb)
earthworm (insect)fall (verb)
father (noun)fear (verb)
fish (noun)
flow (verb)

hataas’ npc
buhi’ npc
in’ npc
amu man yan npc
manuk-manuk npc
kutkut’ npc
hom’ pc
bukog’ npc
napas, hagok npc
bi’ni npc
dimag’ npc
mari’ npc
mag-itong’ npc
Iyutod npc
kalot’ npc
iruh’ npc
tahay’ npc
labod’ npc
nahulog’ hug npc
amah’ pc
mabugah’ npc
isiah ‘ pc
labi’ npc

kabui
ubong
sa
samorolamgamkagat
mangitittulan
agginawa
agbacal/ bacal
saka
pakon
bilang/numiro
giritmakaliti’oigaulolagolagpaktatay
adlik
canen-canen
ilig

saitaas
buhay
sa
dahil
ibon
kagat
itim
buto
humingabumiliumakyathalikabilangputulinhukayinaso
tuyobulatimadapa
ama
takot
isda
agos

flower (noun)
forest (noun)
fruit (noun)
grass (noun)grow (verb)
he/she (pron)hear (verb)
hide (verb)
hold (verb)
how (adv.)
hunt (verb)

sumping’ npc
kakahuyan’ npc
bunga’ pc
sagbut’ npc
tubo’ pc
siya’ npc
diongog’ npc
tiapok’/tiao’ npc
kapotan’/kapot npc
unohon pc
piangita’ npc

borak
caguebanprotaselamononkolay
lalakipamatipalipidawid
marasanopangayámbulaklak
gubat
prutasdamo
tubo
lalake/babae
dingginitago
hinawakanpaanopangasoTable 6 Non Probable Cognates110husband (noun)
inside (noun)
knowledge (noun)lake (body of water)
laugh (verb)
left (adjective)
louse (insect)man (noun)meat/flesh (noun)
mosquito (insect)mother (noun)
mouth (human body)needle (noun)night (noun)
nose (human body)
open (verb)
other (adjective)
person (noun)
pound/beat (verb)
sand (noun)say (verb)
scratch (verb)
sew (verb)
sit (verb)
skin (human body)sky (heavenly body)small (adjective)
sniff (verb)
spider (noun)
spit (verb)
stab (verb)
suck (verb)
they (pronoun)
this (pronoun)
thou (pronoun)
three (noun)
throw (verb)
tie (verb)
true/correct (adjective)
turn ( verb)
two (noun)
when (pronoun)
where (pronoun)
who (pronoun)
wind (noun)work (verb)
year (noun)
yellow (adjective)bana’ npc
halaum’ /sud npc
kaingatan’ npc
lanaw’ pc
katawa’ pc
lawa’ npc
lisa’npc
isogo’ npc
unod’ npc
hilam’ npc
inah’ pc
simud’ npc
jaum’ pc
dom’ npc
ho’ng pc
ukab’ pc
kaibanan’ npc
ho’ng pc
dok-dok’ npc
buhangin ‘ npc
baytah’/laong pc
kiatol’/kia’mas pc
tahi’ npc
ingcod’ npc
pais’ npc
langit’ pc
anak-anak’ npc
simhot npc
lawa pc
lumurah’ pc
diogsoan’/bio’noh npc
sup-sup’ npcsila” npc
ini’ npc
ikaw’ npc
to-o pc
ti’luh/liabay pc
hukut’ npc
amo’ npc
lingi’ pc
dua’ pc
koh’-no pc
hanono/hariinnpc
hisiyo’ pc
hangin’ npc
hinang’ npc
tahon’ npc
bianing’ npc

asawang lalaki
sa siledkinaelamanleekmagkadlaw
walâkutô/kaymedlalaki
karmi
namok
nanay
babâ/sungad
tingway
gabi
irong
abri
iba
tao
mabáyò
baras
makón
kalot
bidbidmaguráng
kulit
maeneyaen
maitêpalangamôbukaw-bukaw
durâ
bunô
sipsipsanda
dia/dague
darwa
tatlô
pilak
igot
matod
biringdarwâ/dos
inoro
sadin
sino
angen/eyep-eyepbuwát/binuatan
dagun
dulaw

Bana
sa loob
karunungan
Lawa
Tawa
kaliwa
Lisa
Tao
karne
lamok
Ina
Bibig
karayom
Gabi
Ilong
bukas
Iba
Tao
dikdikbuhangin
Sabi
kamot
Tahi
Upo
Balat
himpapPawid
maliitsinghot
gagambaLuwa
saksakSopsop
Sila
Ito
Ikaw
Tatlo
ihagisTalitotoo/tumpak
lumingondalawakailanSaan
Sino
hangintrabaho
Taon
Dilaw

TOTAL =82

Table 7 No Equivalentand (conjunction)breast (human body)chew (verb)
die (verb)
dry up (verb)
dull (adjective)iban’ npc
daghal’ npc
sio’pa/supao’n pcpatay’ pc
piatahay’ npc
pol-pol’ npc

111At
dibdibnguya
Patay
patuyuinmapuroldust (noun)
feather (noun)guts (noun)hit (verb)
if (conjunction)lie down(verb)
liver (human body )narrow (adjective)
no/not (adverb)
right (noun)road (noun)roof (house part)root (noun)
rotten (adjective)
salt (noun)shoot (verb)
short (adjective)
shy/ashamed (adjective)
sick/painful (adjective)
snake (animal)
split (verb)swell (verb)
tail (noun)
think (verb)
we (exc.) (pronoun)
wife (noun)
wing (noun)
yawn (verb)
TOTAL -34

bagon’bon npc
bahibu’ balahibo npc
isog’ npc
tiodjo/kiogdan npc
bang ‘ npc
kumulang’ npc
atay pc
masigpit’ npc
bukun’di’ npc
to-o’ npc
da’-an pc
atup’ pc
amut’ pc
haloh’ npc
asin’ pc
timbako npc
mahawpoh’ npc
sipug/ npc
saki’t npc
has’ npc
sipakon’ npc
hubag’ pc
ikog’ pc
huna-hunaon, pikilan pc
kamo’/kato npc
asawa’ npc
pikpik’ pcmanghuy’-ab npc

alikabokbalahibo
lakas - loob
pagsuntok
kunghumigaatay
makitid
hindi
kanan
daan
bubong
ugat
panis
asin
barilinmaiklimahiyainmaysakitahasbiyakinpamamagabuntotisipintayo
maybahaypakpakhikab

It is noted that most of the words that are similar or the same are parts of the body, parts of
the house, atmospheric elements, color, basic activities, adjectives and pronouns. Based on
inspection method of Gudschinsky (1956), it is possible these words originated from the sameroots and can therefore be called probable true cognates.
On the other hand, there are thirty one (31) pairs of words which have similarity only in thefirst syllable. They are usually adjectives, nouns, verbs pronouns and objects. Words thathave similar sound in the second syllable in Tausug and Cuyunon are four (4) in all. They
consist of adverbs, insects and count terms. Lastly, there are nineteen (19) words of Tausug
and Cuyunon languages which are only similar in the final syllable. They are found in humanbody parts, pronouns and verbs.
5. General discussion
Statistical data reveals probable true cognates are attributed heavily on basic words of simple
life. It can be better describe as lexicons of the old world before Christianity. In narratology
approach of scientific investigation, mention of such words point out to socio-economic
condition of life before conquest or even before Chinese came to Jolo and made it the centerof commerce. Noun refers to body parts, nature and heavenly bodies are all characteristics ofthe old world. In fact all the probable true cognates revolve around simple life style with thenatural world. Possible link or contact between two cultures occurred can be estimated during
the 10th century when the land bridges crossing Palawan to Borneo still existed.
In another investigation, contact between the two tribes could have happened before thespread of Islam or the historical time of Mindanao Islamization following the demise of theProphet Muhammad - led to the expansion of Islam to Europe, Africa, and Southeast Asia.
112

6. Conclusion
Socio-economic, political and religious factors that influenced southern Philippine History
can be concluded as the primary reasons for the non-intelligibility or big dissimilarity of the
Cuyunon language from Tausug language. Contact between tribes could have occurred in the
pre-Christianity times when the barter exchange do not use currency but basic necessities oflife like food and clothing.

References
Bal, Mieke. 1978, 2d ed., 1980. De Theorie van vertellen en verhalen Narratology:
Introduction to the Theory of Narrative, trans. Christine vanCullen, Vincent S. J. July –1980. “Social Change and Religion Among the Bukidnon”. CMU
Journal of Sciences, Education and Humanities. Vol. 1, No. 2.Bergman, Ted. G.
1991. "Rapid Appraisal of Languages." Notes on Scripture in Use and Language
Programs 28(6): 3–11. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
De Belen, Rustico. August 2010. “Revisiting the Philippines Educational System forEveryone’s Reflection IBP Journal, Vol.35 no. 1.
Edgerton, Ronald K. 1982. "Frontier Society on the Bukidnon Plateau, 1870-1941."
In Philippine Social History: Global Trade and Local Transformations, edited by
Alfred W. McCoy and Ed. C. de Jesus.
Honolulu: University Press of
Hawaii.
Elevazo, Aurelio O. and Elevazo, Rosita A. 1995. Philosophy of Philippine Education.
Mandaluyong City; National Bookstore.
Gudchinsky, Sarah. 2009. “The ABC’s of Lexicostatistics Chronology.
Lao, Mardonio M. 1985. Bukidnon in Historical Perspective. 2 Vols. Musuan, Bukidnon:
Central Mindanao University
Lao, Mardonio, M. 1987. “Oral Tradition on Bukidnon Pre-History; Kalikat Hu Mga Etaw
Dini Ta Mindanao. “Kinaadman. Vol. IX. pp. 23-31.
Ryan, Marie-Laure. 1979. “Linguistics Models in Narratology: From structuralism toGenerative Semantics,”
Semiotica 28.
Scott, William H. 1968. Prehispanic Source Materials for the Study of Philippine History,
Manila; University of Santo Tomas Press.

113Forms of Address in French-Korean and Korean-French
Dictionaries from the Perspective of a French Learner of Korean
NAM Kilim1 JUNG Hae-Yun2
Kyungpook National University, South Korea
1
nki@knu.ac.kr, 2haeyun.jung.22@gmail.com
Abstract
This study examines how forms of address are dealt with in French-Korean and Korean-French
dictionaries (respectively, Nouveau dictionnaire coréen-français (say-hanpwul-sacen), Prime
dictionnaire français-coréen (pwul-han-sacen)). As bilingual dictionaries are undeniably a second
language learning tool, their structure, form and content are altogether and equally important in thetransmission of information and the contribution towards shaping the image the user has of the otherlanguage, and culture. Focusing on address terminology, I demonstrate that some words are heavily
loaded with “shared cultural charge” (Galisson, 1988) just as terms of address are, and this kind ofwords should be brought into sharp focus when compiling bilingual dictionaries. In order to do so, I
first give an overview of lexical entries of selected address terms as they are presented in the two
aforementioned dictionaries, and which I have classified into three categories (pronouns, free forms ofaddress and kinship terms). In the following section, I analyse these entries in depth focusing on the
shortcomings they present – particularly from the perspective of a French learner of Korean as aforeign language – which are of three types: lexicographic inconsistencies, inaccuracy or imprecisionof equivalents and lack of sociocultural information. In a the last section, I reconsider the issue in thelight of pragmatics and “lexiculture” (Galisson, 1988) in order to show that forms of address, which
are essential components of the cultural identity of the language they belong to, deserve a precise andthorough treatment in bilingual dictionaries on one hand, and on the other, to contribute to therevalorization of the status of bilingual dictionaries.

Keywords: forms of address, bilingual dictionary, lexiculture, French, Korean

1. Introduction
Language is not a mere tool of communication but also the vehicle of one’s cultural identity
and social status. Thus, it assumes the role of establishing human relationships, whether
horizontal (solidarity, equality) or vertical (power relation, hierarchy) (Brown&Gilman 1960;
Kerbrat-Orecchioni 2010). Particularly, the social deictic forms of address epitomize thisambivalent function of language. In Korean, for instance, honorific titles (conching)2 that also
are a way of addressing people (hoching) constitute a highly complex and hierarchical system
while in France titles used as address terms (Monsieur, Madame) have lost most of theirhonorific status. Besides titles, forms of address also include names, pronouns and kinshipterms. Once again, Korean and French have a very distinctive approach, understanding, andusage of address terms. Bilingual dictionaries, which are the companions of language learners,
should reflect the cultural gap between the two address systems without, nonetheless,fossilizing the differentiations, because words do not have a predetermined and immutable
meaning but instead are unpredictable as being the “one-off realization of a given situation”(Schuwer 1994:1). How to render a correspondence between two different identities is thedifficult task of the bilingual lexicographer and falls within the sphere of pragmatics, that is,
the theories of the language in contexts that include, inter alia, the deictic forms of address.
Raising the issues of bilingual dictionary (mis)use and cultural gaps, this study aims to assess
2

Korean has been transliterated using the Yale Romanization system, except for quotations where thesystem chosen by the author has been respected

114

the pragmatic treatment of terms of address in French↔Korean lexicography in order topropose a systematic lexicographical method of presenting pragmatico-cultural information
for address terms. The first section surveys a number of forms of address from the point ofview of a French learner of Korean and according to their typology as presented in Nouveau
dictionnaire coréen-français (sayhanpwulsacen) and Dong-a’s Prime dictionnaire françaiscoréen (pwulhansacen) 3 . The main focus of the following section is to analyze thedeficiencies and disambiguate the equivalents in French↔Korean lexicography which fails torepresent consistently the cultural concepts behind each of these languages. In order toovercome such deficiencies, it will then be necessary to consider the issue, in the last section,
within the wider context of cultural pragmatics and bilingual lexicography theories.
2. Typological presentation of forms of address in French↔Korean dictionaries
Forms of address can be classified into three types: personal pronouns, free forms of address(such as titles and names), and kinship terms. This section reviews how the corresponding
entries are presented in Nouveau and Prime4.
First of all, it is noteworthy to remind that French uses two different pronouns according tocontext to address someone: tu (you, second person singular subject) to address relatives andfriends regardless of their age or social status, and vous (you, second person plural subject orpolite form of address), the polite way of addressing anyone who is neither a relative nor (yet)a friend. The Korean equivalent of tu given by Prime is the personal pronoun ne and vous5 isrendered by tangsin. The latter case is a problematic translation which will be discussed indetail in the following section. In Nouveau, the entries for these two equivalents given by
Prime present each specific features. First, the headword ne is accompanied by no usage
information. As for tangsin, Nouveau translates it both by tu and vous.
Another way of addressing somebody is the free form of address, which can either be anhonorific title or simply the addressee’s name. Needless to say, the latter can hardly be
represented in dictionaries 6 . The French Monsieur/Madame used to be honorific titles todesignate people of high social status. However, today it is mainly used as to address astranger or an acquaintance in a polite way. It is worth noting that the treatment of Monsieurand Madame in Prime is somewhat asymmetrical. Monsieur is rendered by more genderless,generic Korean honorific items such as –ssi or –nim (when addressing someone in reference
to their occupation), while Madame as term of address translates into either pwuin (wife) or
the archaism manim. Only when occupying a high function are they assigned the suffix -nim.
However, in Nouveau the address forms -ssi, and -nim refer to both males and females andpwuin is only referred to as a third person deixis. Interestingly, the headword –nim gives as afirst example the lemma sengsayngnim, which is translated into its literal sense (teacher,professor) and its pragmatic meaning (Sir, Madam, Miss), which is in fact the most common
way to address someone in Korean. Despite this, neither Monsieur nor Madame is renderedby sengsayngnim.
Besides honorifics that demonstrate the deference of the speaker toward the addressee,
3

Hereafter referred to as Nouveau and Prime respectively.
Any section in the dictionary entries that does not relate to forms of address or is redundant has been
omitted from examples.
5
Vous as the polite form of address. When vous designates the plural form of address, it is rendered bynehuitul. This paper only considers the former case.
6
In Korean, calling someone by full name is not common. It usually is the case in formal school
situation (e.g. when the teacher reads the roll call before the lesson) or when parents scold theirchildren. Amongst very close friends, Koreans can use the first name to which they add either thesuffix –i if it ends with a consonant or –a/ya. Generally speaking, (full) names are used for children or
young adults (Lee & Ramsey 2000:233).
4

115

Korean also makes use of kinship terms as forms of address for friends or not sociallysuperior adults, where French would simply use first names. In Korean, names are being
reserved to address children or close friends of similar age. When addressing real relatives,
both languages use the relevant kinship terms, except for relatives of the same generation(siblings and cousins) in French which makes exclusive use of first names. In Nouveau,
nwuna (elder sister for males) put aside, it appears that both real and fictive kinship are
represented under all headwords describing siblings, namely enni (elder sister for females),hyeng (elder brother for males), and oppa (elder brother for females). These two usages aredealt with in a particular way. Real kinship terms are rendered by a translation followed (ornot) by pragmatic information, whereas fictive kinship terms, having no equivalent in French,
are thus rendered by an explanation. Besides sibling terminology, there is in Korean a very
elaborate system of denominating uncles and aunts depending on whether the speakeraddresses their paternal or maternal, blood-related or in-law, older or younger uncles/aunts.
Some of these terms have also given birth to figurative usage, being used as forms of address.
Just as for the sibling terms, real kinship meanings are unlikely to be used by non-native
Koreans. However, as fictive kinship terms, they are in common usage and this pragmatic
implicature is not suitably represented in Korean-French dictionaries. The manner these arebeing described in Nouveau as well as the issues they give rise to are being more amply
discussed in the following section.
3. Analysis of the shortcomings present in the entries surveyed
Shortcomings in the lexicographic treatment of forms of address as headwords fall into three
categories: (3.1) there is no systematic pattern in describing a headword; (3.2) somesignificant usages of the headword are either too vague or occulted; and finally, (3.3) the
Korean system of address forms being far more complex than the French one, sociocultural
information is necessary within the microstructure’s text.
3.1. Lexicographic inconsistencies
In both dictionaries notes on usage, such as contextual information or register labels, is given
in double brackets:(1)tu1 […] ((chinhan salam·kacok·sonalays salam ttawieykey)) 7
you […] ((to close friend, relatives, inferiors etc.))(2)–ssi5 ((suffixe honorique))
Mr[Mrs, Miss] ((honorific suffix))
However, other types of information, such as grammatical notes or part-of-speech description,
are also presented in double brackets. Moreover, all types of information can be included
within the same double brackets without distinction:(3)
tangsin 1 ((pronom de la 2e personne au singulier → grammatical information,
légèrement honorifique → pragmatic information))
Not only does this method lack clarity, but it might also lead the dictionary user to dismiss themention on usage. By skipping over the pragmatic information légèrement honorifique (semihonorific) the dictionary user may mistakenly use tangsin in situations where deferential
forms of address are required.
Another practical issue is the language in which the usage information is given. This type ofinconsistency raises the question of whom the dictionary is targeted at. Prime provides it inKorean only, clearly indicating that it has been rather designed for Korean natives learning
French rather than French learners of Korean. Nouveau, on the other hand, provides usage
information sometimes both in Korean and French, sometimes either in Korean or French,showing some visible efforts to meet the needs of the majority, that is, both Korean andFrench users (Heo 2000:84-85). However, the following example reveals that there is no7

Examples given in dictionaries have been omitted for more visibility.

116systematic pattern in presenting pragmatic information in such-and-such a language (simple
underlining for Korean pragmatic information and double underlining for French pragmatic
information).
(4)enni 1 camay soeur aînée; grande sœur 2 sonwi ((pour une femme, appellation intime
d’une femme plus âgée que soi))
nwuna soeur aînée ((pour un homme))
oppa 1 frère aîné (d’une femme) 2 ((appellation intime d’un homme plus âgé pour une
femme))
hyeng 1 chincok grand frère, frère aîné2 namcatul saieyse sonwiuy salamul pwulunun mal(pour les hommes); ancien, aînéAll four headwords of example (4) belong to the category of sibling terms. Three types ofinconsistencies can draw our attention here. Firstly, it appears that only the headword nwuna
is not given the fictive kinship deictic meaning, failing to indicate to French users that it canalso be used metaphorically. Secondly, only enni and hyeng are provided information in bothlanguages. Thirdly, the entry for the headword hyeng plainly specifies what group can makeuse of this word in French (pour les hommes, for men) but the most important part of thepragmatic information is given in Korean (namcatul saieyse sonwiuy salamul pwulunun mal,term to address someone older between males), making its metaphoric usage rather unclear
for French users unlike the headwords enni and oppa. One may argue that French learners
may not ever call their own elder brothers hyeng; nevertheless, considering the ongoing
globalization phenomenon and the current trends in global education systems, situations
where French male learners being led to call hyeng befriended elder Korean males are not tobe ruled out. Therefore, the second section of the entry should specify for French users, rather
than for Korean users, that it also is a metaphoric form of address and not merely a third
person deixis.
3.2. Inaccuracy or incompleteness of equivalents
Besides these practical inconsistencies, equivalents themselves may be vague or not thorough:(5)
tangsin 1 ((pronom de la 2e personne au singulier, légèrement honorifique)) toi, vous
·cennyekun nayka sal theynikka swulun tangsini sa. Je paie le dîner, tu paies ta [une] tournée.
·tangsini mwentey namwy iley kansephanun keyo? Qui es-tu pour te mêler des affairesd’autrui? […] 2 ((pronom de la 2e personne au singulier, utilisé entre le couple)) toi, monchéri[ma chérie], mon amour […]you 1 ((2nd person singular pronoun, semi-honorific)) you, you ·Dinner’s on me, so drinks areon you ·Who do you think you are? Mind your own business! 2 ((2nd person singular pronoun,
used between couple)) you, darling, honey
While this entry from Nouveau includes two different types of pragmatic usage of the address
term tangsin as an honorific and as a way of addressing one’s partner, it does not represent
clearly the different connotations these equivalents carry. First of all, the mention ‘légèrement
honorifique’ (semi-honorific) has to be clarified. It is commonly acknowledged that tangsin is
the more polite counterpart of ne (Hwang 1991:123) as well as the most usual translation tosecond person pronouns8, namely tu (second person singular) and vous (second person polite).
But here these equivalents are given without distinction in regard to their usage context.
Nonetheless, practical usage of tangsin should be dealt with caution. If, indeed, one considers
the examples given by the dictionary (here, in italic), the contrast in tone between the first andthe second examples is patently visible. The first example denotes friendliness whereas thesecond clearly connotes aggressiveness. In fact, tangsin is a social deictic form of address that
establishes a descending relation from the speaker to the interlocutor. In other words, thisform is being used by a superior to an adult inferior (Sohn 2001:409). Lee & Ramsey(2000:226) have emphasized that the use of tangsin is liable to make the addressee feel8

One explanation can be that tangsin, being the most generic second pronoun, is usually the one used
“in advertising and book titles when referring to an unspecified you” (Brown 2011:.41)

117

belittled, tangsin being merely a semi-honorific. This explains why, in case of altercation, thespeaker will address the interlocutor by the term tangsin as a “deliberate signal of disrespect”(Brown 2011:41) since honorifics can be used ironically and metaphorically (Levinson
2011:217). Besides, it is worth noting that there are other second person pronouns which do
not feature in Prime under the headwords tu and vous, such as caney, kutay and caki, perhaps
because they are more restricted in usage and/or frequency.
Kinship terms, those for siblings as well as those for ‘uncle’ and ‘aunt’, keep assuming new
metaphorical meanings and show a strong tendency to be used as forms of address for nonrelatives (King 2006:109-110), in particular workers in customer service (Kim-Renaud
2001:36). For example, enni and oppa are used among shoppers and store clerks, regardlessof age ranking9, and either reciprocally or non-reciprocally. In the same vein, the kinshipterms imo (mother’s sister) and samchon (unmarried uncle from father’s side) will becommonly heard in restaurants, bars, and hair salons (Brown 2011:40) when to address theworker. Such phenomena are only a matter of a few decades and even some old school
scholars deplore the improper use of samchon as a form of address while it originally is athird person deixis (King 2006:109). Whether these aspects justify it, the fact is that the
aforementioned pragmatic uses of enni, oppa, imo, and samchon are not represented incurrent French↔Korean lexicography.
3.3. Lack of sociocultural information
We have seen in the previous subsection that recently imo (mother’s sister) tended to be used
to address female workers. Unike enni, imo does carry the generational connotation, that is,
imo is mother’s generation. Beforehand, the address term acwumma, or rather its noncontracted form acwumeni used to be the term used in these situations. The treatment ofacwumeni in Nouveau is not without raising issues.
(6)
acwumeni 1 ((chincok)) tante 2 ((ilpan hoching, une femme d’un certain âge dans larue)) Madame ·ajwumeni, annyenghaseyyo? Bonjour, Madame!
aunt 1 ((relative)) aunt 2 ((general address term, of a middle-aged woman in the street))Madam ·Good morning, Madam!
Whereas originally the term designated and addressed one’s aunt, its metaphorical use
overrode the literal use, a phenomenon which is not represented here. But more interestingly,
Nouveau renders in the example acwumeni by Madame. Madame in French may have lost its
honorific value but it remains the polite way to address female, whether stranger or not close.
However, the Korean usage of acwumeni is not perceived as polite, as it appeared in anexperiment conducted by Yun-Roger (2010:164-165) who investigated how addressees
experienced the Korean terms of address. Thus, the equivalent Madame without warning
about the real sociocultural perception of the term is clearly misleading and can bring thelearner of Korean into thorny situations. In Prime, the headword Madame10 is not given theequivalent acwumma/acwumeni. In fact, there is no mention either of other address forms
such as the suffix -ssi, and the deferential sensayngsim (teacher), which all translate as
Madame in Nouveau. Equivalents and examples painfully lack of sociocultural information asshown below.
(7)–ssi ((suffixe honorifique)) monsieur (messieurs); madame (mesdames);
mademoiselle (mesdemoiselles)
Mr[Mrs, Miss] ((honorific suffix)) Mr (Messrs), Mrs, Misssensayngnim (Monsieur [Madame] le(la)) professeur(e), Monsieur (Madame)teacher teacher/professor, Sir (Madam)
The lack of cultural information make these two forms of address appear interchangeable
where they should be disambiguated. As Brown (2011:40) explains, “although -ssi indexes a
9 Nevertheless these forms would more easily apply if the shopper looks young.
10
In the continuity of what is said just above, I will only focus on Madame and dismiss the case of
Monsieur.

118

certain degree of ‘separation’ – and indeed is never used amongst intimates – it can hardly bedeemed honorific or deferential” (Brown 2011:40). Originally, ‘[Full Name]+ssi’ was used toaddress newly hired or junior employees who had no title yet (Yun-Roger 2010:163). A recent
phenomenon consisting of using the first name only with the suffix –ssi is broadly observed,
especially among women and young people, as a sign of equalizing statuses between speaker
and addressee (Kim-Renaud 2001:36). Thus, it is acknowledged that the title –ssi, whileremaining polite, contains a rather faint load of deference. As for sensayngnim, the entry issignificantly unclear for a French learner. Firstly, the headword should be identified ashonorific reference and address term. Secondly, the comma after professeur(e) may lead thedictionary user to think that the following only refers to teachers and is not a separate
equivalent. A semicolon would have proven a more judicious choice because in French, while
not impossible, students rarely address professors as Professeur11 but instead as Monsieur or
Madame. In Korean instead, sensayngnim has become a generic “title of deference for both
women and men, married or not”, regardless of their actual profession (Kim-Renaud 2001:30)
and it is surprising that this title is absent from both the equivalents of Monsieur (Example 3.a)and Madame (Example 3.b). The extension of sensayngnim’s acceptation to anyone whose
situation is not clearly identified is also a recent phenomenon12. As language evolves rapidly
alongside society, the decision whether to include these sociocultural changes or not raises theissue of the dictionaries’ limits regarding cultural pragmatic information (Celotti 2002/4:459).
The present shortcomings in this matter only reflect the failure to recognize the bilingual
dictionary as a vehicle of cultural identities rather than a sole translation tool.
4. Culture, pragmatics and bilingual lexicography
4.1. The bilingual dictionary as epitomizing two views of the world
There is a strong discrepancy in the understanding of propriety between French and Korean.
The Korean language is stratified into deferential, polite, blunt, familiar, intimate and plainstyles. All these styles represent each a modality of politeness and can be grouped into twogeneric systems (honorification system and non-honorification system)13. The speech stylerigidly relies on the addressee’s status, the speaker’s status and, above all, their relationship.
Brown (2011) contends that this schematic system of politeness that governs the Korean
language and interpersonal interactions is underpinned by the ideology of the ‘face’ as definedby Brown and Levinson. They define the notion of ‘face’ as the wants either to be recognized
or to prevent the potential threat of the others, necessitating thereby ‘politeness strategies’(Hickey & Vazquez Orta 1994). Thus, by choosing the appropriate style depending on theaddressee’s status, the speaker elude the threat of the addressee being neglected in his social
status and him(her)self being threatened in turn (Brown 2001:76). While Korean politeness isgoverned by non-egalitarian patterns proper to a highly hierarchical society, French politeness,on the other hand, in the manner of Western ideology is applied “equally regardless of age,rank, sex, etc.” (op.cit. p.80). This deep-rooted divide can be exemplified by the case of theFrench address title Mademoiselle (Miss). Madame and Mademoiselle only diverge on themarital status criterion, Mademoiselle being an appellation for an unmarried woman (younger
or older). In the common language, this term has been extended to the acceptation ‘young
woman’. In January 2013 the Council of State announced the suppression of Mademoiselle
from administrative documents to equalize the situation between men and woman as
Monsieur does not prejudge a man’s marital status14. In fact, the use of Mademoiselle can be
11

However, kindergarten and primary school teachers are being addressed as Maître (Master) for maleteachers and Maî
tresse (Mistress) for female teachers.
12
To the extent that merely 25 years ago a scholar “complained that everyone in Korea now issônsaengnim” (King 2006:109)
13
Vide Sohn’s (2001:414-415) comparative diagrammes illustrating each system: honorification(diagramme 246) and non-honorification (diagramme 247).
14
Vide the official website of the French public service: <http://www.servicepublic.fr/actualites/002616.html>. It is further specified that Mademoiselle can still be in use privately.

119source of flattery as well as unpleasantness, as Mademoiselle connotes rather youth thanmarital status. That is, calling Mademoiselle a woman who is evidently not so young can be,on the one hand, a strategic flattery if she is married, but on the other, it can emphasize that
she is outside the standard social model and even hurt her feelings if she is not married.
Therefore, the term Madame is preferred to address a woman no matter her status or how
young she may look15, especially in formal situations or unfamiliar relationship. In sum, thisshows the strong tendency in France towards neutrality or equality.
Besides, it is worth noting that such titles usually assume a “phatic function” (KerbratOrecchioni 2010:6), that is to say, they are used to hail or draw the attention of theinterlocutor, establishing thereby an “interpersonal relationship” (ibid.) or, following
Levinson’s words, a “relational social dimension” (2011:206-207) between two participants in
a conversation, after which they are dropped in favour of the use of pronouns16. Following
Brown & Gilman’s (1960) analysis of the European usage of the pronouns Tu-Vous, theFrench societal model has experienced a major shift. In unequal situations, when the speakeris lower than the addressee (for instance, child and parents, or waiter and customer) the
superior receive the pronoun vous and the inferior, tu. In today’s France children reciprocallyaddress both parents as tu and customers reciprocally say vous to service providers: thetendency in social relationships shifted from asymmetric power relation to symmetricsolidarity. On the other hand, Korean reflects rather plainly the verticality of the relationships
between speaker and addressee, especially in parents/children relationships. According to
Yun-Roger (2010:162-163) the Korean language of politeness reflects the attitudes proper tothe Confucian thought that moulded the Korean society for centuries: the importance ofknowing one’s place in the world, the reverential mindset towards education, and theperception of social relations as extensions of familial relationships. Despite Brown andLevinson’s aim to reach the universality of human behaviours with the theory of the ‘face’,one must not neglect indeed the significance of regional identities.
4.2. Bridging the cultural gaps through ‘lexicultural pragmatics’17
The cultural dichotomy between French society and Korean society renders the task ofcompiling French↔Korean dictionaries all the more difficult. According to Svensén (2009),
there should be ideally four bilingual dictionaries for each of the languages dealt with, serving
four distinct purposes (op.cit. 14-18):
Reception (for understanding target language (L2))‘Passive’ translation (for translating L2 to source language (L1))
Production (for producing L2)‘Active’ translation (for translating L1 to L2)
However, this seems to be rather limited due to practical issues. In today’s society, one crucial
factor of making a dictionary is its capacity for being sold; therefore, publishers synthetized
all four functions into a hybrid dictionary where L1-to-L2 information and L2-to-L1
information are blended together even under a same headword, resulting in confusing or
inaccurate descriptions of the headwords that are hard to translate or have no equivalents inthe other language, as it is sometimes the case for terms of address.
Indeed, Galisson (1988:331) explains that, while every word is cultural, some of them are
more than the others; that is to say, they are loaded with what he calls ‘shared cultural charge’(SCC)18. The list of all the words with SCC constitutes the “lexiculture”. As regards terms ofaddress in Korean, we can cite the case of imo seen above (3.2) which literally designates a
15

Unless it is obvious that she is a minor or still in secondary school.
Vous always comes after titles of address such as Monsieur, Madame, Mademoiselle, Maître,Maî
tresse and so on.
17
This concept has been brought to light by Galisson (1988)
18
In French, Charge Culturelle Partagée (CCP).
16120

mother’s sister but can also be used as a fictive kinship appellation to address unrelated
women who work, for instance, as waitresses or female hairdressers. We have seen that thislatter acceptation is not given in Nouveau; however, as a feature of the Korean culture andsociety, its mention would have proven helpful for a French learner not only to understandthis aspect of Korean society but also to improve his(her) production of Korean. Thus,
lexicultural pragmatics plays a crucial role in bilingual lexicography and can either bepresented in a separate note following recent trends (Celotti, 2002/4:458) or constitute a‘contextualized definition’19 (De Surmont 2010:26) in equivalents’ stead as seen with the caseof enni and hyeng in example 4 (respectively, pour une femme, appellation intime d’une
femme plus âgée que soi (intimate way for a female to address another female who is older
than her) and pour les hommes (for men)). While French has an equivalent to their literalmeaning, it does not have one for its lexicultural acceptation 20 , hence the necessity of acontextualized definition.
There are two treatments of lexicultural information. The first regards the language (that is,which user is it designed for?), the second the typographic form in which it is presented. For
enni, the contextualized definition is given in French with a heading in Korean. As for hyeng,
it provides the Korean user with an unnecessary detailed heading namcatul saieyse sonwiuy
salamul pwulunun mal (term to address someone older between males) and provides the
French user with an insufficient definitory context followed by an attempt of equivalence.
However, a Korean user does not need the extended lexicultural information of hyeng: theheading could have been as short as it is under the headword enni: sonwi (someone older).
From a French perspective instead, it would have proven much useful. The parsimonious
contextualized definition pour les hommes (for men), even combined with the translations
ancien, aîné(senior, elder), does not help the French user to fully grasp the practical use ofhyeng as an actual term to address unrelated people. Furthermore, it can be said that there is
no relevant exemplification showing the word in context for any of these headwords. Indeed,definitory contexts only help the user have a conceptual value of the headword; the realizationof it only happens through the act of enunciation (Schwuer 1994:5-6). It would have been
useful to include exemplification to the headwords that would put into context the practicalusage of the metaphorical meanings (e.g. short dialogues), rather than simple equivalents.
From here, we can further go with two observations. Firstly, the equivalents ancien, aîné(senior, elder) given under the headword hyeng are only ‘partial equivalents’ (Wiegand
2002:245). That is to say, they are semantically equivalent but pragmatically incomplete.
Hyeng can be translated as ancien or rather aînéas third person reference but not as term ofaddress. Secondly, the headings camay/chincok and sonwi should also be provided in French
for more clarity for a French user. Schwuer (1994:7) has highlighted the significance of suchheadings, or as she puts it ‘semantic describers’. They constitute indeed another significant
factor in giving a deep insight of a SCC word. Semantic describers, by categorizing thevarious usages of a lemma, help recreate meaning by creating ‘conceptual domains’ in
addition to the ‘semantic basis’ which consists of ‘sets of equivalents’ or contextualized
definitions, and notes on usage, which should not be a mere translation of L1 definitions into
target language because pragmatic uses of words and cultural divide would inevitably been
lost in translation.
5. Concluding remarks: towards a revalorization of the status of bilingual dictionaries

19

Or ‘definitory context’ (ibid.)
In fact, frère can also be used metaphorically to address a group of compatriots or a close friend;
however, the term is usually determined by the possessive mon, mes (my) and sometimes by theaffectionate attribute cher (dear). In addition, this usage of frère mainly has a phatic function (VideSection 3.1) and often takes on an ironical connotation. The only other instance when frère is used as
regular term of address for an unrelated man is to address a member of a religious group, especiallya monk. This is also valid for soeur. Nevertheless, these usages of frère and soeur are very different
from the lexicultural usage of hyeng and enni.
20

121Schwuer (1994:5) fairly pointed out that bilingual dictionaries are given a hard time to theextent that L2 teachers often recommend against using them. Despite the fact that
lexicographic theories and tools continue being developed, L2 speakers, nonetheless, keep
repeating the same translation mistakes. Are bilingual dictionaries inadequate by nature? Arethey too complicated to be used by laymen? Should we then invent the lexicopraxis,
theorizing the methods of using the dictionary? Perhaps we need not go so far. Instead,present shortcomings should be dealt with more precisely. First, the type of information(grammatical, pragmatic etc.) should be clearly defined and its treatment systemized. A
dictionary user, whether inexperienced or not, should be able to see the skeleton of the
microstructural text before even tackling the meaning of its contents. Secondly andspecifically to bilingual dictionaries, they should reflect the cultural realities the two
languages bear, whether from a contrastive or a cross-cultural perspective. Nevertheless, adifficulty lies in the restrictions on the size of the dictionary, thereby, on the volume of
information. Not everything can feature in the dictionary; therefore, it is incumbent on thelexicographer to choose what lexicultural information should be included or not. The
subjectivity of lexicographers also is a delicate question. Through their choices, howeverbased on the most thorough and exhaustive corpus, the language that describes, suggests, or
silences the world, is fashioned from their intuition and point of view. As Galisson (1988:333)
puts it,” dictionaries are not objectively descriptive, as they pretend it, but subjectively
normative, as they do not confess it.”
References
Brown, L. 2011. Korean Honorifics and Politeness in Second Language Learning, John
Benjamins Publishing.
Brown, R. & Gilman, A. 1960. ‘The pronouns of power and solidarity’ in ed. Sebeok, T. A.
Style in Language, 253-276. Cambridge: MIT press. DOI:
researchschool.org/intranets/Brown%20and%20Gilman%201960.pdf
Celotti, N. 2002/4 ‘La culture dans les dictionnaires bilingues: où, comment, laquelle?’
Klincksieck. Ela. Études de linguistique appliquée 128: 455-466. DOI:
http://www.cairn.info/revue-ela-2002-4-page-455.htm
De Surmont, J.-N. 2010. ‘Aux frontières de la pragmatique et de la linguistique. Les variables
de l’information culturelle dans la lexicographie bilingue.’ Babel 56(1): 19-34, John
Benjamins Publishing Company.
Galisson, R. 1988. ‘Cultures et lexicultures. Pour une approche dictionnairique de la culture
partagée.’ Hommage à Bernard Pottier. Annexes des Cahiers de linguistiquehispanique médiévale 7: 325-341. DOI: 10.3406/cehm.1988.2133
Heo, JY. 2000. ‘Un nouveau dictionnaire bilingue coréen-français d’apprentissage.’프랑스어교육제10집, 한국프랑스어문교육학회, 83-101
Hickey, L. and Vàzquez Orta, 1994, ‘Politeness as Deference: A Pragmatic View’,
Pragmalinguistica 2: 267-286. URL:
http://rodin.uca.es/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10498/8733/18228392.pdf?sequence=1
Hwang, S.J.J. 1991. ‘Terms of Address in Korean and American Cultures’. Intercultural
Communication Studies. 1(2): 117-134. URL:
http://www.uri.edu/iaics/content/1991v1n2/08%20Shin%20Ja%20J.%20Hwang.pdf
Kerbrat-Orecchioni, C. 2010. ‘Pour une approche contrastive des formes nominales d'adresse’
Journal of French Studies 20: 3-15. DOI:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0959269509990433
Kim-Renaud, Y.-K. 2001. ‘Change in Korean Honorifics Reflecting Social Change’ inLanguage Change in East Asia, ed. T. E. McAuley, 27-46. Surrey: Psychology Press
King, R. 2006. ‘Korean Kinship Terminology’ in Korean Language in Culture and Society,ed. H.-M. Sohn, 101-117. University of Hawaii Press
Lee, I. and S. Ramsey, R. 2000. The Korean Language, 224-238: Chapter 7: Honorifics andSpeech Styles. 7.1-7.2 Pronouns and titles. SUNY Press

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Levinson, S. C. 2011. ‘Pragmatics and social deixis: reclaiming the notion of conventional
implicature’. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society
5:206-223. URL: <http://elanguage.net/journals/bls/article/view/2169/2135>
Meillassoux, C. 2000. ‘Parler parenté’. L’Homme 153:153-164. URL:
http://lhomme.revues.org/9
Schuwer, M. 1994. ‘Fonction des équivalences dans un dictionnaire bilingue’ Asp online 3: 19. URL: http://asp.revues.org/4239; DOI: 10.4000/asp.4239
Sohn, H.-M. 2001. The Korean Language, 407-418: Chapter 9: Grammatical structure, 9.14:
Honorifics and politeness strategies. Cambridge University Press.
Svensén, B. 2009. A Handbook of Lexicography. The Theory and Practice of DictionaryMaking. Cambridge University Press.
Wiegand, H. E. 2002. ‘Equivalence in Bilingual Lexicography: Criticism and Suggestions’Lexikos 12:239-255. Translation of a German paper delivered at the international
symposium Deutsche und Bulgaren im Gespräch in Sofia, April 2001. DOI:
<http://dx.doi.org/10.5788/12-0-772>
Yun-Roger, S. 2010. ‘Langue et implicites culturels: Les termes d’adresse en coréen’ in
Implicites, stéréotypes, imaginaires: La composante culturelle en langue étrangère,eds. Alao, G. et alii, 159-170. Paris : Archives contemporaines.
Dictionaries
Nouveau dictionnaire coréen-français (say-hanpwul-sacen). SociétéCoréenne de Langue etLittérature française (한국불어불문학회), 한국외국어대학교출판부(electronic dictionary)Dong-A’s Prime dictionnaire français-coréen (pwul-han-sacen). 2003. Doosan Dong-A
Corporation. (electronic dictionary)Portail lexical, Centre National de Ressources Textuelles et Lexicales http://www.cnrtl.fr/
phyocun-kwuke-taysacon (The Unabridged Dictionary of Standard Korean)
http://stdweb2.korean.go.kr/main.jsp

123

The Development of the Dictionary of the Usage Frequency of Basic
Korean Vocabulary and Its Application to Korean Lexicology
Seo, Sang-Kyu1, Kim, Jinung2
ILIS,Yonsei University, South Korea
1inaka@yonsei.ac.kr, 2borgesk@utexas.edu
Abstract
The purpose of this presentation is to show the methodologies of a quantitative analysis of dataapplicable to corpus linguistics, lexicography, and Korean language and information by elucidating theprocess of developing the Dictionary of Usage Frequency of Basic Korean Vocabulary (2014). We
carried out the process of extracting information from the corpora and reshaped them into a body ofknowledge applicable to linguistic education and research. The number of word forms defined in the
Dictionary is 7,203(including 58 affixes), which covers 14.9% of 48,281 contents words from thecorpus of standard Korean words. Interestingly, the number of word tokens of only 7,203 words is803,820 which cover 76.4% of the corpus of standard Korean words. In other words, 76.4 % of the
corpus of standard Korean words is annotated with word sense.
Keywords: dictionary, corpus, Korean, vocabulary, frequency

1. Introduction
The purpose of this presentation is to show the methodologies of a quantitative analysis of dataapplicable to corpus linguistics, lexicography, and Korean language and information by elucidating theprocess of developing the Dictionary of Usage Frequency of Basic Korean Vocabulary(2014). We
carried out the process of extracting information from the corpora and reshaped them into a body ofknowledge applicable to linguistic education and research. The number of word forms defined in the
Dictionary is 7,203(including 58 affixes), which covers 14.9% of 48,281 contents words from thecorpus of standard Korean words. Interestingly, the number of word tokens of only 7,203 words is803,820 which cover 76.4% of the corpus of standard Korean words. In other words, 76.4 % of the
corpus of standard Korean words is annotated with word sense. In particular, this presentation deals
with the following topics.
1) A detailed introduction of the background, structure, and characteristics of the Dictionary of Usage
Frequency of Basic Korean Vocabulary, which has been compiled from 1998 to 2014
2) Methodologies in selecting basic vocabulary and research on usage frequency
3) Challenges faced while compiling the dictionary and their solutions4) Questions that arose from the compilation of the Dictionary

2. What is the need for a dictionary of the usage frequency of basic Korean vocabulary?
There are several words which have a singular meaning, but in most cases words are used withmultiple meanings. Such polysemic characteristics are more prominent in words which are frequently
21
used in everyday life (or, with very high usage frequencies) . The meanings of a word can be defined21

To examine the aspects of the homograph entries and senses of words, 300 words with the highest
frequencies in the Vocabulary Frequency of Modern Korean Language (1, 2) (Seo, 1998a) as
investigated from the Yonsei corpus (approximately 40,000,000 mati) were studied to determine how
many homograph entries and senses were defined in the Yonsei Korean Dictionary (1998). The results
showed that one word had an average of approximately 1.7 homograph entries of the same part ofspeech (approximately 3.5 when including different parts of speech), and an average of 7.2 senses.
Moreover, when the entries in the Dictionary of Usage Frequency of Basic Korean Vocabulary (2014)124

in a dictionary, and through this we can understand the various meanings of a word. However, it isdifficult to know which meaning is more important or more common. In such situations, we can only
rely on experiential judgment or instinct. Generally, when defining a dictionary meaning, the central(or etymological) meaning is placed first, after which the scope of the meaning is widened toperipheral (expanded) meanings. Below is an example from the Korean Standard Dictionary.
(1) Sichimi① quadrilateral horn tied inside the tail feathers of a falcon with written address to declare the ownerof the falcon ≒ danjangpan② the attitude which pretends not to have done something when they did, or feigning ignorance(Korean Standard Dictionary, 1999)
In modern Korean language, meaning ② is not only more common, meaning ① is only used in a very
specific context. However, the etymological meaning ① appears first in the dictionary due to general
dictionary recording method. The dictionary description does not match the reality of the language. In
fact, in the ‘corpus of standard Korean words’ (million words), the word sichimi is used 14 times in 11
texts, in each case used with meaning ② i.e., feigning ignorance.
When students are learning the meaning of words during Korean language education, it is very helpful
to decide on basic educational vocabulary. When establishing stages of vocabulary education for the
purpose of language education, the usage frequency of a word is considered as a very importantelement. Words included in basic vocabulary are naturally words with very high usage frequencies.
Additionally, words with such high usage frequencies are inevitably polysemic words with a relatively
wide scope of meaning. However, it is questionable whether all meanings of a word in a basic
vocabulary are seen as basic. For example, the noun dui is included in the Korean learner’s vocabulary
list compiled by the National Academy of the Korean Language, but ten different meaning categories
are defined for the word in the Yonsei Korean Dictionary (1998). It is impossible for Korean learners
to understand and memorize the entire list of meanings for the word dui. We need to consider whichmeaning is more important, or should be learned first, from the polysemic meanings of words in thebasic educational vocabulary. By investigating frequencies in a large-scale corpus, the Dictionary of
the Usage Frequency of Basic Korean Vocabulary can suggest ‘words which are used at highfrequencies and which appear in diverse language resources’, and present quantitative information on
the senses of the words to indicate the degree of importance objectively within the senses of the words.

3. Methodology used to compile the dictionary of the usage frequency of basic Korean
vocabulary
3.1. Procedures in compiling the dictionary of usage frequency
In a dictionary of usage frequencies, the previous research accomplishments of basic Korean
vocabulary studies should be reflected, and entries should be described according to the analysis ofusage frequency of meanings and usages based on corpus. Ample and easy examples should also be
provided. To develop the Dictionary of the Usage Frequency of Basic Korean Vocabulary based on the22
results of analyzing the corpus, the following procedures are necessary as a minimum .
(2) Elements and procedures needed for developing a dictionary of usage frequencies
a. Select the basic Korean vocabularyb. Establish a balanced corpus
c. Annotate the morphological information of the corpus
d. Annotate the semantic information of the corpus
e. Extract the usage frequencies
f. Design and apply a model for the dictionary of usage frequencies
Each procedure of (2) is performed in order; (a) seeks to define the range and list of the investigative
subjects, while (b) is done to test the validity of the basic vocabulary list selected in the previous stage
were analyzed, 7,203 homograph entries were included in the total of 5,162 entries, resulting in an
average of 1.4 homograph entries.
22
This procedure and methodology were established by Seo Sang-Kyu, Nam Yoon-jin, and Jeon Ki-ho(1998).

125

and to compile resources to investigate the usage distribution according to the meanings for each of thewords. (c) and (d) provide the shape of the actual investigation process, where the corpus constructedin (b) was reorganized with the added word analyses results of morphological and semantic
annotations . Here, it is effective to use an existing dictionary for the criteria for annotating senses;
hence, we selected the Yonsei Korean Dictionary (1998), which was the first Korean dictionary to be
based on example analyses of actual corpus.
When the procedures of (a) to (d) are complete, this becomes the basis for the quantitative processingof (e). The result is a usage frequency information database for basic vocabulary. Here, (f) signifies the
manufacturing of the final results and the determination of the content and scope of the vocabulary
information to be extracted from the entire process of the usage frequency dictionary. Chapter 3
examines the procedures of (a) to (d), while (e) and (f) will be examined in Chapter 4, where thestructure and characteristics of the final product will be discussed.

3.1.1. Selecting basic Korean vocabulary
For the compilation of this dictionary, a large-scale corpus, various Korean language textbooks, basic
vocabulary lists, and dictionaries were analyzed to obtain three types of basic vocabulary lists selected
through objective criteria in three aspects. First, these words were elaborately distinguished from
common language resources (corpus), Korean language textbooks, basic vocabulary lists from experts,
or key vocabulary in learner’s dictionaries. Second, these words were used widely in many language
resources from the most elaborately analyzed semantic annotation corpus. Third, these words appeared
to be used frequently in new corpuses with completely different compositions, indicating that they arestably used words which are not influenced by the method of collection and/or the structure of thelanguage resource.
The key vocabulary suggested in the Korean Learner’s Dictionary for Foreigners (Seo et al., 2004,
2006) did not distinguish between homograph entries, but this dictionary attained objectivity invocabulary selection by accurately identifying the usage frequencies of word senses through a more indepth analysis. Moreover, it resolved the largest obstacle for in the Korean Learner’s Dictionary for
Foreigners. Previously it was virtually impossible to distinguish between homograph entries infrequency studies of large-scale corpuses. When at the stage of selecting one from numerous
homograph entries to include in a basic vocabulary, the only option was for the researcher to choose
instinctively.

3.1.2. Structure of a balanced corpus
23

The corpus of standard Korean words consists of one million mati , and the sample size for each text
was limited to 5,000 mati in principle. However, in cases where the resource is a transcribed recordingof spoken words or a short text, the entire body of the text was included. The smallest sample in this
corpus is 506 mati, and the largest sample is 18,437 mati. The finalized version of the corpus ofstandard Korean words consisted of total 218 texts, with 86.3% of this in the written language and13.7% in the spoken language form. The actual structure of the corpus of standard Korean words is24
shown in Table 1 .

Table 1 Structure of corpus of standard Korean words
Medium Genre

Type

Numberof text

23

Number of
Number of Mati
Proportionmati
according to genre

As already identified in Seo (1998b:226), ‘mati’ (number) is a “unit reflecting the amount of corpus
material, using [the] word spacing as [a] separator, and [which] is used as a similar concept to thecommon ‘eojeol’“. However, it is rare to find examples where the regulations of word spacings arethoroughly applied in actual resources, and it is difficult to combine these instances into a consistentprinciple. Therefore, ‘mati’ in this instance indicates a word unit separated by spacings in actual
language resources.”
24
This corpus was designed and structured with one million mati initially, but during the actual
annotation process, certain inappropriate material (such as texts with a high percentage of archaicsayings or Chinese poems) were removed or replaced. Ultimately, the final product was confirmed tohave approximately 990,000 mati. Refer to Seo Sang-gyu, Choi Ho-cheol, Kang Hyun-hwa (1999), Seo
Sang-gyu, Kang Hyun-hwa, Yoo Hyun-gyung (2000), and Seo Sang-gyu (2006).

126

(proportion)
Nonacademic
writing
Creative
writing
Practical
writing
Privatewriting

Writtenlanguage
86.3%
Elementary
schooltextbooks

Koreanlanguagetextbooks

Humanities
7
social sciences
7
Art
9
Technology
2
fairy tales
5
Novels28
Essays12
current
7
issues/information

36,73037,03048,721
10,502
23,114
141,843
59,555

3.7%
3.7%
4.9%
1.1%
2.3%
14.4%
6.0%

35,325

3.6%

35,325(3.6%)

memoirs/biography 15

76,024

7.7%

76,024(7.7%)

speaking/listening 8
speaking/listening
4/writing
Reading
12

22,9492.3%

26,137

2.6%

74,680

7.6%

guide of life

10

38,503

3.9%

Smart life

4

6,461

0.7%

happy life

4

3,490

0.4%

Morals6

34,062

3.4%

Right life

4

4,720

0.5%

SocietySocialinquiry8

43,121

4.4%

632,966

3.3%

Korean as foreign30
language

96,5069.8%

11,991
19,2201.2%
1.9%

10,109

1.0%

5,210

0.5%

4,163

0.4%

1

4,902

0.5%

1

3,578

0.4%

1

11,655

1.2%

418,462

1.9%

427,128

2.7%

Screenplay scripts 3

19,3882.0%

988,245100%

studies

Daily conversation 8
topic conversation 5
Counseling1interviews
Lectures/talks
1

Spokenlanguage
13.7%

Transcribed Broadcasting news 1
speechBroadcasting

Semispoken
language합계conversation
Broadcastingcounseling
Broadcasting
discussion
Drama scripts
Play scripts

218

132,983(13.5%)

224,512(22.7%)

287,089(29.1%)

96,506(9.8%)

70,828(7.2%)

64,978(6.6%)
988,245(100%)

3.1.3. Annotating the morphological information of the corpus
The groundwork for annotating semantic information is achieved by dividing each ‘eojeol’ of
the text based on the word subject for semantic annotation and then attaching a basic part-of127

speech label for the divided unit. The process of annotating morphological information is
given below.
(3) Process of annotating morphological information
a. Attach a part-of-speech label through an automatic morpheme analyzer programHAM_KTS is used to attach the eojeol analysis (morphological information) automatically toall one million mati in the corpus of standard Korean words25
b. Revised part-of-speech label by hand using the semiautomatic annotation program‘Kkoridalgae’
3.1.4. Annotating the semantic information of the corpus
Upon the completion of the morphological information annotation of the corpus in theprevious stage, the annotation of semantic information for the subject words in the corpus iscarried out. The practical method is to select a foundation dictionary and to distinguishbetween different meanings based on how the word is defined in the dictionary. The
dictionary to be used should satisfy a few conditions. First, the categorization of meaning
should be precise and credible. Second, all of the words subjected to annotation should be
included in the dictionary, and all usages which can appear in the corpus should be defined.
Third, it must be a dictionary constructed on the basis of an analysis of actual language
resources. Fourth, it is also very important that there is an electronic version of the dictionary
given that such a dictionary is essential in annotating the actual corpus. Considering the above,
the Yonsei Korean Dictionary (1998) was selected as the foundation for semantic annotation,
and an electronic dictionary was obtained to be used in the program for semantic annotation.
The Yonsei Korean Dictionary (1998) was the only dictionary which satisfied nearly all therequired conditions for a foundation dictionary for semantic annotation; the entire dictionary
was digitalized in September of 2000 and free internet search services were being provided at
the time of annotation (http://kordic.britannica.co.kr). At the same time, for an efficient andaccurate semantic annotation process, we developed and used a semi-automatic program
which searches the dictionary and attaches tags.
The subjects for semantic annotation in principle were actual vocabulary items centering on
basic vocabulary, with some suffixes included. In total, 7,203 words (including 58 affixes)
were published in the Dictionary of the Usage Frequency of Basic Korean Vocabulary, andalthough this is only 14.9% of all words in the corpus of standard Korean words, when theusage examples are added, it becomes 803,820, which is as much as 76.4% of the entire
corpus. In other words, 76.4% of the entire corpus was separated by meaning and wasannotated.
3.2. Problems in the process of compiling the usage frequency dictionary and solutions
3.2.1. Determining the credibility of the basic vocabulary
In section 3.1.1, the importance of obtaining a basic vocabulary list for the compilation of this
dictionary was pointed out. Regarding the selection of basic vocabulary for Korean language
education, there should be rational answers to questions as to which resources andinformation are used for the selection, what the basis is for determining the importance of
certain words above other words, and whether a list of 1,000 or 5,000 words can be compiled
systematically with only the knowledge in our heads.
To establish a ‘basic Korean vocabulary’ for the Dictionary of the Usage Frequency of Basic
Korean Vocabulary, we initially obtained three sub-lists with independent characteristics.
Corpus material (A), a Korean language textbook (B), and a basic vocabulary list of experts
or key vocabulary in learner’s dictionaries (C) have different characteristics because they use
different objective selection methodologies. The basic vocabulary list from the three sub-lists
25‘KTS’ was developed by the Natural Language Processing team at the Korean Advanced Institute for
Science and Technology (KAIST), and ‘HAM’ was developed by Professor Kang Seung-sik at
Kookmin University.

128

(approximately 2,000 words) is combined (in other words, A∪B∪C) to formulate the ‘total
basic vocabulary’. On the other hand, the words which are included on all three sub-lists (inother words, A∩B∩C) are referred to as ‘critically important vocabulary’ in this paper. This
list is based on the three sub-lists but is further distinguished by introducing quantitative
information and utilization concepts related to each item.
Discordance between the analysis of the dictionary and the corpus analysis
The Dictionary of the Usage Frequency of Basic Korean Vocabulary selected the Yonsei
Korean Dictionary (1998) as the foundation dictionary for semantic annotation. Through thesemi-automatic semantic annotation program ‘Cham-tteut’, the semantic annotator performed
the process of attaching semantic annotations to the corpus, which had been morphologicallyannotated. During this process, there were numerous examples where despite confirmation in
the corpus, the meaning of an item was not defined in the dictionary. In this case, thedictionary database was revised and supplemented. In Figure 1, the dictionary information of
the verb geurida is shown, and when a word sense is clicked, a small window opens at the top
to show the usage examples recorded in the dictionary. The word sense, indicated as ‘x’ on
the bottom, shows that it was added during the semantic annotation stage. Therefore, it did
not stop after extracting the usage frequency of the relevant word through semantic annotation
but revised and supplemented the dictionary content by applying the results of the actual
usage analysis.

Figure 1 Dictionary screen of the semantic annotation program ‘Chamtteut 2.1’ (geurida)

4. Structure and characteristics of the dictionary of the usage frequency of basic Korean
vocabulary
There are certain conditions necessary for the usage frequency dictionary to be realistically
helpful in the teaching and learning of Korean, or to assist learners in their efforts tounderstand the characteristic meanings of Korean vocabulary items. First, it is desirable forthe actual usage of the basic vocabulary to be expressed through a statistical analysis of all of
the examples in a large-scale standard corpus. Second, the basic vocabulary item and its
importance along with its weight considering various homonyms should be easily identified.
Third, the quantitative information of the meaning senses of each word should be shown so as
to be utilized in Korean language education. To do this, it is desirable to heighten the level ofuser convenience by considering the dictionary structure, structural elements, and method of
expressing the frequency. The following paragraphs will examine how the above conditions
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are reflected in the structure of the Dictionary of the Usage Frequency of Basic Korean
Vocabulary (2014).

4.1. Entries
From the corpus of standard Korean words, the words which appear in ten or more texts andwith a frequency of 15 times or more (5,162 words) were entered into this dictionary alongwith their homographic entries, reaching a total of 7,203 words.

Figure 2 Part of the Dictionary of the Usage Frequency of Basic Korean Vocabulary
From these, entries with three black or white stars next to the part-of-speech label are ‘basic
Korean vocabulary’. These consist of only actual vocabulary (including some affixes) items,
numbering 2,962. ‘Text’ indicates how many texts in which the relevant entry appears (used)out of all 218 text samples comprising the subject corpus, and when appearing in all texts, themaximum number is 218. ‘Freq1’ is the appearance (use) frequency (in other words, theabsolute frequency) of the relevant entry shown in the subject corpus. The percentage inside
the parentheses shows the ratio of the frequency from the total sum of frequency of the entry(in other words, the relative the frequency). Therefore, in Figure 2, “Freq1=81(62.8%)” for‘gamda1’ means that this entry was used 81 times in the entire corpus, covering 62.8% of thetotal use of the entry ‘gamda’. ‘Freq2’ is the frequency of the relevant meaning (word sense),
and the percentage inside the parentheses shows the ratio of the relevant entry for the totalfrequency (Freq1). This ratio shows which meaning is used more often from the multiple
meanings of a single entry.
4.2. Usage frequency and importanceThe basic Korean vocabulary indicated by a combination of black stars (★) and white stars (☆) is based on the ‘key vocabulary list of the Korean learner’s dictionary’ published by Seo(2003a). This vocabulary list was used in the Korean Learner’s Dictionary for Foreigners
130

(2004, 2006) as 2,975 key vocabulary words (basic Korean vocabulary). By applying asemantic annotation analysis of the corpus with the meaning and usage frequency research
results carried out while compiling the usage frequency dictionary, the final 2,962 words wereselected as basic Korean vocabulary items. An indication of the importance of the basic
vocabulary (three black stars) and the number of words can be seen in the following table.

Table 2 Importance and Distribution of Basic Korean Vocabulary
Degreeof NumberofProportion
importancewords
Occurrence in
1,128
38.0%
★★★
①
3 lists
Occurrence in
2 lists

Occurrence in
1 list

★★☆

②

377

12.7%

★☆★

③

242

8.2%

☆★★

④

184

6.2%

★☆☆

⑤

287

9.7%

☆★☆

⑥

312

10.5%

☆☆★

⑦

436

14.7%

2,966

100%

Total

Words with a black star in the first place26 commonly appear at a high frequency in various
large-scale corpora and are words which are included on the high-frequency key vocabulary
list (around 2,000 words). In others words, these words are widely used in modern Korean
language. Words with a black star in the second place27 commonly appear as key vocabulary
items in approximately 30 types of Korean language textbooks, including textbooks frommajor Korean language education institutes, showing that they are included in the Korean
language education key vocabulary (around 2,000 words). Words with a black star in the third
place28 show that these words appeared in 14 different basic vocabulary lists published by
Korean language education experts and in major learners’ dictionaries (around 2,000 words).
The purpose of this list is to find words that are commonly recognized as important based on
various lists compiled through the ‘subjective decisions’ of experts or dictionary publishers.
Therefore, the 1,128 words with black stars in all three places in Table 2 are used widely at ahigh frequency in everyday life, are dealt with importantly in Korean language textbooks, andare recommended by experts and learners’ dictionary publishers.
5. Conclusion
We examined the process of developing the Dictionary of the Usage Frequency of Basic
Korean Vocabulary, which had been implemented since 1998, and the characteristics of thedictionary structure. We also examined the necessary elements to be considered in the
annotation and manufacturing of corpuses, which will become more active in the future. Thisdictionary does not stop at simply suggesting a single detailed method to utilize corpuses but
also shows that we should deeply understand the characteristics of actual language use anddistributional information which had relatively ignored thus far, while also taking interest in
26

Words of importance labelled with ①②③⑤ refer to this type.
Words of importance labelled with ①②④⑥ refer to this type.
28
Words of importance labelled with ①③④⑦ refer to this type.
27

131

quantitative and qualitative analyses of this information. Presently, based on the results ofanalyzing the reality of the meanings and usages of basic vocabulary items, it is possible toseek research methodologies which can deepen vocabulary and grammar research. Finally, wesuggest several new questions which arose while developing this dictionary.
1) For words which are used as two or more parts-of-speech, are the actual usages in meaning
always the same, or does the central use differ according to the part-of-speech? 2) For
synonym or antonym pairs, do the frequencies of use mechanically correspond to each otherin actual usage frequency? 3) For abbreviations and original words, can the usage frequency
be mechanically predicted? 4) For words in a derivative relationship, is the aspect of usage
frequency equally maintained, or can it differ?
References
Cho, Nam-Ho. 2002. A survey on modern Korean language frequency. The National Instituteof the Korean Language.
Cho, Nam-Ho. 2003. Korean education words selection report. The National Institute of the
Korean Language.
Kang, Beom-Mo & Heung-Kyu Kim. 2004. Frequency analysis of Korean morpheme andword usage(2). Seoul: Research Institute of Korean Studies of Korea University.
Kim, Han-Saem. 2003. The research of vocabulary of Korean modern novels. The National
Institute of the Korean Language.
Kim, Han-Saem. 2004. A survey on modern Korean language frequency(2). The National
Institute of the Korean Language.
Kim, Han-Saem. 2012. Achievement of Quantitative Research for Korean Vocabulary. The
review of Korean cultural studies 41: 39-74.
Kim, Heung-Kyu &.Beom-Mo Kang. 2004. Frequency analysis of Korean morpheme andword usage(1). Seoul: Research Institute of Korean Studies of Korea University.
Ministry of education. 1956. A survey of word frequency of Korean. Ministry of education.
The National Institute of the Korean Language. 1999. Standard dictionary of Korean. Doosan,
Donga; Okumura, Manabu & Kiyoaki Shirai. 2009. Japanese semantic analysis usingbalanced corpus of contemporary written Japanese. The Japanese Society for Artificial
Intelligence 24(5): 673- 680.
Seo, Sang-Kyu. 1998a. Word frequency of modern Korean. Institute of Language andInformation Studies, Yonsei University.
Seo, Sang-Kyu. 1998b. Research and application of words frequency in based on corpus
analysis: focus on Yonsei corpus. Hangeul 242:225-270.
Seo, Sang-Kyu, Jinung Kim,& Han-Saem Kim. 2001. Yonsei sense frequency dictionary
based on sense-tagged corpus. Studies in Lexicography 11(2): 19-38.
Seo, Sang-Kyu. 2002. Basic Korean vocabulary and the analysis of corpus. Current Trends
and Prospects of Korean Language Education as a Foreign Language in the 21st Century, edYoungsoon Park, 473-505. Hankookmunhwasa.
Seo, Sang-Kyu. 2003. A survey of the number of vocabulary in Korean language textbooks.
Quantitative Linguistics2:73-100. Pagijong Press.
Seo, Sang-Kyu(et al.). 2006. Learner`s Dictionary of Korean. Sinwon PrimeSeo, Sang-Kyu. 2008. Frequency Analysis of Hangeul and Choe Hyeon-bae. Hangeul 281:
35-72.
Seo, Sang-Kyu. 2009. A preliminary study on selecting basic vocabulary for Korean
language education. The National Institute of the Korean Language.
Seo, Sang-Kyu. 2013. A Study of Basic Korean Vocabulary. Seoul: Hankook Publishing
Company.
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Seoul: Hankook Publishing Company.
Seo, Sang-Kyu, Yoon-Jin Nam,& Ki-Ho Jin. 1998. The study of the basic vocabularies for
Korean language education 1. Seoul: Ministry of Cultural and Tourism.
West, Michael. 1967. A General Service List of English Words. Longmans.
132

Problems and Countermeasures in Chinese Lexicography
Modernization
KANG Shiyong1, DUAN Haifeng2
Ludong University, China
1
kangsy64@163.com, 2haifeng-duan@126.com
Abstract
Chinese lexicographical modernization has the following problems. 1) Lacking lexicography
modernization theory. 2) It is difficult to form scale and achieve sharing because corpus development
sacks a unified standard. 3) Low level of corpus processing and limited tagged language information
cannot meet the demands of lexicography automation. 4) Few kinds of electronic dictionaries, small
amount of information, lack of innovation and competitiveness. Accordingly, these dictionaries haveno enough competitiveness. The causes for these problems might contain: 1) A lack of foresightconsciousness, 2) inadequate project approval of scientific research, 3) lack of reason on scientificresearch direction, 4) imbalance on the main part of scientific research, and 5) low-level repetitive
construction. Several promising strategies are as follows: 1) establishing a high level platform fornational lexicography modernization with the improvement of top-class design and long-term
investment; 2) establishing original theories suitable for Chinese lexicography by learning fromadvanced experience of foreign countries, 3) establishing effective mode of dictionary industry andcreating boutique products in this era by adapting to the market demands and strengthening cooperation
between universities and enterprises; 4) building environment for cultivating lexicography talents bychanging the assessment mechanism; 5) holding frontier conference to highlight the issue oflexicography; 6) establishing lexicography major to offer related courses in the field of lexicography
and cultivate advanced talents; 7) establishing national professional society and promoting thedevelopment of lexicography industry pragmatically and effectively.
Keywords: lexicography modernization, theories on lexicography, corpus, computer-aided
lexicographical system, electronic dictionary

Lexicography modernization includes the modernization of lexicography theory, means(corpus, databases, computer-aided compiling system) and carrier (electronic dictionary).
From the current status, with the beneficial exploration of Lexicography modernization, we
have made some theoretical and practical achievements, including putting forward theconcepts of "the Dream of Dictionary Power" and industrialization of dictionaries (Liu
Hairun, Kang Shiyong, 2013), developing a batch of corpus (for example, the State Language
Commission Corpus) and computer-aided compiling systems (Kang Shiyong et al., 2012), as
well as some electronic dictionaries (for example, "Modern Chinese Grammar information
Dictionary" of Peking University). But as a whole, compared with western developed
countries, there is a big gap and some certain problems that are needed to be carefully solved.
1. Existing Problems
1.1. Lagging lexicography modernization theory
We are short of original and advanced lexicography theories. Taking Computational
Lexicography Theory as an example, it is basically in the stage that only introduces
lexicography modernization theory of modern western developed countries, which is not welldigested, absorbed and used by ourselves, and even no innovation in the Theory. To introduce
and create something new, western countries constantly absorb new theories from linguistic
theory, language learning theory, cognitive science and other aspects, forming original
lexicography modernization theory, which is used to guide the lexicography practice. For
example, American WordNet, which has broad effects in the word, is set to use synset torepresent lexical concept and describe lexical matrix, that is to say, establish a mapping133

relation between the form and the meaning of a word. This design idea comes from "humanvocabulary memory" theory of psychological linguistics, which attempts to abstract language
regularity from all kinds of natural discourse to imitate the human brain to build the methodof vocabulary memory (Zhang Yihua, 2004). However, FramNet is built on the basis of Case
Grammar and Frame Semantics. Frame Semantics is a way of describing lexical meaning andgrammatical structure. This theory is derived from such a hypothesis: in order to understandthe meaning of a certain word in any language, we must understand its conceptual structureand semantic frame first, because these two provide the context that lexical meaning in thelanguage and the methods used in discourse. Frame Semantics assumes that linguistic unit canselect and highlight certain aspects or instances of semantic frame in a certain way through its
locating language structure, therefore, lexical meanings and functions can be explained bydescribing the characteristics of lexical underlying semantic frame and these approaches;
however, the frame is an intuitive idea that can formalize the relationship between semantic
features and syntactic structure in the results of lexical analysis. Semantic frame expresses thecontext including a variety of predicates, supporting words and other conceptual roles in theform of schema. Each of the items above is frame elements and the semantic items ofpredicates correspond to the associated elements of the word (Zhang Yihua, 2004). Corpus
Pattern Analysis is a way that projects lexical semantic to a specific lexical text, aiming atbuilding the pattern data of English verb for the research of computational linguistics,
language teaching and language cognition. Its theoretical basis is "Theory of Norms
Exploitations". This theory has absorbed the Generative Lexicon Theory and Generative
Semantics Theory and other theories. Theory of Norms Exploitations says that the meaning of
an isolated word is very vague, or it has no "meaning" and just "meaning potential". The
information stored in human brain is not isolated words, but lexical pattern or phraseologicalpattern and characteristics of different categories that are closely related to the pattern. In
order to understand the meaning of a word in verbal communication, the key is to know its
pattern and distinguish the norms pattern and the explotation pattern. To know how to get themeaning of a word, it is necessary to analyze the location distribution and the context of thewords: valence and match (Zhang Yihua, 2012). We lack such original, forward-looking
theory, and some good ideas can not receive any response for a long time. For example,
inspired by WordNet, the article "Research on New Century Oriented Online Dictionary
Compilation" published by Mr. Xu Shiyi in 2001 thinks that we should take advantages of
network technology to develop and compile a network-like dictionary on the basis of humancognitive characteristics of vocabulary, weaving the concepts from human brains into a
network, with each word on a node of the network to achieve connection between each otherthrough a variety of relationships. Even now, we still do not have such a kind of language
engineering conducted practically based on Chinese, but the Institute of Computational
Linguistics from Peking University finished the Chinese version of WordNet, and formed theChinese Concept Dictionary (CCD).
1.2. Difficulties to form scale and achieve sharing because corpus development lacks aunified standard
A series of dictionaries like international sample dictionaries of Oxford, Longman,
Cambridge, and Collins were compiled on the basis of large scale and unified tagged sharable
corpus, in which the representatives are the Brown Corpus established by Brown University
in 1960s, LOB Corpus that was established by Lancaster University in Britain in 1970 andtransferred to Norway in 1976, Birmingham Corpus (COBUILD) co-established by
University of Birmingham in UK and Collins Publishers Ltd., British National Corpus (BNC)of Oxford University Press and so on. Under the guidance of a certain theory, the relatively
influential corpus in western countries are tagged and developed according to the same
criteria and corpus developed by different agencies in different periods can be compatible,
coming together to form a large-scale tagged corpus, and achieve sharing. However, corpus
developed by China seems a lot, in fact, each one is isolated. For so-called "innovation", each
corpus has a set of development and tagging standard, which is not compatible, not sharable
and results in the failure of forming a large-scale tagged corpus and low level repeating.
1.3. Low level of corpus processing and limited tagged language information
134

With the continuously improvement of western corpus’s processing level and increasingly
plentiful linguistic information from part-of-speech tagging, collocation information tosyntactic constituent, semantic role, semantic pattern and pragmatic environment, from soup
to nuts, corpus datamation can be achieved finally, which has provided a basic guarantee forcomputer lexicography automation and made it possible for automatic dictionary generation.
However, our corpus tagging stays in shallow level, and the most are raw corpus with no or
little linguistic tagging information. Only participle and part-of-speech tagging are tagged inslightly large scale, syntactic constituent tagging, semantic role tagging, semantic pattern
tagging, sense tagging and pragmatic information tagging are tagged a little. Since, different
from English, Chinese is a language lack of morphologic change with no information tagging,
corpus datamation cannot be achieved; thus Chinese lexicography automation will become an
empty word.
1.4. Few kinds of electronic dictionaries, small amount of information, lack of innovationand competitiveness
There are many kinds of electronic dictionaries in western countries with rich information,some of which are almost synchronous with the paper dictionary and some have enlarged
amount of information by the use of modern information technology, which has become an
irreplaceable tool. It is more valuable that online lexical resources in true sense have emerged,
such as WordNet, FramNet, Word Sketch, DANTE and Corpus Pattern Analysis, which arewidely used all over the world. “Maybe WordNet is the most important and most widely used
lexical resource for natural language processing system so far" (Zhang Yihua, 2004). But
some of our limited electronic dictionaries are basically the simple version of related paper
dictionaries on the network, some adding a little new information at most, with no innovation.
So far, relatively influential electronic dictionaries in China are Modern Chinese Grammar
information Dictionary and Chinese Concept Dictionary (CCD) developed by Institute ofComputational Linguistics in Peking University and HOWNET, developed by Dong
Zhendong and Dong Qiang. Although Web Dictionary and Baidupedia are influential, we cansee that they are open systems where each person in different qualities can edit, and contents
in fact are good and bad, thus the quality cannot be guaranteed. The whole domestic
electronic dictionaries are lack of competitiveness.
2. Reasons of Existing Problems
2.1. A lack of foresight consciousness
On one hand, lack certain foresight consciousness and ideas, and ignore the tremendous effectcaused by the combination of computer and lexicography in highly developed information
age in the future, and lack recognition of the applicability and importance of thecomputational lexicography or computer language information processing technology infuture lexicographical studies and lexicography compilation; on the other hand, government
departments lack adequate attention and emphasis to the development of dictionaries,
especially bilingual dictionaries. Therefore, we should actively call on the relevant
government departments to pay proper attention to the research on lexicography
modernization theory, and the research and development of dictionary corpus and databases,
striving to make our career of lexicography modernization and dictionaries lead the world like
Britain and the United States, and making the dictionary industry become the important
backbone of national culture industry to obtain social benefits and economic benefits.
2.2. Inadequate project approval of scientific research
It can be reflected from the capacity of project approval of scientific research to some extent
that whether a discipline and a professional field being taken seriously. Scientific research
projects of lexicography and lexicography modernization have no place in National Natural
Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and Social Science Planning Projects, as well as the"project guidance" of scientific research projects in provincial level, lack of independence
because of walking in a fine line of other disciplines only. Therefore, we should call on
national functional departments to add project approval for the study of computational
lexicography moderately to Natural Science Funds Projects in national and provincial level
and Social Science Planning Projects.
1352.3. Lack of reason on scientific research direction
Nowadays, all kinds of dictionaries are not regarded as scientific achievements or considered
in low scientific research coefficient during the assessment, promotion and other aspects bymost of the universities and research departments, which directly results in insufficiententhusiasm and low motivation for the academic research of lexicography of a number ofacademic scholars, who are unwilling to participate in the work and research task inlexicography or lexicography field; it is for the love of the work that someone still makes aneffort in this area reluctantly. A large number of researchers with considerable academic
ability and quality are needed to participate in the research, because dictionaries should not
only carry out objective description for natural language, but also make specification for thesemantics, grammar and pragmatics of the language. In China, lexicographers wereconsidered to be "saint", they lived a good life with high position and high income and wererespected by people. It is still like this in western countries, but not like this in China.
Someone even jokingly says that "let the condemned prisoner to compile the dictionary".
Thus, domestic universities and research departments should change their researchorientations, take the research achievements of different types of dictionaries andlexicography as an important chip and indicator to measure the level and ability of theresearchers, to arouse their enthusiasm and give full play to the potentials in lexicography
study, lexicography and other aspects.
2.4. Imbalance on the main part of scientific research
Britain firstly puts funds into all areas of lexicography modernization, especially into theconstruction practice of dictionary corpus, and then uses the corpus for machine translation
research. Because machine translation is research work with pure exploratory nature, which isvery challengeable and difficult to break in a short time, with large investment but maybe no
economic benefits for a long time. However, under the circumstance of shortage of researchfunds, we put most of the limited funds into machine translation over a long period of time,
instead of the construction, research and development of dictionary corpus and dictionary
databases, which need less money with relatively quick effect and good economic benefits. In
future, our functional departments and academic circle should focus on changing theimbalance, appropriately increasing funds support for the construction of lexicography
research and dictionary corpus.
2.5. Low-level repetitive construction
In Britain, development projects of large commercial dictionary corpus are results by thecooperation between universities, scientific research institutions and presses. With
collaborative division of labor, clear goals and enough funds, high quality development ofcorpus can be conducted continuously and effectively for they give full play to the initiative
to produce great economic and social benefits. Currently, we are repeating low-level
construction to a certain extent. In addition, lack of guidance and coordination by functional
departments, communication and cooperation between departments and with so much rehandling of small workshop style, a lot of manpower and material resources are wasted andhigh quality research achievements and dictionaries are hard to be available. Therefore, large
national language research institutions and excellent presses should make a medium-term andlong-term plan for the development of lexicography modernization, and construct anddevelop some forward-looking and efficient projects like dictionary corpus, dictionary
databases, computational lexicon, computer-aided lexicography system and dictionary
automatic generation system by uniting with domestic dominant academic strength, With theformation of several influential corpus or dictionaries in signature style or fist styleinternationally, other researches can improve the efficiency by avoiding repetition of lowlevel construction on the basis of them.
3. Improvement strategies
3.1. Establishing a high level platform for national lexicography modernization with the
improvement of top-class design and long-term investment
136

Dictionary industry in Britain, United States, Japan, France and other countries has become
an important part of their national GDP. Everybody knows that how much money the British,
American and Japanese have made in the world, especially in China by English dictionary
and electronic dictionary. With the rapid development of China, a new round of "Chinese
fever" has been formed in the international community. However, "Chinese lexicography
fever" has not developed with the "Chinese fever" springing up. We did not make money inthe world by Chinese dictionaries like the British and American, on the contrary, many
foreigners learn Chinese by the use of Chinese dictionaries compiled by their own country
instead of ours. Why? The dictionaries compiled by us are unavailable for them to use. One of
the important reasons is that we lack a platform for lexicography modernization and Chinese
dictionaries that are suitable for learners from different countries on country-specific corpus.
Therefore, we should recognize the importance of the establishment of national platform forlexicography modernization from the height of national cultural industry development, do
top-class designs well, including corpus design and management, corpus tagging system,
development of the computer-aided compiling system, development and publishing ofelectronic dictionary, funds investment and coordination of all departments. In order toestablish cultural resources with an international influence, cooperation between universities,
research institutions and publishers should be unified and coordinated by a competentdepartment, and consider it as a normal work continuously and constantly.
3.2. Establishing original theories suitable for Chinese lexicography by learning fromadvanced experience of foreign countries
We all know that European and American dictionaries have accounted for the most market
share of English dictionaries and related bilingual dictionaries worldwide. Accumulatingnearly thirty years' successful experience on the development and utilization of dictionary
corpus, dictionary databases, electronic dictionary, Web Dictionary, electronic lexicon,
computer-aided lexicography system, they have formed a more stable development patternwith more advanced development ideas. However, the development and utilization of ouracademic research on computational lexicography, corpus, databases construction andpractical electronic dictionary is still in exploratory stage, and lexicography method also stays
in relatively traditional operational level. Therefore, it is a shortcut to actively learn certain
theory research and practical experience from foreign countries. We should organize theprofessors of Chinese study, lexicography, language teaching, cognitive psychology,
computer application and other fields to cooperate whole heartedly to establish original
theories suitable for Chinese lexicography, guiding the practice of Chinese lexicography
modernization on the basis of absorbing and digesting foreign advanced experience andtheories.
3.3. Establishing effective mode of dictionary industry and creating boutique products byadapting to the market demands and strengthening cooperation between universities andenterprises
In Britain, with active cooperation, Collins Publishers Ltd. and University of Birmingham
organized a research and development team with nearly a hundred people who mainly comefrom the University of Birmingham to build the famous COBUILD corpus. In addition, thefamous Canadian “Bilingual Dictionary Project” also resulted from the cooperation of many
universities and relative departments, which took more than a decade. Thus it can be seen thatin modern lexicography circle, it is difficult to make influential modern achievements without
seeking cooperation actively. At the moment, interdisciplinary research is the development
direction of modern linguistics and lexicography, because many research tasks are difficult tocomplete only by lexicography or computer technology. Since universities, research
institutions and publishing houses have their own advantages; complementary advantages
should be formed by them. Therefore, to create boutique dictionaries in this era, we should
understand the market demand, adapt to market needs, integrate multi-power, seek
cooperation with enterprises, and establish an effective mode of dictionaries industries.
3.4. Building environment for cultivating lexicography talents by changing the assessment
mechanism
137

Currently, a variety of assessment mechanisms have restricted the development oflexicography. On one hand, the assessment mechanisms of all levels of management
departments should produce achievements as soon as possible, which determine all benefits,
making most scholars seek quick success with low level repetition, instead of doing research
quietly for original achievements. Thus, the research and development cycle of projects
related to lexicography should be longer, which is helpful to achieve comprehensive results.
On the other hand, cultivate talents with ability to do great business. This kind of talentsshould have noble professional and dedication spirits, and can endure the loneliness, because
lexicography work needs to be done slowly and slow work yields fine products; they shouldhave comprehensive knowledge and update knowledge constantly, which also needs time.
This requires changing the assessment mechanism, not only counting the dictionaries as
research achievements to address the worries of scholars, but also creating environment forscholarship and great career. Besides, periodical grade standard used for assessment andpromotion has many disadvantages that everything is evaluated by SCI, SSCI, EI and CSSCI.
But in fact, research articles in lexicography field are impossible to be found in SCI, SSCI
and EI. Representing the highest level of domestic lexicography field, the journal
Lexicographical Studies of Chinese Lexicography Society is excluded from CSSCI, because
shortage of researchers in this field, the quoting rate of the articles in this journal is far behindthat of journals of other disciplines, which has greatly defeated the enthusiasm of researchers.
In response to this phenomenon, the national authorities should introduce appropriate
incentives to mobilize the enthusiasm of researchers in lexicographical research field.
3.5. Establishing lexicography major to offer related courses in the field of lexicography
and cultivating advanced talents
Lexicography modernization requires interdisciplinary talents, who should possess knowledge
and skills in linguistics, lexicography, philosophy, history, science and technology, cognitive
psychology, computer and information processing. It is so difficult for existing majors tocultivate such interdisciplinary talents. Therefore, lexicography major should be set to offer
courses including the knowledge of theories and skills in related field. Even if lexicography
major cannot be set, orientation under the related majors should be established to cultivatesenior specialized personnel. Also relative training courses can be offered for personnel inthis field to improve their professional knowledge.
3.6. Holding frontier conference to highlight the issue of lexicography
The basic task of academic conferences or forums is to concentrate on issues of particularfields. In the future, lexicography frontier conferences or forums should be held regularly bynational lexicography society and computational lexicography circle, putting forward afrontier issue or the issue that is urgently in need of solution for discussing every conference
to solve some practical problems. At the same time, each of the participants can walk in theforefront of international academic development by understanding the knowledge incomputational lexicography field or domestic and international academic trends.
3.7. Establishing national professional society and promoting the development of dictionary
industry pragmatically and effectively
Professional academic institution is one of the foundations for discipline development. It is
gratifying that the leaders of Chinese Dictionary Society is keenly aware of the urgency of thesituation, active promoting the establishment of Technology Professional Committee for
Lexicography Modernization, advocating lexicographers in young and middle age to mastercomputer skills and applied to the research, compilation and publishing of dictionaries. But so
far as the status, the function and effectiveness of the professional committee is not great
enough, national professional organization of "Lexicography Modernization Society" should
be set up to give the personnel and funds support, coordinating the research, development andpromotion of lexicography modernization field in an united and coordinating way toeffectively promote the development of dictionary industry in China.
Contents above are our views on the problems, reasons and countermeasures of lexicography
modernization in China. We welcome comments on these issues.
138

References
Hennie van der Vliet: Department of Language and Communication, Vrije Universiteit,
Amsterdam (hd.vander.vliet@let.vu.nl) THE REFERENTIEBESTAND
NEDERLANDS AS A MULTI-PURPOSE LEXICAL DATABASELin Dekang. Wordnet.1998.an Electronic Lexical Database (Book Review).Computational
Linguistics.
OMBI.2007.The practice of reversing dictionaries.
Optimizing Procedures for THe Making of Bilingual Dictionaries And The Concept Of
Linking Contrastive Lexical Databases
白崇远.微软光盘版ENCARTA电子全科全书的特点及其利用.辞书研究,2000（04）常爱东.中美电子百科全书对比分析.辞书研究,2001（06）马功兰.电子辞书散论.辞书研究,2001（04）徐时仪.面向新世纪的网络词典编纂刍探.《中国辞书论集2001》，陕西人民出版社，2002
赵铁军,李生.知识处理与电子词典的设计.辞书研究,1995（01）张国强.关于工具书数字化发展趋势的几点思考.辞书研究,2001（03）章宜华.对我国电子词典发展策略的几点思考.辞书研究,2007（02）章宜华.电子词典编纂的一般原则.辞书研究,2000（04）章宜华.计算词典学与新型词典.上海辞书出版社,2004
章宜华,黄建华.电子词典的现状与发展趋势.辞书研究,1996（06）章宜华.国际辞书现代化技术的新理念：辞书语料数据化.辞书研究,2012（02）张绍麒.辞书与数字化研究.上海辞书出版社,2005
中国辞书学会学术委员会.中国辞书论集2001，陕西人民出版社，2002
中国辞书学会学术委员会.中国辞书论集2002，四川辞书出版社，2002
中国辞书学会学术委员会.中国辞书论集（第7辑），外语教学与研究出版社，2002
乐嘉民、亢世勇.辞书编纂现代化研究，上海辞书出版社，2009
亢世勇、王兴隆、谢晓燕.我国计算机辅助辞书编纂系统初步调查研究，辞书研究，201
2（3）刘海润、亢世勇.我国辞书编纂现代化理论研究调查分析，长江学术，2013（2）139Where Do We Go from Here?
Ari Kernerman
Kernerman Publishing, Tel Aviv, Israel
kernerman@zahav.net.il
Abstract
Fifty years of trying to prove to teachers why monolingual dictionaries are better language-learning
tools for their students than any other kind of dictionary, and thirty years of trying to convince
lexicographers that bilingualised dictionaries are lexicographically and pedagogically superior to any
other type of language-learning dictionary, did not achieve their goals. During all this time, simple
bilingual dictionaries went their merry way, overwhelmingly dominating both print and digital
dictionaries, in sales and in use, without the need for any particular promotion.
There is still no general agreement on what information language-learning dictionaries should contain,or what should be the make-up of an entry. While monolingual English-learners' dictionaries wereenjoying their heydays, basking in bliss, and semi-bilingual dictionaries were striving for recognition,
simple bilingual dictionaries were (and still are) the language learner's choice. It seems that six
different advanced learners' dictionaries, all written by the cream of the professional crop,
incorporating every gimmick imaginable, such as corpus lexicography, were unable to win over the
EFL market. Nor did semi- bilingual dictionaries succeed in doing so. What is the reason why language
learners prefer a simple bilingual dictionary to a sophisticated monolingual or semi-bilingual learner's
dictionary?
I will discuss these and other problems pertaining to the conflict between the goals of lexicographersand actual dictionary use.
Keywords: monolingual; bilingual; semi-bilingual; foreign-language-learning dictionaries; foreignlanguage-using dictionaries

We have here before us two questions. The first question is: "Where did we go
wrong?" And the second question is: "Where do we go from here?"
I will try to answer the first question myself in the course of this presentation. I will
solicit suggestions from the audience regarding the answer to the second question.
But first we should define the word "here". Some people might not be sure what
"here" means here.
"Here" means here a particular situation in which a small number of academics arestill trying to do something that most dictionary users are not at all interested in. Here,is a situation in which thousands of dollars, maybe millions of dollars, are being spentover the years by many universities, in as many countries, on lexicographic R&D(Research and Development.) The particular R&D that our lexicographers have been
involved in has been leading them in the wrong direction for fifty years, ever since
lexicography became an academic subject.
Excuse me for throwing a bombshell, but let's start from the beginning.
For hundreds of years there was no problem. People studied foreign languages, andeven had word lists with translations, or lexicons, to help them understand themeanings of the foreign words they were trying to learn. Then, about 80 years ago, ahandful of Englishmen went to Japan to teach English.
They were innovative individuals – so innovative that because of them, many of you
now have jobs.
These men said that teaching a language entirely by means of translation is bad. In
that, they were right. They said that foreign languages should be taught entirely in theforeign language. In that, they were only partly right.

140

Teaching a language using only the language being taught they called "The Direct
Method", and teaching a language as had been done until that time, by translating
everything into the learner's mother tongue, they called "The Indirect Method".
Of course, if you're going to explain the meaning of a word in the language beingtaught, called "L2", the mother tongue being called "L1", then you have to explainthat meaning using very simple language - if possible using only words andexpressions that are already familiar to the user. Not only should the words befamiliar, but the syntax and the grammar used should also be familiar, such that new
words should be explained within their own linguistic environment.
So according to the Direct Method, a simple list of words with their translations was
not adequate for language learners. Students needed a "proper" dictionary in which all
the words in the L2 that they were studying were explained in L2, using only easy
explanations, or even synonyms if possible. How to use these words was exemplified
by means of example sentences or phrases, written in easily comprehensible language,
and without employing difficult or unfamiliar grammar. Thus was born the learner's
dictionary.
All this started with a handful of English teachers, who subsequently became
dictionary compilers, or what we call today, "lexicographers".
Longman published The New Method English Dictionary, by Michael West andJames Gareth Endicott, way back in 1935 – exactly 80 years ago. The explanations
were written in a defining vocabulary, but there were not yet examples of usage. E.C.
Parnell wrote English-Reader's Dictionary. And in 1948 Oxford University Press(OUP) published the first version of The Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Current
English, written by A.S. Hornby , E.V. Gatenby and H. Wakefield. Other dictionaries
that were published around that time were Idiomatic and Syntactic English
Dictionary, The Progressive English Dictionary, and An English Reader's Dictionary,
all written by pioneers in the field such as Palmer.
Until now all that I have been saying is common knowledge. But knowing aboutsomething is one thing; realizing its full significance is another.
At that time, air travel and the rapid development of communications were making theworld smaller. There was need for a global language to connect people throughout thewhole world. A war was raging – not between countries but between languages - a
war between English and French. Which one would become the dominant language?
English won out, as you all know. It is not important now why and how, but the
English language won the battle, and became the universal lingua franca. Since then,people all over the world have been clamoring to learn English.
English Language Teaching & Learning became a big business. It became one of the
UK's biggest exports – worth billions of pounds. And just as it is today, it was moneythat made the world go round. Some publishers saw a golden opportunity to make a
lot of money, so they jumped on the bandwagon to publish English learners'
dictionaries. ELT dictionary publishing became a big business, with publishers
competing frantically among themselves. All of the dictionaries had the same target
audience, and more or less the same headwords, so the publishers competed on suchfeatures as the general appearance of the dictionary, the make-up of the entries, andwhatever gimmicks they could devise.
The pioneers were Longman and OUP. OUP's flagship dictionary, now called
Advanced Learner's Dictionary, was very accurate, and had the advantage of
emanating from a prestigious university. The dictionary was well promoted, so it
enjoyed great success.
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Longman's flagship was Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. Longman
were expert at marketing, and were able to gain the approval of the ministries of
education in many countries, so that their dictionaries became mandatory for students
to purchase. So the Longman name too became well known.
HarperCollins Publishers came out in 1987 with a novel idea for their English
learners' dictionary. They innovated the concept of basing their dictionary entirely on
a word corpus, called Bank of English, with Collins COBUILD Dictionary (nowcalled Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary). It was a hardfight, competing against such prestigious publishers as Oxford and Longman. But
HarperCollins succeeded in instilling into the minds of lexicographers the importanceof using word corpora in selecting example sentences and phrases, so Oxford andLongman had no alternative but to eventually base their English learners' dictionaries
also on corpora.
English teachers and entire education systems were brainwashed into believing that
corpora-based dictionaries were superior as language-teaching tools to non-corporabased dictionaries, so the concept of word banks was able to make considerable
headway all over the world, achieving a very respectable status, not only in the area oflexicography but in linguistics in general.
It was difficult now for other publishers to enter the ELT dictionary market.
Cambridge University Press (CUP), who were prestigious monolingual dictionary
publishers, joined the show in 1995 with Cambridge International Dictionary ofEnglish, now called Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary. It is also a finedictionary, but CUP found it extremely hard to compete.
Seven years later, in 2002, another prominent and highly respected publisher,
Macmillan, joined in with their version of virtually the same product, Macmillan
English Dictionary for Advanced Students. They were late in joining the club, and, I
believe, had an even harder time than CUP.
Finally, an American publisher did their thing, with Merriam-Webster's Advanced
Learner's English Dictionary, in 2008, sadly late.
At the same time, a very small, insignificant publisher, in another part of the world,
started to publish a different sort of learner's dictionary – the semi-bilingual
dictionary. The first ones appeared in 1986 – almost 30 years ago – for speakers of
Hebrew and for speakers of Arabic, and within a decade local language editions
appeared in 34 countries. This novel type of learners' dictionary consisted of entries
that had the same basic elements as in monolingual learners' dictionaries, viz.,headword, part-of-speech, definition in simple language, examples of usage, and, if
deemed useful, additional information such as spelling tips, or warnings about misuse.
The semi-bilingual method realized that the Direct Method in foreign language
teaching had both advantages and disadvantages. In general, the semi-bilingual
approach combined the positive features of both the Direct Method and the Indirect
Method, while avoiding the drawbacks of both.
But it is difficult during the course of a lesson to teach only in L2, to explain, topenetrate the minds of students, to know whether or not they really understood what
was said, or maybe even misunderstood it, and to verify comprehension, during thecourse of a lesson.
Besides, the truth of the matter is that learners want to know their own L1 equivalent,in order to be certain that they have correctly understood the meaning of that word,
and this is what semi-bilingual dictionaries provided.
I will not spend more time singing the praises of semi-bilingual dictionaries. You allknow what they are, and all of you have your own opinions about them.
142

So you had available on the market numerous excellent monolingual learners'
dictionaries, as well as, in many countries, semi-bilingual learners' dictionaries.
But the language learners wanted neither. All they wanted was simple dictionaries,
even if they were just pocket dictionaries, so long as they gave them the translation.
They were not interested in getting a wealth of information. True, many teachers
recommended monolinguals or semi-bilinguals. But when it was left to them, students
demonstrated their preference very explicitly when purchasing their dictionary. Theirpreference has not changed during all this time. Students are in a hurry, and there isno faster route to finding the meaning of a word than that of using a bilingual
dictionary – whether printed or digital.
Yet, we continue to spend all our time and money trying to improve dictionaries thatthe masses do not want! Vast sums of money, as well as whole lifetimes oflexicographers, have been invested in monolingual and semi-bilingual learners'
dictionaries, both of which are rejected by most language learners. Why don't wespend more time trying to improve bilingual dictionaries? Why is this ASIALEX
conference concerned more with satisfying lexicographers than it is with satisfying
dictionary users?
Besides, who says that all dictionaries that are in a foreign language are used bypeople who are learning that language? What about those dictionary users who are notlearning the language but are simply using it? All they want is the very same thing as
what the language learners want – THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO
UNDERSTANDING THE MEANING.
Ladies and gentlemen, I began by posing two questions: Where did we go wrong?
and, Where do we go from here?
I tried to answer the first question. I don't know the answer to the second question. So
I turn to my audience. Ladies and gentlemen, where do we go from here?

143

Lexicography as a Teaching Tool: A Hong Kong case study
James Lambert
National Institute of Education (NIE), Singapore
james_lambo@hotmail.com
Abstract
Dictionaries have been put to a number of pedagogical uses, including lessons on how to use
dictionaries (e.g. Chi 1998), and lessons utilizing pre-existing dictionaries for a range of educational
goals (e.g. vocabulary building). However, less common is the use of the practice of lexicography as ateaching tool. This paper details an example of using lexicography in the teaching of World Englishes.
In March of 2014, three classes of students studying World Englishes at City University of Hong Kong
were required to research and draft two dictionary entries on items of Hong Kong English. This
lexicographical assignment had a number of educational benefits. Specifically, the students gained
hands-on experience of dictionary writing, which provided insight into the difficulties faced bylexicographers, and hence clearer understanding of the reliability of dictionaries. The project also
helped students hone their sense of the overlap between Hong Kong English and Cantonese. Finally,
the entries written by the students document over 60 items of Hong Kong English that have never beentreated in other lexicographical texts on the variety (such as Cummings & Wolf 2011), highlighting theneed for more work in this area. Similar projects could be utilized for practically any variety of English
as part of World Englishes studies.
Keywords: lexicography; pedagogy; World Englishes; Hong Kong English
Introduction

In the field of metalexicography there seems to be very little literature on the teaching oflexicography. Pedagogical interest in lexicography seems to be largely concerned with how
students use dictionaries (e.g. Al-Salami & Hattab 2008), the teaching of dictionary skills in
the classroom (e.g. Chi 1998), or the use of existing dictionaries to improve vocabulary or
achieve other educational goals (e.g. Gonzales 1999). Lexicography itself – that is, the art andcraft of dictionary writing – is a subject that has been taught at tertiary level for some decades
in various universities worldwide. Examples include lexicographer David Blair who taught
courses on lexicography at Macquarie University, Sydney from 1987 until 2001, andProfessor Julie Coleman, at the University of Leicester, who regularly has a module in which
students create their own subject-restricted lexicons which are then published online: samples
can be viewed via the university website (Coleman). What seems to be scarce, however, arescholarly articles on how such courses are run and the theoretical issues involved. One of the
few articles to discuss educational benefits of teaching students to be lexicographers is
Battenburg and Lant (2003). They note that such projects required students to apply
knowledge from a range of linguistics subject areas (14), and also argue that lexicographicalprojects are a type of ‘situated learning’ in which abstractions are ‘grounded’ (8) since
students have to face the same questions that lexicographers have to face (13). In response to
the dearth of material on using lexicography as a teaching tool, this paper provides details of alexicographical assignment conducted at City University Hong Kong in 2014.
Assignment design
As part of a course on World Englishes run in 2014 by the Department of English at City
University of Hong Kong, students were set a lexicography assignment by the course
coordinator, Associate Professor Chris Jenks. There were three tutorial groups totaling 60
students in all. Students were English majors in their third year, mostly but not exclusively of
Cantonese background. The assignment description was brief: ‘Students are responsible fortwo dictionary entries of Hong Kong English.’ The primary goal of this assignment was not toteach lexicography per se, but rather to engage the students in a practical research project thatwould link to the course aims and objectives, namely: to raise the students’ consciousness of144

the socio-political, cultural, economic, and ethical aspects of the global spread of English; toequip students with critical concepts needed to examine the status, functions, and features ofworld Englishes; and to allow the students to discover some aspect of the role of English in
Hong Kong, with particular reference to the description of Hong Kong English (adapted from
Jenks 2014).
As co-teacher, I devised a range of teaching materials to supplement the assignment
description. A detailed example of the type of dictionary entry required was supplied as ahandout (Appendix 1), along with a description of the required lexicographical fields(Appendix 2), and a table of etymological types (Appendix 3). The sample entry (Appendix
1) was based on the Oxford English Dictionary model, that is, the dictionary on historicalprinciples (Murray et al. 1888-1928). The sample entry consisted of a headword,
pronunciation in the International Phonetic Alphabet, part-of-speech label, definition, several
citations, an etymology, and usage notes. Student assignments had to follow this basic entry
structure, with a minimum of two citations (from different sources, and preferably some years
apart). Students were also encouraged to find the earliest citation possible. If the etymology
included Cantonese etymons, the Chinese characters had to be given followed by atransliteration in parentheses. Cantonese has no official Romanization system, so for
consistency sake, the Yale Romanization system was stipulated for all student dictionary
entries, and copies of Chik and Ng (2000) were made available to students in tutorials. For
etymons in Mandarin, pinyin was stipulated. If required, transliterations for other non-English
scripts could be negotiated individually with the teacher.
Teaching lexicography
Students were essentially given a ‘crash course’ in how to be a lexicographer over a numberof tutorial classes, beginning with lexicographical data collection. As a starting point, students
were prompted to discuss how lexicographers go about creating dictionaries. Considering thatno lexicographer can conceivably know all the words of a language, students were asked toponder what data lexicographers used to inform them about words, leading to discussion ofvarious aspects of typical lexicographical research such as reading programs, citationcollection, and corpus linguistics. To illustrate how word meanings could be inferred fromcontext, students were given citations of an unfamiliar word from which they had to construct
the meaning. The word chosen was the Australian slang term chook which means ‘chicken.’
They were presented with the following citation first.
chook n.
‘If you don’t want ’em, you can sling ’em to the chooks.’
1932 ‘Miles Franklin’ Old Blastus of Bandicoot v. 59

From this, students could infer that the word chook was a noun and countable, though little
else as could be reasonably inferred as the text does not say what is being slung to the chooks.
From the next citation, the students were able to guess the meaning ‘chicken,’ as the chooks
are in a hen-house.
chook n.
‘Good garden, Archie, and a big hen-house full of chooks.’
1966 Bruce Beaver You Can’t Come Back 111
More citations of the target word were supplied, from which the meaning became abundantly
clear. This exercise gave students an insight into the way in which the meaning of words islinked to context, how lexicographers work with unfamiliar lexis, and the informationalsources that lexicographers use to construct dictionaries. Also, it gave the students insight into
the type of citational material they were required to collect for their assignment. Sample
entries from the Oxford English Dictionary (Murray et al. 1888-1928) were discussed in class,focusing on the functions of displaying the citational evidence in a dictionary entry.
145

In terms of etymologies, apart from the use of transliteration, students were expected tocategorize terms according to the type of word formation (e.g. agglutination, compounding,clipping) or word transmission (e.g. borrowing, loan translation/calque). The various
processes of lexical generation were discussed in class, with group-work activities in which
students had to generate their own examples. To further assist students when doing theirassignments, a handout of various word formation categories was provided (Appendix 3).
Finally, a certain amount of class time was devoted to assisting students with the selection ofHong Kong English lexical items for their assignments. Each student had to select two lexical
items and register them with the teacher on a first-come-first-served basis. Students were free
to choose whatever lexical items they liked so long as they satisfied two stipulations: (a) the
lexical items had to be Hong Kong English, so far as the student and the teacher were aware,and (b) each lexical item had to be unique from those of the other students. It was anticipatedthat this would generate 120 separate dictionary entries (2 for each of the 60 students). In
order to assist students in the selection process there was a discussion of the various semantic
fields and subject areas that are likely to contain localized lexis (e.g. local types of food, local
culture, flora and fauna, transport infrastructure, educational and political terminology, slang,etc.). While many students furnished their own lexical items, I also provided a list of localized
lexis, based on my own Hong Kong English citation database, from which they could selectitems if they were having trouble finding one themselves.
Results of the assignment
A total of 113 separate items of Hong Kong English were lexicographically described among
the dictionary entries drafted by the students (see Appendix 4). This is slightly lower than the
projected 120 possible entries (2 for each of 60 students). The shortfall was partially due tooverlap, despite stipulation (b) mentioned above, and partially a result of failure to submit theassignment. These were compared against the Hong Kong English lexis in three pre-existinglexicographical treatments of Hong Kong English: the Grolier International Dictionary(2000), Bolton (2003), and Cummings and Wolf (2011). A total of 92 lexical items were notfound in the Grolier, 92 were not in Bolton, and 73 were not in Cummings and Wolf. An
impressive total of 67 terms were recorded afresh by the students, having appeared in none ofthe previous lexicographical treatments of Hong Kong English, revealing that there is muchwork yet to be done on the lexis of Hong Kong English.
In terms of etymologies, by far the largest source language was, understandably, Cantonese.
Students detailed 37 direct borrowings, 37 loan translations/calques, and 6 partial loantranslations. The next most frequent source language was English, with neologistic
compounds accounting for 15 etymologies, with 9 other English-based terms from a variety
of word formation processes such as initialism and semantic extension. Mandarin was not aprominent source of etymons with only 2 borrowings and 2 loan translations. Other terms
were of mixed origin, some with complicated or uncertain etymologies. The term mahjong isneither Cantonese nor Mandarin, and has not been sufficiently accounted for yet in otheretymological sources. The term missy appears to be a Chinese Pidgin English term fromEnglish miss + the Cantonese phonotactic suffix -ee/-y, though perhaps owes something to thepre-existing British English diminutive of miss.
The student contributions were of variable quality, though generally very well done. Some inclass tutorial time was set aside for workshopping the entries. The poorer assignments wereturned in by students (known locally as ‘deadline fighters’) who decided to forgo thisopportunity and draft their final dictionary entries the night before the due date. With thestudents who worked on drafts in class, a number of aspects of lexicography proved
challenging and counterintuitive. With regard to definition-writing students, as a result of
having spent years padding out written assignments in order to meet word-length
requirements, were somewhat bemused to be told that fewer words were better than a long,
wordy definition. Occasional errors occurred with grammatical category labelling,
categorizing etymons, and IPA transcription. Some etymons were not transliterated with the
Yale system, and some entries overly relied on information from Wikipedia. Nevertheless, thehigh quality of the resulting entries meant that students were able to compare their own work146

favorably with that of Cummings and Wolf (2011), a published academic text from the mostprestigious university in Hong Kong, which contains less detailed entries and lacks
transliterations of Chinese etymons.
Problems encountered
Some of the Chinese students had difficulty comprehending the need to Romanize theChinese etymons. Living in a Chinese script environment they naturally could read thepronunciations of Chinese characters. And although the Hong Kong linguistic landscape has
Romanized Chinese, for example in business names, bilingual Chinese students had expressed
to me on many occasions that they generally ignore English text, whether transliteration ortranslation. To put it another way, they are largely blinkered to the English texts in their own
linguistic environment. In order to dramatize the need for Romanization for readers with noknowledge of Chinese, students were provided with the following etymology:
From Hindi‘water carrier,’ from Persian ‫‘ بهشت‬heavenly.’
Without transliterations, the Hindi and Persian scripts had no meaning to the students. Whentransliterations were subsequently supplied (Hindi bhishtī / Persian bihisht), the students feltthat the etymologies were more readable, and were able to identify better with someone (i.e. a
potential reader of their own dictionary entries) who could not read Chinese.
By far the most challenging task for students was how to determine if a word was Cantoneseor English. As is typical in language contact situations, although a great deal of lexis is clearly
the preserve of one or other of the languages involved, there is a certain amount of lexis thatexists in a gray area between the two. Take for instance the terms bon voyage and gesundheit,
which although used in English for many years still retain French and German spellings andpronunciations. Are they truly English words? In the Hong Kong context there are a great
many such terms. First, there are borrowings. These include English words borrowed into
Cantonese, such as English taxi > Cantonese 的士 (dīk-sih) (see Chan and Kwok 1982), andCantonese words borrowed into English, such as Cantonese 點心 (dím sàm) > English dimsum. There are also loan translations, such as English add oil, an encouragement, from
Cantonese 加油 (gà yàuh), from 加 (gà) add and 油 (yàuh) oil, literally meaning ‘put fuelinto your vehicle,’ but figuratively ‘to persevere and work hard.’ There are also cases
involving bilingual puns, for example, the expression delay no more, which is used punningly
to express the Cantonese phrase 屌你老母 (dìu néih lóuh mòuh), literally, ‘fuck your oldmother.’ In Cantonese, initial n and l are frequently interchanged (Campbell and Wong 2015:36), so that this expression is also pronounced dìu léih nóuh mòuh. Importantly, theexpression delay no more, written in the Roman alphabet, is commonly used in both
Cantonese-language contexts and English-language contexts.
Another difficulty faced by the students was in determining if a certain lexical item was partof wider English or restricted to Hong Kong. Student opinions on this matter were by andlarge correct, however, with a number of expressions their initial impressions were incorrect.
For instance flea market was thought to be a local Hong Kong term on the basis that the
Cantonese term for flea market is 跳蚤市場 (tiu j u s h ch uhng), literally 跳蚤 (tiu j u) flea
+ 市場 (s h ch uhng) market. However, the Cantonese is a calque on the English term, whichdates back to the 1890s (Warwick Examiner 1891: 2), not the other way around. Meanwhile,pawn shop dates back to 1735 (Pope: 128), before the English language had come to HongKong. A similar misapprehension was made with egg tart, which was believed to haveoriginated in Hong Kong and Macau. However, the term egg tart dates back only to 1975 in
Hong Kong (Sung: 18), and occurs much earlier in Western sources (e.g. Sunday Times 1914:
31).
Within this melee of intersections between English and Cantonese, the students, being
themselves bilingually fluent, were able to navigate with perfect ease in communicative
contexts where the provenance of a certain term or expression matters little. Yet, theyencountered difficulty when it came to taking a linguistic stance and deciding if a term was(Hong Kong) English or not – as the assignment required them to do. In order to provide the147students with a rule of thumb they could use to decide if a term was English, irrespective of
its origins, at least two citations in which the lexical item was used in a wholly English
context needed to be found. For instance, in the text ‘Add oil, the road ahead is long’(Dotland.net blog), the expression add oil is used in an English-only context, and thus was
acceptable for the assignment. Whereas the following example of the term, ‘Add Oil 鼓勵發
放 正 能 量 ’ (Oriental Daily), 29 is in a wholly Cantonese context and thus represents aborrowing of English into Cantonese. As work on the assignment progressed, students foundthat many of the terms they first selected proved unlocatable in English-language contexts,
and were only found in Cantonese contexts, which was somewhat of a revelation to them.
Such terms had to be discarded and other terms selected.
Finally, students were generally poor at finding early citations, with 70 of the 113 terms(61.9%) being antedated by my own records, usually by many decades (see columns Date 1
and Date 2 in Appendix 4), in large part due to the lack of easily accessible resources for suchresearch.
Discussion
The primary goal of the lexicographical assignment described was to enhance the students’
understanding of various concepts in the World Englishes course they were taking. Obvious
educational benefits were that students were given a clearer sense, through practicalexperience, of the intersection between Hong Kong English and Cantonese. Additionally, thehands-on experience of dictionary writing provided insight into the difficulties faced bylexicographers and hence a strong position from which a more critical view of dictionaries
could be taken. The student entries also documented over 60 items of Hong Kong English thathave never been treated in other lexicographical works on the variety, highlighting the needfor more work in this area.
As this assignment was only one of three in the course, it was necessarily brief. One obvious
way in which the assignment could have been enhanced would have been to publish thefinalized dictionary entries, either online or as a booklet (the word count for total entries wasapproximately 20,000 words). Since dictionaries are so widely regarded as having the power
to standardize and legitimize lexis, lexicographical publication of the student entries has thepotential to bring into focus questions about the validity of the so-called ‘new varieties ofEnglish’ and thus feed into the wider discussion that is of core concern to World English
studies. Although this assignment focused on Hong Kong English, similar lexicographicalprojects could be utilized for any variety of English as part of World Englishes studies. In
addition, the use of lexicography as a teaching tool offers abundant possibilities for a vast
range of linguistic and other language-related studies.
References
Al-Salami, Nadhum Raheem, and Hudaa Abid Ali Hattab. 2008. “The Dictionary Use at the
University of Kufa: A Case Study.” Adab Al-Kufa Journal 1(3): 29-71.
Battenburg, John D. and Kathleen Margaret Lant. 2003. “Teaching Linguistics andLexicography with Online Resources.” Journal of Computing in Higher Education
14(2): 3-20.
Beaver, Bruce. 1966. You Can’t Come Back. 1991. Sydney: Weldon.
Bolton, Kingsley. 2003. The vocabulary of Hong Kong English. In Chinese Englishes: A
Sociolinguistic History, Kingsley Bolton, 288-297. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Chan, Mimi and Helen Kwok. 1982. A Study of Lexical Borrowing from English in Hong
Kong Chinese. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Chi, M.L.A. 1998. Teaching dictionary skills in the classroom. In Proceedings of the 8th
EURALEX International Congress, ed. Thierry Fontenelle et al., 565-77. Stuttgart:
Euralex.
29‘Add Oil to encourage the payment of positive energy.’148

Chik Hon Man and Ng Lam Sim Yuk. 2000. Chinese-English Dictionary: Cantonese in Yale
Romanization, Mandarin in Pinyin. Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press and
New Asia – Yale-in-China Chinese Language Center.
Coleman, Julie. 2015. University of Leicester: Glossaries (off campus).
http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/english/undergraduate/modules/slangandwww/Gloss
aries (off campus). Accessed May 2015.
Campbell, Michael and Percy Wong. 2015. Glossika Mass Sentences Cantonese (Hong Kong)
Fluency 1. Taipei: Glossika Language Training.
Cummings, Patrick J. and Hans-Georg Wolf. 2011. A Dictionary of Hong Kong English:
Words from the Fragrant Harbor. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
Dotland.net. 2014. http://dotaland.net/tag/zhou/ Accessed May 2015.
‘Franklin, Miles.’ 1932. Old Blastus of Bandicoot: Opuscule on a Pioneer Tufted with Ragged
Rhymes. Melbourne: Lothian Publishing Company.
Jenks, Chris. 2014. EN2323 Syllabus. Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong.
Gonzales, Orsini. 1999. “Building Vocabulary: Dictionary Consultation and the ESL Student.”
Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy 43(3): 264-270.
The Grolier International Dictionary. 2000. Sydney: Macquarie Library.
Murray, James A.H., Henry Bradley, W.A. Craigie, and C.T. Onions. 1888-1928. The Oxford
English Dictionary on Historical Principles; Founded Mainly on the Materials
Collected by the Philological Society. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Oriental Daily ( 東 方 日 報 ). 2011. http://www.orientaldaily.oriental.com.hk/cnt/lifestyle/
20111227/00298_001.html. Accessed May 2015.
Pope, Alexander. 1735. Mr. Pope’s Literary Correspondence. Volume 3. London: E. Curll.
The Sunday Times. 1914. 10 May. Perth, Australia.
Sung, C.D. 1975. “Quick Chinese take-away lunches are in big demand.” The South China
Morning Post. Hong Kong. 10 Aug.
The Warwick Examiner and Times. 1891. 12 Sept. Queensland, Australia.

Appendix 1 Sample dictionary entry handout
ASSIGNMENT 1 – SAMPLE DICTIONARY ENTRY
fortune stick /ˌfɔtʃuːn ˈstɪk/ noun (count) one of a set of numbered bamboo slips which corresponds to a message
concerning the future, drawn by a supplicant in Taoist divination
1871 Indian Museum: Minutes of the Trustees 11 Sep 143. [list item] 6 Fortune sticks used in Chinese
temples. Yunan.
1904 Jessie Juliet Knox Little Almond Blossoms: A Book of Chinese Stories for Children 142. Ho chunthought that while they were there, they had better try throwing the fortune sticks, as he knew it would please
them, so he picked up a tall round box, full of bamboo sticks, and explained it to them.
1938 Thomas Handforth Mei Li [unpaginated]. Mei Li ran happily down the hill. Surely, if the fortune sticks
said she was going to rule a kingdom she would.
1944 Contemporary Chinese Stories 134. Finally mother returned, and the medicine prescribed by the fortune
sticks was soon brewing over the stove.
1977 Paul Bowles Things Gone and Things Still Here 37. After the painful heat outside, everything in thetemple suddenly seemed a symbol of the concept of coolness — the stone floor under my bare feet, thebreeze that moved through the shadowy interior, the bamboo fortune sticks being rattled in their long box bythose praying at the altar[.]1992 Islands: An International Magazine Mar/Apr 120. Adding to the babble at Wong Tai Sin was theincessant rattling of fortune sticks, one of the most popular methods of divination.
2000 Mimi Chan All the King’s Women: The Story of a Hong Kong Family 32. Ah Ching went to the temple
on her behalf on every major festival to kou chim, that is to ask one’s fortune through the use of fortune
sticks.

149

Origin: Compound noun formed with English elements. Compare Cantonese 求 簽 (kàuh chìm) divination using
fortune sticks, from 求 (kàuh) pray for + 簽 (chìm) slip of bamboo.
Usage: Not commonly used in spoken English, though not uncommon in newspapers and travel books.

Appendix 2 Format of dictionary entries handout
ASSIGNMENT 1 – FORMAT OF DICTIONARY ENTRIES
headword – in boldpronunciation – in IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet)part of speech – traditional grammar
definition – normally one sentence
citations (you need only 2; from different sources, some years apart)
etymology (see below)
usage (see below)
citation

year – in boldauthor’s name (if present)
book/magazine/newspaper/website title
date (if relevant)page number (if present)

etymologytype of word formation (see below)
language of origin
if from Chinese:oChinese characterso
Yale Romanisation in parentheses, in italicomeaning, and literal meaning
usage

o
o


make some notes on
who uses the word
what types of sources it is found inwhat frequency it has (see sample entry)

Appendix 3 Word formation handout
ASSIGNMENT 1 – TYPES OF WORD FORMATION
1.

loanword: a word borrowed from another language (e.g. cliché, from French)2.

agglutination: adding affixes (e.g. unhelpfulness, from un + help + ful + ness)3.

compound: adding to words together (e.g. shoelace, takeaway)4.

hybridised compound: compounding different languages (e.g. iceberg)

5.
lactea)calque: a literal translation of word or phrase from another language (e.g. Milky Way, from Latin via

6.

semantic extension: adding a new meaning to a word (e.g. gay ‘homosexual’)

7.

grammatical extension: changing the part of speech to give new meaning (e.g. to film)

8.

eponymy: using a proper noun: (e.g. xerox, Australian, Confucianism)

9.

blending: mixing two words together (e.g. smog, from smoke + fog)

10.

initialism: from initial letters of a phrase (e.g. USA from United States of America)

11.

acronym: an initialism that makes a pronounceable word (e.g. pin from personal identification number)

150

12.

clipping: cutting off part of a word (e.g. ad from advertisement)

13.

onomatopoea: copying a real world sound (e.g. boom, pop)

14.

back-formation: removing ‘seeming’ affixes from existing words (e.g. edit from editor)

Appendix 4 Hong Kong English lexis dictionary entries
The following table lists the headwords of the dictionary entries submitted by students. Date 1 is theearliest citation provided by students, while Date 2 is an antedating based on the earliest citational
evidence in the author’s own database (based on citations in Hong Kong English sources or in a Hong
Kong English context). Column G refers to the Grolier International Dictionary (2000), column B
refers to Bolton (2003), and column C&W refers to Cummings and Wolf (2011): an asterisk (*)
indicates that the term is present in that source (totals at column bottom). Unless otherwise stated,calques are English loan translations from Cantonese.
Table Hong Kong English lexis dictionary entries
Term

Date 1Date
2

Etymology

add oil
add value machine
ah chaAlbert Yip
amah
Amah Rockbamboo theatre
bird nest soup
black faceblow water
body checkbody itchy
brainwash
bubble tea
bun muibun tower
bus uncle
cage home
Canto-pop
cha chaan tengchar sui bao
chiu
chur
coffin homecollect skincolour wolf
columbariumdai pai dongdelay no more
dim sumding dingdoubly non-permanent
resident childdragon boat
dragon’s beard candy
EPS
face green green
face trade
fat choi ho si
flea market
food paradise
free size
fruit money

2011
2012
2002
2010
1997
1974
2004
2008
2008
2009
2001
2007
1958
2010
2001
2005
2006
2008
2005
2011
2010
2011
2013
2011
2011
2007
2010
1971
2006
2001
2002
2012

2007
2000
1958
1903
1928
1909
1743
1979
1993
1990
1962
1995
1989
2002
1968
1990
1958
1967
1976
1952
1992
-

calquecalqueCantonese + Hindi
mistranslation
English < Portuguese
EnglishEnglishEnglishcalquecalquecalquecalquecalque (Mandarin)calque (Taiwanese)
Cantonesepart calquecalquecalqueEnglishCantonese
Cantonese
Cantonese
CantonesecalquecalquecalqueEnglish < Latin
Cantonesebilingual pun
Cantonese
Cantonesepart calque

2002
1991
2006
2010
2009
1998
2012
2003
2013
2012

1904
1975
1985
1974
1974
1973
1992

calquecalqueEnglish, initialism
calquecalqueCantonese
EnglishcalqueJapanese < English
calque

151

G

B

C&
W

*
*

*

*

*

*

*

*
*

*

*

*

*

*
*
*
*

*
*

*

*

*

*

*

fung shui
gai daan jai/tsaigei wai
goddess
green hat
gwai muigweiloHak Se Wai
hand letter
Holland bank chequeHong Kong footHong Kong kid
hot dog
jetso
jockey challenge
kai lankowtowlang mo
leftover woman
locustlose facemafoo
mahjongmaid room
mainlandermilk tea
missy
MKmo lei tau
Monkey Kingmonster parent
moon cakeno money no talk
Octopus
one-woman brothelparallel trader
people mountain peopleseapoon choi
pork chopPortuguese egg tart
princess syndrome
pseudo-model
public light bus
San He Huisandwich classshahe-fen
shark fin soupsifu
siu maisiu yehsmall housesnakeheadsoaked in salt water
street sleeper
subdivided flat
taipanTaobaotong lau
tong suitongzhitopping off
villain hitting
wet market
wide gate
wife cakewing chun

2003
2002
1997
2011
2005
2006
1998
2005
2008
2004
1994
2010
2005
2006
2008
1990
1899
2009
2009
2012
2000
1977
1987
2004
1998
2011
2003
2007
2004
1996
2010
2001
2000
1997
2009
2009
1998

1797
1988
1972
1926
1979
1939
1804
1834
1863
1921
1965
1906
1966
1848
2006
1990
1951
1905
1981
1980
1977
-

Cantonese
Cantonese
Cantonese
EnglishcalqueCantonese
Cantonese
Cantonesecalquebilingual pun
calquepart calqueEnglishCantonese
EnglishCantonese
Cantonese
Cantonesecalque (Mandarin)calquecalqueCantonese
ChinesecalqueEnglishcalqueEnglish/Cantonese
English, initialism
Cantonese
EnglishcalquecalquecalqueEnglishEnglishEnglishcalque

1997
2005
2006
2009
2009
2000
1976
1997
1997
1989
2000
2011
2006
1999
2007
2012
1998
2011
1956
2006
2010
2009
2000
2011
2013
2011
1994
2005
1972

1994
2003
1994
1969
1993
1924
1972
1957
1981
1972
1963
1919
1990
1834
2003
1962
1983
1984
1969

CantonesecalqueEnglishcalqueEnglishcalqueCantonesecalqueMandarinpart calque
Cantonese
Cantonese
Cantonese
EnglishcalquecalqueEnglishEnglishCantonese
Mandarin
Cantonese
Cantonese
Cantonese
Englishcalquecalquepart calquecalqueCantonese

152

*

*

*
*

*

*

*
*
*

*

*
*
*

*
*

*
*

*
*
*

*

*
*
*

*

*

*

*
*

*
*

*

*

*
*

*

*
*

*

*
*

*
*

*

*

*

*

*

*
*
*

*

*

wonton
XO sauce
yellow jokeyuan yang
yum cha

1981
1991
2006
2003
1988

1969
1916

Cantonese
EnglishcalqueCantonese
Cantonese

Total 113

153

*
*

*

*

*

20

21

40

Grammatical Items Used in EFL Dictionary Examples: From theJapanese EFL Learner Perspective

Yasutake ISHII
Seijo University, Japanishii@seijo.ac.jp

Danny MINN
University of Kitakyushu, Japandanminn@kitakyu-u.ac.jp

Abstract
Advanced and intermediate EFL learners often use the so-called “Big Five” English monolingual
learner’s dictionaries (Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, “Collins COBUILD” series,
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners,
and Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English). Learners rely heavily on these
dictionaries’ examples as well as their definitions to learn the proper use of the words they look up, but
Japanese EFL learners often find the examples too difficult and become reluctant to use monolingual
dictionaries even if they are encouraged to do so. Typical factors that make the examples difficult forthem include high levels of vocabulary, sentence length, and grammar, the last of which we focus ourattention on.
We extracted our database of examples from the electronic versions of the Big Five dictionaries whichallowed us to see what grammatical items are typically used in the dictionaries. The sizes of theexamples are about 600,000 to 800,000 words in each dictionary. The grammatical items analyzed inour research are based on the list developed in a survey of the textbooks and reference books widelyused in Japanese junior and senior high schools, which means it covers the grammatical items mostoften studied by Japanese students in class. This paper will reveal which grammatical items are
frequently and infrequently used in dictionary examples and discuss how we can prepare them for theuse of monolingual EFL dictionaries.

Keywords: learners’ dictionaries, database of examples, grammatical items, Japanese EFL
learners
1. Grammatical items in EFL dictionaries
We expect EFL learners’ dictionaries to offer examples to users that are not too difficult andreadable enough. Ishii (2011a) studied their examples in terms of vocabulary levels andconfirmed that this is generally the case except for some examples of difficult headwords andthe examples in COBUILD6. However, we also need to examine whether they are appropriate
for learners in terms of grammar. This leads to the following two research questions: (1) Are
there any characteristic uses of grammatical items in EFL dictionaries? (2) How can Japaneselearners of English be better prepared to use monolingual EFL dictionaries?
In order to answer these questions, we have selected those grammatical items that areimportant for Japanese learners of English (Section 2) and have analyzed the full-text data ofthe examples (Section 3). We have also analyzed EFL textbooks and have compared thefrequencies of the grammatical items (Section 4). Through these analyses we will identify anddiscuss the characteristics of examples in EFL dictionaries in terms of grammar (Section 5).
2. Selection of grammatical items
The previous literature on grammatical items in terms of CEFR (Common European
Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning, Teaching, Assessment) levels include A
Core Inventory for General English (North et al. 2010) and English Profile: Introducing the
CEFR for English, Version 1.1 (2011). The former gives items such as the following for the154

A1 level: “have got” (British), imperatives (affirmative/negative), past simple, “going to”,
“I’d like”, adjectives (common and demonstrative), comparatives and superlatives, adverbs offrequency, and very basic intensifiers (“really” and “very”). The latter offers the following
items for the A2 level, for example: sentences with clauses joined by “that”, descriptive
phrases introduced by a past participle, simple sentences using infinitives, other infinitives,
some modals, and so on. Looking at these items, we soon notice that some of them aredifficult to clearly define to check their frequency in corpora because some of them are
vocabulary items rather than grammatical ones and classifications are sometimes not detailed
enough. In addition, although one of our aims is to focus on Japanese learners of English, thegranularity of the classifications sometimes make them unsuitable for application to theJapanese EFL environment.
In order to solve these problems, we decided to select grammatical items widely recognized
and accepted in Japan. We first consulted a list of grammatical items developed by Professor
Hiroshi Sano at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies and his colleagues (Sano Lab 2005).
They conducted a survey of the Japanese textbook market and studied 31 best-selling
textbooks (six junior high school texts, eight high school “English I” texts, eight high school“English II” texts, and nine writing texts) and four widely used reference books (Minn et al.
2005). The criteria for inclusion into the list were as follows: (1) items that commonlyoccurred in all of the main textbooks, and (2) items that may not necessarily have occurred in
all of the textbooks, but were common in several of the texts or determined to be highly
useful for language learning. From this study, 144 grammatical items were chosen. The 144
items included grammatical items from the simple “I am + noun” to the more difficult S + V+ C, emphasis syntax, or subjunctive past perfect. Basically, the 144 items were in theaffirmative form, but for each grammatical item, 13 other subordinate items such as negative
forms or interrogative sentences were made. Therefore, multiplying 144 items by 14 sentence
types resulted in 2,016 items. Of those, however, 696 patterns did not actually exist as proper
English sentences, so after deleting them, the total number was 1,320 sentence patterns. These
patterns were defined following the CQL (Corpus Query Language) format using word forms,
lemmas and POS tags.
In this current study, this list was adapted for our use. Some of the items were either too
detailed or not detailed enough. So we divided “present/past passives” into two different
items while we integrated items “comparative adjectives ending in ‘-er’”, “comparative
adjectives with ‘more’”, “comparative adverbs ending in ‘-er” and “comparative adverbs with‘more’” into one item, COMPARATIVES, and added lexical items such as “better” here, forinstance. Also, some items were lacking (e.g., REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS and “used to”), sothey were added in our new list. In addition, some items were difficult to define in terms ofword forms, lemmas and POS tags, so their CQL expressions’ accuracy was not high enough;they were modified in order to achieve the highest precision that was possible. As forsentence types, our new list mainly focuses on affirmative patterns alone, but some questions
and negatives that seem basic and important, especially for beginners to intermediate learners,
were included (e.g., AFFIRMATIVE TAG QUESTIONS following negative sentences and
NEGATIVE IMPERATIVES). Furthermore, the new list makes use of versatile regularexpressions as the CQL which Sano Lab’s list used was available only on a particular inhouse system and not available elsewhere.
The next step was to consult the Core Inventory and to add some items not covered in SanoLab’s list. For example, we added such items as SIMPLE PAST, AUX + PERFECT +PASSIVE (e.g., ‘could have been done’), “used to” and INDIRECT SPEECH. The final
number of our items is 157, part of which is shown in Table 1.

155

Table 1 Part of the grammatical items adopted in this study
ID
1
2
10
12

Grammatical item
I am
You areThis/That N
ARTICLES

13

some/any

15

POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS22PRESENT PROGRESSIVE

23

PRESENT PERFECT

24

PRESENT PERFECT PROGRESSIVE

37
52
53

PAST PROGRESSIVE PASSIVE
be able tobe going to

ID
54
55
76
77
78
83
90
98
103
105
118
131

Grammatical item
Can
Could
There + AUX + be
V + THAT (CLAUSE)
know/wonder + WH- (CLAUSE) (except
for “whether”)
It + V + ADJ + to do
RELATIVE
PRONOUNS:NOMINATIVERELATIVE ADVERBS: WITHOUTANTECEDENTTAGQUESTIONS:FOLLOWING
NEGATIVE SENTENCESDOUBLE OBJECTSSECOND CONDITIONALS
WH- QUESTIONS: Why ...?

3. Use of full-text data of examples
In this section, we will describe how we can obtain and analyze the whole text data ofdictionary examples. The following five dictionaries are examined in this study.






CALD4: Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, 4th ed. (2013)
COBUILD6: Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary of English. (2008) (The 7th(2012) and the 8th (2014) editions do not offer a CD/DVD-ROM which makes it
impossible to use the data in the way described below.)
LDOCE5: Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 5th ed. (2009) (The 6thedition (2014) does not offer a CD/DVD-ROM.)
MED2: Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners, 2nd ed. (2007)
OALD8: Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, 8th ed. (2010)(The 9th edition (2015) was not available when we carried out this study. It is notclear whether its accompanying DVD-ROM can be used in the same manner as we
adopted in this study.)

We first need to extract XML-formatted data from the CD/DVD-ROMs accompanying theprinted editions. The details of how to extract the XML data are explained in Ishii (2011b),
but to put it briefly, we can just install the program and obtain the XML data for COBUILD6,
and for the other four dictionaries the necessary XML data can be obtained by decompressing
the files that are compressed, but not encrypted, in the same format30.
We then created a script which extracts examples from the XML files and removes
unnecessary markup tags31. The analysis conducted in this paper is based on the data on the
CD/DVD-ROMs, which are different from the printed editions of each dictionary in somecases. Some dictionaries have additional entries on the electronic versions, but they are notused in the following analysis.

30

A few examples of the websites that provide the programs to retrieve the XML data are given below(as of May 20, 2015):
Perl: http://www.geocities.jp/tak492/; http://www.geocities.jp/taka_depo/
Ruby: https://gist.github.com/tmaeda/948740/
Python: https://github.com/superfan89/IDMSKconv/
31
The script used for this purpose is available on http://www.ishi-i.net/p/dictionarycorpus.html. The
version of the script we used is 20150226.

156

The size of the data thus obtained is about 3,655,000 words in total. Table 2 lists the details32.
Table 2 Approximate numbers of tokens in each example data
CALD4
802,00COBUILD6
698,000

LDOCE5733,000

MED2
615,000

OALD8
807,000

Finally, we POS-tagged and lemmatized the data with CLAWS, and converted each file into
an XML format, which is an extended format from the one used in the BNC (Figure 1). The
resulting data looks like the sample given in Figure 2.
<s n="2"> ... <w c5="PNP" hw="he" pos="PRON">he</w> <w c5="VBD" hw="be"pos="VERB">was </w> <w c5="VVG" hw="drive" pos="VERB">driving </w> <w c5="PRP"
hw="through" pos="PREP">through</w> <w c5="NP0" hw="lydsett" pos="SUBST">Lydsett </w>
<w c5="NN1" hw="village" pos="SUBST">village</w><c c5="PUN">.</c>


Figure 1 Sample of the BNC (line breaks omitted)<s n="131"> <w c7="AT" c5="AT0" hw="the" pos="ART">The</w> <w c7="NN1" c5="NN1"hw="rescue"
pos="SUBST">rescue</w><w
c7="NN1"
c5="NN1"
hw="mission"
pos="SUBST">mission</w> <w c7="VHD" c5="VHD" hw="have" pos="VERB">had</w> <w
c7="TO" c5="TO0" hw="to" pos="PREP">to</w> <w c7="VBI" c5="VBI" hw="be"pos="VERB">be</w> <w c7="VVN" c5="VVN" hw="abort" pos="VERB">aborted</w><cc5="PUN">.</c>


Figure 2 Sample of our final data
The regular expressions for searching each grammatical item correspond to this format:‘c7="PPGE"’ for POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS (15) and ‘c5="(VBB|VBZ)" [^>]+>[^<]+</w>?<w c7="V.G"’ for PRESENT PROGRESSIVE sentences (22), for example.
4. Comparison with EFL textbooks
In order to answer our research questions, we need to look at the use of grammatical items in
EFL textbooks. We digitized “English Communication I” textbooks for first-year (tenthgrade) Japanese high school students (“JHS1” in Table 3) and CEFR-based EFL textbooks
targeted at learners of B1/B2/C1 levels published by foreign publishers. We scanned the
textbooks and processed them with some OCR software to get the texts, which were then
POS-tagged and lemmatized and finally reformatted into the same XML format as we used
for our dictionary examples. The details of the digitized textbooks are summarized in Table
333.
Table 3 Data size of our CEFR-based textbook corpus
JHS1
EFL B1EFL B2
EFL C1

Number of textbooks
24
27
24
9

32

Number of words
185,000
441,000
517,000
253,000

The figures are based on the number of <w> elements in the reformatted data (see Fig. 2). Please
note that each multi-word unit such as “in accordance with” is counted as one token, not three tokens,in this study.
33
The numbers of words are based on the number of <w> elements in the final XML data. Thosewords given in vocabulary lists are excluded from these numbers.

157

5. Data and discussion
5.1. Frequency of each grammatical item
We counted the frequency of each grammatical item in the dictionary examples andtextbooks. Part of the results is given in Table 4.
Table 4 Sample of the frequency table (per million words)
ID
17
27
49
59
13
4

Grammatical
item
FREQUENCY
ADVERBSPASTPERFECTCOMPARATI
VES
might

JHS
1
2,21
1
1,25
7
4,09
9
280

EFL
B1
3,55
8
638

What ...?

885

2,01
5

4,35
0
549

EFL
B2
3,23
3
1,46
4
4,94
4
1,00
0
1,50
2

EFL
C1
2,34
6
1,76
2
4,87
8
754

CALD
4
1,997

COBUIL
D6
1,442

LDOC
E5
1,629

MED
2
1,655

OAL
D8
1,393

1,746

2,952

2,120

2,345

1,950

2,809

2,982

2,955

2,883

2,629

359

387

372

289

178

2,19
2

442

205

563

491

543

It will be of interest to see the difference among the five dictionaries, but in this paper we will
focus on the difference between dictionary examples and textbooks, adhering to our researchquestions.

5.2. Items used less frequently in dictionary examples
In order to answer our first research question (Are there any characteristic uses ofgrammatical items in monolingual EFL dictionaries?), we looked through the results andfound a few items that are less or more frequently used in EFL dictionary examples than the
textbooks for intermediate to advanced learners. Those items that occur less frequently in
dictionary examples include FREQUENCY ADVERBS (Figure. 3), COMPARATIVES(Figure. 4), some MODALS (“can”, “could”, “may”, “might” and “would”), TAG
QUESTIONS, SUBORDINATE CLAUSES and INDIRECT SPEECH constructions. The
purpose of the examples in dictionaries is to illustrate how the headwords are actually used,
but the lexicographers need to be constantly conscious of space restrictions. They are required
to strike a balance between natural English and short examples. It is often the case that items
such as FREQUENCY ADVERBS, COMPARATIVES, MODALS and TAG QUESTIONS
can be omitted without causing unnaturalness. SUBORDINATE CLAUSES often requirealmost double the length of simple clauses, and the same holds true about RELATIVE
PRONOUNS(NONRESTRICTIVE),
RELATIVE
ADVERBS,PARTICIPIALCONSTRUCTIONS and SUBJUNCTIVES that are all used less frequently in the dictionary
examples. INDIRECT SPEECH constructions can be avoided simply by giving the utterancesor questions. Also, MODALS are often associated with subjective understandings ofsituations, which may need more contextual information, i.e., more space.

158

Figure 3 Frequency of FREQUENCY ADVERBS (per million words)

Figure 4 Frequency of COMPARATIVES (per million words)
In addition to the space limitations, text types may be a factor for the difference;
AFFIRMATIVE IMPERATIVES and some types of QUESTIONS (“Do you ...?”, “Why...?”, “What ...?”, “Which ...?” and “How ...?”) occur less frequently in dictionary examples,
perhaps because these items are more favored in spoken language34.
These may be some of the plausible reasons why the dictionary examples have less of theabove items than textbooks which have less space limitations and which include various text
types.
5.3. Items used more frequently in dictionary examples
In order to answer our second research question (How can Japanese learners of English bebetter prepared to use monolingual EFL dictionaries?), we should look at those items that are
more frequently used in dictionary examples. The most noticeable ones include complex
structures such as PRESENT PERFECT PASSIVE and PAST PERFECT PASSIVE (Fig. 5)
and EXISTENTIAL “there” + PERFECT (Fig. 6). Although we cannot say for sure what thereasons for these high frequencies are, it is a fact that some grammatical items, especiallycomplex structures, are typically used in dictionary examples. To make sure that the users ofthe dictionaries can fully understand their examples and benefit from the information therein,teachers should know which items are typically used in monolingual EFL dictionaries andteach their students accordingly. Another possibility is that dictionaries themselves offer
information on the grammatical items they often employ in their examples (and in their
34

Negative imperatives are, on the contrary, used more frequently in dictionary examples, the reasons
for which are of interest but beyond the scope of this paper.

159

definitions as well). It should not be a wild idea because such a list of grammatical items isjust like a list of a defining vocabulary offered in most monolingual EFL dictionaries.

Figure 5 Frequency of PRESENT/PAST PERFECT PASSIVE constructions (per million
words)

Figure 6 Frequency of constructions of EXISTENTIAL “there” + PERFECT (per million
words)
6. Summary and future studies
We have seen some characteristic features of the examples of the “Big Five” EFL
monolingual dictionaries. Although they all function as a model for learners, they tend to use
certain grammatical items more frequently or less frequently than EFL textbooks that learners
use to study English for their classes. Getting more aware of these facts can lead to learners’
better use of these dictionaries.
What distinguishes this research is the fact that it is based on the complete data of all
examples, not on just fragmentary samples. It is true that the data presented in this paper is
not completely accurate; processing the data was carried out automatically and some manual
data editing and elaboration of the patterns for the grammatical items would be necessary toachieve more accuracy. There is also skewness in the data resulting from different policies
taken in each dictionary or textbook; for example, the COBUILD dictionaries, especially,
differ greatly from others in grammar as well as the length of examples and vocabulary used160

in them 35 . Considering these aspects would enable us to make a fair and constructive
comparison of the examples in EFL dictionaries, as well as reveal more features characteristicof these dictionaries.
Acknowledgments
This work was partially supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) #24242017 and JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Young
Scientists (B) #26770201.

References
English profile: Introducing the CEFR for English, Version 1.1. 2011. UCLES / CUP.
http://www.englishprofile.org/images/pdf/theenglishprofilebooklet.pdf. Accessed 20
May 2015.
Ishii, Y. 2011a. Gakushuusha muke ei-ei-jisho deeta no kyouiku-mokuteki koopasu toshiteno
katsuyou kanousei no kousatsu [Using the data in English monolingual learner’s
dictionaries as a corpus for pedagogical purposes]. Studies in liberal arts and sciences
43, 269-292. Tokyo University of Science.
Ishii, Y. 2011b. Comparing the vocabulary sets used in the “Big Five” English monolingual
dictionaries for advanced EFL learners. In Lexicography: Theoretical and Practical
Perspectives, eds. K. Akasu, and S. Uchida, 180-189. The Asian Association for
Lexicography.
Minn, D., H. Sano, M. Ino, and T. Nakamura. 2005. Using the BNC to create and develop
educational materials and a website for learners of English. ICAME Journal 29, 99114.
North, B., A. Ortega, and S. Sheehan. 2010. A Core Inventory for General English. British
Council / EAQUALS.
http://clients.squareeye.net/uploads/eaquals2011/documents/EAQUALS_British_Cou
ncil_Core_Curriculum_April2011.pdf. Accessed 20 May 2015.
Sano Lab. 2005. Bunpou koumoku betsu BNC youreisyuu oyobi bunpou koumokusyuu[Classification of examples collected from the BNC by grammatical items]. (Version
1.0). http://scn.jkn21.com/ncube/n-cube.usage.html. Accessed 20 May 2015.

35

For a discussion on the vocabulary levels of the examples of the five dictionaries (some of which areprevious editions), see Ishii (2011b).

161

Where is the place for slang? An analysis of labeling of restrictive
word usage in monolingual English learners’ dictionaries
Susanna Bae1, Young-kuk Jeong2
International Graduate School of English, South Korea
1susannabae@gmail.com, 2young@igse.ac.kr
Abstract
Among a range of labels in English monolingual learners’ dictionaries, restrictive usage labels such asslang, very informal, impolite or offensive are very important in that they alert learners to serious
potential risks resulting from the inappropriate use of words with these indication markers. The
question, however, is whether they are easily and clearly understood by target dictionary users. The
present study focuses on the use of slang in the major monolingual English dictionaries for advanced
learners and critically evaluates their functions against those of other closely related labels. Dictionary
analysis indicated that there are considerable inconsistencies in the treatment of these usage labels. A
survey questionnaire also showed that some of the labels are likely to create confusion among thetarget users. Suggestions are made as to ways of increasing the consistency and comprehensibility ofrestrictive usage information in dictionaries.
Keywords: dictionary criticism, restrictive usage labels, monolingual learners’ dictionaries ofEnglish, slang, impolite taboo

1. Introduction
Slang is an elusive term. The most recent edition of Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary(9th, 2015) provides the following definition for the word: “Very informal words andexpressions that are more common in spoken language, especially used by a particular groupof people, for example, children, criminals, soldiers, etc.” From this simple definition alone,
the term’s multifaceted characteristics quickly emerge—a high degree of informality, spoken
mode, user group affiliation, and usage sometimes restricted to members of particular social
strata.
Other major learners’ dictionaries offer similar definitions, among which are the definition
from Merriam-Webster Learner’s Dictionary, which points out another distinctive feature ofslang: “Words that are not considered part of the standard vocabulary of a language […]”, andthat of WordNet 3.1, which goes further to include yet another characteristic: “Informal
language […] often vituperative or vulgar.” The definition excerpts from these two
dictionaries add to slang the attributes of being non-standard, vulgar and/or offensive.
However, mere vulgarism is not slang. As Coleman (2012: 21) points out, swearing is notnecessarily slang although slang words are often associated with swearing words.
Moreover, slang is not only informal, but it also has various pragmatic effects and sociolinguistic functions. According to who uses it to whom in what occasion, slang makes speech
more affectionate, humorous, disrespectful, playful, or pithy, as in the definition from
American Heritage Dictionary: “A kind of language occurring chiefly in casual and playful
speech, made up typically of coinage and figures of speech that are deliberately used in placeof standard terms for added raciness, humor, irreverence, or other effect.” In addition to the‘playfulness’ characteristic, the AHD’s definition points to another very significant
characteristic of slang expressions—that they usually involve the creation of new words or
new meanings for existing words. Like newly coined words in general, some slang words thatonce were obscure to most people may evolve to become an established part of the language,
whereas others may have currency only for a short time. As Hornby (1963: xi) admitted,
162

“Nothing more quickly dates than slang”. This constant change in the linguistic status of slang
vocabulary means to the lexicographer the on-going revision of entries to which the labelslang is attached.
2. Strengths and weaknesses of slang as a dictionary label
From the definitions discussed in the previous section, it can be summarized that thefollowing characteristics constitute slang vocabulary:









spoken mode, colloquial—when people speaking together;very informal;
non-standard, or deliberate substitution for a standard equivalent;
used by particular professional or social groups;
vulgar, inelegant;
impolite, vituperative, swearing;coinage, neologism, creation of new meanings to current words;
often with intended effects of playfulness, humor, irreverence, ellipsis, vividness, etc.

Slanginess may consist of the combination of all or some of those characteristics, but it still
distinguishes itself from any one of them. Thus if we call a word slang, we may have todecide why it is slang rather than a very informal, new, or impolite word. If slang vocabulary
is placed in the overlapping space between humorous and impolite, for instance, this may
pose a problem to an English learner. Without knowing exactly why and how a slang word
may sound, he or she would feel unsure as to whether it has more of an informal and relaxed
connotation, a disrespectful connotation, or both in equal measure. Another problem is thatthese characteristics are not inherent in a word, but only identifiable in light of the context inwhich it is used. Moreover, some of the characteristics are within the realm of objective
criteria (such as register, mode, regions, nonconformity to standard, and group membership),whereas it is very difficult to objectively judge how much a word is vulgar, humorous, orplayful. Coupled to these is the task of currency check. As mentioned earlier, each of slang
words follows its own path into informal, standard, dated, or obsolete. For instance, log on
was a slang jargon among computer enthusiasts during 1960s (Coleman 2012).
Technological advances in communication media and the spread of social network services
make outdated the idea of slang as chiefly spoken language. For one thing, online
communication is a hybrid between spoken and written language. From this perspective wemay need to modify the view about slang as being both off and online colloquialism.
Secondly, nearly instantaneous connection between people through online media speeds up
the dissemination of slang vocabulary into wider population, making it very difficult to
identify a particular social group to which a slang word belongs. If we cannot identify its
main users, the word would better be categorized as (very) informal rather than slang(Coleman 2012).
The peculiarity of slang is also apparent in existing classifications of dictionary labelingsystem. Hausmann (1989, cited in Svensén 2009: 316) regards slang as a socio-cultural status
marker along with such labels as popular and vulgar, and differentiates it from the otherregister and normativity categories. Similarly, according to Miller’s (2011) summary ofliterature on classification of dictionary labels, slang is grouped under the same status heading
as the labels dialect, jargon, and taboo, amongst others. On the other hand, Svensén (2009:327-328) cautiously proposes a continuum of ‘style’ level on which slang is placed
somewhere between colloquial and vulgar. Landau (2001) and Atkins and Rundell (2008), in
contrast, isolate the slang label from all the other labeling categories, presumably inrecognition of its nonconformity to any one specific criterion. In short, depending on how
much importance we attach to certain aspects of slang, it can either be put under the category163

of register (i.e. very informal), domain (as in school jargon or journalism jargon), status andnormativity (i.e. vulgar, non-standard), or even attitude (i.e. offensive).
All these problems inherent in defining slang have made lexicographers and dictionary
researchers question its effectiveness as a dictionary label. In his attempt to describe thestylistic levels of the colloquial, slang, and vulgar labels, Svensén (2009) recognizes thepractical difficulties lexicographers must wrestle with when drawing lines between saidlabels. As an alternative to such limitations, he proposes using a simpler labeling system,‘informal’ and ‘very informal’ (2009: 328). In a similar vein, Fedorova (2004) claims that theslang label should be replaced with ‘very informal’, on the basis that labels sharing the sameroot, formal, in descending order of formality are deemed simpler and easier to understand.
This suggestion is precisely in line with the labeling policy adopted by MEDAL, which
introduced new labels such as very formal and very informal, with the latter substituting forthe conventional slang label. COBUILD is another dictionary that does not include slangamong its very detailed list of usage labels. As for LDOCE, which previously used the label,it has abandoned it from the fourth edition onwards. Currently only OALD and CALD
continue to include slang in their labeling lists. Although it is no less difficult to distinguishvery informal words from informal than it is to distinguish the slang and informal labels fromeach other, very informal as a label is apparently much more transparent compared to slang,
and its meaning can be more objectively understood. However, the problem of this simplicity
seems that it may too quickly forsake many other characteristics unique to slang. Landau, infact, speaks in favor of maintaining the slang label when he observes the following (2001:
238-240):
Dictionary labeling of slang is notoriously inconsistent […] It is easier to spend one’s
time constructing theories to explain why there is no such thing as slang than to identify
and harness its peculiar energy and spice and stick a label on it. […] Slang is a usefulconcept. Since there are no external criteria for identifying slang, we must support
efforts to establish them. […] In day-to-day decisions, words are labeled slang by
lexicographers or their advisers because the words are deemed extremely informal. Thisis unsatisfactory; slang is not simply very informal usage. But until we have agreed
criteria by which to judge them, slang and informal words will appear in more or lessfree variation in dictionaries.
To paraphrase what Landau argues, if it is less than satisfactory to attach the slang label towords just because they are very informal, the opposite practice may also be unsatisfactory,
that is to label as very informal words that would more aptly be regarded as slang. The
labeling system of a dictionary is centrally an editorial decision; it depends on the dictionary’s
purpose and intended users. We may, to some extent, compromise accuracy for simplicity
when it comes to dictionaries for EAL learners; but before doing so, we should first ask
whether slang is still a useful concept that helps English learners improve their knowledge
and control of English vocabulary. The issue of establishing objective criteria then follows. If
the slang label is considered to have its own functions distinguished from other similarlabels’, and if this discrimination is considered to be relevant to target dictionary users, then it
should be consistently and judiciously applied so that its intended message can be correctly
communicated to the users.
The present study is motivated by the need for a critical evaluation of slang and related labelsfrom an EAL leaner’s perspective. For this purpose, it first investigates the use of the slanglabel in the OALD eighth and ninth editions and compares it to other closely related labels—
informal, very informal, impolite, offensive, taboo, etc.—commonly included in monolingualEnglish dictionaries for learners. The dictionary analysis mainly involves the collection of
entries labeled as slang from Section B of OALD8, as well as the comparison of these to thesame entries in different learners’ dictionaries. Also, in an attempt to assess the efficiency ofusing the slang and other related labels, a questionnaire survey examining the understanding164

of slang and other related labels was sent out to a group of adult Korean advanced learners ofEnglish. The following research questions guided the study:1) Are the characteristics of slang other than the degree of formality present in the slang
entries in OALDs?
2) How do Korean advanced learners of English understand the slang and related labels
occurring in the major English monolingual learners’ dictionaries?
In the following sections the main data analysis procedures are presented along with theirresults. In light of what has been found from this study, the final section suggests ways toimprove the process of identifying and describing slang/very informal entries in dictionaries
for language learners.
3. Slang entries from the major monolingual learners’ dictionaries
The entry comparison was carried out mainly in order to find out what slang means indifferent dictionaries and how it is related to other labels. One-to-one comparisons between
dictionaries were not possible because all five dictionaries adopted different labeling policies.
CALD and OALD maintain the slang label, but the former also has very informal along withinformal, while the latter, while not having very informal, specifies that slang refers to ‘very
informal language’ in its user guide. This may suggest that CALD assigns a particularfunction to slang which is differentiated from that of very informal, whereas OALD may use
slang more loosely as a substitute for very informal. By contrast, MEDAL substitutes very
informal for slang, which its user guide states is ‘used in very informal situations and mainly
among people who know each other well.’ It adds that ‘Some dictionaries use the label slang’.
LDOCE and COBUILD, on the other hand, have only the informal label, without further
specifying the degree of informality. Therefore, it was decided to begin with slang entries
from OALD, against which the equivalent entries in the other learners’ dictionaries arecompared.
Slang entries were collected within the section B of OALD8 by means of the right-core fieldsearch function available on its CD-ROM version. The headword search by register labels
yielded 82 slang entries in total. The count of an entry unit was based on each individual subsense of a lemma. For example, the number 4 sense of baby, which is labeled as slang, iscounted as one entry whereas the lemma bitch has three sub-senses, among which only thesecond and third are marked as slang, and which must thus have two separate entries. If slang
is given in the left-core field (as in the noun lemma bugger), each of its sub-senses wascounted as one individual entry. The entries collected from OALD8 were compared to thoseof OALD9 to see if any revisions occurred: the labels for the entry Black Maria weremodified from slang; old-fashioned to informal; old-fashioned, and thus it was excluded fromthe comparison. The remaining entries were then compared to corresponding entries from theother four dictionaries—LDOCE5, COBUILD6, on-line CALD and MEDAL. Seven out of
the OALD’s slang entries were not found in any of the other dictionaries, thus they were also
excluded, which resulted in 74 entries in total to be analyzed.
The analysis of the distribution of labels for these entries showed the following patterns: 1)
the slang words (of OALD) were neither considered slang nor even as very informal in theother dictionaries; 2) Nearly half of the OALD’s slang entries were accompanied with thelabel taboo. We will look at each of these findings below.
The first comparison was made between OALD and CALD, and it showed that there were
only eleven corresponding slang entries found in CALD. As for the very informal label,
CALD had even fewer—only four entries were labeled as very informal. This pattern was notvery different from the comparison to MEDAL. Only five entries were labeled as very
informal in MEDAL. All the rest were either labeled as simply informal/spoken, or marked
165with other derogatory labels (i.e. offensive, not polite, impolite, rude, taboo) throughout thefour dictionaries. Only the following OALD slang entries agreed with the two otherdictionaries. Table 1 shows the entries in which the three dictionaries are marked as eitherslang or very informal:

Table 1. Slang and very informal entries from OALD, CALD, and MEDA
Slang entries
Accompanying CALDMEDAL
from OALD8
labels (OALD)
old-fashioned
old-fashioned
old-fashioned
beak3
slang
informalslangspokenbeat itold-fashionedslang
old-fashioned
berk
informalslang
bint
offensive (8)  slang
informalbird2
old-fashioned
(9)
slang
very informala bit of all rightvery informal
very informal
bitch3[difficulties]slang
impolite
bleedingtaboovery informal
impolitebloodytaboo
offensivevery informal
blow job- [no entry]
very informal
blow152
slang
informalbog n.
taboo
slang
spokenbog off
impolitevery informal
informal
boob1
slang
boss adj.
informalvery informal
brass monkeys
taboovery informal
impoliteBS4
old-fashioned
informalhave/take a butcher’sslang
Granted, we cannot draw conclusions about which dictionary is better in terms of the labelingof very informal/slang words based upon this simple distribution table alone; indeed it is quite
apparent, even within this small collection of entries, which were noted to fall more solidly
under the very informal or slang labels, that characteristics of slang beyond very informal are
difficult to find. In the case of OALD, it seems that the slang label is used very arbitrarily
from simply very informal words to barely informal ones. It is very hard for an English
learner who looks up boob, for example, in OALD9 to understand why the word is slangwhen it means ‘a woman’s breast’ whereas it is just North American English when it means‘a stupid person’. Similarly, it is very difficult to find a convincing reason why bloody
remains a slang word when ‘everyone knows it, and most people use it, particularly when
they are trying not to be offensive’ (Coleman 2012: 22). The exceptions are few: the entry forberk (a stupid person) gives enough information to a dictionary user as to why it is more of aslang word, telling us that it originates from the rhyming slang, Berkeley/Berkshire Hunt,which referred to a cunt (a stupid person) during the 1930s. To have a butcher’s is anotherexample of rhyming slang, and beak (an insulting word for judge) came from 18th century
criminal slang. Among the words analyzed, only these last words possess the low frequency
and very limited age-group usage which qualifies them as slang rather than simply (very)
informal expressions. As for bird (referring to a girl), which was previously labeled as ‘slang;sometimes offensive’, it has been modified to slang; old-fashioned in OALD9. But if bird is a166slang word for a girl, a learner may wonder, for what reason is chick labeled only as oldfashioned, without any other restrictive labels.
Another very prominent pattern was the label’s co-occurrence with the taboo label. In OALD,
nearly half of the slang entries (36 among 74, or 41 among the original 82 entries) wereaccompanied by the taboo label. For taboo or offensive entries, LDOCE has a scale ofoffensiveness ranging from ‘not polite’ to ‘taboo’, and this corresponds with MEDAL’s
continuum of ‘impolite—offensive’ scale. As to CALD, it abandoned the taboo label andinstead adopted the single label ‘offensive’. On the contrary, OALD and COBUILD use the‘offensive’ and ‘taboo’ labels to describe different types of language, rather than to describe
the degree of offense of words of the same type. COBUILD minutely distinguishes the
speaker’s intended purpose (i.e. insult) from the hearer’s potential reaction (i.e. shock), andassigns the ‘offensive/very offensive’ labels to the former, and the ‘rude/very rude’ to thelatter. According to COBUILD, words which describe sexual organs or excretion can thus bemarked as (very) rude, while insulting words referring to people’s characteristics, race,
religion, etc. are more likely to be marked as (very) offensive. Likewise, the OALD’s pairedlabels ‘offensive—taboo’ have the same function, with the former describing words which are‘used by some people to address or refer to people in a way that is very insulting, especially inconnection with their race, religion, sex or disabilities’, and the latter describing words whichare ‘likely to be thought by many people to be obscene or shocking’. It is interesting to seethat taboo has become a less frequently used labeling term, just like slang. Three of thedictionaries do not use taboo at all, and LDOCE, which is one of the two that still include
taboo, uses it very rarely compared to OALD.
Table 2 summarizes the list of OALD’s ‘taboo+slang’ entries and the distribution of
offensive/impolite labels provided in the other dictionaries:
Taboo+slang entries
LDOCE5COBUILD6CALD
MEDAL
from OALD8
informal,
not ball2 v.
politeinformal,very offensive
impoliteballs1 [nonsense]rude
not polite
informal, rude
offensive
impoliteballs2 [courage]
not polite
offensive
impolite
Balls![exclamation]
not polite
offensive
impoliteballs4 [testicles]
informalinformal, rude
offensive
impoliteballs-up
informalinformal, rude
offensive
impoliteballs sth up
not polite
not polite
offensivebang5 v.
1[unpleasant]taboo
informal,very offensive
offensive
bastardrude
informal,
not offensive
beat off
politerude
very informal
impolitebloodyinformaloffensivevery informal
blow job
informalslang
impolitebog off
informalinformal, rude
offensive
impolitebollocks1[nonsense]2[testicles]
informalinformal, rude
offensive
bollocks
informalinformal, rude
impolite
Bollocks![exclamation]
not polite
very informal
impolite
BS4
1[insulting a ma]
not polite
informal, rude
offensive
impolitebuggern.
not polite
informalinformalbugger2[sympathetic] n.
not polite
informal, rude
offensive
bugger3[difficulties] n.
not polite
informal, rude
offensive
impolitebugger1[don’t care] v.
167bugger2[ruin]bugger3[to have anal sex]
bugger about/aroundbuggersb
about/aroundbugger all
bugger mebugger off
bugger sth upbuggered1[tired] n.
buggered2[ruined] n.
I’ll be buggered
I’ll be buggered if…
buggerytaboo, law
not polite
not polite

informal, rude
informal, rude
informal, rude

offensive
offensive, law
offensive
offensive

impolite
impolite
impolite
impolitenot polite
not polite
not polite
not polite
not polite
not polite
not polite
law

informal, rude
informal, rude
informal, rude
informal, rude
informal, rude
informal, rude
informal, rude
informal, rude-

impolite
impolite
impolite
impolite
impolite
impolite
impolitelegalbullshit n.
bullshit v.

not polite

informal, rude
informal, rude

offensive
offensive
offensive
offensive
offensive
offensive
offensive
specialized,
offensive
offensive
offensive

impolite
impolite

As can be seen in Table 2, OALD’s taboo+slang words roughly coincide with COBUILD’s‘rude’, LDOCE’s ‘not polite’, CALD’s ‘offensive’, and MEDAL’s ‘impolite’ labels.
However, there are two points that merit special attention here. First, the degree of restriction
suggested by the combination of slang and taboo to a word may be much greater than theword really deserves. As taboo may mean either an extremely offensive word or a very rudeword, this semantic overload may further confuse a learner, unless he or she carefully
examines the dictionary’s user guide to see what this label means. Secondly, in the otherdictionaries, there is a tendency for the impoliteness markers to have priority over the registermarkers. The only exception to this is COBUILD, which provides the register (i.e. informal)
and status (i.e. rude) labels independently. In such a case, it would be more justifiable to givethe most important information the greatest prominence; if a word is sure to sound impolite,
then comments about its informality may be redundant. It was found that OALD has only afew ‘offensive’ entries compared to ‘taboo’ entries—the search within section B yielded only
six entries marked as ‘offensive’: baldy, bird, blonde, brunette, bulldyke, and banana
republic—and all but one (bird) had no accompanying ‘informal’ or ‘slang’ markers. Theremay be a lot of taboo entries, too, which do not need the additional slang marker.
4. Understanding of slang and very informal labels in Korean learners of English
A questionnaire survey was sent out to a group of Korean learners of English and received 75
responses. Some of the participants were postgraduate students in English Language Teaching
and related fields, and all the rest had master’s degrees in ELT and applied linguistics. 84% of
the respondents answered that they are familiar with English monolingual dictionaries, and
83% were frequent users of MLDs. In order to find out how they understand the slang andvery informal labels, the questionnaire included thirteen statements about each of the ‘very
informal’ and ‘slang’ labels, and asked the respondents to tick whichever option on the scale
best represented their opinion. The numerical score 0 was given to ‘strongly disagree’, 1 to‘disagree’, 2 to ‘agree’ and 3 to ‘strongly agree’. The questionnaire contained the following
statements for each question, which were originally written in Korean:
Question A: When a certain word in your dictionary has the usage label ‘very informal’,what characteristics do you assume the word has? Click on the radio button that best
applies to you:168

Question B: When a certain word in your dictionary has the usage label ‘slang’, whatcharacteristics do you assume the word has? Click on the radio button that best applies
to you:Statements:
1) It is a spoken word.
2) It is an informal word.
3) It is a non-standard word.
4) It is a word that a certain group of people mainly uses.
5) It has a lot of newly coined words.
6) It is a word that people in close relationships use.
7) It is a word that people in the same generation use.
8) It is a vulgar word.
9) People who use this word seem trendy and up-to-date.
10) It gives people discomfort.
11) It is rude.
12) It cannot be used in a formal situation.
13) It must not be used under any circumstances.
Table 3 summarizes the participants’ responses to each of the statements made about thelabels ‘very informal’ and ‘slang’. In order to find out where the difference occurs in terms of
the respondents’ perception, the Mann-Whitney U test was used:
Table 3 Participants’ response to statements about ‘very informal’ and ‘slang’ labels
Question A: very Question B: slang
Asymp.
informalSig.
(2Mean*
s.d.
mean*
s.d.
tailed)**Statement 1
2.62
.613
2.65
.51
.956
Statement 2
2.78
.53
2.75
.496
.498
1.56
.952
2.60
.571
.000
Statement 3
1.79
.838
2.60
.571
.000
Statement 4
Statement 5
1.63
.82
2.08
.777
.001
Statement 6
2.37
.697
2.36
.703
.914
Statement 7
2.07
.73
2.20
.773
.251
1.52
.753
2.17
.751
.000
Statement 8
Statement 9
1.39
.779
1.58
.852
.157
1.75
.823
2.08
.649
.014
Statement 10
1.29
.684
1.84
.792
.000
Statement 11
Statement 12
2.31
.81
2.43
.668
.495
.51
.583
1.17
.932
.000
Statement 13*0-3 point scale, **grouping variable: label
The results showed that the high degree of informality and colloquialism entailed with theslang/very informal labels is clearly understood by the respondents, as seen in the results of
their response to statements 1, 2, 6, and 12. However, the respondents understood the slanglabel to be quite distinct from the very informal label in many respects. In particular, theoptions including nonconformity to the standard language (statement 3), strict social
restriction of its usage (statements 4, 10, and 10), vulgarism (statement 8), swearing or
rudeness (statement 11) were significantly and clearly perceived by respondents thanks to theslang label. On the other hand, while the respondents generally agreed that slang and very
informal words usually involve neologism, the difference was not significant. Raciness or169

playfulness, which are claimed to be typical characteristics of slang words, were noteffectively perceived either, even by proficient users of English.
At this point, we may discuss the function of ‘very informal’ compared to the ‘informal’label. While the slang label is semantically too overloaded, the very informal label issemantically nearly empty. In spite of its apparent clarity, the very informal label seemed to
fail to convey to most of the respondents what is special in being ‘very’ informal. For
learners, it may be very difficult to appreciate the quality of being ‘very informal’, anddifferentiate it with that of being ‘informal’. We may need to establish objective external
criteria for identifying not only slang, but also very informal.
5. Suggestions and conclusion
Simply attaching the slang label to an entry may not do justice to the ‘spice and peculiar
energy’ (Landau 2001: 240) the word sends to the hearer. A satisfactory description of themeaning of a slang word requires clearer criteria for identification as well as more diverse
defining strategies on the part of the lexicographer. It was mentioned earlier in this paper thatsome of the certain characteristics may serve as a more objective guideline for identifying
slang. These include register, mode, regions, deviation from the standard, user group, andcurrency. These characteristics may be supported rather objectively. In deciding whether aword can be regarded as slang, we may ask the following questions:
Can we identify the social group it belongs to?
Is there evidence from off- and online sources relating its register and mode?
Is there a distinctive tendency in its use in terms of its national or regionalboundaries?
Is there a characteristic of unconventional meaning, grammar, or typography?
How frequently it is used?
Is the word used widely enough so as to become a part of the unmarked informal?

Was it used during a particular period of time in the past?
For other more subtle characteristics which are also highly context dependent, the glossing
policies proposed by Dalzell, Victor and Williams (2002) would be a good guide. In theirreport on the revision of Eric Partridge’s Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English,
the three slang lexicographers advised including the following information in a slang entry(adapted from Dalzell, Victor and Williams 2002: 333):







etc.)

The main users of the term, on a cultural, demographic, and/or geographical basis;
Etymology;
Illustrative examples of usage;
Information concerning the tone of voice or gestures used when uttering the word;
Degree of stigmatization or taboo;
Synonyms, antonyms, and collocates;
Identification of the entry by figure of speech (such as metaphor, euphemism, rhyme,

Some of these elements would be very relevant to English learners’ dictionaries. For English
learners who do not have a firsthand feeling for the nuance of a given slang word, illustrative
examples showing various contexts of its use as well as its associated paralinguistic behavior
would be very invaluable. Since a word’s status as slang is sometimes contingent upon by andto whom it is spoken, the information about the usual speaker and its typical pragmatic force
may at times also be required. In this respect, the definition of baby4 from OALD isinformative: ‘A word used to address sb, especially your wife, husband or lover, in a way that
expresses affection but that can be offensive if used by a man to a woman he does not know.’
170

Slang is regarded as the deliberate substitution of the standard terms for some added effect.
Then it would be pedagogically justifiable to show, where possible, its more standard or lessoffensive equivalents in a slang entry, as in the entry for bugger something up: ‘a more polite,
informal way of saying this is foul something up, mess something up or bungle something’(OALD9). Currently this practice is applied more often to offensive entries, rather than slang
ones, but slang entries would also certainly benefit from such kind of treatment.
This study was carried out to examine whether slang is a useful term as a label for English
learners’ dictionaries. It is still felt that more questions remain than answers given. Labelingis a petty, ‘unsexy’ labor for which rewards are incredibly poor: no dictionary sells for its
elaborated labeling system. There is no shortage of arguments, too, against preserving labels
carrying semantic information (Meer 2008). The slang label may be ranked highest in termsof semantic information; but it is still questionable whether ‘very informal’ is a satisfactory
alternative. Thus, we were only left with the options of tentatively proposing a more objective
set of criteria for identifying slang words and more systematic and comprehensive defining
principles for these words. During the course of the study, we have come across anotheremerging issue—the use and effectiveness of ‘impolite’ ‘offensive’, and ‘taboo’ labels, which
we leave for future research and debate.

References[Dictionaries]
AHD. American heritage dictionary. Available online at https://www.ahdictionary.com/
CALD. Cambridge advanced learner’s dictionary.
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/
COBUILD6. Collins Cobuild English dictionary for advanced learners. 6th edition. 2009. ed.
Joe Dougherty. Boston, M.A.: Heinle Cengage Learning.
LDOCE5. Longman dictionary of contemporary English. 5th edition. 2009. ed. Michael
Mayor. Essex: Pearson Education Limited.
MEDAL. MacMillan English dictionary for advanced learners.
http://www.macmillandictionary.com/
Merriam-Webster’s learner’s dictionary. Available online at
http://www.learnersdictionary.com/
OALD8. Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary of current English. 8th edition. 2010. eds.
Joanna Turnbull, Diana Lea, and Dilys Parkinson. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
OALD9. Oxford advanced learner’s dictionary of current English. 9th edition. 2015. eds.
Margaret Deuter, Jennifer Bradbery, and Joanna Turnbull. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
WordNet 3.1. Princeton University. Available online at
http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn[Other publications]
Atkins, B. T. Sue and Michael Rundell. 2008. The Oxford guide to practical lexicography.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Coleman, Julie. 2012. The life of slang. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dalzell, Tom, Terry Victor, and John Williams. 2002. A labour so ungrateful: report of a
project to update Eric Partridge’s Dictionary of slang and unconventional English. In
Proceedings of the Tenth EURALEX International Congress, 891-896. Center for
Sprogteknologi, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Fedorova, Irina V. 2004. Style and usage labels in learner’s dictionaries: ways of
optimization. In Proceedings of the Eleventh EURALEX International Congress, 265272. Universitéde Bretagne-Sud, Lorient, France.

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Hornby, Albert Sydney. 1963. Notes on the use of the dictionary. In Oxford advanced
learner’s dictionary of current English. 2nd. Edition, eds. Albert Sydney Hornby, E.
V. Gatenby, and H. Wakefield, ix-xxviii. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Landau, Sydney I. 2001. Dictionaries: the art and craft of lexicography. 2nd Edition.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Meer, Geart van der. 2008. On connotation, denotation and all that, or: why a nigger is not a“black person. In Proceedings of the XIII EURALEX International Congress, 15471555. Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain.
Miller, Julia. 2011. It’s not cricket: Lack of consistency and accuracy in labels applied tophrasemes in five English dictionaries for advanced learners. In ASIALEX2011
Proceedings. Lexicography: Theoretical and Practical Perspectives, 358-367. The
Asian Association for Lexicography, Kyoto, Japan.
Svensén, Bo. 2009. A handbook of lexicography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

172

The Research on the Name Information in the Commercial Press
Learner’s Dictionary of Contemporary Chinese
He ShanBeijing Normal University, China
heshan2014@mail.bnu.edu.cn
Abstract
Cultural information is an indispensable part of Chinese learner’s dictionary; however, the definition ofcultural information is still not clear, which involves difficulties for the process of dictionary
compilation. Existing researches regard cultural information as an independent item which is dealt withseparately in the dictionary but the treatment cannot solve all the problems, for example, should a real
person’s name be included in the examples? Which surname-characters are suitable to be headwords?
It is proposed in this paper that cultural information should be an indispensable element of learner’s
dictionary.
Name information is taken as an example in the discussion of how to integrate cultural information into
different sections of CFL learner’s dictionary. By analyzing name information in the Commercial Press
Learner’s Dictionary of Contemporary Chinese, the effects of the absence or improper use of nameinformation are identified as: (1) examples cannot help dictionary-users obtain the meaning of
headwords; (2) that examples are not natural which prevents users from obtaining the usage ofheadwords; (3) that examples are tedious which therefore hinders stimulating user’s interests.
Keywords: name information, cultural information, learner’s dictionary

1.

The context of this study

1.1. Culture and language
Everybody has the sense of culture, but there is no easy way to answer the question “what is
culture”. We may take culture as the way of life of a specific community which involves how
they think, how they speak, how they act, etc. Instead of offering a precise definition ofculture, some scholars simply describe culture as a broad concept that embraces all aspects of
the life of man. (Seelye 1984:26)
Although the concept of culture is vague, “who are they” is defined by the culture of theircommunity. There are a great number of scholars who have tried to describe the concept more
specifically by indicating a few broad categories. For example, a threefold classification was
suggested by Hammerly (1982) which distinguishes factual culture, behavior culture andachievement culture. In China, there is a fourfold classification which contains material
culture, behavior culture, system culture and spirit culture. (Zhang Dainian et al. 2004)
However, those classifications cannot solve the problem of the range of cultural items.
There are also many researchers have tried to reduce the nature of the concept of culture to
manageable proportions. Zhang et al. (2004) introduced Chinese culture systematically in 18
categories:
1) The historical and geographic environment of Chinese culture2) The economic base of Chinese culture3) The social and political stricture of Chinese culture4) The development of traditional Chinese culture5) The multi-cultural integration in China
6) Chinese language
7) Chinese science and technology
8) Chinese education
9) Chinese literature
10) Chinese art
17311) Chinese historiography12) Traditional Chinese ethics and morals
13) Religions
14) Philosophy15) Characteristics of Chinese culture16) Spirit of Chinese culture17) Traditional Chinese value system18) Modernization of traditional Chinese culture
From this catalog we can see almost everything in our life is about culture. Among all these
aspects, language is particularly important because it reflects culture systematically. It is not
only an important feature of human culture, but also the carrier of culture and an
indispensable component of it. The relationship between culture and language is a key of our
discussion.
Wilhelm von Humboldt (1838:46) said, “The mental individuality of a people and the shapeof its language are so intimately fused with one another……Language is, as it were, the outerappearance of the spirit of a people; the language is their spirit and the spirit their language;
we can never think of them sufficiently as identical.” Language is not an isolated system but apath, through which we can get to know a people and their life. The cross-culturecommunication will not be completed only with the help of grammar and vocabulary, because
communicating is all about the sharing of information, emotion and thoughts which are
expressed in a specific cultural way, only by knowing the cultural background, both sides ofcommunication can fully understand each other without any misunderstandings.
1.2. Cultural contents in the foreign language teaching
Culture determines the way we understand the nature, society and ourselves, so people fromdifferent cultures have different standpoints, if one side or both sides of cross-culturecommunication cannot empathize, there will be misunderstandings even conflicts. Therefore,
great importance has been attached to the culture in foreign language teaching or culture
teaching. Humboldt (1838:60) said: “To learn a foreign language should therefore be toacquire a new standpoint in the world-view hitherto possessed, and in fact to a certain extent
is so, since every language contains the whole conceptual fabric and mode of presentation of
a portion of mankind.” Watson-Gegeo (1988) also held that “When we learn a second
language, we are learning more than a structure of communication; we are also learning socialand cultural norms, procedures for socialization...”The goals and contents of culture teaching have been discussed in many articles andresearches, such as “culture with a small c” which means way-of –life rather than “Culture
with a capital C” which means formal culture should be involved in foreign language
teaching. Stern (1992:218) described the goals of culture teaching as proficiency, cognitive,
and affective objects. In his cultural syllabus, 6 aspects of culture teaching are as following:
1) Places, 2) Individual persons and way of life, 3) People and society in general, 4) History,5) Institutions, 6) Art, music, literature, and other major achievements. Zhang Zhanyi et al.
(1994:113-123) summarized the goals of culture teaching as cultural understanding and crossculture communication. They also listed some points of cross-culture-communication failure,including temporal words, color words, addressing, taboos, and euphemism... Wei Chunmu etal. (1992:54-60) listed 114 cultural items which should be taught, but the term of cultural
syllabus was not mentioned.
(1) Physiological needs: food and drink, greeting, shopping…
(2) Interpersonal Relationship: address, dating, invitation, helping…
(3) Emotion and attitude: modesty, compromise, apology…
(4) Views and opinions: comment, suggestion, discuss…
(5) Privacy: age, income, personal issues…
…..
174

After more than 20 years, there is still no official cultural syllabus of Chinese teaching whichcauses some difficulties in TCFL. Zhang Ying (2009:93-100) pointed out that it is very urgent
to formulate a syllabus of Chinese culture. The general principle—teaching cultural content
should help to overcome prejudice and stereotypes which can prevent learners from coming toterms with the reality of the target culture (Stern 1992:215) also applies to the syllabus
compiling.
1.3. Culture information in the learner’s dictionary
There are “CULTURE” column in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese
Dictionary. In the CULTURE column, British culture and American culture are introduced indetail. The appendix of The Commercial Press Learner’s Dictionary of Contemporary
Chinese (CPLDCC) contains “grammar key points of contemporary Chinese”, “the mostcommon 200 surnames in China” and other information about history, geography of China. It
is believed that all those information will help Chinese learners to know more about China
and do better in their daily communication with Chinese people.
1.3.1. The necessity of including cultural information in the learner’s dictionary
As a useful tool for FL learners, learner’s dictionary provides information of the sense ofwords and grammar in detail. The characteristic that helps users with decoding and encoding
makes learner’s dictionary an important supplement of classroom teaching. What needs to be
paid attention to is that inputting is the base of both decoding and encoding, so the quality of
inputting which depends on the contents of the learner’s dictionary is the key. In fact, cultural
information is determinative of the quality of a dictionary, but that it is everywhere makes it
an element which is easy to be neglected.
When talking about contents of a dictionary, entries may be the first one that you come up
with, because they are the basic information units in the dictionary which can be separated
into formal comment and semantic comment. The former contains lemma, morphology,
pronunciation; the latter contains pragmatic-semantic information and example. (Hartmann
2001:60) In the researches of Chinese dictionary, semantic comment has been attracted muchattention, the accuracy and comprehensiveness is what matters the most. However, more andmore compilers and scholars stress that cultural content should be an indispensable part oflearner’s dictionary. (Hu Mingyang et al.1982:146-147; Li Yimin 1989; Li Ergang 2002:171175; Zhang Hong 2009)
1.3.2. The presenting of cultural information in the learner’s dictionary
He Jianing (2001) suggested that English- Chinese dictionary should include cultural
information in macrostructure and microstructure. In the level of macrostructure, cultural
information can be presented though entry, inset and appendix; in the level of microstructure,
it can be presented in definition, example, gloss, figures, column and cross-reference. Other
researches were also conducted within a similar framework, such as Wei Xiangqing (2005),
Wu Ping (2006), Yan Lizhi (2006), Miao Lanbin (2013) and Wu Jiangshuai (2014).
The basic framework is valuable, but cultural information in those studies are regarded as themain subject of an entry, a column or some other units which means it is dealt withindependently which goes against what we have discussed about the nature of culture—it isabout everything. The awareness of culture is inside every native speaker, so every speech
and behavior contains cultural information, which is essential for cross-culture understanding
and communication. We believe it is better to take cultural information as an element thatinvolved in every aspects of learner’s dictionary. In the past, entries are considered as theflesh; similarly, cultural information can be compared to the blood which relates to the wellfunctioning of each part of a dictionary.

2.

Research object
175

There is no widely accepted cultural syllabus which makes dictionary compilation difficult,but it is not easy to research on all the cultural information in the learner’s dictionary, because
it is a large systematic work, so we take name information in the Commercial Press Learner’s
Dictionary of Contemporary Chinese as the research object. The concept of name informationrefers to names of Chinese people (full names, surnames and forenames) and appellations
which are related to names. Before discussing about the research object, the importance ofname information has to be indicated by dealing with the following issues: (1) the culturalvalue of name information; (2) the necessity of including name information.

2.1. Name information as a cultural item
Name information is regarded as both linguistic and cultural symbol which has distinct
features that reflects Han people’s value, morality, philosophy, and the relationships inChinese family and society. The distinct features and cultural value of name information havebeen revealed in many researches: Zhang Hui (2005) concluded the following characteristics:(1) the great importance Han people attach to names, (2) the aesthetic taste showed in names,(3) Confucianism and Daoism thoughts in names, (4) the rhetorical means used in names,
and(5) taboos, which can be illustrated with examples: when a new-born baby was given a
name, he/she would not be named after their parents or grandparents to show their respect tothe seniority in the family, babies of the same generation might share a same character in theirgiven names to show the status of their generation in the family and so on. Zhang Dianen(2007) and Wu Biyu (2008) illustrated the cultural meaning of Chinese names by analyzing
the origin of surnames and the ways of name-giving. For example, most parents would choose
those characters that have optimistic meaning, beautiful shape, pleasant pronunciation to be
the name of their child; some parents would decide the name according to the date of birthand the eight characters of a horoscope of the baby. It is not hard to see that name means a lot
to Chinese people, though the names you can know much about their perspectives of clan
ethics, their life value and their understanding of nature and human society. Huang Pengfei etal. (2012) indicated that the order of Chinese name is a symbol of “We Culture”, because
Chinese surname is in front of the forename, whereas the English name is in the opposite way
which makes it a symbol of “I Culture”. As an important cultural item, name information aresuggested to be involved in CFL teaching, and be used to help with CFL learning.
2.2. Names information and CFL teaching and learning
Huang et al. (2012) pointed out that name information is one kind of valuable cultural
resources which provide them with an easier way to get to know the nature of Chinesecharacter. Awareness and knowledge of it will help CFL learners to understand Chinese
culture further and better. Bai Zhaoxia (2006) took giving CFL learners appropriate Chinese
names as an effective way to create a good atmosphere for immersing them into Chinese
language and culture.
The reasons why CFL learners should familiarize themselves with Chinese name information
are as following: (1) being familiar with Chinese names is time-consuming, because thenumber of Chinese family names is numerous, the characters that can be used as given names
are countless, (2) recognizing Chinese names information is difficult, because CSL learners
cannot separate Chinese names in the text by Capital letters, spaces or different font as inother languages, (3) name information is a cultural item that CFL learners are interested inwhich was showed in survey and interview conducted by Wang Ruihua (2011).

3.

Name information in the CPLDCC
176

We examined name information in the CPLDC to discuss the methods of integrating cultural
information into CFL learner’s dictionary. The main deficiencies are as following: (1) nameinformation is incomplete; (2) name information is insufficiently used; (3) the quality of nameinformation is limited.
3.1. name information is incomplete
3.1.1. Special reference sections
The term “special reference sections” refers to insets, notes, columns, appendixes and otherreference sections which are designed for special items.
There is no inset, index or column which introduces name information, but some notes andsynonym columns illustrating the usage of kinship terms can be found in the CPLDCC whichis irrelative with name information.
3.1.2. Headwords
65.5% of characters in the Appendix 8 are included in the dictionary, but there is no sense of“family name” in those entries; the rest 26.5% of characters which are usually used as familynames cannot be found in the dictionary. (He Shan 2014) The criteria of selecting surnamecharacters and arranging senses are not clear—whether a surname-character being included is
not decided by their rankings or the number of their senses.
3.1.3. Senses
The sense “can be used as a surname” can be found in the entries of some surname-characters,
but the criteria of arranging senses are not clear—neither frequency, polyphony, nor thenumber of senses is considered.
3.1.4. Examples
There are only 12 surnames (王, 张, 李, 马, 刘, 司马, 诸葛, 陈, 赵, 徐,林, 西门) in theexamples; over 93% of them are “张”, “王” and “李”, among which the frequency of “王” is273 times, consisting 66.7%, which is far more than that of others. Family names are not only
few in numbers, but also few in forms. For example, “王” appeared in the form of “小王” for
169 times, which is over 40% of totality; the frequency of “小王”, “老王” and “王老师” ismore than half of the sum. (He, 2014)
Full names of famous person include “李白”, “杜甫”, “屈原”, “鲁迅”, “巴金”, “张大千”,and there are 10 Chinese names in the text of the CPLDCC. Other full names and forenamerelated addresses are “安娜”,“王红”, “王华”, “王文”, “王林”, “王力”, “张明”, “张文”,“张英”, “张小英”, “李光”, “小东”, “小明”, “小文”, “玉华”, most of them are two-characternames, and there is only one three-character name. The proportion does not correspond toreality.
3.2. Name information is insufficiently used
Lots of cultural information is presented in the appendixes, such as the table of Chinese
previous dynasties era, China's administrative division table, the table of major countries andregions in the world, the table of “Tiangan” and “Dizhi”, the 24 solar terms table, the table of
China’s nationalities, kinship terms table, table of common measure words and punctuationtable. The Appendix 8 is a table of the most common 200 surnames, but there is no index or
cross-reference that leads to the appendix which means there is little chance that it is referred
to, so a great deal of name information cannot be used effectively by dictionary-users.
Therefore, it is necessary to build links between them to make the contents easy to find, suchas “see also” marks.
3.3. The quality of name information is limited
Szende (1999:217-219) thought examples might not only reflect the linguistic competence ofa community, but also its culture and way of life. However, existing examples are focusing on
illustrating headword’s lexical and grammatical meaning. (He 2001) Examples should177concern more about cultural depth, vividness and interestingness which corresponds to ourstudy that the quality of name information is directly related to examples’ validity. Improper
name information will affect examples in two ways: (1) cannot help dictionary-users obtainthe meaning of headwords; (2) the lack of natural style will prevent users from obtaining theinformation of context; (3) tediousness examples are not helpful in stimulating user’s
interests.
3.3.1. Cannot help dictionary-users obtain the meaning of headwords（1）【开会】老李开了三个小时的会。P393（2）【揩】小王把桌子揩干净了。P394（3）【筐】老李正在编竹筐。P415（4）【辣椒】四川人特别喜欢吃辣椒。P421
The positions or occupations of “老李(Lao Li)” and “小王(Xiao Wang)” are unknown,so the relationship between the subject and the action is not clear. Addresses which imply the
positions or occupations of subjects rather than useless name information will make themeaning of headwords will be more understandable. In example (4), “四川人” is better than aspecific name or address. So name information should be used prudently in examples.
（5）【齐名】他是与巴金齐名的大作家︱他是著名画家，跟张大千齐名︱他
当时已经差不多和大诗人李白齐名了。P549→老舍/茅盾是与巴金齐名的大作家︱齐白石是著名画家，跟张大千齐名︱杜甫当时已经差不多和大诗人李白齐名了。
（6）【文学家】他是文学家，也是教育家。P734→韩愈/叶圣陶/苏格拉底(Socrates)是文学家，也是教育家。
The reference of subject “他” is ambiguous which cannot provide detailed information
for dictionary user to understand the lexical meaning of the headwords. Different from apersonal pronoun, real names will make【齐名】and【文学家】better understood.
（7）【不朽】大诗人李白写下了大批不朽的诗篇。P57（8）【端午节】传说端午节是为了几年中国古代的爱国诗人屈原（QuYuan）。P178（9）【根据】电影《祝福》是根据鲁迅的小说改编的。P247（10）【文学家】鲁迅是中国著名的文学家。P734（11）【祖宗】孔子是儒家学说的老祖宗。P894
Real names in these examples provide complete context which enriches the meaning ofsentences and makes their understanding of headwords much more precise.
3.3.2. That examples are not natural prevents users from obtaining the usage of headwords（12）【搭配】小王和小李搭配参加羽毛球比赛。P123
In this example【搭配】means “小王” goes together with “小李” in the badminton
match, but from name information in the example the point that makes them a team cannot be
inferred, so the usage of the headword is not properly showed.
（13）【之类】现在像小王、小张之类的成功人士并不太多。P925
When taking somebody or something as an example, the headword【之类】is used.
What should be paid attention to is that somebody or something is usually very typical whichcannot be showed by name information in this sentence. It is better to use well-known names.
（14）【叫】他叫张三︱我们这儿没有叫李四的.P357
It is a common sense that the term “张三李四” is used to refer to an unidentified person.
The definition of “张三李四”in The New Chinese-English Dictionary (Wu Guanghua, 2003)
is:“this one and that one; a Mr. X or Y; any Tom, Dick or Harry; any man in the street;anybody; Brown, Jones and Robinson; either one or the other; Mr. so-and-so; somebody...”Therefore, the lack of authenticity will not help users obtain the right usage of the headword.
（15）
【尊称】○
1 （动）尊敬地称呼：王先生被大家尊称为“王老”。
2 （名）对人尊敬的称呼：“先生”是大家对他的尊称。P
○
896
178

The second sentence explains that “先生” is a respectful form of address which is used in thefirst sentence to explain another respectful form of address—“王老”. Does it mean “王老” isa more respectful form? The example is improper which may confuse dictionary users.
Name information is not just about somebody who does not matter being the subject of asentence. The background knowledge and context attaching to the name or address is helpful
for proving more complete reference which is for the benefit of dictionary users.
3.3.3. That examples are tediousness hinders stimulating user’s interests
Every experienced CFL teacher will conform that interesting and vivid examples will motive
students in the classroom, so it can be inferred that the interestingness and vividness of
examples are more significant for paper dictionary.
（16）【潦草】(liao2 cao3)小王写字很潦草，谁都看不清楚。
（17）【了不得】(liao3 bu4 de0)可了不得，小王的孩子丢了。
（18）【了解】(liao2 jie3)领导让我来这儿了解一下儿小王的情况。
（19）【咧】(lie3)小王今天很高兴，一直咧嘴笑。
（20）【列】(lie4)小王被列为参加会议的代表。
（21）【再说】(zai4
shuo1)小王很想参加这次英语竞赛，再说她的英语也很好，就让她去吧。
（22）【在1】(zai4)小王在吗？——他不在，上课去了。
（23）【在场】(zai4 chang3)事故发生时小王正好在场，看得很清楚。
（24）【在于】(zai4 yu2)小王的成功在于坚持。
（25）【在4】(zai4)小王出生在1985年。
（26）【在5】(zai4)小王在音乐上很难有才能。
（27）【攒】(zan3)小王虽然工作了好几年，但是没攒下多少钱。
Example (16)-(20) are found in Page 446-447, and example (21)-(27) are form the Page 874
to 875; all of them contain the same name information “小王” which appears so frequently
that could make users feel bored. If real names or made-up full names are regarded as
obstacles of reading, at least some other surnames besides “王” should be used.
It is not only a technical problem of writing or editing name information in the examples, butalso a problem of perspective: firstly, it cannot be denied that “小/老+ surname” are acommonly used way of address, but there is no illustration of their pragmatic information in
the dictionary, because users are subjectively assumed that they fully mastered the usage ofthem. Secondly, the chance them are used in everyday life is not that big, especially forschool students who constitute a great part of CFL learners. Because of the repetition of nameinformation, the style of examples is not vivid, less life-oriented and practical. This will not
contributetostimulating
learner’s
interests.
4.

Conclusion

Name information and other cultural information are helpful for Chinese learners to learn the
Chinese language and culture better; and appropriate name information will make examples
more real, natural and vivid. Although the problem of including cultural information in thelearner’s dictionary has been paid much attention to, most of existing researches took it as themain subject of entries, insets, notes and columns, but name information as an indispensible
element in the whole dictionary are ignored. The deficiencies of including and making use ofname information were discussed in this paper, and the following suggestions are put
forward:(1) The compiler of CSL learner’s dictionary should concern more about Chinese nameinformation and other cultural information such as places, festivals, food and so on.
179(2) It is important to set up a series of criteria of selecting and editing material of adictionary which is clear and scientific.
(3)The methods of adding name information in the examples should be more scientificand discreet to make the lexical and grammar meaning better presented, and take theadvantage of it to make the examples more natural and interesting.

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Li Ergang. 2002. An introduction of modern lexicography. Beijing: Publishing house of an
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Miao Lanbin. 2013. The Study of Cultural Information in Chinese Idiom Learning Dictionary.
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Otto Jespersen. 1925. Mankind, Nation, and Individual from a Linguistic Point of View.
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15:217-219.
Wang Ruihua. 2011. The Research of Chinese Names in Chinese Teaching as a Foreign
Language. Mater Degree thesis, Yunnan University, Kunming, China.
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Wu Biyu. 2008. A Chinese- English Contrastive Study of Naming Culture. Education
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Wu Ping.2006. On the Survey Concerning the Necessity to Integrate Cultural Information
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181

Two Innovations in Pedagogical Dictionaries
Geoff Toister,
GT-Lex: www.gt-lex.weebly.com, Israel
gat178@012.net.il
1. Introduction
Before I begin to discuss the subject of this paper I should like to outline the trajectory of myprofessional career. I am a retired teacher of English as a foreign language, with 26 years ofclassroom experience. The major part of those years was spent in teaching intermediate andupper-intermediate students preparing for the Israeli matriculation exam, known as the
Bagrut. Some years after retiring from teaching, I became a lexicographer. Since then I havecompiled entries for a prominent dictionary publisher, disambiguated entries for another andpublished a hybrid dictionary and vocabulary development workbook entitled Bagrut
Lexicon. I will have more to say about this later.
2. Rationale
My motivation for writing Bagrut Lexicon was that I always felt that I was giving my students
less than what they needed to develop their vocabulary. My teaching career spanned the latteryears of the audio-lingual method in ELT and the early years of the communicative method,
but when it came to the teaching of vocabulary, I felt that the materials writers andcoursebook publishers on whom I depended were always in two minds. Their products always
seemed to alternate between favouring incidental acquisition of words embedded in reading
texts and explicit instruction in discrete lexical items for use in a specific situational context.
These days, learning a foreign language is still popularly conceived as a matter of learning
how to manipulate its grammar. Some smartphone apps recently released by reputable ELT
publishers indulge this perception. However, I long ago decided that if English teachers are
required to teach dictionary skills, they may reasonably expect lexicographers to assume someof the responsibility for vocabulary teaching. How might this be achieved today and what role
might the lexicographer play? I have tried to provide two practical answers to these questions.
The first of these is the hybrid that I have already mentioned.
3. Road Map
I would like now to review the various types of resource books for vocabulary development. I
will then describe the method used for developing Bagrut Lexicon and detail some of its
salient features. This first section of my presentation will be followed by a preview of asecond lexicon-cum-vocabulary development workbook which is currently in the final stagesof editing and which deals with multi-word expressions (MWEs) or so-called ‘lexical
chunks’.
4. Resources for Vocabulary Development
4.1 Many learner’s dictionaries contain usage notes either within the entry or in marked offboxes. The notes usually focus on synonyms or the collocational idiosyncrasies of a particularlemma. Thus they supply supplementary information about the headword, but not practice in
its use.
4.2 The Oxford Wordfinder takes a different approach. It is a meaning-to-word dictionary
whose purpose is to facilitate language production. The entries do not contain practice
exercises, but the OUP website provides free photocopiable worksheets. It is a pity that these182

are not mentioned in the book’s front matter because they somewhat compensate for theabsence of practice exercises between its covers. The Longman Language Activator is said tobe similar. While it is gratifying that these two major dictionary publishers have taken up thechallenge of vocabulary development, it is unrealistic to expect impecunious students andhigh-school pupils to purchase both a dictionary and a meaning-to-word lexicon.
4.3 A more useful kind of learning tool can be found in various dictionary-skills manuals
linked to specific dictionaries but published separately. One such handbook is Bloch's UseYour Dictionary, which was ‟tailored specifically to the special features, conventions andentry arrangements of the ADVANCED LEARNER’S DICTIONARY OF CURRENTENGLISH, written by A.S. Hornby …” (p.7.). It contains a wealth of drills delving into every
aspect of the entry structure with examples drawn from the whole range of entries in the
dictionary. While the purpose of the book is to explain how dictionaries work, the drills afford
excellent opportunities for incidental learning and can be seen as prototypes of the type of
exercise that promotes vocabulary acquisition. A drawback is the expense of purchasing themanual in addition to the dictionary it goes with.
4.4 From a teacher's point of view, none of the three foregoing types is entirely satisfactory.
Teacher-designed exercises are an alternative. Their disadvantage is that they are extremely
time-consuming to produce and the effort is only worthwhile if all members of a class possess
the same dictionary.
4.5 A more deliberate approach to integrating lexicography with pedagogy can be found inPhillips' Vocabulary Dictionary and Workbook. It is a lexicon of 2,856 words for academic
purposes together with sets of word games for vocabulary practice. The truly innovative
feature of the book is its verso-recto page setup (see Figure1). The entries are divided intoalphabetic groups, called 'chapters', consisting of 12 lemmas and each double-page spread isdevoted to a single chapter, with the lexicon always on the verso and the word games always
on the recto. There are two benefits to this setup. Firstly, it sends a clear message to thelearner that merely looking up a word is not sufficient to guarantee retention of its meaning.
Secondly, by juxtaposing the two entities on the same folio, it simplifies and encourages
repeated look-ups during practice. However, the games themselves disappoint as there are
only 12 test items for the 12 lemmas. This reduces the element of risk to the point that thegames do not challenge the intellect.
Folio
Verso
LexiconRecto
Word Games
Figure 1

5. Development of Bagrut Lexicon
5.1 Lack of appropriate materials
Returning now to Bagrut Lexicon, this project was stimulated by the twin observations thatlearner’s dictionaries do not contain vocabulary practice exercises and that few ELT materials
are explicitly devoted to vocabulary development. The majority are textbooks or books
concentrating on grammar, reading comprehension, writing or listening. Of all the ELT books
in a certain pedagogical library that I visited, only 2% were found to be expressly dedicated tothe teaching of words. How then are learners expected to expand their vocabulary? And
which words are to be taught?
5.2 Methodology
To answer the latter question, a corpus was constructed using TextSTAT, a freely
downloadable application. The corpus consisted of 58 homogeneous matriculation-level183

reading comprehension texts, and yielded 21,000 tokens and 5,000 types. In the process ofconstructing the corpus, a downward trend was noted in the incidence of novel types per
additional text (see Figure 2). This seems to indicate that matriculation reading texts
constitute a particular genre and that the vocabulary of the genre tends to be repetitive. The
5,000 types are therefore the most relevant candidates for a learner's lexicon.
Novel Types per Additional Texts
250

Types

200
150
100
50

57

53

49

45

41

37

33

29

25

21

17

13

9

5

1

0

Texts

Figure 2
All function words, proper nouns and numbers were deleted from the list of 5,000 candidates.
Poorly dispersed words and cognates were also removed. The remaining words weremanually lemmatised and POS tagged. In the next stage of selection, words listed in thelexical syllabus for primary schools (State of Israel, 1988) were also discarded, thus leaving a
final list of 2,000 words.
These 2,000 words became the headword list for the lexicon, which was compiled using TLex
Dictionary Compilation Software. The lexicon was designed along the lines of a semibilingual learner's dictionary. Specifically, each entry consists of a headword, grammaticalinformation, definition, usage example and a translation equivalent. The usage examples wereadapted from the 58-text corpus or various corpora freely available on the Internet. Multiple
senses were not provided unless they were evidenced in the original corpus. Other features
include phonemic pronunciation guides, usage labels, phrasal verbs with separate headword
status and alternative spellings. The result is a unidirectional specialised lexicon for decoding
L2 that is fully integrated with a vocabulary acquisition workbook.
5.3 The innovation
There is nothing novel in this well-established format. However, Bagrut Lexicon does break
new ground by coupling the semi-bilingual lexicon with Phillips' verso-recto page setup andby providing practice exercises that genuinely challenge intermediate-to-advanced learners.
Meaningful practice is established by three means. Firstly, the lexicon divides entries intoalphabetic groups of 20 lemmas and provides 30 practice items per group. This increases therisk of a false answer and thereby obliges the user to return to the lexicon. Secondly, the 30
practice items are sub-divided into six graded exercise types. The fifth type is particularly
difficult as it requires 5 choices from 20 possibilities. In the editing stage, the exercises wereconfirmed to have unambiguous answers.
6. Literature review: vocabulary development
We come now to the second innovation that I am here to present, and I shall begin with abrief review of some of the relevant literature. I mentioned earlier that, in the past, materials
writers and coursebook publishers were in two minds about how to teach vocabulary. Today184there is wide agreement on the centrality of vocabulary development to language acquisition.
This agreement has found expression in some coursebooks and in 2003 Ranalli gave
Longman’s Cutting Edge a three-star rating, the second-highest, (4.4, p.33) for actually
including a 64-page mini-dictionary within its covers and for providing training in dictionary
skills. He remarks that the mini-dictionary “is similar in format to the dictionaries producedby the Longman publishing house, but the headwords consist only of the items appearing
somewhere in the students’ book or the class cassette.” To my mind, this is high praise as it
highlights the publisher’s commitment to actively promoting vocabulary development.
On the other hand, teacher trainers seem to be less committed, as can be seen from
Philadelphia University’s syllabus for a course in ELT methods (2013), which includes theaudio-lingual and communicative approaches, amongst others, but omits the lexical approach.
Given that the lexical approach predates that syllabus by at least fifteen years, one wonders
whether its exclusion from the syllabus is due to a lack of ready-made teaching materials.
Traditionally, ‘vocabulary’ was understood as a set of “single and fully autonomous lexicalunits” (Criado, 2009). Today, however, it is recognised that “much of lexis consists ofsequences of words which operate as single units” (Schmitt, 2000). This raises the practicalproblem of identifying those sequences. One solution was offered by Martinez and Schmitt intheir 2012 journal article, A Phrasal Expressions List. The authors were able to produce “a listof the 505 most frequent non-transparent multiword expressions in English”. Without
implying anything as to the validity of their methodology, it must be noted that the list tends
to lump polysemous MWEs into a single lexical unit, and that more than a few of those items
are restricted to British usage. Nevertheless, it does provide a solid foundation for
constructing a database of prefabricated MWE entries suitable for integration into
pedagogical materials.
7. Status of the MWE Database
7.1 Entry structure
Compilation of the entries for this database was recently completed. Unlike Bagrut Lexicon,
the database was designed along the lines of a monolingual learner's dictionary. Specifically,each entry consists of a headword, grammatical information, a definition and three to six
usage examples. Headwords with like senses are cross-referenced and the usage examples are
adapted from or inspired by the British National Corpus. The database additionally provides
full inflection information, guidance with syntax and synonyms wherever they apply.
Frequency information is also available and the design language can be changed at will.
Although translation equivalents are not provided, the TLex software allows for adding themin virtually any language, thus making the database fit for the needs of any source-language
group. A typical entry appears in Figure 3 below:
MIGHT AS WELL [Also: might just as well, may as well, may just as well]
Grammatical function: adverbial
How to use this word: This expression is always followed by a verb in the base form.
Type of expression: phrasal idiom
Sense 1
Definition: with equal convenience
Examples:• If I have to wait anyway, I might as well spend the time reading.
• [Said at a supermarket checkout ] You only have a few items. You might as well go ahead of me.
I've got a trolley-full.
Sense 2
Definition: with equal truth; with equal validity
Examples:• Astrologers might just as well claim that the earth is flat.
• The translation was so free that there might as well be no original text.

Figure 3185

7.2 Searching
It is envisaged that the database would be incorporated into an electronic dictionary and thatstudents would look up MWEs in one of three ways. Firstly, straightforward look-ups can be
performed on either the full canonical form of an MWE or on any one of its component
words. In the latter case, several results are likely to be presented. Secondly, a search can be
performed from a synonym to an MWE. The result of a synonym to MWE search for theword ‘occur’ appears in figure 4 below.
COME ABOUT [Also: comes about, coming about, came about] COMPARE TAKE PLACEIn other words: occur; take place
Grammatical function: verbal
Type of expression: two-word verb
Definition: happen in a series of unplanned stages
Examples:• Rising sea levels have come about as a result of global warming.
• It is important to recognize how fear comes about and how to cope with it.
• Change will not come about by chance, but we can bring it about by our own efforts.
TAKE PLACE [Also: takes place, taking place, took place, taken place] COMPARE COME
ABOUT
In other words: occur; come about
Grammatical function: verbal
Type of expression: two-word verb
Definition: happen
Examples:• Since 1968 many changes have taken place.
• The next meeting will take place on Monday, 9th April.
• The festival takes place once a year, usually in October.

Figure 4
8. Future work on the MWE database
8.1 Two further developments are envisaged for this project. Firstly, as suggested by
McAlpine (2001), it may be possible to look up MWEs using a synonym and a hypernym as
nested search criteria. To facilitate this, an additional field to be populated from a hierarchy ofsuperordinate topics can easily be added to the XML database. The difficulty with thissuggestion is in determining at which level in the hierarchy a given MWE headword ought tobe indexed. For example, is the appropriate hypernym for the headword about to ‘when?’ orthe higher level ‘time and place’, as suggested by the Oxford Wordfinder (p.xix.). The benefit
of implementing this suggestion is the assistance it might provide the learner in performing
writing assignments.
8.2 The second possible development is to supplement the 505 headwords with sets ofvocabulary development exercises, as in Bagrut Lexicon. Lewis (1997) provides thirteen
examples of suitable exercise types arising from the lexical approach. Figure v below
illustrates how the MWE database might be used to construct exercises on the pattern ofLewis’ Type Nine. All of the MWEs that the exercise calls for appear in the database. The
difficulty with this suggestion is in ensuring that all the headwords are treated in at least one
exercise.

186

“Complete the following by adding one word. Only one word is possible in each case. Make sure
you know the equivalent expression in your own language.” (Lewis, p.265)
1. She became a widow a month ago and is still finding it difficult to come to … with her husband's
death.
2. We managed to get under cover … as it began to rain.
3. For the … of greater safety, please keep your seatbelt fastened throughout the flight.
4. The bus shelter collapsed under the weight of the snow, but in any … it was not designed to bepermanent.
5. All the important branches of physics are now seen as engineering subjects in … own right and areoften taught without very much of the underlying physics.

Figure 5
Figure vi below illustrates how the MWE database might be used to construct exercises on thepattern of Type D in Bagrut Lexicon. The advantage of this exercise type is that it issynchronised with the alphabetical order of the entries in the database, thus allowing the
publisher to utilize a verso-recto setup.
D. Match the two parts of the sentence.

1
2
3
4
5

PART I
PART II
Short of calling the doctor,
a were shown to have structural defects.
There are many short termb I had started my PhD.
Many of the old buildingsc and we just couldn't shut her up.
She kept talking and talking
d advantages to be had.
I lost sight of the original reason e I didn’t know what to do.
Figure 6

Finally, it would also be feasible to emulate the verso-recto setup of Bagrut Lexicon in anelectronic coursebook. A simple and inexpensive and method for doing so would be as
follows:Compose the exercises
Tag all of the MWEs that each exercise calls for
Export each set of tagged MWE entries to separate RTF files
Hyperlink each exercise to the set of MWE entries required for its completion

A more comprehensive method would be as follows:










Compose the exercises
Attach a monovalent code to each set of exercises
Attach a monovalent code to each exercise item
Attach a monovalent code to each lexicon entry
Export the MWE lexicon to an ODBC database
For each set of exercises – tag and export the relevant entries to an HTML file
Build a relational database that links exercise sets, exercise items, and entries in thelexicon
Build a search facility that enables the user to find all exercises for a given entry
Build a search facility that enables the user to find all entries for a given exercise

9. Conclusion

187

This brings us back to our starting point. I wish I could conclude this presentation by saying‟Our research revealed that materials writers and coursebook publishers continue to produce
language programmes that do not adequately support vocabulary development.” But as you
have already seen, I have simply presented two eclectic solutions to a concrete problem. I
would rather leave you with the impression that you have just heard an appeal for combining
the methods of lexicographers with the insights of teachers. I believe that such partnerships
can contribute powerfully to the success of foreign language learners and enhance the statusof both professions.
Thank you for your attention. I will be happy to answer any questions now.
References
Bloch, Menachem. 1974. Use Your Dictionary. Tel Aviv: Karni Publishers Ltd.
Criado, Raquel. 2009. The Distribution of the Lexical Component in ELT Coursebooks and
its Suitability for Vocabulary Acquisition from a Cognitive Perspective. International
Journal of English Studies. Special Issue: 39-60.
Hüning, Matthias. 2000. TextSTAT 2.8g. http://neon.niederlandistik.fu-berlin.de/textstat/.
Accessed 1 February 2015.
Joffe, David and de Schryver, Gilles-Maurice. Tlex Dictionary Compilation Software.
http://tshwanedje.com/. Accessed 1 February 2015
Lewis, Michael. 1997. Pedagogical Implications of the lexical approach In Second Language
Vocabulary Acquisition: A Rationale for Pedagogy, eds James Coady James andThomas Huckin, 255-270. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Martinez, Ron and Schmitt, Norbert. 2012. A Phrasal Expressions List. Applied Linguistics:
33/3: 299-320.
McAlpine, Janice and Myles, Johanne. 2001. Capturing phraseology in an online dictionary
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University Press.

188

A New Trend in Lexicography: Bringing Semantic Prosody into
Learner’s Dictionary
Junsong Wang
Northwestern Polytechnical University
wjs198012@163.com
Weixia Cui
Xi’an International Studies University
Abstract
Semantic prosody is commonly understood as a form of meaning which is established through theproximity of a consistent series of collocates. Its primary function is the expression of the attitude of
the speaker or writer towards some pragmatic situation. Undoubtedly, semantic prosody can provide
learners with pragmatic information on how to use the words properly in a given context and should beincorporated into lexicon design. Most of the dictionaries for EFL Learners, however，are either illmarked or even untouched with regard to semantic prosody since this unique phenomenon tends toremain hidden from the lexicographer’s naked eye. This paper aims to find a systematic way to bringprosodic information into the learner’s dictionary. For this purpose, three ways have been introduced todeal with prosodic information, i.e. displaying with usage label, illustrating with definition & example
sentence and setting collocation column. Other key issues, such as how to deal with the register andprobability features of semantic prosody in dictionary compilation, are also addressed in this paper. It is
hoped that with the prosodic information provided in the dictionary, the users can have a better
understanding of English lexicon.
Keywords: semantic prosody, learner’s dictionary, pragmatic information, lexicon design

Introduction
The concept of semantic prosody was introduced to the public in 1990s, and now it has
become one of the most important concepts in corpus linguistics. Over the past twenty years,
it has attracted the attention of scholars both within corpus linguistics and beyond. With great
advances in theory and research methods, many attempts have been made to explore thepotential applications of semantic prosody. So far, it has proven to be of great use in many
fields, such as language research, language education, and, of course, dictionary compilation.
However, “the revealing of semantic prosody in both English and Chinese dictionary-making
is far from ideal” (Yu Ping-fang & Jing-chun Cai 2009:25). And the reasons behind this canbe summarized as follows: First of all, semantic prosody, which tends to remain inherently
hidden to the lexicographer’s naked eyes, are not explicit enough to be retrieved reliably
through introspection (Partington 1998). Secondly, some dictionary-writers are not wellequipped with up-to-date linguistic theories, which inevitably hinders their lexicographic
performance. And finally, there is a lack of a systematic way of dealing with prosodic
information in dictionaries. This paper focuses on the last point and aims to find a systematicand efficient way of bringing semantic prosody into learner’s dictionary.
What is semantic prosody?
The term semantic prosody was first introduced to the public by Louw (1993) but John
Sinclair’s idea (1991:112) who found that “many uses of words and phrases show a tendency
to occur in a certain semantic environment. For example, the word Happen is associated with
unpleasant things——accidents and the like.” Inspired by Firth’s notion of phonologicalprosody, Sinclair coined the term and developed it in his later work (e.g. Sinclair 2004).
Though the term has been widely used, semantic prosody is a wide concept which has been
approached in many different ways. For example, Louw (1993:157) defines semantic prosody189as the “consistent aura of meaning with which a form is imbued by its collocates” or “a formof meaning which is established through the proximity of a consistent series of collocates”(2000:57). Partinton (1998:68) defines semantic prosody as “the spreading of connotational
coloring beyond single word boundaries”. Hunston and Thompson’s definition of semantic
prosody is “the speaker or writer’s attitude or stance toward, viewpoint or feeling about, theentities and propositions that he or she is talking about” (2000:5).
Given the various perspectives taken towards semantic prosody, semantic prosody as aconcept has been assigned a broad range of characteristics. Firstly, semantic prosody mainly
functions to express speaker’s/writer’s attitude or evaluation. In most cases semantic prosody
is realized in the form of positive (or favorable), neutral and negative (or unfavorable)
connotations (Stubbs 1995). Secondly, semantic prosody tends to remain hidden from humanperception and intuition. It is much less evident to the naked eye and can be retrieved reliably
with the aid of corpus and computerized language-analyzing software. Another characteristicof semantic prosody is that it can be associated with grammatical principles. For example, as
Louw (1993) observed, build up tends to reveal a positive semantic prosody when it is usedtransitively. Used intransitively, however, build up shows a negative prosody. Finally,
semantic prosody is more of an attribute of a phrase than that of an individual word.
Significance of bringing semantic prosody into lexicon design
Semantic prosody provides learners with pragmatic information on how to use the words
properly and should be incorporated into lexicon design. In recent years, the important role ofsemantic prosody in dictionaries has been widely recognized and many attempts have been
made to bring prosodic information into lexicon design. However, most of the dictionaries for
EFL Learners are either ill-marked or even untouched with regard to semantic prosody forvarious reasons. Unable to obtain prosodic information from dictionaries, learners are more
prone to making the avoidable mistakes in language communication. For example, Wang Haihua & Tong-shun Wang (2005) found China’s English learners tend to overuse the positive
collocates of the English word cause while the native speakers prefer to use the word in anegative environment. Professor Wei Nai-xing’s survey (2011:142-145) also showed that a
considerable number of unusual collocations occur in Chinese learner’s English writing which
go against the collocation norms and lead to prosodic clash. Obviously, the Chinese English
learners do need guidance to improve their consciousness of semantic prosody. Thus, it is anurgent task for the lexicographers to provide prosodic information in the learner’s
dictionaries, which may help the users have an easier access to the understandings of English
lexicon.
Providing prosodic information in learner’s dictionaries
To provide information about the prosodic behavior of entry words in learner’s dictionaries,
the following three ways are considered to be worthy of concern:
1. Displaying with usage label
A usage label is “the marking of a word or phrase as typical or appropriate in a particular
context or language variety”. Usage labels are widely used in both general and specified
dictionaries to provide specific information, such as currency or period, e.g. arch (aic);
formality or register, e.g. inf(ormal); regionality or dialect, e.g. Am(erciacan), York(shire);technicality or subject filed, e.g. bot(anical); textulity or genre, e.g. poet(ic). (Hartmann &James 2000:15).
Semantic prosody provides pragmatic information of the lexical items and it can be presented
by using labels as well. Firstly, position of the labels. To catch the user’s attention, the labels
can be placed following the headwords whatever it is a word or a phrase. Secondly,
description of semantic prosody. The dichotomy of semantic prosody (positive/favorable VS
negative/unfavorable) proposed by Stubbs is brief but inadequate to reveal the specificinformation the words convey. Therefore, a combined label, which includes both the general190

and specific information, may be a better choice. For instance, the phrase true feelingfrequently co-occur with expressions like will never reveal, less open about showing, guilty
about expressing, and it can be easily concluded that the general semantic prosody that isnegative or unfavorable but further analysis shows us more about the speaker’s/writer’s
attitude or stance, i.e. unwilling or reluctant to express the true feeling. Thus, the usage label
for the entry True feeling can be marked as [Negative: reluctance]. Lastly, as for the form of
the usage label, it is suggested that the full form should be used for users could get confusedby some abbreviations. And to highlight the prosodic information, the usage labels may bebolded, italicized or colorized but the inconsistency between labels in the same dictionary
should be avoided.
Compared to other ways of marking prosodic information, labeling has its own merits ofbeing direct, brief and eye-catching. However, its limitations lies in the fact that prosodic
labels could hardly provide sufficient contextual information and some users could not
distinguish them from other pragmatic labels, such as laudatory and pejorative.
2. Illustrating with definition and example sentence
Prosodic information can also be indicated by using both definitions and examples, the former
offers a description of the semantic prosody and the latter provides evidence and illustrations.
A typical example (see Fig.1) quoted from COBUILD dictionary is given as follows:
Rife
ADJ If you say that something, usually something bad, is rife in a place or that the place isrife with it, you mean that it is very common. [v-link ADJ]
e.g. Speculation is rife that he will be fired.
Figure1 Entry Rife from COBUILDIn the above example, the word rife’s prosodic information is given in the definition andproved with an example sentence. The definition is given in the form of a complex sentence,in which the main clause defines the word rife in terms of meaning while the subordinate
clause offers a detailed explanation of the specific situation where the word is used. As
depicted in this case, the meaning of the word rife is common and it can be only used as vlink adjective and habitually co-occurs with something bad. Obviously, providing prosodic
information in the definition is a good choice for it enables the learners to have a better
understanding of where and how the word is used. But on the other hand, the number of theexample sentences provided in the dictionary is usually small that it cannot meet the needs ofthe learners to internalize the prosodic knowledge about the word. Therefore, it is advisable toincrease the number of example sentences and if possible display in the form of KWIC (keyword in context). See Fig. 2
His early history and the record of his films seem rife with the required anxieties.
The two Prize winners say Nixon's presidency was rife with corruption.
Like much of the Middle East, Iran has been rife with rebellion against an oppressive regime.
She noticed that the entire affair was rife with oversimplification.
Beckham's five years in America have been rife with drama, injuries and trade rumors.
Parts of the area are close to the Afghan border long rife with armed smugglers.
Figure 2 Concordances of phrase rife with
If the example sentences are given in this way, the learners would find it easier to master theusage of the word, particularly the prosodic information. Looking up and down, left and right,
the learners may notice almost all the collocates, such as anxieties, corruption, rebellion,
injuries, smugglers, to the right side of the phrase rife with are usually something bad,191

unwanted or unpleasant. By observing the example sentences, the learners may have a deeper
understanding of the information given in the definition.
3. Setting collocation column
As is known to all, semantic prosody is largely dependent on the collocates of the lexical
item. To add prosodic information into learner’s dictionary, the importance of collocatesshould be given top priority.
Setting collocation column is a third way of providing prosodic information in learner’s
dictionary. In collocation column, the collocates of the lexical item are not only listed as
many as possible but also classified in an orderly manner, which is followed by example
sentences and usage notes. All of these can be taken advantage by the lexicographer to deal
with the prosodic information. The Macmillan Collocations Dictionary for Learners ofEnglish (hereafter MCD) serves as a good example in providing prosodic information bymeans of collocation. In MCD, the various collocates within each entry (or sub-entry) aregrouped in the first instance according to the lexico-grammatical structure formed by thecollocational phrase, such as adj+N and N+n. And the collocates within lexico-grammaticalcategories are often grouped into semantic sets. For example, at Cause V+n, there are fivesets, labeled respectively as physical damage, physical harm, confusion or disorder, mental
harm, and disagreement. And in each set, there is a list of high frequency collocates which are
set to be boldfaced. See Figure 3.
Cause v
Make something happen, usually something bad● V+n physical damage damage, devastation, harm, problem, trouble
The damage caused by the earthquake of 1989 is still not restored.
►Physical harm to people discomfort, hardship, injury, pain, suffering
Any operation is bound to cause some discomfort afterwards.
►Confusion or disorder chaos, confusion, disruption, disturbance, havoc, mayhem
A terrific storm blew, causing havoc on land and sea.
►Mental harm alarm, annoyance, concern, consternation, distress, embarrassment
Noise nuisance can cause severe distress to people who are subjected to it.
►Disagreement controversy, disagreement
The president’s speech caused controversy among some of his supporters.
Figure 3 Entry cause from MCD
This presentation of collocates is clear, friendly and offers better accessibility than otherdictionaries to the lexical item’s prosodic information. In the first place, the lexicogrammatical structure between the headword and collocates is worthy of note since thesemantic prosody is closely associated with the grammatical relationship. The semantic
prosody of the same word may vary under different grammatical relationships. In the second
place, the semantic set (also called semantic preference) designed in MCD is also innovative
and advisable because it is the basis on which the semantic prosody is concluded. And lastly,a long list of collocates with common features may directly lead the learners to judge in
general what the semantic prosody of the lexical item tends to be.

Other issues
To bring semantic prosody into leaner’s dictionary, there are still some other issues to beaddressed. First of all, semantic prosody is completely a new term to most of the users and it
should be defined or given illustration in the foreword or front page of the dictionary so as tohelp the users to establish awareness of semantic prosody. Secondly, semantic prosody of thelexical item may be affected by register. Partington（2004:153）indicates that “it is highly192likely that the quality and strength of the prosody of a good many items will differ from genre
to genre or from domain to domain”. For instance, the adjective lavish seems to have adisapproving connotation of excessive wastefulness in newspaper prose whereas in otherfields, such as the arts and entertainment, it was generally a neutral-to-good word, e.g. one of
the most lavish and entertaining ballets, supplemented with lavish and numerous illustrations.
And these differences should be manifested in a particular way, such as using labels or user
notes. Thirdly, there is no absolute positive or negative prosody and some items have stronger
positive or negative prosody than others. Positive prosody doesn’t mean all the collocates the
key item attracts have positive connotation and the same is true with negative prosody. On
some occasions, the speaker or writer will on purpose use unusual collocations to create asense of irony by means of prosodic clash. So it is of great importance to let the users know
the probability of semantic prosody. Last but not least, it is unnecessary to provide prosodic
information for all the lexical items because most of them have mixed semantic prosody, i.e.
the key item attracts both positive and negative collocates. And in providing prosodic
information, it is suggested that larger units, such as compound words or phrases, should be
handled first because their semantic preference and functional features are relatively evident
and easy to follow compared to smaller unit, such as word.
Conclusion
With the aid of corpus and computerized language analyzing software, a great number
lexicographers have come to know the concept of semantic prosody and some of them have
tried to put prosodic information into the practice of dictionary compilation. In this paper,
three different ways, i.e. displaying with usage label, illustrating with definition & example
sentence and setting collocation column, have been proposed as options of dealing withsemantic prosody in learner’s dictionary. Nevertheless, it must be admitted that each way has
its own merits and demerits, and lexicographers may flexibly choose any one or a
combination of them in consideration of the type of target users and design purpose of thedictionary.
Acknowledgments
The authors are grateful to Professor Tian Jianguo for his useful comments on the improvement of this paper. We
would like to acknowledge support from Shaanxi Provincial Social Science Fund under Grant No. 13K111. We
would also like to acknowledge support from Northwestern Polytechnical University Basic Research Fund underGrant 3102014RW0015 and Xi’an International Studies University Basic Research Fund under Grant 11XWB01.

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Hunston, Susan and Geoff Thompson. (2000). Evaluation in Text: Authorial Stance and theConstruction of Discourse. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Louw, Bill. 1993. Irony in the text or insincerity in the writer? The diagnostic potential ofsemantic prosodies. In Mona Baker, Gill Francis and Elena Tognini-Bonelli (eds)
Text and Technology: In Honor of John Sinclair. 157-176. Amsterdam: John
Benjamins.
Louw, Bill. 2000. Contextual prosodic theory: Bringing semantic prosodies to life. In Chris
Heffer and Helen Sauntson (eds) Words in Context: A Tribute to John Sinclair on his
Retirement. Birmingham: University of Birmingham.
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Research and Teaching. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Partington, Alan. 2004. “Utterly content in each other company”: Semantic prosody andsemantic preference. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 9(1): 131-156.
Sinclair, John. 1991. Corpus, Concordance, Collocation. Oxford: OUP.
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Wang, Hai-hua and Tong-shun Wang. 2005. A contrastive study on the semantic prosody ofcause. Modern Foreign Languages, (3): 297-309.
Wei, Nai-xing. 2010. Fundamentals of lexis. Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language
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lexicography. US-China Foreign language. 7 (1):20-25.

194Anglocentrism in the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary ofCurrent English
Hai XU, Martin Weisser
National Key Research Centre for Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, China
Guangdong University of Foreign Studies
xuhai1101@gdufs.edu.cn, weissermar@gmail.com
Abstract
As it is targeted at English learners all around the world, an English learners’ dictionary should
generally be assumed to be oriented internationally (Cowie 1999), rather than conforming to the normsof a particular English variety and culture. This requirement is further reinforced by the increasing
globalisation of English in recent years. In this study, we examined how the eighth edition of the
Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary of Current English (OALD8) explicitly and implicitly deals
with English varieties and culture-specific representations in its entries, and what progress it has madein this respect over one of its earlier editions (OALD3). We found that OALD8 apparently represents
global English varieties in headword selection and in pronunciation, etc. Yet, dictionary-making iscontingent upon social practices (Benson 2001), and Anglo-centric stances or ideologies (Kachru &Kahane 1995) in the presentation of materials still abound in OALD8. For instance, when it defines“swallow” as “a small bird […] that spends winter in Africa […]”, OALD8 offers a definition
implicitly from the Anglo-centric perspective. We discuss the implications of this and similar findings
for pedagogical lexicography, and provide recommendations on how the contents of entries may be
improved in future editions.
Keywords: globalisation, ideology, Anglocentrism, OALD

1Introduction – Defining Anglocentrism in Dictionaries

Being targeted at English learners all around the world, English learners’ dictionaries should
generally be assumed to be oriented internationally in their coverage (Cowie 1999), rather
than explicitly or inadvertently conforming to, or propagating, the norms of a particularEnglish variety and culture. However, as Cowie (1999), Benson (2001: 34), and others, havefrequently pointed out, the creation of (learner) dictionaries can hardly be seen as being freeof such ethnocentric bias.
Hornscheidt (2008: 107) states that “Modern monolingual dictionaries […] are regarded as animportant (re)source for the construction, manifestation, and naturalization of public attitudes
within society”, and sets up a fairly detailed “research agenda” (ibid.) involving a series ofquestions to be used for critically oriented lexicographic work, albeit not focussing on learnerdictionaries, but monolingual ones in general, and in the context of the identification ofracism or colonialism. Some of these, such as “Do all people or groups of people have thesame chance to identify themselves with word entries in the dictionary?” (ibid.: 115) may also
be deemed highly relevant for our present study, although our own agenda is somewhat moreneutral in trying to identify aspects of usefulness in, or the general necessity for, entries of
OALD8 for learners.
Focussing on ethnic and religious issues, Al-Ajmi & Al-Otaibi (2006) investigate thecoverage of terms relating to Islam and the Arab world in three influential dictionaries ofEnglish, one of them a learner’s dictionary, the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary
English (3rd ed.). Despite establishing a potential ‘taxonomy’ of shortcomings, loosely similar195to ours, identified in the design of the materials under investigation, they conclude that,
overall, the dictionaries sighted by them “provide a comparatively more objective image ofIslam and the Arab world than what people usually see and read in the mass media and many
works of literature, despite the fact that the compilers of these dictionaries are influenced bytheir social environments and views of other cultures with obviously inadequate access to theoriginal Islamic sources”(Al-Ajmi & Al-Otaibi 2006: 9).
The purpos(es) of the two above-mentioned articles, despite being of relevance to our topic,
are more specialised and also, to some extent, more narrowly focussed, so at this point it isimportant to define our own research objectives a little more closely. In a similar vein to AlAjmi & Al-Otaibi, in this paper, we want to identify and exemplify a set of criteria thatexhibit a certain, unnecessary, cultural bias, and may therefore make entries in the OALD lessuseful for learners than its compilers may have assumed in creating the list of headwords andcorresponding entries. More specifically, we here focus on entries that are in various ways
characterised by Anglo-centric views. However, as our conceptualisation of Anglo-centrism
may differ somewhat from that of other researchers, we should first try to provide a broad
answer to the question “What is Anglocentrism?”.
To do this, it is perhaps useful to begin with some existing definitions in establisheddictionaries themselves. Beginning with OALD8 itself, we find that it is not defined there atall, and neither is it in a number of other dictionaries we consulted. One of the few traditional
dictionaries that does in fact contain a relevant definition, albeit for the corresponding
adjective anglocentric, is the Concise Oxford Dictionary (COD11), which defines it as“centred on or considered in terms of England or Britain”. This, though, is somewhat
narrower than our notion of the term, but we finally found an already more adequate
definition on Wiktionary:
The practice of viewing the world from English or Anglo-American perspective,
with an implied belief, either consciously or subconsciously, in the preeminenceof English or Anglo-American culture.
This definition at least already also incorporates the American perspective missing from theone in COD11, but, as will soon become obvious from our discussion, we here use the term inan even wider sense, including additional assumptions about (necessary) cultural backgroundand linguistic knowledge of dictionary users.

2

Methodology

The methodology we employed follows, as far as access to electronic versions of the data
allowed us, a corpus-based approach. This revolved, in the first instance, around theextraction of a headword list of 81,742 entries from the electronic version of OALD8, which
was then investigated in a number of different ways.
The second step involved trying to narrow down the list of potential candidate entries fromthe headword list to be investigated for Anglo-centricity. To do so, we worked on theassumption that most Anglo-centric concepts would appear neither in lists of more general
English vocabulary, as part of an academic core, nor as part of the most frequent vocabulary
in the most comprehensive and carefully sampled corpus of British English to date, the British
National Corpus (BNC). We therefore proceeded to create a ‘subtraction list’ from a numberof relevant lexical resources, the New General Service List (NGSL; Browne 2014), the New
Academic Word List (NAWL; Browne et al. n.d.), as well as a list of types occurring at least
10 * per million words in the BNC. Comparing this list to the OALD headword list andautomatically extracting entries only occurring in the latter resulted in a reduced list of 50,196
196

entries which could then be filtered in various ways and compared to the entries in theelectronic version of OALD8.
The same subtraction mechanism was also used to compare the two different editions, thistime using an electronic version of the OALD3 that was originally distributed by the Oxford
Text Archive (OTA), but has since unfortunately disappeared from their catalogue.
The analysis itself involved filtering the lists for acronyms and proper names on the one hand,and for words containing common (learned) suffixes, on the other, and then investigating therelevant entries. To be able to do the latter more efficiently, we also used wildcards with
suffixes in the electronic version of OALD8.

3

Findings and Discussion

Through our research, we found issues in the coverage of OALD8 that may affect foreign
learners on a number of different levels. Some of these, as previously referred to, are similar
to the categories identified by Al-Ajmi & Al-Otaibi (2006), although their categorisation
scheme seems to make some distinctions that appear rather too fine-grained to be applied
directly.
The ‘Missionary Perspective’
We shall begin our discussion by looking at what one may term a ‘missionary perspective’, i.e.
a(n) deliberate or inadvertent coverage of terms that are predominantly related to what may beperceived as the promotion of Anglo-American culture, to the extent of neglecting theinclusion of entries related to other cultures. This is, in effect, indirectly related toHornscheidt’s question stated earlier about whether all users are able to identify themselveswith the entries in a dictionary, at least in the sense that an imbalance in the coverage skewed
towards Anglo-centric terms may have the converse effect of reducing the number of nonAnglo-centric entries, thereby overemphasising Anglo-American cultural aspects that mightin fact not always be of relevance to dictionary users.

3.1

We can see such an imbalance very clearly in a number of different features that can easily bequantified. First of all, in OALD8, references to various Inner Circle entities and varieties arestill all-too prevalent. More specifically, we find that the occurrences of the prefix {Anglo}or Inner Circle-related proper names, acronyms and adjectives show up in 11.51% of all
entries (see Error! Reference source not found.), while references to Asian/African
equivalents do so in only 0.85% (see Error! Reference source not found.).
Table 1 Frequencies of Inner Circle-related terms in entries
Term
anglo(-)# of entries
64%
0.078%

British2233

2.732%

Britain2318

2.836%

UK

40

0.049%

American1356

1.659%

America

407

0.498%

US

699

0.855%

Australian54

0.066%

Australia

102

0.125%

Canadian

71

0.087%197

Term
Canada# of entries
191%
0.234%

Irish

154

0.188%

Ireland386

0.472%New Zealand48

0.059%

Kiwi (person)

10.001%

Kiwi (fruit)

1

0.001%

Kiwi (bird)

10.001%

Scottish272

0.333%

Scotland509

0.623%

Scots/Scotsmen

37

0.045%

Welsh

116

0.142%

Wales

347

0.425%

Total

9407

11.508%

Table 2 Frequencies of terms pertaining to Asian/African countries# of entries

%

Asia

119

0.146%

Asian

71

0.087%

Africa154

0.188%

African83

0.102%

India

50

0.061%

Indian38

0.046%

China

26

0.032%

Chinese58

0.071%

Japan

23

0.028%

Japanese

440.054%

Korea

7

0.009%

Korean2

0.002%

Thailand10.001%

Thai

1

0.001%

Indonesia

50.006%

Indonesian

40.005%

Malaysia

30.004%

Malay

2

0.002%

total

691

0.845%

Term

Apparently contradicting the general assumption that British dictionaries are lessencyclopaedic in nature than their American counterparts (cf. Béjoint 2000: 48-51), theelectronic version of OALD8 contains a substantial number of encyclopaedic entries relating
to Anglo-American entities & concepts, e.g.
 26 entries alone pertaining to names of native Indian tribes in the US around 200 acronyms related to Anglo-American ‘institutions’, such as for AA:“Automobile Association (a British organization which provides services for car
198owners)” or AAA: “American Automobile Association (an American organization
which provides services for car owners)”
As a matter of fact, the number of proper names/concepts has increased strongly from version
3 to 8, with 6,287 such terms added, with only 2,936, presumably outdated ones, having been
deleted. This still represents an overall rise of encyclopaedic entries amounting to 3,351 new
headwords (constituting 4.1% of all entries), which not only appears to indicate an increasing‘Americanisation’, but where many of them, such as All Things Bright and Beautiful,
America’s Most Wanted, BSkyB, Dalek, Disney World, Gatorade, Lewis and Clark, Mount
Rushmore, Ode to the West Wind, Tuskegee University, etc., refer to (sometimes literally)
products of Anglo-American culture that should by no means be considered essential
vocabulary for learners. There may of course sometimes be a need to include such ‘cultural
facts’ in a dictionary, but essentially only if they do enter into important idiomatic or opaqueconstructions that could otherwise not be made transparent to the user. This, however, does
not appear to apply to the selection of terms listed above.
A certain element of Anglo- or perhaps Western-centric ‘linguistic imperialism’ or cultural
bias can also be detected in the frequent references to natives, native-likeness and native
speakers. Thus, although the frequent references to Native American/Canadian in entries
related to indigenous populations are rather neutral per se, the definition of native as“connected with the people who originally lived in a country before other people, especiallywhite people, came there” still arguably bears inappropriate connotations of colonialism andracial superiority. Something similar applies to OALD8’s definitions of native speaker as “aperson who speaks a language as their first language and has not learned it as a foreign
language” and idiomatic as “containing expressions that are natural to a native speaker of alanguage”. While the first one is increasingly being questioned in discussions revolving
around the globalisation of English, especially in contexts where the only ‘qualification’deemed necessary for English teachers internationally all too often used to be that of being anative speaker, the second one is positively discriminatory, implying that idiomaticity issomething only native speakers can ever hope to achieve.

3.2

Misleading Definitions Based on Anglo-Centric Perspective
We next turn to a discussion of entries where part of the definition should either be seen as
incorrect/incomplete or at the very least run counter to the expectations a ‘non-Western’ or
non-Anglo-Saxon audience may have regarding them. Below is a non-exhaustive sample listof such entries that exhibit various features:
1) Alsatian: a large dog, often trained to help the police, to guard buildings or(especially in the US) to help blind people find their way2) swallow(n):a small bird with long pointed wings and a tail with two points, that spends thewinter in Africa but flies to northern countries for the summer
one ˌswallow doesn't make a ˈsummer (saying) you must not take too seriously asmall sign that sth is happening or will happen in the future, because the situation
could change3) wine: 1 [uncountable, countable] an alcoholic drink made from the juice of grapesthat has been left to ferment. There are many different kinds of wine;
2 [uncountable, countable] an alcoholic drink made from plants or fruits other thangrapes4) cheese: cheese! what you ask sb to say before you take their photograph
Number 1) is exemplary in its Anglo-centricity as it focusses particularly on the American
context, but fails to recognise that, after all, Alsatian is only a different term for the type ofdog originally referred to as ‘German shepherd’, which clearly marks the origin of thespecies1 and the fact that Alsatians were probably trained for various purposes, including the1… in a non-Darwinian sense ;-)199

ones in definition, in Europe, long before they were introduced to the US. Thus, according toWikipedia:“The first guide dog training schools were established in Germany during WorldWar I to enhance the mobility of returning veterans who were blinded in combat,
but interest in guide dogs outside of Germany did not become widespread until
Dorothy Harrison Eustis, an American dog breeder living in Switzerland, wrote afirst-hand account about a guide dog training school in Potsdam, Germany, thatwas published in The Saturday Evening Post in 1927.”. (Wikipedia, Guide dog)
2) is inadequate, not only from a cultural, but also geographical perspective, as not all
swallows do in fact migrate, especially not if they live in a more tropical climate, but even if
they do, they may not be migrating to and from the locations provided in the definition.
However, the notion that swallows from colder climates in Northern Europe do migrate is ofcourse relevant from the idiomatic perspective referred to above, as can be seen in the idiom
part following the definition in 2), where the definition from above is a pre-requisite forunderstanding the idiom in the first place. Nevertheless, to avoid any potential confusion on
the part of the learner, the definition should probably be expanded, so that the contrast
between migratory and non-migratory behaviour would potentially facilitate comprehensionof the idiom.
Example 3) potentially confusing for Chinese dictionary users, as no reference is made to thestrength of wine as a distinguishing factor, as for them, ‘wine’ generally refers to stronger
types of alcohol unless specifically qualified as ‘grape wine’ (葡萄酒; pútáojiŭ). Therefore,
the definition should be enhanced to make these differences in understanding more explicit.
The final example illustrates a kind of pseudo-explanation that may be culturally inadequate
or incomplete because here an essential part of the definition is in fact missing in that only the‘what’ is explained, but not the ‘why’. In other words, the definition lacks an explanation as
to why people should say this particular word, i.e. in order make them spread their lips tomimic a smile during the rhyme of the syllable, apart from the fact that the word before
should more accurately be replaced by while. Interestingly enough, though, the expression has
also been transferred to Chinese as the phonologically similar 茄子(qiézi; aubergine/eggplant)
in analogy.

3.3

Circular, Pseudo-Encyclopaedic vs. Detailed Anglo-Centric Definitions
Another phenomenon observable in some definitions again relates to proper names orconcepts, only that this time, we can not only see Anglo-centric features alone in the choice ofentries and definitions, but also a stark contrast in the nature of Anglo-centric as opposed to
non-Anglo-centric definitions. Here, the Anglo-centric definitions first of all tend to(predominantly) be more detailed than their counterparts, as well as clearly encyclopaedic, e.g.
in:1) Aberdeen: a city and port in north-east Scotland. It is an important fishing port,
and was the main centre of the North Sea gas and oil industries. Many of its
buildings are made of granite, a hard grey stone, and for this reason it is often
called the ‘granite city’.
2) Aberdonian: a person from Aberdeen in Scotland3) Appomattox Court House: a former small community in the US state of Virginia
where the American Civil War ended. General Robert E Lee of the ConfederateStates surrendered on 9 April 1865 to General Ulysses S Grant in a private house.
The area is now a national historical park
4) Beacon Hill: an old, fashionable area of Boston in the US, where many richfamilies and politicians live200

Examples 1), 2) and 3) are highly encyclopaedic, containing a level of detail that marks aclear emphasis on illustrating socio-political aspects. 2), in contrast, appears positively laconic
in its brevity, but can of course easily be cross-referenced to 1).
In comparison, the names of e.g. cities, countries, or their inhabitants outside the Anglocentric domain are patently non-encyclopaedic through a distinct lack of information thatfrequently tends to render them circular, as e.g. exemplified through the definitions of
Slovakia and Slovakian as “a country in central Europe” and “(a person) from Slovakia”,
respectively, where no further attempt is made to clarify the exact location of the country as“central Europe” covers a rather large area. As a matter of fact, without the addendum “aperson” in brackets in the adjective, the meaning could equally well relate to a concept thatthe adjective is derived from. The same essentially goes for a large number of similar
adjectival entries that end in the suffixes -{ian}, -{ean}, and -{ese}. To resolve the difficulties
presented through this, one would at least expect a cross-reference to a map in the printed
dictionary or a hyperlink to one in the electronic edition.

3.4

Insufficiently Explained Greek or Latinate Words/Roots
A difficulty of a rather different type presents itself to the (modern) learner through entries
pertaining to mythology, religion, general learned vocabulary items, or such that have Greek
and Latinate roots. Here, we encounter certain assumptions on the part of the dictionary
makers that should either no longer be seen as universally applicable or may potentiallyalready have been causing issues for particular non-Western learner groups in the past.
Let us begin by looking at two examples that belong to the first category, the entries for
Augean stables, which is defined as “(in ancient Greek stories) the very large stables which
Hercules cleaned in a day by making a river flow through them”, and that for Herculean,
explained as “needing a lot of strength, determination or effort”. Now, while such entries as
the first one may still be relevant for a student of literature who may encounter frequent
references to Greek mythology in reading the classics from the Renaissance or Romantic
period, this can hardly be seen as essential vocabulary, even for the advanced learner thedictionary is aimed at, while the latter entry may still have more general currency. To
compound the issue, though, both entries essentially rely on an understanding of the name
Hercules that has no associated entry, so that the definitions basically remain opaque and theirusefulness to the learner is thus highly questionable.
Similar issues of transparency apply to definitions of words with Latin or Greek roots,
although of course here the usefulness of the terms is generally far less questionable. This isbecause a large proportion of foreign words from both languages, whether borrowed or neoclassical, is in fact used in English in everyday-life situations, even by speakers with a lower
educational background to refer to medical conditions, etc. A classic example here would be
pneumonia, for which (at least to our knowledge) there is no non-specialist equivalent, as isfor instance the case in the German Lungenentzündung (literally ‘inflammation of the lungs’).
Thus, a medical term like amenorrhoea, represented as “a condition in which an adult woman
does not menstruate (= there is no flow of blood from her womb every month)”, certainly
constitutes an essential entry in a dictionary, but essentially requires following two
hyperlinks/cross-references for learners without a suitable language background in both Latin
and Greek, as even the ‘word origin’ information “early 19th cent.: from a- ‘without’ +menorrhoea.” does little to alleviate this problem.
The same status, however, should not necessarily be accorded to other learned entries such as
terpsichorean, simply defined as “relating to dancing” with a ‘word origin’ addendum of“early 19th cent.: from Terpischore (used in the 18th cent. to denote a female dancer or the artof dance) + -an.”, which is, despite the fact that it actually occurs three times in the BNC,
such a rare and specialist term that it probably does not deserve inclusion in a general-purpose201

learner dictionary, especially when much better encyclopaedic, and etymologically also
better-founded information about its root can be found online these days:
In Greek mythology, Terpsichore (/tərpˈsɪkəriː/; Τερψιχόρη) "delight in dancing"
was one of the nine Muses and goddess of dance and chorus. [...] Her namecomes from the Greek words τέρπω ("delight") and χoρός ("dance"). (Wikipedia:
Terpsichore)
What the Wikipedia entry illustrates quite clearly is how an appropriate amount of
etymological information could in fact really allow the user to achieve a proper degree ofunderstanding of the word, especially if it were additionally cross-referenced to other entries
containing the same root, such as choreography, chorea the user can follow to deepen theirawareness of the degree of productivity and scope of semantic relations of the root.
This lack of direct and sufficiently detailed etymological information, despite frequent links
to ‘word origin’ information and the addition of 127 suffixes (‘combining forms’) between
versions 3 and 8 may constitute a genuine obstacle to the learner who wants to understandsuch entries properly, rather than simply developing a superficial understanding that may notallow them form mental appropriate associations with a term.
While the above issues may, on the surface, have little connection with notions of Anglocentricity, we can argue that this is in fact rooted in outdated notions regarding the level ofclassical education a learner may have received, coupled with the above fact that learned
words are in fact so prevalent in English. However, even if perhaps about 30 years ago, an indepth knowledge of Latin and/or Greek language and mythology, as well as other cultural
factors relevant to the understanding of the learned part of the English vocabulary may, atleast for Western-educated learners, still have been the norm, this may in fact rarely ever haveapplied to other learners, and even does so to a much lesser extent to younger native and nonspeakers of the language from various language backgrounds where such a classical education
model may no longer have any currency.

4

Conclusion

What we set out to do in this paper was to investigate to what extent the vocabulary in
OALD8 is Anglo-centric, as well as demonstrate the effects that such a potential Anglocentricity may have on the learners using this dictionary. As our discussion above has
hopefully illustrated, there is indeed a substantial number of entries related to encyclopaedic
Anglo-centric information present in this edition, and the relevance of at least some of theseto learners may be highly questionable. Equally questionable is whether the occasionallyrelatively large space dedicated to them at the expense of non-Anglo-centric entries is in any
way justifiable. Conversely, we have shown that, even if relevant non-Anglo-centric concepts
are included in the dictionary to ‘balance’ the Anglo-centric ones, their definitions are
frequently too brief to be useful, often affected by circularity, or may be culturally misleading
and/or incomplete.
Last, but not least, we have tried to point out how issues related to established backgroundexpectations about a certain (Western-)educated readership may affect the overall
intelligibility and usefulness of parts of the learned vocabulary in OALD8, claiming that thesenotions are no longer, or may indeed never have been, applicable to the target audience of thedictionary, and that ability to understand many such entries may successively be turning into
an issue for Western-educated users, too.
Based on the above observations, we would like to propose to implement the following
recommendations in future editions of the OALD, as well as perhaps other learner’s
dictionaries that might be affected by the same issues. As a first step, it may be advisable to202

reduce the amount of unnecessary encyclopaedic information related to Anglo-centric
concepts and entities. Learners can easily find such information on Wikipedia, where it canalso constantly be updated if necessary, and space is not an issue, so that far more detailed
explanations can be provided than is practical in a dictionary, especially in a print version.
Doing so would allow the compilers of the OALD to focus on improving the remaining
essential entries in at least two of ways. First, the relevant entries could be improved byadding more etymological information directly where and when applicable, which would
potentially enhance the user’s awareness of morphological structure and productivity.
Secondly, focussing on fewer items would perhaps also make it possible to remove at least
some of the Anglo-centric bias in order to adopt more global perspectives that are more
appropriate for an international and modern readership.

References
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Anglocentrism.
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Routledge.
Browne, Charles. 2014. A New General Service List: The Better Mousetrap We’ve Been
Looking for? Vocabulary Learning and Instruction, Volume 3(1). 1-10.
doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7820/vli.v03.1.browne
Browne, Charles, Culligan, Brent, and Phillips, Joseph. (n.d.). A New Academic Word List.
http://www.newacademicwordlist.org/.
Cowie, Anthony P. 1999. English dictionaries for foreign learners: A history. Oxford:
Clarendon Press.
Coxhead, Averil. 2002. The Academic Word List: A Corpus-based Word List for Academic
Purposes. In Kettemann & Marko. (eds.). 2002. Teaching and Learning by Doing Corpus
Analysis. Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Teaching and Language
Corpora, Graz 19-24 July, 2000. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Gadsby, Andrew, and Summers, Della. (Eds.).2001. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary
English. (3rd ed.) Harlow: Longman, Green & Co.
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dog.
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Hornscheidt, Antje. 2008. A concrete research agenda for critical lexicographic researchwithin critical discourse studies: an investigation into racism/colonialism in monolingual
Danish, German, and Swedish dictionaries. Critical Discourse Studies 5(2): 107-132.
Kachru, Braj B., and Kahane, Henry. 1995. Cultures, ideologies, and the dictionary: Studies inhonor of Ladislav Zgusta. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.
Terpsichore.
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203

Pragmatic Information in Learner’s Dictionaries: RedefinedAnmin Wang
Macquarie University
anmin.wang@students.mq.edu.au
Abstract
The importance of pragmatic knowledge to foreign learners of a language has long been
acknowledged. Learner’s dictionaries may be of help to these learners in acquiring such knowledge via
pragmatic information offered in them. The definition of such information by different researchers
from various perspectives explains why its presentation varies in lexicographical practice. To offer
pragmatic information systematically, it needs to be redefined, which calls for not viewing pragmatics
and lexicography as two fields on a par with each other, but delimiting the former within the latter,with conventionalized stabilized speaker meaning as their point of convergence. This will specify the
portion of pragmatic meaning capable of being treated in a learner’s dictionary—lexico-pragmatic
meaning, laying the foundation for presenting such meaning as pragmatic information systematically.

Keywords: pragmatic information, redefine, conventionalized, speaker meaning, lexicopragmatic meaning

Introduction
In learning a foreign language, learners can commit grammatical as well as pragmatic
errors. A “considerable proportion of them [learner errors] are caused by the learner’s
lack of pragmatic knowledge” (Yang 2007: 147). Thus it may follow that suchinformation should be included in a learner’s dictionary. However, even if the importanceof such information to foreign language learners has been well acknowledged, generally
speaking, the inclusion of such information still leaves a lot to be desired. EnglishChinese (henceforth abbreviated as E-C) dictionaries for beginning learners of Chinese asa foreign language (shortened into CFL learners) is no exception.
Even if “there are pragmatic components and effects in the language under
description…in dictionaries”(Zgusta 1988: 246), collectively known as pragmatic
information in lexicographical field, it is a pity that “I[i]t is not even certain what
…pragmatic information in the context of … lexicography is”(Kawamura 2014: 6). The
divergence in presenting such information among various dictionaries may have stemmed
from researchers’ disagreement on what pragmatic information is. The different
perspectives to define it, including the pragmatic one, help explain this. Meanwhile, eventhose defining pragmatic information from the perspective of pragmatics also displays
variation, which results from people’s different understanding of what pragmatics is.
Thus before reviewing definitions of pragmatic information from various perspectives,
this article considers what pragmatics is. Taking Ariel’s (2010) view on pragmatics andscrutinizing different definitions of pragmatic information prepare the author to delimit
the territory of pragmatics in the context of lexicography, with conventionalized speaker
meaning as the point of their convergence. Thus, lexico-pragmatics, a term coined by theauthor, studies lexico-pragmatic meaning of three characteristics. Pragmatic informationis the presentation of such meaning in a dictionary via appropriate lexicographical meanson every structural level in dictionaries.

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1 What is pragmatics
What pragmatics is may not be a question that has a unanimous answer among evenpragmatists themselves. Though numerous topics fall under the same big tent of
pragmatics, generally speaking, “[W]with contemporary pragmatics, there are two main
schools: Anglo-American and Continental” (LoCastro 2012: 7), which focus on different
research targets.
Pragmatists of the former school take “pragmatics as a core area that overlaps withsemantics within formal linguistics, along with syntax, morphology, phonology, andsemantics” (LoCastro 2012: 7). The topics appealing to pragmatists from AngloAmerican school were first systematically listed out by Levinson (1983: 14) inPragmatics, which comprise deixis, conventional implicature, presupposition, speech act,
conversational structure and so on. Pragmatists within this group seem to have theconsensus that pragmatics has definite units for study or analysis, covering “thepragmatic properties of specific words or linguistics structures” (He & Chen 2004: 7) andthose beyond these words and structures. Listing these topics together may leave theimpression that they are on a par with each other in the field of pragmatics, which
actually is not the case. Some of them have thus far been favored by researchers, such as
speech act, while other ones may have been comparatively orphaned or marginalized, likeconventional implicature. However, it ought to be noted that “P[p]ragmatic analysis
cannot afford to be restricted to some predetermined subject matter, no matter how liberal
the choice is” (Ariel 2010: 19). In addition, whether dictionaries can and to what extent
they can present pragmatic information associated with some of the topics, especiallysomething like particularized conversational implicature, remains a question.
Meanwhile, the Continental school, with Verschueren as one of its representatives, holds
the view that the study objects of pragmatics — “linguistic phenomena to be studied fromthe point of view of their usage can be situated at any level of structure or may pertain to
any type of form meaning relationship” (Verschueren 1999: 3). This view broadens aswell as blurs the boundary of pragmatics, since the “definition does not introduce a strict
boundary between pragmatics and some other areas in the field of linguistics” (ibid.).
Thus such a definition may lend little help to setting up a systematic framework for
integrating pragmatic information into learner’s dictionaries as well. Of course, this is not
to deny that this view of pragmatics does not hold water, but to say that the over-broadconcept of pragmatics is not conducive to offering pragmatic information systematicallyin dictionaries.
Therefore, what pragmatics is may need an alternative perspective. To integrate it into
lexicography, it can neither be restricted to fixed topics nor be expanded unlimitedly.
Pragmatics “calls for the identification of the pragmatic aspects relevant to any languageuse, and teasing these apart from grammatical aspects” (Ariel 2010: 19). Then, according
to her (ibid.: 249), pragmatics ought to focus on “inferences which are based on the
linguistic strings expressed when contextual assumptions are taken into account. Then
what is left should be studied by grammarians rather than pragmatists. By taking thisview, she appears to argue from hearer’s perspective in a communication. Her criterion
can be applied unanimously to determine whether something belongs to pragmatics, thus
contributing to incorporating pragmatic information in a systematic way into learner’s
dictionaries.
2. Definitions of pragmatic information: A review
Up to now, compared with research on grammatical information in dictionaries,
especially learner’s ones, that on pragmatic information is rather scarce as well as
sketchy. With a preface entitled Pragmatics and the Dictionary in Longman Dictionary ofContemporary English (the 2nd edition), Leech and Thomas introduced the concept ofpragmatic information into learner’s dictionaries in 1987. Since then, only a few journal
205

articles, certain book sections, unpublished doctoral theses and one monography on
lexicography have discussed it from various perspectives: communicative, contextual,socio-cultural and pragmatic.

2.1 Communicative perspective
Researchers like Sharpe and Apreseyan look into pragmatic information from thecommunicative perspective. Sharpe (1989: 315) defines it as “knowing which lexical
items target language speakers would use to achieve a certain communicative task”. The
definition, aside from being too general to guide the provision of pragmatic informationin learner’s dictionaries, also limits such information to the lexical level in a language,
overlooking the fact that pragmatic information can be presented on the level beyond,such as sentential or textual level in a dictionary. Apreseyan (1988 cited in Burkhanov
2003: 103) holds that pragmatic specifications [i.e. pragmatic information] inlexicography concentrates on conveying speakers’ attitude to reality, the message and/or
the interlocutor, which is encoded in linguistic signs as units of language-system. Thisdefinition has mentioned speaker’s attitude, one important component of pragmatic
information. However, it forms just part of such information. Thus it can be said that thecommunicative perspective, though realizing the presence of pragmatic information on
the lexical level in a language or capturing certain components of pragmatic information
like speakers’ attitude, fails to come up with a satisfactory definition for it in thelexicographical context.
2.2 Contextual perspective
Some researchers examine pragmatic information from a contextual perspective, breaking
such information into various components which mostly coincide with usages in
dictionaries. Thus it is not surprising that labelling becomes the main means to present it.
Hagasi (1981) views pragmatic information as different components of language use. The
first includes temporal plus spatial use of language and language users’ social status,
which is partly echoed by Kipfer (1984: 41), who defines it as variation in language,
temporal and spatial features as well as the relationship between the interlocutors. The
second involves their age, gender, and occupation; the third is made up of audience,
register and so on. Svensén (1993: 6), Huang and Chen (2001: 48–49), and Li and Zhou
(2001: 138) more or less take a similar view to that of Hagasi’s. Though factors likelanguage users’ gender, age, social status, their relationship may constitute part ofpragmatic information, it is questionable whether temporal, spatial or other variations
also fall into the category of such information.
To researchers like Landau, pragmatic information covers some of contextual factors
mentioned above, but is not limited to them. Aside from agreeing that such information
includes temporal and regional variation, language users’ social status, he expands it to beconcept almost the same as usage, covering other factors like technical or specialized
terminology, restricted or taboo sexual and scatological usage, insult, slang, style orregister. (Landau 2001: 217-272) Though certain usage, like insult, may convey the
speaker attitude or feelings, thus can be taken as pragmatic information, usage itself is not
the same as pragmatic information.
Thus it deserves to be mentioned that even if some contextual factors make up importantcomponents of pragmatic information, not all of them do. Meanwhile, pragmatic
information should not be equated with usages. Furthermore, one “critical weakness of
this view is that it confines pragmatic information to the lexical level” (Yang 2007: 148)in the microstructure of dictionaries as well. Meanwhile, even if labeling can be an
important means to present such information in a dictionary, some of it may well require
other forms of presentation. Thus, this perspective cannot offer a framework for
integrating pragmatic information systematically into learner’s dictionaries.
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2.3 Socio-Cultural Perspective
Some researchers examine pragmatic information from the socio-cultural perspective.
Nuccorini (1993) defines pragmatics in the scope of lexicography in Pragmatics inLearner’s Dictionaries: “I[i]n this framework, pragmatics is restricted just to an
incomplete set of commonly shared, culture-specific, social conventions and linguistic
assumptions, more or less clearly stated and exemplified”. He equals such information tosocio-cultural conventions and linguistic assumptions, which may not cover all thepragmatic information. Hartmann and James (2000: 111) view such information as
something “on the sociocultural rules of speaking”, covering paralinguistic features like
tone, choosing words in terms of politeness and formality conventions, etc. (ibid.).
Though choosing words out of politeness and formality may be part of pragmatic
information, just as Yang (2007: 149) points out, this definition is “too broad to be usefulas a guide to what pragmatic information should be contained in the dictionary”.
Therefore, this perspective, like three others above, still fails to accomplish the mission ofdefining pragmatic information adequately.
2.4 Pragmatic perspective
Some researchers approach pragmatic information by integrating pragmatics proper with
lexicography, viewing the two fields on a par with each other. Qian (1995), Yang (2004,
2005, 2007) all belong to this group. Qian (1995) makes mention of three types ofpragmatic information: referential, textual and socio-pragmatic, which is associated with
deictic terms, discourse markers, speaker’s attitude and intention plus the relationshipbetween the speaker and the hearer, etc. respectively. Even if certain components
mentioned above, like speaker’s attitude plus the communicator’s relationship, do makeup an important part of pragmatic information, his definition still can’t offer a unified
framework for presenting such information. Yang (2004, 2005, 2007) attempts to definesuch information by integrating pragmatic meaning into lexicographic meaning. Her
notion of pragmatic meaning comes from Levinson (1983): conventional implicature,
presupposition, felicity condition, generalized conversational implicature, particularized
conversational implicature and inferences based on conversational structure, to which she
adds pragmatic meaning arising from politeness. Though it remains a question to what
extent a print dictionary can present certain kinds of pragmatic meaning, likeparticularized implicature, she is right to point out that pragmatic information is not
restricted to lexical level. Yang and Qian appear to take pragmatics as something madeup of fixed canonical topics, such as speech acts theory, politeness, deixis, which
represent the Anglo-American pragmatic traditions, and consider all the linguistic aspects
associated with these topics entitle them to a position in learner’s dictionaries aspragmatic information, which is not necessarily true. In this aspect, her view echoes thatof Cowie’s (1984). The latter argues that pragmatic specialization, which is similar to
pragmatic information, associated with expressions like “would you mind” should be
provided for foreign learners of English, since they can perform particular speech acts.
Kawamura (2014) represents another attempt to define pragmatic information by
combining pragmatics with lexicography. She (2014: 40) confines pragmatic information
to “those discourse or pragmatic functions and pragmatic biases, a learner’s ignorance of
which could cause a serious problem, especially in those cases where S[peaker]’sutterances might sound rude or offensive”. This definition does help narrow down thescope of pragmatic information in a learner’s dictionary. However, it remains to be seen
how such restriction will help establish the systematic framework for offering pragmatic
information in a learner’s dictionary, since it is still not clear what such functions andbiases exactly are. Besides, it is doubtful that they can stand for all pragmatic
information.

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To sum up, all the efforts to define pragmatic information from diverse perspectives
above, except Yang’s, have failed to provide a unified framework for integrating suchinformation into learner’s dictionaries. Nevertheless, Yang does not seek to restrict thescope of pragmatic meaning that can be treated in dictionaries. On the contrary, she tries
to bring all the components of pragmatic meaning into lexicographical meaning, which
may not be workable for a dictionary. Thus to define pragmatic information, therelationship between pragmatics and lexicography needs to be re-examined. They should
not be taken as two fields enjoying equal status, but the former delimited in the latter.

3 Pragmatics in the context of lexicography: Redefined as lexico-pragmatics
It can be argued that attempts to define pragmatic information from perspectives otherthan pragmatics may not be able to produce a framework for offering such information
systematically in learner’s dictionaries. Thus taking a communicative, contextual, sociocultural view can not help achieve such a goal. To attain it, the relationship between
pragmatics and lexicography needs to be re-examined, thus requiring us to delimit
pragmatics within lexicography and picking out a point of convergence to combine them.
3.1 Delimiting pragmatics within lexicography
To define pragmatic information adequately, instead of viewing pragmatics as something
enjoying similar status as lexicography, the scope of pragmatics needs to be delineated in
the context of lexicography. Previous researchers of pragmatic information, like Qian
(1995), Yang (2004, 2005, 2007), seem to regard these two fields as equals and try tomerge them together. However, to reveal their relationship in the context of lexicography,
the fact that the two fields are not on a par with each other should be the foundation.
Kawamura (2014) is correct in attempting to limit the scope of pragmatics within
lexicography by restricting pragmatic meaning in a dictionary. She (2014: 34) believes
pragmatic information concerns “the part of pragmatic meaning that is [can be]accommodated in the dictionaries” and they specify “what portion of pragmatic meaning
should be included”(ibid.). However, she only restricts pragmatic meaning to thatconveyed by pragmatic functions and biases, which may not be complete.
To present a true picture of the relationship between these two fields, “I[i]t should beemphasized that … the term ‘pragmatics’ [in lexicography] primarily refers not to abranch of linguistic inquiry, but to linguistic phenomena [originally italicized] whichshould be studied within the scope of that discipline.” (Burkhanov 2003: 103) On thisbasis, it can be argued that pragmatics within the scope of lexicography constitutes
something that can be entitled lexico-pragmatics, which concerns pragmatic informationin learner’s dictionaries and will be detailed below by discussing the point of
convergence of the two fields.
3.2 Meaning: Where pragmatics and lexicography converge
Aside from the aspect mentioned above, redefining the relationship between pragmatics
and lexicography needs a point where the two fields converge: meaning. It is somethingappealing to and investigated by both pragmatists and lexicographers, though obviously
in different ways.
Lexicographers mainly deal with the meaning of words and word strings in a language
system. Their central task is to deal with lexical meaning. “It is, thus, in explaining,
describing and defining the meaning of words that the major function of dictionaries is
considered to lie, and on which they are judged.” (Jackson 2001: 86) Or as researchers
like (Zgusta 1971: 21, Zhang, 2002: 3) point out, to lexicographers, word meaning is theirfocal issue. They “try to obtain knowledge of the lexical meaning of a word [words] as apart of the system of language”(Zgusta, 1971: 24) and “the goal of the lexicographer’s
work is [to define] their abstract value in the [language] system”(ibid.: 26). In otherwords, lexicographers deal with systematic meaning or stabilized meaning of lexical208

items within a language system. Understanding lexical meaning in such a way entails theneed to include pragmatic meaning in a dictionary.
Pragmatics, on the other hand, mostly generally speaking, deals with meaning in use insocio-cultural settings. Though well aware of the dynamic nature of pragmatic meaning
as a type of meaning negotiation between interlocutors in specific contexts, I take it hereas speaker meaning conveyed by the linguistic strings expressed where average hearers
may be able to infer in the usual contextual settings. “Considering the character ofdictionary meaning, dictionaries can and should only deal with most fixed parts ofpragmatic meaning”(Kawamura 2014: 37). Therefore, it naturally follows that a learner’s
dictionary can not include all the speaker meanings as pragmatic meaning, but it canoften help foreign learners of a language “by giving examples of typical speakermeanings” (Leech & Thomas 1987: F12) via appropriate lexicographical means.
To conclude, the two previous subsections: pragmatics is delimited in lexicography as
linguistic phenomena investigated in lexicography; pragmatics within lexicography isincapable of dealing with all the probable speaker meanings, plus the perspective that
pragmatics deals with inferences based on linguistic strings that are expressed with
contextual information considered in section 1, pave the way for the study of pragmatic
information in dictionaries. Let us call it lexico-pragmatics: a branch of lexicographicalstudy handling conventionalized speaker meaning conveyed by linguistic strings via
appropriate lexicographical means on various structural levels of dictionaries. It deals
with lexico-pragmatic meaning. The relationship between pragmatics and lexicography isillustrated in the diagram below.

Figure 1 The diagram of lexico-pragmatic meaning

4. Lexico-pragmatic meaning expounded
Three essential features help define lexico-pragmatic meaning, a concept mentioned
above. The features of such meaning will be detailed in the following paragraphs. The
first one is that it must be conventionalized in socio-cultural settings. The second one isthat it must be stabilized, conveyed by linguistic strings as part of language system rather
than their occasional applications. The last one is that it must be speaker meaning,
including his or her attitudes, feelings, etc., conveyed by such strings.
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4.1 Conventionalized
Being conventionalized depicts the very nature of lexico-pragmatic meaning, contrasting
it with pragmatic meaning proper, which can be understood as meaning in use in sociocultural settings, as well as narrowing down its own territory. Such meaning produced bylinguistic strings or expressions, when applied in communication, is usually “instantly
recognized as such, and no series of steps need to be posited for the hearer to be able towork out the intended illocutionary force of the utterance.” (Nattinger & DeCarrico 1992:
49) In other words, average hearers are able to immediately infer or recognize theconventionalized speaker meaning under usual contextual settings. The pragmatic
meaning generated by linguistic strings or expressions ad hoc is beyond the capacity oflexico-pragmatists.
4.2 Stabilized
Stability of meaning, on which definitions of meaning in dictionaries are based, also
applies to lexico-pragmatic meaning. Lexicographers must “derive the generalized
description, or formulation, of the lexical [lexico-pragmatic] meaning of
which…applications…are actual manifestations”(Zgusta 1971: 26). If one application ofsuch meaning is occasional, adopted by only some language user temporarily to achievecertain pragmatic effects, then such meaning won’t be included in a learner’s dictionary,
since it is still not part of the system of language. Lexico-pragmatists are attracted by how
speaker “meaning that lexical[linguistic] items display in various contexts is to be
described” (Van der Eijk et al. 1995: 1-2) as belonging to language system, rather thantheir occasional applications in specific contexts, which is usually the interest ofpragmatists.
4.3 Speaker Meaning
Lexico-pragmatic meaning must be speaker meaning conveyed by linguistic strings,
including his or her attitudes, feelings, etc., usually beyond the lexicographical meaningof such strings. Such meaning is thus associated with or conveyed by these strings but notencoded in their lexicographical meaning as revealed by their definitions. Take forexample, wèntíshì问题是 “The problem is” in Chinese is often taken as an expression
to mark the speaker is going to introduce something negative or that (partially)
contradicts what others have expressed. However, such meaning is not incorporated into
the definitions of the two individual words making up this expression. Speaker-meaning
like this constitutes lexico-pragmatic meaning in learner’s dictionaries. Thus pragmatic
information in such dictionaries is the presentation of lexico-pragmatic meaning via
various lexicographical means on different structural levels in dictionaries.
Conclusion
This article, among other things, has established the following points. Firstly, it has
provided an up-to-date review of the definitions of pragmatic information from various
perspectives. In addition, inspired by Ariel’s definition of pragmatics, I have redefined
the relationship between pragmatics and lexicography, with the former delimited within
the latter to generate lexico-pragmatics, which studies lexico-pragmatic meaning. Last but
not the least, three core features of lexico-pragmatic meaning are explained, which set thecriteria for presenting it as pragmatic information in learner’s dictionaries in a systematicway.
Meanwhile, it ought to be pointed out that the present attempt still leaves much space for
future exploration. First, with the further research on pragmatics, future researchers may
approach pragmatic information from a different perspective. Second, the present paper isonly a theoretical exploration, which must be followed up by investigating pragmatic
information associated with a certain foreign language in learner’s dictionaries, andseeking out appropriate lexicographical means to present such information. Though it is
not stated openly, the present paper is limited to examining pragmatic information in print
210dictionaries. The ways to present such information in learner’s dictionaries in other media
are worthy of exploring as well.
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212

Crowdsourcing Microdata for Cost-Effective and Reliable
Lexicography
Martin Benjamin
École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Switzerland
martin.benjamin@epfl.ch
Abstract
Lexicography has long faced the challenge of having too few specialists to document too many words
in too many languages with too many linguistic features. Great dictionaries are invariably the productof many person-years of labor, whether the lifetime work of an individual or the lengthy collaborationof a team. Is it possible to use public contributions to vastly reduce the time and cost of producing a
dictionary while ensuring high quality? Crowdsourcing, often seen as the solution for large-scale dataacquisition or analysis, is fraught with problems in the context of lexicography. Language is not binary,so there may be no one right answer to say that a word “means” a particular definition, or that a word in
one language “is” the same as a particular translation term. People may misinterpret instructions or
misread terms or make typographical or conceptual errors. Some crowd members intentionally add bad
data. Without a payment system, incentives for participation are slim; micro-payments introduce the
incentive to maximize income over quality.
Our project introduces a public interface that breaks lexicographic data collection into targeted
microtasks, within a stimulating game environment on Facebook, phones, and the web. Players earnpoints for answers that win consensus. Validation is achieved by redundancy, while malicious users aredetected through persistent deviations. Data can be collected for any language, in an integrated
multilingual framework focused on the serial production of monolingual dictionaries linked at theconcept level. Questions are sequential, first eliciting a lemma, then a definition, then otherinformation, according to a prioritized concept list. The method can also be used to merge existing data
sets. Intensive trials are currently underway in Vietnamese, with the inclusion of additional Asian
languages an explicit objective.
Keywords: crowdsourcing, gamification, distributed lexicography, multilingual, quality assurance

1. Introduction.
Kamusi GOLD is the Global Online Living Dictionary, with the goal of producing a
multilingual dictionary with comprehensive data for “every word in every language”. Given
the size of each language, the large amount of information and nuance that can be associatedwith each term, the number of languages and variants, and the near impossibility ofextensively engaging informants for many smaller languages, the goal of “every word” isaxiomatically out of reach. However, “every word” sets a target for system design: a structurethat can accommodate the full range of linguistic data associated with each term (Benjamin2014 b and c), and a set of procedures that can elicit and process data with speakers of any
language (Benjamin 2014 a, Benjamin and Radetzky 2014 a and b). In this paper, we describe
the public interface that breaks lexicographic data collection into targeted microtasks. Tasks
build upon each other, including the creation of new data and the validation of others’
contributions. Questions are presented within stimulating game environments (McGonigal
2011, Hamari and Koivisto 2013) on Facebook, mobile devices, and the web. The ultimate
goal is a resource that can give people and technology services a wide assortment of useful
information for any written or spoken term. Each language should have a monolingual
dictionary of all the concepts it produces, with definitions in its own language, extended
information such as word forms, and links to close equivalent ways of expressing the idea inother languages. Our premise is that most of the data we are seeking cannot or will not be
produced in a codified form by relying on traditional methods of field or desk lexicography.
Through well-regulated public engagement, the methods described in this paper can collect213

data systematically for numerous languages that would otherwise be out of reach for detailed
lexicographical investigation.
2. Challenges addressed
2.1 Great dictionaries take time. Individuals often compile dictionaries over decades, andteams may not be much faster. Acquiring and arranging lexicographical data is a difficult taskthat requires serious oversight from knowledgeable individuals. Rare is the case where
lexicography pays the rent, and rare is the case where a language enthusiast can see a serious
dictionary through to completion; because of limitations of time and person power, great
dictionaries for most languages have never been written. The Kamusi Project seeks to change
that, through a combination of systems for language experts to compile dictionaries using acentral lexicographical resource, computational techniques for harvesting existing data, andthe methods discussed in this paper for users to contribute to the growth of resources for theirown languages. The crowd will still need many person-years to achieve quality results, but themetered time can be condensed through an expanded number of participants versus traditional
lexicography (Brabham 2011). With careful control of data acquisition and review, we
contend that public engagement will result in quality lexicographical data for many languages
that otherwise would not or could not exist.
2.2. Crowdsourcing offers the potential of rapid data collection at low cost, but it is alsofraught with dangers (Saxton et al. 2013). Crowdsourcing with micropayments throughservices such as Mechanical Turk introduces a host of incentives for participants to cheat(Kittur et al. 2008, Hirth et al. 2013) that we would not want to expend resources incombatting, were our budget even to allow. Absent a financial incentive, many people withgreat intentions may nevertheless provide poor information. They may have a faulty
understanding of a question, or an inadequate understanding of the parameters of asatisfactory answer. They may have poor spelling or poor grammar. Additionally, users mightprovide wrong information for malicious reasons. Many crowdsourcing projects surmountsuch problems by greatly limiting the tasks that contributors can perform (Hsueh et al. 2009),
with limited goals such as identifying the features of photos. Other projects ferret out bad
information by relying on users to find problems, whether the Wiki method of trusting that
mistakes will be found and fixed, or Amazon asking users if they find a review helpful. The
methods we describe are designed to learn from each contributor to the maximum of theircapabilities, while constraining the information to the format needed for consistent data, andensuring that bad data does not get published to the project.
2.3. In the context of language, crowdsourcing has peculiar advantages as well as posing
particular problems. People are passionate about their languages in a way they are not about
their reviews on Trip Advisor or their votes on Slashdot. Their passion may become
dogmatic, to the extent that one speaker may try to overwrite contributions from someone
who speaks a variant form. Even answers that are essentially the same may adhere to different
orthographies, which the methods discussed herein do not address other than to pass conflictto a separate stage of manual review. Yet, important variations in language can be revealed by
the crowd in a way not accessible to most lexicography projects. Both the numbers ofpotential participants and the ability for people to contribute along the entire geographic range
across which a language might vary open public lexicography to a never-before-seen breadthof speaker input. For most crowd projects, participants can offer knowledgeable opinions,
whether confirmation that an image from a telescope has the characteristics of a galaxy, or a
fully-researched article on Wikipedia (Schenk and Guittard 2009). With language, however, anative speaker is an inherently authoritative, if problematic, source. The challenge for the
project is to transfer this authoritative knowledge to a codified, reliable form.

214

3. Methods for data elicitation and validation
This section describes the systems we have designed for eliciting valid lexical data frommembers of the public. The system is under continuous development, with frequent
modifications, so the description at the time of writing might not exactly correspond to theimplementation at the time of reading. Each of the modes has the same general facets: tasks
should be simple to understand, simple to complete, and acquire validity through consensus.
Some of the modes can be activated as-is for any language, while other modes need to be
configured for the particular needs of a language (e.g., eliciting the dual form of nouns in
Arabic). All modes would ideally have their controls and explanations properly localized fortheir own language, though this will require fairly extensive direct interaction with speakers to
implement.
3.1 Translation Terms. Our first mode is geared to producing a set of parallel concepts acrosslanguages, in order to establish a baseline vocabulary for each. If we do not already have
digitized data available for a language, which would be treated in the Alignment mode, thiswill be the first set of information that enters the system for the language. Although the
project aspires to go well beyond crude mot àmot translations, this mode gives a foundation
on which more complex data can be assembled.
In translation mode, the participant is shown a word and definition in English, and asked forthe word they would use to express that concept in their language. Importantly, we do not ask
questions such as, “What is ‘pen’ in your language”, but rather, “Pen: a handheld writing
implement with ink” or “Pen: an enclosure for animals”. The mode serves terms from animperfect priority list based on factors such as English corpus frequency (Benjamin 2013).
When Term X has multiple senses, we present the sense that appears first arbitrarily in ourdataset, then move on through senses of the next ten terms on the priority list, then cycle backto the next unqueried sense of Term X, so that the participant is not inundated with being
asked about multiple senses of the same key term in rapid succession. When someone skips aquestion, we anonymously store that information so that we can learn which senses toprioritize and which to demote; e.g., all languages might have a way to express “run” asopposed to “walk”, but not a “run” in baseball. When a threshold number of people submit thesame term, we consider the item valid, pass it to the next mode, and publish it on Kamusi as apreliminary entry.
3.2. Synonyms. Although Translation mode can elicit the most popular term for a given
concept, it also has the potential to bring in ambiguous information that needs a differentmode for review. Were 10 Swahili speakers asked to translate “car”, six might propose“motokaa”, three might suggest “gari”, and one could input “motocaa”. Both “motokaa” and“gari” are valid answers, while “motocaa” is an error. In Synonyms mode, we are able tocompare a validated term for which we have a definition with another term for which we havereason to suspect equivalence, either from original submissions via Translation mode or fromthe Open Multilingual Wordnet (http://compling.hss.ntu.edu.sg/omw/). We show thevalidated term and its definition, and ask whether the comparison term is another term withthe same meaning, an alternate spelling of the same term, or an error. In the example, “gari”
would quickly reach consensus and “motocaa” eliminated.
3.3. Word forms. Kamusi approaches morphological forms from two directions: cataloguingeach form, or producing them algorithmically. When a part of speech has a small number offorms within a language, such as the five inflections of an English verb (see, sees, saw, seen,
seeing), setting up procedures to elicit the forms is straightforward. In cases where the task isunambiguous, we can present the crowd with the lemma and its definition and ask for thedesired subsidiary form, e.g., what is the plural for “car”, a vehicle with four wheels?

215

This task has particular dangers. First, non-specialists are unlikely to be able to answer aquestion such as, “What is the past participle for ‘see’”? Our current solution is to set up theForms mode on a case-by-case basis, in consultation with language specialists; if we cannot
find a way to phrase a question to get the proper form from the public, we will defer that item
until we are able to assign the task to a trusted user. Second, we cannot assume that all senses
of a lemma have the same inflected forms, e.g., the plural of the insect “louse” is “lice”, while
the plural of a human “louse” is “louses”. Our solution is to ask for Forms for only a single
sense, and then ask for confirmation that additional senses conform to the same spelling
pattern – a low-threshold microtask. Third, alternate spellings are possible, such as “spelled”
and “spelt”. To solve this, we place competing spellings in the same type of verify/reject loopthat we designed for Synonyms.
Certain parts of speech in certain languages have too many forms to tackle with iterative
public input. The twenty or so forms that an adjective could have in many Bantu languages
reaches the outer edge of what can be sought in Forms mode. Verb conjugation tables inRomance languages, which can hover near 100 forms, are best filled in by trusted users; afuture tool will populate such tables. For agglutinative languages with highly predictable
forms, such as the nearly one billion possibilities for the Kinyarwanda verb, the only solution
is to work with specialists on algorithms to parse the extended forms.
3.4. Definitions. “Dictionaries” for most languages are generally compilations of bilingual
word pairs and selected extended information, with the assumption that readers have an apriori grasp on the underlying concept. For an almost random example, dictionaries for many
languages pair a term in that language to English “bull”, with the typical first guess that theentry references a male cow. However, most good English monolingual dictionaries list morethan a dozen other senses for “bull” as well. Our premise is that each term should be definedin its own language, creating monolingual references that link to the expressions of similar
concepts across languages. Members of the public can provide these definitions, but writing adefinition is a difficult task. The Definition mode is designed to work toward agreed
definitions that could pass the muster of a trained lexicographer, with the acknowledgementthat initial data might be less than perfect.
The starting point for the Definitions mode is the less-than-perfect set of ~200,000 English
terms from the Princeton WordNet (PWN: http://wordnet.princeton.edu/). In the English
version, we present an English term, such as “elevator car”, and the PWN working definition,in this case, “where passengers ride up and down”, and ask whether the given definition isgood as is or if the reader can write a better definition. The reader also has the option to skip
any entry, or to choose a definition submitted by an earlier participant. Within game play, aplayer receives substantial points for writing the winning definition, and one point for
upvoting the eventual winning entry. Once a definition has passed the consensus threshold, it
is published in Kamusi. However, Kamusi entries will have the option for readers to challenge
the published definition, putting it back into consideration within the game setting.
For other languages, the Definition mode can be activated once a translation equivalent has
been validated. We present the term, and show its English equivalent and definition (or PWN
working definition). Showing the English definition unfortunately tends to steer the result
toward the English concept rather than the nuance of the indigenous term, but is necessary for
two reasons. First, it is absolutely essential that to align the correct senses across languages –to grab the right “bull” by the horns. Second, since most contributors do not arrive knowing
how to write a good dictionary entry, the English definition will provide guidance that will
give them a launching point, with the real potential that subsequent readers will have the
incentive to improve weak definitions.
3.5. Examples. For languages that have a digital footprint, the written corpus can provide atrove of material for demonstrating the meanings conveyed in writing. The sense of a term216cannot, however, be gleaned automatically, to a level of confidence one would inscribe in adictionary. Expending enormous computational firepower to distinguish a raging bull from abull market from a pile of bull would still result in only a statistical guess about whether aparticular sentence pertains to a particular sense. The Examples mode combs through corpus
sources, finds sentences that match one of the forms of a term, and presents several of thosesentences to reviewers. The participants’ task is to select the lines that they feel exemplify asense.
In Examples mode, a sentence must reach a high threshold to be accepted, but a lower one tobe rejected. Once a few reviewers look at a sentence and decide it is not helpful, project time
is better spent returning to the corpus and selecting another candidate for evaluation (Vaish etal. 2014). Finding a new example is cheap, whereas over-evaluating the same poor sentence
costs time and goodwill. When set as a game, players receive points for all sentences where
they are on the consensus side, either for selecting a good sentence, or for not selecting ones
that others also agree are inadequate.
The initial version of Examples uses Twitter to harvest English text and the Helsinki Corpus
of Swahili (HCS) for Swahili. We display the relevant term and definition, and for Swahili
also the English translation and definition if available, and ask the user to click on all the
results that are “excellent” examples of the sense in question. When we have three good
examples for a sense, we publish them and remove the sense from rotation. For English, we
use the Twitter API to find a number of English tweets that contain the term of interest to us,
filtering for offensive terms. Tweets are messy text, with slang, misspellings, shortenings,
hashtags, call signs, links, and languages mixing, so a large proportion of English tweets are
unsuitable. Furthermore, experience teaches us that terms with many senses are too diffuse forthis method. We therefore throttle this mode to terms with three or fewer senses in our
database. A future generation of Examples will allow users to match candidate sentences tothe list of available definitions.
For Swahili examples, we query HCS, which contains a large body of text from Swahili
newspapers and books. HCS has parsed and tagged every term for its lemmatic form, whichusually corresponds to the headword field in the Kamusi database. We thus already know thata sentence with a form such as “alipokitupa” is a candidate to exemplify “tupa”, leaving ourusers the task of deciding if it exemplifies a particular sense of “tupa”.
Future development of the Examples mode will build on both Twitter and the experience ofmining HCS. The Indigenous Tweets project identifies people who usually tweet in a minority
language. We will use that information to restrict queries for a language to its known
producers. We will also apply the technique to more conventional text corpora for otherlanguages, when the data is freely available.
3.6. Alignment. The biggest lexicographical barrier to uniting existing data in pursuit of auniversal multilingual dictionary is the task of aligning concepts across languages. There is nocomputational way to know which English sense to choose for a term matched to “bull” from
Vietnamese to English, for example, nor from Indonesian to English, and using the English
spelling connection to link Vietnamese to Indonesian would multiply the risks of error. In
Alignment mode, we compare an individual sense from a dataset we are importing to thesenses of the term it is said to match in a language that is already in the Kamusi system. The
task for the user is to select the correct match, if any. When a threshold number of users
agrees, we consider the relation confirmed. If results are ambiguous, we flag the item for
manual review by a trusted user.
Future work will resolve how we treat items for which no match yet exists in our dataset.
When the consensus is that an item does not have an existing sense match in Kamusi, wequeue the pair for future consideration by a trusted user for the two languages being217

compared. A proper entry will need to be created for the corresponding language, whichcannot be achieved through crowd microtasking.
3.7. Equivalence. Whether a bilingual pair is confirmed through the Translation mode or
Alignment mode, we wish to know the degree of equivalence between the terms. Concepts
might be functionally identical, e.g. a male cow will have parallel referents across virtually
every language group that raises cattle. Concepts might have substantial similarities, but also
notable differences, such that English “bull” as in bluster might be matched to something thathas a more malicious connotation in another language, but is nevertheless the closest
translation equivalent. Or, terms might be created in one language in the dictionary purely forthe purpose of explaining a concept indigenous to another language, such that an explanatoryphrase created in Mongolian to encapsulate a “bull” as an optimistic investor. In Equivalencemode, we show a bilingual pair and ask if the terms are parallel, similar, or an explanation on
one side of an idea indigenous to the other. When a term passes consensus, the equivalence
relation is published to the entries on both sides.
Future work will create a “Difference” mode for users to provide an explanation of thedivergence between concepts marked “similar”. This mode will operate along the lines ofDefinitions, with users able to write their own explanation or vote on explanations provided
by others. In addition, the Difference mode will be employed for items shown as synonyms
within a language, to distinguish, e.g., the difference between a boat and a ship.

4. Reasoning for method design
The tools discussed in section 3 were devised around a set of principles, some tested andsome subject to testing. The methods remain experimental, and will be adjusted as the results
become manifest. Notably, the methods discussed herein are not suitable for eliciting terms
for which we do not already have a defined concept in a reference language, though future
games could be built around processes such as the Rapid Word Collection technique (Moe2007). In this section, we lay out the logic of the current instantiation.
We begin by noting that “ground truth” does not exist for most lexicographic tasks, in theform of digitized data that is comprehensive and indisputable. Datasets have not been
compiled with the rigor we seek for languages that have some documentation, and are notavailable to science for most. Where data exists, it can never be considered definitive –knowing that a place to hold miscreants captive is a jail does not exclude the possibility that it
is a prison, a penitentiary, or in Australia a gaol. However, we can find answers that contain
truth, and we can determine when information is clearly wrong. Without getting mired inwell-trod linguistic theory, language is about communicating between people. If one person
uses a word and the other person understands what is meant, communication has occurred. If
a group of people all understand the same thing from the same word in the same context, thatterm can be considered part of their language. Roughly stated, a language consists of the setof expressions that are generally mutually agreed upon by its speakers, with the possibility ofvariations among regions or groups. All English speakers will agree about the basic sense of“water”, however differently pronounced, for example, while Americans will be content to letSouth Africans have “robots” instead of “stoplights”, and landlubbers accept that they will
adopt an existing specialized boating vocabulary should they ever wish to sail.
Linguistic “truth” is pliable, but we posit that language groups can reach agreements thatgenerally work. We deduce consensus when a number of participants repeat information, or
when information provided by one is agreed acceptable by others. In many cases, the iterative
process of seeking and validating information from a language’s speakers may result overtime in data that is qualitatively better than can be gathered by a solo lexicographer
218

In modes such as Translation, no user sees what has been proposed by others. We seek aparticipant’s first reaction, and if other people respond the same way, we can be confident thata common basis for communication has been located. That is, if we ask for a term for a
timepiece that is worn on the wrist, and most people answer “watch”, then we have achieved atruth that many speakers of the language share that understanding of that term.
Modes such as Synonyms and Examples limit people to either/or answers. Questions are
based on review of imported data or submissions from other users that can be resolved asright or wrong. Here, our premise is that people can usually agree about whether a data
element is factual; “wristwatch” is a legitimate alternate term for a timepiece that is worn on
the wrist, while “wratch” is not. If voting results are ambiguous, though, we acquireinteresting information: we are alerted to the existence of conflicting opinions (Chklovski and
Mihalcea 2003, Zhou and Li 2010, Aroyo and Welty 2013). These conflicts reveal non-binary
facets of language, such as regional variation. When Boolean questions yield ambiguous
answers, the results are queued for human review.
Definitions mode and the upcoming Difference mode rely on a mix of competitiveness andego. When played as a game, the person who writes a winning definition receives many
points, while people who vote for a winning definition each receive a single point. There is
therefore substantial incentive to write a good definition if one has not already been proposed,
but a disincentive to waste time challenging quality work. Moreover, the writer of a definitionis given authorship credit online, but any definition can be challenged; readers thus have the
incentive to submit improved definitions and thereby receive authorship credit. Of course,many participants will help improve definitions for the purely altruistic reason of contributing
to the knowledge base, as often happens with Wikipedia, but we anticipate that motivating
people to contribute for fun and recognition is a faster route to data collection that will
nonetheless tend toward excellence over time.
The number of people required for an item to pass a consensus threshold is not firm. For
starters, different modes have different considerations; more people must agree on thetranslation of an English noun than must verify that the translation is also a noun in theirlanguage. Within a mode, we can more quickly accept agreement that information is bad thanthat it is good, since “good” rejected data should someday reemerge, whereas publishing bad
information undermines the confidence people can place in our results. It is impossible to saymathematically when validity is established; if one person proposes something, we know it is
not yet valid, but what if two other people agree with the answer? Seven? 45? If five agreeand four disagree, we should be less confident than seven agreeing and two disagreeing, but
how much less, and how long do we keep asking? If four agree and five disagree, do weeliminate the answer? We are still tweaking the algorithm as we learn from experience, withthe premise that answers that achieve unanimous support require a lower threshold thananswers that generate conflict, and answers that generate too much noise should be passed toa trusted user for manual resolution. Thresholds may be adjusted for languages with few
participants, if we can determine the credibility of the individual players, lest game data neveracquire enough votes to enter the system. Users also gain trust by consistently being on theconsensus side, with their votes acquiring increasing weight. Finally, the threshold can beoverridden for a particular trusted user, such as a field linguist, who uses the system as acontrolled elicitation tool, rather than as a game.
5. Future work
Additional modes are planned for future crowdsourced microtasking. Among the tasks will begeotagging of usage sightings to build vocabulary clouds for the study of dialect, user
contributions of pronunciations geotagged to their location of origin, and cataloguing of useruploaded photos to illustrate terms and confirm labels across languages. For the present, thechief task is refining the processes based on user experience, and rolling out new languages in219

a manner that does not overwhelm our processing capacity, at the level of both management
and machine.
6. Conclusions
This paper has spelled out the design and reasoning behind the crowdsourcing features the
Kamusi Project has introduce to acquire lexicographical data across numerous languages.
Elsewhere we have discussed the underlying structure of the multilingual data, themultiplicity of approaches to data collection, and the specific use of gamification for
harvesting social energy in the cause of lexicography. Our underlying premises are that muchlanguage knowledge can be affirmed by the consensus of its speakers about what elements
achieve a communicative function, and that we can find that consensus by asking well-crafted
questions to multiple speakers as targeted microtasks. However, we also find that some crowd
results reveal ambiguity; this ambiguity produces valuable information about which data
should be channeled for further analysis by crowd methods or designated language specialists.
Our distributed approach is intended to elicit data for languages that would not otherwise
receive attention from lexicographers, and also to elicit more extensive data than many
existing lexicographic projects are able to acquire through expensive and time-consuming
processes of data collection in the field or through techniques such as corpus analysis.
Crowdsourcing is not meant to be the exclusive method by which data is gathered andvalidated within the Kamusi system, but it provides an essential path to a wide range oflexical data that would not be available within a realistic timeframe via other methods.
References:
Aroyo, Lora, and Chris Welty. 2013. Crowd Truth: Harnessing
disagreement in crowdsourcing a relation extraction gold standard. In WebSci'13, May
1-5, Paris, France.
Benjamin, Martin. 2013. How We Chose a Priority List for Dictionary Entries.
http://kamusi.org/priority-list
Benjamin, Martin. 2014 a. Collaboration in the Production of a Massively Multilingual
Lexicon. In Conference Proceedings of the 9th edition of the Language Resources and
Evaluation Conference, Reykjavik, Iceland. http://www.lrecconf.org/proceedings/lrec2014
Benjamin, Martin. 2014 b. Elephant Beer and Shinto Gates: Managing Similar Concepts in a
Multilingual Database. In Conference Proceedings of the 7th International Global
WordNet Conference, Tartu, Estonia.
Benjamin, Martin. 2014 c. Molecular Lexicography: A lexical data model for Human
Language Technology. http://kamusi.org/molecular_lexicography
Benjamin, Martin and Paula Radetzky. 2014 a. Multilingual Lexicography with a Focus on
Less-Resourced Languages: Data Mining, Expert Input, Crowdsourcing, andGamification. Presented at the 9th edition of the Language Resources and Evaluation
Conference, Reykjavik, Iceland, May 26-31.
Benjamin, Martin, and Paula Radetsky. 2014 b. Small Languages, Big Data: Multilingual
Computational Tools and Techniques for the Lexicography of Endangered Languages.
Presented at ComputEL workshop, 52nd Meeting of the Association for Computational
Linguistics, Baltimore, June 22-27.
Brabham, Daren. 2011. Crowdsourcing: A model for leveraging online communities. in The
Participatory Cultures Handbook, eds. Aaron Delwiche and Jennifer Jacobs Henderson,
120 -129. New York: Routledge.
Chklovski, Timothy, and Rada Mihalcea. 2003. Exploiting Agreement and Disagreement of
Human Annotators for Word Sense Disambiguation. Proceedings of RANLP.
Hamari, Juho and Jonna Koivisto. 2013. Social Motivations to Use Gamification: An
Empirical Study of Gamifying Exercise. In ECIS 2013 Completed Research. Paper 105.
220

Hirth, Matthias, Tobias Hoßfeld, and Phuoc Tran-Gia. 2013. Analyzing costs and accuracy ofvalidation mechanisms for crowdsourcing platforms. Mathematical and Computer
Modelling 57: 2918-2932
Hsueh, Pei-Yun, Prem Melville, and Vikas Sindhwani. 2009. Data quality fromcrowdsourcing: A study of annotation selection criteria. In Proceedings of the NAACL
HLT Workshop on Active Learning for Natural Language Processing, 27–35.
Boulder, Colorado, Kittur, Aniket, Ed H. Chi, and Bongwon Suh. 2008. Crowdsourcing user
studies with Mechanical Turk. In Proceedings, CHI 2008, Florence, Italy.
McGonigal, Jane. 2011. Reality Is Broken: Why games make us better and how they canchange the world. New York: Penguin.
Moe, Ronald. 2007. Dictionary Development Program. SIL Forum for Language
Fieldwork, Linguistics, Language Technology
Saxton, Gregory D., Onook Oh, and Rajiv Kishore. 2013. Rules of Crowdsourcing: Models,Issues, and Systems of Control. Information Systems Management 30 (1): 2-20.
Schenk, Eric, and Claude Guittard. 2009. Crowdsourcing: What can be outsourced to thecrowd, and Why? https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00439256v1
Vaish, Rajan, et al. 2014. Twitch Crowdsourcing: Crowd Contributions in Short Bursts ofTime. CHI 2014 Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in
Computing Systems, pp. 3645-3654.
Werbach, Kevin, and Dan Hunter. 2015. The Gamification Toolkit: Dynamics, Mechanics,
and Components for the Win. E-book, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Zhou, Zhi-Hua, and Ming Li. 2010. Semi-supervised learning by disagreement. In Knowledge
Information Systems 24: 415–439

221

Comparison of Dictionary Use and Corpus Use:
Different Effects on Learning L2 Phrases
Yoshiho Satake
Surugadai University, Japansatake.yoshiho@surugadai.ac.jp
Abstract
Although the effectiveness of the use of dictionaries (Bishop 1998) and the effectiveness of the use of
corpora (Flowerdew 2010) in language learning have been stated, it remains unclear about whether
dictionaries and corpora have different effects on language learning. While Satake (2014) states that
dictionary users look up and memorize more collocations and corpus users output more collocations,more empirical research is needed to judge how dictionaries and corpora can contribute to language
learning. This study investigates whether a dictionary and a corpus have different learning effects whenlearners do different kinds of tasks. The research questions are as follows: (1) Do a dictionary and a
corpus have different effects on different kinds of tasks? (2) Do a dictionary and a corpus havedifferent effects to learners at different levels of proficiency? (3) Do dictionary users and corpus users
access and process different information? The two group (dictionary users vs. corpus users) pre-post
design was used to analyse the effects of dictionary use and corpus use. At a Japanese university,
approximately 30 intermediate and 30 upper-intermediate English learners looked up the target phrases
and did different tasks by consulting a dictionary or BNC. The results indicated the following: (1)Dictionary users were better at gap-filling tasks and output fewer phrases. (2) Corpus users, especiallyupper-intermediate learners were better at the tasks of semantic prosody and analogy. They output
more phrases. The findings suggest that considering different learning effects of dictionaries andcorpora should lead to more effective vocabulary teaching in classrooms.
Keywords: dictionaries, corpora, data-driven learning, inductive inference, British National Corpus

1. Introduction
Although the effectiveness of the use of dictionaries (e.g., Bishop 1998) and corpora (e.g.,
Flowerdew 2010) in language learning has been stated, it remains unclear whether
dictionaries and corpora have different effects on language learning. While Satake (2014a)
says that dictionaries promote learners’ accuracy and corpora promote learners’ fluency,
more empirical research is needed to judge how dictionaries and corpora can contribute tolanguage learning. Moreover, further studies are needed regarding whether different tasks
and levels have different effects on language learning when learners use dictionaries or
corpora.
2. Literature
Regarding the effectiveness of the use of dictionaries, Bishop (1998) states that language
learners use dictionaries not only for meanings but also for various information, such as
gender, spellings, synonyms, verb, noun, and adjective forms, registers, and pronunciation.
Regarding the effectiveness of the use of corpora, Flowerdew (2010) writes that corpora
show learners phraseological patterning involving collocations, colligations, and semantic
preferences and prosodies.
Concerning the comparison between the effect of corpus and dictionary use on learning
languages, Satake (2014a) says that dictionary users look up and memorize more
collocations, whereas corpus users output more collocations.
222

While the strength of both dictionary and corpus use have been stated, more empiricalresearch needs to be conducted to judge the different effects dictionaries and corpora haveon language learning.
3. Research questions
This study investigates whether a dictionary and a corpus have different learning effects
when learners perform different kinds of tasks. The research questions are as follows:(1) Does the use of a dictionary and a corpus have different effects on different kinds oftasks?
(2) Does the use of a dictionary and a corpus have different effects for learners at different
levels of proficiency?
(3) Do dictionary and corpus users access and process different information?
These questions are investigated by comparing the results of dictionary users with theresults of corpus users.
4. Method
A two-group (dictionary users vs. corpus users) pre-post design was used to analyze theeffects of dictionary and corpus use.
4.1 Participants
Two classes of Japanese undergraduate students (approximately 60 students) at a private
university in Tokyo participated in the study. One class of students who majored in history
were intermediate English learners and had reached level B1 in the Common European
Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR); whereas, the other class of students who
majored in English and American literature were upper intermediate English learners andhad reached level B2 in the CEFR.
4.2 The dictionary
The majority of Japanese learners of English mainly use English–Japanese dictionaries;
therefore, the paper-based Shogakukan Progressive English–Japanese dictionary (hereafter,
Progressive) (2012) was used for this research because the dictionary is targeted to highschool and university students and adult learners and is thus suitable for the participants.
Although Japanese university students use more electronic dictionaries than paper
dictionaries, this paper dictionary was used to make an appropriate comparison between theeffects of dictionary and corpus use because some electronic dictionaries have corpus-likefunctions, such as extracting co-occurrence expressions. The author copied the pages withthe target words and gave the copies to students when they were to be used.
4.3 The corpus
The British National Corpus (BNC) was used because it is a large, balanced corpus thatfunctions as a normative model for learners of English. The BNC is an approximately 100million-word corpus of British written and spoken English from the latter half of the 20 th
century. To enable students to use the BNC easily, the Intelligent Tools for Creating andAnalysing Electronic Text Corpora for Humanities Research (IntelliText) was introduced.
IntelliText was developed by the Centre for Translation Studies at the University of Leeds(Wilson, Hartley, Sharoff, & Stephenson 2010). This publicly available online corpus
query system allows users to search corpora, including the BNC. The interface iscomparatively user-friendly. Before performing the tasks, the students were given an
approximately 20-minute instruction session on how to use IntelliText.

4.4 Tasks
223

The students were given 15 minutes to complete three types of tasks by consulting theProgressive dictionary or the BNC.
First, they read four sentences with preposition errors and underlined search words. An
example is shown in (1):(1) Mary is not interested in dance. She is indifferent from dance.
The students searched for the underlined words in the Progressive dictionary or the BNC,
read the example sentences or the concordance lines of the underlined search words, andperformed error correction. They kept a record of the example phrases or sentences they
consulted. The students were given five minutes for this task. This task was used to
examine whether a dictionary or a corpus would help the learners correct their errors byusing an enumerative induction, which is a generalization based on reasoning fromparticular examples to all examples.
Second, the students searched for four target words, such as “utterly” and “outbreak,” in the
Progressive dictionary or the BNC to determine whether the words were used with any
semantic associations. They kept a record of the example phrases or sentences they
consulted. They were given five minutes for this task. This task was used to examine
whether a dictionary or a corpus would help the learners recognize semantic prosody, “aform of meaning which is established through the proximity of a consistent series ofcollocates” (Louw 2000: 57). To be more specific, semantic prosody relates to the way inwhich some words carry positive or negative associations because of certain frequent
combinations of words.
Third, the students searched for two target phrase frames, such as verb-into-noun (i.e., any
verbs can take the place of a “verb” and any nouns can take the place of a “noun”), in the
Progressive dictionary or the BNC to determine whether the verbs and nouns used for eachword frame had something in common. They kept a record of the example phrases orsentences they consulted. The students were given five minutes for this task. This task wasused to examine whether a dictionary or a corpus would help the learners recognize theshared characteristics certain phrase frames have.
These three types of tasks were used to examine whether a dictionary and a corpus havedifferent effects on different kinds of tasks. In addition, it was useful for the students toperform the tasks because it is difficult for learners to use English prepositions (e.g.,
Bitchener et al. 2005, Murata & Isahara, 2004). Furthermore, learning semantic prosody
can help learners improve their vocabulary knowledge (O’Keeffe et al. 2007), and learningphrase frames can help them create various phrases easily because the category that builds
sentences may consist of a very limited number of phrase frames (Nattinger & DeCarrico1992).
4.5 Tests
Before and after the tasks, students were given 10 minutes to take a pre-test and a post-test
without consulting a dictionary or a corpus. By comparing the results of the pre-test and thepost-test, the author examined whether the above tasks were effective for learning the targetwords, phrases, and frames.
First, the students read four sentences with blanks, which they were supposed to fill in withthe appropriate prepositions. An example is shown in (2).
(2) He likes to be alone and is indifferent () the feelings of others.

The students learned the target phrases with prepositions when they completed the firsttask. The students were given two minutes to complete four sentences. Second,the224students were told to write as many phrases as possible using the four underlined searchwords in the first tasks. They were given one minute for each search word, for a total offour minutes. Third, the students answered four multiple-choice questions. An example isshown in (3).
(3) She felt utterly (① stupid).

② normal③ great

The questions were related to the semantic prosody task. The students were given two
minutes to answer the questions.
Fourth, the students were told to translate four phrases into Japanese. The phrases used thetwo target phrase frames, such as verb-into-noun, they learned when they performed thethird task. An example is shown in (4).
(4) come into force
The students were given two minutes to translate them into Japanese.
4.6 Procedures
Two classes of students were given 10 minutes to take the pre-test. They were then given
15 minutes to perform the three tasks described above. Each class was divided into twogroups: one group of students consulted the Progressive dictionary and the other groupconsulted the BNC while they completed the tasks. After the task stage, the students were
given 10 minutes to take the post-test, which was the same as the pre-test. The next week,
the same procedure was repeated for the different set of target words, phrases, and frames.
Furthermore, the resource they used was different from the one they had used the previous
week: students who consulted the Progressive dictionary the first week consulted the BNC
the second week and vice versa. The two resources were exchanged to minimize theinfluence of the different levels of English skills the two groups in each class might have
had. Additionally, from a pedagogical viewpoint, the exchange had an advantage because
the students could learn the difference between searching a dictionary and searching a
corpus.
The author compared the results from the pre-test and post-test to examine whether thetasks were effective for learning the target words, phrases, and frames. The author also
compared the results of intermediate students and the results of upper-intermediate students
to investigate whether a dictionary and a corpus have different effects for learners withdifferent levels of English skills. Several statistical tests were used to determine whether asignificant difference existed between the results from the pre-test and post-test.
5. Results
To examine whether a significant difference existed between the results from the pre-tests
and the post-tests, the author ran two statistical tests. To decide which statistical test should
be used, the author conducted Bartlett’s test to examine whether variances were equal
across the results of the two kinds of tests. At less than 5%, variances were not equal acrossthe results from the pre-tests and the post-tests for both classes. Therefore, the author
conducted the Friedman test. At less than 1%, both classes showed a significant difference
between the results from the pre-tests and the post-tests. For the first, the third, and thefourth questions, the author conducted McNemar’s test to examine whether a significant
difference existed between the number of students who gave wrong answers on the pretests but correct answers on the post-tests and the number of students who gave correct
answers on the pre-tests but wrong answers on the post-tests. If the first number was
significantly greater than the second number, it can be said that the tasks were effective forlearning the target words, phrases, and frames.
225

5.1 Enumerative induction tasks
In all groups, the number of students who gave wrong answers on the pre-tests but correct
answers on the post-tests and the number of students who gave correct answers on the pretests but wrong answers on the post-tests were significantly different at less than 1%.
Therefore, we can say that the first number was significantly greater than the second
number (Table 1). In both classes, the p-value for dictionary users was lower than the pvalue for corpus users. Therefore, it can be said that the enumerative induction tasks wereeffective for both dictionary users and corpus users to learn the target phrases, but they
were more effective for dictionary users than for corpus users. All the target phrases werein the Progressive dictionary.

Pre
test

correctwrong
McNemar’s
test p-value

Table 1 Enumerative induction tasks: Pre-test and post-test results
Intermediate
Intermediate
UpperUpperdictionary
corpus users
intermediate
intermediateusers (n=28)(n=27)
dictionary users
corpus users(n=28)(n=28)
Posttest
Posttest
Posttest
Posttest
corr
wro
Corr
wro
Corre
wron
correc
wrong
ect
ng
ect
ng
ct
g
t
38
10
51
9
51
6
52
10
54

38

7.658e-08

29

46

0.002055

35

33

7.648e-06

35

430.0003466

5.2 Output of the target phrases
In all groups, the students output more phrases using the target words in the post-tests thanin the pre-tests (Table 2). In both classes, corpus users output more phrases using the targetwords than did the dictionary users. Accordingly, we can say that the enumerative
induction tasks were effective for both the dictionary users and corpus users to promote theoutput of phrases using the target words, but they were more effective for corpus users thanfor dictionary users. Considering the difference in English skills, the tasks were more
effective for upper-intermediate corpus users than for intermediate corpus users.
Table 2 Number of phrases output by students using the target words
Intermediate
Intermediate
Upperdictionary
corpus users
intermediateusers(n=27)
dictionary users(n=28)(n=28)
pretests
66
64
76
posttests
117
(up
133
(up
118 (up 55.3%)
77.3%)
107.8%)

Upperintermediate
corpus users(n=28)
69
149(up
115.9%)

5.3 Semantic-prosody tasks
In the groups of corpus users, the number of students who gave wrong answers on the pretests but correct answers on the post-tests and the number of students who gave correct
answers on the pre-tests but wrong answers on the post-tests were significantly different at
less than 5%. Therefore, it can be said that the first number was significantly greater than
the second number (Table 3). In the groups of dictionary users, however, the first andsecond numbers were not significantly different. Therefore, we can say that the semantic
prosody tasks were effective for corpus users and were not effective for dictionary users.
Considering the difference in English skills, the tasks were more effective for upper226

intermediate corpus users than for intermediate corpus users. Not all the target phrases werein the copies of the Progressive dictionary.

Pre
test

correctwrong
McNemar’s
test p-value

Table 3 Semantic prosody tasks: Pre-test and post-test results
Intermediate
Intermediate
UpperUpperdictionary
corpus users
intermediate
intermediateusers (n=28)(n=27)
dictionary users
corpus users(n=28)(n=28)
Posttest
Posttest
Posttest
Posttest
corr
wro
corr
wro
Corre
wron
corr
wrong
ect
ng
ect
ng
ct
g
ect
40
8
41
8
43
18
50
6
11

39

0.646420

29

0.0376413

240.472530

120.0001264

5.4 Phrase frame tasks
In the groups of corpus users, the number of students who gave wrong answers on the pretests but correct answers on the post-tests and the number of students who gave correct
answers on the pre-tests but wrong answers on the post-tests were significantly different at
less than 5%. Therefore, it can be said that the first number was significantly greater than
the second number (Table 4). In the groups of dictionary users, however, the first andsecond numbers were not significantly different. Therefore, we can say that the phrase
frames tasks were effective for corpus users and were not effective for dictionary users.
Considering the difference in English skills, the tasks were more effective for upperintermediate corpus users than intermediate corpus users. Not all the target phrases were in
the copies of the Progressive dictionary.
Table 4 Phrase frame tasks: pre-test and post-test results
Intermediate
Intermediate
Upperdictionary
corpus users
intermediateusers (n=28)(n=27)
dictionary users(n=28)
Posttest
Posttest
Posttest
corr
wro
corr
wro
Corre
wro
ect
ng
ect
ng
ct
ng
Pre
correc
10
0
6
0
20
0
test
t
wron
5
83
8
84
2
76
g
McNemar’s
0.073640.01333
0.4795test p-value

Upperintermediate
corpus users(n=28)
Posttest
correc
wrong
t
15
0
24

59

2.668e-06

6. Discussion and conclusion
The results show that for learning the target phrases, the enumerative induction tasks whosetarget phrases were in the copies of the Progressive dictionary were more effective for
dictionary users than for corpus users. The semantic prosody tasks and phrase frame tasks
whose target phrases were not in the copies of the Progressive dictionary were more
effective for corpus users than dictionary users. We can say that (1) it was more effective to
use a dictionary when the target phrases were in the dictionary and (2) it was more effective227

to use a corpus when the target phrases were not in the dictionary. The first finding occurs
because consulting a dictionary is easier than consulting a corpus as the students generally
used dictionaries and did not have previous experience using a corpus, considering thatboth the dictionary and corpus contained the target phrases for the enumerative induction
tasks. The second finding occurs because the corpus contained information that thedictionary did not contain. Furthermore, we can say that (3) upper-intermediate students
could more effectively use a corpus to find the information for tasks with target phrases
that were not in the dictionary. This finding occurs because using a corpus to acquire theneeded information required higher English skills as it is difficult for students to interpretconcordance lines (Boulton 2009, Lavid 2007, Liu & Jiang 2009, Varley 2009).
Furthermore, it can be said that (4) a corpus could promote more students’ output ofphrases using the target words than a dictionary. This matches the results from two
previous studies by Satake (2014a, 2014b), possibly because more exposure to the targetwords, phrases, and frames helped students improve their productive knowledge.
As dictionaries and corpora have different advantages, teachers should make an informed
choice when selecting learning resources to enhance the learning effect as students look up
vocabulary in classrooms. Furthermore, as dictionary users learned the target phrases better
if these phrases were present in the dictionary, learners could improve their vocabulary if
dictionaries contained detailed information regarding headwords, such as semantic prosodyor phrase frames, which is not always included.
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and C. Smith. Liverpool: UCREL.
Flowerdew, Lynne. 2010. Using corpora for writing instruction. In The Routledge handbook
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Routledge.
Lavid, Julia. 2007. Contrastive patterns of mental transitivity in English and Spanish: astudent-centred corpus-based study. In Corpora in the foreign language classroom, eds.
Encarnación Hidalgo, Luis Quereda and Juan Santana, 237-252. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Liu, Dilin and Ping Jiang. 2009. Using a corpus-based lexicogrammatical approach togrammar instruction in EFL and ESL contexts. The Modern Language Journal, 93(1): 61-78.
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229

House M.D. Corpus Analysis: A Linguistic Intervention ofContemporary American English
Locky LAW
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
13902936r@connect.polyu.hk / Lx3h@yahoo.com
Abstract
Television drama, despite its enormous popularity across the globe, has rarely received attention fromthe linguistics field. The dearth of research into television drama dialogue is further exposed by the
thriving contributions from various other fields such as philosophy, psychology, cultural studies andmedia studies. This paper seeks to promote research interest in this unique mediated text by selecting
the renowned medical dramedy House M.D. as research subject and comparing its 927,922-word
House M.D. pure dialogue corpus (HMDC) to both the 450-million-word Corpus of Contemporary
American English (COCA) and its 95-million-word spoken subcorpus (COCA Spoken) using an
adaptation of Bednerak’s (2011) ranked frequency list method. Using WordSmith Tools in thecalculation of n-gram (n = 1, 2, 3) at the words/clusters level, the findings indicate that HMDC is moreinterpersonal than COCA and has a closer resemblance to COCA Spoken than to COCA. HMDC also
contains 3.4 times more negativity than COCA Spoken and 2.8 times more than COCA. As such,viewers are presented with English far more interpersonal, as well as involving significantly moredisagreement than one will encounter in the real world. This study not only shows similarities anddifferences between House M.D. and contemporary American English, but also provides a preview ofthe huge potential in television drama-related research.

Keywords: TV drama, House M.D., corpus linguistics, ngram, COCA, ranked frequency
list

Introduction
Television drama and film have long played an influential role in the entertainment industry.
In this modern era, they have become an essential part of the living style for the global
population (Heritage 2013; Cox 2013). Apart from their popularity, these two forms of
performance entertainment share resemblance in many aspects, including casting, acting,cinematography, post-production editing and screenwriting. As far as film is concerned, these
aspects have provided various topics for linguistic research such as intonation, gestures, facial
expressions and visual images (Wojcik 2004; Petric 1993; Condon and Ogston 1966; Toolan
2001; Kress and van Leeuwen 2006 [1996]; Dan-nan 2011). Yet the history of linguistic
studies has always shown an inclination towards literary texts (poetry, traditional drama andfilm-scripts), and thus the language in television drama has not been taken seriously in the
linguistics field (Bednarek 2010; Pennycook 2007; Androutsopoulos 2012), so much to apoint that it is marked “equally as popular” as it is “devalued” (Bignell and Lacey 2005:3).
This linguistic negligence, or repulsion, is further exposed by the thriving contributions ofresearch on television drama dialogue from various other fields (Bednarek 2010) such as
philosophy (Jacoby and Irwin 2008), psychology (Cascio and Martin 2011; Jamieson 2011;
Whitbourne 2012; Clyman 2009), cultural studies (Cover 2004; Chua 2008; Song 2010),
media studies (Chua 2008; Munt 2006) and medical humanities (Goodier and Arrington 2007),
to name a few. With over 3000 non-linguistic journal articles on television studies between
1995 and 2004 (Allen 2004; Bednarek 2010), the push for television drama-related researchfrom the linguistic department, in summary, has been far less than adequate.
Realizing “the urgent need … for a treatment of fictional cinema and television from various
linguistic perspectives” (Piazza, Bednarek and Rossi 2011:2), several scholars havecontributed in the investigation of dialogues of some of the world’s best television dramas,
230namely The West Wing (Chamber 2003), Sex and The City (Bubel 2006), Dawson’s Creek(Quaglio 2008), Friends (Quaglio 2009) and Gilmore Girls (Bednarek 2010). By adopting a
range of approaches from critical discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, to corpus stylistics,
their efforts have successfully yielded significant linguistic insights. These attempts havedemonstrated that television drama is not only indeed a plentiful resource waiting to be
explored and exploited, but also a unique form of “mediated” text rich in language and inculture (Richardson 2010:177) – “the true heir to great literature” in literary agent Steven
Axelrod’s words (Lavery 2012) – which deserves the same level of attention as its cinematiccounterpart. This paper aims to add a push of opposing force to such film/television drama
developmental disproportion by drawing comparisons between a corpus created using revised
fan scripts of a renowned medical detective television dramedy House M.D., the Corpus ofContemporary American English (COCA) and its spoken subcorpus.
There are 3 main sections in this paper. The first section outlines the background of House
M.D., provides key reasons for supporting the choice of television drama and lists theresearch questions. The next section describes the reference corpus and the construction of
HMDC as well as the methods involved. In the third section, data is analysed at thewords/clusters level and discussed quantitatively. Finally, the last section concludes by
unveiling some thematic characteristics of the TV drama captured by corpus linguistic
analysis.
Background and research questions
In order to understand the choice of data for this study, it is important to know the backgroundof television drama. House M.D.is an American television medical ‘dramedy’ stretching eightseasons with a total of 177 episodes aired on the FOX Network from 16 th November 2004 to
21st May 2012 (Wikia n.d.), created by Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Writing for a
Drama Series winner David Shore and executively produced by famous television writers
including film director of Valkyrie and X-Men Bryan Singer and twice winner of the Golden
Globe Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series – Drama, Hugh Laurie (IMDbn.d.). For each season of House M.D., character arcs were first mapped out by a team of
writers before individual writers created their respective episodes (Wild 2005a), withdiagnoses and accuracy of medical cases consulted by actual medical advisers (Gonzalez
2009; Oldenburg 2005; Woznicki 2005).
It is a highly popular and successful television drama which has attracted viewers worldwide.
In 2008, it was one of the top-ten rated shows in the United States as well as the most watched
television program in the world (AFP 2009). By 2011, it had been viewed by a spectacular
81.8 million in 66 countries (The Telegraph 2011), placing Hugh Laurie’s name on the
Guinness Book of Records since 2011 as the world’s Most-Watched (Leading) Man On
Television and the 2nd on Forbes’s list of the Highest-Paid TV Actors in 2012 (Pomerantz2012) at $400,000 (£247,230) per episode (Guinness World Records 2011). As of May 2015,it has received an 8.9 / 10 rating from 255,714 users on IMDb.com (IMDb n.d.). Bednarek(2010) argues that popularity of television and programmes alone is worthy of study due to its
significant impact on our daily lives and societies. Bignell and Lacey (2005:6) echo thisargument, “it is television’s very familiarity, and its conventional focus upon the familiar, thepresent time and the everyday, that opens up alternative formal and stylistic possibilities.”
A series of research questions were asked and addressed specifically with respect to House
M.D. the television dramedy and COCA:
How do dialogues in House M.D. differ/resemble contemporary American English?
Does the language use in House M.D. mimic more towards the spoken or written form
contemporary American English and thus which corpus then has a closer resemblancewith House M.D.?
What can be unveiled about House M.D. through a corpus linguistic approach?
231

To answer these questions, COCA – the reference corpus of American English and its
subcorpus along with a corpus from House M.D. will be used.
Data and methodology
The Reference Corpus: COCA
As “the largest freely-available corpus of English, and the only large and balanced corpus ofAmerican English” (Davies 2008), COCA contains more than 450 million words in 189,431
texts equally divided in 5 genres: spoken, fiction, popular magazines, newspapers andacademic journals, including 20 million words each year from 1990-2012 with the mostrecent addition of texts (Apr 2011 - Jun 2012) completed in June 2012 (Davies 2008).
The spoken part of COCA (hereafter referred to as COCA Spoken) contains 95 million words[95,385,672] of transcripts of unscripted conversation from more than 150 different TV andradio programs such as All Things Considered (NPR), Newshour (PBS), Good Morning
America (ABC), Today Show (NBC), 60 Minutes (CBS), Hannity and Colmes (Fox), Jerry
Springer, etc (Davies 2008). COCA Spoken is arguably an authentic representation of actual
spoken conversation given its data is about 95% unscripted with “overwhelming” amount of
discourse markers (Davies 2008; 2014).
The Data: House M.D. Corpus (HMDC) Construction

Figure 1 Original fan script of House M.D. Season 1 Episode 1
The construction of the 927,922-word House M.D. Corpus (hereafter referred to as HMDC)
involves the data collection of House M.D. fan scripts of every episode from the internet(therefore not the original screenwriters’ scripts) as shown in Figure 1, followed by a removalof all non-dialogue elements such as fade-ins, scene headings, action sequences, scenetransitions, mood brackets, parentheticals, commercial tags and character name tags, resultingin ‘pure’ dialogues stored as txt-format in 177 individual files (one file per episode) which
form a raw, unscripted and unannotated version of HMDC, as shown in Figure 2.

232

Figure 2 'Cleaned' script of House M.D. Season 1 Episode 1
To improve accuracy of the transcribed dialogues in the HMDC, every line has been manuallychecked against the actual lines performed by the actors in the television series after watching
all episodes at least 8 times (till Oct 2014), and partial corpus checks were performed
repeatedly throughout the entire duration of the research project whenever possible andnecessary. Spell checks, in particular, were greatly assisted by Google and internet resources.
Although the achievement of a 100% accurate corpus remains highly unlikely, it is of mybelief that such longitudinal effort has helped to minimise negative effect to analyticaloutcomes caused by corporal impurities.
Methodology
To answer the research questions, an empirical study of ngrams from HMDC, COCA andCOCA Spoken was performed. Ngrams were selected because of its sensitivity in text-types
discrimination (Stubbs and Barth 2003; Bednarek 2011; O’Keeffe, McCarthy, and Carter
2007; Biber 2009).
Ngrams data such as the non-case sensitive 2-grams, 3-grams, 4-grams and 5-grams of the(approximately) 1,000,000 most frequent n-grams are available for free download (Davies2011) whereas ngrams of the COCA Spoken, 1-gram of COCA and HMDC must be
calculated from the raw text data using Wordsmith Tools 6 (Scott 2014). The duration of each
ngram calculation ranged from 20 minutes to 20 hours and increased significantly as thetokens of ngram increased.
Ranked frequency lists, which are lists of ngrams/clusters ranked in terms of frequency(Bednarek 2011), will be used to show the degree of similarities and differences of theiroccurrences while noting the fact that “a similar frequency of [an ngram] does not necessarily
indicate that [it] is used with similar functions in two corpora” (Bednarek 2011:15).
Using rank differences, the following three comparisons were made:
HMDC 1-gram, 2-gram and 3-gram (hereafter referred to as 1-to-3-grams) withrespect to COCA’s 1-to-3-grams and vice versa,
HMDC 1-to-3-gram with respect to COCA Spoken’s 1-to-3-grams and vice versa,
Negativity / positivity of 3-grams HMDC with COCA and COCA Spoken, and viceversa.
233

Findings and discussion
HMDC VS COCA Ngrams
Table 1 HMDC VS COCA 1-gram
HMDC 1-gram

COCA 1-gram

Table 1 shows the frequency and percentage of HMDC and COCA 1-gram sorted according
to frequency. This table is then translated into Table 2 to show ranked frequency, both sortedwith respect to (wrt) HMDC and COCA.

234

Table 2 HMDC VS COCA 1-gram ranked with rank difference

Ngram
You
I
The
's
To
A
It
N't
That
And
Do
Of
Is
He
We
In
Not
're
What
Your
Total rankdifference

Rank
wrt
HMDC
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

Rank
wrt
COCA
14
10
1
9
4
5
11
31
8
2
36
3
12
16
27
7
30
79
39
69

Rank
Difference
13
8
2
5
1
1
4
23
1
8
25
9
1
2
12
9
13
61
20
49
267

Ngram
The
And
Of
To
A
#
In
That
's
I
It
Is
For
You
Was
He
On
With
As
At
Total rankdifference

Rank
wrt
COCA
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

Rank
wrt
HMDC
3
10
12
5
6
49
16
9
4
2
7
13
23
1
25
14
30
33
79
66

Rank
Difference
2
8
9
1
1
43
9
1
5
8
4
1
10
13
10
2
13
15
60
46
261

Comparing the top twenty 1-gram of HMDC and COCA in Table 2, there are thirteen out oftwenty 1-grams ranked among top 20 on both lists (cells highlighted in yellow), implying that
HDMC does often contain some of the most frequent words in American English. Though
there are some differences in ranking for certain words, particularly You, and I (among theshared thirteen 1-grams), N’t, Do, We, Not, ‘re, What and Your (double digit rank difference)
being more prominent in HMDC than in COCA, the total rank differences (267 and 261) aresimilar, implying a minor degree of difference between these two corpora. At this point, early
result could reflect that House M.D. appears to be more interpersonal and 1st and 2nd person
singularly focused than the norm in general written and spoken American English, but higher
token ngrams must be considered.

235

Table 3 HMDC VS COCA 2-grams
HMDC 2-gram

COCA 2-gram

236

Table 4 HMDC VS COCA 2-grams ranked with rank difference

Ngram
It 's
I 'm
You 'reDo n'tHe 's's notThat 's
In theShe 'sCan 'tI do
Did n't's a
You doDoes n't
Are you
To be
There 's
If youWe 'reTotal rankdifference

Rank
wrt
HMDC
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

Rank wrt
COCA
Not found
352,014214,579
10
3,552
65,801
not found2
not found
not found34
29
54,145
131
104
234
6
Not found
44
278,223

Rank
Difference#VALUE!
352,012214,576
6
3,547
65,795#VALUE!
6#VALUE!
#VALUE!
23
17
54,132
117
89
218
11
#VALUE!
25
278,203
968,777

Ngramof thein theto theon theand theto beat thefor thein a
do n'twith thefrom theit wasof athat theas ais agoing toby theand I
Total rankdifference

Rank
wrt
COC
A
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

Rank
wrt
HMDC
25
8
33
24
86
17
139
54
58
4
84
124
28
121
435
315
76
21
310
43

Rank
Difference
24
6
30
20
81
11
132
46
49
6
73
112
15
107
420
299
59
3
291
23
1,807

Comparing the top twenty 2-gram of HMDC and COCA in Table 4, only three out of twenty
2-grams ranked among top twenty on both lists, in addition to that, rank difference for someof the top twenty 2-grams in HMDC has increased drastically in COCA, most noticeably for
I’m, You’re, ’s not, ’s a (see Figure 3), and We’re, showing a significant gap in the frequencyof occurrence of these 2-grams. Subsequently, five out of twenty 2-grams namely It’s, That’s,
She’s, Can’t and There’s are not found in COCA.
Such major rank discrepancies have arisen from contraction alternatives. For instance, 2-gram
I’m ranks 352,014 (frequency 81) in COCA, however, if the alternative form I am (rank 170,
frequency 91,303) is considered all together, the total frequency will reach 91,384 and rank
170, thus greatly reducing the rank difference. As convenient and elegant this method may
seem, one must choose between being faithful to the given data to maintain individuality of
instances and being adaptive to variations of instances. Due to the respect for originality of
the corpora, I have decided to keep the data as it is. That being said, when rank difference ofan ngram is strikingly unreasonable and the respective contraction alternatives are available ina corpus, rank difference will only be taken as a sign of irregularity rather than persuasive
statistical evidence.
Further inspection of the COCA 2-grams finds instances of I’m I (rank 216,511), You’re you(rank 387,273), We’re we (rank 542,449), There’s there (rank 582,027) as well as multiple
instances of That’s that/i/you/Mr/it. Evidently, COCA 2-grams by Davis (2011) consider the
likes of I—’m and You—’re as separate words and as one word but only consider There—’s237

and That—’s as one word and not separate words, resulting in a case of “not found”. Thismay or may not be a standalone case, and it is not possible to account for such irregularity
without knowing the algorithm adopted by the author, but the total rank differences (968,777
excluding “not found” and 1,807) have provided certain signs of confirmation for adivergence of phrases found in HMDC from the COCA – which contains both written andspoken American English, in terms of its abundance of contracted PRON+VERB 2-grams
commonly found in spoken English and the lack of PREP-DET 2-grams that “dominated” thetop twenty 2-grams of COCA (Stubbs and Barth 2003:70).

Figure 3 HMDC 2-gram 's a (rank 13 of top 20 in HMDC)

238

Table 5 HMDC VS COCA 3-grams
HMDC 3-gram

COCA 3-gram

239

Table 6 HMDC VS COCA 3-grams ranked with rank difference

Ngram
I do n't
It 's notYou do n't
I 'm notIt 's aYou 're not
I did n't
I ca n't
Do n't want
You ca n't
Do n't know
Do n't haven't want to
You want to
There 's no
You did n't
He 's notWe do n't
What are you
Do n't think
Total rankdifference

Rank
wrt
Rank wrt
HMDC COCA
1
1
not
2
found
3
10
not
4
found
not
5
found
not
6
found
7
12
8
30
9
27
10
37
11
5
12
21
13
20
14
45
not
15
found
16
280
17
32,526
18
28
19
289
20
16

Ngram
I do n't

Rank
wrt
COCA
1

Rank
wrt
HMDC
1

Rank
Difference
0#VALUE!
7

One of the
A lot of

2
3

129
35

127
32

#VALUE!

The United States

410,743

10,739#VALUE!

Do n't know

5

11

6

#VALUE!
5
22
18
27
6
9
7
31

Out of the
As well as
Going to beSome of the
You do n't
To be aI did n't
Part of the
The end of

6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

101
900
59
1,247
3
82
7
589
516

95
893
51
1,238
7
71
5
576
502

#VALUE!
264
32,50910270
4It was a
Do n't think
Be able toI think that
The fact thatn't want toTotal rankdifference

15
16
17
18
19
20

76
20
84
600
66
13

61
4
67
582
47
7

Rank
Difference033,18915,110From Table 6, both lists of top twenty 3-gram of HMDC and COCA share six clusters incommon, indicating that HMDC partially resembles COCA in a more spoken aspect, that iseighteen out of the top twenty 3-grams in HMDC involves the use of contractions, except You
want to and What are you. These contractions, typically found in spoken English (Quaglio2008), have shown a positive correlation with the use of negativity (highlighted in orange)along with interpersonal pronouns or auxiliary Do in HMDC, accounting for seventeen of thetwenty 3-grams and is more than just 6 instances found in the top twenty 3-grams in COCA.
This implies that HMDC appears to contain far more disagreement than COCA and COCA
Spoken do.
Five instances of 3-grams are not found including It’s not, I’m not, It’s a, You’re not and
There’s no, however, alternative forms of such instances are located, namely It isn’t (rank532), I am not (rank 638), It is a (rank 64), You are not (rank 2,663), You aren’t (rank 6,009)
and There is no (rank 52), however, they do not rank high enough to affect the position of the
top twenty 3-grams.

240

The results obtained thus far have point towards a possibly closer resemblance of HDMC withthe spoken English of COCA rather than COCA as a whole as indicated by the total rankdifferences (33,189 excluding “not found” and 15,110). Further investigation will be carriedout in the next section.
HMDC VS COCA Spoken Ngrams
Table 7 HMDC VS COCA Spoken 1-gram
HMDC 1-gram

COCA Spoken 1-gram

241

Table 8 HMDC VS COCA Spoken 1-gram ranked with rank difference

Ngram
You
I
The
s
To
A
It
n't
That
And
Do
Of
Is
He
We
In
Not
re
What
Your
Total rankdifference

Rank
wrt
HMDC
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

Rank
wrt
COCA
Spoken
8
7
1
10
2
5
11
23
6
3
22
4
12
18
14
9
30
38
27
74

Rank
Difference
7
5
2
6
3
1
4
15
3
7
11
8
1
4
1
7
13
20
8
54
180

Ngram
The
To
And
Of
A
That
I
You
In
s
It
Is
#
We
This
Was
For
He
They
On
Total rankdifference

Rank
wrt
COCA
Spoken
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

Rank
wrt
HMDC
3
5
10
12
6
9
2
1
16
4
7
13
49
15
31
25
23
14
51
30

Rank
Difference
2
3
7
8
1
3
5
7
7
6
4
1
36
1
16
9
6
4
32
10
168

Comparison of HMDC and COCA Spoken shows the corpora sharing fifteen out of the top
twenty most frequently used words, which are two more than the comparison between HMDC
and COCA 1-gram at thirteen. The total rank differences of 180 and 168 shown in Table 8
recorded lower values than the reading of 267 and 261 in Table 2, providing early evidence
that COCA Spoken might be more suitable than COCA to be used as a reference corpus forthe television drama House M.D.

242

Table 9 HMDC VS COCA Spoken 2-gram
HMDC 2-gram

COCA Spoken 2-gram

243

Table 10 HMDC VS COCA Spoken 2-gram ranked with rank difference

Ngram
It 's
I 'm
You 'reDo n'tHe 's's notThat 's
In theShe 's
Ca n'tI do
Did n't's a
You doDoes n't
Are you
To be

Rank
wrt
HMDC
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

There 's
18
If you19
We 're
20
Total
rank
difference

Rank
wrt
COCA
Spoken
3
12
20
8
21
69
7
2
138
86
18
47
22
97
122
151
9
not
found
39
17

Rank
Difference
2
10
17
4
16
63
0
6
129
76
7
35
9
83
107
135
8

Ngram
of thein theIt 's
I think
You know
Going toThat 's
Do n'tTo be
And I
On theI 'm
To theAnd theThis is
It was
We 're

Rank
wrt
COCA
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

#VALUE!
20
3

I do
For theYou 're

18
19
20

730

Total rankdifference

Rank
wrt
HMDC
Spoken
25
8
1
53
35
21
7
4
17
43
24
2
33
86
26
28
20

Rank
Difference
24
6
2
49
30
15
0
4
8
33
13
10
20
72
11
12
3

11
54
3

7
35
17

371

Similar to the comparison between HMDC and COCA 1-gram in Table 4, the 2-gram There’s
is treated as 1-gram in COCA and COCA Spoken2, thus producing no results in Table 10, butwith the exception of this case, nineteen of the top twenty 2-grams appeared in HMDC can befound in COCA Spoken as compared to just fifteen in COCA. Nine out of the top twenty 3grams in HMDC can be found in COCA Spoken as compared to a bare three in COCA, which
is a decent increase of 3 folds. The largest rank differences in Table 10 are 135 and 72 withtotal rank differences of 730 and 371 as oppose to 352,012 and 420 in Table 4 with total rankdifferences of 968,777 and 1,807. The statistical results presented are now strong evidence
reflecting the relatively close relation between HMDC and COCA Spoken than between
HMDC and COCA. To ensure the adequacy of proof for this claim, a final comparison of 3gram between HMDC and COCA Spoken is as follows:2

Here is the list of There’s found as 1-gram in COCA Spoken: There’s there (rank 191,885), There’s I(rank 344,659), That’s there’s (rank 375,122), well there’s (rank 462,557), think there’s (rank 558,399),
but there’s (rank 569,218), there’s you (rank 601,544), mean there’s (rank 634,390), there’s it (rank652,912), and there’s (rank 663,066), now there’s (rank 769,311), there’s that (rank 791,738), if there’s(rank 842,453), know there’s (rank 965,620), so there’s (rank 1,008,952), yeah there’s (rank
1,035,314), There’s the (rank 1,200,464).

244

Table 11 HMDC VS COCA Spoken 3-gram
HMDC 3-gram

COCA Spoken 3-gram

245

Table 12 HMDC VS COCA Spoken 3-gram ranked with rank difference

Ngram
I do n't
It 's notYou do n't
I 'm notIt 's aYou 're not
I did n't
I ca n't
Do n't want
You ca n't
Do n't know
Do n't haven't want to
You want to
There 's no
You did n't
He 's notWe do n't
What are you
Do n't think
Total rankdifference

Rank
wrt
HMDC
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

Rank
wrt
COCA
Spoken
1
12
20
22
5
136
43
78
45

Rank
Difference
0
10
17
18
0
130
36
70
36

10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

67
9
37
47
46
69
370
218
32
432
14

57
2
25
34
32
54
354
201
14
413
6
1,509

Ngram
I do n't
A lot ofre going toGoing to be
It 's aOne of theI think that
And I think
Do n't know
The UnitedStates's going to
It 's notWe are going
Do n't think
And that 's
And it 's
I think it
There 's a
Do you think
You do n't
Total rankdifference

Rank
wrt
COCA
Spoken
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9

Rank
wrt
HMDC
1
35
23
59
5
129
600
1,469
11

Rank
Difference
0
33
20
55
0
123
593
1,461
2

10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20

10,74367
2
11,059
20
244
113
196
26
53
3

10,73356
10
11,046
6
229
97
179
8
34
17

Finally, Table 12 shows a sharing of six clusters in the top twenty 3-grams of HMDC and
COCA Spoken, matching the count in Table 6 when comparing HMDC with COCA.
However, the most important difference between Table 6 and Table 12 is that the former
consists of five unfound clusters on the left side of the table whereas the latter presented witha full list with relatively low total rank difference. As on the right side of the tables, despiteyielding a total rank difference of 24,702 in Table 12 which is larger than the Table 6
counterpart at 15,110, various acronyms of the 3-gram The United States (the U.S. / the US /The States / USA / America) and contraction alternatives of We are going (We’re going /We’re gonna/ We are gonna) do exist, thus possibly contributing to the largeness of rankdifference.
Lastly, T able 12 records 5 instances of negativity (highlighted in orange) found in the top
twenty 3-grams in COCA Spoken which is one less than that in COCA. Such decrease in thefrequency of negativity in COCA Spoken with respect to COCA is a result of an increase in
the positivity in spoken American English. Therefore considering the top twenty 3-grams,
COCA Spoken contains 5% more positivity than COCA, while HDMC contains 3.4 times
more negativity than COCA Spoken and 2.8 times more than COCA. In a way, House M.D.
has brutally intervened in viewers’ perception of the norm of American English.

246

24,702

Conclusion
All in all, this study has quantitatively demonstrated the strengths and weaknesses of using 1to-3-grams rank difference in comparing HMDC with COCA and COCA Spoken, addressed
potential methodological issue of contraction alternatives and acronyms affecting ngram
ranking and rank difference, discussed how the language used in House M.D. is related tocontemporary spoken American English, and finally shown how House M.D. can be
identified as a dramedy far more interpersonal, 1st and 2nd person-addressed and disagreeing
than one would encounter in the real world. Judging by the results obtained from this simple
analysis, further studies along the line of television drama are worthy researchers’ attention,interest and devotion. The future of television drama in linguistics is and deserved to bebright, and there is certainly a wealth of exotic knowledge waiting to be discovered.
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249

Building an English-Filipino Tourism Corpus and Lexicon for an
ASEAN Language Translation System
Charmaine S. Ponay
University of Santo Tomas
csponay@ust-ics.mygbiz.com

Charibeth K. Cheng
De La Salle University
chari.cheng@delasalle.phAbstract
A parallel corpus is a valuable resource in natural language processing and computational linguistics. It
is used in machine translation, lexicography, statistical language analysis, cross language information
retrieval, among others. This study aimed to build a parallel corpus of Philippine tourism data andevaluated the corpus using a statistical machine translation system. The corpus is to be used by thePhilippine component of the ASEAN-MT3 project. ASEAN-MT is a network-based ASEAN language
public translation service. It aims to automatically translate among ASEAN languages and English,
with English as the pivotal language.
The source texts were in English and were gathered from four websites about Philippine tourism. The
Filipino translation was done manually. Translations were by sentence. Guidelines to translating were
followed like, multiple translations must be avoided and the commonest word order must be followed.
Aside from the translations, the corpus is also annotated with the named entities, such as people’snames, group names, company names, currency units, temporal entities, language names, locations,products, and artistic creations.
The parallel corpora has 21, 491 sentences with 370,910 English words and 416,290 Filipino words.
Each sentence was from varying lengths, from one word to approximately 30 words per sentence. The
corpora are categorized into Festivals and Events, Provincial Profile, Tourist Attractions and General
Information. These categories were based on the source websites and the information of the text.
A lexicon was created by manual extraction of named-entities from the different Philippine tourism
websites. Most of the named-entities for the lexicon were retrieved from lists provided by the different
Philippine tourism websites also. The named-entities were manually translated and classified.
The corpora was assessed based on the following factors – (1) its overall BLEU when used on a
statistical machine translation system, (2) BLEU score of the sub-corpora per translator, (3) BLEU per
category, and (4) BLEU score of the sub-corpora per translator per category.
We found out that the number of function words, named-entities and numbers, ambiguity andalignment are the main factors which affect the quality of the machine translation. Function
words add to the number of words in the translated sentence which causes misalignment while
named-entities and numbers causes “penalty” to the BLEU score because they were nottranslated.
Keywords: Statistical machine translation systems, corpus building, tourism, BLEU score and namedentity

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250

1. Introduction
In natural language processing and computational linguistics a parallel corpus is a valuable
resource. It is used in machine translation, lexicography, statistical language analysis, crosslanguage information retrieval, among others.
This study aimed to build a parallel corpus of Philippine tourism data and evaluate the corpus
using a statistical machine translation system. The corpus is to be used by the Philippine
component of the ASEAN-MT4 project.
The ASEAN-MT is a network-based ASEAN language public translation service. It is an
automatic machine translation system that focuses on cross-lingual communication. It aims toautomatically translate among ASEAN languages and English, with English as the pivotal
language.
ASEAN-MT makes use of a statistical approach to machine translation which relies on theextraction of a bilingual dictionary and translation rules from a large volume of bitext data or
training data and the selection of the most probable translation by statistically disambiguating
structural ambiguity. The machine learns how to translate words by observing a large amountof examples and assuming constraints from them. The more translation examples are, themore accurate the translation becomes.
The translation of natural language using Statistical machine translation (SMT) treats theprocess as a machine learning problem. By examining many samples of human-produced
translation, SMT algorithms automatically learn how to translate.
2. The Corpus
The process of corpus creation for this project was done manually with the help of existing
tools like a language modeller, a web crawler and a machine translation system.
Since most information from Philippine tourism websites were in English, human paralleltranslation was done to achieve the bilingual corpus. For the quality of bilingual text provided
by humans bears direct effects to a statistical machine translation system’s accuracy, because
the consistency and regularity of the translation examples facilitate the learning process, thus
producing higher quality of translation. (Bookwan, 2013)
The training and testing data were composed of documents from Philippine Tourism websites
like itsmorefuninthephilippines.com, www.tourism.gov.ph, www.experiencephilippines.org,
www.wowphilippines.ca and http://www.visitmyphilippines.com.
Most of the data came from the website, http://www.visitmyphilippines.com. The
presentation of information of this website (http://www.visitmyphilippines.com) is the basisof the categorization. From this website, the Philippine tourism data was categorized into thedifferent regions, followed by descriptions of the regional or provincial profile, tourist
attractions, festivals and events.
The corpus is a parallel of English and Filipino, composing of 370,910 English words and416,290 Filipino words with 21491 sentences. Each sentence were from varying lengths, fromone word to approximately 30 words per sentence. The corpus was distributed in to thefollowing, Festivals and Events, Provincial Profile, Tourist Attractions and General
Information.

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251

Table 1 shows the distribution of the number of sentences per category. It shows that it has
more data on Tourist Attractions as compared with the other categories. This is due to thereason that the travel websites, from which the corpus came from, contain mostly informationon the different tourist attractions that a particular place or region would offer.
Table1 No. of Sentences per Category
Categories

No. of Sentences

1

Festivals and Events

2040

2

Provincial Profile

5048

3

Tourist Attractions

11383

4

General Information

3020

Figure 1 Percentage of sentences distribution per category
There are 4 categories, Festivals and Events, Provincial Profile, Tourist Attractions, andGeneral Information. Each category is described below:
Festivals and Events contains information on the names of feasts and events per region
or province, dates or tentative dates when an event or feast is held and brief descriptionsof the activities which happens during an event or a festival. The format usually starts
with a heading of the name of the festival or event, followed by the dates, then thedescription. For example:
Metro Manila Film Festival (ika-3 linggo ng Disyembre)
Maringal na parada ng mga karosa sa kahabaan ng Roxas Boulevard ng iba-ibang mga
movie entries sa taunang Metro Manila Film Festival.
Provincial Profile contains information about the province or the region like its history,
when it was founded, how it was founded and some important persons in the history or
government of the province or region, the topography, population, climate, and a brief
description of the province.
For example:
Lanao del Norte - Lupain ng Kagandahan at Karangyaan
KLIMA
Nasa labas ng typhoon belt ang lalawigan ng Lanao del Norteat mayroong non-seasonal
climate. Nagkakaroon ng pag-ulan sa buong taon. Nararanasan ang pinakamabigat na
pag-ulan mula Mayo hanggang Disyembrena may average na 7 inches kada buwan,
habang ang mas kaunting presipitasyon mula Enero hanggang Abril na may average na
3 inches kada buwan. 60inches ang average yearly rainfall at 80 degrees sa Fahrenheit
scale ang average na temperatura.
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Lenggwahe / Dialekto
Ang panumbasan ng Kristiyano-Muslim ay 60:40 na mas pabor sa mga Kristiyano.
Malawakang winiwika ang Cebuano, Ingles at Filipino ng mga Kristiyano, at Maranao
naman para sa Muslim.
Tourist Attractions contains information on the different tourist spots per province orregion. It usually have the name of the tourist attraction as a heading followed by adescription of the place. For example,
Katedral ng Imus
Isang halimbawa ang simbahan ng arkitekturang Hispanikong kolonyal at nagbibigay
ng atmospera ng monastikong buhay at ispiritwal na meditasyon. Dumilim na ang mga
kulay sa paglipas ng panahon ngunit mapapansin pa din ang mga pulang laryo na
bumubuo sa mga arko at pader na tumagal hanggang sa kasalukuyan. Nagiging
kapansin-pansin ang mga arko ng simbahan dahil sa mga sulat Latino dito. Sa
simbahang ito nakapwesto ang Diocese ng Imus.
General Attraction contains information about the Philippines in general, like, theclimate, the language used, currencies, suggested clothing, business hours, airport tax,
time difference, some rules like where to smoke, customs, brief descriptions of popular
tourist spots and food, everyday greetings and question words along with thetranslations in Filipino, modes of transportation, and activities.
For Example:
Ang unang kalahati ng taon, mula Enero hanggang Mayo, ang pinaka magandang
panahon upang bisitahin ang bansa.
Malamig ang Nobyembre hanggang Pebrero, habang mainit at tuyo ang Marso
hanggang Mayo./
The corpus is specific to Philippine tourism domain. The corpus, therefore, has several namesof places, persons, organizations, dates etc. So, to find out the representativeness of the
corpus, we counted the number of named-entities per category. Table 2 shows that percent of
named-entities in proportion to the size of the lexicon per category. It shows thatapproximately 40% of the category Provincial Profile was composed of named-entities.
Table 2 Percent of named-entities in proportion to the size of the lexicon per category.

1
2
3
4

Category
Tourist Attraction
Provincial Profile
Festivals and Events
General Information% of Named-ntities
23%
39%
23%
14%

The corpus was also manually annotated based on the guidelines set by NECTEC. Annotation
was done on named-entities, like persons, artistic and sports group, airline companies, credit
card companies, organizations, currency units, temporal entities, languages, locations,restaurants, hotels, roads and streets, transportation, food, brands, artistic creations and tourist
attractions. The annotations, however, were not validated by anyone.
3.
Translation and Annotation Process
3.1 The Translation Process
All of the tourism information came from Philippine tourism websites and were all in English,
therefore, manual translations were done. The corpus was translated by 4 human translators. It
was a parallel translation, every sentence in English has its equivalent translation in Filipino.
253

Table 3 is an example translation with annotations, the process of annotation will be discussed
in the later section.
Table 3 Sample parallel translation with annotations[ATTR]Tagaytay[\ATTR] City
Withayear-roundcool
climate,[ATTR]Tagaytay
City[\ATTR]
isthe[LOC]Philippine[\LOC]s’secondsummercapitalwithanelevationof[NUM]2,000[\NUM] feet above sea level.
The ascending highway offers a breathtaking
sight of the world famous [ATTR]Taal
Volcano[\ATTR], a crater within an island
within a lake.
Coconut groves, pineapple farms, flower
gardens and agricultural crops dot the ridges of[ATTR]Tagaytay[\ATTR].
Varied types of accommodations and numerous
restaurants give the visiting tourist the pleasuresof meditation, relaxation, leisure and a unique
scenic landscape that defines [ATTR]Tagaytay
City[\ATTR] as a leading destination.

Lungsod ng [ATTR]Tagaytay[\ATTR]
Sa pagkakaroon ng malamig na klima buongtaon, ang lungsod ng [ATTR] Tagaytay [\ATTR]
ang pangalawa sa kabisera ng tag-init ng [LOC]
Pilipinas [\LOC], na mayroong taas na[NUM]2,000[\NUM] talampakan sa itaas ng
antas ng dagat.
Nagbibigay ang papataas na highway ng
kamangha-manghang tanawin ng kilala sa buong
mundong[ATTR]Bulkanng[LOC]Taal[\LOC][\ATTR], isang bunganga saloob ng isang isla sa loob ng isang lawa.
Ang mga puno ng niyog, taniman ng pinya,hardin ng mga bulaklak at agrikultural na
pananim ang pumapalibot sa galugod ng [ATTR]
Tagaytay [\ATTR].
Iba-ibang uri ng matitirhan at ilang kainan ang
nagbibigay sa bumibisitang mga turista ng
pagkakataon para sa meditasyon, pagpapahinga,
pagsasaya at isang naiibang scenikong landscapena nagtatangi sa lungsod ng [ATTR] Tagaytay [\ATTR] bilang isang punatahan.

The corpus was separated into files according to categories and were randomly divided
among four translators. Table 4 shows the distribution of the categories per translator.
Table 4 Distribution of the total number of sentences per category per translator
Categories
Translator1 Translator2 Translator3 Translator4
1 Festivals and Events 192
488
273
81
2 Provincial Profile
742
2072
2679
1012
3 Tourist Attractions
4956
2957
1263
1158
4 General Information 55
1034
202

3.2. The Named-entity Lexicon and the Annotation Process
The named-entity lexicon was created by manual extraction of data from the different
Philippine tourism websites. However, most of the named-entities for the lexicon wereretrieved from lists provided by the different Philippine tourism websites also. The namedentities were manually translated, classified and manually annotated based on the guidelines
stated by NECTEC.
The following named-entities were identified and annotated:
PERSONS, the title of persons were also annotated.
[PER] [TITLE]General[\TITLE] Douglas Mac Arthur [\PER]ARTISTIC AND SPORTS GROUP, includes band names, ensemble names, sports team
names
[ARTG] Eraserheads [\ARTG]AIRLINE COMPANIES[ALG] Cebu Pacific [\ALG]
CREDIT CARD COMPANIES[CCG]Citibank Mastercard[\CCG]
254

ORGANIZATIONS, this includes names of companies, private and governmentorganizations, universities and banks, except airline companies and credit card companies andbrand names of products[ORG] Siliman University[\ORG]
CURRENCY UNITS, if it contains a numeric entity, it was tagged also
[CUR] Peso [\CUR]TEMPORAL ENTITIES, includes date and clock time expressions, months and days of week,
anything related with time, like tomorrow morning, this afternoon[DTM]ika-[NUM]3[\NUM] siglo[\DTM]
LANGUAGES[LG] English [\LG]
GEO-POLITICAL LOCATIONS, these are countries, cities, provinces, area names, territories
but does not include train stations, airport names, road names, restaurants and companies[LOC] Manila [\LOC]RESTAURANTS[RST]Gerry’s Grill[\RST]HOTELS, if it contains a location name, it should be tagged too[HOT] [LOC]Manila[\LOC] Hotel[\HOT]ROADS AND STREETS[ROAD] EDSA [\ROAD]
TRANSPORTATION, which were names of bus and train stations, bus tops/stations/depots,train lines, airports[TRA] Victory Liner [\TRA]
FOODS, if there is a location name inside the food name, the location name was annotatedalso[FOOD] [LOC]Vigan[\LOC] Longanissa [\FOOD]
BRANDS, which includes car brands/models, medicines, drugs, except food brands[BRN] Biogesic [\BRN]ARTISTIC CREATIONS, any artistic creation, song names, book names, movies, TV
programs, other composition names and titles, newspaper and magazine names, and event
names; if there was an artistic group or band or a person before the creation, it was annotatedalso[OTR][ARTG]Eraserhead[\ARTG]'s Ang Huling El Bimbo [/OTR]
TOURIST ATTRACTIONS, which includes parks, museums, attractions within locations,
events of attractions (world cup)
[ATTR] Pabirik Festival [/ATTR]
Manual annotation was done using the following steps:
The corpus was inspected on a per sentence basis.
A named-entity is most of the time, capitalized, so if it was capitalized, it was identified as towhat type of named-entity it is. The type of named-entity depends on prior knowledge of theauthor whether it is a person, an artistic or sports group, a credit card company, anorganization, a currency unit, a language, a location, a restaurant, a hotel, a road or a street,transportation, food, brand, artistic creation or a tourist attraction.
If the author is not sure as to what type of named-entity it is, the way the named-entity wasused in the sentence was checked or another resource was consulted like a search engine or
another person. This is because some named-entities are ambiguous in the Philippine setting,like, a person’s name can be a name of a street or a road, a location can be a tourist attractionin itself or if it is a brand or an organization.
Some named-entities have annotations within annotations. The titles of persons were also
identified and annotated, as well as places within restaurants, tourist attractions or hotels
names.

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To build the lexicon, the named-entities were extracted from the corpus manually. Namedentities were classified according to the specifications from NECTEC. The count of each
entity (but not limited to) is shown in Table 5:
Table 5 Quantity of each named-entity from the Lexicon
PERSONS,

311

ARTISTIC AND SPORTS GROUP

22

CREDIT CARD COMPANIESORGANIZATIONSCURRENCY UNITSLANGUAGES
GEO-POLITICAL LOCATIONSRESTAURANTSHOTELSROADS AND STREETS
TRANSPORTATIONFOODSBRANDSARTISTIC CREATIONSTOURIST ATTRACTIONS

99
208
3
35
584
319
285
146
243
169
103
35
2611

4. Evaluation
The evaluation of the corpus was done using the BLEU score generated by MOSES, astatistical based machine translation system.
The training process in MOSES takes in the parallel data and uses co-occurrences of words
and segments (known as phrases) to infer translation correspondences between the two
languages of interest (Koehn, 2014).
MOSES either uses phrase-based machine translation or syntax-based translation.
In phrase-based machine translation, the correspondences are simply between continuous
sequences of words, whereas in hierarchical phrase-based machine translation or syntax-basedtranslation, more structure is added to the correspondences (Koehn, 2014).
For example, a hierarchical MT system could learn that the word Filipino word kain X
corresponds to the English word eat X, where the Xs are replaced by any Filipino-English
word pair.
This project made use of the outputs generated by MOSES. After the training process,
MOSES generates information about the corpus like the contents of the corpus and thefrequency of the words in the corpus. This project made use of that information to count the
number of function words, the named-entities and the numbers or the digits present in the
corpus.
MOSES also generates the English-Filipino and the Filipino-English lexicon which thisproject made use to determine the correctness of the translation on a per lexicon basis.
The tourism corpus was evaluated using the BLEU score computed by MOSES. The corpus
was tested according to category where the category of Tourist Attraction got a BLEU scoreof 76.74. Also, to check the translation quality it was also tested according to who did themanual translation and BLEU scores of 31.59, 31.87, 24.6 and 64.02 were computed based on
the translations of Translator1, Translator2, Translator3 and Translator4 respectively.
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The corpus was further tested according to translator per category and a BLEU score of 76.57
and 69.69 for categories Provincial Profile and General Information under translator
Translator2 and 65.73 for translator Translator4 under category Tourist Attractions.
To analyse the generated BLEU score, the corpus was further analysed according to thefollowing factors:
The amount of named-entities and number per category and per category per translator. It was
shown that the number of named-entities and amount of numbers decreases the BLEU scorebecause these things were not translated and causes a penalty from the BLEU score. And
based on the percent of number and named-entities the category Provincial Profile got thelowest BLEU score among the categories.
The number of function words. The number of function words affect translation quality
because it causes a difference in the number of words between the source and target language,
causing problems with alignment.
The percentage of the generated lexicon in proportion to the corpus was also measured to see
how much of the translation pairs were learned by the engine and it shows that only category
Provincial Profile under Translator 3 got more than 100%.
The percentage of unique words were also measured to check how much of the lexicon
multiple translations have or are ambiguous. It shows a less than 60% of unique words inproportion to the size of the lexicon which indicates that 40% of the words have multiple
translations.
Based on the analysis, although the corpus generated a relatively high BLEU score whenbroken done into per category, per translation and per category per translation, the overall
BLEU score of the corpus as a whole was low because of percentage of the named-entities,
numbers, function words, average difference of words, the proportion of the lexicon versus
the corpus and the percentage of uniqueness.
5.

Conclusions and future work

The Philippines is a country thriving with natural resources that have been celebrated tourism
spots for years. These tourism spots have proven their mettle against other celebrated tourist
spots from neighboring countries, and are known throughout the world. With this, it is aknown fact that people from all over the world flock to the Philippines to visit the
aforementioned tourist spots. To support this fact, it is in the statistics that Philippine Tourism
is a major supplier to its economy, contributing 5.9% of the total Gross Domestic Product of
the country. This is exactly the reason why the Philippines has to take advantage of its
wonderful natural places, resources and sceneries to further boost its tourism andconsequently fuel up the economy.
It is important to take note that efficient communication is a major aspect of tourism. With the
expected inflow of tourists into the country, a means of communicating with the foreign
people needs to be established. With better communication between the natives of thePhilippines and the foreigners, tourism in the Philippines will surely continue to flourish as
better understanding and relationships with the foreigners will follow. Having this in mind,building an English-Tagalog travel corpus and lexicon for a statistical machine translation
system such as the ASEAN-MT, will prove to be beneficial to both local and tourists. This
will allow both parties to understand each other whenever communication is necessary. Sucha system is expected to help boost Philippine Tourism as foreigners will get to better
experience their vacation with the satisfaction of having good communication.
The machine translation system must, however, learn from bilingual data of high quality oftranslation, with most of the word correctly aligned. As for the Filipino language and theEnglish language, a near perfect alignment is relatively hard to achieve. There are words in257

Filipino which when translated to English refers to multiple words and vice versa. This makes
translation quality poor. Some words in Filipino are ambiguous, which can also be a problem
in translation. Words may also have multiple translations like the Filipino word, lahat which
can be translated to everyone, everything, everybody or all, depending on the usage in thesentence.
After the analysis of the data and based on the discussion of the results and analysis of the
corpus as to why the overall BLEU score of 34.42, the following factors affect the translation
quality:
Number of function words
Based on frequency per word in the lexicon, there was a maximum of 15 percent ofFilipino function words per category. Although function words are important in thesentence construction, it does not contribute much to the translation quality because it
causes problems on alignment.
For the example below, we can see that there are a relatively more number of words for
the Filipino translation, because of the function words, than the English translation andthere is really no one is to one correspondence which produces poor training result.
This cove of pristine white sand is indeed a place for tranquil contentment.
Tunay nga na isang lugar ang cove na ito ng malinis na puting buhangin para sa
matiwasay na kasiyahan.
The percentage of numbers and the named-entities in the Lexicon
According to (Papineni, 2002) test sets should have a minimal of dates, numbers andnames for these entities are not usually translated. BLEU score’s focus are on thetranslation of words. Based on the tests and since travel information usually contains
names of places, persons, numbers and dates, there was as high as 39% of namedentities and 12% of numbers per category.
Ambiguity or ambiguous words
The percentage of unique words show that at most 40% of the words in the lexicon were
not unique and have multiple translations. For example, there were multiple translations
for the word kasiyahan, it was aligned with words like fun, enjoyment, leisure, andpleasures.
Difference with the number of words upon translation. For example, the word
pinagkatuwaan was aligned with made and fun, where its translation must be the twowords made fun as a whole.
And so we have the following recommendations:
Guidelines must be followed for the manual translation like:
The order of translation must follow the structure of the source language.
Although structure is really an issue with regards to the Filipino language, it is recommended
that the translation must more or less follow the structure of the source language. For
example, instead of translating, She is a beautiful girl. to Magandang babae siya. , it must betranslated to Siya ay isang magandang babae.
The translation of a word must be consistent.
Also, although lexical ambiguity is always an issue for certain languages, it is recommended
that a translation of a word be consistent as much as possible. For example, the word beachmust be translated to only one translation like dalampasigan in the entire document.
To translate or not to translate named-entities, it must be consistent.
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As for the named-entities, there should be certain rules on whether to further translate them ornot. For example, should Tinago Falls still be translated to Talon ng Tinago or retain it as is.
The human translations should be further evaluated manually.
In this project, the manual translations were assumed to be correct and were not strictly
manually evaluated if the translations conformed to the guidelines specified by NECTEC.
And so it is recommended that it be further evaluated manually by giving each of thetranslators the same set of documents to be translated. These documents may be firstevaluated manually by an expert then it may be evaluated again using the machine translationengine to see which will get the higher BLEU score.
The named-entity lexicon may be generated automatically from the annotated corpus bysearching for the open annotations first ([TAG]) and identifying the tags inside each square
bracket whether it is a person, a location, a tourist attraction, a food, an artistic group,
organization, currency, or a language. Annotations within annotations or recursive
annotations may be identified by searching first for a close annotation ([\TAG]) of an opening
annotation before identifying which type of named entity it is.
The content of the corpus and the lexicon, based on the list of named-entities provided by
NECTEC, it is recommended to add more information about Filipino food because aside fromtourist spots, tourists are also interested about food when going to other countries. We can get
more data from local restaurants, resorts and hotels.
Lastly, aside from machine translation, the tourism corpus may be used in other natural
language processing applications like
Compiling or revising dictionaries
The meaning or other meanings of a word can be derived from this corpus because somewords were used in a different manner because of the tourism domain. Like the word maligo,
may also mean to swim and not only to take a bath. Some colloquial words may be included
also, the word, mag-swimming may now be part of the Filipino dictionary.
Named-entity recognition in Filipino
This corpus is annotated with 15 different kinds of named-entities. An NER system may beable to learn some rules on how named-entities are recognized in a Filipino documents
because there were several instances of them in this corpus.
Information extraction
This tourism corpus contains information about different festivals and events, profiles ofprovinces and tourist attractions in the Philippines, one can use this data to build a dialoguesystem that will extract information from the corpus which may also help tourists in making
decisions on where to go, places to stay, and where to eat. Although we already have several
tourism websites, it is very tedious to read, so a dialogue system where a tourist may “ask” for
information may prove to be very useful.
References
Evans, David. (2007). Corpus building and investigation for the humanities. University of
Nottingham.
http://www. corpus. bham. ac. uk/corpus-building. shtml. Accessed 10
Feb. 2015
Mukherjee, Joybrato, Kunstler, Viktoria, Maiwald, Patrick, Saage, Sven. 2007. A guide tocorpus linguistics.
http://fss.plone.unigiessen.de/fss/faculties/f05/engl/ling/help/materials/restricted/clguide.pdf/fi
le/A%20Guide%20to%20Corpus%20Linguistics.pdf. Accessed 10 Feb. 2015
Pumikalek, Jan. 2007. Building parallel corpora from the web.
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Sridhar,Vivek, Barbosa, Luciano, and Bangalore,Srinivas. 2006. A scalable approach tobuilding a parallel corpus from the web.
http://www.research.att.com/export/sites/att_labs/techdocs/TD_100424.pdf. Accessed 10 Feb.
2015
Tan, Liling, and Bond, Francis. 2011. Building and annotating the linguistically diverse.
NTU-MC (NTU- Multilingual Corpus).

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Japanese Idioms in Corpus Data and Dictionaries:
Variability and Patterning
Priscilla Ishida
University of Tsukuba, Japanishida.priscilla.fn@u.tsukuba.ac.jp
Abstract
Traditional views of Japanese idioms hold that one of their defining properties is lexico-structuralinvariability, and many dictionaries present idioms as stable, fully fixed expressions. However,evidence from written texts shows that some idioms have variant forms with shared lexis/structure andsimilar or related meanings. This paper investigates how Japanese idiom variants are represented inphraseological dictionaries, in light of evidence from corpus data. First, past views of the phenomenonof variability are reviewed and some problems of identification and description are discussed. Then
partial results of a corpus analysis of a set of 56 Japanese idioms are reported and compared todescriptions of the target idioms in seven monolingual phraseological dictionaries. Data were collectedfrom the Balanced Corpus of Contemporary Written Japanese (BCCWJ) and the Tsukuba Web Corpus(TWC). The analysis focuses on two types of variants: synonymous and antonymous. Results show
that, although many dictionaries list some variants, either as independent headwords or as alternate
forms within a headword entry, most are inconsistent in their treatment of this phenomenon.
Antonymous variants tend to be listed more often than synonymous ones; however, many variants ofboth types that are attested in corpus data are overlooked. The conclusion is that there is a strong needfor the integration of past research, corpus analysis, and lexicographical practice.
Keywords: idioms, corpus data, lexical profiling, synonymous variants, antonymous variants

1. Introduction
Idioms are multi-word expressions characterized by strong bonding between their individual
constituents.5 According to traditional views, this means it is usually not possible to replace
individual words with synonyms or antonyms (1), or to delete them (2).
(1) saji/*spūn o nageru (lit. throw the spoon [Jap. word]/*spoon [Eng. loanword],‘give up’), abura o uru/*kau (lit. sell/*buy oil, ‘loaf; waste time’)(2) kumo no ko o chirasu yō/*kumo o chirasu yō (lit. as if one scatters spider
babies/*spiders, ‘(run off) in all directions’)
However, newspapers, books, internet blogs, and other Japanese texts show that some idioms
do allow the replacement (3) or deletion (4) of constituents.
(3) Shikashi, gakkō kankeisha wa ijime ga atta ka dō ka wa wakaranai to kuchi onigosu. (‘However, the parties concerned at the school prevaricate (lit. muddy theirmouths), saying they don’t know whether or not there was any bullying’.) [book]cf. kotoba o nigosu (lit. muddy one’s words, ‘speak evasively; prevaricate’)5

Miyaji (1982a: 238) defines idioms as “tango no futatsu ijō no renketsutai de atte, sono musubitsuki ga hikakuteki kataku, zentai de kimatta imi o motsu kotoba (strings of two or more words that have comparatively strong
internal bonding and fixed, holistic meanings)”. This paper will adopt Miyaji’s (1982a) definition and deal withexpressions that fall within its scope.

261

(4) Me kara uroko no rekishi kōza. (‘It’s an eye-opening (lit. scales-from-the-eyes)
history course’.) [blog]
cf. me kara uroko ga ochiru (lit. the scales fall from one’s eyes, ‘be awakened to thetruth’)
This paper takes the view that pairs of expressions like (3) kotoba o nigosu/kuchi o nigosu and(4) me kara uroko ga ochiru/me kara uroko are “idiom variants”, which are defined as two or
more idiomatic expressions that share some lexis and meaning and are recognized as
relatively stable expressions in the Japanese lexicon (Ishida 1998; cf. Itō 1990; Moon 1998).
The aim of this paper is to show what corpus data reveal about idiom variants and toinvestigate how well the phenomenon of variability is represented in phraseologicaldictionaries.
2. Past views of fixedness and variability“Fixedness” or “stability” is widely considered to be a fundamental characteristic of idioms.
Past research defines Japanese idioms as strings of words that are habitually used together andresistant to the replacement, addition, and deletion of lexical constituents (Miyaji 1982a;
Kunihiro 1985; Muraki 1991). However, there is evidence that some idioms have one or morevariant forms that are strongly institutionalized.
Miyaji (1982b) and Morita (1994) point out that some transitive verb phrase idioms haveintransitive counterparts, and vice versa (e.g. yaridama ni ageru lit. raise s.o. on the tip of aspear, ‘make an example of s.o.’/yaridama ni agaru lit. s.o. rises on the tip of a spear, ‘bemade an example of’). Miyaji (1985) shows that some verb and adjective phrase idioms havecorresponding compounds (e.g. me ga sameru lit. one’s eyes awake, ‘wake up to;realize’/mezameru ‘wake up to; realize’). Morita (1994) also notes that some idioms havesynonymous or antonymous variants created by the replacement of a content word (e.g. ude
ga sagaru/ochiru lit. one’s arm goes down/falls, ‘one’s ability or performance declines’; koshi
ga tsuyoi/yowai lit. one’s hips are strong/weak, ‘firm; resolute/weak-kneed’).
Ishida (1998) reports the results of an extensive analysis of idiom variants collected frompost-war Japanese novels and identifies two principal types of variation. The first is structuralvariation, which involves the addition or omission of constituents and a change in the internal
structure and/or grammatical function of the idiom. The second is lexical variation, whicharises from the alternation of a noun, verb, or adjective constituent.
Satō (2007) analyzes the idiom headwords in five Japanese dictionaries and points out
inconsistencies in the representation of the lexical structure and/or phonological form of some
expressions. He attributes some of these inconsistencies to the existence of idiom variants(ikei), which are exemplified but not discussed in detail, and others to differences inindividual lexicographers’ views of the degree of standardization of idiom forms.
In short, past research on Japanese idioms has begun to explore the phenomenon of idiom
variability. However, until now, scholars have relied on intuition, manually collected data,
and/or genre-specific electronic databases. This paper takes the view that corpus data can beused to gain a clearer picture of the phenomenon of variability, including types of variants,
non-intuitive forms, and frequency. The following sections will report the results of a corpus
analysis of idiom variants and investigate how well evidence from corpus data is reflected inmonolingual Japanese phraseological dictionaries.
3. Extracting idiom variants
3.1 Target idioms, tools, and procedures
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In order to identify variant forms, this researcher first selected a set of 100 commonly-usedidioms dealt with in past studies and then collected potential candidates for variants from theBalanced Corpus of Contemporary Written Japanese (BCCWJ) and an opportunistic web
corpus (TWC). In order to find all possible forms of the target idioms, queries were createdfrom the smallest possible number of constituents (Moon 1998; Fellbaum et al. 2006; Philip2008), using the following search tools.
1) NINJAL-LWP for BCCWJ (NLB) ver. 1.20: This is an online lexical profiling tool
developed jointly by the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics(NINJAL) and the Lago Institute of Language. It uses the 2011 DVD version of the
BCCWJ, which includes 11 text types and approximately 105 million words. The purposeof using this tool was to identify potential variant forms by extracting all phrases
containing a key word in the target idiom and filtering the results yielded for phrase
structures and collocates.
2) NINJAL-LWP for TWC (NLT) ver. 1.10: NLT is an online lexical profiling tool for the
Tsukuba Web Corpus (TWC), which is a corpus of 1.1 billion words compiled fromJapanese websites in January of 2012 by researchers at the University of Tsukuba. It has
the same interface as NLB (see above) and was used to confirm, in a larger corpus, thepotential variant candidates previously identified in the BCCWJ.
Multiple queries were necessary for both tools. After obtaining the initial search results,
irrelevant data (e.g. literal examples, duplicates) were eliminated manually. The criteria used
to identify idiom variants were shared lexis, shared meaning, and a threshold of at least 10
occurrences in the BCCWJ. In borderline cases, native speaker judgments offamiliarity/acceptability were also taken into account.6
Search results were compiled and the alternating forms of each idiom were then analyzed andclassified. For the purpose of the dictionary analysis, the target idioms were limited to a set of
56 (with a total of 150 individual forms) exemplifying the five types of variants shown below.
This paper will compare the results of the corpus and dictionary analyses of synonymous andantonymous variants.
1) synonymous variants
4) idioms/compounds
2) antonymous variants5) truncations/expansions
3) transitive/intransitive variants
3.2 Problems of identification and description
3.2.1. The question of “canonical” forms
Idiom dictionaries tend to present idioms as “syntactically, morphologically, and lexically
fixed canonical forms” (Fellbaum et al. 2006: 350), and language users tend to believe that an
idiom form listed in the dictionary is its “standard” form. One possible view is that idioms
have a canonical form and variants are deviations from this form. Judgments regarding whichis the canonical form and which is (are) the variant(s) are usually made on the basis offrequency, derivational relationships, or provenance. However, in some cases multiple formsof an idiom are used frequently, as in (5), and language users may judge multiple forms to be“standard” in spite of differences in frequency, as in (5) and (6).
(5) hara ga tatsu (lit. one’s belly rises, ‘get angry’) 766 (BCCWJ)
hara o tateru (lit. raise one’s belly, ‘get angry’)570 (BCCWJ)(6) shūshifu o utsu (lit. strike (typewrite) a period, ‘put an end to s.t.’) 164 (BCCWJ)
piriodo o utsu (lit. strike (typewrite) a period, ‘put an end to s.t.’) 42 (BCCWJ)
6The BCCWJ yields only 8 instances of kenka o kau (lit. buy a fight, ‘accept a challenge’; see Table 4). However,since native speakers judge this expression to be familiar and acceptable, it is considered here to be a stablevariant.

263

Another view is that pairs such as those shown in (5) and (6) are one idiom with alternate
forms (Moon 1998; Ishida 1998). In this view, hara ga tatsu is a variant of hara o tateru (5)and vice versa. This view places emphasis on the mutual relationships between alternate
forms and also provides a framework flexible enough to handle clusters of forms withvariable lexis and/or structure (Moon 1998; Philip 2008).
This paper takes the second view. Alternating idiom forms are regarded as mutual variants,
and no attempt is made to distinguish between canonical and non-canonical forms.
3.2.2 Institutionalized variants vs. creative modifications
Evidence from Japanese corpus data shows that language users sometimes produce ad hoc
variants for the purpose of emphasis or stylistic effect, as in (7b) and (8b) below:(7a) me kara uroko ga ochiru (lit. the scales fall from one’s eyes, ‘be awakened tothe truth’)(7b) me kara uroko ga jū mai hodo ochita (lit. ten or so scales fell from my eyes, ‘becompletely awakened to the truth’)(8a) ne-mimi ni mizu (lit. cold water into one’s sleeping ear, ‘a bolt from the blue’)(8b) ne-mimi ni ōame (lit. heavy rain into one’s sleeping ear, ‘a huge bolt from theblue’)
This evidence is consistent with findings in studies of English idioms, which present
fixedness as a cline ranging from complete frozenness through restricted variation to creative
modification for the purpose of wordplay or other stylistic effects (Moon 1998; Philip 2008).
This paper distinguishes between creative modifications, which are low-frequency andcontext-bound ((7b), (8b)), and institutionalized variants, which are used relatively frequently
and widely accepted by native speakers ((3)-(6)). The scope of this study is limited to
institutionalized variants.
4. Idiom variants in corpus data
4.1 Synonymous variants
Some idioms allow the alternation of a content word, with little or no change to the internal
structure and meaning of the idiom. Table 1 shows synonymous variants produced by thealternation of a noun.
Table 1 Synonymous variants (noun alternation)
idioms/variants

meaning (literal/idiomatic)

BCCWJaTWC

mi ni shimiru

lit. permeate one’s flesh, ‘touch/sting s.o. deeply’

212 (2.02)

2422(2.13)

lit. permeate one’s bones and flesh

23 (0.22)

163 (0.14)

honemishimirunipiriodo o utsu

lit. strike (typewrite) a period [Jap.], ‘put an end tos.t.’lit. strike (typewrite) a period [Eng. loanword]

hadome o kakeru

lit. put on the brake/skid [Jap.], ‘slow down/stop s.t.’

96 (0.92)

burēki o kakeru

lit. put on the brake(s) [Eng. loanword]
lit.
muddy
one’s
words,
evasively/ambiguously’
lit. muddy one’s mouth

61 (0.58)

1397(1.23)
340 (0.30)
1229(1.08)
614 (0.54)

80 (0.76)

249 (0.22)

16 (0.15)

59 (0.05)

shūshifu o utsu

kotoba o nigosu
kuchi o nigosu
a‘speak164 (1.56)
42 (0.40)

Figures show the raw number of occurrences in each corpus and (in parentheses) frequency
per million words.
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In some cases, the alternating nouns include a noun of Japanese origin on one hand, and aloanword on the other. For example, shūshifu ‘period’ and hadome ‘brake; skid’ are bothnouns of Japanese origin, and piriodo ‘period’ and burēki ‘brake(s)’ are both borrowings fromEnglish. With respect to the pair shūshifu o utsu and piriodu o utsu, the latter is held to be theoriginal form, with shūshifu o utsu appearing after shūshifu was introduced as a Japaneseequivalent for the loanword piriodo sometime after 1926 (Miyaji 1982a: 251). In present-day
Japanese, shūshifu o utsu is used more frequently (Table 1), but both expressions are commonand familiar. Of the pair kotoba o nigosu and kuchi o nigosu, kotoba o nigosu is usuallyconsidered to be the “standard” form, but the BCCWJ also yields 16 occurrences of kuchi onigosu.
Table 2 Synonymous variants (verb alternation)
idioms/variants
kao-iro o ukagau
kao-iro o miru
kao-iro o yomu
kageguchiotatakukageguchi o iu
kageguchi o kiku

meaning (literal/idiomatic)
lit. (steal a) glance at s.o.’s face-colour,‘judge s.o.’s feelings/thoughts from his/her
expression’
lit. look at s.o.’s face-colour
lit. read s.o.’s face-colour
lit. beat the shadow-mouth (=malicious gossip),‘backbite’
lit. speak/say the shadow-mouth
lit. make use of the shadow-mouth

BCCWJ

TWC

98 (0.94)

778 (0.68)

37 (0.35)
10 (0.10)

235 (0.21)
17 (0.01)

59 (0.56)

257 (0.23)

20 (0.19)
14 (0.13)

197 (0.17)
16 (0.01)

There are also pairs or sets of variants with alternating verbs (Table 2). In some cases, theverbs themselves have broadly related meaning, as do (kao-iro o) ukagau ‘glance at’, miru
‘look’, and yomu ‘read’. Both the BCCWJ and the TWC add a few instances of other verbs tothis paradigm, including saguru ‘search’ (BCCWJ 5) and tashikameru ‘check; see (if)’ (TWC3). Because of their low frequency, the expressions with these two verbs do not have thestatus of variants as defined in this paper. However, they do provide further evidence of the
productivity of the set kao-iro o ukagau/miru/yomu.
On the other hand, in the set kageguchi o tataku/iu/kiku ‘backbite’, the alternating idiom
phrases are synonymous in spite of the fact that the meanings of the constituent verbs areunrelated (tataku ‘hit; beat’/iu ‘speak; say’/kiku ‘make use of’).
In addition to the synonymous pairs and sets shown in Tables 1 and 2, there are also cases ofrather free alternation among a variety of noun or verb constituents (Table 3).
Table 3 Variants with empty slots
idioms/variants
yumizu no yō ni (gotokub)…V
yumizuno(gotoku)…tsukauyōchi no nijimu yō na N
chi no nijimu yō na do’ryoku

nimeaning (literal/idiomatic)
V…like hot and cold water,‘(waste/be wasted)…like water’use…like hot and cold water,‘waste/squander…like water’
N like blood oozing,‘strenuous/backbreaking N’effort like blood oozing,‘strenuous/backbreaking effort’

BCCWJ

TWC

43 (0.41)371 (0.33)[31 (0.30)] c[187 (0.16)]

28 (0.27)

255 (0.22)[19 (0.18)][157 (0.14)]

gotoku is the formal, literary equivalent of yō ni ‘like; as (if)’.
[31] indicates that out of a total of 43 instances of yumizu no yō ni…V, 31 included theverb tsukau ‘use’.
b
c

265

For instance, although there is a strong tendency for yumizu no yō ni (lit. like hot and cold
water) to be followed by the verb tsukau ‘use’, as in (9), this expression also combines withother verbs that mean ‘use’ or ‘flow out’ in a broad sense (10).
(9) Kaiin o fuyasu tame no kōkokuhi o yumizu no yō-ni tsukatta. (‘They squandered (lit.
used like hot and cold water) the ad budget allocated to increasing membership’.)(10) rōhi suru ‘waste; squander’, shōhi suru ‘consume; expend’, nagareru ‘flow’,ryūshutsu suru ‘flow out’, sosogu ‘pour’, dete iku ‘go/drain out’…
In the same way, chi no nijimu yō na (lit. like blood oozing) combines most frequently with
the noun do’ryoku ‘effort’ (11). However, it is also used to modify a variety of other nouns
expressing an activity that demands effort or labour (12).
(11) Sono hi kara, Kazuo no chi no nijimu yō na do’ryoku ga hajimari… (‘From that dayon, Kazuo’s backbreaking efforts (lit. efforts like blood oozing) began’.)(12) renshū ‘practice’, kunren ‘training’, shugyō ‘training; apprenticeship’, kurō
‘hardship; suffering’, kutō ‘tough struggle; hard fight’…
What is evident in these cases is a tension between fixedness and productivity, as well as akind of extended patterning: a particular verb or noun tends to be preferred, but other verbs ornouns with similar or related meaning can be substituted rather freely. The lexical structure of
the expressions in (9-12) can be represented as yumizu no yō ni…V and chi no nijimu yōna…N, respectively. The V or N in each expression is an “empty slot” filled at the time of use
by a verb or noun that belongs to the particular semantic class described above.7
4.2 Antonymous variants
Corpus data also yield cases of alternation of an adjective or verb that results in variants withshared lexis and structure and opposite meaning. Table 4 shows variant pairs in which an
adjective or verb alternates with its usual antonym (e.g. tsuyoi/yowai, ‘strong/weak’,kasu/kariru, ‘lend/borrow’) and the idiom phrases also have opposite or converse meaning(e.g. ki ga tsuyoi/yowai lit. one’s ki (spirit/mind) is strong/weak, ‘strong-willed; tough’/‘timid;
fainthearted’, te o kasu/kariru lit. lend/borrow a hand, ‘give help’/‘get help’).
Table 4 Antonymous variants (1)idioms/variants

meaning (literal/idiomatic)

BCCWJ

ki ga (no) tsuyoilit. one’s ki (spirit/mind) is strong, ‘strong-willed’

161 (1.54)

ki ga (no) yowai

lit. one’s ki is weak, ‘timid; fainthearted’154 (1.47)

ki ga (no) mijikai
ki ga (no) nagai
hagire ga (no) yoi
hagire
warui

ga

(no)

lit. one’s ki (spirit/mind) is short,‘short-tempered; impatient’lit. one’s ki is long, ‘patient’lit. the teeth-sharpness is good,‘clear and crisp; articulate’lit. the teeth-sharpness is bad, ‘inarticulate;evasive’55 (0.52)

299 (0.26)

27 (0.26)

260 (0.23)

98 (0.94)

584 (0.51)

50 (0.48)

368 (0.32)

te o kasu

lit. lend a hand, ‘give help’

297 (2.83)

te o kariru
kenka o uru

lit. borrow a hand, ‘get help’
lit. sell a fight, ‘pick a fight’99 (0.94)
74 (0.71)

7

TWC
1,326
(1.17)
1,060(0.93)

1,432(1.26)
905 (0.80)
683 (0.60)

It might be argued that the V and N slots indicated above are not intra-idiomatic constituents but extra- idiomatic
collocates. However, because the bonding with tsukau ‘use’ and do’ryoku ‘effort’, respectively, is relatively strong(Table 3), and because the range of alternating verbs and nouns is restricted, this paper takes the view that the V
and N slots do in fact constitute parts of their respective idioms.

266

kenka o kau

lit. buy a fight, ‘accept a challenge’

8 (0.08)79 (0.07)

However, the antonymous element is sometimes unpredictable (Table 5), as in the case of
kuchi ga karui (lit. one’s mouth is light, ‘be unable to keep a secret’) and kuchi ga katai (lit.
one’s mouth is hard, ‘be able to keep a secret’). In addition, the relationship between
antonymous forms may be asymmetrical, as in futokoro ga atatakai (lit. one’s breast pocket iswarm, ‘have a fat wallet’), on one hand, and futokoro ga sabishii/samui (lit. one’s breast
pocket is lonely/cold, ‘be low on cash’), on the other.

Table 5 Antonymous variants (2)idioms/variants
kuchi ga karui
kuchi ga omoi
kuchi ga katai
futokoro ga atatakai
futokorogasabishii
futokoro ga samui

meaning (literal/idiomatic)
lit. one’s mouth is light1) ‘be talkative’2) ‘be a blabbermouth; can’t keep a secret’1) lit. one’s mouth is heavy, ‘be reticent/slow to
speak’
2) lit. one’s mouth is hard, ‘be able to keep asecret’lit. one’s breast pocket is warm, ‘have a fat wallet’

BCCWJ

TWC

24 (0.23)

115 (0.10)

58 (0.55)

131 (0.12)

46 (0.44)

193 (0.17)

13 (0.12)

34 (0.03)

lit. one’s breast pocket is lonely, ‘be low on cash’

11 (0.10)

46 (0.04)

lit. one’s breast pocket is cold, ‘be low on cash’

10 (0.10)

21 (0.02)

There are also complex networks of antonymous and synonymous variants that overlap
partially in terms of lexis, meaning, and syntactic structure. Table 6 shows a cluster that
exploits the metaphor of a “curtain” to indicate the beginning and ending of actions or events.
Table 6 Cluster of synonymous/antonymous variants
idioms/variants
maku o akeru

meaning (literal/idiomatic)
lit. open the curtain, ‘start s.t.’

BCCWJ
75 (0.72)

maku o tojiru

lit. close the curtain, ‘put an end to s.t.’101 (0.96)

maku o orosu
maku o hiku
maku ga aku

lit. lower the curtain, ‘put an end to s.t.’lit. draw the curtain, ‘put an end to s.t.’lit. the curtain opens, ‘s.t. starts to happen’
lit. the curtain is cut and dropped,‘s.t. starts with a bang’lit. the curtain comes down, ‘s.t. comes to anend’

39 (0.37)
14 (0.13)
14 (0.13)

TWC
706 (0.62)
1,403(1.23)
411 (0.36)
146 (0.13)
119 (0.10)

19 (0.18)

84 (0.07)

10 (0.10)

69 (0.06)

maku ga kitte otosareru
maku ga oriru

First, there is a set of transitive synonyms/antonyms composed of maku o akeru (lit. open the
curtain, ‘start s.t.’), on one hand, and maku o tojiru/orosu/hiku (lit. close/lower/draw thecurtain, ‘put an end to s.t.’), on the other. Secondly, there is a set composed of the intransitive
antonyms maku ga aku/oriru (lit. the curtain opens/comes down, ‘s.t. starts to happen’/‘s.t.
comes to an end’), as well as the expression maku ga kitte otosareru (lit. the curtain is cut anddropped, ‘s.t. starts with a bang’), which is an emphatic synonym of maku ga aku that
contains the passive form of the verb otosu ‘drop’.
As noted in Section 1, many idioms do not have synonymous or antonymous variants, even if
they contain a word with a commonly-used synonym or antonym in the Japanese lexicon (see(1) saji/*spūn o nageru, abura o uru/*kau). Insofar as lexico-structural frozenness is adefining property of idioms (Section 2), it is possible to say that idioms without synonymous267

or antonymous variants are prototypical idioms with a relatively high degree of“idiomaticity”. Indeed, idioms with unrealized antonymous variants often have a meaning thatis either specialized to one end of a dimension (e.g. kao ga hiroi/*semai lit. one’s face iswide/*narrow, ‘know a lot of people’) or lacks the relational orientation of a constituent verb
(e.g. abura o uru/*kau lit. sell/*buy oil, ‘loaf; waste time’). On the other hand, idioms like
kotoba/kuchi o nigosu (lit. muddy one’s words/mouth, ‘speak evasively’) and te o kasu/kariru(lit. lend/borrow a hand, ‘give/get help’), along with the others in Tables 1 to 6, exhibit arelatively lower degree of lexico-structural frozenness, as well as regular lexical relations akinto those found among words. These idioms are thus relatively less prototypical—and less“idiomatic”—than those without synonymous/antonymous variants.
5. Idiom variants in dictionaries
5.1 Materials and procedures
In order to investigate the extent to which Japanese phraseological dictionaries provide areliable account of idiom variants, the results of the corpus analysis were compared torepresentations of the target idioms and their synonymous/antonymous variants in sevencommonly-used dictionaries:(13) semasiological dictionaries
KIY (1982): 245 entries
HKKJ (1988): 3,500 entries
NKJ (2005): 1,563 entries
YWKJ (2007): 3,000 entries
SKKKJ (2010): 6,550 entries8

onomasiological dictionaries
RKJ (1992): 3,700 entries
IHKJ (1998): 1,100 entries

The dictionary analysis targeted the 150 variant forms previously identified in the corpus
analysis, investigating if and how each form was presented in each dictionary. Four types oflistings were found and coded as follows:◎=listed as a headword/entry;○=not listed as a headword but shown somewhere in the entry of a related variant form (ina usagenote and/or illustrative example, or under a marker such as rui ‘synonym’);●=listed as a headword only (no entry) and cross-referenced to a variant form with anentry;
×=not listed or shown in any way.
5.2 Dictionary analysis of synonymous variants
Results of the dictionary analysis of synonymous variants are shown in Table 7. Some
dictionaries list both members of a pair of synonymous variants as individual headwords(12.5%). For example, both mi ni shimiru (lit. permeate one’s flesh) and honemi ni shimiru(lit. permeate one’s bones and flesh) are listed in three dictionaries (HKKJ/RKJ/NKJ), andshūshifu o utsu (lit. strike (typewrite) a period [Jap.]) and piriodo o utsu (lit. strike (typewrite)a period [Eng. loanword]) appear in two (YWKJ/NKJ).
In more cases (36%), one expression is listed as a headword and a synonymous variant islisted elsewhere in the entry, sometimes under the marker rui(ku) ‘similar (phrases)’.
Kageguchi o tataku (lit. beat the shadow-mouth) is listed as a headword with kagekuchi o kiku
(lit. make use of the shadow-mouth) specified as its synonymous variant, in four dictionaries(YWKJ/SKKKJ/RKJ/IHKJ). This may reflect lexicographers’ intuitions that the variant with8

Of these dictionaries, only KIY and NKJ are theory- and text-based. KIY has a relatively small number of entries
in comparison to the others; however, it also includes a “Table of Commonly Used Idioms” (Jōyō Kanyōku
Ichiran) with a total of about 1280 items. Variants listed in the KIY table are shown in Table 7, for the sake ofcomparison; however, these are not included in the analysis reported in Sections 5.2-5.3.

268

tataku ‘hit; beat’ is used more frequently. On the other hand, in some dictionaries kao-iro omiru (lit. look at s.o.’s face-colour) is listed as a headword with kao-iro o ukagau (lit. (steal a)glance at s.o.’s face-colour) as its variant (SKKKJ/RKJ), despite the fact that the latter has aconsiderably higher frequency in both the BCCWJ and TWC.

Table 7 Synonymous variants in Japanese phraseological dictionaries
synonymous
variants
mi ni shimiru
honemi ni shimiru
shūshifu o utsu
piriodo o utsu
hadome o kakeru
burēki o kakeru
kotoba o nigosu
kuchi o nigosu
kao-iro o ukagau
kao-iro o miru
kao-iro o yomu
kageguchi o tataku
kageguchi o iu
kageguchi o kiku
yumizu no yō ni
yumizu no yō nitsukauchi no nijimu yō (na)chi no nijimu yōna do’ryoku

frequency
BCC
TWC
WJ
212
2422
23
163
164
1397
42
340
96
1229
61
614
80
249
16
59
98
778
37
235
10
17
59
257
20
197
14
16
43
371

HK
KJ

YW SKK
RKJ
KJ KJ

IH
KJ

KIY
(entry)KIY(table
)

NKJ

◎
◎
×
◎
×
◎
○
◎
◎
×
●
×
×
×
×

◎
○
◎
◎
×
◎
◎
○
×
×
×
◎
○
○
×

○
◎
◎
●
×
◎
◎
×
○
◎
×
◎
×
○
×

◎
◎
◎
○
×
◎
◎
×
○
◎
×
◎
×
○
×

×
◎
◎
○
×
×
◎
×
×
×
×
◎
×
○
○

×
×
×
×
◎
◎
×
×
×
×
×
○
×
○
×

◎
×
×
×
◎
◎
◎
×
×
×
×
×
×
×
◎

◎
◎
◎
◎
○
◎
×
×
×
×
×
◎
×
◎
◎

[31]

[187]

◎

◎

◎

◎

×

×

◎

○

28

255

○

◎

◎

◎

×

◎

◎

◎

[19]

[157]

×

○

×

×

×

○

×

○

Finally, in many cases, only one of the variants is listed, with no indication of an alternate
form attested in corpus data (30%). HKKJ lists piriodo o utsu (lit. strike (typewrite) a period[Eng. loanword]), but not shūshifu o utsu (lit. strike (typewrite) a period [Jap.]). The only
dictionary that lists kageguchi o iu (lit. speak/say the shadow-mouth) as a synonym forkageguchi o tataku (lit. beat the shadow-mouth) is YWKJ, even though this variant is used
more often than kageguchi o kiku (lit. make use of the shadow-mouth). Hadome o kakeru (lit.
put on the brake/skid) and kuchi o nigosu (lit. muddy one’s mouth) also tend to beoverlooked. This may be for reasons of space (cf. Miyaji 1982b: 94), or it may be related tolexicographers’ intuitions of currency or stability. However, considering the frequency andfamiliarity of these variants, it is arguable that they should be included in dictionaries, inorder to meet users’ lookup needs and to provide a clear picture of the variability of individual
idioms.
The “empty slot” idioms identified in this paper are not treated consistently. Fourdictionaries list yumizu no yō ni tsukau (lit. use like hot and cold water) as a headword, withno indication of potential alternation with other verbs. An exception is NKJ, which lists
yumizu no yō ni (lit. like hot and cold water) as a headword and presents the combination withtsukau in a usage note and examples. On the other hand, all of the dictionaries that list chi nonijimu yō (na) (lit. like blood oozing) as a headword use this form, and only a few(YWKJ/KIY/NKJ) show that this idiom tends to combine with the noun do’ryoku (‘effort’).
5.3 Dictionary analysis of antonymous variants
Some antonymous variants are treated systematically in Japanese idiom dictionaries. In 46%
of all possible cases, both members of an antonym pair (Table 4) or at least two members ofan antonym set (Tables 5 and 6) are listed as independent headwords. This includes the pairs
ki ga mijikai/nagai (lit. one’s ki (spirit/mind) is short/long) and te o kasu/kariru (lit.
269

lend/borrow a hand), which each appear in four dictionaries (HKKJ/YWKJ/SKKKJ/RKJ andYWKJ/SKKKJ/RKJ/NKJ, respectively), as well as the set kuchi ga karui/omoi/katai (lit.
one’s mouth is light/heavy/hard), which appears in five (HKKJ/YWKJ/SKKKJ/RKJ/NKJ).
However, while kuchi ga karui (lit. one’s mouth is light) is marked as an antonym of bothkuchi ga omoi (lit. one’s mouth is heavy) and kuchi ga katai (lit. one’s mouth is hard) in
YWKJ/RKJ (cf. Table 5), most dictionaries present it as an antonym of kuchi ga katai only.
In fewer cases (22%), one variant is listed as a headword, and an antonymous form is listed
somewhere in its entry. In five dictionaries (YWKJ/SKKKJ/RKJ/IHKJ/NKJ), hagire ga ii (lit.
the teeth-sharpness is good) appears as a headword with hagire ga warui (lit. the teethsharpness is bad) listed as its variant, usually under the marker tai/tsuiku ‘antonym’ orhan(tai) ‘opposite’. Six dictionaries list both futokoro ga atatakai (lit. one’s breast pocket iswarm) and futokoro ga samui (lit. one’s breast pocket is cold) as headwords; however,futokoro ga sabishii (lit. one’s breast pocket is lonely) appears as a headword in only two ofthese (HKKJ/NKJ). The other four list this variant as a synonym under the entry for futokoroga samui. This preference may reflect lexicographers’ judgments that samui ‘cold’ is a betterantonym for atatakai ‘warm’, even though the variant with sabishii ‘lonely’ is no less stable
than the other two (Table 5).
Some variants do not appear at all (6%). RKJ/NKJ have an entry for ki ga tsuyoi (lit. one’s ki(spirit/mind) is strong) but not ki ga yowai (lit. one’s ki is weak), and SKKKJ lists kenka o uru(lit. sell a fight) but not kenka o kau (lit. buy a fight). Treatment of the maku o akeru (lit. open
the curtain) cluster shown in Table 6 also lacks consistency. NKJ lists all variants of thiscluster, with most as independent entries. However, maku o orosu (lit. lower the curtain) is
not shown in IHKJ, maku ga kitte otosareru (lit. the curtain is cut and dropped) is not in RKJ,
and both of these dictionaries lack maku o hiku (lit. draw the curtain). HKKJ lists none of thetransitive variants (maku o akeru/tojiru/orosu/hiku lit. open/close/lower/draw the curtain).
At the same time, it is true that about two thirds (68%) of the antonymous variants surveyed
here do appear in phraseological dictionaries. Attention paid to this type of variant likely
reflects lexicographers’ intuitions that antonymous variants have the status of independent
lexical items.
6. Conclusions
This paper has shown that corpus tools are useful for the systematic extraction of idiom
variants and the identification of patterns of correspondence that may be difficult to discoverbased on introspection alone. Future research on Japanese idioms should take advantage ofcorpus data to clarify the degree of variability of individual idioms and to investigate further
the phenomenon of variability, including creative modification (Section 3.2.2). The analysisof large-scale corpora is essential because many idioms are low frequency (Moon 1998;
Fellbaum et al. 2006).
The dictionary analysis reported here shows that, although some Japanese phraseologicaldictionaries are more consistent in their treatment of variants than others (NKJ/YWKJ), many
variants attested in corpus data are overlooked. In addition, antonymous variants tend to betreated more systematically than synonymous ones. A separate analysis has indicated thattransitive/intransitive variants are treated less systematically than antonymous variants, butmore systematically than idioms/compounds (Ishida 2013). Future studies should extend theseresults and suggest a principled basis for the representation of different types of variants in
dictionaries.
The results suggest a strong need to integrate the findings of past research, corpus analysis,
and lexicographical practice. An important purpose of dictionaries is to provide information
on usage, so phraseological dictionaries should move beyond the received view that idioms
270are fixed expressions and present reliable descriptions of their relative variability. Future
research should also address the practical issues of representing variants, such as principles
for the selection of headwords, cross-referencing, and the use of markers to indicate semantic
relationships and frequency.
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Dictionaries
Hyōjun Kotowaza Kan’yōku Jiten (Dictionary of Standard Proverbs and Idioms). Tokyo:Ōbunsha, 1988. (HKKJ)
Imi kara Hikeru Kan’yōku Jiten (Thesaural Dictionary of Idioms). Tokyo: Tokyo Jitsugyō
Shuppansha, 1998. (IHKJ)
Kan’yōku no Imi to Yōhō (The Meaning and Usage of Idioms). Tokyo: Meiji Shoin, 1982.
(KIY)
Nihongo Kan’yōku Jiten (Dictionary of Japanese Idioms). Tokyo: Tōkyōdō, 2005. (NKJ)
Reikai Kan’yōku Jiten (Illustrative Dictionary of Idioms). Tokyo: Sōtakusha, 1992. (RKJ)
271

Sanseidō Koji Kotowaza Kan’yōku Jiten (The Sanseidō Dictionary of Sayings, Proverbs, andIdioms). 2nd ed. Tokyo: Sanseidō, 2010. (SKKKJ)
Yōrei de Wakaru Kan’yōku Jiten (Dictionary for Understanding Idioms by Example). Tokyo:
Gakushū Kenkyūsha, 2007. (YWKJ)
Data and tools
NINJAL-LWP for BCCWJ (National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics-Lago
Word Profiler for the Balanced Corpus of Contemporary Written Japanese).
http://nlb.ninjal.ac.jp/. Accessed 10 July 2014.
NINJAL-LWP for TWC (National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics-Lago
Word Profiler for the Tsukuba Web Corpus). http://corpus.tsukuba.ac.jp/. Accessed
10 July 2014.

272

A Corpus-based Difficulty Level Evaluation of Example Sentenceswith the CEFR Levels in CALD4
Yoshiyuki Notohara
Doshisha University, Japanynotohar@mail.doshisha.ac.jp
Abstract
This study evaluates the reading ease levels of example sentences with the CEFR levels in Cambridge
Advanced Learner’s Dictionary Fourth Edition (CALD4) in terms of two perspectives: the
BNC/COCA word family lists (Nation, 2012) and the readability formulae (e.g., the Flesch Reading
Ease Score). Example sentences in corpus-based learner’s dictionaries are likely to be difficult forlearners to read due to recent authenticity-first approach to dictionary compilation policies (Walter,2010). For example, CALD4 is a corpus-based dictionary partially based on the Cambridge Learner
Corpus (CLC). Due to the data, the CEFR levels can be attached to definitions of words in the
dictionary. However, the relationships between the CEFR proficiency levels and objective reading easelevels of attached example sentences seem to be unclear. Then, first of all, this study extracts andmakes six CEFR-based example sentence data files (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, and C2) from the Example
Corpus of CALD4 referring to attached CALD4’s CEFR levels. Second, certain example sentences are
randomly selected from each CEFR level data file and the levels of words in examples are categorized
in terms of the BNC/COCA word family lists through AntWordProfiler 1.4.1.m. (Anthony, 2014).
Third, the reading ease levels of example sentences are evaluated by the readability formulae. Finally,
this study evaluates the reading ease levels of example sentences with the CEFR levels and discusses
whether the word family levels and the readability formulae could be appropriate post-hoc measures in
dictionary writing.

Keywords: CEFR levels, difficulty level evaluation, example sentence, the readability
formulae, word family
1. Introduction
Recently, corpus-based approaches to dictionary writing have been increasingly common
among learner’s dictionaries (Hanks 2012). These dictionaries are ‘reliable’ based on
lexicographic evidence for example, citations in ‘real’ written, spoken, and electronic texts.
They can show us ESL/EFL learners typical (i.e., frequent and well-dispersed) linguisticfeatures. Specifically, example sentences of word meanings and usages play crucial roles inshowing ‘real’ linguistic samples such as contexts, syntactic patterns, collocations, andmultiword expressions, etc. However, such authenticity-first approaches to dictionary writingmight cause ESL/EFL learners to struggle to read and understand word meanings or usages
through ‘difficult’ example sentences. Some lexicographers argue that pedagogically invented
examples are suggested to be more suitable for ESL/EFL learners than real ones (Walter
2010: 438).
According to Atkins & Rundell (2008: 458-461), the following three basic criteria of‘good’example sentences in a dictionary are suggested: 1) naturalness and typicality, 2)
informativeness, and 3) intelligiblity. In this paper, the last ‘intelligibility’ issue is tackled byusing two objective measures: The BNC/COCA word family lists (Nation 2012) and thereadability formulae (e.g., the Flesch Reading Ease Score). Then, this study evaluates thedifficulty levels of example sentences with the CEFR levels and discusses whether the wordfamily levels and the readability formulae could be appropriate post-hoc measures in
dictionary writing.
273

2. Literature review
2.1. CALD 4
Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary Fourth Edition (CALD4), the first learner’s
dictionary with the CEFR level labels, is a unique corpus-based learner’s dictionary. This
gives us example sentences based on not only a large native corpus, Cambridge International
Corpus (CIC), but also a large learner corpus, Cambridge Learner Corpus (CLC). Due toEnglish Vocabulary Profile project (http://www. englishprofile.org/index.php/wordlists),
learner profiles at different CEFR levels (A1-C2) are becoming increasingly clear in terms ofwords, meanings, and phrases (CALD4 2013: ix). However, the relationships between the
CEFR levels and attached example sentences are not clear. Some examples of a particular
easy word meanings or usages with A1 level might be quite difficult; therefore, the difficultylevels of example sentences are needed to be confirmed by other objective perspectives.
2.2. The word family levels
Bauer and Nation (1993) selected and presented six level word family lists from 1,000,000
token Lancaster-Oslo-Bergen (LOB) corpus in terms of frequency, productivity,
predictability, and five regularities (i.e., written forms, spoken forms, spellings of the affix,
spoken forms of the affix, and functions). Recently, Nation (2012) compiles better-balanced
and slightly spoken-based lists, the BNC/COCA word family lists composed of twenty nine
word family lists. The first 1000 word family lists (6,857 word types) and the 2nd 1000 wordfamily lists (6,374 word types) were selected from the English corpus (approximately 10
million tokens), which can be divided into two components composed of several US and
UK/NZ subcorpora: spoken component (approximately 6 million tokens) and written one(approximately 4 million tokens).
2.3. The readability formulae
So far, several different readability formulae have been proposed and used as measures forevaluating text difficulty. The following six measures are relatively common: 1) the Flesch
Reading Ease Score (FRES), 2) the Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level (FKG), 3) the Gunning Fog
Index (GFI), 4) the Coleman-Liau Index (CLI), 5) the Simple Measure of Gobbledygook(SMOG), and 6) the Automated Readability Index (ARI). These formulae are actuallydifferent although they are commonly based on syllables numbers, word numbers, or sentence
numbers. Therefore, it is crucial for us to compare and discuss their similarities anddifferences. Truly, these formulae are mainly based on linguistic information on vocabulary ingiven texts although Bailin & Grafstein (2001) argue that the validity of these measures are
doubtful in checking actual reading ease from psycholinguistic perspectives.
1) The Flesch Reading Ease Score (FRES)
206.835 – 1.015 (total words/total sentences) – 84.6 (total syllables/total words)
2) The Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level (FKG)
0.39 (total words/total sentences) + 11.8 (total syllables/total words) – 15.59
3) The Gunning Fog Index (GFI)
0.4 [ (words/sentences) + 100 (complex words/words)]
4) The Coleman-Liau Index (CLI)
0.0588 L (the average number of letters per 100 words) – 0.296 S (the average number ofsentences per
100 words) – 15.8
5) The Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG)
1.0430 √(number of polysyllables ×30/number of sentences) + 3.1291
6) The Automated Readability Index (ARI)
4.71 (characters/words) + 0.5 (words/sentences) – 21.43

274

2.4. Example corpus studies
Corpus-based studies on example sentences in lexicography area (e.g., Herbst 1996; Ishii
2011; Xu,
2005) have been conducted. Multiple comparisons between example corpora of major
dictionaries (e.g.,
OALD, CIDE, COBUILD, LDOCE etc.) show us several lexicographic features in
dictionaries (e.g.,definitions, examples, valency information, collocation and phrases, etc.). Although there area few studies
on CALD4 (e.g., Dziemianko 2014), difficulty level evaluation of example sentences with
the CEFR levels
remains unexplored.

3. Method
3.1. Research Questions
Here, the following three research questions are posed to confirm difficulty levels of example
sentences with the CEFR level labels in CALD4:What frequency distributions of the BNC/COCA word family levels can be seen in example
sentences with the CEFR level labels in CALD4?
How difficult example sentences with the CEFR level labels in CALD4 are in terms of
readability formulae?
Are the BNC/COCA word family levels and the readability formulae could be appropriate
post-hoc measures in the CEFR-based dictionary writing?
3.2. Corpus data
Token and type frequencies of example sentences in the example corpus of CALD4, which
categorically extracted and complied from CALD4 referring to CALD4’s CEFR levels, aresumarised with AntWordProfiler 1.4.1m (2014) in Table 1.
Table 1 Token and type frequencies in example sentences with the CEFR level labels in the
Example Corpus of CALD4
A1
A2
B1
B2
C1
C2
Lines
3,190
4,090
6,732
7,998
3,475
4,783
Tokens28,63238,152
66,814
83,664
36,11951,344
Types
3,452
4,465
6,670
8,127
5,913
7,229
Actually, it is quite difficult for us to directly compare their difficulty levels andappropriateness with raw data. One problem is that each CEFR level files include not only
sentences but also phrases. Another one is that the total number of lines in CEFR level files
are quite different. Therefore, the randomly selected version is needed to be prepared forfurther delicate analysis. With Microsoft Excel for Mac 2011’s random function, 1,000
example sentences (i.e. sentence level only) are randomly selected and equally extracted fromeach CEFR level-based files of the Example Corpus of CALD4. Tokens and types of therandomly selected version are calculated with AntWordProfiler 1.4.1m (2014) as shown in
Table 2 and Figure 1.
The 1,000 randomly selected version of the Example Corpus of CALD4 shows us that token
frequencies in the CEFR level files are gradually increasing as the CEFR levels increase from A1 to
C2. Similarly, type frequencies are mildly increasing as well. Such a corpus comparison tells us thatvocabulary in each CALD4 example sentence is slightly richer across the CEFR levels; however, thedifferences in both numbers and kinds do not seem to be so big between levels. With cluster analyses

275

(Ward method), token and type frequencies in the 1,000 randomly selected version can be divided into
three clusters: Cluster1 (A1 and A2), Cluster 2 (B1), and Cluster 3 (B2, C1, C2).

Table 2 Token and type frequencies in the 1,000 randomly selected version
A1
A2
B1
B2
C1
C2
Lines
1,000
1,000
1,000
1,000
1,000
1,000
Tokens10,014
10,057
10,704
11,293
11,351
11,552
Types
1,905
2,222
2,668
2,996
3,040
3,102

Figure 1 Token and type frequencies in the 1,000 randomly selected version
3.3. Data Analysis
In order to confirm the relationships between the CEFR proficiency levels and objective
difficulty levels of attached example sentences, the following three steps are conducted asfollows: (1) frequency distributions of words in example sentences are described in terms of
the BNC/COCA word family lists through AntWordProfiler 1.4.1.m. (Anthony, 2014), (2) thereading ease levels of example sentences are evaluated by the readability formulae, andfinally, (3) which word family levels and which readability formulae could be appropriate
post-hoc measures in writing the CEFR-based dictionaries are discussed.
Statistically, (1) cluster analysis (Ward method) are used to categorise token and type
frequency distributions in terms of two measures: the BNC/COCA word family levels and thereadability formulae, (2) correspondence analysis is used to confirm the relationships
between six CEFR proficiency levels and two objective measures.

4. Results & Discussions
4.1. The BNC/COCA word family levels
Cluster analyses (Ward method) show us token frequencies of word family levels can bedivided into four clusters: Cluster 1(the 1st 1000 word family), Cluster 2 (the 2nd 1000 wordfamily, Others B2-C2), and Cluster 3 (AWL 570 A1-B1), and Cluster 4 (AWL 570 B2-C2,Others A1-B1). Similarly, type frequencies of word family levels can be divided into threeclusters: Cluster 1(the 1st 1000 word family), Cluster 2 (the 2nd 1000 word family A1, AWL
570, Others A1), and Cluster 3 (the 2nd 1000 A2-C2, Others A2-C2).
As shown in Figure 2. and Figure 3., both token and type frequencies of words in the 1st 1000
word family level are quite high in example sentences of all CEFR levels; in contrast, bothtoken and type frequencies of words in the 2nd 1000 family level, AWL 570 level, and others
are relatively low. It could be said that example sentences with the CEFR level labels in
276

CALD4 are written in relatively easy words regardless of the CEFR levels. Additionally, thenumbers of words in AWL 570 level and Others are gradually increasing from A1 to C2.

Figure 2 Token frequencies of word family levels in the 1,000 randomly selected version

Figure 3 Type frequencies of word family levels in the 1,000 randomly selected version

Figure 4 Token frequencies of word family levels Figure 5 Type frequencies of word familylevels and the CEFR levels and the CEFR levels
277

Correspondence analysis was conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics Ver. 23. Figure 4 shows
us the relationships between token frequencies of word family levels and the CEFR levels.
Example sentences in B1 level are written in both the 1st 1000 and the 2nd 1000 word familylevels. At B2 and C1 levels, words in AWL 570 level can be seen; furthermore, at C2 level,
the numbers of words in Others are increasing. In contrast, in Figure 5., type frequencies
show us that different words in AWL 570 level are used in C1; furthermore, different words
in Others can be seen at C2 level.
4.2. The readability formulae
Cluster analyses (Ward method) show us the readability formulae can be divided into fourclusters: Cluster 1 (FRES), Cluster 2 (FKG B2-C2, GFI A1-B1, CLI A1-A2, SMOG B1-C2),
Cluster 3 (CLI B2-C2,
GFI B2-C2), and Cluster 4 (ARI A1-A2), Cluster 5 (FKG A1-B1, SMOG A1-A2, ARI B1C2). Except for FRES, it could be said that scores of other formulae increase as the CEFR
levels are higher.

Figure 6 Comparison of the readability formulae scores

Figure 7 The readability formulae and the CEFR levels
Correspondence analysis shows us that FRES is related to A1, A2, and B1; on the other hand,
other formulae, GFI, SMOG, CLI, FKG are relatively related to C levels. ARI seems to berelatively less related.

4.3. The BNC/COCA word family levels and the readability formulae
To confirm the relationships between four BNC/COCA word family levels and six readability
formulae, Pearson’s correlations were confirmed. As a result, token and type frequencies ofthree BNC/COCA word family levels are closely related to six readability formulae; however,278

in terms of word family levels, the 2nd 1000 word family levels only are not related. One
main reason for that seems to be that the features of vocabulary in the 2nd 1000 word family
tend to be relatively less frequent, long and context-dependent word for instance, advertise,blame and compete. As for AWL 570 and Others, they are actually rare in frequencies.
However, it is assumed that lexicographers in CALD4 intentionally select academic,
technical, and proper words at the higher levels.
Table 3 Correlation between token frequencies of The BNC/COCA word family levels
and the readability formulae
The 1st The 2nd AWL 570 Others
1000
1000
FRES
-.925**-.365-.984**-.915**
FKG.934**.384.981**.918**
GFI.939**.348.984**.931**
CLI.931**.408.975**.922**
SMOG.945**.370.981**.933**
ARI.942**.423.970**.930**
p<.01**
Table 4 Correlation between type frequencies of The BNC/COCA word family levels
and the readability formulae

FRES
FKG
GFI
CLI
SMOG
ARI
p<.01**, p<.05*

The 1st 1000-.923**.926**.900*.938**.907*.936**The 2nd 1000
-.664
.678
.649
.702
.668
.714

AWL 570-.991**.990**.995**.985**.993**.983**

Others-.919**.923**.933**.928**.936**.935**

5. Conclusions
5. Conclusion
In terms of the BNC/COCA word family levels, it could be said that example sentences with
the CEFR level labels in CALD4 are written in relatively easy words (the 1st 1000 wordfamily level mainly) regardless of the CEFR levels. Furthermore, as the CEFR level arehigher, vocabulary in AWL 570 word family and others are increasing. Considering theseresults, CALD4’s example sentences are user-friendly and suitable for ESL/EFL dictionary
readers different levels.
All six readability formulae here show us that difficulty levels of example sentences with the
CEFR level labels in CALD4 are gradually higher and higher as the CEFR levels increase
from A1-C2. This could imply that example sentences with the CEFR level labels in CALD4
are well-selected and proficiency-based one. However, in terms of differences of thereadability formulae, it could be pointed out here that FRES tend to be related to A1, A2, B1;
on the other hand, other formulae tend to be relatively higher CEFR levels (above B2).
Among them, ARI could be less effective.
Finally, the correlations between word family levels and the readability formulae show us thatthe relationships between the BNC/COCA word family levels and the readability formulae areclosely related; however, words in the 2nd 1000 word family level are exceptional and lessrelated. Thus, when evaluating difficulty levels of example sentences by two measures (the279BNC/COCA word family levels and the readability formulae), it could be said that vocabulary
in the 2nd 1000 word family level and ARI are inappropriate measures.

References
Atkins, Sue. and Rundell, Michael. 2008. The oxford guide to practical lexicography.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bailin, Alan, and Grafstein, Ann. 2001. The linguistic assumptions underlying the readability
formulae: A critique. Language & Communication, 21: 285-301.
Bauer, Laurie and Nation, Paul. 1993. Word families. International journal of
Lexicography, 6(4): 253-279.
Dziemianko, Anna. 2014. On the presentation and placement of collocations in monolingualEnglish Learners’ dictionaries: Insights into encoding and retention. International
Journal of Lexicography, 27(3): 259-279.
Hanks, Patrick. 2012. The corpus revolution in lexicography. International Journal of
Lexicography, 25(4): 398-436.
Herbst, Thomas. 1996. On the way to the perfect learners’ dictionary: a first comparison of
OALD5, LDOCE3, COBUILD2 and CIDE”. International Journal of Lexicography9(4): 321-357.
Ishii, Yasutake. 2011. Comparing the Vocabulary Sets Used in the "Big Five" English
Monolingual Dictionaries for Advanced EFL Learners. In Akasu, K. and S. Uchidaeds., LEXICOGRAPHY: Theoretical and Practical Perspectives, The Asian
Association for Lexicography, pp. 180-189.
Nation,
Paul.
2012.
The
BNC/COCA
word
familylists.http://www.victoria.ac.nz/lals/about/staff/paul-nation
Xu, Hai. 2005. Treatment of deictic expressions in example sentences in English learners’
dictionaries. International Journal of Lexicography, 18(3): 289-311.
Walter, Elizabeth. 2010. Using corpora to write dictionaries. In The routledge handbook of
corpus linguistics, ed. Anne, O’keeffe and Michael McCarthy, 428-443. London:
Routledge.

280

A Corpus-based Study of Noun-adjective Continuum in Japanese andEnglishMasayuki Hirata, Alex Chengyu Fang
City University of Hong Kong
masayuki.hirata@my.cityu.edu.hk
Abstract
Not all languages share the same number or variety of parts of speech. For instance, the word classkeiyoo-dooshi, meaning adjectival verb or adjectival noun, is unique to Japanese and it does not havean equivalent word class in English. Such cross-lingual incongruities in word classes should impact on
the fundamental design of bilingual dictionaries. This paper is an analysis of the noun-adjective
continuum in Japanese. In particular, based on a parallel corpus, it investigates how such a feature
influences the equivalent translations in English, focusing on distributional differences of nouns andadjectives in each language. To compare and study the features of nouns and adjectives in the two
languages, a corpus-based approach and theories in cognitive linguistics were adopted in this research.
The analysis was based on 150,000 pairs of morphologically and syntactically annotated sentences ineach language. The results show empirically that the distribution of nouns and adjectives between
Japanese and English is highly skewed: Japanese uses approximately 20% more nouns than English,
and English has around 10% more adjectives than Japanese. Nouns and adjectives form a continuum interms of modification functions in Japanese, whereas the same functions are predominantly achievedby adjectives in English. The corpus evidence to be presented in this paper highlights a strong
preference for noun modifications in Japanese. In addition, the noun modification schema involving theuse of a compound or ‘noun phrase+conjunctive particle no’ can be also observed repeatedly in the useof adjective stems. These observations justify the existence of word classes such as ‘adjectival noun’ inJapanese and illustrate a continuum between noun usage and adjective usage. As will be duly addressedin the paper, while these findings can be logically explained by the notions of conceptual space andsemantic map developed in the field of cognitive linguistics, the frequent cross-mapping between noun
modifiers in Japanese and corresponding translations via adjectives in English needs to be consideredin the design of bilingual dictionaries.
Keywords: corpus-based bilingual lexicography, parallel corpus, cognitive linguistics, conceptual
space, semantic map

1. Introduction
1.1 Incongruities in terms of parts of speech in different languages
Mismatches in terms of parts of speech between different languages have been widelyreported in several areas of linguistics. For example, Kuno (1973) introduced the termtransitive adjective to account for the fact that ‘to like sb/sth’9 (sb/sth-ga sukida) or ‘to wantsth’ (sth-ga hoshii) are often translated by adjectives in Japanese together with an object-likenoun marked by the nominative case marker ga.
In reality, not all languages share the same number or variety of parts of speech. According to
Croft (2001: 63), “many linguists claim that there are languages that lack Adjectives or evenlack Noun-Verb distinction”. Such incongruities pose a problem in the fundamental design ofbilingual dictionaries because entries in bilingual dictionaries are usually arranged according
to the same word classes at the same lexical level.
This may not cause immediate problems for decoding bilingual dictionaries in which theprimary function is to consult meanings of unknown words. However, in the case of encoding
bilingual dictionaries, where users consult dictionaries to encode a meaning in one language
into another form in a different language, it could happen that cross mappings beyond wordclasses or even beyond a lexical level may produce a better translation.
9

sb: somebody; sth: something281

The distinction between semasiological and onomasiological approaches has been suggested
in the literature. For example, Siepmann (2005: 8) writes that “[s]emasiological dictionaries
tend to consist of an alphabetical word list leading to the user from the word to its meaning,
while onomasiological dictionaries allow the user to proceed from a particular concept andfind the most appropriate word for it”. Such an entry model which starts from a concept isideal because the mapping between different languages do not have to be restricted by wordclasses, hence it allows cross-mappings beyond the parts of speech boundaries. However, theactual compilation of such a bilingual onomasiological dictionary is not easy because it isdifficult to comprehensively list all concepts and meanings from scratch that human beings
are likely to want to encode. Furthermore, we need to know how such concepts and meanings
can be actually mapped between different languages. To implement an onomasiologicalmodel, the first step must be to study actual translation processes from one language toanother in detail, based on empirical data.
1.2 Goals and organisation of this paper
In the present article, we explore a part of such mappings between Japanese and English, i.e.,
focusing on noun-adjective continuum in Japanese, and investigate how this feature isreflected in the equivalent English translations based on parallel corpus data. Note that thisresearch does not intend to investigate individual translation patterns between Japanese andEnglish but it focuses more on macro-view of distributional differences of word classes forJapanese and English, attempting to provide quantitative analysis for the cross mappings
between nouns and adjectives for the two languages.
Section 2 introduces a word class in Japanese, namely, keiyoo-dooshi, meaning adjectival
verb or adjectival noun. This unique word class in Japanese naturally raises a question how
such a word class should be translated in English in which the equivalent category does notexist.
Section 3 explicates the theoretical background of this study, by briefly giving an overview ofconceptual map and semantic map theories developed in the field of cognitive linguistics. The
continuity of nouns and adjectives can be logically explained by these theories, and thearguments justify the existence of the word class keiyoo-dooshi (adjectival noun) in Japanese.
Section 4 gives an account of the research design and the tools used. The specifications of the
corpus used in this research are given, and the process of data annotation is explained.
Section 5 begins by overviewing the POS tag information for Japanese and English with theirfrequency distribution. The results of corpus-based analyses provide the highly skewed
distribution of content words between Japanese and English, especially for adjectives. The
data also exhibit the influence of Japanese POS distribution in the English side of the parallel
corpus. Based on the data, the following subsections present bilingual semantic map for partof-speech constructions in Japanese and English, for the semantic class of property and for thesemantic class of object respectively.
Section 6 confirms that the above analyses justify the continuum of nouns, adjectival nouns,
and adjective proper in Japanese, and the arguments lead to a conclusion that object
modification and property modification need to be considered together in explaining the huge
discrepancy of adjective in terms of frequency between Japanese and English.
Based on the findings and arguments explained in the previous sections, the final conclusion
is drawn in Section 7. The implication of the above analyses for bilingual dictionary design isdiscussed.
2. Keiyoo-dooshi (adjectival verb or adjectival noun)282

It is well-known that Japanese has a unique category called keiyoo-dooshi. There are twobasic categories for adjectives in Japanese, although the labels for each category differ
according to disciplines and linguists. One category has the names such as i-keiyooshi (iending adjective), or keiyooshi (adjective). For instance, yasu-i (cheap) belongs to thiscategory. In the present article, we use the term adjective proper for this category.
The other category is called na-keiyooshi (na-ending adjective), keiyoo-dooshi (adjectivalverb), or nominal adjective or adjectival noun. For example, kirei-na (beautiful/pretty) falls
into this category. In this article, we use the term adjectival noun for this category.
The existence of such variety of names derives from their complex behaviour and numerous
combinations of adjective endings or particles in modification, and copular patterns in
predication. See the following examples in Table 1, which is expanded from Croft (2001: 95).
Note that OBJECTS at the top of the left column indicates the features of nouns, and
PROPERTIES at the bottom shows the domain of adjectives in Japanese (more detailed
explanation for this distinction is given in Section 3.1).
Table 1 Examples for Japanese adjective constructions (adapted from Croft 2001: 95)(English)OBJECTS:bookpeace(ful)health(y)pretty

warm

small

PROPERTIES:

cheap

MODIFICATION

PREDICATION

hon-no hyoshi
book-no-CONJ10 coverheiwa-no saiten
peace-no-CONJ festival
heiwa-na saiten
peaceful festivities
kenkou-no himitsu
health-no-CONJ secretkenkou-na hito
healthy person
kirei-na hito
pretty person
atataka-na hi
warm dayatataka-i hiwarm daychiisa-na yorokobi
small happinesschiisa-i kuruma
small caryasu-i honcheap bookKore-wa kare-no hon-da.
This-wa-TOP11 he-no-CONJ book-da-COP12.
Nihon-wa sengo zutto heiwa-da.
Japan-wa-TOP after war always peacefulda-COP.
Watashi-wa itsumo kenkou-da.
I-wa-TOP always healthy-da-COP.

Kanojyo-wa totemo kirei-da.
She-wa-TOP very pretty-da-COP.
Kyo-wa atataka-da.
Today-wa-TOP warm-da-COP.
Kyo-wa atataka-i.
Today-wa-TOP warm.
Ano kuruma-wa chiisa-i.
That car-wa-TOP small.

Kono hon-wa yasu-i.
This book-wa-TOP cheap.

Hon (book) is a noun which can be used as a modifier in combination with conjunctive
particle no as in hon-no hyoshi (book cover). It takes copula da in predication. The second
group of words, heiwa(na) (peace(ful)) and kenko(na) (health(y)) are classified as adjectivalnouns; however, their status is in between nouns and adjectival nouns in terms of taking bothconjunctive particle no and adjectival noun ending na in modification. For example, we could
expect combinations such as ‘heiwa-no saiten’ (festival of peace) or ‘heiwa-na saiten’(peaceful festivities), and ‘kenkou-no himitsu’ (secret of health) and ‘kenkou-na hito’ (healthy
person). Taking the copula da in predication is the same.
10

CONJ: CONJUNCTIVE PARTICLE
TOP: TOPIC MARKER
12
COP: COPULA
11

283

The next word in the middle of the list is the adjectival noun ‘kirei-na’ (pretty), which nolonger takes no for modification but only na, and copula da in predication. The next twowords exemplify the mixture of characteristics between adjectival noun and adjective proper(i-keiyooshi) in Japanese. Atataka-i (warm) can take both -na and -i ending for modification
as in atataka-na hi and atataka-i hi (warm day). In the case of predication, the word can beused in both patterns, taking the copula as in ‘kyo-wa atataka da.’, and ending with basic
form of i-keiyooshi (i-ending adjective) as in ‘kyo-wa atataka-i.’ (It is warm today.).
Adjective proper (i-keiyooshi) can predicate without any copula and it has its own inflectional
forms for tense and negation.
Chiisa-i (small) also has mixed characteristics, however, there is a slight difference with theprevious word. For modification, both -na and -i endings are possible in the same way as
illustrated for atataka-i (warm), but for predication, chiisa-i (small) cannot take the copula da,unlike atataka-i (warm).
The final word in the list demonstrates a clear departure from the previous patterns. The wordyasu-i (cheap) is a pure adjective proper (i-keiyooshi), that uses -i ending both formodification and predication as in ‘yasu-i hon’ (cheap book), and ‘kono hon-wa yasu-i.’ (Thisbook is cheap).
Croft (2001) explains the above phenomena, i.e. the continuum of noun, adjectival noun, andadjective proper in Japanese, through the notions of conceptual space and semantic map.
Section 3 explicates the concepts and illustrates how these notions can be utilised for thepresent research.
3. Theories from cognitive linguistics
The theoretical framework developed by Croft (2001), Radical Construction Grammar,
introduced the notion conceptual space and argued that “conceptual space represents auniversal structure of conceptual knowledge for communication in human beings” and“language-specific and construction-specific grammatical categories should map onto
connected regions of conceptual space” (Croft 2001: 105).
The significance of applying the notion of conceptual space in the present research lies in thefact that the conceptual space for parts of speech is believed to represent a universal structure
for human communication. Although there may be different constructions in different
languages to express the same meanings, those different constructions should map onto a
connected region in conceptual space. Croft’s definitions of Semantic Map Connectivity
Hypothesis suggests that “any relevant language-specific and construction-specific category
should map onto a connected region in conceptual space” (Croft 2001: 96).
As shown in Figure 1, ‘conceptual space for parts of speech’ can be represented by placing
three semantic classes in the left column (OBJECT, PROPERTY, ACTION), and placing
three propositional act functions in the top row (REFERENCE, MODIFICATION,
PREDICATION). The following subsections account for how this grid should represent theuniversal structure for parts of speech in human communication.

OBJECT

REFERENCE

MODIFICATION

PREDICATION

objectreference

objectmodifier

objectpredication

284

PROPERTY

propertyreference

property
modifier

property
predication

ACTIONactionreference

actionmodifier

actionpredication

Figure 1 Conceptual space for parts of speech (adapted from Croft 2001: 92)

3.1 Three semantic classes
Table 2 below reproduced from Croft (2001: 87) summarises the differences and thesimilarities for the three semantic classes with regards to those four semantic properties.
Table 2 Semantic properties of three semantic classes (Croft 2001: 87)
OBJECT
PROPERTY
ACTIONRELATIONALITY

STATIVITY

TRANSITORINESSGRADABILITY

non-relational
relational
relational

State
State
process

permanent
permanent
transitory

non-gradable
gradable
non-gradable

The semantic classes of OBJECT and ACTION are placed at opposite poles on the left
column because the two are maximally different, with the only semantic property shared by
the two classes being non-gradability. In terms of the other semantic properties, OBJECT is
non-relational, state, and permanent, whereas ACTION is relational, process, and transitory.
OBJECT and PROPERTY share two of the semantic properties, namely being stative andpermanent. PROPERTY and ACTION share the characteristic of being relational.
The ordering of the three semantic classes in Figure 1 reflects the characteristics of eachsemantic property summarised in Table 2. That means higher up in the conceptual map(Figure 1) represents the semantic properties such as being less relational, more stative andpermanent, and non-gradable. Lower down in the grid portrays the characteristics of being
more relational, more dynamic and less permanent, and also being non-gradable. Being in the
middle row indicates the mixture of such properties, and the clearest difference from eachpole is that it is gradable.
For PROPERTY and ACTION, being relational means that these semantic classes areconceptually dependent on other concepts, that is, in order to define these semantic classes, it
implicitly requires other concepts. Croft (2001) gives a couple of examples illustrating that“one cannot conceive of an action such as running without the involvement of a runner, or ofa property such as height without something that is tall” (Croft 2001: 87).
3.2 Three propositional act functions
The three propositional act functions illustrated in the top row of Figure 1 are REFERENCE,
MODIFICATION, and PREDICATION. The term ‘propositional act function’ originates inSearle’s (1969) distinction of ‘propositional acts’ from other speech acts such as ‘utterance
acts’ and ‘illocutionary acts’. Searle lists two examples of propositional acts, viz referring(reference) and predication. According to Croft (1990b) taking in Searle’s account, thepropositional act function of reference is “that of identifying some entity, that is, the entitythat the speaker intends to talk about”, and the propositional act function of predication isdefined as “the act of ascribing a property to a referred-to entity” (Croft 1990b: 250).
Although Searle (1969) did not mention the act of modification, Croft supplements the acts ofmodification as a third propositional act, “which appears to serve the purpose of ‘enriching’or adding to the description of an entity being referred to”. (Croft 1990b: 250)

285

Though simple, by having the three semantic classes in the columns, and having these three
propositional act functions in the rows, the conceptual space serves to be an underlying
universal structure to represent a prototypical part of speech found in many different
languages of the world. The greyed-out area in Figure 1, i.e. object reference, property
modification, action predication, are considered to represent prototypical noun, prototypicaladjective, and prototypical verb respectively.
The conceptual space also connects language specific and construction specific grammaticalcategories in overlapping regions. This fact is particularly relevant for the present article inexplaining the continuum of noun, adjectival noun, and adjective proper in Japanese.
Furthermore, it is also highly applicable in investigating how such a feature is reflected in
English translations.
Note that conceptual space becomes a semantic map once the space is filled with actual
constructions from a particular language. In Section 5.4 and 5.6, this study suggests abilingual semantic map of Japanese and English parts of speech constructions.
Table 1 in Section 2 demonstrated the continuity of noun, adjectival noun, and adjective
proper in Japanese. This analysis reflects the structure of conceptual space in Japanese
speakers’ minds. Being located in the centre of conceptual space, semantic class of
PROPERTY exhibits continuum with semantic class of OBJECT and semantic class of
ACTION. This justifies the existence of word class such as adjectival noun in Japanese,
which has the features of not only adjectives but also those of nouns and verbs. The variety ofnames given for the word class is understandable given the nature of the word class. See thebelow quotation from Miyagawa (1987).
As the name indicates, and Adjectival Noun (AN) shares properties of adjectives and nouns.
[…] ANs share some traits with verbs as well (this is reflected in the traditional terminology,
keiyoo doosi ‘adjectival verb’). Among the traditional Japanese grammarians, there is a lively
controversy on whether to establish a separate category for the set of words labeled AN.
(Miyagawa 1987: 42)
Based on the observations and analyses given in previous subsections, this article seeks toanswer the following questions.
Research questions• Are there any proportional difference between Japanese adjectives and English adjectives?
What about Japanese nouns and English nouns?
• Do adjectives in Japanese straightforwardly correspond to adjectives in English?
• How are Japanese and English adjectives used according to the three different functions
distinguished by conceptual space? What are the main functions of Japanese and English
adjectives?
• How is the continuum observed in Japanese, i.e. the continuum among noun, adjectivalnoun, and adjective proper, reflected in the parallel corpus data?
• How does the non-existent word category, i.e. keiyoo-dooshi (adjectival noun) can betranslated in English?
4. Methodology
The corpus that played an important role in the present research was the parallel corpus
known as Japanese-English News Articles Aligned Data (JENAAD). Actual analyses of thedifference between Japanese and English were carried out based on this set of aligned
sentences. The other corpus, namely, the Rank frequency list of grammatical word classes(Leech et al. 2001) was used to compare some of the results observed in the JENAAD corpus.
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The rationale for using the parallel corpus in the present study is that it allows us toconcentrate our attention on the analysis of forms and constructions. In other words, the firsttask of matching the semantics between Japanese and English is already done
computationally. By using the parallel corpus data, we were able to observe cross-mappings
beyond word classes for the same meanings between Japanese and English.
4.1 The JENAAD Corpus
The Japanese-English News Articles Aligned Data (JENAAD) was used to compare Japaneseand English.13 The original data of JENAAD consists of 2,000,000 articles from the Japanesenewspaper Yomiuri Shinbun and 110,000 articles from its English counterpart The Daily
Yomiuri. The period covered by these newspaper articles ranges from September 1989 to
December 2001.
The articles in The Daily Yomiuri are either translations of the original Japanese newspaper,or were written based on Japanese articles. The data has 47,000 article alignments, 150,000
one-to-one sentence alignments, and 38,000 one-to-many alignments between Japanese andEnglish. This study used the 150,000 one-to-one sentence aligned data. According to Utiyama
and Isahara (2003), the alignment was done computationally based on the cross-language
information retrieval method and dynamic programming. See Utiyama and Isahara (2003) for
the details of the alignment.
Syntactic information was vital for the analysis of functions and constructions for the present
research. The data in the JENAAD were not annotated, therefore, the first step was toannotate the data for both Japanese and English. The tag sets used for part-of-speech tagging
were JUMAN for Japanese and the Penn Treebank for English.14 Both sets of data were thenparsed with syntactic information, using the KNP for Japanese, and the Stanford parser for
English. Note that the translation process is unidirectional and limited to Japanese to English
in this study.
4.2 Rank frequency list of grammatical word class: written English
The data from the Rank frequency list of grammatical word class: written English (Leech etal. 2001) were used to compare the proportion of content words between the BNC and theEnglish side of JENAAD. Leech et al. (2001) lists the frequencies of the grammatical wordclasses based on the two-million-word Sampler Corpus of the BNC. For the purpose of thepresent study, the data from ‘Rank frequency of grammatical word classes: written (comparedwith spoken) English’ (Leech et al. 2001: 299) was selected to compare the distributional
difference of content words between the BNC and the English side of JENAAD. See Section
5.3 for more details.
5 Results
5.1 Overview of distribution of parts of speech for Japanese and English
The data in focus, the Japanese-English News Articles Aligned Data (JENAAD), are fixed interms of equality in semantics between Japanese and English. Given the fact that meanings
are equal between the sentences, the comparison and analysis of parts of speech and theirfrequency distribution should give us a general idea how words are used similarly or
differently to express the same meanings between Japanese and English.

13

Ideally, parallel corpus data that have more genres and domains would be desirable; however, this is
the largest parallel corpus of Japanese and English available. Others are too small for the purpose ofthis study.
14
English tagging was done in the process of syntactic parsing by the Stanford parser. The English sideof JENAAD was also tagged by CLAWS for a comparison purpose. See Section 5.3.

287

The frequency distribution of parts of speech for Japanese and English in JENAAD issummarised in Table 3. In total, Japanese has 3,882,390 tokens, and English has 3,608,481
tokens. There are 273,909 discrepancies in the number of tokens between the two languages.
Table 3 Frequency distribution of POS for Japanese and English
JAPANESEENGLISH

POS

FREQ

%

POS

FREQ

%

Meishi (NOUN)
Doushi (VERB)

168717448458343.46%
12.48%

116993962354832.42%
17.28%

Setsubiji (SUFFIX)

350326

9.02%

NOUN
VERB
PREPOSITIONCONJUNCTION,
subordinating

47755513.23%

338196

8.71%

DETERMINER

419284

11.62%

293117

7.55%

ADJECTIVE
NUMERAL, ordinal

3202618.88%

259905

6.69%

ADVERB

132932

3.68%134196

3.46%

120114

3.33%

1149462.96%102814

2.85%

74613

1.92%

PRONOUN, personal

92426

2.56%

50909
42965

1.31%
1.11%

NUMERAL, cardinal
MODAL VERB

69949
(54103)

1.94%(1.49%)

35870

0.92%

WH

42483

1.18%

(31461)(0.81%)GENITIVE MARKER

28794

0.80%

(23950)(0.62%)

EXISTENTIAL THERE

4706

0.13%

9822

0.25%

PRE-DETERMINER

2761

0.08%

4647

0.12%

FOREIGN WORD

522

0.01%

923

0.02%

LIST ITEM MARKER

251

0.01%

187

0.0048%INTERJECTION

89

0.0025%110.0003%SYMBOL53

0.0015%3882390

100%

TOTAL

3608481100%

Jyoshi(POSTPOSITION)
Jyoshi(CONJUNCTIVE)
Jyoshi(CASE
MARKER)
Jyoshi(TOPIC
MARKER)
Keiyoushi(ADJECTIVE)
Jyoshi(ADVERBIALPARTICLE)
Fukushi (ADVERB)
Settouji (PREFIX)
Shijishi(DEMONSTRATIVE)
Hanteishi(COPULAR)
Jyodoushi(AUXILIARY VERB)
Setsuzokushi(CONJUNCTION)
Rentaishi(ADNOMINAL)
Jyoshi(MODAL
MARKER)
Kandoushi(INTERJECTION)
Miteigigo(UNDEFINED)
TOTAL

or

or

“to” as PREPOSITION
or INFINITIVE MARKER
CONJUNCTION,
coordinating

The frequency order of content words for Japanese and English is the same (highlighted withtinted background in Table 3) in JENAAD. Noun is the most frequent part of speech followedby verb, adjective, and adverb. Although the order is the same, the proportions of parts ofspeech for these content words appear to be different between Japanese and English.
Note that hanteishi (copular marker) and jyodoushi (auxiliary verb) are listed separately fromverbs, but their numbers are included in the category of verb. Similarly, English has the part288

of speech tag MD for auxiliary verb. It is also listed separately but its frequency is included in
the verb category.
What is obvious from the information in Table 3 is that many other grammatical classes rank
highly between verb and adjective in Japanese. Settouji (prefix) ranks as the third mostfrequent grammatical class for Japanese, and a variety of jyoshi (particle) occupies thefollowing five positions. Although the characteristics of jyoshi is not homogeneous, the total
percentage for jyoshi amounts to 28.36% altogether.
With the involvement of these other grammatical classes besides content words, it is unclear
whether the proportional differences for content words between Japanese and English is still
significant or not. Hence, the next subsection considers the proportional differences of content
words between Japanese and English without considering other word classes.
5.2 Proportional differences of content words between Japanese and English without otherword classes
Table 4 lists the percentages of content words for Japanese and English in the JENAAD
corpus. Those percentages were calculated using only the content words for both languages,
excluding any other word classes.

Table 4 Comparison of content words between Japanese and English without other wordclasses
JUMAN
POS
NOUN
VERB
ADJECTIVE
ADVERB

PENN TREEBANK
FREQ
(raw)
168717448458311494650909
2337612FREQ(permillion)721751.09
207298.30
49172.40
21778.21%

POS

72.18%
20.73%
4.92%
2.18%
100.00%NOUNVERBADJECTIVE
ADVERB

FREQ(raw)
1169939623548320261132932
2246680FREQ(permillion)520741.27
277541.97
142548.56
59168.19%
52.07%
27.75%
14.25%
5.92%
100.00%

The total frequency of content words in Japanese is 2,337,612, whereas that of English is2,246,680. There are 90,932 discrepancies in the number of tokens between the two
languages.
The most frequent word class, noun, exceeds 72% for Japanese, and 52% for English.
Japanese uses approximately 20% more nouns than English. For verbs, the percentage reaches
over 27% for English, and slightly over 20 % for Japanese. English has about 7% more verbs
than Japanese. The proportion of adjectives in Japanese is 4.92%, whereas in English it is14.25%. The gap between the two languages is around 10%. The proportion of adverbs forboth Japanese and English is smaller than other content words, but still the proportion ofEnglish adverbs is 2.7 times larger than that of Japanese adverbs.
If we take a simplistic view, assuming that Japanese parts of speech are merely translated into
the same parts of speech in English, the proportion of them, especially content words, should
not be drastically different between the two languages. Figure 2 represents the proportion ofcontent words between Japanese and English based on the normalised frequency summarisedin Table 4. For example, the ratio of NOUN is observed to be roughly 6:4 between Japanese(black bar) and English (grey bar).
289

NOUN

721751.09

VERB

520741.27

207298.30

277541.97

ADJECTIVE

49172.40

142548.56

ADVERB

21778.2159168.19

0%20%

40%JAPANESE 60%ENGLISH 80%

100%

Figure 2 Proportion of content words between Japanese and English
The four word classes demonstrate some differences in how these parts of speech are used
between the two languages in the parallel corpus. The percentages for nouns are 58.09% forJapanese and 41.91% for English. Japanese uses 16.18% more nouns than English.
For verbs, the ratio reverses. English uses more verbs than Japanese. The proportion is42.76% for Japanese and 57.24% for English. There are more verbs in English than there arein Japanese; however, the overall category of ‘verb’ needs a careful inspection. For instance,
English verbs include auxiliary verbs used in passive constructions, negations, questions,perfectives and so on. Japanese morphemes used for passive, causative, progressive, andothers are categorized under the verbal suffix (doushisei-setsubiji). Categorising verbs interms of their grammatical functions, constructions, and also as a lexical verb is necessary fora more sensible analysis and comparison.
The most striking difference between the two languages emerges from the use of adjectives.
The proportion of adjectives is 25.65% for Japanese and 74.35% for English. This finding
stresses just how unlikely it is that the translation process is governed by parts of speech. Thishuge discrepancy already suggests that functions achieved, or meanings expressed by
adjectives in English are not necessarily reflected by those of the same parts of speech inJapanese.
There is similarly a sharp contrast between Japanese and English in the use of adverbs. The
proportion of adverbs is 26.90% for Japanese and 73.10% for English.
Figure 2 clearly reveals the different use of content words between Japanese and English. If
the translation process is governed predominantly by part-of-speech information, theproportion of content words should centre around 50% for each category. These findings at
least confirm the necessity of rearranging or reorganising the concept of ‘word’ or ‘parts ofspeech’ when we compare different languages. The next subsection considers the distributionof English content words in JENAAD compared with the British National Corpus.
5.3 Comparison of content words between BNC (written) and JENAAD (English)
290Section 5.2 confirmed the uneven distribution of content words between Japanese and English
in JENAAD. There is also a possibility that the distribution of content words in the English
side of JENAAD corpus is somehow affected through the process of translation.
To investigate the point, this section utilised the data from Leech et al. (2001). Leech et al.
(2001) lists the frequencies of the grammatical word classes based on the two-million-word
Sampler Corpus of the BNC. According to them, the rationale for using the Sampler Corpus
rather than the whole BNC in counting word classes is that word classes are sufficiently
frequent and do not require a large corpus, and the Sampler Corpus was manually checked forthe accuracy of tagging.
For the purpose of the present study, the data from ‘Rank frequency of grammatical wordclasses: written (compared with spoken) English’ (Leech et al. 2001: 299) was selected
because we can efficiently exclude the spoken portion of the Sampler Corpus from the BNC.
Note that JENAAD was also tagged with the CLAWS tag sets, and the information was used
for this subsection. See Table 5 below.
Table 5 Comparison of content words between the BNC (written) and JENAAD
BNC (written English)
POS
NOUN
VERB
ADJECTIVE
ADVERBFREQ(raw)
28367917287278836
52876
588263JENAAD (English)
FREQ(per million)
283677.01
172870.7978835.45
52875.63%

POS

48.22%
29.39%
13.40%
8.99%
100.00%NOUNVERBADJECTIVE
ADVERBFREQ(raw)
11356686048033193861264772186334

FREQ(per million)
314717.54
167603.66
88508.59
35049.44%
51.94%
27.66%
14.61%
5.78%
100.00%In accordance with the last subsection, only the frequencies for the content words for written
English was extracted from ‘Rank frequency of grammatical word classes: written (comparedwith spoken) English’.15 The same procedure was repeated for the JENAAD corpus (English)
and only frequencies for the content words were extracted.
Table 5 reveals that the proportion of nouns in JENAAD is 3.72% higher than the BNC. For
verbs, the proportion is 1.72% higher in the BNC . For adjectives, the proportion is 1.21%
higher in JENAAD. For adverbs, the proportion is 3.20% higher in the BNC .
Pearson’s chi-square test was conducted to see whether the difference between the BNC andJENAAD was statistically significant. The statistical software R was used for the test. Notethat Yate’s correction for continuity was not used. See the following result.
X-squared = 9576.05, df = 3, p-value < 2.2e-16
As indicated in the above result, the p-value for the test proved to be far lower than asignificance level of 0.05, indicating the proportional difference of content words between the
BNC and JENAAD is statistically significant. In other words, given that the BNC is supposed
to represent standard English, the distribution of content words in JENAAD deviates from thestandard.
It can be hypothesised here that the high percentage of nouns in the English side of JENAAD
compared to that of the BNC could be explained by the influence of the high percentage ofnouns in the Japanese side of the JENAAD corpus. Likewise, the higher proportion of
15

The data can be accessed from http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/bncfreq/flists.html.

291

adjectives in JENAAD could also be attributed to the high frequency of nouns in the Japaneseside of JENAAD. In later sections, it will be observed that many nouns in Japanese are
actually used for modification functions, and many of those noun modifiers are translated by
adjectives in English.
The proportion of verbs is naturally higher for English compared to Japanese, therefore, it
may not be surprising that the BNC has a higher percentage of verbs than JENAAD. For
adverbs, the proportion is 3.20% lower in JENAAD compared with the BNC. The smaller
proportion of adverbs in the Japanese side of JENAAD could also contribute to the lower
percentage for the English side of JENAAD; however, the characteristics of so-called adverbs
in English cut across several grammatical classes in Japanese. These facts could influence thegenerally lower proportion of adverbs in JENAAD than in the BNC.
5.4 Bilingual semantic map for Japanese and English (Semantic class of PROPERTY)
The result shown in Section 5.2 portrayed the skewed distribution of content words between
Japanese and English. Figure 2 particularly highlighted the huge discrepancy of adjectives interms of proportion between the two languages. To understand how Japanese adjectives andEnglish adjectives are distributed differently, the parallel corpus data were further analysed
according to the three propositional act functions distinguished by the conceptual map.
Table 6 exemplifies the bilingual semantic map of Japanese and English part-of-speech
constructions for the semantic class of PROPERTY. ADJECTIVEs with the tinted
background in the centre represent the prototypical parts of speech for this semantic class, andthe frequencies quoted there are from the POS-tagged information shown in Table 3. Eachraw frequency is followed by the normalised frequency (occurrences per million words). The
overall purpose of this bilingual semantic map is to indicate the actual use of those adjectives
according to their functions. The box at the bottom encircled with the thick black line reveals
the use of adjectives in each function, i.e. REF (REFERENCE), MOD (MODIFICATION)
and PRED (PREDICATION).
Brief explanations of constructions under each propositional function are given below. Space
only permits a brief overview for each constructions.

292

Table 6 Bilingual semantic map for Japanese and English: Semantic class of PROPERTREFERENCE

MODIFICATIONJAPANESE
adj. stem:
independentnoun
adj. stem+
noun suffix:
deadjectival
noun

ENGLISH
9349
2408.057706
1984.86

P
R
O
P
E
R
T
Y

REF
14.48%

17055
4392.91(-ness:suffix)

PREDICATIONJAPANESE(1441)(399.34)ADJECTIVEENGLISH
11494629607.02

JAPANESEADJECTIVE

32026188752.30

ENGLISHpredicative

17693
4557.2
4predicative:(# of adj.)

26762:(27533)7416.42(7630.08)(other POS+
adjectival
suffix(predicative))(540)
139.09

objectcomplement2397
664.27(-ity:
suffix)(15127)(4192.07)

attributive:
rentai shushoku

34657
8926.72

attributive:(# of adj. as
modifiers)

248265:(278086)68800.42:(77064.5
6)(otherdeadjectiv
al nouns)(26502)(7344.36)

adj. stem(modifier)19292
4969.10

postpositive1874
519.33

objectcomplement:
passive367
101.70the+adj.

1304
361.371098
282.82

UCP:
UncoordinatedPhrase1558
431.76

verblessclause16445.45(13535)(3486.25)

QP:
Quantifier Phrase

2855
791.19contingent
clause115
31.87

exclamatory
clause8
2.22

preposed

45
12.47

PRED

30629
8488.06

REF
0.41%

1304
361.37

adj. stem+
noun suffix(modifier)(other POS+
adjectival suffix(attributive))MOD
47.89%

55047
14178.64(PP<JJ (such as /due to / otherthan etc.))(-4210)(1166.70)

MOD28437378806.84

88.79%

293

PRED
15.39%

17693
4557.24

9.56%

In the region of PROPERTY REFERENCE, the key concept is ‘nominalisation’, and the focus is on
deadjectival nouns.51 Some of the adjectives in Japanese are used in the form of an adjective stem.
They can stand alone the same as a noun, or be incorporated as a part of a compound. The KNP
distinguishes such adjective stems with the feature <名詞的形容詞語幹>, which can be translated as‘noun-like adjective stem’. This ‘noun-like adjective stem’ is a feature assigned only to na-keiyooshi(adjectival nouns). The examples include jiyu (freedom) from jiyu-na (free), kenkou (health) fromkenkou-na (healthy), and so forth. When the noun-like adjective stems stand alone, they are in fact thesame as deadjectival nouns. Their frequency is 9,349 (2,408.05 pm) in JENAAD.
Adjective stems (in this case both for adjectival noun and adjective proper) can be also combined withnoun suffixes to form nouns out of adjectives. Not many suffixes are available to convert adjective
proper into nouns in Japanese. Kaiser et al. (2013) lists only a couple of them, i.e. -sa, and -mi. The
examples are taka-sa (height) from taka-i (high), omo-mi (heaviness) from omo-i (heavy), and so on.
JUMAN also has a POS tag for noun-creating suffixes (meishi-sei setsubiji), 52 which combine withstems of adjectival nouns. For instance, jyuyou-sei (importance) from jyuyou-na (important), jiyu-ka(liberalisation) from jiyu-na (liberal) and so on. These patterns amount to be 7,706 (1984.86 pm) in
JENAAD.
Care must be taken in counting deadjectival nouns in English. The situation is obviously different
from counting Japanese deadjectival nouns. In Japanese, the parts of speech counted as deadjectivalnouns derived from suffixation or adjective stems is based on the number of adjective tags. Whereas,
the English deadjectival nouns extracted in Table 6 are based on the number of noun tags. Thus, thenumber of adjectives is not influenced by the number of deadjectival nouns in English. Therefore, thefrequencies for deadjectival nouns in English are indicated in parentheses.
However, there is a category of adjectives in which the adjectives serve as the head of a noun phrase
in English. The construction ‘the+adjective’ is such a construction. The examples are phrases such as‘the rich and the poor’, ‘the unemployed’, ‘the elderly’, and so on. The extraction of such
constructions from the JENAAD corpus turned out to be low in frequency. There were only 1,304(361.37 pm) occurrences even though the pattern included ordinal numbers and other patterns such as‘the same’ and ‘the other’.
PROPERTY MODIFICATION represents constructions that are considered as prototypicaladjectives. The frequencies of adjectives for both Japanese and English quoted from Table 3 areshown as 114,946 (29,607.02 pm) and 320,261 (88,752.30 pm) respectively with the tinted
background in Table 6. Those numbers indicate the total number of adjectives tagged as such in
JENAAD.
In Japanese, attributive use of adjectives that can be extracted through the KNP’s feature rentai
shushoku53 is 34,657 (8926.72 pm). The attributive use includes the straightforward use of adjectival
noun and adjective proper such as tanjyun-na shitsumon (simple question) and tsuyoi kanshin (strong
interest).
The adjective stem mentioned in the previous paragraphs can be also used as modifier in compounds
or as part of modifier in ‘adjective stem+conjunctive particle no’. Those patterns are counted as
attributive use and their frequencies are 19,292 (4,969.10 pm). Similarly, ‘adjective stem+noun suffix’
can be used for the same patterns, i.e. in compounds and in patterns with conjunctive particle no, andtheir frequencies are 1,098 (282.82 pm). See Section 6 for the examples for these patterns.
51

Note that under ACTION REFERENCE, the relevant category would be deverbal nouns (e.g. government,

running, confirmation and so forth). See Croft (2001) for detailed discussion.
52

meishi-sei setsubiji: 名詞性接尾辞.

53

rentai shushoku: <連体修飾>

294

There are derived adjectives that are created out of other parts of speech with adjectival suffixes. For
example, the suffix -tekina combines with nouns to derive adjectives, similar to the English suffix ‘ic’, and rekishi (history)+tekina creates rekishi-teki-na (historic). The frequency of these patterns is
put in the parentheses because these numbers do not affect the original adjective tags in JENAAD.
The total number of adjective used attributively in English is 278,086 (77,064.56 pm). Postpositive
adjectives (e.g. rules clear to the public), adjectives in uncoordinated phrase (e.g. government andprivate sector), and adjectives in quantifier phrases (e.g. at least) are considered to be attributive use
and their frequencies are 1,874 (519.33 pm), 1,558 (431.76 pm), 2,855 (791.19 pm) respectively.
The patterns such as other than, due to, such as are considered as complex prepositions and they were
excluded from the adjective use. Thus their frequency is in the parenthesis in Table 6.
In PROPERTY PREDICATION, the predicative use of adjective in Japanese is 17,693 (4557.24 pm).
‘Other POS+adjectival suffix’ that was introduced in the previous paragraphs can be also usedpredicatively, however, they do not influence the adjective tag in JENAAD, therefore, these patterns
are excluded from the count in Table 6.
Some varieties are observed for the English side of the predicative use of adjectives. The total numberof adjective used predicatively is 27,533 (7630.08 pm). Those are straightforward use of adjectives in
predicate, for example, “Administrative reform is necessary.”
Quirk et al. (1985) distinguishes several adjective constructions, which are referred to in Table 6.
Constructions such as ‘object complement’ (e.g. made this vision possible), ‘verbless clause’ (e.g.
Needless to say), ‘contingent clause’ (e.g. When necessary, …), ‘exclamatory clause’ (e.g. How nice!)and ‘preposed adjectives’ (e.g. Even more effective would be …) are considered as a predicative useof adjectives in English. These constructions are relatively infrequent compared to the ‘copula+ADJP’construction with the exception of the ‘object complement construction’ (2,397 (664.27 pm)). The‘object complement’ construction is considered to be a predicative use because there is a copula
relationship between the object and the complement. ‘Object complement’ constructions can be also
expressed in passive forms (e.g. … were considered as superior) and the frequency is 367 (101.70
pm).
5.5 Functional distribution of adjectives in Japanese and English
The usage of adjectives in Japanese and English is drastically different. In Japanese, the distinction
between adjectives and nouns is not clear-cut. Furthermore, the division between adjectives andadverbs is equally fuzzy. This continuity between parts of speech makes it hard to grasp the whole
range of functions associated with adjectives in Japanese. On the other hand, the difference between
English adjectives and nouns or adverbs are generally well-established. It is relatively easy tounderstand the proportion of functions performed by adjectives in English. See Figure 3.
Figure 3 summarises the functional distribution of Japanese and English adjectives for the three
propositional act functions, i.e. REFERENCE, MODIFICATION, and PREDICATION. A category
for adverb (the bar with horizontal lines) is added for Japanese because around 20% of inflectedadjectives (e.g. tanoshii (happy) -tanoshiku (happily)) are actually adverbs in Japanese. English has
the category for ‘others’ which includes adjectives used as a part of complex prepositions (e.g. suchas, other than, due to).

295

REFERENCE

JAPANESE

14.84%

MODIFICATION

PREDICATION

47.89%

15.39%

Others

21.88%

1.23%

0.41%
ENGLISH88.79%

0%

Adverb

20%

40%

9.56%

60%

80%

100%

Figure 3 Comparison of functions for adjectives in Japanese and English
Japanese uses around 15% of adjectives for PROPERTY REFERENCE. They consist of deadjectivalnouns by means of suffixation and adjective stems acting as independent nouns. The percentage forthe same category in English is comparatively small (0.41%). This does not mean that English hardly
has deadjectival nouns. There are deadjectival nouns, however, they are tagged as ‘nouns’ in the
JENAAD corpus, whereas the tag for Japanese deadjectival nouns and adjective stems are keiyooshi(adjective) and nominal suffixes. The distinction between nouns and adjectives is clearly establishedin English.
The white bar in the middle in Figure 3 visibly highlights that the main function of adjectives inEnglish is undoubtedly modification (close to 90%). For Japanese, though it is also the main
proportion of all adjectives, the number of adjectives used for modification is less than 50%. Recall
and refer to Figure 2 that indicated the huge discrepancy between the proportion of Japanese
adjectives and English adjectives. The comparatively limited use of Japanese adjectives is distributed
across four functions, whereas the greater use of English adjectives is predominantly for the functionof modification.
5.6 Semantic class of OBJECT
To answer the question as to why the Japanese and English adjectives exhibit huge discrepancy interms of frequency, we need to consider OBJECT MODIFICATION together with PROPERTYMODIFICATION. Table 7 exemplifies the bilingual semantic map of Japanese and English part-ofspeech constructions for the semantic class of OBJECT. NOUNs with the tinted background represent
the prototypical parts of speech for this semantic class, and the frequencies quoted there are from the
POS-tagged information shown in Table 3.

296

Table 7 Bilingual semantic map for Japanese and English: Semantic class of OBJECTREFERENCE

MODIFICATIONJAPANESENOUNENGLISH
1687174434570.9
7

NOUNJAPANESE
1169939
324219.2
5

O
B
J
E
C
T

REF

772302
198924.3
745.77%

REF

PREDICATION

640661177543.1
354.76%ENGLISH

JAPANESEENGLISH

multiple NP
compound(#ofnoun
modifiers)

466199120080.41(631807)(162736.6
1)

multipleNP
compound(#of noun
modifiers)

17990849856.99(232956)(64557.91)

NP+hanteishi(copula)49960
12868.3
6

NP+no+NP(no:conjunctive/
case
particle)

21963856572.88

NP+of+NP

11399331590.30

Shusetsu(mainclause)26882
6924.09

NP+kakujyos
hi+no+NP

13467
3468.74

NP+PP+NP

98514
27300.68

NP+genitiv
e
+NP

28532
7906.93

possessive
pronoun

35371
9802.19

MOD

509366141158.01

MOD864912222778.24
51.26%

43.54%

297

PRED

49960
12868.3
6
2.96%

copula+(article)+NP

PRED

19912
5518.1
1

19912
5518.11
1.70%

The number of nouns computed based on the POS tag was 1,686,174 (434,570.97 pm) forJapanese and 1,169,939 (324,219.25 pm) for English. These figures represent the total
number of nouns in the JENAAD corpus. The number of nouns used for the propositional act
function of REFERENCE is 772,302 (198,924.37 pm) for Japanese and 640,661(177,543.13pm) for English. These figures were calculated by subtracting the use of nouns as
MODIFICATION (e.g. computer game) and the use of nouns as PREDICATION (e.g. This is
a computer.) from the total number of nouns for each language.
In the region of OBJECT MODIFICATION, the frequency of multiple NP compoundconstructions is significantly high in Japanese, and the actual number of nouns used in these
constructions exceeds 630,000 (162,736.61pm). The ‘NP+no (conjunctive/case particle)+NP’
construction is also highly frequent in Japanese (56,572.88 pm). This construction can beparticularly equated with the English constructions such as the use of the genitive case, thepossessive form of pronouns, and the prepositional phrase using ‘of’. ‘NP+no’ can be often
replaced by adjectives.
‘NP+kakujyoshi (case particle)+no (conjunctive particle)+NP’ includes examples such as
nihon shijyou de no kyousou (competition in the Japanese market). The addition of a caseparticle such as de represents meanings often denoted by a preposition in English.
The most frequent construction under OBJECT MODIFICATION in English is the use of a
prepositional phrase. The frequency totals 212,507 (58,890.98 pm) if the frequency for theuse of the preposition ‘of’ and other prepositions are combined together.
Multiple NP compounds are also frequent; there are 179,908 (49,856.99 pm) constructions of
this kind, and the actual number of nouns used as a modifier amounts to 232,956 (64,557.91
pm). The frequency of the genitive case with -’s is 28,532 (7,906.93 pm), and the frequencyof the possessive form of a pronoun is 35,371 (9,802.19 pm).
The target construction under OBJECT PREDICATION is ‘NP+hanteishi’ for Japanese, and‘copula+(article)+NP’ in English. As shown in Table 7, the frequency of ‘NP+hanteishi’ is49,960 (12,868.36 pm), and the frequency of ‘copula+NP’ constructions in English is 19,912(5,518.11 pm). The proportion of nouns used for OBJECT PREDICATION is 2.96% forJapanese and 1.70% for English. The percentages are much lower than those for OBJECTREFERENCE and OBJECT MODIFICATION.
Some distributional differences are observed between Japanese and English. See the bottomlines encircled with the thick black line. In Japanese, around 46% of the total number ofnouns are used for the reference function, whereas the percentage for English is around 55%
of total nouns, although the concrete number of nouns used for referencing in Japanese
exceeds that of English by 92,610 because of their high frequency. The purely referencing
function of nouns appears to be higher in proportion for English than Japanese.
Consequently, the proportion of nouns used for the function of MODIFICATION in Japaneseis higher: over 51% of the total number of nouns. That is, 864,912 (222,778.24 pm) nouns areused for the propositional act function of modification. English nouns used for modification
constitute less than 44%, or 509,366 (141,158.01 pm) occurrences. Apparently, 355,546 morenouns are used for modification in Japanese compared to English.
From the figures summarised in the previous paragraphs, it appears that the major function ofnouns for Japanese is MODIFICATION (51.26%), followed by REFERENCE (45.77%). On
the other hand, the primary function of English nouns is REFERENCE (54.76%), followed by
MODIFICATION (43.54%).

298

Compared to REFERENCE and MODIFICATION, nouns used for the function of
PREDICATION is infrequent for both languages. Less than 3% of noun predicates areobserved for both languages, viz. 2.96 % and 1.70% for Japanese and English respectively.
6. Discussion
See Figure 4 below that summarises figures and facts about OBJECT MODIFICATION and
PROPERTY MODIFICATION in Japanese and in English. Figure 4 enables us to grasp
empirically that the function of modification in Japanese is primarily achieved by the use ofnouns (OBJECT MODIFICATION) rather than by adjectives (PROPERTYMODIFICATION). On the other hand, the main function of adjectives in English is clearlymodification (see the bar graph in the middle).

Figure 4 Proportions of modification between Japanese and English
Although the proportions of OBJECT MODIFICATION and PROPERTY MODIFICATION
are massively different between Japanese and English, the figures balance out when the two
types of the modification are considered together. See the bottom bar graph between Japanesemodification and English modification in TOTAL. They divide much closer at 50%.
Under the nominal use of adjectives in Japanese, there is a noun modification schema
repeatedly used. See the following examples and Figure 5.
anzen (adj. stem) hoshou rijikai ketsugi1 (Security Council resolution)jiyu (adj. stem) no hitsuyou (adj. stem) sei 2 (freedom no-CONJ necessity seiNOMINAL SUFFIX)
kokkou seijyou (adj. stem)-ka koushou3(diplomatic relation normalising-ka-NOMINAL SUFFIX negotiations)
shijyou jiyu (adj. stem)-ka no nagare4 (market liberalisation-ka-NOMINAL SUFFIX
no-CONJ stream)yowa (adj. stem)-sa no ishiki 5 (weakness-sa-NOMINAL SUFFIX no-CONJ
awareness)
1

安全保障理事会決議
自由の必要性3
国交正常化交渉
4
市場自由化の流れ
2299

Figure 5. Noun modifier schema in JapaneseThis noun modification schema, which consists of ‘compound’ and ‘noun/adj. stem+no(conjunctive particle)’, appears recurrently in the JENAAD data. This observation was
confirmed in Section 5.6 that this noun modifier constructions are actually massively
frequent, thus it could be argued that the pattern is extended to the use of adjective stem.
Table 7 lists three constructions in the region of OBJECT MODIFICATION in the bilingual
semantic map, i.e. ‘multiple noun compound’, ‘NP+no+NP’, and ‘NP+postposition+no+NP’.
All these constructions can be used by ‘adjective stems’.
The continuity of nouns and adjectives supports the ‘Semantic Map Connectivity Hypothesis’that was introduced in Section 3. The repeated use of noun modifying schemas is possible
because OBJECT MODIFICATION and PROPERTY MODIFICATION are located inconnected regions of the bilingual semantic map in focus. Furthermore, the huge discrepancy
between Japanese adjectives and English adjectives in terms of their frequency can be
explained by the strength of OBJECT MODIFICATION in Japanese and the strength of
PROPERTY MODIFICATION in English.
The above analyses in the previous sections also provided ample evidence for noun-adjective
continuum in Japanese and illustrated how the unique word class keiyoo-dooshi (adjectivalnoun) is interwoven in the continuum of nouns and adjectives in Japanese. This continuity
and the underlying structure of conceptual space and semantic map, and also the strength ineach language’s modification function make it possible to cross-map beyond the word classes
between Japanese and English for the same meanings and functions.
7. Implications for bilingual dictionary designs and conclusion
The constructions exemplified in the bilingual semantic maps of parts of speech constructions
for Japanese and English need to be considered as a model for encoding bilingual dictionaries.
The semantic maps presented in this research successfully illustrated the cross mappings ofconstructions between Japanese and English beyond word classes and also beyond lexicalboundaries. The data and analyses in this research quantitatively revealed the fact that isdifficult to grasp without empirical data and theories from cognitive linguistics. Further work
is obviously necessary to apply these maps and data, for instance, for an onomasiologicalmodel of bilingual dictionaries. However, the empirical data provided in this study represent a
part of actual translation processes based on the actual usage. Therefore, for the compilationof practically usable bilingual dictionaries, especially for an innovative encoding bilingual
dictionary model, this study should provide insightful perspectives.
Acknowledgments
Research described in this paper was supported in part by a grant received from the General
Research Fund of the University Grant Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative
Region, China (Project no. CityU 142711) and City University of Hong Kong (Project nos.
6354005, 7002793, 7004091, 700433, 9041694, 9610283, 9610226, and 9610188).

5

弱さの意識

300

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Computational Linguistics, 72-79. Sapporo, Japan.

301

Lavender Filipino: Computational Models of Twitter Swardspeak
Nathaniel Oco, Raymart Fajutagana, Christine Mae Lim, Judi Diane Miñon,
Julie-Ann Morano, Ryan Christian Tinoco
National University, the Philippines{nathanoco,raymartfajutagana1,cm_lim23,diane.fetalino}@yahoo.com,{moranojulieann,ryeryeryeryerye7}@gmail.com
Abstract
In this paper, we model Swardspeak – as depicted in Twitter – through computational means.
Swardspeak is an argot used by gays in the Philippines (Ponce, 2008) and this paper
contributes to the growing literature of studies regarding gay language. Language modeling,
the process of creating smaller representations of language, was applied and word andcharacter sequences were generated. Language modeling provides systematic as it gives an
overview of frequent occurring sequences and makes the data to be analyzed moremanageable (Pablo et al., 2014). Analyses of word sequences reveal that Swardspeak use in
Twitter is mostly limited to nonce-borrowing or single-word code-switching while analyses ofcharacter sequences using an approach that measures language similarity (Oco et al., 2014b)
show similarities with other Philippine languages. Character differences were also generated
to show replacement conventions (example: kili-kili to jili-jili). The results are discussed andalso detailed are future directions. As application, two computer programs were implemented
using a rule-based engine (Oco et al., 2014a): (1) collected tweets were used as training data
to implement a language identification system; (2) and a dictionary integrated into a word
editor was also built using existing resources (Chiong et al., 2009; Komisyon sa Wikang
Filipino, 2004) on Swardspeak as guide.
Keywords: Filipino Lavender, swardspeak, language modeling, character difference,trigrams, language tool

1. Introduction to the history of the Filipino languages
The Philippines is a Southeast Asian country which consists of 7,107 islands with 186 numberof individual language listed.6 “Alarmingly, according to current estimates, only one-tenth oftoday’s languages will remain by the coming of the 22nd century. Languages are disappearing
at an astonishing rate and the pace shows no sign of abating. Many Filipino languages are athigh risk of extinction.” 7 The Filipino languages have been influenced by many otherlanguage groups throughout the history, as being a part in the Pacific Ring of Fire where
many other countries surrounding the Philippines had an access for many opportunities for
trade and correspondence with other nations and languages. And throughout these languages,
one of the sub-languages that came was the Gay-Lingo language or swardspeak. Let’s take alook on the evolution of languages in the Philippines.
The first Indonesians are thought to have come to the Philippines in groups, beginning some
5,000 to 6,000 years ago and again about 1500 B.C. (Bautista). Linguistic evidence connects
Tagalog with Bahasa Indonesia as having common roots, so the main root of the modern
Filipino languages probably came with these people (although other groups of people arethought to have come to the Philippines much earlier). In the 16th Century, Spain claimed thePhilippines for its own. The new Republic of the Philippines did not last long until American
occupation began. The Americans began English as the official language of the Philippines.
6
7

http://www.ethnologue.com/country/PH
http://www.ethnicgroupsphilippines.com/people/languages-in-the-philippines/

302

There were many reasons given for this change. English began to be taught in the schools toall. During World War II, Japan occupied the Philippines for three years (Bautista). At thistime English was still the official language of the Philippines, however, Japanese certainly
influenced the various dialects during this time as well. (Stevens, 1999)
Additionally, the languages of the Philippines was not really from the country itself due to thereason of the occupation of different countries throughout the centuries. Over the course of its
development, Tagalog (and other languages of the Philippines) have been influenced by
Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, English, and many other languages, in trade and in occupations
by various countries. Moreover, Philippines have taken and adapted different words from allof these languages to make part of their own languages. They have, however, still maintained
their own languages and were able to have their new sub-languages. Example of this was the
G-words (adding letter “G” to every word), the Jejemon (uses numbers and capitalization ofletters) and the most common used Gay-Lingo (language from gays).
Gay-Lingo was from gays which was said to be their own version of language such that not
all people can understand it unlike the English Language which was very common. Girls andmost commonly teenagers were now using these words but do not expect males to do so. The
use of these words depends on the people who tend to use it. It may be for fun, for teasing, for
an occasion, or just for everyday lives seems to be like natural in using the gay-lingo words.
In this paper, we model Swardspeak(Gay-Lingo) language and how it was understood by thepeople using and just even hearing it. By this, we might lessen the difficulty of understanding
the gay-lingo words and the meaning behind those words. Such that, misunderstanding andcommunication might be lessen and people can understand what each others was saying
especially when a person is talking to a gay person.
2. Different sub-languages and related works
2.1 Sub-languages
Human beings can communicate with each other. We are able to exchange and share eachothers knowledge, beliefs, opinions, wishes, threats, commands, thanks, promise and etc,. We
can laugh to express amusement, happiness, we can smile to express amusement and approval,
we can shriek to express anger, excitement, or fear, and lastly we can clench our fists toexpress determination, anger or a threat, and so on, but the root of having this communication
between human beings is because of language.
Language is a system for communicating. Written languages use symbols to build words. The
entire set of words is the language's vocabulary. The ways in which the words can bemeaningfully combined is defined by the language's syntax and grammar. The actual meaningof words and combinations of words is defined by the language's semantics. 8
Table 1 Tagalog words and its value in different languages.

8

Tagalog

EnglishG-words

JejemonGay-Lingo

Wala

None

Wagalaga

W4l4

Waley/Wit/Wasiwas

Babae

Girl

Bagabae

B4b43

Girlalu

Nanay

MotherNaganagay

NhaN4yMudra/Mudrakels

Tatay

FatherTagatagay

T4t4y

Pudra/Pudrakels

http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/L/language.html

303

Sino

Who

Siginogo

Sxzin0

Sinetch/Table 1 shows the Tagalog words and its value in English language, G-words and Jejemon
which was commonly known in the Philippines and lastly, the Gay-Lingo language which
was the main topic of this paper.
Each of these sub-languages has its own way in changing the Tagalog words into these sublanguages. Mainly, this paper tackles the Gay-Lingo words and how it was changed and what
was the value of the word being used.
2.2 Related works

According to Lunzaga, Ariel B. “Morphological Analysis of Gay’s Spoken
Discourse“(April 18, 2011), “The language of gays known as gay speak has now
earned respect from the community and observably been infused in the mainstream
language of the society. Language is evolving time by time due to many aspects of theenvironment. This study focused on the morphological analysis of the language ofgays who were studying at SLSU-Tomas Oppus in SY 2009-2010. Specifically, thisidentifies the common vocabulary of local gays and the corresponding meanings
through a self-administered questionnaire and an informal conversation. Based from a
conducted survey, it was learned that gay speak is simply an adaptation of themainstream language like English, Filipino, and Cebuano. Gays construct their own
language through simple reversal, syllabic reversal, simple reversal with affixation,clipping with affixation, straight words with affixation, and connotation throughimages. It was concluded that the spoken discourse of college gays in the campus
violates the rules of English grammar yet used by gays for purposes of expressing
themselves in a way unrecognizable by the discriminating straight men in highly
patriarchal
society.

304

According to Garcia, Nestlie U “Study on the usage of gay lingo among heterosexual students
in University of the Philippines College of Arts and Letters”, “Language is not stable andstatic; it moves, evolves and progresses as our society take a step forward for improvement.
Because of this, many sub-languages are being formed and created for different purposes.
One of these sub-languages is 'Gay lingo', the language being spoken by gays. However, someheterosexuals now use it for their everyday conversation. In view of this, the researchers were
led to do a study on the problem, Why is there a usage of gay lingo among heterosexual
students in University of the Philippines College of Arts and Letters (UPCAL) The thesis
aimed to identify the reasons behind the usage of Gay lingo, the source/s through which theparticipants were being influenced, cite situation/s wherein Gay lingo was commonly used,and enumerate Gay terms commonly used by heterosexual students in UPCAL. Participantsthat take place was said to be in the number of 30 heterosexual students in UPCAL, male andfemale alike. The study found out significant results, which met the objectives. First, that Gay
lingo was used for communication purposes, for entertainment or fun, and also because it has
become a fad. Second, that the participants were greatly influenced by the community or
environment and media to speak the language. Third, that the research participants use Gay
lingo only in informal occasions or situations. Lastly, the study was also able to enumerate
Gay terms commonly used by the participants.”
3. Methodology
In this chapter, researchers will discuss the processes that will serve as the medium in the
study. This chapter will also show the researchers method on gathering the needed corpora inthis study. The procedure for gathering the different corpora where divided into two parts:
Parallel and Online Corpus. Since the research was all about the Gay-Lingo language,
researchers should be able to collect many resources for the testing of the research.

3.1 Collection of corpora
A. Parallel Corpus
This method was applied by collecting the text from a book and online sources via copy-pastewith the word (gay-lingo), the definition of it and what was the meaning of the word in the
Tagalog Language. Figure 1 shows the representation how the corpus was gathered fromdifferent sources through parallel corpus method. Around 1500 training data for parallel
corpus were collected.

Figure 1 Parallel Corpus Method
B. Online Corpus
This method was applied by collecting the text and converting the words from different
videos by listening to each one of them. Figure 2 show the representation how the corpus wasgathered from a main source of videos and then wrote them manually by using online corpus
method. Around 1000 training data for online corpus was collected. Figure 2 shows therepresentation how the online corpus were gathered.

305

Figure 2 Online Corpus Method
3.2 Computational Comparison
For the researchers to track and distinguish the differences between the speak words to sward
speak . We used an application that identifies the similarities and differences from the two
sets of model thus, these sets of models were implemented.
Almost 5,000 tweets were collected via the Tweet Collector by random with Gay-Lingo
words in it were used as training data, 5000 tweets were generated into one-gram, bi-gram,tri-gram and four-gram (Oco et al., 2014)giving the results of the most used word(s) in eachsection to the least one via Apache Nutch application.1 We used the one-gram and filtered the
top 100 Gay-Lingo words that were most used in the tweets collected via VLookUp on Excel.
Note that, word gram classify punctuation marks as part of the numbering of the words. Now,
considering from the parallel corpus, what is found in the corpus and found in the one-gram
via the tweets searched were considered to be Gay-Lingo words. While there are 20 keywords
been used also as our training data, we searched for it manually through twitter and analyze
whether these keywords were true positive or false positive.
Next, on the parallel corpus (dictionary), researchers filtered the different categories and lookwhere the word diff2 can be applied we rank the 8 categories naming: Neolohismo o Paglika,
Paghalu-halo, Metatesis, Malayang Pagdaragdag, Pag-aangkop, Pagpapalit, Reduksyon at
Pagkakaltas and from most that can be used to for the word diff to the least. Rank 1 was
Pagpapalit, next is Reduksyon and last is Pagkakaltas. We only used three categories thenapply it to word diff where the character differences can be seen whether addition andreplacement of letters happened. Follows was how to distinguish the character differences ineach word.
“[+ {character}]” means an insertion of character;“[- {character}]” means a deletion of character; and“[- {character}, + {character}]” means a change of character from set 1 to set 2.
4. Results and discussion
After the processing of different corpora and adding it to different tools, researchers now
came up with the following results.
Table 2 Word Diff and Categories

1
2

Word

GL WordCategories

tulog

shulog

Pagpapalit

monggoloid

mongi

Reduksyon

inom

jinum

Pagkakaltas

http://nutch.apache.org/
http://www.gnu.org/software/wdiff/manual/wdiff.html

306

Table 2 shows the example for the both sets of word which undergone infiltration tocategorize it accordingly, whereas 3 categories were being represented: Reduksyon,
Pagpapalit, Pagkakaltas.
Table 3 Top 5 Gay-Lingo words
Frequency

Word
itey

979

ditey

856

keribels813

sinetch760

imbiyerna

396

Table 3 shows the example of how the word one-gram was applied on the tweets.
The following tables show the set of models that would undergo in the program and theoutput differences of it from each other.

307

Table 4 Word Diff
SPEAK WORD
(set 1)

SWARD
SPEAK
(set 2)

DIFFERENCE(S)itoitechiwara

i t [-o-] {+e c h i w a r a+}Akinaketcha k [-i n-] {+e t c h+}punta
hintayjonta
jontay[-p u-]{+j o+} n t a[-h i-]{+j o+} n t a ybuntisjontis[-b u-]{+j o+} n t i s

Table 4 shows how the Tagalog words were changed into Gay-Lingo word by seeing theCharacter Difference through word diff.
Table 5 Searched Keywords
True Positive

False Positive

Jinet

Chaka

Ditey

Echos

ImbyernaChos

Wetpaks

Gora

Kayiz

Chaka

Imbey

Echos

Kemerut

Chos

Keribels
Itey
SinetchChenelin
Churvalu
EklavuMudrakels
Pudra
JunakisTable 5 shows the True positive and False positive within the top 20 keywords used astraining data.
From about 269 set of paired words being gathered, filtered and implemented in the word diff,based from the results of the program most of the gay-lingo word were added by some letterssuch as ‘ch’ which is commonly based from the Japanese words, others were being replacedby the letter ‘j’ which showed from table 4 (see Table 4.2), it showed that the most of thewords we’re being substituted frequently with ‘ch’ and ‘j’ as shown in table 4.2.
However, 3 categories were used to label each words (see Table 2) whether what category
does it belong, thus this adds a little help to analyze on how the speak word was being308

transformed into a gay-lingo word depending on the category it was been ranked. For every
rank or category speaks how a certain word being changed does. For the first rank which is‘Pagpapalit’ this category means that a certain word’s character was been changed and added
another character that leads it longer. Another rank was ‘Reduksyon’ in English term
reduction, which means to reduce, whereas a certain word’s character is being reduce and nor
not been replaced. And lastly is the ‘Pagkakaltas’ in which word is being cut/replaced andadded before or after of a certain character and leads on the transformation of speak word intoa gay lingo word.
Another approach is keyword searching, by the use of twitter we’ve manually searched foreach training data to determine whether if this keyword has different meaning for the user or
else they mean it as usual meaning as a gay lingo word. These 20 keywords that had beenused results 16 true positive and 4 false positive as determined in searching via twitter.
After doing some processes with the Grammar Checker by inputting the Gay-Lingo words
within the three (3) categories only, researchers tried to input a gay-lingo word and see how
the grammar checker would react in the Gay-Lingo word. For example, the word “ades” in
the Gay-Lingo word, after inputting it in the Grammar Checker, results would give,“Correction: Pera” which was the meaning of the “ades” word in Tagalog Language.
Results have shown that accuracy of the right meaning of the Gay-Lingo word would give theright meaning to the word. Also, those Gay-Lingo words which were found in the dictionary
were the only one to take place in the tool. The Grammar Checker was not case sensitive
which means not having a capital letter at the first word would still give the meaning if it is in
the dictionary but would give a Message(see fig. 4.1). Thus, saying that Gay-lingo words notinside the Grammar Checker would not be included in the checking of the results because
definitely no results will be shown.

Fig. 3 Grammar Checker Result
Figure 3 shows that the Grammar Checker gives the meaning of the Gay-Lingo word ades
which is pera. It was checked in the Text Language of Tagalog.
5. Conclusion and recommendation
Researchers now conclude that with the use of the dictionary and different corpora, fed it up
to different tools, Gay-Lingo words could be easily understood by people which may lessen
the misunderstanding and miscommunication among people who are familiar with thelanguage and to those who are not. The categorization of in-groups versus out-groups can begenerated when customers recognize certain cues, such as language, that delineate culturaldifferences (Brickson, 2000; Nkomo and Cox, 1996). Not being able to identify with othercultural groups may lead to negative attitudes towards such groups (Bartel, 2001).
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Consequently, the understanding of the link between language and social identity patterns isof great importance to the a community.
Since researchers focuses on the new sub-languages that were formed in the Philippines, wewould like to recommend future researchers to seek and find other sub-languages that was
being use by the Filipinos. Examples of these were the G-words and the Jejemon which wascommon to few Filipinos and was given a bit of background from the statements above.
References
Chiong, Darwin, Rachelle Medina and Carlo Vergara. 2009. Badafinitions: The hottest words
in gay lingo. Spot.ph. http://www.spot.ph/newsfeatures/13926/badafinitions.
Accessed 15 March 2015.
Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino. 2004. Mga salitang homosekswal: Isang pagsusuri. Manila:
Commission on the Filipino Language.
Oco, Nathaniel, Leif Romeritch Syliongka, Joel Ilao, and Rachel Edita Roxas. 2014a. N-grambased language identification and rule-based grammar checking. In Proceedings ofthe 14th Philippine Computing Science Congress, 244-250. Quezon City: Computing
Society of the Philippines.
Oco, Nathaniel, Raquel Sison-Buban, Leif Romeritch Syliongka, Rachel Edita Roxas, andJoel Ilao. 2014b. Ang paggamit ng trigram ranking bilang panukat sa
pagkakahalintulad at pagkakapangkat ng mga wika. Malay 26(2): 53-68.
Pablo, Zelinna Cynthia, Nathaniel Oco, Ma. Divina Gracia Roldan, Charibeth Cheng, Rachel
Edita Roxas. 2014. Toward an enriched understanding of factors influencing Filipino
behavior during elections through the analysis of Twitter data. Philippine Political
Science Journal 35(2): 203-224.
Ponce, Martin Joseph. 2008. Framing the Filipino diaspora: Gender, sexuality, and thepolitics of criticism. Philippine Studies 56(1): 77-101.
The Philippines: Then and Now. Excerpted from The Filipino Americans (From 1763 to thePresent): Their History, Culture, and Traditions, by Veltisezar Bautista.
StevensJ.N.
The
historyoftheFilipino
Languages.
1999.
http://linguistics.byu.edu/classes/ling450ch/reports/filipino.html Accessed 11 May
2015.
Lunzaga, A.B. Morphological Analysis of Gay’s Spoken Discourse, April 18, 2011. Vol. 6
May
2011
ISSN
20123981
National
Peer
Reviewed
Journal
http://www.eisrjc.com/documents/Morphological_Analysis_of_Gays_Spoken_Discou
rse_1325756956.pdf
Garcia, N.U. Study on the usage of gay lingo among heterosexual students in University ofthePhilippines
Collegeof
Arts
andLetters,1998.
http://library.mc.edu.ph/bookinfo.asp?strSearch=&nType=1&nResourceID=1000036
650
Brickson, S. (2000). The Impact of Identity Orientation on Individual and Organizational
Outcomes in Demographically Diverse Settings. Academy of Management Review,25(1), 82-101.
Bartel, C.A. (2001) ‘Social Comparisons in Boundary-spanning Work: Effects of Community
Outreach on Members’ Organizational Identity and Identification’, Administrative
Science Quarterly 46: 379–413.

310

The Old and New Tagalog Orthography: A computational
comparison
Manolito Octaviano Jr., Nathaniel Oco, Rachel Edita Roxas
National University, the Philippinesmanolito.octaviano,nathanoco, rachel_roxas2001@yahoo.com
Abstract
This paper reports the orthographic changes between present-day Tagalog and its counterpart from the
Spanish colonial era (c. 1521 – 1898). We empirically showed how the language has evolved. As
training data, the following were used: (1) a 16,000-word collection of Tagalog literary works (Oco etal., 2015) to represent the early orthographic system; and (2) a 16,000-word subset of the text versionof the Tagalog Wikipedia (Oco and Roxas, 2012) to represent the present-day use of the language. The
differences and similarities of words from the two sets of data were automatically derived using edit
distance (Levenshtein, 1966), string length, and frequency count (i.e., words with less than threecharacters or those with low frequency counts were removed). Character changes such as ‘c’ vs. ‘k’(e.g., cayo vs. kayo) and ‘u’ vs. ‘w’ (e.g., auit vs. awit) were noted. Character trigrams (Oco et al.,2014) were generated and a similarity metric was applied (Oco et al., 2013) and results showed 69%
similarity. On the other hand, the remaining 31% showed Spanish influence and evolved through theyears (e.g., cusina to kusina). These results validate that “language is a system of arbitrary vocal
symbols by means of which society cooperates” (Bloach and Trager, 1942). Results of this researchcontribute to the growing list of studies in language change in the country (Ilao et al., 2011).
Keywords: orthography, Tagalog, edit distance, character trigrams, similarity metrics

1. Introduction
Kamusta, Huwag, at Kami are some of the familiar words of the modern orthography of
Tagalog. These are few of the words that average Filipinos can understand in a snap being
Tagalog as the most frequently spoken language. (Roxas, 2009). Will Filipinos still be able torecognize the words written in the old orthography of Tagalog like the words Ciya, Comeesta, and auit? Probably the current generation does not, since words written in the oldorthography are used negligibly nowadays. The words Ciya, Come esta, and auit came fromthe Spanish system that greatly influenced the Filipino language today.
Looking back in the history of the Philippines before Spanish came; we can see the influenceof different foreign language group in the Filipino language because of the different trade andcorrespondence that happened with the other nations (Stevens, 1999). Not only did theforeign language groups influenced the language but also the country’s barangay groups that
traded freely amongst each other during those time.
In the 16th century, colonization of Spanish in the Philippines (c. 1521 – 1898) had a great
impact in the culture of the Filipinos3. One notable influence of the Spanish is the alphabet
they implemented in Filipino schools - the Abecedario alphabet. The alphabet system
introduced by Spanish variously had 28, 29, 31, or 32 characters. It replaced the Baybayin
script, the ancient Tagalog alphabet, which was believed to have existed long before Spanish
colonization. It also became the Tagalog orthography of the generation in the Spanish era.
Filipinos followed the 32-abecedario system in the beginning of the 17th century from thetime when the Spanish took over the country. The first ever book printed (Doctrina Cristiana)
in the Philippines (c. 1590) was believed to be an evidence of the Abecedario alphabet (Tan,2014).
3

http://filipinokastila.tripod.com/FilSpa.html

311

Years after Spanish colonization, different sets of alphabet were introduced to Tagalog: fromthe Abecedario alphabet to the present-day Modern Pilipino alphabet. The new set ofalphabet used in the present-day orthography consists of 28 characters, omitting somecharacters from the previous sets of alphabet (e.g. ll, rr). However, orthography in the
Abecedario alphabet is still in use even after the transition of different sets of alphabet.
In this paper, we reported the orthographic changes between present-day Tagalog (i.e. usedof Modern Pilipino alphabet) and its counterpart (i.e. used of Abecedario alphabet) from
Spanish colonial era. Knowing these changes, we can determine how much the language has
evolved over the past years from the influence of Spanish.

2. Language and related works
2.1. Filipino language“Language is a symbol system based on pure or arbitrary conventions… infinitely extendable
and modifiable according to the changing needs and conditions of the speakers,” Robins said
when he defined language. From this definition, we can conclude that the language is acollection of symbols organized to form meaning that human can understand. For example,
the symbol (or character, considering the spelling symbol) ‘c’, ‘a’, and ‘t’ when structured
will produce the word –‘cat’; combinations of words will then produce a sentence (used forcommunication). These words and sentences form a language used as means forcommunication (The Nature of Language Linguistics, 2010).
Language reflects the culture and history of one’s civilization from one generation to theother. When the language is handed down to other generations, words are constantly
changing considering its meaning and spelling; new words are supplemented to adapt theneeds of community. The Philippine language, specifically the Tagalog, is a good example
since it changed for a number of times already.
Tagalog is the widely used language in the Philippines. It took a long haul before it was
declared the national language with a formal name of Filipino. Looking back on the history,
the influence of different countries changed the life and the culture of Filipino people.
Spanish, the longest colonist of the Philippines for approximately 400 years, influenced thecountry in a lot of things. An example is their influence in the Filipino language that had agreat effect on the current language Filipinos use today (Bautista, 1998). About 20% of the
Tagalog words used today are from them (Rebecca, 2009). For instance, the word
“Kamusta”( means how are you) originated from the Spanish “Come esta”.
Before Spanish came to the Philippines, Filipinos had their own alphabet and their own
system of writing, Baybayin – consists of 3 vowels and 14 consonants (Gugol, 2011). When
the Spanish ruled the country, they romanized the Baybayin and introduced their own
alphabet: Abecedario and their own writing system. From these, Tagalog language underwent
significant development. Spelled words from previous alphabet were replaced and new words
came out (e.g. cusina, auit, and cayo). Table 1 shows the 31 Abecedario letters with its
corresponding pronunciation.
Table 1 Abecedario alphabet introduced by Spanish system
Letter

A

B

C

CH

D

E

F

G

(Spanish)Pronunciation

Ah

Be

Se

Che/Sehache

De

Eh

Efe

Ge/He

Letter

H

I

J

K

L

LL

M

N

312

Pronunciation

Hache

Ih

Jota

Ka

Ele

Elye

Eme

Ene

Letter

Ñ

ÑG

O

P

Q

R

RR

S

Pronunciation

Enye

Oh

Pe

Cu

Ere

T

V

W

X

Y

Erre
Z

Ese

LetterEnyegeU

Pronunciation

TeUh

Ve/UveUveDoble/Wa

Ekis

I
griega/Ye

Zeta

Abecedario began to decline in the 17th century and became obsolete in the 18th century(Morrow, 2007). Different sets of alphabet were introduced to Filipinos before attaining theModern Filipino alphabet being used today.
Table 3 shows the summary of the evolution of alphabets after the Abecedario alphabet of
Spanish. The Modern Filipino alphabet is also the same as the English alphabet but withadditional characters from Spanish (ñ and ng). It replaced the old orthography Spanish
introduced. In addition, it is the alphabet that is currently being taught in Philippines.
Table 3 Alphabet evolution after the Abecedario alphabet
Abakada alphabet

20

a, b, k, d, e, f, g, h, i, l, m, n, ng, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, w, y

Pilipino alphabet

31

Modern Filipino
alphabet

28

a, b, c, ch, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, ll, m, n, ñ, ng, o, p, q, r, rr, s, t, u,v, w, x, y, z
a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, ñ, ng, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y,z

2.2. Computational comparison
One way in determining the distance of words of the training data is by using Levenshtein
distance also known as edit distance (Levenshtein, 1966). Levenshtein distance computes forthe difference of two strings. It identifies the cost of making insertions, deletions, andsubstitutions of transforming one string to the other. For example, the distance between“kitten” and “sitting” is 3:
 kitten → sitten (substitution of "s" for "k")
 sitten → sittin (substitution of "i" for "e") sittin → sitting (insertion of "g" at the end)
Another technique used in this study is the Trigram modeling. Trigram modeling iscommonly used in implementing a language identification system (LID system). It slices theword in 3-character group. For instance, the word “test” will produce the following trigram:“_te”, ‘”es” “est”, “st_”. Different studies use the modeling approach to further understandthe Philippine languages such as measuring the similarities of the languages (Oco, 2013) and
implementing an LID system for Philippine languages (Oco, 2015).
3. Methodology
3.1. Collection and modeling
As training data, we used the collections of Filipino literary works to represent early
orthography (Spanish system) and Tagalog Wikipedia to represent the present-day
orthography (Oco, 2015). The training data were placed in Notepad++. Regular expressions
were utilized on the training data to remove unnecessary keywords (e.g. numbers andsymbols). Afterwards, the first 16,000-word of both training data were extracted and fed in
an automated tool4 to produce unigram models - collection of unique words that are used in
the documents. Generated models were then filtered (i.e. leaving all words that has character4

http://www.speech.sri.com/projects/srilm/313

length greater than 2) and saved in text file. From the 16,000-word document, 4,265 unique
words remained for early orthography while 4,808 unique words for present-day orthography.
3.2. Computational comparison
In order to track the evolution of words, an application was implemented to identify thedifferences and similarities from the two sets of models. Integrating the edit distancealgorithm, sets of models were fed in the application. Table 3 shows the example output ofthe program that the word undergone 1-character change from column 1 (set 1) to column 2(set 2). The difference of words are shown in column 3, explanations are as follows: “[+ {character}]” means an insertion of character; “[- {character}]” means a deletion of character; and “[- {character}, + {character}]” means a change of character from set 1 to set 2.
Table 4 Edit distance between words
Set1
Din
Anot
Cay

Set 2
Ding
Ano
Kay

Differences['+g'][‘–t’]['–C','+K']

Another approach used to determine how much the language has evolved was to generatecharacter trigrams from the training data. Using Apache Nutch5, trigrams were generated andsimilarity metric was applied.
Table 5 shows the generated trigram models from the training data.
Table 5 Trigrams of training data
Set1 (julieta)
_ca
Ing
_ma

Set2 (wiki)
ng_
Ang
_pa

4. Results and discussion
Table 6 Top 10 result of edit distance (frequent character changed)
Rank

Character difference

1['-C','+K']

2['-g']

3['+g']

4['+n']

5['-a','+i']6['-i']

7['-I','+A']

8['-A','+O']

9['-u','+w']

10['-n']

About 50% (2135 word-pairs) of the old orthography was noted that changed when the edit
distance was used. Table 6 shows the top 10 character changed. The substitution of the letter5

http://nutch.apache.org/314‘c’ to ‘k’ is the most frequent change that happened in the Tagalog orthography (e.g. cung tokung, Aco to ako, and daco to dako ). The reason behind the changes in orthography was dueto the evolution of the alphabet system in the Philippines. Different sets of alphabet wereintroduced: Abakada alphabet, removal of Spanish characters (e.g., rr, ll); Pilipino alphabet,removed Spanish characters were again used to accommodate English and Spanish words;
Modern Filipino, diagraph letters in the alphabet were dropped. The orthography was revised
accordingly to adapt in the transition of alphabet. Based on the similarity metric applied in
the generated trigram models, it showed 69% similarity while remaining 31% showed theinfluence of the Spanish (e.g. _co, arr, laq ). Table 7 shows the top 10 generated trigram
models for each set (top as the most frequent).
Table 7 Top 10 generated trigram models of training data
Rank
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Set1 (julieta)
ng_
Ang
_ma
_pa
_na
an_
_ca
Ing
Ala
Ina

Set2 (wiki)
ng_
Ang
_pa
an_
_ma
_na
_ka
Ala
Pag
Ina

5. Conclusion
Results validated that “laguage is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of whichsociety cooperates” (Bloach and Trager, 1942). The influence of other nations to the country,
like how the Spanish influenced the Filipinos, has been a big factor why evolution of
language happened. The Philippine adjusted its own orthography on the alphabet
implementation of the colonist in order to adapt. Furthermore, result of the research havecontributed to the growing list of studies in language change in the country (Ilao, 2011) since
the Philippines lacks of study in its own languages.
References
Roxas et al. 2009. Philippine language resources: trends and directions. In Proc. 7thWorkshop Asian Language Resources, Suntec, Singapore, pp. 131-138.
Stevens, J.N. 1999. The history of the Filipino Languages. Available at
http://linguistics.byu.edu/classes/ling450ch/reports/filipino.html. (Accessed 26 April2015).
Tan,
N.
2014.
EvolutionoftheFilipinoalphabet.
http://www.rappler.com/newsbreak/iq/66819-evolution-filipino-alphabet.
The Nature of the language and Linguistics. 2007. Available athttps://neoenglish.wordpress.com/2010/12/26/the-nature-of-language-and-linguistics/.
(Accessed 28 May 2015).
Bautista V. 1998. The Philippines: Then and Now. Excerpted from The Filipino Americans(From 1763 to the Present): Their History, Culture, and Traditions.
Rebecca.
2009.
SpanishinfluenceonthePhilippines.
Availableat
http://preparetoserve.com/blog/spanish-influence-on-the-philippines/. (Accessed 28
April 2015).
Gugol, M.V. 2011. National Commission for Culture and the Arts. Available at
http://www.ncca.gov.ph/about-culture-and-arts/articles-on-c-na/article.php?igm=3&i=218. (Accessed 28 April 2015).
315

Levenshtein V. I. 1966. Binary codes capable of correcting deletions, insertions, andreversals. Soviet Physics Doklady, vol. 10, no. 8, pp. 707–710.
Oco, Nathaniel and Rachel Edita Roxas. 2012. Pattern matching refinements to dictionarybased code-switching point detection. In Proceedings of the 26th Pacific Asia
Conference on Language, Information, and Computation, 229-236. Jakarta:
Universitas Indonesia.
Morrow P. 2007. Jose Rizal and the Filipino language. Pilipino Express • Vol. 3 No. 12.
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. June 16 - 30, 2007.
Oco, N. et al. 2013. Measuring Language Similarity using Trigrams. 2013 International
Conference on Recent Trends in Information Technology (ICRTIT).
Oco, N., Octaviano Jr., M., Hiya, A.P., Manalo, S.R., Pinca, R.C. 2015. Developing aLanguage Identification System for Eleven Philippine Languages: Using true
positives to measure Language Similarity. Proceedings of the 15th Philippine
Computing Science Congress (PCSC 2015).
Oco, Nathaniel, Leif Romeritch Syliongka, Tod Allman, Rachel Edita Roxas. 2015. Building
Resources for Philippine Languages. MultipLe ApProachEs X multiIingual frame
semantiCs wOrdnet geNerative Workshop (Tendo City, Yamagata, Japan. February
09-10).
Bloch, Bernard and George Trager. 1942. Outline of Linguistic Analysis. Baltimore:
Linguistic Society of America.
Ilao, J. et al. 2011. Bantay-wika: Towards a better understanding of the dynamics of Filipino
culture and linguistic change. In Proceedings of the 9th Workshop Asian Language
Resources, 10-17. Chiang Mai: Asian Federation of Natural Language Processing.

316

FilCon: Filipino sentiment lexicon generation using word levelannotated dictionary-based and corpus-based cross lingual approach
Darlan Keen Domingo1, Nyker Matthew King2, Jerome Lorenzo
Lopez3, Alexandra Mondares4, Charmaine Ponay5
Department of Computer Science
Institute of Information and Computing Sciences
University of Santo Tomas
España, Manila, The Philippines{12011031273, 22011032329, 32011032399, 42011031293, 5csponay}@ust-ics.mygbiz.com

Abstract
The FilCon is a generated subjective lexicon for the Filipino language. It contains 22,380 words
primarily based on a Filipino-English bilingual dictionary and aligned with SentiWordNet 3.0’s polarity
values.
The existing identical entries from the first iteration of lexicon generation are filtered according to theirtranslation accuracy produced using Moses training sets. The final iteration involves sorting of words
and the generation of final output in the form of a .txt file based on SentiWordNet’s format having:
POS, ID, POS_SCORE, NEG_SCORE, ENG_WORD and with the additional attribute, FIL_WORD.
The produced results were analyzed and interpreted by applying FilCon into various test cases ofsubjective classification of opinions to calculate the overall accuracy of the lexicon. The overall
accuracy of FilCon based on a sentence sentiment analysis is 38.18%.

Keywords: Filipino, polarity lexicon, sentiment lexicon, subjective lexicon, sentiWordNet

1. The Problem and Its Background1.1. Introduction
Several researchers have conducted many new approaches and algorithms to animate acomputer with human-conversational capabilities. These approaches have led to thedevelopment of the branch of science known as Natural Language Processing (NLP). NLP,
according to Liddy (2001), “is a range of computational techniques for analyzing andrepresenting naturally occurring texts for the purpose of achieving human-like language
processing for a range of tasks or applications”.
A language could convey messages delivered through verbal or non-verbal communication. A
non-verbal communication contains textual information which can be categorized into two,facts or objective information and opinions or subjective information (Regaldo & Cheng,2012). The subjectivity of a word can be determined by comparing to an existing subjectivity
scores of the lexicon. Subjectivity scores contain positivity, negativity, and neutrality
percentage values expressed in decimal form.
An example of an English lexicon is the WordNet, created by Princeton University in 2006
for the purpose of having a lexical-conceptual database. This database contains lexical units
and their interrelationship (Bondoc, Garcia, Lacaden, Ping, & Borra, 2010).

317

One kind of WordNet is SentiWordNet. SentiWordNet is an enhanced lexical resource forsentiment analysis and opinion mining. This lexicon contains subjectivity scores, positivity,
negativity, and neutrality polarity values.
This study was conducted in order to aid the studies in sentiment analysis. Before this study,
the Filipino language polarity lexicon did not yet exist. FilCon is another tool like
SentiWordNet; FilCon is in the Filipino language; whereas, SentiWordNet is in the English
language. FilCon was constructed using a bilingual dictionary aligned with the polarity scoresprovided by SentiWordNet. Since neither the lexicon nor the bilingual dictionary provides
information concerning the semantic meaning of the identical entries, FilCon has to rely on
the most probable sense in the target language using Moses.
1.2. Background of the Study
Finding out people’s thoughts is an essential part of information gathering (Pang & Lee,2008). Opinion mining and sentiment analyses are tools used to find out what people think.
Sentiment analyses have been used by diverse disciplines and various industries in thecommunity. Commercial, academe, and information technology industries are using sentiment
analysis in analyzing customer and survey feedbacks.
Part of the sentiment analysis is subjectivity classification which describes a sentence as towhether it is objective or subjective. Subjectivity involves a bootstrapping approach. It
involves the use a high precision classifier to automatically identify subjective and objective
sentences. “It is based on manually collected lexical items and single words which are goodsubjective clues.” (Moghaddam & Ester, 2012)
With the current advancements in natural language processing, most sentiment analysis
applications utilize a lexical resource that provides the scores needed to determine thepositivity or negativity of a sentiment.
Since most sentiment analysis applications did not have a Filipino lexicon as a base language
this study focused on generating a lexical resource in the Filipino language.
1.3. Theoretical Framework
Opinion lexicons, also called as subjective lexicons, are resources consisting of words
annotated with sentiment polarity scores or subjectivity.
Two of the most frequently used opinion lexicons are OpinionFinder and SentiWordNet.
OpinionFinder is a subjective lexicon. On the other hand, SentiWordNet is a polarity lexicon.
OpinionFinder was compiled from manually developed resources augmented with entries
learned from corpora. Its entries have been labeled for part of speech including subjectivity into which, words that appeared in most subjective context are labeled strong while those thatappear often are labeled weak.
The other lexicon, SentiWordNet, is created by Esuli and Sebastiani (2006) as a subset of
WordNet. SentiWordNet assigns to each synset of WordNet three sentiment classifiers withscores of polarity, positive, negative, and objective.
Opinion lexicons were built using several approaches. The simplest approach that has been
attempted for building these opinion lexicons in a new language is the dictionary-based
approach, wherein the existing lexical resource is translated using a bilingual dictionary.

318

In a study conducted by Mihalcea, Banea and Wiebe (2008), a dictionary-based approach wasused to generate a subjectivity lexicon for the Romanian language. Starting with the English
opinion lexicon from the OpinionFinder, words were lemmatized for translation using an
English-Romanian dictionary. However, in some cases, translations loses their subjectivity
due to word ambiguity and lemmatization. Considering these problems, the researchers sought
to find the most probable translation for each English entries with direct translation.

English Opinion
Lexicon from
OpinionFinder

Romanian-English
Bilingual Dictionary

Lemmatization of
Words
Translation of
Entries
Annotation of
Subjectivity
Romanian
Subjectivity
LexiconNews
Sourcesfrom WebFrequency comparisonand evaluation of
entriesFigure 1 Theoretical Framework of the Study
To evaluate the lexicon, two native speakers of Romanian annotated the subjectivity of 150
randomly selected entries. The subjectivity of every entry was judged in the context where it
frequently appears on websites, accounting for its common meanings. Results show that 123
entries were correctly translated.
The Figure 1 is a block diagram of Mihalcea, Banea and Wiebe’s (2011) study in building
Romanian Subjectivity Lexicon.
Furthermore, another study of Hamouda and Rohaim (2011) states that, the SentiWordNet canalso be used as an important resource for sentiment classification tasks. These researchers
conducted a study to classify sentiments and determine the subjectivity of English reviews. As
a preparation for the sentiment classification, the following linguistic analysis processes weremade for pre-defined input reviews:
Tokenization process: splits the text into very simple tokens such as numbers,
punctuation and words of different types.



Sentence Splitting process: segments the text into sentences. This module is required
for the Speech Tagging Process. The splitter uses a list of abbreviations to help
distinguish sentence-marking full stops from other kinds.

319



Speech Tagging Process: produces a part-of-speech tag as an annotation on each wordor symbol.



SentiWordNet Interpretation: matching the words with the SentiWordNet semantic
entries.



SentiWordNet Orientation: estimates the polarity score of a word in regards to asentiment class (negativity, positivity and neutrality) and its relative frequency of
appearance in that class is carried out using this method.

Figure 2 Hamouda and Rohaim’s (2011) Review Sentiment Classification using
SentiWordNet
After the linguistic processes, the techniques to calculate the positive and negative scores foreach review were proposed. These are the ‘Sum on Review’ and ‘Average on Sentence and
Average on Review’. The results of the study extracted from these techniques show
significant improvement in the overall accuracy to be 67% and 68.63%.
1.4. Conceptual Framework
Data mining is defined as the computer-assisted process of searching and modifying
large sets of data followed by the extraction of its meaning (Alexander, n.d.). The data
mining in FilCon aim to retrieve Filipino words as FilCon's primary input used forfurther processing.

320

Filipino Words

Filipino Sentences

Filipino-English
BilingualDictionary

Retrieval of Filipino
Words

Retrieval of Filipino
CorpusTranslation of Words
Manual Translation of
CorpusAnnotation of Polarity
ScoresSentiWordNet

Train corpus in Moses
Removal of Identical Entries
using Moses training
Trained Sets
Evaluation of the FilCon
using native speakers

Figure 3 Conceptual Framework of the StudyIn the first text file generation containing the retrieved words, each Filipino word wastranslated to English using a Filipino-English bilingual dictionary. The translated words werecross-referenced with the same English entries but with annotated polarity scores from
SentiWordNet 3.0. These polarity scores were also retrieved and aligned together with thecorresponding Filipino entries.
The SentiWordNet 3.0, a basis of polarity scores describing the positivity and/or negativity ofa word, also provided the additional needed fields for FilCon such as the POS, ID,
POS_SCORE, NEG_SCORE, ENG_WORD and FIL_WORD.
These processes could be compared with the Figure I-1 where the dictionary-based approach
was used. However, in the Romanian lexicon, the subjectivity of the words were annotatedaccording to the English entries retrieved from OpinionFinder while this study used Filipino
words which are annotated with polarity scores according to the English entries from
SentiWordNet.
Furthermore, the retrieval of the Filipino sentences served as the training corpora for the
language tool, Moses, to find the most probable translation for each entry thus, eliminating
identical entries. This task was the counterpart of the direct translation involving the accuracyof the Romanian lexicon.
The FilCon generation applied processes of text analysis which are similar to the approaches
used in Figure I-2. For instance, tokenization, SentiWordNet interpretation, and orientation
were also be adopted by FilCon. The translated Filipino words were tokenized and crossreferenced with the SentiWordNet English entries, aligning the proper polarity scores from321

SentiWordNet entries to FilCon entries. The reconstructed lexicon was, then, the output of thesystem which can be used in opinion classification.
1.5. Statement of the problem
In the field of Sentiment Analysis, the need for a lexical resource in different languages as abasis for determining subjectivity remains an open domain. In this regard, this study aimed togenerate a Filipino Subjective Lexicon, through application of the word level-annotateddictionary-based and corpus-based cross lingual approach with the use of a Filipino-English
bilingual dictionary, Moses, and SentiWordNet. Specifically, it also intended to answer thefollowing questions:

1. Were the Filipino-English bilingual dictionary, Moses and SentiWordNet a
possible combination in generating a Filipino Subjective Lexicon?

2. What was the accuracy level of the translated words against the entries of
SentiWordNet?

3. What was the accuracy level of the generated Filipino Subjective Lexicon using
the Filipino-English bilingual dictionary, Moses and SentiWordNet?

4. Was there a significant difference between the sentiment scores of the generated
Filipino Subjective Lexicon through the use of the Filipino-English bilingual
dictionary, Moses and SentiWordNet and expert’s sentiment scores?

1.6. Objectives of the Study
The main objective of this study was to develop a Filipino Subjective lexical resource withacceptable polarity scores by application of the word level-annotated dictionary-based andcorpus-based cross lingual approach through the use a Filipino-English bilingual dictionary,Moses and SentiWordNet which could contribute to the development of the Natural Language
Processing, specifically, Sentiment Analysis, which is an area in NLP.
The FilCon generation undergo the following different phases and modules:
a. Data Mining. In this phase, the researchers seek to retrieve Filipino words from a
Filipino-English bilingual dictionary to use as FilCon's primary input and to retrieve
Filipino-English sentences to serve as the training corpora for further processing oflexicon entries.
b. Word Translation. The second phase indicated the translation of Filipino words toEnglish for the cross-referencing of entries with the SentiWordNet 3.0.
c. Cross-Lingual Projection. The translation of the Filipino words were matched withthe same English word found in the SentiWordNet entries. The aligned polarity scoreof a SentiWordNet entry were retrieved and aligned with the same semantic meaningin Filipino.
d. Corpus Training. The retrieved Filipino-English sentences were trained in Moses toprovide each Filipino entry with their corresponding translation accuracy. The
translation accuracy indicated the most probable translation for each word.

322

e. Word Filtering. This phase conveyed the acceptable polarity scores aligned with theFilipino words retrieved in terms of identical entries. It also involved the applicationof the translation accuracy to filter multiple entries with different translations andpart-of-speech.
1.7. Scope and Limitations
The study aimed to provide a lexical resource annotated with polarity scores of the Filipino
language using the word level-annotated dictionary-based and corpus-based cross lingual
approach through the use of a Filipino-English bilingual dictionary, Moses, andSentiWordNet 3.0.
The study focused on the retrieved Filipino words as the primary input of FilCon. The outputof this study, FilCon, would only provide the following fields: (a) Part of Speech (POS), (b)ID, (c) Positivity Score (POS_SCORE), (d) negativity score (NEG_SCORE), (e)corresponding English translation of the Filipino word (ENG_WORD), and (f) the Filipino
word (FIL_WORD).
This study was only limited in providing its users the lexical resource and the polarity scores
determined through pairing of SentiWordNet English word’s polarity score with its
corresponding translated Filipino word. Sentiment analysis of scenarios and instances would
not be covered by the study, however, it may be used for the testing of accuracy.
The researchers emphasized on the fact that this study would only help writers and linguists
construct their literary texts with consideration of having a good diction by referring to thesentiment values. The researchers also made the study to aid programmers develop a system
geared towards an acceptable basis for Filipino sentiment analysis of their programs. The
sentiment values of the Filipino words generated by this study were based on SentiWordNet
3.0 and, hence, based on their criteria.

1.8. Significance of the Study
According to a study conducted by Martha Perry, Face to Face (FtF) communication ispreferred by couples rather than Computer Mediated Communications (CMC); because CMC
supposedly contributes to misunderstandings and frustration, which can lead to escalated
conflict (Perry, 2010). If it were said that technology bring people together (Chiala, 2013),
then, this study could help clear out the ambiguities between in CMCs and further enable theunderstanding a person’s message.
The study aimed to provide a Filipino Subjective Lexicon (FilCon) to be used in future
Natural Language Processing applications. This study was able to give a significant benefit toentities especially to:
1. Sentiment Analysis Systems Programmers
FilCon can provide programmers with the utmost accurate automated Filipino
lexicon in order to efficiently integrate the analysis of subjectivity of Filipino
context into their sentiment analysis systems.
2. Artificial Intelligence Systems Programmers
Artificial Intelligent (AI) systems mostly rely on subjectivity lexicon (prelearned) and machine learned experience. With subjectivity lexicon mostly
made from the English language, it would be of a great milestone to be able
to develop an AI system in the Filipino language.

323

2. The FilCon
Scaling would be assigning a metric system as a standard unit of measurement for a certain
object. To scale a subjective statement, sentiment analysis is required. Such analysis are
conducted in order to draw acceptable conclusion regarding a certain matter based on thestandard scale. This standard scale is the FilCon.

FilCon is generally an opinion polarity lexicon which determined the polarity (positivity andnegativity degree) of a word which then contributes in the analysis of the subjectivity and thesentiment of a given document. With the use of FilCon, annotating Filipino words for
subjectivity analysis would be automatically be available to its users without humanintervention.

FilCon was basically constructed through the use of dictionary-based approach. This approachgave a developing language an advantage for a seamless generation of words in the lexicon
through direct translation at a word/phrase-level. This was how FilCon came into existence.
FilCon made use of an English-Filipino bilingual dictionary in translating synsets in the
SentiWordNet lexicon.

Sampling of words from the FilCon was made through the use of MOSES training tool.
MOSES did the training through aligning of English sentences with a human-provided
counter-translation Filipino sentences. These sentences were fed into MOSES for aligning.
This process, then, yielded translation probability accuracy for a group of words in FilCon.
The testing of the accuracy of subjectivity was measured through the use of corpus-based
approach.

324

3. FilCon Creation
3.1. System Architecture
The architecture represents the system flow of the generation of Filipino words aligned withpolarity scores in FilCon.
Filipino Words

Filipino-English
Bilingual Dictionary

SentiWordNet 3.0

Data mining

Filipino-English
Sentences
Corpus

Lexicon withTranslation Accuracy

Translation& POS
Tagging
Moses Training

ManualSelection oftranslation
Selection
based onhighestTRANS_ACC

Cross-lingual
Projection
Elimination of
Identical entries

Yes

CASE 1:
Multiple translations
with same
TRANS_ACCNo
Yes

CASE 2:Multiple translations
with different
TRANS_ACC

No

FilConYes
Sorting

CASE 3:
No identical entry

Figure 4 System Architecture of the Study
This study focused on generating a Filipino Subjective Lexicon using Filipino-English
bilingual dictionary, Moses, and SentiWordNet 3.0. The researchers designed modules andinterfaces patterned to the previous study mentioned in the conceptual framework of Chapter
1. This is evident in the figure shown below.
3.2. Description of Modules and Interfaces
a. Data mining: The Filipino words were retrieved to serve as the initial entries for
FilCon. There was no separation of subjective words from the objective words.
b. Translation and POS Tagging: The Filipino words, as input strings, undergone
translation and POS Tagging processes. With the use of a Filipino-English
bilingual dictionary as a basis, the English translation and the Part of Speech of aFilipino word was provided, hence, translation was done.

325

c. Cross-Lingual Projection: Once the Filipino words were given with English
translations, the polarity scores were annotated. The English entries and theircorresponding polarity scores from SentiWordNet 3.0 were matched with thesame English translation of a specific Filipino word. Word-matching and polarity
scores annotation was another term for this module.
d. Moses Training: This module trained sets of corpora. With the Filipino
sentences having their English translations, the translation accuracy for each word
can be obtained by determining the frequency of appearance of the Filipino wordin the sentence and then, retrieving the English translation counterpart in the
English sentence. In this way, the translation accuracy becomes a basis for themost probable translation of a word thus creating a new database for each Filipino
word with the translation accuracy.
e. Elimination of Identical Entries: This module seek to filter the words byfinding the most probable translation for a specific word, reducing the varioustranslations made. Using the translation accuracy, the following cases are
addressed:a. Case 1: If there were different translated entries but with the sametranslation accuracy for a specific Filipino word, the word filtering wasdone by manual selection of the most probable meaning of each word.
b. Case 2: If there were different translation and different translation
accuracy for a specific Filipino word, the word filtering was done byautomatic selection of the word with the highest translation accuracy.
c. Case 3: If there were no identical translated entries for a specific Filipino
word, it was automatically included in the final output to be sorted.
d. Sorting: Through PHP scripting, the filtered lexicon database obtainedwith translation accuracy were joined to form a sorted lexicon, FilCon,
with POS, ID, POS_SCORE, NEG_SCORE, ENG_WORD and
FIL_WORD.

3.3. Results of Conducted Research
The Filipino-English bilingual dictionary, Moses and SentiWordNet 3.0 were combined togenerate a Filipino Subjective Lexicon. The Filipino words were translated to the mostprobable translation using the translation accuracy generated by Moses. FilCon was
generated, containing 22,380 words annotated with polarity scores. However, there werearound 30-40% part of the FilCon that were with lemma and the remaining were in the baseform (root word). These results were used for analysis and interpretation.

4. Evaluation
4.1. Analysis and Interpretation of Results
In order to evaluate the accuracy of each word in the generated Filipino Subjective Lexicon
using a Filipino-English bilingual dictionary, Moses, and SentiWordNet 3.0, the translation
accuracy was used from the training sets in Moses. If there were more than one translations
for a specific word, the translation with a high translation accuracy was interpreted to be of
the nearest possible translation for that corresponding Filipino word. However, if there was at
most one translation for that specific word, then it was considered as the probable translation
available.
326

Figure 5 Translation accuracy of Filipino words
Moreover, the translation accuracy for these Filipino words were averaged and multiplied to100% to evaluate the accuracy level of translation of entries. By applying the formula ofaveraging in Figure 5, the overall translation accuracy yielded an accuracy of 63.622%. Such
result was obtained since some of the alignment during the MOSES training is not properly
matched with the right translation; hence, it may result into a mistranslation in the FilCon
entry.
For the overall evaluation of the accuracy level of FilCon, the researchers tested the output of
the system by using sentences that were handpicked and randomly selected from various
sources. The results of the system(see Appendix D, Table D-1) were then compared to theevaluation of an expert using a two-tailed t-test with ά =0.05 having the hypotheses Ho: μ1=μ2
and H1: μ1≠μ2.
Table 1 Sentiments confusion matrix
EXPERTSFILCON
Positive Negative Neutral
Positive
11
3
1
Negative
810
1
Neutral1290Table 1 shows a confusion matrix of the results of the sentences that were evaluated by thesystem versus the evaluation of the experts having the expert’s evaluation the basis. The rightdiagonal of the matrix shows how many sentences where evaluated the same by the systemand the experts. The other cells shows the number of sentence that were evaluated differently
by the system and the experts. There were 21 correctly evaluated sentences and 34 incorrectly
evaluated sentences for a total of 55 sentences evaluated.

Figure 6 Formula for calculating FilCon’s accuracy
FilCon’s accuracy were then calculated using the formula given on Figure IV-2. Based on thecalculation,
FilCon’s accuracy is 38.18%.

Figure 7 T-test formula for paired two sample for means

327

Table 2 Summary of the T-Test computation
SystemExpertMean-0.058906422
0.140606061
Observations(n)55
55
t computed-2.63523816
t critical±2.004879288
Table 2 shows the means of the means of the results of the system and t computed using theformula in Figure IV-4 and the t critical from the table of t-values. The t computed, 2.63523816, is outside the range of the t critical values ±2.004879288, hence we reject Ho. It
denotes that there was a significant difference between the system’s sentiment scores and theexpert’s sentiment scores.

4.2. Summary of Findings
The generation of the FilCon yielded the following results:
1. The Filipino-English bilingual dictionary, Moses, and SentiWordNet was a possiblecombination in generating a Filipino Subjective Lexicon.
2. The translation (SentiWordNet from English to Filipino) accuracy of the FilCon
entries is 63.622%.
3. The overall accuracy of FilCon was 38.18%.
4. The generated FilCon were significantly different from expert’s scores.

5. Conclusions
The researchers were able to generate a Filipino Polarity Lexicon, FilCon adapting the
combination of word level-annotation approach, dictionary-based approach and corpus-based
cross lingual approach through the use of language tools involving the Filipino-English
bilingual dictionary, Moses and SentiWordNet.
The translation of FilCon entries and its cross-lingual projection with the SentiWordNet
entries were made possible. Out of 6,124 sample data from the training sets of Moses used forcomputing the translation accuracy, the result yields 63.622%. It only showed that thetranslation of the Filipino words is relatively accurate.
The overall accuracy of FilCon depended on the sentence sentiment analysis. Based on the
results, 38.18% was the accuracy.
In the t-test computation, there was a significant difference between the sentiment scores of
FilCon and sentiment scores of experts. It denoted that scores from the generated lexicon
were significantly different from expert’s scores.

Acknowledgements
First of all, we would like to thank the Almighty God for giving us the strength, wisdom, knowledge andperseverance to make this great endeavor possible. We lift up all praises and glory to Him.
We would like to express our deepest gratitude to our dear adviser, Ms. Charmaine Ponay, for guiding us
throughout this endeavor. Our coordinator, Assoc. Prof. Perla Cosme for contributing her knowledge and ideas forthe improvement of this study.
Lastly, we would like to share the success and thank our families and friends for all the support and understanding
they have extended to us all.

328

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330

An Empirical Study of English Corpus as a Reference Tool for PhD
Students
LI LanHong Kong Polytechnic University
lan.li@polyu.edu.hk
Abstract
The important role of dictionaries in language studies is widely acepted. ESL learners rely on
dictionaries to find word meaning, pronunciation, grammar and usage. However, with the advancementof modern technology, especially with open access to free online language corpora, the consultation of
corpora offers new possibilities and perspectives to advanced learners. As a result, particularly in
relation to the productive use of language, the reliance on dictionaries may have been changed.
Although corpus as an aid to language teaching and learning has been embedded in many linguistic
subjects in tertiary institutions, this valuable resource has not been widely-used by research students inother disciplines. Also, whilst there has been an abundance of literature on how corpus is applied in
education by teachers and textbook compilers, little research has been conducted into student use of
corpora and their opinions, strategies and problems in corpus use.
This project aims to investigate whether reference skills of postgraduate students can change, or havechanged, from using dictionaries to using corpora in high-level academic writing. After a corpus
workshop, PhD students from different linguistic backgrounds all agreed that corpus would be useful intheir academic writing. The questionnaire survey revealed their enthusiasm in using something new andrelevant. The post-training interviews revealed that although online dictionaries are mostly-usedreference tool, the use of corpus is gaining a solid increase among PhD students in productive use of
the English language, especially in thesis and journal paper writing. Students also regarded training in
corpus use as highly necessary. The results can help promote corpus application in high-level academic
writing curricular, and can invite critical reflections on methodologies of using data with more effective
reference skills.
Keywords: corpus, academic writing, reference skills, efficiency

Background
Reference skills are important for learners of any language. Among all types of reference
tools, such as dictionaries, thesaurus, maps, almanacs, dictionaries are the mostly usedreference books at all levels because of their convenience in use and immediacy of result.
However, with emerging language corpora directly used in teaching and learning, the role ofdictionary to learners, especially to advanced learners may start changing. In the last two
decades a large number of scholarly books and research articles have been published on theapplication of corpus techniques in semantic studies, in lexicography, in grammar, indiscourse analysis, and in textbook compilation. However, little is known about how far thisnew reference tool has reached students as end users, how learners think of corpus use andwhether corpus really makes difference in academic writing.
Dictionary as a reference tool
Many reports in the recent literature have indicated that dictionary and corpus are significant
reference tools in linguistic studies. Dictionaries are considered as a conventional reference
book (Nesi, 2014), while corpora are emerging resource-pool that language users could
discover appropriate language patterns in context (Granger 2003). There have been many
user studies portraying student lexicographic practice (Nesi 2014; Tono 2012; East 2008; Li
1999) of how learners consult dictionaries to meet their productive or receptive needs in using
a language.
Lexicography has a long history of user study. To meet different needs of users and to
improve the reference tool, user studies have been tremendously conducted by linguists and331lexicographers in tandem with the development of dictionaries (Wiegand 1998). According toHartmann, dictionary use and user studies have dealt with four thematic categories: dictionary
typology, user typology, needs analysis, and skills analysis (Hartmann 1989: 105). The
studies have the following functions and try to address related questions:1.
Research into the information categories presented in dictionaries: "What is ina dictionary?"
2.
Research into specific dictionary user groups: "Who needs dictionaries?"
3.
Research into the contexts of dictionary use: "What is a dictionary for?"4.
Research into dictionary look-up strategies: "How do you find what you
need?”(Hartmann 1987: 123)
In a recent article, Nesi reported the research into dictionary influence on language learning,
and language learners’ consultation behavior (Nesi 2014). Unquestionably, lexicographicalstudies have switched focus from dictionaries per se to the educational use of dictionaries, andthis has been verified by some lexicographers (e.g. Laufer & Levitzky Aviad 2006; Ronald
2002). Ronald (2002), by testing 300 words from a reading test, proved the assumption that amonolingual dictionary is beneficial to a learner’s vocabulary growth. He found that students
who more frequently consulted dictionaries remembered more words than students who had
limited consultations. In another experiment by Laufer and Levitzky-Aviad (2006),
participants were required to conduct Hebrew-English translation with target words retrieved
from four dictionaries and complete a questionnaire. The results suggested that L1-L2-L2
dictionary was suitable to help writing tasks, because the most prevalent consulting pattern
was “translation+ definition+ example”. Students were found to prefer computerized bilingual
dictionaries to paper-based equivalents. In the perspective of how dictionary are consulted,
Lew (2010), Nesi and Tan (2011) noticed the shortcuts in the interface of on-line dictionaries
and figured out that the signposts were related to more accurate consultations. Nesi and Tan
added that log-files could reveal the consultation process but not effectively construe thereasons for consultation decisions. Likewise, Tono (2012) employed eye-tracking technology
to collect information about the electronic dictionary consultation process. Entry-initial items
proved to be more useful than entry-internal signposts for learners with low English
proficiency. Monolingual and bilingual entries were equally comprehensible. Generally
speaking, although studies into the dictionary use only have several decades of researcch
history, they have been conducted from different aspects, and seem to have reached, as
claimed by Nesi (2014), a mature stage with a structured framework. Given that both
dictionary and corpus can be used for reference, many research techniques in dictionary user
studies can be applied to corpus user studies.
Many scholars and educators in the last twenty years have advocated direct corpus use inteaching and learning. Corpus, as claimed by Biber (1996), entails abundant information that
could give a worthy complementary perspective to the existing teaching material andpedagogy. Dictionaries and course books derived from corpora offer learners with significant
information in terms of lexical use and collocation. Corpus activities in classroom cancontribute more in lexical studies, changing the design of teaching from deductive to
inductive manners. John affirms that the “language learner is also, essentially, a research
worker who’s learning needs to be driven by access to linguistic data” (1991: 2). Students insuch a classroom should work with concordances and consult corpora in an exploratory way(John 2002). Despite all these comments and practices, it is surprising that very limited
scholarly attention has been given to students’ opinion, strategies and problems in using
corpus as a reference tool.

332

The role of corpus in education
The development of English corpora, together with the fast advance of computer technology,
has inspired corpora to offer new perspectives for teachers ‘to see phenomena that previously
remained obscure because of the limitation of our vintage points’ (Kenny 2001: xiii). John
Sinclair (2003) believes that natural language use constitutes the best source of linguistic
evidence, and such use can only be found in authentic communicative texts. Since its
inception, corpus linguistics has transformed from a highly technical apparatus for
lexicography and syntax to a handy, native-informant-like reference tool for both teaching
and learning purposes. In the last few decades corpus has made remarkable contributions tohigher education: The first is generating Academic Word Lists (Coxhead 1998; Gardner andDavies 2014), to genre-specific phrases and lexical bundles (Shin and Nation 2008; Vlach andEllis 2010; Martinez and Schimitt, 2012). Corpus has also been used as a knowledge poolthat provides primary resource to inform students of stylistic features frequently occurring incertain generic discourse. Corpus linguists have devised a tagging system to code andgenerate move structure. Thompson (2000) programmed the coding that would distinguishintegral from non-integral citations in PhD dissertation. Flowerdew and Dudley-Evans (2002)
identified moves in editorial letters to international journals and extracted interpersonal
strategies in different rhetorical segments. More importantly, Upton and Connor (2009)presented a seven-step corpus-based approach for discourse analysis (2009), which started
from annotation and analysis of individual texts, to figuring out typical organizational
patterns, and then generalized them to all texts across the corpus.
Besides extracting linguistic information from corpora for teaching materials, educators havealso probed into corpus-assisted language pedagogy, which Johns (1991) called Data Driven
Learning (DDL), both in classroom teaching and for student self-learning. DDL is a corpus
approach to language learning based on the assumption that the use of authentic language
together with a concordancer will enable learners to gain insights into the language used inreal-life situations. What is more, the process of DDL relies on the learner’s discovery ofrules and patterns of language use, not on the teacher’s explanation and provision of examplesof the language invented for pedagogical purposes. In the same vein, Römer (2006) madesome suggestions to the DDL, including more relevant corpora, more user-friendly learning
software and more connections between teaching practitioners and researchers. Römer (2009)claimed that corpus was a reliable reference tool to help solve teachers’ language problems,
but before employment, teachers should be trained in corpus use by corpus linguistics. PérezParedes (2010) and Boulton (2010) have contributed to the methodological development of
DDL, such as, building a tagging system which is easily customized and manipulated byteachers, so that a corpus would become teaching materials (Pérez-Paredes 2010).
Furthermore, integrating DDL elements into coursebook and other online materials could
make the teaching approach more accessible (Boulton 2010). In addition to recommending
some corpus-based activities to in-service teachers, Bennet (2010) also provided a framework
for activity design. There are seven steps in the framework: 1) asking a research question; 2)
determining the register on which your students are focused; 3) selecting a corpus suitable to
the register; 4) using a concordancing program for quantitative analysis; 5) engaging inqualitative analysis; 6) creating exercises for students, and 7) engaging students in a wholelanguage activity.
Many scholars and educators in the last decades have advocated direct corpus use in teaching
and learning. Dictionaries and course books derived from corpora offer learners withsignificant information in terms of lexical use and collocation. Corpus activities in classroom
can contribute more in lexical studies, changing the design of teaching from deductive to
inductive manners. As Park observed “a great number of studies have noted the potential
benefits of using corpora to facilitate language learning” (Park 2012: 363), in which“language learner is also, essentially, a research worker who’s learning needs to be driven byaccess to linguistic data” (John 1991: 2). Students in such a classroom should work withconcordances and consult corpora in an exploratory way (John 2002). Despite all these333comments and practices, most of studies report the corpus use from teacher’s perspective, thatis, how teachers could produce instructional materials or design activities. Real learners are
rarely involved.
Although very limited scholarly attention has been given to students’ opinion, strategies andproblems in corpus use, a couple of field studies were found in literature exploring student
corpus application. The researchers attempted to find out whether corpus consultation could
enhance students’ writing performance, what student awareness of lexico-grammaticalchallenges and problem-solving abilities are. They generally covered four recurring themes
similar to dictionary user research (Nasi 2014):
A English language learners’ preferences and attitudes regarding corpus use;
B The influence of corpus on English language learners’ text production;
C The role of corpora as an aid to English language learning, andD English language learners’ corpus consultation behaviour.
The following table illustrates five corpus user studies found in literature:
Table 1 Corpus user studies
Investigators(s) and year

Sun, Y. C.
(2000)

Gaskell, D.,& Cobb, T.
(2004)

Yoon, H., &Hirvela, A.
(2004)

Park, K.

Participant

Method and findings* Questionnaire survey.
Taiwanese university * The study revealed that most students werestudents
positive towards corpus approach. Web-based
concordancing was especially useful to acquire
knowledge about authentic use of vocabulary
and phrases, but was least effective inunderstanding grammatical rules andimproving writing proficiency.
* *The analysis of large number of concordance
outputs was problematic to students.
*An experiment with concordance
Chinese university
lines and follow-up interview.
students*Reading concordances could help
good learners to reduce and correct
errors in writing. For slow learners,
concordance identification was morestraightforward in lexicaldevelopment than in grammaticaldevelopment.
*Learners were willing to improvetheir grammar with corpus.
*A writing task plus questionnaire
East Asianand interview.
undergraduates*The project examined the EFL
students’ corpus use behavior in thecompletion of a writing assignment,
and their perception about thecorpora as a second language writing
tool.
*Corpus activities were beneficial to
improve L2 writing, in terms oflearning the common use of words,
and building up confidence.
*Students needed proper guide to use
the corpus tools.
*Screen-recording L2 learners’
EFL undergraduates
actual interaction with corpus in334

(2012)Pérez-Paredes, P.,
Sánchez-Tornel, M.,
Alcaraz Calero, J. M.,& Jiménez, P. A.
(2011)in American
universities

Spanish university
students

essay writing.
*Tracing students’ search queries in
the on-line corpus.
*Student communication with corpus
could help microgenetic
developments, enhance their writing
performance, awareness of lexicogrammatical challenges andproblem-solving abilities*Screen-recording student internet
behavior in a writing course under
two conditions: guided and nonguided corpus consultation.
*Students with corpus consultation
guidance preferred using corpus andhad more smooth and effective
consultations.
*Students without prior guidance in
corpus consultation would resort toother online resources especially
Google and Word reference. The
number of queries in completing thewriting task is higher than the othergroup.

The studies can be regarded as pioneers in corpus user research, but the methodology andfindings are rather rudimentary, leaving a research gap for a more comprehensive study. The
current study therefore has the following research questions (RQs):
RQ1: What are the current reference tools used by research students?
RQ2: What are socio-psychological and psycholinguistic factors concerning corpus use by
research students?
RQ3: What are the benefits and limitations of corpus perceived by research students?
RQ4: Is there a need to teach corpus in different disciplines at the higher education level?
RQ5: What are student reference behavior when consulting dictionaries and corpora?
The project seeks learners’ opinions and observes performance in corpus use not from ascholarly point of view, but from a student-user perspectives. I attempt to fill the gap between
theoretical and practical corpus linguistics, particularly how student users communicate with
corpus. However, only the first stage will be reported: student opinions. The study is also
pedagogically significant in that it may help us to understand the legitimate role of corpus inlanguage study. By understanding students’ needs, motivation and behavior in corpus use, wewill be able to adapt corpus curricula to train students to become competent corpus users,
which will not only benefit their ongoing study but also benefit their life-long learning.
Research methodology
A corpus workshop was run for PhD students across the campus of a university in Hong Kong
with the hope to introduce this new reference tool to students with a high level of learning
autonomy. The workshop was initiated not for this research but for helping PhD students. The
two-hour session includes 1) introduction to the features and functions of different English
corpora; 2) explanation and illustration of Sinclair’s five co-selection search methods, namely
core, collocation, colligation, semantic prosody and semantic preference, 3) encouragement of
more strategic use of corpus, and 4) hands-on experience of using corpus. After the tutor’s
brief introduction to corpus types and some free online sources the participants searched the
Corpus of Research Articles (CRA, http://rcpce.engl.polyu.edu.hk/RACorpus/default.htm)
which was compiled by the Department of English of Hong Kong Polytechnic University and335

can be searched free on the internet. The students then moved on to the lab worksheets withpractical tasks which had to be completed by reading concordance lines. Some questions are
as follows:
What can you say about evidence? (adjective + evidence)
What can you do with a conclusion? (verb + conclusion)
What can you do with an assumption? (verb + assumption)
What can findings do? (findings + v)
Can synonym utterly and completely be used interchangeably? Why not? (semantic
prosody)
What is the difference between commit and commit to? (colligation)
After the training session, student opinions were collected by two instruments: questionnaire
and interview. Questionnaires are a commonly used data-gathering technique in the social
sciences and many dictionary user studies used questionnaire surveys because they allow the
researcher to sample a relatively large population, eliciting quantitative data (Gillham 2000).
In this project the survey was used to seek student’s opinion on both dictionary and corpus
use. To ensure content validity, the design of the items were discussed with colleagues whoare specialized in dictionary and corpus teaching. References to published research (Chen2010; Daskaloska 2013; Donesch-Jezo 2011; Li 2005; Liu and Jiang 2009) in the related field
were also consulted to make sure that all the items are directly related to the researchquestions. To obtain a profile of corpus use in academic writing by postgraduate students thequestionnaire had three sections:

1)
Demographic information of informants, including gender, department, mothertongue and educational background.
2)
Sociopsychological variables:






3)



General reference sources
Awareness of corpora
Attitude towards corpora:Purpose of corpus use
Training in corpus
Expectations in corpus
Psycholinguistic variables:
Motivation and interest
Problems in use

As stated before, the corpus training was the main purpose of the workshop and the survey
was a by-product to collect student feedback. The sample size is therefore small. 70 PhD
students who completed the two two-hour corpus workshops answered the questions of
opinion, motivation, experience and problems in consulting corpus. The data gathered fromthe survey were then analysed by different statistical models to demonstrate opinion or
behavior patterns of a sample group. The follow-up interviews were conducted two months
after the corpus workshop to see whether corpora were actually used by PhD students in their
thesis and/or journal article writing and to find out their ability to handle corpus informationand their satisfaction of use. Seven students from different departments were interviewed.
Findings and discussions
This section discusses the results of the questionnaire survey and follow-up interviews. The
frequencies and percentages of students’ responses were mainly used to present the statisticalresults of the survey. Demographic information indicates that the 70 PhD students were from19 department including: computer science; electronic engineering; nursing; hotelmanagement; linguistic studies and so forth. As Asia’s international city, Hong Kong
336

universities house many international students. Our respondents are from a variety of
linguistic backgrounds: 55.7% are from Mainland China; 25.7% are Hong Kong local
students; 5.7% from English-speaking countries and the rest from other parts of the world. 38
are male and 32 are female. The interviewees are from 7 departments; three are art students
and four science students.
Awareness of corpus
Question 1 and 2 of the survey tested student knowledge or awareness of English corpus.
Although language corpus has had a history for over 30 years, many scholars in otherdisciplines may not be aware of this reference tool for language use. Of the 70 participants,
64.7% had never heard about corpus. The 24.5% participants claiming to have used corpus inacademic writing were mostly from the Faculty of Humanities doing linguistic research either
in English or in Chinese. Corpus was not perplexing to students from the Department ofComputer Science; they may have done a large amount of work in data retrieval both fromEnglish corpora and Chinese corpora, but they did not seem to be aware how data can help
themselves directly as a reference tool in academic writing. In the interview a computer
student told us his corpus experience:
We treat corpus as data, not as a tool. We are more interested in information retrieval, data mining,machine learning, and probably statistical patterns. The work may be for other institutions such as thegovernment and media institutions. It is amazing to see how text mining can be presented in a way
directly help me myself in academic writing.
(Y2 Computer student)

Profile of student reference tools
Question 3 creates a profile of reference tools used by PhD students. As a long tradition andstipulated by law, English is the medium of education at universities in Hong Kong. PhD
students are supposed to have a high level of English proficiency when they are admitted tothe university. Yet, as many non-native English (NNE) speakers admit, the productive use ofEnglish words is a big challenge to them. To write better English especially for publication
purposes, reference tools are always consulted. What are the reference tools by this advanced
learner group? Figure 1 provides the answer.

Figure 1 Students’ preferred reference tools before attending the corpus workshop.
Figure 1 shows five common reference tools used by PhD students in their academic study.
Similar to the findings by other scholars (Jian et al. 2009; Li 2005; Lee 2008; Tseng 2009),
the number of students using online dictionaries significantly outnumbered others. 60 out of337

the 70 respondents reported that online dictionaries are their first choice to seek help whensolving lexical problems.
However in the interview, students admitted that online
dictionaries are used for word meaning only. The limitation of online dictionaries, especially
their weakness for productive use of words may have driven some students to other reference
sources. The second choice of reference tools of the PhD group is Google Search. 51 (72.9%)
students admitted they use Google Search very often for lexical help. With the wide coverageof Wi-Fi or 3G in society, particularly in education community, the internet is enjoyed byalmost everyone, therefore it is no doubt that online resources are regarded more convenient
than the conventional printed dictionaries, which has only 17% users in this group. It is not
surprising to see 8.6% students use corpus for lexical problems; majority of the group had
never heard about it before the workshop.
In the post-training interview, we asked interviewers to re-rank the reference tools. Amongthe seven interviewees five thought online dictionaries are still the most popular reference
tools. Corpus is now regarded more useful than Google search:‘Although I was used to conducting Google Search for everything: from terminology to collocationand examples, corpus search seems more relevant to me. You can find the word you wish to use fromthe concordance lines quickly’.
(Y2 Tourism student)
I use dictionary apps for word meaning. They are in fact online dictionaries, aren’t they? As a foreign
student, you have to use dictionaries. However, I use them critically, or just for reference, because theynormally give wrong information in my area. Reading corpus can help me understand words in context.
(Y3 BRE student)
Google search generates too many items, and many hits are just hyperlinks to company websites not
relevant to the question I have in mind. Finding useful information may require reading a few pages
and you may get distracted if something interesting hit your eye.
(Y1 EE student)
Corpus search, especially the CRA search is much faster and relevant in getting the information,compared to Google Search. I wish you had run this corpus workshop earlier in my Year One PhD
study.
(Y3 ABCT student)

The students’ opinion is consistent with Davis observation: ‘Although Google (andother search engines) are useful for finding web pages on a particular topic, they aremuch more limited in terms of linguistically oriented searches.1 Indeed, it ischallenging to look for anything beyond simple words and phrases’ (Davis 2012:264).
Perceived benefits of corpus
Question 5 illustrates the students’ perception of the benefits of corpus, collected immediately
after their first experience of working corpus data. As expected, collocation, colligation andlanguage contexts were immediately recognized as advantageous and useful. Figure 2
illustrates the students’ judgement.

338

Figure 2 Perceived benefits of corpus after the seminar

This finding is consistent with a number of studies (e.g. Aston 2001; Biber, Conrad andReppen 1998; Conrad 2000; Liu and Jiang 2009; Odlin 1994; Yoon 2004), which believe thatthe collocational and colligational patterns provided in the concordance output and theintegration of grammar and vocabulary i.e. lexicogrammar are helpful for language learners.
According to Halliday (1994), language is a network with syntagmatic (what should go withwhat / colligation) and paradigmatic (what should go instead of what / collocation) relations.
Language learners need to face different choices in their learning process. What corpus
provides to learners is a wide range of authentic target language discourse (Yoon 2004),“some of which may be more memorable than those in the dictionary” (Aston 2001: 13), sothat people can know the different choices that either go with or without a certain word. In a
study carried out by Liu & Jiang (2009), 69.7% of the respondents agree that corpus can help
language learners improve their command of lexicogrammatical rules and sensitivity to thecontext in which a word should be used. Such context-based or genre-based corpus study isfound to be helpful for students to identify “common collocational frameworks within
particular genres of communication” (Yoon 2004: 259).
In addition, by looking at the concordance, or KWIC, students can learn the appropriate use ofa word, and improve what Hymes (1972) called “communicative competence” which involves
not only linguistic appropriateness (the right choice of a word), but also cultural
appropriateness (the context in which a particular word can be used). In other words, corpus
can help teachers explain to students “Why something that is grammatically acceptable justdoesn’t sound right” (Conrad 2000: 554), which is especially useful for students to distinguishbetween synonyms (Biber, Conrad and Reppen 1998; Liu and Jiang 2009).
As mentioned before, 75% of the participants never used corpus before. At the workshop,
they learned and tasted Sinclair’s five co-selections in corpus study: collocation, colligation,
semantic prosody and semantic preference. After the practice, 89.6% participants regard
corpus is a useful tool for them in using the English language. A number of students regarded
the workshop very rewarding and wished they had known the reference tool at the beginningof their PhD study; most participants were at the third year of their study.

Reliability and validity of the questionnaire were examined. The relationship between
dependant variables (gender, department, language background, educational level)
and independent variables (survey responses to corpus, dictionary,) were also
examined by correlation analysis. Grouped by the demographic elements whichstrongly influence the survey results, ANOVA was conducted to check significance ofdifferences among various items.
339

Challenges in using corpus
To understand the potential obstacles which may prevent PhD students from using corpus,
Question 6 listed six items relating to the challenges of using corpus. As shown in Figure 3,
more than half of the students felt somewhat frustrated when they had to analyze the data andwork out themselves the language rules of using a word, which will not be provided bycorpus, and may be approachable in dictionaries. The challenge of self-analyzing is also
found in the study by Liu and Jiang (2009) in which the greatest concern of the respondents
was how to use the data effectively and accurately to identify the lexico-grammatical rules.
We were a bit surprised to find that 50% PhD respondents did not like making lexicaljudgement by themselves because they are supposed to be at the top level of independent
learning, and should be actively learners.
Similar to the respondents in Thurstun and Candlin (1998), who complained about the time
and the information load, some students in the present survey also felt daunted by the timerequired on the processing and analyzing data (32.9%) as well as the large number ofexamples generated from corpus (30%).

Figure 3. Perceived limitations of using corpus
As PhD students are advanced learners less than one fifth of the respondents regarded
unfamiliar words as a problem. One limitation of the corpus, as reported by an interviewee, isthat corpus does not categorize data according to “specific journal or conference” reports. In
other words, the search function of corpus has space for improvement.
Determination to use corpus
Despite of the limitations and the first contact with corpus, nearly all the students (69 out of70) regard corpus as useful and every student claimed s/he will use corpus in their thesis
writing. The seven PhD students we interviewed two months after the training informed us
they have been using CRA and other corpora we suggested after the training, the frequency is
at least once a week. The student who was writing the first draft of his thesis claimed using
corpus every day. Some students also suggested using corpus to their NNE supervisors, notonly for language but also for knowledge organization and transfer.
Training is highly needed
In many dictionary user studies, quite a percentage of respondents had doubts about thenecessity of dictionary training in education; people seemed to take the ability of using
dictionary for granted. In this study training of using corpus as a new reference tool was
regarded a highly necessary; all the students except one agreed with this proposition. The lackof training was also regarded as one of the reasons that students think corpus is challenging(Liu and Jiang 2009).
340

The study has some limitations and implications. First the sample size was rather small. With
the intention to understand the corpus training result, only 70 PhD students participated in thesurvey, therefore we found it difficult to describe differences caused by gender, linguistic
background, year of PhD study and subject area. With the project moving on more corpus
training programmes will be conducted and more survey results will be obtained. Only withcomparable number of participants in each category can we confidently describe a full pictureof corpus use by advanced language users. Second, the survey failed to detect what kind of
lexical aids are especially useful through the use of corpus (e.g. synonyms, antonyms,
learning of a new word, etc). Some studies show that students are particularly sensitive to theusefulness of corpus for learning nearly synonyms (Liu and Jiang 2009).
Conclusion
This paper reports PhD student opinion, motivation, experience and problems in corpus
exploitation in contrast to other reference tools. The survey and interview identified thepotential benefits that would facilitate language learners’ choice of using corpus as areference tool, and the limitations that might impede corpus use. The practice wasinvestigated not from a scholarly perspective but from student perspectives. The findings
show that although various online dictionaries are available they are mainly used for receptive
use for finding out word meanings in reading. Google search is regarded convenient and ismostly used for productive use but its overwhelming amount of information is often irrelevant.
PhD students need corpus; they regard the application of corpus offers direct help in academic
writing better than any other reference tools. Nearly all the research students claimed theywould use corpus, no matter what linguistic background they have and which subject area
they are pursuing. It is also evident that the use of corpus should be initiated and trained byteaching staff because corpus exploitation is a completely new learning practice and majorityof students may not be aware of such resources. By understanding students’ needs, motivation
and behavior in corpus use, we should be able to adapt our curricula to train students tobecome competent corpus users, which can not only benefit their ongoing study but also
benefit their life-long language learning. The results can also shed light on the design ofcorpus training materials for advanced language users.
In addition to understand student opinions on corpus use, further research will be conducted
into student performance analysis in corpus exploitation by using screen capture programmes.
We assume that students’ critical thinking and analytical skills, and other aspects addressed in
the questionnaire survey could be measured by the frequency of complex transactions
captured during corpus consultation.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Dean’s Reserve of Faculty of Humanities, Hong Kong Polytechnic University(No. 1-ZVDQ)

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Using Dictionary for Learning English: a Case Study of Non-English
Major Students at People’s Public Security University of China
LI Xiu-ping, WU Huang-gang
People’s Public Security University of China, China
Email: lixp9999@126.com; matt19880909@sina.com
Abstract
Dictionary use plays a pivotal part in language learning. For lexicographers, greater knowledge ofdictionary use makes for better dictionary compilation; for publishers, observing users’ consultation
behaviors helps them to better serve their business; for teachers, learning about learners’ dictionary use
helps them to increase the success of learning English with the use of a dictionary resource. This study
focuses on non-English major students’ using the dictionary for learning English at People’s Public
Security University of China (PPSUC). The research is conducted from both a macro perspective and a
micro perspective. A macro analysis shows what dictionary the subjects own, what dictionary they
prefer when learning English, the purposes of dictionary use, etc. to help the author have a full grasp of
the situation at PPSUC. The micro component of the present study is based on tests, in particularreading tests and word tests. Those tests further an understanding of the issues such as how the subjects
use a dictionary to master a new word, how much they learn about a new word, what they are mostinterested in about each word and so forth. A detailed study on using dictionary not only helps facilitate
English teaching, but contributes to lexicographers’ compilation based on English learners’ feedback.
Keywords: English Learning, dictionary use, lexicography, non-English major

1. Introduction
Dictionary is not only a reference book but also a record of the vocabulary of a language(Jackson 2002). Any language learner, whether one is a native or foreign language learner,
may turn to dictionary for academic help when encountering some lexical problems(Swanepoel 2003). User’s ability to utilize a dictionary partially affects the success of tacklingthose lexical problems because of their devoid of lexical knowledge.
Dictionary use is commonly treated as an individual activity (Atkins and Varantola 2002).
Atkins and Varantola (2002) try to answer some basic questions about dictionary use througha detailed description of 103 subjects’ look-up process (in the paper, these users are divided
into two groups: the Oxford group and the Tampere group). A language user, who is called
learner by Jackson (2002) may refer to a dictionary in two broad types of language tasks: one
where they solve the totally unknown words in reading and listening; the other where theyfind the known words’ specific usages in contexts in writing and speaking. Atkins andRundell (2008) points out that there are two types of user research (market research andacademic research). A clear idea of user profiling and user research contributes to dictionary
compiling and design. It is significant to know about how users consult dictionary and what
information they may get in a dictionary. East (2008) calculates the lexical frequency profiles
to figure out whether dictionary use influences the lexical sophistication of test takers.
Chinese scholars (Zhao 2004; Lang and Li 2003; Meng and Su 2003) have many analyses ofdictionary users. Zhao (2004) investigates the strategies non-English majors use for learning
English, discovering that many students look up words via online dictionary through theirmobile phones. Online dictionary, with the popularity of smartphones, has been increasingly
replacing the traditional paper dictionary and has become the main complementary learning
tool for college students in English learning. Lang and Li (2003) have a macro investigation,such as how often users use a dictionary, when users use a dictionary and what dictionary
they prefer to purchase and the like to show the case of English-major students’ dictionary344

using at Beijing International Studies University and Beijing University of Technology. Mengand Su (2003) argue that more information about types of dictionary and usages of dictionary
should be given by teachers. They always ignore these points or even never mention any
information about dictionary. And dictionary’s compiling has to fully reflect users’ academic
demand (the richness of a dictionary, explanation functions, etc.) or practical demand(convenience and price, etc.)
2. Methodology
The survey is conducted through two ways, namely questionnaire and test. A total number of
300 college students are randomly taken as the subjects of the survey. 300 subjects including
140 freshmen and 160 sophomores, major in criminal investigation, criminal technology andscience and cyberspace security. Questions are divided into two parts: multiple choices andgeneral questions. In addition, 30 students are randomly chosen from sophomores to have atest. There are five stages in the course of taking a test. First, they are given five words
without any context and are required to write as much as possible the linguistic information
they have learned or known about each word without any help from their dictionaries.
Second, they will read part of an article including the previous words and guess each word’s
specific meaning in the given context, also without any dictionaries. Third, any kind of
dictionary is permitted in order to help them have a better understanding of these words they
are partially familiar or completely unfamiliar with and they can record what they get fromdictionaries they refer to on the sheet. Fourth, they are asked to rewrite these words’ linguistic
information and give the words’ meanings in changed contexts after referring to dictionaries.
Last, they will see a passage and underline the words they do not know and write the words
they may look up in their dictionaries to help their reading.
3. Data collection
The data in the paper is collected from questionnaires and students’ performances in theirword tests. In this survey, 300 questionnaires are sent out while 283 valid ones are used foranalysis, including 134 from freshmen and 149 from sophomores. In the test, 30 test papers
are all available for data analysis.
4. Results and discussions
4.1 Dictionary ownership
In terms of paper dictionary ownership, among the total number of the subjects including
freshmen and sophomores, 48.1% have at least one dictionary but 51.9% have no dictionary.
50.7% of the 134 freshmen own their dictionaries, but 45.6% of the 149 sophomores haveone. The ownership percentage of the freshmen is a bit higher than that of the sophomores.
Supporting Yong and Peng (2007), the statistics show that the percentage of dictionary
owning may be affected by the frequency of using dictionaries by the subjects. In thequestionnaire, 77.7% do not frequently use dictionary, and only 8.5% frequently use
dictionary in learning practice. However, in terms of the number of dictionary students own,
Table 1 shows details.
Table 1 Percentage of ownership with regard to the number of owning dictionary
Number of dictionary
Percentage ofownership

One dictionary
93.3%

Two dictionaries
4.4%

Three dictionaries
2.3%

Among the subjects who own paper dictionaries, 93.3% of the subjects who own dictionaries
have only one dictionary, 4.4% have two dictionaries, and 2.3% have three dictionaries. The
situation at PPSUC is an opposite picture of that in Yong and Peng (2007). They sate that allof the subjects claim to have at least one dictionary and 68% of the subjects own at least three345

dictionary but only 3% have one dictionary. The striking difference may lie in that subjects in(Yong and Peng 2007) are university students of English majors for whom dictionary is amust for learning English. Besides, different from the case before 2007, students, especially
non-English major students more rely on online dictionary instead of paper or electronic
dictionary.
When it comes to types of paper dictionary ownership, more details are presented in Table 2.
Table 2 Percentage of dictionary ownership
Type ofdictionary

paper

Percentage
ownershipof

Oxford Learner’s
English-Chinese
Dictionary
63.2%

English-Chinese
dictionary
32.4%

Longman
Dictionary ofEnglish8.8%other dictionaries

3.7%

63.2% of the subjects own Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary, 32.4%
own English-Chinese Dictionary (generally by Chinese publishers), 8.8% own Longman
Dictionary of English, and 3.7% own other dictionaries. (Here, note that the percentage given
is based on whoever owns the type of a certain dictionary, so a certain degree of overlap
exists.)Particularly, 55.9% of the freshmen owning dictionaries have Oxford Advanced Learner’s
English-Chinese Dictionaries, and 77.9% of the sophomores have one; freshmen prefer to
own English-Chinese Dictionary compared with sophomores, for 42.6% freshmen have
English-Chinese Dictionaries while 26.4% sophomores have one; Unfortunately, a small
number of freshmen and sophomores choose Longman Dictionary of English (7.4% freshmen
have Longman Dictionary of English, lower than 14.7% sophomores). Interestingly,
whichever type of dictionary the subject own, bilingual dictionaries are the first choice forthem to use in their English learning. Besides, Oxford version is more widely used byuniversity students than other foreign-publishers’ dictionaries.
A question is designed to know whether it is necessary for the subjects to have one
specialized dictionary based on the fact that the subjects at PPSUC major in the field ofpolicing. The result is that 95.1% have an obvious demand for a specialized dictionary tofacilitate their understanding of those terms in their major references or readings or for theircommunication with foreign experts or scholars on some specialized topics. Actually, thecharacteristics of specialized dictionary (Bowker 2003) are the main basis for their preference
since general dictionary may not effectively solve their perplexing points they come acrosswhen doing reading or speaking.
4.2 Dictionary preference
Some students still choose other more convenient tools to solve their linguistic problems eventhough they may have paper dictionaries. In this section, the subjects were required to choose
which dictionary (paper dictionary, electronic dictionary and online dictionary) they preferred
to consult. Table 3 shows the percentage of the subjects who prefer which type of dictionary.
Table 3 Percentage of dictionary preferenceType of dictionary
Percentageof
preference

Online dictionary
43.1%

Electronic dictionary
37.5%

Paper dictionary
19.2%

43.1% of the subjects regard online dictionary as their best choice. 37.5% choose electronic
dictionary and 19.2% paper dictionary. 91.9% of the subjects preferring to online dictionary
are concerned about the convenience of looking up new words. The richness and examples
online dictionary shows are another 2 reasons for this choice: 42.3% consider the coverage346online dictionary shows, 30.1% think more examples regarding one word seem to be more
important for their choosing online dictionary. However, only 19.1% claim to prefer paper
dictionary. This is supported by Zhao (2004) saying that more than 90% of the college
students frequently use online dictionary installed in their mobile phones when leaning
English. Many of them do not use a paper dictionary, or do not know how to use them. Quite
a number of students think that online dictionary can meet their daily demand of English
learning. It is true that online dictionary is available for new words users may not find in
paper dictionary, which has the characteristics of open-ended and “under construction”(Cristina Gelpí2007). Its easy access and being dynamic are also edges compared withprinted dictionary.
Among the 109 subjects who like electronic dictionary, 86.2% think convenient look-up is theprimary reason why they like using electronic dictionary, which has the same case as thoselike using online dictionary. Of course, it is also critical to conveniently carry for 55%
electronic dictionary lovers. Surprisingly, 63.6% of the subjects preferring to paper dictionary
use it due to their habit of using paper dictionary. 49.1% owe their preference to the content it
contains.18.1% subjects point out that their teachers recommend them some brand of paper
dictionary.
A further investigation shows that only 2.5% of the 283 subjects prefer English-English
dictionary (E-E) and 11% like Chinese-English dictionary (C-E), and 86.5% like EnglishChinese dictionary. This point is supported by Yong and Peng (2007) that 80% subjects havea preference for bilingual dictionary even though the subjects are English majors. Table 4shows the reason why they don’t use E-E dictionary
Table 4 Percentage of disking E-E dictionary
Reasons of disking EE
PercentageofdislikingTime-consuming

Failing to understandNo using habit

47.8%

44%

8.2%

8.2% of the subjects claim that they have no habit of using this kind of dictionary. 44% claim
to fail to understand its English explanations very well. 47.8% think that referring to E-E
dictionary is time-consuming for mastering a word and beyond it.
Apart from the reasons listed above, it cannot be denied that quite a number of students havean intermediate or relatively low level of English. In general, the percentage of ownership andthe frequency of using dictionary at PPSUC are statistically low.
4.3 Purposes of dictionary use
What do dictionary users use for? Table 5 shows some details.
Table 5 Purposes of dictionary use
Purposes ofdictionary
use
Percentage ofuse purposes

Reading

Translation

Writing

Speaking

Listening

77.7%

68.6%

55.5%

19.1%

14.1%

The survey suggests that 77.7% use dictionary to match their need to read, followed by that
68.6% use it for translations. 55.5% subjects may depend on dictionaries for their writing
tasks. When they speak and listen, there are fewer chances to refer to it. Only 19.1% will dothat when they speak and 14.1% will do when they listen. What is discovered supports
Bogaards (2003) that dictionaries mainly serve users’ reading tasks. For bilingual users,
translations seem urge users to open the dictionary more than writings.
347

When it comes to how to use paper dictionary, 72.1% of the subjects do not spend time on
directions and appendices. They say these parts do not affect what they are looking for. Even
though several editions of a certain kind of dictionary have come out, students seem not tocare about which words have been taken in the dictionary or how many new words there arein the part of appendices. 67.9% of the freshmen and 79.9% of the sophomores do not consult
the new-intake words.
It is one of the main concerns for lexicographers how users look words up in the dictionary.
What information a word harbors is their focus? This can be seen in Table 6.

Table 6 Information subjects look for in a dictionary
Looking up
information
Percentage

Meanings

Spelling

57.1%

37.3%

Collocations,
idioms, etc.
24.8%

Grammaticalknowledge
20.2%

Pronunciation
20.2%

In this survey, 57.1% get their direct access to semantic meanings and 37.3% want to know
about a word’s spelling system. 24.8% consult some pragmatic knowledge such as somecollocations, idioms and so forth. Following the above are its pronunciation and grammaticalinformation. Only 20.2% of the subjects consider its pronunciation when they look up a word
in a dictionary and 20.2% concentrate on its grammatical information, such as its word class.
This may be in a sense determined by what they use dictionary for. Fons Moerdijk (2003)
puts that seeking for information about meanings is the main reason why people want to
consult dictionary. Yong and Peng (2007) report that 77% of the subjects in the research use
dictionary for meanings, less for pronunciation and spellings and the least for usage. Whenthey encounter some new words when reading, it is a priority for them to know the unknown
words’ meanings (Bogaards 2003).
4.4 Effectiveness of dictionary use
The word test mainly examines how effectively the selected subjects consult their dictionaries
when reading. The first stage is designed to have a clear picture of how much they master thewords before they consult the dictionary. The words are “answer”, “blunt”, “prompt”,“profile” and “rebel”. Three degrees (completely-mastering, partially-mastering and nonmastering) illustrate their command of the mentioned words. Table 7 respectively shows thedegree of mastering linguistically.
Table 7 Degree of mastering each word linguistically before dictionary use
Words

Answer/ blunt/ prompt/ profile/ rebel

DegreeAspects
Pronunciation
Word class
Meanings

Completely mastering

Partially mastering

Non-mastering

40%/73.3%/66.7%/
46.7%/43.3%
53.3%/3.3%/3.3%/
3.3%/6.7%
0%/0%/0%/
0%/3.3%0%/0%/0%/0%/0%46.7%/70%/80%/
63.3%/53.3%
100%/10%/10%/
0%/6.7%60%/26.7%/33.3%/
53.3%/56.7%
0%/26.7%/16.7%/
33.4%/40%
0%/90%/90%/
100%/90%

73.3% know the correct pronunciation of the word “blunt”, followed by the word “prompt”.
66.7% of the subjects are clear about its pronunciation. The percentages of mastering“profile” and “rebel” are a little higher than that of “answer”, respectively 46.7% and 43.3%.
Surprisingly, only 40% of the tested subjects can choose which item has the correct
pronunciation of the word “answer”. They all know how the word is pronounced if required to
speak but cannot choose which phonetic transcription is correct. That may be resulted from a348

lack of systematic learning of phonetic knowledge and a lack of strong awareness of figuring
out how they are pronounced. For non-English majors, no courses about phonetic knowledge
are given at PPSUC. It sometimes to a large degree depends on a teacher’s teachingschedules. Some teachers may incorporate some phonetic knowledge into their routine
teaching activities. For word classes of these words, 53.3% are completely clear about wordclasses of the word which may have in all contexts. 70% partially know about the case of“blunt”. Half of the subjects can partially master the other words’ word classes. Comparedwith these words’ pronunciation and grammars, their knowledge of words’ meanings isextremely little. Only 10% partially or totally know the other words’ meanings except for theword “answer” they are largely familiar with. Further, the words’ meanings are confined tothose frequently used by the subjects. It may reflect that some subjects are actually unfamiliar
with the words’ pronunciation, only playing a guessing game.
Table 8 presents the accuracy of each word’ meaning they can give out in the second stage
where they are required to write what each word means in specific contexts before consulting
a dictionary.
Table 8 Meanings of the tested words before consulting a dictionary
Tested words
Accuracy

Answer
33.3%

Blunt
60%

Prompt16.7%

Profile
66.7%

Rebel
33.3%

More than 60% can write down the correct meanings of “blunt” and “profile”. 33.3% can givethe correct meanings of “answer” and “rebel”. Only 16.7% can write down the correct
meaning of “prompt”. After knowing their degrees of mastering, they are permitted to learn
more about these words by looking up their dictionaries. According to their test feedback, it isobvious that semantic meanings come first especially when they read some materials
compared with phonetic, pragmatic or grammatical information even though they aresupposed to master. 73.7% amongst the subjects only give the semantic meanings, and 26.7%
write down grammatical information apart from semantic information. Only one subject
apparently write out these words’ phonetic transcriptions but that doesn’t mean others are notclear about how these words are pronounced.
The third stage shows a picture how much they know after referring to their own dictionary,compared with that before using a dictionary. The details are shown in Table 9 after
consulting a dictionary.
Table 9 Degree of mastering each word linguistically after dictionary use
Words

Answer/ blunt/ prompt/ profile/ rebel

DegreeAspects
Pronunciation
Word class
Meanings

Completely mastering

Partially mastering

Non-mastering

43.3%/76.7%/66.7/
50%/30%76.7%/16.7%/6.7%/
23.3%/26.7%
3.3%/10%/3.3%/
0%/40%

0%/0%/33.7%/
0%/0%
23.3%/80%/90%/
70%/70%96.7%/86.7%/73.3/
93.3%/53.3%

56.7%/23.3%/33.3/
50%/70%0%/3.3%/3.3%/
6.7%/3.3%
0%/3.3%/23.3%/
6.7%/6.7%

90% or more of the subjects have a better command of the words’ word classes. Generally
speaking, their performance in phonetic knowledge is a little better than the first stage, but
their knowledge of the word “rebel” is worse than previous one. It to some extent proves theprevious statement that some of the subjects actually have no idea of how it is pronounced but
they choose the right item occasionally. More than 90% of the subjects can give out at least
one meaning of the words, which has a striking distinction compared with the case in the firststage. Among them, 96.7% give out the meanings of “blunt” and “rebel” contextually. 93.3%
349

write what the word “profile” means. Nonetheless, according to statistical analysis, 70% of
the subjects only write down one semantic meaning each word has, and it’s just what it meansin the article. They use dictionary just for instant satisfaction (Bogaards 2003) not for longterm satisfaction. This can be seen from the difference between the second stage and thefourth.
They are already familiar with the tested meanings, but when required to explain what the fivewords mean in changed contexts, the picture is different in Table 10.
Table 10 Meanings of the tested words in changed contexts
Changedcontext
Accuracy

Answer(for)

Blunt

PromptProfile

Rebel

3.3%

50%

86.7%

60%

70%

Only 1 subject’s meaning is completely accurate and 26.7% of the subjects havecomparatively relevant explanations with regard to “answer for”, a collocation of the tested
word “answer”. Thus, it is obvious that they always ignore words’ pragmatic information inwhich they do not care about whether it has idioms or collocations for specific meanings. 50%of the subjects grasp the word “blunt” contextually; 86.7% of the subjects are clear about
what the word “prompt” means and 60% and 70% can guess the meanings of the words“profile” and “rebel” in respective. But the case is a little worse than that in the 3 rd stage. The
statistics prove that the subjects may be concerned about what a word means in a certain
context instead of having a full knowledge of each word. Their mastering a word graduallyvaries from different contexts. It also illustrates that the effectiveness of dictionary use isrelatively low, only limited to what they are exposed to. Except semantic meaning, they havea weak awareness of actively capturing other linguistic information.
After a clear picture of how the subjects look up a word in a dictionary, here arises anotherquestion: what words do they have to look up in a dictionary? In the fifth stage, the subjects
are told to underline any new word they may encounter and write down which words they
have the intention to consult their dictionaries. Among the subjects, only 46.7% underlined
the proper names of persons or places, such as “Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu” and “Leicester”,“Loughborough” and so forth apart from some lexical words like “ubiquitous”, “hilarious”
and “pundit”. But when deciding which words they intend to look up, these proper names did
not appear in their word lists no matter how much the subject’s vocabulary is. The reason why
they do not look up these words is that these terms are not that important for theircomprehension of the text even though they may not correctly pronounce them. The findings
also prove that categories of words may influence users’ looking-up behaviors (Bogaards
2003).
4.5 Satisfaction of dictionary use
Because of their simple motivation of dictionary use-mainly seeking for words’ contextual
meanings, they always have a high level of satisfaction of dictionary use. 90.1% of the 283
subjects feel satisfied with what they have got from a dictionary. However, the subjects who
are not satisfied with their searching list some reasons, such as “a small coverage”, “unclear
explanations”, “no updating” and the like.
5. Conclusion
The survey mainly investigates the case of non-English major students’ dictionary use at
PPSUC. It is a tendency that students will consult online dictionary more than paper
dictionary. Features like “convenience” and “coverage” obviously affects students’ dictionary
preference. At the same time, a specialized dictionary is of high demand for their major study.

350

Finishing reading tasks is the strongest motivation for students to consult a dictionary,compared with translation, writing, speaking and listening practice. When referring to adictionary, they are always concerned about direct satisfaction, finding the meaning they needmost in their reading difficulties not the information such as spelling, pronunciation, grammar
and collocations. However, they only try to solve some specific contextual meanings insteadof fully mastering a word linguistically. This quick satisfaction results in their short-time
concentration on a new word. When reading, any word which does not hinder their general
understanding of a certain context will not enter their word lists and further their eagerness tolearn a word. From the above analysis, there is a low effectiveness of dictionary use. So when
asked whether it is indispensable to teach how to use a dictionary, 84.5% among the 283
subjects feel teaching dictionary use necessary.
References
Atkins, B.T.Sue and Rundell, Micheal. 2008. The Oxford guide to practical lexicography.
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Press.
Atkins, B.T.Sue and Varantola, Krista. 2008. Monitoring dictionary use. In Practicallexicography: A reader, ed. Thierry Fontenelle, 337-376. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bogaards, Paul. 2003. Uses and users of dictionaries. In A practical guide to Lexicography,
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Bowker, Lynne. 2003. Specialized lexicography and specialized dictionary. In A practicalguide to Lexicography, ed. Piet van Sterkenburg, 154-166. Amsterdam: John Benjamins
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Chen, Yuzhen. 2011. Bilingualized dictionary use and experimental study. LexicographicalStudies. (2):141-158.
East, Martin. 2008. Dictionary use in foreign language writing exam. Amsterdam: John
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Gelpí,Cristina. 2007. Reliability of online bilingual dictionary. In Dictionary visions,research and practice, ed. Henrik Gottlieb and Jens Erik Mogensen, 3-12. Amsterdam: John
Benjamins Publishing Company.
Jackson, Howard. 2002. Lexicography: An introduction. London: Routledge.
Lang, Jianguo and Li, Jin. 2003. Usages of English dictionary and reflections. Journal of
Beijing International Studies University. (6): 54-63.
Meng, Zhen and Su, Lei. 2003. An investigation of dictionary use of non-English majors at
Shanghai University. In Proceedings of the 5th national bilingual dictionary conference.
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Lexicography, ed. Piet van Sterkenburg, 273-296. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing
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The L1 Guide to the Usage of an EFL Dictionary: The case of theJapanese Guide to the Usage of Oxford Wordpower Dictionary (4/e,2012)
Shigeru Yamada
Waseda University, Japan
shyamada@waseda.jp
Abstract
EFL dictionaries are difficult to use for novice users. There are several types of material to teach users
how to utilize those dictionaries. Among them is a booklet which accompanies a dictionary and iswritten in the user’s L1. Such guides are useful – accessible and specifically designed for a target usergroup – especially where there has not been enough training in dictionary use. This paper examines
those booklets in the context of the Japanese EFL situation with special reference to the one for Oxford
Wordpower Dictionary (4th ed., 2012). The usage guide is devised to familiarize users with theintermediate dictionary without overtaxing them. A unique feature is in the section dealing with thedictionary use for comprehension. The section breaks down the look-up process into seven steps, basedon Hartmann’s model (2001: 89-92), and focuses each step with exercises. Special attention is given to
Step 6 “Extracting relevant data,” which constitutes a key to successful consultation, involving correctinterpretation of the L2 definition. The paper also considers the possibilities of the booklets in view of
their transfer to the Internet.

Keywords: consultation process, dictionary usage guide, EFL dictionary, reference skills,
teaching dictionary use
1 Introduction
An EFL dictionary is a useful yet difficult-to-use tool for novice users. Not all of them willfind the built-in L2 guide to the use of the dictionary helpful. Where there has not beenenough training in the use of dictionaries, an L1 booklet on the use of an EFL dictionary
comes in handy. This paper examines such booklets in the context of the Japanese EFL
situation with special reference to the one for Oxford Wordpower Dictionary (4th ed., OWD4,2012), which I authored.
2 Types of guides available
There are two broad categories of guides to the use of dictionaries: general and dictionaryspecific. The latter can be roughly divided into three categories: 1) a booklet sold separatelyfrom the dictionary, 2) a free separate booklet (an accompaniment to the dictionary or apromotional material), and 3) a guide incorporated in the dictionary. Fewer and fewer of theseprint materials have been produced. Some web-based dictionaries have the accompanying
onsite guide (e.g., “How to Use” on Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Online,“Using OALD” on Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary Online) and Longman Dictionaryof Contemporary English on DVD (5th ed., 2009) offers a guided tour.
3 The L1 Booklet on the use of an EFL dictionary: the Japanese situation
In Japan, EFL dictionaries are usually sold in two ways: through a local distributor or by aforeign publisher directly. In the former case, the dictionary typically comes in a hard-covercase or a jacket with Japanese explanatory notes and with a user’s guide in Japanese. The
booklet is usually written by an academic. While such booklets help to make the dictionary
accessible to Japanese learners of English, there are two disadvantages: extra money and time.
Recently, usage booklets have been made available online (e.g., the Japanese guide to the useof OALD8 [2010], that to OWD4 [2012]). This shift seems to mediate both problems
mentioned above.
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4 Japanese guide to Oxford Wordpower Dictionary (4th ed., 2012)
I was asked by Obunsha Co., a major Japanese dictionary publisher, to write the Japaneseguide to OWD4. Obunsha has been distributing Oxford’s EFL dictionaries for the past several
years. Anyone (non-purchasers, too) can download the PDF file of the 20-page guide free ofcharge from the publisher’s site. The guide is intended not only for the users of OWD4 but
also as an introduction to the use of EFL dictionaries, more generally. This is because OWD,
an intermediate EFL dictionary, can be the first monolingual English dictionary to be used by
EFL learners. The contents of the guide are as follows:
1 Introduction
2 Why to Use EFL Dictionaries?
3 Characteristics of OWD44 How to Use OWD45 Abbreviations and Labels Used
6 Let’s Use OWD4
7 Four Tips
8 Concluding Remarks
What makes my guide unique is Section 6 “Let’s Use OWD4” because the first half of thissection dealing with the dictionary use for comprehension is based on the seven componentsof the consultation process identified by Hartmann (2001: 89-92):
1 Activity problem
2 Determining problem word
3 Selecting dictionary
4 External search (macrostructure)
5 Internal search (microstructure)
6 Extracting relevant data
7 Integrating information
For a successful dictionary consultation, the user is supposed to clear all these steps without
fail (though some trial and error may be involved). However, it will be very difficult for the
inexperienced learner to go through the whole process with an EFL dictionary (all in L2) on
their own. Therefore, I divided the process into manageable bits, explaining each andproviding exercises (I treated Steps 6 and 7 sequentially as well). By reading through the subsections and doing the exercises, the student can familiarize themselves with the EFL
dictionary consultation process step by step. In the case of an EFL dictionary being used by anon-native learner in particular, Step 6 “Extracting relevant data” can be a key and at thesame time a major obstacle to a successful consultation. Unlike the consultation of an L1 or
L2-L1 dictionary, the user of a monolingual EFL dictionary has to interpret the L2 texts
correctly. The interpretation of definitions can be a hindrance because they may be presented
in succinct style (while example sentences are written in natural prose). I paid special
attention to this step by 1) covering words frequently occurring in the definition (e.g.,“quality,” “state,” “particular”) and by 2) elucidating a definition in complex structure.
5 Concluding remarks
There are a number of approaches to the education on the use of EFL dictionaries: dictionaryspecific, user-specific, genre-specific, purpose-specific, media-specific, etc. Being dictionaryspecific and user-specific, an accessible L1 booklet is useful. The online version is much
more promising because multi-media components can be incorporated.

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The circulation of the booklet is limited to a small circle of purchasers of the target linguistic
community. However, the transfer of the booklet to the Internet gives the material much more
exposure, invites feedback, and makes possible a comparison of similar materials for further
improvement. Ultimately, it may lead the way to an internationally concerted effort tocompile a universal dictionary usage guide (involving the editor) to be made available tospeakers of different languages. Such initiative would meet the needs of learners in various
linguistically-specific contexts.
References
1 Dictionaries cited
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. 5th ed. 2009. Harlow: Pearson Education.
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. 8th ed (OALD8). 2010. Oxford:
OUP.
Oxford Wordpower Dictionary. 4th ed (OWD4). 2012. Oxford: OUP.
2 Other works:
Hartmann, Reinhard. R. K. 2001. Teaching and researching lexicography. Harlow: Pearson
Education.
Scholfield, Phil. J. 1982. Using the English dictionary for comprehension. TESOL Quarterly
16. 185-194.
Yamada, Shigeru. 1996. Instruction in the use of English monolingual learners’ dictionaries
for comprehension. Exeter Working Papers in English Language Studies. The Schoolof English and American Studies, University of Exeter. 104-116.
Yamada, Shigeru. 2013. Okkusufodo Wadopawa Ei-ei Jiten (Dai 4-han) Katsuyo Gaido[Guide to the usage of Oxford Wordpower Dictionary, 4th ed.]. Tokyo: Obunsha.
http://www.obunsha.co.jp/service/wp4/pdf/wp.pdf
Yamada, Shigeru. 2014. Guide to the practical usage of English monolingual learners’
dictionaries: Effective ways of teaching dictionary use in the English class. Tokyo:
OUP.
http://www.oupjapan.co.jp/teachers/resources/oup_guide_to_dictionary_use_2014_E.
pdf

354

Meeting More Readers’ Needs: the YES-CEDICT Chinese
Dictionary
Xiaoheng ZHANG
Hong Kong Polytechnic University,
Chinactxzhang@polyu.edu.hk

Xiaotong LI
Shenzhen University, China
sharklxt@aliyun.com

Abstract
The YES-CEDICT Chinese Dictionary is designed to meet the extensive needs of international
learners. Chinese native students will also find it helpful for learning English learning. Currently, there
are 114,300 word entries in the dictionary, covering: all the 5,000 words of the new word list of HSK;
all the 8,000 words of the new word list of TOCFL; all 112,178 headwords in CC-CEDICT; and all
13,000 plus characters in the latest version of Xinhua Dictionary and Contemporary Chinese
Dictionary. There are 10 fields of information for the word entries: the simplified form of theheadword; the traditional form of the headword; Putonghua Pinyin; Cantonese Jyutping; English
definition; HSK level; TOCFL level; frequency order; number of strokes; and Unicode. The dictionary
is arranged in YES order, which is similar to alphabetic order, if we consider the stroke sequence of a
Chinese character as the letter sequence of an English word. To help readers unsure of the standard
stroke order of some Chinese characters, a Pinyin-stroke order index is provided for all singlecharacter words in the dictionary.

Keywords: sorting method, Chinese dictionary, CC-CEDICT, HSK, TOCFL

1. Introduction
CC-CEDICT (formerly CEDICT) is a large Chinese-English dictionary downloadable fromthe Web (MDBG, 2015). There are four fields in a word entry, including the word’s form insimplified Chinese, form in traditional Chinese, Mandarin pronunciation in Pinyin anddefinition in English. CC-CEDICT is a database text file, which has been the knowledge-baseof quite a number of interactive electronic dictionaries. No PDF or print version of thedictionary has been reported.
YES is a Chinese sorting method which is simpler and more effective than the traditional
methods (Zhang and Li, 2013).
YES-CEDICT is a PDF version of CC-CEDICT arranged in YES. It allows automatic andtraditional lookup on soft and hard copy. The user can have a flexible view of more than one
entry. Other enhancements made to the dictionary include:•
Adding more words and characters for Chinese learners,•
Adding Cantonese pronunciation and other information for the words,•
Eight appendices,•
A pinyin index for simplified and traditional Chinese characters,•
Two versions of simplified and traditional Chinese.
The YES-CEDICT Chinese Dictionary (一二三汉英大词典|一二三漢英大詞典) is
compiled for international learners. Chinese native students will find it helpful to English
learning as well.
2. Coverage of headwords

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The headwords of YES-CEDICT covers the following (except a small number of characters
not displayable on the computer):•
All the 5,000 words of the new word list of HSK (Hanyu Shuipin Kaoshi), the official
Chinese Proficiency Test of China mainland (Hanban, 2012);•
All the 8,000 words of the new word list of TOCFL (Test of Chinese as a Foreign
Language), the official Chinese Proficiency Test of Taiwan (National Taiwan Normal
University, 2013);•
All 112,178 headwords in CC-CEDICT, the most popular downloadable Chinese
dictionary on the Web (MDBG, 2015);•
All 11,408 characters in the Complete List of Chinese Characters Used by the Media
in 2013 (2013 年度媒体用字总表, National Language Commission of China, 2014);•
All 13,000 plus characters in the latest version of Xinhua Dictionary (Linguistic
Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 2011);•
All 13,000 plus characters in the latest version of Contemporary Chinese Dictionary(Linguistic Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, 2012).
•
First characters of all headwords in the dictionary.
There are altogether 114,300 word entries (including 15,103 single-character words).
3. Components of an entry
The information of each headword is presented in the format of an entry. There are 10 fields
for mono-character words and 8 fields for multi-character words, for example
爱 (愛) ài [oi3] /to love /affection /to be fond of /to like / HSK1 TOCFL 入門級
FO323 U7231(U611B) Stroke(s)10(13) (in S version)
愛 (爱) ài [oi3] /to love /affection /to be fond of /to like / HSK1 TOCFL 入門級
FO323 U611B(U7231) Stroke(s)13(10) (in T version)
学生 (學生) xuésheng [hok6sang1] /student /schoolchild / HSK1 TOCFL 入門級
FO148
學生 (学生) xuésheng [hok6sang1] /student /schoolchild / HSK1 TOCFL 入門級
FO148
Each entry starts with the simplified form (in S version) or traditional form (in T version)of the headword, followed by the other form in brackets if the two forms are different. The
third and fourth fields are Putonghua Pinyin and Cantonese Jyutping in square brackets. In
addition to representing sound, Pinyin and Jyutping can be used to input the Chinese word
into a computer or to look it up in a dictionary. The fifth field is English definition (mostly
from CC-CEDICT). The number of strokes appears at the end of the entry of a singlecharacter word. If the character has different forms in simplified and traditional Chinese, thenboth stroke numbers are presented. The other fields are marked by capital letters with thefollow meanings:
HSK: HSK level (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) of a headword which also appears in the HSK word list.
TOCFL: TOCFL level (入門級, 基礎級, 進階級, 高階級, 流利級) of a headword
appearing in the TOCFL word list. To make the dictionary more compact, words
appearing more than once at different levels in the TOCFL list appears only once inthe dictionary with the earliest level. For example, 愛 ài appears twice at 入門級 and
進階級 in the list, and only appears once marked with level 入門級 in the dictionary.
FO: Frequency Order number in the List of Frequently-used Words of Modern Chinese(National Language Commission of China, 2008).
U: Unicode for simplified and traditional characters. You can type the hexadecimalUnicode on MS Word and press Alt+X to input the Chinese character to thecomputer.
At the present state, all word entries in the dictionary have contents for Simplified
Chinese, Traditional Chinese and Putonghua Pinyin. About 79% of the words have beenannotated with Cantonese Jyutping, and 99% of them have English definitions. The raw dataof Jyutping came from the dictionary of the Allbanced Chinese Input System
356

(http://www.mypolyuweb.hk/~ctxzhang/AB2007B/ ) and Cantonese CEDICT(http://writecantonese8.wordpress.com/2012/02/04/cantonese-cedict-project/ ), with a small
number added in manually by the editors based on the Unihan database(http://www.unicode.org/charts/unihanrsindex.html ) and some other on-lined Chinese
dictionaries.
4. AppendicesAt the end of the dictionary, there are eight appendices,
1) Standard (New) and Variant (Old) Forms of Chinese Characters,
2) Rules of Stroke Order,3) Stroke Order of Chinese Character Components,
4) Components with Different Stroke Orders between Mainland and Taiwan,
5) The Pinyin Scheme,
6) The Jyutping Scheme,
7) Province-level Divisions of China,8) Pinyin-Stroke Order Index.
Entries in the main text of this dictionary are arranged in YES order according to the standard
font and stroke order of the Mainland. Appendix 1 to 4 will improve the student’s commandof the standard font and stroke order.
The student can also find the standard stroke order of a Chinese character by the Pinyin-strokeorder index. This index includes all the 17,181 single-character words of simplified andtraditional Chinese in the dictionary (including the cross-reference characters introduced in
the next section). The characters are firstly sorted by Pinyin alphabetically, then by number ofstrokes ascendingly, and finally by stroke order in YES. To the right of a Chinese character,
you can find its standard stroke order, which can be used to look up a word starting with thatcharacter in the dictionary. For convenience of lookup, a character with more than one form
and/or pronunciation appears for each form and sound. For in-stance, there are four entries forcharacter 长|長 in simplified and traditional forms, including cháng 长, cháng (長), zhǎng 长and zhǎng (長).
5. Two versions
There are two versions for this dictionary: Version S and Version T. Version S is sorted by
the simplified form of the headwords. To enable look-up by traditional Chinese as well,traditional characters different from their simplified counterparts are added to the dictionary
and sorted as independent entries, pointing to the simplified characters and words beginningwith them.
For example, it is easy to lookup a simplified Chinese word beginning with character 长 inversion S because word entries are sorted by simplified Chinese in this version. It is also
possible to find the entries by traditional Chinese 長 here. First we look up cross-reference
entry “(長) See 长” by the form of 長. Then we follow the guidance to find the full entries
beginning with simplified Chinese 长:
长 (長) cháng [coeng4] /length /long /forever /always /constantly / HSK3 TOCFL 入門級
FO1368 U957F(U9577) Stroke(s)4(8)长 (長) zhǎng [zoeng2] /chief /head /elder /to grow /to develop /to increase /to enhance /HSK3 TOCFL 進階級 FO1533 U957F(U9577) Stroke(s)4(8)长三角 (長三角) chángsānjiǎo [coeng4saam1gok3] /Yangtze River Delta /abbr. for 長江
三角洲|长江三角洲 /357长三角经济区 (長三角經濟區) chángsānjiǎojīngjìqū /Yangtze River Delta Economic
Zone (economic region including Shanghai, Zhejiang and Jiangsu) /长丰 (長豐) chángfēng [coeng4fung1] /Changfeng county in Hefei 合肥[He2 fei2], Anhui/…
Version T is sorted by the traditional form of the headwords. Simplified characters in
different forms from their traditional counterparts are added in and sorted as independent
entries, cross-referring to the full word entries beginning with traditional characters. The T
and S versions are marked on the front page of the dictionary.
6. The YES Chinese sorting method
Arranging Chinese in YES order is similar to arranging English in alphabetic order, if we
consider the stroke sequence of a Chinese character as the letter sequence of an English word.
Two Chinese characters are sorted by their first stroke positions in the stroke alphabet. If thefirst strokes are the same, then check the second strokes, and so on. For example, the different
characters in 一二三排检法|一二三排檢法 (the YES Sorting Method) are sorted as:
一 (一)
二 (一一)
三 (一一一)檢()

检()
排 (一亅㇀丨一一一丨一一一)
法 (丶丶㇀一丨一 丶).
In the rare cases of more than one glyph or stroke order for a Chinese character, YES
follows the standards issued by the National Language Commission of China (1997, 1999,2013).
Words of multiple characters are sorted by their first characters in YES order. If the firstcharacters are the same, then check the second characters, and so on. Non-Chinese characters
appear after Chinese characters in alphabetical/Unicode order. For example,
覺
覺醒
觉
觉醒
觉悟
B超
T恤.
The stroke alphabet is based on the Standard Bending Strokes of GB13000.1 Character Set(National Language Commission of China, 2001) and the Unicode CJK Strokes (The Unicode
Consortium, 2014). There are totally 30 strokes, sorted by the standard basic strokes order of“横 (一) 提 (㇀) 竖 (丨) 撇 (丿) 点 (丶) 捺 (㇏)” and bending points order of “折 弯 钩”.
The Chinese name of the Sorting Method, i.e. 一 二 三 , are the first three Chinesecharacters in YES order. The English name YES is the abbreviation of Pinyin “Yi Er San” of
the Chinese name.

Table 1 The YES Stroke Alphabet
StrokeStroke Name

Example Characters

横

十/七

横折竖

口 达 贯/敢 為

358

（

㇇（

）

）

横折竖折横

凹 卍

横折竖折横折竖凸横折竖折横折竖钩乃/杨

横折竖折横折撇

及 延

横折竖折提

计 颓 鸠

横折竖弯横

朵 投

横折竖弯横钩

几 九/艺 亿横折竖钩

同 却 母 仓 羽/也

横折撇

又 之/令 了/买 宝

横折撇折撇钩

阳 部

横折捺钩

飞 风 执

提

堆 打/江

竖

中/五

竖折横

山/母 乐/发 降/车竖折横折竖

鼎 卐 亞 吳竖折横折竖钩

马 与 钙/号 弓

竖折横折撇

专/奊/夨

竖折提

长 鼠 以 瓦 收 岭

竖弯横

四 西 朮

竖弯横钩

己 匕 电 心 乱

竖钩

小 水 了

撇

千/人/月

撇折提

公 离 红 乡 亥

撇折点

女 巡

（

）

撇钩

犹 家/乄

(

)

点

主 丸/火 刃 然

（

）

捺

八边/〇

捺钩

代 我

7. Conclusion
According to our survey, YES-CEDICT Chinese Dictionary is one of the seven ChineseEnglish dictionaries with over 100,000 word entries. The others are CC CEDICT (MDBG,
1997 - ), New Age Chinese-English Dictionary (Wu and Cheng, 2001), ABC Chinese-English
Comprehensive Dictionary (DeFrancis, 2003), A New Century Chinese-English Dictionary(Hui, 2003), The Chinese-English Dictionary (Wu, 2010) and the Oxford Chinese Dictionary(Kleeman and Yu, 2010). Among these big seven, only YES-CEDICT provides informationof Cantonese pronunciation, frequency of use, levels of HSK and TOCFL, Unicode and stroke
numbers.
As for further improvement, there are still over 20,000 words not annotated with Cantonese
Jyutping, and about 1000 words still lack English definition. In addition, example sentences
should be added to the entries.
359

Acknowledgments
The project was partially supported by a University grant (A-PK14). And we are grateful to Dr. Cheung Kwan-hinof the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Dr. Lun Suen of Hong Kong City University for their valuableadvice.

References
Kleeman, J. and Yu, H. 2010. The Oxford Chinese Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
DeFrancis, J. 2003. ABC Chinese-English Comprehensive Dictionary. Shanghai: Hanyu
Dacidian Press.
Hanban. 2012. New HSK Word List (New Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi Word List 新汉语水平考试词汇表). Beijing: Hanban. http://www.chinesetest.cn/godownload.do .
Hui, Yu. 2003. A New Century Chinese-English Dictionary. Beijing: Foreign Language
Teaching and Research Press.
Linguistic Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. 2011. Xinhua Dictionary(Xinhua Zidian, 新华字典), Beijing: The Commercial Press.
Linguistic Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. 2012. Contemporary Chinese
Dictionary (Xiandai Hanyu Cidian, 现代汉语词典), Beijing: The Commercial Press.
MDBG. 2015. CC-CEDICT Download.
http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=cedict . (Downloaded on January 31, 2015).
National Language Commission of China (国家语委). 1997. Standard Stroke Order ofCommonly-Used Characters of Modern Chinese (现代汉语通用字笔顺规范). Beijing:
Language Press (语文出版社).
National Language Commission of China. 1999. The Standard Stroke Order of the
GB13000.1 Character Set (GB13000.1 字符集汉字笔顺规范). Shanghai: Shanghai
Education Press (上海教育出版社).
National Language Commission of China. 2001. The Standard Bending Strokes of
GB13000.1 Character Set (GB13000.1 字符集汉字折笔规范). Beijing: Language Press.
http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U31C0.pdf
National Language Commission of China. 2008. The List of Frequently-used Words ofModern Chinese (现代汉语常用词表（草案）). Beijing: the Commercial Press,
http://www.moe.gov.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/moe/moe_1668/200812/43211.html.
National Language Commission of China. 2013. Standard List of Commonly-Used Chinese
Characters (通用规范汉字表). Beijing: Language Press.
National Language Commission of China. 2014. Language Situation in China: 2014. (中国语言生活状况报告 (2014)). Beijing: Commercial Press.
National Taiwan Normal University. 2013. New Word List of TOCFL (Test of Chinese as a
Foreign Language). http://www.tw.org/tocfl/. Accessed January 27, 2014.
The Unicode Consortium. 2014. The Unicode Standard, Version 7.0. Mountain View, CA:
The Unicode Consortium, (http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode7.0.0/ ).
Wu, G. 2010. The Chinese-English Dictionary, 3rd edition, Shanghai: Shanghai Yiwen Press.
Wu, J. and Cheng, Z. 2001. New Age Chinese-English Dictionary. Beijing: Commercial
Press.
Zhang, Xiaoheng. and Li, Xiaotong. 2013. Handbook of the YES Arrangement Method for
Chinese Characters (一二三笔顺检字手册). Beijing: the Language Press (语文出版社).

360

Lexicographic Needs in Turkic Republics
Baktygul KULAMSHAEVASpecialist in Modern Turkic Languages and Literatures, Turkey
b.kulamshaeva@gmail.com
b.kulamshaeva@nevsehir.edu.tr

Abstract
After the collapse of Soviet Union, Turkic communities, who share a common history, gain their independence.
This paved the way to many changes and developments in those communities. Language studies also gained
speed after the attainment of independence. The fact of having their mother tongue as an official language in
Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, being in the first place, and many other Turkic Republics gave rise to need fornumber of new Turkic words. This, as much as varying according to the republics, led to the revival of old Turkic
words or derivation of new words. On the other side, socio-cultural and sociolinguistic changes within the Turkic
societies brought to "communication" problems in their relations with outer world. Socio-political, economic,
educational and trade relations between Turkic Republics, gaining speed after the independence, gave Turkic
languages prominence and created a need for elementary language course books and bilingual dictionaries ofthese languages, as well.
In this regard, many bilingual dictionaries of Modern Turkic Languages, especially in Turkish as being in the firstplace, have been prepared and presented to the learners. However, these dictionaries, being a significant step incommunication, still lack of lexicographic works, i.e. they are not based on modern corpus database or any
statistical study. Thus they contain many archaic, or non-frequent words and out of date words. Moreover, formany of them are translation dictionaries from the ready-made bilingual dictionaries prepared in Russian, there
have many mistranslate and wrong usage words in them. For example, in the Kyrgyz-Turkish dictionary you may
notice that translations of the collocations were directly affected by Russian or Turkish collocations and as aresult of this, new collocations, that does not really exist in Kyrgyz, were invented.
This study will analyze the present state of dictionaries in Modern Turkic Languages, and try to find common
solutions to prepare dictionaries based on lexicographic studies. Thus, we hope that this study may be an aswer tothe lexicographic needs around the Turkic World.
Keywords: lexicography, corpus database, bilingual dictionaries, collocations, Turkic Languages\

1.

Introduction

Dictionaries have a very important role in language teaching and research since they are one of thesources that display the vocabulary of concerned language. Maintaining the words which make asociety a nation, they “are valuable works reflecting nations’ cultural level and their way of life”(İlhan, 2009: 535). At the same time “they are like treasures for languages that protect cultural heritage
and are transmitted to the future generations” (p. 535). Although Turkic Languages which are
originated from the same language family share much common vocabulary, there is still a need forbilingual or multilingual dictionaries between dialects of Turkic Languages.
Turkic communities who nowadays are spread over quite a large area and speak common language had
started to become distant by the socio-economic and political developments. As time went by there
appeared many changes in their vocabulary as a result of language relations and interactions, thus
many of these dialects, in particular the ones which are territorially apart from each other, as
Cumakunova (2009) states had experienced such changes that it is impossible to communicate without
the help of dictionaries. Bilingual dictionaries prepared in these languages will provide the opportunity
to determine the magnitude of those differences and identify the common features in those languages.
Here, it would be helpful to refer to the historical development of the previous dictionary studies.
361

2. History of lexicographic studies in Turkic communities
The efforts and struggle of Turkic Communities to become independent republics succeeded quite late.
Before Soviet Union besides some prior Turkic governments, most of Turkic communities had been
living in small tribes in Central Asia and Siberia. It can be said that Soviet Union played a great role in
the establishment of these societies as governments. The expansionist policy of Soviet Union dates
back to Tsarist Russia.
Russians started to be interested in Turkic territories after they conquer Kazan Khanate in 1552 andAstrahan Khanate in 1556. "The interest of Russians towards Turks and Turkic languages, had
increased in the period of Tsar Peter as much, depending on political developments. Establishment of
Academy of Sciences by Tsar Peter I (1724-1725), enabled Oriental Sciences and in particular
Turkology to be executed in accordance with tsarist policy (Kirişçioğlu, 2004: 38). Especially since
XVIII. Century when the influence of tsardom on Central Asia had been increased lexicographic
studies began to develop. Therefore as Bayniyazovs (2014) noted, bilingual dictionaries had emergedin order to familiarize themselves with local people and to carry out the missionary activities.
According to Suleyman Kaan Yalcin (2008), Russians with the aim of Russification andChristianization tried to divide many nations, especially the Turks, the most populous region after
Russia, into micro-nations and to marginalize them. For this case, language was the most important
weapon; because the language is the prior tool in identity creation (p. 666). Professor Orientalist
Ilminskiy, has been a key person in the creation of a separate languages and separate alphabets. Namessuch as V.V. Grigoryev, D.A. Tolstoy, N.İ. Ilminskiy (Remnev, 2012: 17-19) tried to entitle thestatuses of separate languages to Turkic Languages based on minor phonetic and dialectic differencesin those dialects.
Important works published in this process are: “Comparative Dictionary of all Languages and Dialects”(1790-91), prepared by P. S. Pallas (1711-1811); “Tatar-Turkish Comparative Dictionary” (1869) by
L.Z. Budagov; “Turkish-Tatar-Russian Dictionary” (1864) by L. Lazarev; “Chagatay –Turkish
Dictionary” (1868) by Velyaminov-Zernov; “Trial of Turkic Dialects Dictionary (Opıt Slovarya
Tyurkskih Narechiy)” published by Radloff in 1893-1911; “Dictionary of Altay – Aladag Dialects ofTurkic Language” (1884) by İ. Verbitsky; “Russian-Kyrgyz (Kazakh) and Kyrgyz-Russian Dictionary”(1883) by Ishmuhammed Bukin; “Kyrgyz-Russian Short Dictionary” (1895) and “Kyrgyz-Russian
Dictionary” (1897) by V.V. Katarinsky and “Russian- Turkmen Dictionary” (1913) by I.A. Belyaev.
The common point in these dictionaries, is that generally in each case they were prepared based on
Russian.
According to Bayniyazov (2014: 86), Abdullayev (2007: 79) and others, lexicography in Turkic
communities, followed the Arabic-Farsi-Turkish tradition before the Russian Invasion, but Russian
Invasion broke all connections with the tradition of Arabic-Farsi and Turkish lexicographic studies.
Therefore from the 18th century up to now most of the dictionaries were “prepared usually to meet theneeds of Tsarist Russia and its language policy” (Bayniyazov, 2014: 86). Dictionaries published in thisera, prepared in “Russian -Turkic Language” format, usually in one way, and more focusing on
Russian.
By XX. Century the separation policy founded by Tsarist Russia succeeded its goal with the help ofSoviet Union. They created separate alphabets for each of the Turkic Communities and even thelanguages of minorities were acknowledged as separate languages. In this way, Turkish communities
were prevented the opportunity to join in a body in order to avoid possible threat against Soviet Unionand they were marginalized as much as possible.
Thus, as Cumakunova (2009) noted that the languages of the Turkic communities were narrowed, theirusage were limited and pushed into background. Moreover the relationship between these languages
was loosened. Thereby all these factors hindered the development of these languages. As a result of
having separate alphabets, different orthographies and different terms, these facts made their literarylanguage notably distinct from each other’s and thus they had to communicate in Russian (p. 4-5). In
addition, the process of separation as separate `languages` reflected in their vocabulary so much that362

instead of using common words they tried to create new words or using foreign versions as they are.
Russian bilingual dictionaries played a great role during this processes. Cumakunova (2009: 5) thinksthat Turkic communities hold a negligent attitude towards lexicography and regretfully informs thatwhile there are many bilingual dictionaries of Turkic Languages in Russian, German, French and etc.
for some reason they do not show this enthusiastic desire in developing a common dictionary among
Turkish communities. One of the most important reasons for this is thought to be derived from the factthat the common communication language among these languages is Russian, although all of these
Turkic Languages are just a dialects of Turkic.
As a result, we can still see the influence of Russian in today’s lexicographic studies of Turkic
Republics.
3. Current State of the Lexicography Studies in Turkic Republics
After the collapse of Soviet Union, gaining of independence of Turkic Republics which shares acommon history has added a substantial speed to the developments within the language as well.
Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan being in the first place, becoming of other Turkic Republic’s native
language as official languages gave rise to the need for many new Turkic words especially in socialand political fields. This need, although it shows differences depending on the communities, has been
tried to be solved either by revitalization of the Turkic words used formerly or by way of derivation of
new words in general. During these periods, as it was in Ataturk’s period, studies for decontaminationof the language from foreign words have been conducted, for example, Month names in the old Kyrgyz
and Kazakh have been brought in to use as below.
Turkish
Ocak
Şubat
Mart
Nisan
Mayıs
Haziran
TemmuzAğustos
Eylül
Ekim
Kasım
AralıkKazakhҚаңтар (Kañtar)Akpan (Akpan)
Наурыз (Navrız)Көкек (Kökek)Мамыр (Mamır)Маусым (Mavsım)
Шілде (Şilde)Тамыз (Tamız)Қыркүйек (Kırküyek)Қазан(Kazan)Қараша (Karaşa)Желтоқсан (Jeltoksan)

KyrgyzҮчтүн айыБирдин айыЖалган КуранЧын Куран
Бугу
Кулжа
Теке
Баш ОонаАяк Оона
Тогуздун айыЖетинин айыБештин айы(Üçtün ayı)
(Birdin ayı)
(Calgan Kuran)(Çın Kuran)(Bugu)(Kulca)(Teke)(Baş Oona)(Ayak Oona)(Toguzdun Ayı)
(Cetinin Ayı)(Beştin Ayı)

EnglishJanuary
February
March
April
May
June
July
AugustSeptember
OctoberNovember
Decemberor new words have been derived by taking advantages of internal source of the language.
TurkishKazakhtelevizyon
теледидар (teledidar)radyoрадио (radio)
diktafonдиктафон (diktafon)
ziyalı
зиялы (zıyalı)
cumhuriyetреспублика (respublika)

Kyrgyzсыналгы (sınalgı)үналгы (ünalgı)үн алгыч (ün algıç)зыялы(sıyalı)жумурият (cumuriyat)

Englishtelevision
radio
dictaphone
intelligent
republic

However, language is a living and natural creature. The practices imposed to the language sometimes
have been accepted, sometimes remained as a meta-language or has been rejected completely. The first
three of the above examples did not survive in the Kyrgyz Turkish contrary to Kazakh Turkish, andlike other 3 words, many words also remains as meta-language today and not embraced by the public
completely.

363

After the independence, Turkey being in the first place, the relations in the field of commerce,
economy, social and education field in between the Turkic Republics and other countries have gained
great momentum. And this added speed to learning them as a foreign language by causing to theprominence of the Turkic languages, and as a result of it the need for basic level of language learning
books and for bilingual dictionaries has arisen. In this context, Turkish Language being in the firstplace, in other Turkic Languages bilingual dictionaries with many Turkiс reciprocal have been
prepared and presented to the readers. After the independence, Turkey has pioneered in the studies for
dictionaries with Turkish reciprocals. At the beginning this developed as “translated dictionaries”1. At
this point it’s been thought that the border of “translated dictionary" concept should be drawn with
precise lines
In Hartman (1998: 146) translated dictionary is defined as “a dictionary which is the result of atranslation of another dictionary”. However, especially in Turkic communities since previously they
were prepared by translation of Russian part of dictionaries prepared as bilingual with Russian into athird language, it is being thought that this Hartman’s definition will be insufficient to explain thecurrent lexicographical state in Turkic communities. Accordingly, in this study these types ofdictionaries will be called as “Third Language Translated Dictionaries (TLTD)”.
In this regard, Kudashev (2007) defends that the “perevodcheskie slovari/translation dictionaries” and“perevodnıye slovari/translated dictionaries” terms which are referring to the same concept in Russianshould be distinguished from each other (Kudashev, 2007: 7).
Hikmet Koraş (2009: 765), used “(çeviri sözlük) translation dictionary” concept as “Third Language
Translated Dictionaries (TLTD)”. And he states that first “originally Non-Third Language Translated
Dictionary” was Hayati Develi’s “Azeri Türkçesi Lügatı /Azeri Turkish Dictionary” (1993) which isprepared very late.
The first dictionary studies carried out in Turkey related to Turkic languages, as we stated above, arethe second translation of bilingual or monolingual dictionaries usually prepared in other languages, inother words they are “Third Language Translated Dictionaries”. This kind of translation dictionaries
which were frequently prepared during Ataturk’s period,2, as we stated above, has been commonlyused method in order to ensure communication between the Turkic Languages in the early years of
independence.
The translation of K.K. Yudahin’s dictionary which was first published in the year of 1940 by
Abdullah Taymas (1945) is an example of such kind of work. This dictionary which descriptions ofseveral words and phrases were not given due to a number of objective and subjective reasons, andmany outdated and obsolete words, phrases and proverbs took part, reworked by Yudahin in 1965, thisnew edition have been tried to be free from such errors as much as possible, and also it has beenenriched by adding many new words. However, unfortunately this 1940 edition which has “missings”
has been translated into Turkey’s Turkish by Abdullah Taymas and in the years of 1989, 1994, 1998
and 2011 with some adding this old edition has been published again.
1

Many translated dictionaries have been published, such as: N. A. Baskakov, vd, Gagauz Türkçesinin Sözlüğü
[Dictionary of Gagauz Turkish] (Translated by Abdülmecit Doğru-İsmail Kaynak), KB Yayınları, Ankara 1991,
279 s.; Gyula Nemeth, Kumuk ve Balkar Lehçeleri Sözlüğü [Dictionary of Kumuk and Balkar Dialects](Translated by Kemal Aytaç), KB Yayınları, Ankara 1990, 60 s. etc.
2Many Turkish dialect dictionaries are translated into Turkey’s Turkish, such as Pekarski’s “Yakut Dili Sözlüğü [Yakut Language Dictionary]” (1945), Yudahin’s “Kırgız Sözlüğü [Kyrgyz Dictionary]” (please see Karahan,
1999; Koraş, 2009).

364

Some of the deficiencies seen in Yudahin’s dictionary translated by Abdullah Taymas (2011 edition):

KyrgyzЖип/ cip (p. 255)
* Ala cipti atta

Meaning
Turkishİp (rope)* Alaca ip üzerinden atlamak (Jumping
 to cheat; to betrayover reddish rope)Майла-2/ mayla-2 ve 3 2.
(p. (başlıca, binek hayvanı) kiralamak;
These3.meanings are not in use in today’s
mec. kafese koymak, dolandırmak (s.
Kyrgyz.
558)[2. renting (primarily, mount); 3.
(metaphorically) to put in a cage, to cheat(p. 558)]Чаңкылда-/ çañkılda- (p.1.346) To bark out (bawl out) (about“About”
a is a miss use; instead “for” cankid, woman); 2. barking with bitterbesoundused or nothing can be used(about a dog)

As it is shown in the samples some words which are being used in both Kyrgyz and Turkish parts are
not up to date. Only, those words used orally, and does not appeal to large masses, or those outdated,
obsolete words included frequently. Since these types of words were also converted into Turkey’s
Turkish from Russian, it undermines the credibility of the dictionary and also negatively affects its
usability:
KyrgyzЭрк (erk)Көмөлдүрүк (kömöldürük)Буу 2 (buu 2)Жалаң (calañ)

Ottoman Turkish
irade; hürriyet
sinebent
2. maden mahlûlü
münhasıran

Turkisherk
gömüldürük
buğu
yalın

Englishfreedom; independence
breastband
mineral solution
exclusively; simple

In the figure above, it can be said that while there are hundreds of, thousands of common words arepresent in between these two languages, the usage of Ottoman Turkish words instead of using themwere due to the translation of the dictionary was made in a period when the influence of the Ottoman
Turkish on Turkey’s Turkish not exactly cleansed and Turkishisation has not been fully completed.
Accordingly, as Cumakunova (2009) stated , both the Yudahin’s first edition published in 1940 as wellas the subsequent new editions are not the dictionaries which are fully reflecting the practical use ofmodern Kirghiz and leads to increase the functional capabilities of it. In the dictionary, as Yudahin’s
himself stated above, constant word sequences related to lexical entry of contemporary Kyrgyz words
and phrasal patterns were not taken part completely. Instead, examples compiled from a variety ofepics, reflects the status of Kyrgyz in the historical process rather than current status.
Besides this, similar errors are encountered in the dictionaries which were originally prepared and nonTLTD ones. Selahattin Çankaya’s “Kırgız Sözlüğü [Kırgızh Dictionary]” which is a such type ofdictionary gave rise to the emergence of collocations and words in Kırgızh which are not present in thelanguage, through preparing collocations and words in Kyrgyz under the influence of mother tongue
Turkish or through translating from another languages word for word.
Although this dictionary which was prepared for practical purposed and contains 50,000 words andphrases, is a user-oriented dictionary by giving Kyrgyz words in Latin transcribes next to the Cyrillicalphabet, it cannot be said that it is a dictionary prepared in accordance with the methods and standardsof lexicology. For example,a) Aba (air) word which was given as lexical entry and phrases where this word isbeing used: aba ber (give/provide air); aba al (take air); aba cut (swallow air);aba kirdüülügü (air pollution); aba ırayı bocomolu (weather forecast); aba ırayı
365

maalımatı (weather forecasting report); aba ırayı raportu (air report); cañı word
and phrases... etc. (These would be given under the “aba” lexical entry).
b) The words and phrases which are not present in Kırgızh Turkish and being createdthrough translation word by word from Turkey’s Turkish or from another language:
aba maydanı (air field); aba mekendik (air space); caŋı kelin (new fashion); cañı
çeri (janissary); cañı çeri komandiri (janissary commander); cañı çeri korpusu (janissary corps) etc.
c) Denotative and connotative meanings of the words, polysemy or homonym
distinctions of them were not performed; as homonym words were given under thesame entry and polysemies were given under different entries: aarçuu-I (clear,transparent, pure, clean); aarçuu-II (bleaching, cleaning)* these two words are thegerund and infinitive form of the verb given after them aarçı- ; Also the verb
aarçı- ; aarçı- I; aarçı- II or aarçı- III; kooz I, kooz II, does not have kooz III
usage in Kırgızh Turkish.
d) Some wrong translation took place: abjora* (*in Russian objora – greedy,
gourmand) (smart, resourceful, cunning) etc.
e) Phonetic doublets (doublet) are also included as a separate lexicon entries
frequently: aygayla- (shout, scream); aykayla- (shout, scream); aylager (deceitful,cunning); aylaker (deceitful, cunning); aylampa (whirlpool, vorticity, whirlwind,
vortex, circulation); aylanpa (whirlpool, whirlwind, swirl) etc.
Apart from these, inconsistencies in punctuation, too many orthographic errors, incorrect translations
or taking place of frequent wrong phrases, and Inconsistencies in the dictionary’s macro- and microstructure undermines the credibility of this dictionary.
It can be thought that the common shortfalls which can be found in general at dictionaries prepared bya single author rather than not being a collective work prepared by dictionary editors who are native
speakers of both languages, can be caused by author’s lack of full knowledge of words or collocationsof that language although its dominance on that language or due to preparing of the dictionary bytranslation and most importantly, due to inadequacy of the theoretical work in the field of Turkish
lexicography and lack of database.
Other Turkic languages just as Turkish and Kyrgyz, although they are in the same language family andtheir basic vocabularies are same, the differences can be found in word phrases and collocations. For
example, the phrase “adamın dışkısı (man's feces)” given as “adamdın tışkısı” in S. Çankaya’s
dictionary, however such use is not available in Kyrgyz language, because, the word “tışkı” does nothave meaning of “feces, excrement”; likewise the phrase “bazı şartlar altında (under certain
conditions)” in Turkey’s Turkish does not has a usage just as “ayrım şarttardın aldında” in Kyrgyz
language.
As we stated above, phonetic differences in all Turkish languages, although they are same externallythe phrasal differences are present: For example, the verb doğmak (rise/born): TT. Doğ; Kırg. tuu- ;Kazakh tuu-, Uzb. tug- etc. TT. with collocations Güneş doğdu (Sun has risen); Kyrgyz kün (nottuudu) çıktı/kötörüldü; Kazakh kün şıktı/köterildi; Uzbek Kün/kuyoş çikti/kütarildi. In the usageof the doğur- verb which is the causative form of the same verb differences are available in Kyrgyz
Turkish. The verb tuu- has a synonym in the form of törö- in Kyrgyz Turkish, so while the tuu- verb
has a common usage against both human and animal and other situations, the usage area of the töröverb so narrow and only can be used for humans. Because of that the phrases in the form of “ittörödü”, “koy törödü” for animals do not exist.
4. Conclusion366

Today when the relations in between Turkic Republics and Turkic communities have developed
ambidextrously, the preparation of bilingual and multilingual dictionaries for various purposes andforms is much needed. As Cumakunova (2006: 24) rigthtfully stated, due to needs such as opening ofContemporary Turkic Language and Literature Departments in Turkey’s universities especially, andopening schools and universities in Turkic Republics where the education and training language isTurkish, training staff for these educational institutions, preparation of scientific and pedagogicalpublications, the need for such dictionaries is increasing with each passing day.
Bilingual dictionaries should be prepared by a group of the specialists and native speakers in theselanguages (Kolukisa 2015: 159). Otherwise, these types of errors in bilingual dictionaries areinevitable, if they are prepared by only one person.
As a result, the things need to be done in this matter can be summarized as follows:1.
Due to Russian was common language in all Turkic Republics and communities under theSoviet rule, the lexicon entries shall be taken from Russian, and a common database shall be formed
where their counterparts and definitions in those languages along with their phrases are present.
2.
And Russian words should be a tool that can be used while indexing. Formation of suchdatabase would reveal not only common and different points in using the words between these dialects
through inter-dialect collocation dictionaries but also would reveal social a cultural commonalities anddifferences indirectly. The preparation of such will provide a major contribution to the inter-dialectmachine translation at later stages (without a translation requiring a third language such as English).
3.
First of all, theoretical works on the lexicography shall be made firmly and then it should be
put into practice.
4.
The dictionaries where common vocabulary of Turkish languages and collocation consisting ofbasic words are present. Such a study will also demonstrate social-lingual differences of Turkic
communities who are living in the same geography and sharing a common historical background by
putting these differences into the middle.
Collocation dictionaries represents a major sources for those who are learning these languages withregard to provide information about the use of words in that language, to contain important information
about in which words it is coupled with and in which grammatical forms they are being used. In termsof answering to the current needs today, many new dictionaries are being published in Turkic statelanguages. However, since the theoretical lexicography works in these countries are not fully
developed, they are not formed depending on the particular system and unfortunately since many of thestudies are not based on concrete data such as database, they are not meeting expectations by reaching
to desired quality.
This study has been prepared to share our thoughts on what needs to be done to base dictionary works
on concrete scientific data in Turkic state languages which shares the same common geography andhaving the same historical background, and because of that, along with expectations to open a new era
in lexicography works in Turkic states, the feasibility of application of a similar system into different
languages also revealed.
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368

A Contrastive Study of Phraseological Units among
Andalusians and the Fluminense people
Rita Giovana M. Ferraro
University of New South Wales, Australia
rita.ferraro@unsw.edu.au
Abstract
This paper is the result of qualitative field research conducted over 3 years of stay in Andalusia. The
original corpus collected contains one thousand expressions spoken in the southern region of Spain. It
is often said that the Andalusian people produce units of speech that greatly differ from the ones
constructed by Spaniards from other regions. Indeed, this study shows that the block of recurrent
expressions used in Andalusia has one or more of its forming elements modified or suppressed incomparison to what is spoken in other parts of Spain. This paper provides examples to illustrate it.
However, this unit act which characterises the Andalusians speech goes beyond the boundaries oforality. The collection of speech samples came through 1996 to 1999 and was obtained throughrecordings of Andalusian people in spontaneous interactions as well as in controlled interviews andquestionnaires. In order to validate the recorded phraseological units spoken by a particular generation,
diaphasic, diastratic and diatopic criteria were adopted. The research provides support for the incidenceof use (identified in the research through asterisks) of phraseological units in Andalusia. The incidenceof use does not seem to be dependent on the speakers’ socio cultural status, but rather related to age
reasons.
Keywords: lexicography, phraseology, phraseological units, Spanish/Portuguese

1. Introduction
This article concerns the contrastive study of some phraseological units used in speech in
Andalusia by the “twenty-something” generation and their equivalent uses in Rio de Janeiro.
We chose to use “phraseological units” (PUs) as the general term encompassing expressions,
idioms, sayings, figures of speech, set phrases and interjections. We have also included somewidely-used vulgarisms, many of which are formed by somatisms, that is, expressions
referring to parts of the body, either human or animal.
The corpus that has been compiled includes approximately one thousand expressions inalphabetical order from A to Z and their equivalents in Portuguese. In this article only a few
have been included for reasons of space and also because they are currently in press.
This corpus was collected over the three years of my stay in Spain, from 1996 to 1999, in
public places such as discos, cafés, restaurants, supermarkets, bus-stops, beaches and friends’
houses. We only gathered examples of speech from Andalusians and from people born in thestate of Río de Janeiro, aged from 19 to 35.
The speech sample collected comes directly from source. All the expressions have beenfaithfully transcribed respecting the original utterances. Thus we took note of speech acts byacquaintances and strangers in public places as well as the speech of fellow students at the
University of Cádiz (UCA) and that of our circle of friends.
We also enlisted the help of those who became regular collaborators, such as the waiters in
the restaurant of Cadiz Hospital, as well as shopkeepers and waiting staff of neighbourhood
bars. Besides that, we received the assistance of the shop assistants of La Gloria, a chain of
cake shops situated in the Old Quarter and in the new part of the city of Cádiz and of the staff369

of the Traca Playa restaurant and of the local “veinte duros” shops, who, on countlessoccasions, generously gave us their help, not only by contributing with their own voices, butalso correcting and confirming the units that we had collected, (It should be explained that“veinte duros” shops, which later became 1 euro shops, used to sell extremely cheap goods,
similar to “2 dollar shops” in Australia and some other English-speaking countries).
All those involved in the study were from Cadiz, Jerez de la Frontera, Sevilla, Huelva, Jaen,
Malaga, Cordoba, Granada and other parts of Andalusia.
Our other reference works were the Diccionario Fraseológico del Español Moderno, by F.
Varela and H. Kubarth (1994); El Español Idiomático by P. Domínguez et al (1988); theDiccionario Esencial de la Editorial Santillana (1991); the Diccionario de Uso del Españolde María Moliner (1982); the Diccionario Práctico de Locuciones y Frases Hechas, Everest(1998).
Subsequently, in 1999, we took the Spanish corpus to the UCA in order to discover if thephraseological units used by the general public were also used in university circles amongpeople of the same age.
2. Methodology
In the aforementioned university the research was carried out through sociolinguistic surveys
aimed at students in the faculties of Arts, Business Studies, Marine Science, Information
Technology and Medicine.
The general conditions of eligibility were, among others:
1) People born in Andalusia or those who had been living there for no less than 10 years;
2) People between 19 and 35 years old;With regard to family incomes, the data obtained came from the following categories:a) Less than 100,000 pesetasb) 100,000 to 200,000 pesetasc) 200,000 to 300,000 pesetasd) Over 300,000 pesetas
Most of the participants belonged to group c), which represented an average family salary.
As for housing conditions, we observed that most of them lived in modest houses or flats (thatis “normal dwellings”). This was ascertained by suggesting the following types:a) Dwellings without sanitary installations and with difficult access;b) Modest houses or flats/ normal dwellings;c) Spacious and elegant houses or flats, with all modern conveniences.
The surveys lasted for several months and each student received thirty expressions persession. In order to facilitate the classification of these units, they were typed in bold,
numbered and ordered alphabetically. Each expression was followed by its meaning, given inbrackets, and examples were given below in inverted commas in one or two sentences takenfrom our compilation. Participants were also asked to replace those expressions that were
unfamiliar or never used with an equivalent. Students were required to indicate the frequencyof each expression using asterisks. Thus, unfamiliar or unused expressions should be marked
with a single asterisk (*), infrequently used ones with two (**) and those frequently usedshould receive three asterisks (***).
To illustrate this, we have included part of the survey below. The asterisks and replacement
expressions were provided by the students.
370

1) ser de boca (algo) (to be said insincerely)“Ya veo que tus promesas son de boca. Hace tiempo que me prometiste un puchero yhasta ahora nada.”(*)
Replacements: ser de boquilla
ser mentira
mucho lirili, poco lerele
no valer ni un duro
ser de boca p’a fuera2) tener guasa(to be funny, often ironically)“Tus amigos tienen guasa.”(***)
Replacements: X
Likewise, we took some similar expressions to the Universidad Federal Fluminense (UFF) in
Niterói, RJ, Brazil. In the UFF the task was carried out only in the Arts and Business Studies
Faculties because final exams were taking place at the time.
We kept the same Spanish expressions for the Brazilian students although we provided themeanings in Portuguese. We translated the expressions as well as giving the semantic
meaning in every case and the communicative-pragmatic one when it was considerednecessary. The Brazilian students confirmed the use of the items in Portuguese as well as
making new contributions which have been added in italics.
3. Entries
Whenever two verbs appear together, the first takes precedence. For example, in the case of“hacerse de rogar” the reader will find the expression under the letter H.
If an expression can be used alone or with one or more accompanying verbs, it will appear
under the letter corresponding to the best-known part of the expression. Thus, the expression“de puta madre” is included under the letter D and the accompanying verbs are included inbrackets. For example, “(estar) (algo) de puta madre”.
When the verb or verbs form an integral part of the expression in such a way that it is
impossible to detach them, then the expression will be classified according to these verbs.
Thus, “decir/soltar cuatro frescas” the verbs “decir” and “soltar” will be included as subentries.
Square brackets are used to indicate an equivalent expression in Portuguese, together with anillustrative example of use. Should an identical expression appear with a different meaning, it
will be pointed out in a note.
In this way, the following results were obtained:A(vivir) a cuerpo de rey (to have an easy, excessively comfortable life)“Mi vecino dijo que su sueldo no cubre los gastos, sin embargo, vive a cuerpo de rey.”(*)
Replacements: de puta madre
como un marajá
como un rajá
como un rey
como un frailede escándalo371

de muerte[‘viver como um marajá/ um rei’, ‘ter a vida que pediu a Deus’.
“Meu vizinho disse que com o seu salário mal dá para sobreviver mas, no entanto, vive comoum marajá/ vive como um rei/ tem a vida que pediu a Deus.”](...)
Bbeber los vientos por alguien (adore somebody)“Ramón bebe los vientos por su novia.”(*)
Replacements /Substitutes:

estar enchochado
estar loco-a por alguien
estar loquito-a[‘ser/estar louco-a/doido-a (por alguém)’, ‘ser/estar amarrado-a/ fissurado-a/gamado-a/
vidrado-a (em alguém)’.
“Ramón é/está louco pela noiva”. “Ramón é/está amarrado/fissurado/gamado/vidrado na
noiva dele.”](…)
C
contra viento y marea (facing obstacles and difficulties)“Para que tu novio y tú estéis juntos tendréis que luchar contra viento y marea.”(***)[‘contra vento e tempestade’, ‘contra tudo e contra todos’.
“Para que você e o seu noivo fiquem juntos terão que lutar contra vento e tempestade /contra tudo e contra todos.”](...)
CH¡chúpate ésa! ( Exclamation of approval or applause when the speaker answers somebody
sharply or wittily: exclamation indicating satisfaction at somebody else’s misfortune)“¡Chúpate ésa! A mí me han concedido permiso para salir el jueves y a ti te obligan aquedarte en la oficina”.
(*)
Substitutes:¡Toma!
¡Toma ya!
¡Cómete esa!
Vulgarism:¡Para que te jodas!
[‘escuta/ouve essa ...’, ‘sente/olha só ...’, ‘aqui...’
Note: these expressions are normally followed by the argument or comment.
(…)
4. Criteria used for the organisation of phraseological units
According to some theorists, phraseological units play an important role in the acquisition ofboth the mother tongue and foreign languages. In the mother tongue, phraseological units,
acquired automatically and unconsciously, are used by adults to save words and to facilitate“speed in language processing” (G.Corpas: 1996: 15). Phraseological units, which are so
widely used in all languages, likewise facilitate the rapid assimilation of a second language,
increasing the student’s possibilities of expression and communicative capacity. However, theformal aspects, such as fixedness and idiomaticity, and the pragmatic content can complicate
the learning of these units. Therefore the L2 teacher must consider these aspects whenintroducing phraseological units and select the units to be worked on according to the372students’ level. This task requires a great deal of time and dedication since there are few
studies of this field. (I.Penadés, 1999: 35 – 37).
Currently, there is a great choice of didactic materials which, as well as providing themeanings and uses of phraseological units, also add indications of formal or informal registerand restrictions on their use. Others offer a wide range of relevant exercises. These materials
include the book El Español Idiomático by P. Dominguez González et al (1988), theDiccionario Fraseológico by F. Varela and H. Kubarth (1994), the Diccionario Espasa by A.
Buitrago Jiménez (1995); María J. Beltrán and E. Yánez Tortosa (1996) (apud, Penadés).
Some authors suggest that the expressions be presented in onomasiological or analogicalorder (when the expressions are grouped according to their semantic field) in order to simplify
the process of locating them. This is the system used in idealogical dictionaries and in thisway the words are distributed according to a unifying criterion using a base word. The
following idioms illustrate this:Entryojo/ojo“costar el ojo de la cara”“no pegar ojo”
“a ojo de buen cubero”“entrar/meterse algo por los ojos”“en un abrir y cerrar de ojos”“mirar con buenos ojos”
The same criterion can be used in the sample of phraseological units starting from a single
word to refer to homogeneous groups of notions, such as parts of the body (con la boca
abierta; boca arriba; boca abajo, se me hace la boca agua), feelings (to express anger: estar
hasta + adjetivo = el moño, el coño, los cojones, los huevos, la coronilla, las narices, etc.),
military hierarchies, etc.
The choice of an adequate criterion to use in ordering phraseological units is not a simple
task. As there are no strict norms regarding which criterion to use, some scholars on thesubject choose whichever is most suitable for them. However, problems may arise with the
choice of certain criteria when the type of target reader and their possible difficulty inconsulting phraseological units are not taken into account. Bearing this in mind, I. Penadés(1999) has presented eight recent dictionaries of Spanish phraseology of which we will use
the six that are most useful in our study. In Penadés’ work she contemplates the usefulness ofordering the phraseological units according to the target user: the teacher, the researcher, thestudent, with or without a great knowledge of grammar, as well as the foreign user.
According to this author, one of the most useful criteria for foreigners and students with nogreat grammatical knowledge is that which offers the first word of the phraseological unit,
followed by the second and so on. Thus, in the case of units like “en un plis plas”, “arajatabla” or “tomar las de Villadiego”, it would be easiest to find them in in a dictionary
under “en”, “a” and “tomar”, that is, under the first element of each unit. This type ofordering can be found in the “Diccionario Espasa de dichos y frases hechas”.
The most usual criterion would seem to be presenting the UFS according to a key word,
which is usually a substantive noun. The problem with this is that the reasons for choosing anoun are not clear. In our opinion the choice of an element of the structure as the base formshould be made bearing in mind its formal aspect, as occurs with compound nouns (thismeans that if only the first element of the lexicalised syntagms were considered, idioms
would constitute complete entries instead of sub-entries with two base elements). The
dictionaries in question are aimed at both teachers and students, although the latter could havedifficulties in using them. One of the dictionaries using this criterion is the Larousse.

373

M. Martín Sánchez (1997, apud Penadés) includes in his dictionary colloquialisms andphraseological units grouped according to lexical fields, such as “The Human Body”,“Religion”, etc. Although some units are outdated, the book can prove very useful.
The RAE dictionary (1992) includes phraseological units in the following order of preference:
substantive, verb, adjective, pronoun and adverb.
F. Varela and H. Kubarth (1994) begin their phraseological classification using 2000 key
words, although they do not include sayings and proverbs. The words are arrangedalphabetically, with examples of use in the following order: proper nouns, substantives, main
verbs, pronouns, numbers, and the verb SER (to be).
In this case, we prefer to introduce the expression using the first word, and this element would
appear in only one entry in the dictionary, a criterion also suggested by J. Martinez Sousa(1995). This type of classification would save space and time in the compilation of thedictionary which would be aimed at Brazilian students or foreigners with a reasonableknowledge of the language. In this way, there would be no need to include all the elements ofthe expression in their respective alphabetical categories, as occurs, for example, in the
Espasa (although we do understand that this method makes it easy to find any expression).
Thus, for an expression like “por si las moscas” the only entry would be under “por”.
Exceptions would be made in the case of expressions which could be the complement of two
or more verbs. In this case, an expression like “estar/ ponerse/ quedarse boca abajo (algo)(alguien)” would appear under the entries of the respective verbs as separate headings for asingle unit.
The book by P. Domínguez González (1988) contains an Índice General de Modismos with
their respective lexical definitions and approximately 1200 items. All the expressions
mentioned are in general use in the 50 Spanish provinces but there is no index of frequency.
5. Survey
In 1999 we conducted a survey among ten students from Cádiz and ten from Asturias,
showing them samples of expressions from the aforementioned book. Of the 244 expressions,only 91 were used in speech by the Asturian students, or were at least familiar to them: 25
were used only by the Andalusian students, 78 were used by both groups, 45 were unfamiliarand five were expressed in a different way.

374

Although many of the idioms and set phrases are dated or unfamiliar, P. Domínguez’ work is
still very valuable in the teaching of phraseological units. The exercises given in the two
sections of the book are useful tools to check the understanding and correct use of Spanish
idioms.
There is one further problem that should be mentioned regarding the ordering ofphraseological units: the arbitrary use of the words le, uno and alguien. Some units appear in
didactic texts and dictionaries as follows: : írsele a alguien el santo al cielo, irse uno conviento fresco, dejarle a alguien plantado.
We have followed the M. Marin’s suggestion of replacing the words le and uno by alguien, aalguien.
Another possible solution in this case is to use a different font, not italics or bold, bracketingthe accompanying pronouns. The results would be as follows: irse (a alguien) el santo alcielo, irse (alguien) con viento fresco/ irse con viento fresco (alguien), dejar (a alguien)plantado.

6. Conclusion
Andalusians have a different way of speaking from that of Spaniards from other regions. We
have observed that in the group of commonly used expressions in Andalusia, when they areformulated in other parts of Spain, some elements may be modified or even omitted.
However, we have also discovered that the characteristic unity of speech acts in Andalusia
goes beyond orality. Using the samples collected from individuals of 19 – 35 years of age,with secondary or higher education and coming from different social strata, we could observethat the same phraseological units were used throughout the group. Thus, our research has
shown that the incidence in the use of phraseological units observed in the “twenty –something” generation of Andalusians does not depend on the socio cultural level of the
speakers, but, rather, on age reasons.
375References
Corpas , Pastor G. 1996. Manual de fraseología española. Gredos, Madrid.
Domínguez, González P at alia. 1998. El español idiomático Ariel Lingüística, Madrid.
Martínez, de Sousa, 1995. Diccionario de lexicografía práctica. Vox, Barcelona.
Martínez, Marín, J.1996. Estudios de fraseología española. Editorial Librería Ágora.
Moliner, Maria. 1982. Diccionario de uso del español. Gredos, Madrid.
Penadés, Martínez.1999. La enseñanza de las unidades fraseológicas. Madrid: Arco/Libros.
VARELA, F. et al. 1994. Diccionario fraseológico del español moderno. Madrid: Gredos.
VARELA, F. et al. 1998. Diccionario práctico de locuciones y frases hechas. León: Everest.
VARELA, F. et al. 1991. Diccionario Esencial Santillana de Lengua Española. Barcelona:Santillana.
VARELA, F et al. 1992. Diccionario de la Real Academia Española. Madrid: Planeta.

376

Phraseology and Terminology in LSP: Implications for lexicography
Jirapa VitayapirakKing Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang, Thailand
kvjirapa@kmitl.ac.th
Abstract
Phraseology is a study of word combination which is one of the important linguistic
production. It is also referred to as collocation, fixed expression, multi-word lexical unit,
cluster, chunk or lexical bundle. This paper explores the distinctive phraseological patterns
which show the meaningful linguistic behavior of the high frequency words using examples
from specific corpora at King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang. Data for the
study consist of three electronic corpora, i.e. Food Technology Corpus, Cosmetic Science
Abstract Corpus and Environmental Science Research Articles Corpus. An analysis of theco-occurrence of lexical items, concordance data and their frequency exhibit bothphraseological and terminological tendency. The forms, structures and functions of lexicalbundles show the distinctive variations. Many phrases show highly specific terminologicalmeanings with domain specific implications. The particular examples of terminology wererecorded and selected as a raw material for compiling LSP dictionary and teaching English forSpecific Purposes.
Keywords: phraseology, terminology, LSP, corpora

1. Introduction
Specialized or technical dictionaries are devoted to the description of the technical languageof a specialized subject or discipline. The corpus-based methodology is useful for ESP
lexicography. As McEnery and Wilson (1996:
166) and Bergenholtz and Tarp (1995: 178) suggested that a finite lexicon in ESP can bechecked using word frequencies searching for patterns of word combinations, and looking forexamples of usage of particular words in order to make the information in LSP dictionaries
authoritative and backed up by hard evidence. Moreover, an important component of fluent
linguistic production in ESP is the multiword expressions referred to as “clusters”, “chunks”
or “lexical bundles” (Hyland, 2008). These are collocations which appear more frequently
than expected by chance, helping to shape meanings and contributing to our sense ofcoherence in a text. As Hyland (2008) pointed out that clusters or collocations seem topresent considerable challenges to EFL students.
The present paper describes the systematic use of corpus-based information in a technicaldictionary designed particularly for LSP students. It explores the distinctive phraseologicalpatterns which show the meaningful linguistic behavior of the high frequency words using
examples from specific corpora. They offer insights from an actual LSP situation, and show
how future reference tools can be oriented to meet the lexical needs of the LSP learner. It is
important that LSP lexicographers should make good use of computer technology in order tomake better specialized dictionaries.
2. Corpora
Specific corpora become central to the fulfillment of this research. In order to analyze thephraseological tendency and terminology, the co-occurrence of lexical items derived fromconcordance data and their frequency can exhibit both of them. Data for the study thus
consisted of three electronic corpora at King Mongkut’s Institute of Technology Ladkrabang,i.e. Food Technology Corpus, Cosmetic Science Abstract Corpus and Environmental Science377

Research Articles Corpus. These corpora are specialist corpora writing in English. They were
designed and compiled to be specific and to represent the range of subjects in the text types inthe target population using the texts written by native speakers. The structures of three
corpora are briefly detailed in Table1 below:

Table 1 The structure of three specialist corpora
CorporaFood Technology Corpus Cosmetic
Science Environmental
Abstract Corpus
ScienceResearch
Articles Corpus
Size (tokens)
Text type

Publicationdate

2,304,640
Food
Technology
textbooks (90%) andjournal articles (10%)

625,579
Cosmetic
scienceabstracts
fromInternational Journalof Cosmetic Science
Textbooks (1980-2000), 2002 to 2006
journal articles(1996-2002)

1,883,197
research articles in
SciDirect database2007 to 2012

The three corpora are specialist corpora of writing in English. The corpora consist of
2,304,640 625,579, and 1,883,197, tokens of running text respectively. The purpose of thecorpora were to collect a well-balanced database of texts. All texts were then selected andentered into the database by re-using existing electronic texts.
3. Methodology
The corpora were compiled and then analysed by a concordance program (WordSmith Tools
Version 6). It provided lists of words or word-clusters in texts set out in alphabetical or
frequency order, while the concordancer, Concord, offered key-word-in-context (KWIC)
concordance displays. Basic statistics such as the number of types, tokens and hapax
legomena were also examined.
4. Results and discussion(1) The Top Twenty Nouns
For LSP dictionary, function words such as the, of, and are disregarded, while high frequency
nouns as lexical words become the focus. For example, the top twenty nouns in the foodtechnology corpus are:temperature, water, heat, process, product,food, rate, liquid, pressure, air, time,
drying, surface, transfer, moisture,quality, equation, data, design, number
Figure 1 The top twenty nouns in the food technology corpus(2) Technical vs. sub-technical vocabulary
Generally, it might have been predicted that many of the lexical items particular to thespecialized corpus would be technical words. However, this is not the case. This finding
confirms Béjoint’s (1988: 354) study that scientific and technical discourse makes use ofwords that are not specialized at all. For example, nouns like temperature, water, heat,process, product are not technical terms, but rather can be classed as sub-technical or semitechnical vocabulary (Yang 1986: 98, Robinson 1991: 28, Flowerdew 2001: 77). In other378

words, these words have a special meaning within the food technological area, and are used
across many sub-fields.
(3) Phraseology and terminology
A problem in categorization is the fact that such categories of technical vocabulary in LSP
texts overlap considerably, due to their use in general language as well as for specific-subject
purposes. Examples of this are: temperature, water, heat, process in food technology. The
polysemy of sub technical words in different subject domains underscores the need for an
objective means of recognizing the semantic functions of terms in text. Pearson (1998: 26)
points out that the communicative setting helps to identify meaning and to determine whether
an expression will be behaving ‘terminologically’ or ‘normally’. In fact, technical terms often
pair up to form larger meaningful groups within the contexts, i.e. compounds or lexicalphrases that always appear in the same form. For instance, heat collocates with transfer inheat transfer. These collocations are potentially problematic for EFL readers. Technical terms
and collocations can be extracted and identified in context using corpus data in the form ofconcordances (see Figure 2):

Figure 2 KWIC concordance data for the word ‘heat’
The concordance data for the word ‘heat’ shows its collocation behavior in technical texts inthe food technology corpus. It appears in numerous compound and multiword units, whichshow up in concordance data, e.g. convective heat transfer coefficient, heat exchangers, heat
flow, heat removal rate, heat transfer medium, heat-induced flavor. As Sinclair (1995: viii)
says, we only notice compounds and multiword units when we see many examples of themset together. Without the corpus we might not have found any of them.
Another example, nouns appear at the high frequency in the corpus of cosmetic scienceabstracts concerning with either the topic of cosmetic science such as ‘skin’ (409 times),‘hair’ (343 times). As ‘skin’ occurs at the highest rank in the corpus, the concordance lines ofthis word were selected to show its circumstance. In terms of adjectives, it is found that‘cosmetic’ appear at the highest rank (103 times) in the corpus of cosmetic science abstracts.
Concordance lines of this word are selected to show its circumstance as illustrated in Figure 3
and 4:

Figure 3 Concordances of ‘skin’ in the Cosmetic Science Abstract Corpus

379

Figure 4 Concordances of ‘cosmetic’ in the Cosmetic Science Abstract Corpus
From Figure 3 and 4, the concordance lines show phraseological terms such as ‘intact axillaryskin’ or ‘cosmetic formulation’. The sample sentences can be drawn as for example:- Collagen is an important component for cosmetic formulation, where it is an effective
natural humectant with high substantivity.
- Integrating toxicity assessment of new cosmetic ingredients early in the R&D cycle would
help avoid developing ingredients with limited or no market potential due to toxicity
concerns.
The next example is from Environmental Research Article corpus, the highest frequency ofcontent word was “environmental”. The sample collocations of this word showed up clearly
in KWIC concordances. Concordances can highlight the fact that they are not only
compounds but have more parts of multiword lexical units as shown in Figure 5 below:

Figure 5 Sample KWIC Concordances for “environmental”
Top five of ‘environmental’ collocations in the Corpus of ESRAs were environmental
management (Freq. 263), environmental performance (Freq. 137), environmental
management system(s) (Freq. 162), environmental management practices (Freq. 90), andenvironmental protection agency (Freq. 58). We can see that frequency data of thephraseological terms can be a powerful tool in the hands of technical lexicographers sinceeach level of frequency offers a potential cut-off point for headword selection and grading ofitems. The potential headword list for technical dictionary starts with those terms with middle
to high frequencies in the corpus. The terms included in the dictionary are examined to makesure that they have technical meanings in the domain of food technology. Thus, thisterminological dictionary is based on corpus frequency information, rather than on
introspective intuition or a traditional inventory of words.
As Svensén (1993: 98) defines, the compounds are two or more words that always appear
together, in the same form, with a fixed meaning. They consist purely of lexical words such as
380

environmental management system or heat transfer. The fact that the lexical strings mostly
consist of compounds and multiword lexical units, a close inspection revealed that thecollocations in the corpora have a meaning exclusively their own and their meaning cannot be
deduced by breaking their parts. A term consisting of two or three more words, e.g. proactive
environmental management, is almost impossible to decode. For the EFL students, the lengthof the words makes them impenetrable. These collocations are difficult for EFL students.
Therefore, in order to help them learn how to use properly, more evidence based instructional
practices from the corpus in advance writing context seeks to address.
Qualitative observations revealed that some words have specific or technical meanings related
to the specific genre. The LSP dictionary should be compiled basing solely on frequency
criteria from the corpus, showing the separate senses in context, and examples of usage fromthe concordance in each dictionary entry. The focus would help students understand andencourage them to use appropriate vocabulary when writing research articles or completing
academic assignments (Lewis, 2001).
5. Conclusion
The corpus frequencies and concordance data are evidently valuable in showing the linguistic
contexts of terms. It illuminates the role of terms and their collocations in terms ofcompounds and multiword lexical units. The findings thus have applications for LSP
lexicography. The evidence from the corpus suggests which vocabulary items are likely to be
encountered by language users, and which therefore deserve to be headwords in dictionary.
The forms, structures and functions of lexical bundles show the distinctive variations. Manyphrases show highly specific terminological meanings with domain specific implications. The
particular examples of terminology were recorded and selected as a raw material forcompiling LSP dictionary and teaching English for Specific Purposes.
References
Chen, Qi, and Guangchun, Ge. 2007. A corpus-based lexical study on frequency anddistribution of Coxhead’s AWL word families in medical research articles (RAs).
English for Specific Purposes 26: 502-514.
Flowerdew, Lynne. 2005. An Integration of corpus-based and genre-based approaches to text
analysis in EAP/ESP: Countering criticism against corpus-based methodologies.
English for Specific Purposes 24: 321-332.
Hanks, Patrick. 2010d. Lexicography, terminology, and phraseology. In Proceedings on
Euralex 2010, Leeuwarden.
Hyland, Ken. 2008. As can be seen: Lexical bundles and disciplinary variation. English forSpecific Purposes 27: 4-21.
Lewis, Michael. 2001. Teaching collocation: Further developments in the lexical approach.
Hove, England: Thompson – Heinle Publications, 139-141.
Salazar, Danica. 2015. Lexical bundles in native and non-native scientific writing: Applying a
corpus-based study to language learning. The Netherlands: John Benjamins.
Sinclair, John. 1991. Corpus, concordance, collocation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Swales, John. M. 1990. Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wray, Alison. 2002. Formulaic language and the lexicon. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.

381

Equipping Students with Lexicographical Means to Tackle
Collocation Problems
Liu Liming
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kongliming-leo.liu@connect.polyu.hk
Abstract
Collocation is a crucial aspect of the idiomaticity of language and a notoriously difficult area forsecond language development. Students who expect to achieve an advanced level of English academic
writing have to be able to use collocations acceptable to the international academia. The mostchallenging aspect of the difficulty of collocations is the restrictive co-selection of collocating lexical
items, making the production of collocations subject to prefabrication and not amenable to creativity asin the case of free combinations. This paper aims to pedagogically equip advanced L2 research students
with lexicographical and corpus linguistics means to tackle their collocation problems, allowing
students to bring initiatives to autonomous data-driven learning. The analysis identifies the relative
strengths and weaknesses of an online academic corpus and a collocation dictionary for students tolook for important lexicogrammtical information on collocations.
Keywords: collocation, academic writing, pedagogical facilitation, corpus-assisted learning

1. Introduction
The use of collocations contributes greatly to the idiomaticity of written production and has
been regarded as a crucial component of second language (L2) vocabulary depth knowledge(Laufer and Waldman 2011; Read 2000). It has been agreed that L2 learners’ difficulty withcollocations is not concerned with recognizing and understanding them in meaningfulcontexts as much as using them in free written and spoken production. The development of
collocation production has been found to lag behind other aspects of L2 acquisition. Alongthe continuum of phraseological constructions, what distinguishes collocations from freecombinations and idioms hinges upon the restricted co-selection of combinatory elements andrelative semantic transparency (Laufer and Waldman 2011). Therefore, it can be inferred that
it is the restriction on lexical selection that problematizes the use of collocations, sincesemantic transparency would not pose any great challenge for selecting co-occurring items.
The production of verb-noun collocations by L2 learners has been the most widely studied
among research on lexical collocations, given the widespread presence of transitive verbs infinite and non-finite clauses (Biber et al. 1999). The principle of restricted lexical coselection, as far as it is concerned with verb-noun collocations, suggests that only a limited
range of verbs can occur with a particular noun, and reversely only a limited scope of nouns
can go with a certain verb. In actual free written production, students’ major area of problems
with verb-noun collocations is the inappropriate choice of verbs (Nesselhauf 2003) andlearners have been found to overuse and misuse certain core verbs (e.g. take, get, give, have,
make; Laufer and Waldman 2011). Calling them “lexical teddy bears”, Hasselgren (1994)
explained the over-reliance on familiar lexical items in terms of their early presence in the L2syllabus and high-frequency in English. A common feature of these core verbs lies in their“delexical” nature, i.e. they assume little perceivable lexical meaning by themselves apartfrom their prototypical meaning. Due to this delexical feature, each of these core verbs cantake a large number of nouns to form collocations, serving to complete the meaning of thenouns. However, although being semantically less specific and being able to take a wide
range of noun objects, these verbs are still subject to the general principle of arbitrary
restriction on the co-occurring elements. Students’ excessive and sometimes erroneous use ofcollocations with these verbs either represents their unawareness of these verbs’ collocational382

restriction or lack of ability to retrieve a more appropriate verb to express what they attempt
to mean. In such cases, it could be possible that students “get by” with these familiar verbs toapproximate the intended meaning and to carry on with the discourse.
Students engaged in academic writing need to make constant lexical choices to form
meaningful collocations. Without expert writing informants always being around, such a needis most likely to be satisfied when students are equipped with lexical resources to solve their
immediate collocational problems. Useful resources to facilitate students’ collocation use may
include learner’s dictionaries and online corpora. However, general learner’s dictionaries likethe Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary would not be the best place to be for detailed
information on collocations since they are primarily intended for providing accurate word
meaning. Although modern corpus-based learner’s dictionaries present words’ mostrepresentative collocation and colligation features, sometimes through enhanced typography(e.g. bold type and color) in examples, the information is still not adequate enough to provide
comprehensive and reliable collocation guidance for academic writing. In contrast,
collocation dictionaries for language learners are a much better resource for accessing
collocational information. Take the Oxford Collocations Dictionary (Lea 2002) for example,
collocates from each word class are provided for each sense of an headword and those fromwithin a word class are separated according to their semantic relations with a sense of theheadword for the user’s most informed reference. The other resource that students can benefit
from once well trained is online corpora offering functionalities for collocation research.
Providing valuable opportunities for data-driven learning and self-directed discovery learning
as well as abundant information on the discourse features of particular collocations, online
corpora can play an important role in facilitating students’ academic writing process.
In view of L2 students’ over-reliance on common verbs which may result in infelicitous verbnoun collocations and the dependable contribution to be made by lexicographical and corpus
linguistics resources in facilitating students’ collocation production in academic writing, thispaper aims to illustrate a detailed online corpus procedure for identifying verb collocates ofnouns which have been found to co-occur with inappropriate verbs in student writing.
Outcomes of this corpus procedure will be compared with consulting a collocation dictionary
to identify areas where these two types of resource can complement each other. To provide abasis and empirical data for the lexicographical illustration, a corpus-based analysis of
infelicitous verb-noun collocations as a result of misusing the delexical meaning of make isconducted first.
2. The corpus-based analysis
2.1. Data
The data used for the corpus-based analysis of infelicitous verb-noun collocations concerning
the delexical meaning of make includes a corpus of 70 MA dissertations written by Chinese
EFL students studying applied linguistics (hereinafter referred to as the MDC), with a size ofaround 1 million words. A contrastive corpus was compiled of 129 empirical research articles
taken from 6 respected journals in the broad discipline of applied linguistics (hereinafterreferred to as the PRC), with a total size of 971,726 words. The sample of the 70 dissertations
is considered to come from a largely homogeneous population as all of them have been givena distinction grade. It needs to be noted that the PRC features authorship from a variety of L1
backgrounds, representing published writing of international authors rather than only limited
to native speakers.
2.2. Procedures
Wordsmith Tools 5.0 was employed to automatically extract all concordance lines containing
make, after which the infelicitous verb-noun collocations where make is a delexical verb weremanually identified. The infelicity of a collocation consisting of make and a particular noun
was first tentatively identified by the author, and then confirmed if the collocation had no383

presence in the contrastive published corpus while that noun occurred with another verb toconvey roughly the same meaning attempted by the “make” collocation. For example, makean explanation would be determined as infelicitous if this collocation does not occur in the
PRC while provide an explanation is attested. The qualifier “infelicitous” was adopted rather
than “erroneous” as in some studies of collocation (e.g. Laufer and Waldman 2011) because
sometimes collocations unfavored in published writing are not really erroneous, e.g. make athorough study, make an in-depth analysis; they are just very infrequently used, at least insome disciplines.
2.3. Results
2.3.1. Features of the nouns in infelicitous make-collocations
The nouns co-selected with the delexical meaning of make forming infelicitous andunidiomatic collocations are listed in Table 1 in decreasing order of frequency. The frequency
includes instances of both singular and plural forms of the collocates, but the vast majority of
the collocates are singular. There are a number of striking features discernable from the list ofnoun collocates. First, the collocates with the highest frequencies are more or lesssynonymous, belonging to the semantic category of academic study and analysis (the nouns inbold), e.g. analysis, study, research, and investigation; these nouns (tokens) account for 54%
of all the instances (tokens) of the collocates of make. By using make with these nouns, thestudents introduced the entities analyzed and researched in their own studies and those ofothers. Another feature of the collocates is that few of the collocates are communication
nouns, e.g. statement, claim, announcement etc, which represent the typical semantic domainof the noun collocates of make according to the Collins Cobuild English Grammar (1990).
Where there are instances of communication nouns in the student corpus, such as explanation,
instruction, question, and command, these nouns are rarely co-selected with make to construe
verbal processes. Lastly, almost all of the collocates are instances of nominalization (except
for idea, part, and statistics), either derived from a verb via nominalizing affixation (e.g.
analysis from analyze) or through direct conversion from a verb without morphologicaltransformation (e.g. study). In contrast, only about 62% of the noun collocates of delexicalmake used by English L1 students were nominalizations (Altenberg and Granger 2001), withquite a few of them being verbal communication nouns typically co-selected with make, e.g.
argument, claim, statement, etc.
Table 1 Nouns in infelicitous make-collocations
in decreasing order of frequency
Collocates
Freq. in MDC
39
analysis
20
study
17
researchclassification
10
explanation
9
step
8
8
investigation
discussion
7
influence33
experiment
instruction
3
idea
3
assignment
32
examination
definition
2
question2
control
1
understanding
1
command1
summarization
1translation1
representation
1384

DemonstrationPart
Try
Statistics
Browse1111
12.3.2. Possible factors contributing to the infelicity
Both intralingual and interlingual factors can be drawn upon to explain the Chinese students’
infelicitous use of collocations, including 1) the desire to achieve idiomaticity, 2) unskilled
use of lexical verbs, 3) and negative L1 (Chinese) transfer. Regarding the desire foridiomaticity, research has shown that second language learners have a strong desire to be
idiomatic (Liontas 2002) and idiomaticity can be achieved through the use of high-frequency,
everyday words in their formulaic collocations (Martinez and Murphy 2011; Sinclair 1991).
Thus, by constructing collocations with high-frequency verbs such as make students may feel
as if they are writing idiomatically. If the hypothesis about the students’ aspiration towards
idiomaticity is wrong, however, they must have adopted what Sinclair (1991) calls the openchoice principle, regarding the combinations of make and the nouns as largely compositional,
i.e. freely co-selected based on the semantic compatibility between the component words.
However, students may not have realized that since delexical verbs are semantically rather
limited, they therefore have a limited range of co-selection possibilities, often semanticallyunmotivated (Allerton 1984).
The students’ somewhat unconstrained selection of nouns with delexical make points to theirunderdeveloped skills in retrieving semantically more appropriate lexical verbs, either to form
collocations with the nouns or to substitute the whole collocations. In fact, in most of theinfelicitous collocations it is the selection of make that results in the infelicity of thecollocations, rather than the nouns. In other words, students’ selection of make is semanticallymotivated by the nouns which are the focus of the meaning being conveyed, not the other way
around. Thus, unaware of the semantic restriction of make, students are shown to suffer froma lack of compatible verb collocates of the substantive nouns. Alternatively interpreted,concentrating on nominalizations may have blocked their view of the possibility to use thecanonical verb form rather than nominalization, e.g. to classify students’ answers instead of to
make a classification of students’ answers. As will be shown in the second part of the paper,classification is seldom preceded by a verb to form collocations for conveying the meaning ofclassify. Thus, using nominalizations with make makes the wording appear somewhat
redundant and clumsy, apart from sounding unidiomatic. The Chinese students’ propensity forusing nominalizations in this case might be supported by their belief that nominalization
constitutes a distinctive feature of academic writing and frequent use of the device is a sign ofbeing academic. In this sense, their understanding of nominalization and the discourse
functions it serves would have to be adjusted.
The above interpretations have been made from an intralingual perspective, highlighting
problematic areas of collocation that may apply to learner groups from different L1
backgrounds. The last factor, negative L1 transfer, carries on the discussion from aninterlingual point of view. One possibility is that the Chinese verb for the “carrying out” ofmany of the nouns listed above can be zuo4 or zuo4 chu1, literally equivalent to do or makein English, e.g. do/make + study (zuo4 yan2 jiu2), do/make + investigation (zuo4 diao4 cha2).
Being a versatile verb, zuo4 is able to enact a wide range of actions in Chinese. Probably
conceiving do to be much too informal to appear in academic writing, the student writers have
opted for make to complement the meaning of the nouns. But in fact, do is a more felicitousverb collocate for some of the nouns, especially the “study” and “analysis” nouns, e.g. study,
analysis, research, and experiment. Of course there are other possible verb collocates forthese nouns other than do that students can choose from, provided that they are equipped with
useful lexicographical and corpus linguistics resources and tools.

385

The second part of the study aims to remedy students’ inadequate repertoire of verb collocates
to complement the meaning of nouns by presenting details of a corpus-based method to search
for appropriate verb collocates. Comparisons of this method are made with searching forcollocates from a collocation dictionary to identify the relative strengths and weaknesses ofeach method.
3. Equipping students with lexicographical resources
It can be argued that students acquire productive knowledge of academic vocabulary mainly
through reading academic texts (e.g. research articles, monographs, and theses/dissertations)whereby frequency effects play a major role in transforming input/intake into output. Thistransformative process does not always take place automatically and without barricade in
spontaneous written production (cf. Larsen-Freeman 2002). Therefore, pedagogical treatment
to facilitate students’ vocabulary choice in academic writing is in order. As students need totackle various and individualized vocabulary challenges for their specific, local
communicative purposes, it is impossible for teaching to cover all or even most of students’lexical needs in their free written production. Thus, a more viable solution would be toprovide students with lexicographical references and corpus linguistics tools for them toautonomously discover the specific lexis called for. Such an approach can be especially usefulfor dealing with collocation. The remainder of the paper illustrates how an online academic
corpus can solve student writers’ collocation problems and compares its relative strengths andweaknesses with collocation dictionaries. Suggestions for vocabulary learning are also
provided in due course.
The online corpus for demonstration is the Corpus of Contemporary American English(COCA; Davies 2008), the largest online corpus freely available. An advantage of COCA as acollocation reference tool is that it enables the user to search for either specific co-occurringwords for a particular query word (e.g. to search for instances where make co-occurs withclaim) or all the co-occurring words of that query word (e.g. all the words co-occurring withclaim); the search engine also allows the user to specify the part of speech for either the query
word or its co-occurrences (e.g. all the verbs co-occurring with claim as a noun). Besides,
COCA is nicely sectioned into an academic subcorpus with four other genres (i.e. TV
conversation, fiction, newspaper, and magazine), allowing the user to focus on language use
in the academic section only or to compare usage across genres. These features make COCA apowerful tool for working with the collocations of specific words. The collocation dictionaryrefereed to is the CD-ROM version of Oxford Collocations Dictionary for Students of English(Lea 2002), which is a widely-used corpus-based learner’s dictionary, deriving words’
collocates from their recurrent patterns attested in corpora.
3.1. Using COCA as a reference tool in writing
As introduced above, two types of processes are possible in gaining access to collocations instudents’ written production: searching for a list of collocates and searching for specificcollocates. Searching for a list of collocates is useful when students cannot come up with anappropriate collocate for a word (e.g. all the verb collocates for claim as a noun) while
searching for specific collocates can help students test their hypotheses about the collocabilityof two words (e.g. if make can collocate with the noun influence). It is suggested that students
go through both of these two processes, preferably with hypothesis testing preceding list
generation for students to get more actively involved in in their thinking and learning efforts.
The following demonstration of how to use COCA for retrieving collocates begins with thelist-generating activity and carries on to hypothesis testing. Examples from the nouns ininfelicitous make-collocations listed in Table 1 will be used in the demonstration.
3.1.1. Generating a list of collocates
Although the previous corpus-based analysis of infelicitous collocations is derived from thedelexical make, it is not the intention of the present demonstration to examine all the possible386

noun collocates of delexical verbs and their semantic categories (cf. Altenberg and Granger2001) but to present ways of searching for verb collocates of particular nouns. This is because
in the actual production of verb-noun collocations students would normally come up with thenoun first and then select from their lexicon an appropriate verb for collocation; it is the noun
that activates the selection of its verb collocate. Therefore, to specifically address thecollocation problems attested in the student corpus, the following illustration proceeds byshowing how to obtain possible verb collocates of the nouns that the student writers wanted toexpress.
Figure 1 shows the initial interface of COCA, where we can see that there are four basic
functions—LIST, CHART, KWIC (key words in context), and COMPARE. The LIST
function needs to be selected for searching collocations. In the initial interface, the
COLLOCATES and POS (part of speech) LIST buttons are inactive, so the user needs toactivate the two functions by clicking on them, which changes the interface as shown in
Figure 2. By now the user can start searching for collocations. In order to search for the left
verb collocates of a particular noun, that noun should be put into the WORD(S) blank alongwith its POS tag, and the “verb.LEX” (meaning all lexical verbs) option should be selectedfrom the POS LIST menu. Lastly, a span of 4 words to the left of the noun is allowed
considering the possibility of premodifiers and determiners before the noun. The input andoptions for the search are shown in Figure 3, with the noun step as an example search word.
The search syntax [explanation].[nn*] means that the query only involves step as a noun, in
both its singular and plural forms,3 thus excluding all instances of the word’s other parts ofspeech. (Although explanation can only be a noun, there are homographs having more than
one word class, e.g. study.)
Grounded in the academic subcorpus, the above search would return 1,751 lexical verbs(types) occurring to the left of explanation; the top 30 co-occurring verb types are listed inTable 2 with their raw frequencies. As can be seen, a number of verbs stand out as possible
verb collocates of explanation, including provide, offer, require, give, find, suggest, and need,
and accept. It needs to be cautioned that not all the verbs and not every instance of a verb may
actually form a v + n collocation, e.g. suggest co-occurs with explanation both as verb-noun
collocations and as suggest taking a complement clause in which explanation occurs.
Therefore, students need to take this into careful consideration when working with corpus
results.
Having access to these co-occurring verbs of explanation, students who have used make tocollocate with the noun should be able to identify a better verb to realize the meaning they
expect to make:The stereotype that teachers stand in the front to make explanation and students sit
down there to listen and to take notes remains the dominant form in class.
Thus, provide/give/offer would be more appropriate candidates for what the student had inmind to complement the meaning of explanation in this context. Moreover, information on
the frequency distribution for each inflected form also allows students to have a general
picture of the tense/aspect pattern of this specific collocation in academic writing, which they
may draw upon in their own writing. Another bonus of using corpus to learn collocation
knowledge is that concordance lines can be observed for other lexicogrammtical clues
concerning the collocation in question. For example, students may notice that in the actual
collocations of provide and explanation, explanation often appears in singular form with anindefinite article (provide an explanation) or in plural form without article (provide
explanations), and that explanation is usually followed by an adjective premodifier (provide asatisfactory explanation). Back to the above example, the student would probably have used
the plural form explanations had s/he had access to the concordance lines. Such value-added3

For a detailed description of search syntax for COCA, see
http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/help/syntax_e.asp; for the POS tagset used by COCA, see
http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/claws7tags.html.

387

information on the co-occurrence of two words would greatly facilitate students’ vocabulary
choice in the writing process.

Figure 1. The basic search interface of COCA

Figure 2 COCA interface with activated COLLOCATES and POS LIST functions

Figure 3 Example search for left verb collocates of the noun explanation

Table 2 Top 30 lexical verb types occurring to the left of explanation in COCA-academic
Provide

178

gave

30

giving20

Provides

111

find

29

included

17

Offer

102

seek

28

needed17

Offers82

consider

27

needs

17

Offered74

suggests27

offering

17

Providing

43

given

26

suggested

17

Provided

41

found

24

believe

15

Requires40

suggest

24

see

15

Require

38

used

22

think

15

Give

34

need

21

accept14

3.1.2. Comparison with a collocation dictionary
Similarly, the Oxford Collocations Dictionary also provides a comprehensive list of verb
collocates of explanation, as shown in Figure 4. However, an obvious convenience of this list
is that the verb collocates are visually grouped (with words in bold type and an example initalics between two vertical bars) based on their meaning relationships with the noun—thus,
give, offer, and provide are grouped together due to their similarity in meaning. This userfriendly layout design makes it convenient for students to identify the words compatible with388

their desired meaning. This feature is an obvious advantage over the corpus collocate list fromwhich students have to tease out useful information by themselves. However, what thecollocation dictionary lacks is discourse correlates for the collocations, such as information on
the tense/aspect patterns of each verb collocate and other lexicogrammatical features relating
to the noun, such as its number, determiner, and premodification. As it would not be viablefor dictionaries to include too much extra information, data from both the corpus anddictionary should be referred to for making more informed vocabulary choices.

Figure 4 Verb collocates of explanation listed in the Oxford Collocations Dictionary

Alongside being equipped with corpus linguistics and lexicographical means to access verbnoun collocations, students need to be made aware that some nominalizations seldom have toform verb-noun collocations to realize the verbal process (e.g. the Oxford Collocations
Dictionary does not provide any verb collocates of classification meaning make or create),
but rather their prototypical verbs are more frequently used to fill in the predicate position.
4. Conclusion
Having found that L2 research students, similar to undergraduates (e.g. Laufer and Waldman
2011; Nesselhauf 2003), also suffer from a lack of idiomatic verb-noun collocations andtherefore end up resorting to very common verbs such as make to form infelicitous
collocations, this paper has detailed a procedure for identifying verb collocates of nouns basedon a popular online corpus, COCA. It has been shown that the collocate functionality of
COCA is a viable and effective tool for accessing verb collocates of a particular noun withmuch value-added lexicogrammatical information, including their frequencies when
collocating with the noun, tense/aspect patterns, and within-collocation linguistic features.
Compared with a well-designed collocation dictionary, the corpus tool has been shown todemand careful screening of real collocates from non-collocates on the part of the user
although providing much more discourse-related add-ons. It is therefore suggested that boththe two types of collocation resources referred to for their relative strengths.
References
Allerton, David. J. 1984. Three (or four) levels of cooccurrence restriction. Lingua 63: 17-40.
Altenberg, B., and Sylviane Granger. 2001. The grammatical and lexical patterning of MAKE in
native and non-native student writing. Applied Linguistics 22: 173-195.
Biber, Douglas, Stig Johansson, Geoffrey Leech, Susan Conrad, and Edward Finegan. 1999.
The Longman grammar of spoken and written English. London: Longman.
Collins Cobuild English Grammar. 1990. Collins: London and Glasgow.
Davies, Mark. 2008. The Corpus of Contemporary American English: 450 million words,
1990-present. Available online at http://corpus.byu.edu/coca/.
Hasselgren, Angela. 1994. Lexical teddy bears and advanced learners: A study into the ways
Norwegian students cope with English vocabulary. International Journal of Applied
Linguistics 4(2): 237-258.
Larsen-Freeman, Diane. 2002. Making sense of frequency. Studies in Second Language
Acquisition 24(02): 275-285.
Laufer, Batia., and Tina Waldman. 2011. Verb‐noun collocations in second language writing:A corpus analysis of learners’ English. Language Learning 61(2): 647-672.
Lea, Diana. 2002. Oxford Collocations Dictionary for Students of English. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.

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John I. 2002. Exploring second language learners’ notions ofidiomaticity. System 30(3): 289-313.
Martinez, Ron and Victoria A. Murphy. 2011. Effect of frequency and idiomaticity on second
language reading comprehension. TESOL Quarterly 45(2): 267-290.
Read, John. 2000. Assessing vocabulary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Sinclair, John. 1991. Corpus, concordance, collocation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

390Compilation of Traditional Building Construction Terminologies in
Tamil
Saravanan Raja
Annamalai University, India

kiranrajaling@gmail.com

Abstract
The native vocabulary of different indigenous occupations is slowly being replaced by those taken fromthe English language, because of the influence of science and technology and the adoption of modern
methods. This may lead to a permanent loss of rich occupational vocabulary in Tamil. This paper
mainly focuses on different issues related to the collection of lexical items related to traditionalbuilding construction in Tamil. This paper explains the significance of a survey and compilation of adialect dictionary. The significance of a dialect survey is to bring out the variant forms of regional
dialects. By utilizing the structure of the dictionaries identified by Hausmann and Wiegand (1989) and
Wiegand (1989) and the recent research in the field of metalexicography, the compilation of a dialect
dictionary of traditional building construction in Tamil has been carried out. This paper explains thedifferent structures of a dictionary ie. microstructure and macrostructure. The microstructure of the
proposed dictionary has two important structures; the first one is the information structure, which is nota lexicographic definition, but the lexical description given by the construction workers. The second
structure provides the variation found in the different regions. The microstructure consists of the lemmasign which is the spoken variety only. The results of the survey have been presented in the form of adialect dictionary in Tamil.
Keywords: microstructure, macrostructure, information structure, lemma sign, lexicographic
description.

Introduction
Lexicography is the discipline concerned with the principles and methods of compiling
dictionaries. It is an applied field, whose theoretical background is partly utilized bylinguistics. Almost all the branches of linguistics provide information in making or writing a
dictionary. Architecture is one of the aspects of social life in which innovations throughacculturation are more quickly and readily accepted and assimilated than in other areas likefishing, agriculture, weaving, carpentry etc. In this occupation, communication flows in both
directions i.e. high to low (engineer, supervisor, maistris, coolies and vice-versa) along thesocial scale. Hence recording and documenting vocabularies of building construction in Tamilis essential for the future generations. The present paper envisages the design and productionof dialect occupational dictionaries in general and in particular about dialect dictionary ofbuilding construction in Tamil.
The present paper deals with the relation and interaction between regional, social andoccupational differences and their impact on language variation. The native vocabulary ofdifferent indigenous occupations is being slowly replaced by the English and internationalterms because of the influence of science and technology and adaptation of modern methods.
This may lead to the permanent loss of rich occupational vocabulary of Tamil. The survey andthe compilation of a dictionary will lead to the recording and preservation of that vocabulary.
Furthermore, in the absence of a detailed dialect survey of Tamil Nadu and a fully-fledged
dialect dictionary for construction terms, this study will provide a model for both these
aspects and also for the future survey and recording of several other occupational
vocabularies of Tamil. If the hypothesis that the social dialect differences are not reflected in391

the occupational vocabulary is proved, then this can serve as a basis towards solving the
problem of communal differences and resultant communal clashes which are rampant among
the working classes.
Methodology
The following procedures and methods have been adopted for conducting the survey of
constructional vocabulary and the compilation of dialect dictionary.

SurveySelection of points: Indigenous constructional vocabulary were collected from several points
comprising of the five major dialect regions of Tamil Nadu viz., Eastern dialect region,
Western dialect region, Southern dialect region, Northern dialect region and Central dialect
region.
Informants: The informants were selected from densely populated areas. The informants, bothmale and female were of different age groups and caste groups. Even old persons in the agegroup of 50 – 70 who have no educational background were also selected for the elicitation ofdata.
Areas or fields of investigation: Lexical items relating to the following areas were collected.
Different types of constructions: traditional building construction, construction of huts,
construction of wells, etc.
Different types of building materials: Brick, stones, lime and mortar, timber, grasses (used forroofing materials, fencing), tiles, etc.
Different categories of workers and their tools: Professional and casual labourers, different
tools and their parts.
Different types of construction methods: Several stages and parts like:
1. Ground level: digging trenches and laying foundation.
2. Roof level: Permanent and temporary roof, materials used ,different shapes and uses, parts,
construction methods
 Opening on roofs: parapet walls, outlets and water courses, chimneys, etc. and their parts
 Domes and upper stones, parts
3. Flooring types and methods, polishing, etc.
4. Types of doors, materials used and polishing
5. Types of windows, parts and uses
6. Niches in walls: types based on shapes and utility
7. Almirahs: types and parts
8. Types of walls
9. Pillars and columns: wood, stone, brick, etc.
10. Arches: different shapes
11. Rooms and verandahs
12. Stairs, ventilators
13. Balcony and its parts
14. Beams of different shapes and materials used
15. Measurements; partition and extension
16. Customs and faiths: social and religious customs, festivities and oblations, materials used.
Points of observation:
i. Evidence for regional variation including sub regions if any
392

ii. Whether any social differences are reflected in the regional differencesiii. Age and sex differences and their reflections
iv. Differences if any among cultural and linguistic groups settled in Tamil Nadu like Telugus,
Kannadigas, Malayalees and Tribals.
Tools used in the collection of data: A Questionnaire was administered for collecting
constructional data. The questionnaire consists of two parts: (i) background information of theinformants like age, sex, education, caste or caste group, place, region, etc.,(ii) different
questionnaires were prepared for collecting information about various systems of construction
like construction of traditional buildings, construction of huts, construction of wells, etc.
Component parts and structure of a dictionary
There are three major structures of a dictionary viz., microstructure, macrostructure, andmegastructure. Normally dictionaries have a double structure i.e. macrostructure andmicrostructure. According to Rey-Debove, ‘macrostructure is the arrangement of the list ofentry words in each dictionary, the complete set of entries arranged in some orders, part ofwhich is always used for vertical scanning when the user is looking for a practical piece of
information’. The macrostructure is commonly called ‘nomenclature’ (Lehmann, 2006:202).
The term macrostructure can be used as synonym for nomenclature, or word list, but it may be
useful to distinguish the two: nomenclature refers to the list of lexical items that are treated ina dictionary and macrostructure refers to the same list once it has been organized to constitutethe architecture of dictionary.
The term microstructure refers to the set of pieces of information as they are ordered in every
article which are meant to be read horizontally after the entry word (Rey Debove, 1971:21).
The microstructure of a dictionary is composed of a certain number of information items, orfields. Some
metalexicographers have proposed the notion of address whichrefers to any element, headword, sub-head word, run-on, meaning etc., to whichmicrostructural information - a definition, an explanation, an illustration, an example, etc.
applies (Bejoint, 2010:14). Megastructure deals with the relationships and order between its
main components. Hartmann and James (1998) have pointed out that ‘- structures haverecently appeared’; megastructure for the organization of the different parts of dictionary fromfirst to the last page including A to Z text; mediostructure for the system of cross references;iconostructure for the organization of pictorial illustration (Boulanger, 2003:13).
The macrostructure of the proposed dictionary has a single word list. This central word list
will follow the Tamil alphabetical arrangement. The present proposed dictionary hasmonosemous lemmas in nature i.e. it represents one single part of speech and having a lexical
description of that lemma. Regarding the microstructure of the proposed dictionary, entry isgiven in the following format. The lemma or head word is given in Tamil script with bold
letters, followed by the phonemic script (transliteration). The grammatical information(abbreviated form) is also given. In addition to this, the English equivalent is provided.
Normally semantic equivalence is given i.e both the translational equivalence and explanatory
equivalence. Then, the lexicographic description is given in Tamil which is added for better
understanding of the target language group (Tamil language group). Normally thislexicography description is encyclopedic in nature. After this, examples are also provided. In
addition to this, visual illustrations are also provided. Finally, the most important feature of
the present dictionary is the inclusion of labeled structure. Due to this salient feature/structureof the dictionary, this is referred to as a special dictionary.
Dictionary compilation
The results of the survey are presented in the form of a dialect dictionary showing thevariations. While the starting point for the survey is the different dialect regions, the starting
point for the dictionary is the different dialect terms or lexical units designating various
393

constructional concepts, processes and items. The presentation of lexical items is alphabetical.
Among the various lexical units designating a single item of the study, the central regional
dialect has been taken as the lemma sign or head word and other variants have been presented
by indicating the region with abbreviated labels. Wherever necessary, encyclopedic
information has been provided in the form of description and line drawings and photographs.
English equivalents have been provided for wider use of the dictionary.
Conclusion
The main purpose of the present proposed dictionary is to record the native vocabulary of an
indigenous occupation i.e. construction. Due to the influence of English language and due tothe modern technological developments, many indigenous occupational vocabularies are
becoming obsolete in nature. Hence it is necessary to record those indigenous vocabularies
and preserve it in the form of dictionary for the benefit of the future generations.
References
Bejoint, Henri.2000. Modern Lexicography: An Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Bergenholtz, H. and Tarp, S. 1995. Manual of Specialised Lexicography.
Amsterdam/Philadelphia:
Cruse Allan, D. 1986. Lexical Semantics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hartmann, Reinhard R.K.1983. Lexicography: Principles and Practice. London: Academic
Press.
Hartmann, Reinhard R.E. and G. James.1998. Dictionary of lexicography. London:
Routledge.
Hausmann, Franz and H.E. Wiegand.1989. ‘Component parts and structures of General
Monolingual Dictionaries: A Survey’, in Franz Josef Hausmann and Oskar Reichmann (eds),
An International Encyclopedia of Lexicography. Berlin:Walter de Gruyter.
Ilson, R.F.1996. Lexicography in Asher (ed), The Encyclopedia of Linguistics. London:
Routledge.
James, Gregory. 2000. Colporul: History of Tamil dictionaries. Madras: Cre-A Publications.
Landau, Sidney I. 1989. Dictionaries: The art and craft of lexicography. New York: Scribner.
New Well, L.E. 1995. Hand book on lexicography. Manila: Linguistic Society of thePhilippines.
Sebeok, T.A. 1962. Materials for a typology of dictionaries. Lingua, 1:363-374.
Singh, Rain A. 1982. An introduction to lexicography. Mysore: CIIL.
Sterkenborg, P.G. J. Van 2003. A practical guide to lexicography. Amsterdam/ Philadelphia:
John Benjamins
Svensen, Bo. 1993. Practical lexicography. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Zgusta, Ladislav .1971. Manual of lexicography. Mouton: The Hague.

394

Representation of the Pronunciation of Japanese Words in
Racuyoxu (1598) and Vocabulario Da Lingoa De Iapam (1603–04)
Kishimoto, Emi
Kyoto Prefectural University, Japankishimoto@kpu.ac.jp
Abstract
Approximately half a century after they came to Japan, the Jesuits printed two different Japanesedictionaries: Racuyoxu (1598) and Vocabulario da lingoa de Iapam (1603–04). Racuyoxu is a Chinesecharacter (kanji) dictionary showing how to read words written in Chinese characters by also
representing them in the Japanese kana syllabary. The Vocabulario da lingoa de Iapam is a Japanesedictionary with translations and explanations in Portuguese, printed in Latin letters. These dictionaries
were complementary to the Jesuits’ learning of Japanese: Racuyoxu was compiled to aid the learning ofChinese characters while Vocabulario the meanings of vocabulary items.
The names of the editors of both volumes are unknown. The editors of Vocabulario must have referredto Racuyoxu, as Morita (1993) indicates by several clues. However, the two dictionaries include
different readings of several words with the same meaning. For example, we find the words baibaininin Racuyoxu and baibaijin in Vocabulario, both of which were current in that period and mean
‘merchant’. In addition, some readings in Racuyoxu are regarded as less correct than those in
Vocabulario. For example, Racuyoxu includes the words cocumo ‘mother of the emperor’ andcotozzute ‘message’, while Vocabulario indicates that cocumo and cotozzute are less correct
pronunciations than cocubo and cototçute. The likelihood is that these differences were caused by thevolumes’ different sources and editors.

Keywords: Jesuit mission press in Japan (Kirishitan-ban), Chinese character (kanji)
dictionary, Racuyoxu (Rakuyoshu), Vocabulario da lingoa de Iapam (Nippo-jisho)

1. Introduction
When the first missionaries of the Society of Jesus, i.e., the Jesuits, most of whom were
Portuguese, came to Japan in 1549, they studied Japanese language and culture to propagate
the Catholic faith. It is believed that they wrote grammars and dictionaries for the study of theJapanese language prior to the 1590s; unfortunately, these works are not extant today. The
Jesuits began to print books for their missionary works in Japan, and these are called theJesuit mission press or Kirishitan-ban in Japan today. A list of the grammar books anddictionaries from the Jesuit mission press in Japan that do survive today is provided below:
1594 De institutione grammatica (Latin grammar, originally by Manuel Alvarez)
1595 Dictionarium Latino Lusitanicum, ac Iaponicum (Latin-Portuguese-Japanese dictionary)
1598 Racuyoxu 落葉集 (Dictionary of Chinese characters)
1603–1604 Vocabulario da lingoa de Iapam (Japanese–Portuguese dictionary)
1604–1608 Arte da lingoa de Iapam (Japanese grammar by João Rodrigues)
In this paper, I would like to focus on the two different Japanese dictionaries: Racuyoxu 落葉
集 (1598) and Vocabulario (1603–04). The names of the editors of both volumes are
unknown.
First, I would like to provide bibliographical information about the two dictionaries that show
the text. Racuyoxu is a Chinese-character (kanji) dictionary that demonstrates how to readwords written in Chinese characters by also representing them in the Japanese kana syllabary.
395

This work does not provide word meanings. Today, there are four complete copies of this text
in the world: Archivum Romanum Societatis Iesu (ARSI), British library, Tenri library, andEarl of Crawford and Balcarres. I mainly use a reproduction of the ARSI copy, confirming
using that in the Tenri library. The entire book comprises 109 folios, including approximately
2,400 distinct Chinese characters and approximately 500 words written in Chinese characters(Toyoshima, 2009). The dictionary consists of three parts: the main section (honpen), irohajishu 色葉字集, and sho-gyokuhen 小玉篇. In the main section (honpen), the words arearranged in the order of Sino-Japanese reading (on-reading), iroha-jishu in the order ofJapanese reading (kun-reading), and Chinese characters are classified by Chinese radicals in
sho-gyokuhen. It has been said that Racuyoxu was edited based on several kinds of dictionarythat were widespread in Japan, such as Setsuyoshu 節用集(a dictionary of Japanese words
written in Chinese characters) and Wagocuhen 倭玉篇 (a dictionary of Chinese characterswith on-reading and kun-reading). Below I provide an example of the main section, which I
will examine in more detail later, added an example of iroha-jishu. In this paper, I romanizedkana used in Racuyoxu as was the Jesuits’ method, while the English translations are in [ ].
Ex.1: words beginning with 専 in the main section (honpen) and 囲 in iroha-jishu in
Racuyoxu(right side: on-reading for each Chinese character)xen nen you ichi teu [xen-nen, concentration, xen-you, most important,
xen-ichi, first, xen-teu, arbitrary decision](centre: words in Chinese character)
専* -念 -要 -一 -輙
(left side: kun-reading for each Chinese character)motçupara [entirely] omofu [to think] motçupara [entirely] fitotçu [one]tayasuxi [easy](right side and bottom: kun-reading)cacomu [to surround] meguru [to circle](centre: Chinese character)囲(left side: on-reading)
The Vocabulario da lingoa de Iapam is a Japanese dictionary with translations andexplanations in Portuguese, all printed in Latin letters. The main body was printed in1603 andthe supplement in 1604. The total body comprises 402 folios, including more than 32,000
headwords (Morita, 1993). There are two known complete copies, in the Bodleian library andBiblioteca Publica da Évora, and in this study I use a facsimile of the Évora copy. According
to its preface, the Vocabulario was edited based on previous works by the Jesuits in Japan
including several scripts and the Latin-Portuguese-Japanese dictionary (1595). Example 2
shows the same words as in Ex.1 in Racuyoxu as presented in the Vocabulario.
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Ex.2: words xennen [concentration] and meguru [to circle] in Vocabulario

Xennen. Mopparani vomô. [to think deeply, dedicate] O trazer sempre algũa cousa no
pensamento, & memoria como a saluação, &c. S.[always thinking about something, forexample about salivation and so on. A literary word.]

Meguri, u, utta. [adverbial form, conclusive form, past form of the verb meguru] Rodear. [tocircle]Each dictionary has been used and studied quite extensively; however, there have been few
comparative studies apart from Doi (1971) and Morita (1993). As Doi (1971) indicates, thetwo dictionaries were complementary for the Jesuits’ learning of Japanese: Racuyoxu wascompiled to aid the learning of Chinese characters, and the Vocabulario da lingoa de Iapam
provided the meanings of vocabulary items. Furthermore, with regard to the relationshipbetween these texts, there are several clues that the anonymous editors of the Vocabulario
must have referred to the Racuyoxu, as Morita (1993) indicates. For example, in the main
section (honpen) of the Racuyoxu, we find a word 起居動静 [daily life] with a reading
qicodôyǒ, which should be qicodôjǒ. The same error is made in the supplement of the
Vocabulario , which can be surmised to be based on the Racuyoxu.
However, the two dictionaries also include different readings of several words with the same
meanings. In addition, as Doi (1971) indicates, some of the readings in the Racuyoxu are
regarded as less correct than those in the Vocabulario. For example Racuyoxu has a word 善
言 [good and useful words] with the reading jengon; however, the headword of jengon in the
Vocabulario notes that the pronunciation jenguen is better than jengon. Indicating thisexample, Doi (1971) says this was possibly inconsistency because the pronunciation incontemporary spoken Japanese was important in the Vocabulario, while the editors of the
Racuyoxu thought it important to show Chinese character forms and examples written in older
materials.
I basically agree with Doi’s opinion; the important thing to consider is the difference in target
reader. The target of the Racuyoxu was learners of a much higher level than of the
Vocabulario, who already knew Chinese characters to some extent. The users of the
Racuyoxu should know as many Chinese characters and their readings as possible, while the
Vocabulario included amongst its users elementary learners who had never learned Chinesecharacters.
However, it should have been ideal for every Japanese learner that dictionaries showed one
reading per word even if that word had several different readings. It remains a mystery why
different readings occurred between two dictionaries printed by the Jesuits in Japan within
only a few years of each other. In this paper, I would like to examine more examples from thetwo dictionaries and consider the causes of this inconsistency in the view of compilation.
2. Different readings between Racuyoxu and Vocabulario
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Among the different readings of words between the Racuyoxu and Vocabulario, in this paper
I will focus on Japanese words of Chinese origin (words of on-reading) consisting of morethan two Chinese characters, not Japanese original words (words of kun-reading), because we
can decide more easily in the case of the former whether the different readings of words had
the same meanings. Moreover, I exclude words for which the pronunciation was in theprocess of change such as ji and gi, zu and zzu, because it is known that this evaluation ofpronunciation was causing confusion. I also exclude simple differences in kana (kanazukai),
which were rather common at that time in Japan and did not signify a difference inpronunciation, such as the written forms yuube/yufube [evening]and yafaraca/yauaraca [soft].
Yamada (1971) provides many such examples.
Let us mow look at Table 1, which shows the numbers of the same and different reading
between the Racuyoxu and Vocabulario in words beginning from A to Co, which includes
approximately one-third of the main section. Today, we spell ‘A, I, U, E, O, Ka, Ki, Ku, Ke,
Ko, Ga, Gi, Gu, Ge, Go’ based on English Romanization.
Table 1 Numbers of same/different readings between the Racuyoxu and Vocabulario
AI
V Ye Vo Ca/Ga Qi/Gui Cu/Gu Qe/Gue Co/Go Total
Same
121 311 44 122 42 343
427
335
276
275
2296
Different 4
3
2 2
1
11
9
14
7
5
58
As is evident, most of the readings are the same between the two texts. First, let us examinesome examples of the same reading. Ex.3 shows a common reading corai between the two. In
Ex.4, Vocabulario has two different readings for 眼力, because the Chinese character 力 had
two different pronunciations, riocu and riqi, in Japan and Racuyoxu has only the one reading
ganriocu. When I find such cases, that is, when both dictionaries have several readings for
one word but have one common reading, I include the example in the common reading group.
Ex.3: corai [from old times]
Racuyoxu:
古来 corai
Vocabulario:
Corai. Inixiye, cono cata. [from old times to the present] Desdo tempo passado atègora. [frompast time to now]
Ex.4: ganriocu/ganriqi [insight]
Racuyoxu:
眼力 ganriocu
Vocabulario:
Ganriocu. Manacono chicara. [power of eye] Força, ou vigor da vista. [power or energy of thesight] …
Ganriqi. Idem. [the same]
The number of differences is quite small; however, they cannot be ignored because theselearner’s dictionaries were edited by the same group. The examples of difference can almost
be divided into two groups. One group is related to euphonic change called rendaku, in which
unvoiced sounds are changed to voiced sounds for the first consonant of the non-initial mora,
as in Ex.5. The Chinese character 制 has been given the on-reading xei in Japan and changes
to jei when it comes after the character 禁. The other group is related to changes in the type ofon-reading, as in Ex.6. The Chinese character 色 had two kinds of on-reading, xiqi and xocu,
as a result of differences during the period when their pronunciation was introduced to Japan.
Ex.5: qinxei/qinjei [prohibition]
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Racuyoxu:
禁制 qinxei
Vocabulario:
Qinjei.Prohibição. [prohibition] Vt, Qinjeiuo somuqu. [for example, to break prohibition]
Quebrantar a prohibição, ou ley. [to break prohibition or regulation]
Ex.6: giocuxiqi/giocuxocu [beautiful colour]
Racuyoxu:
玉色 giocuxiqi
Vocabulario:
Guiocuxocu. Tamano iro. [colour like jewels]
fermosa cor. [fine, or beautiful colour]

Itçucuxij iro. [beautiful colour] Boa, ou

In fact, both types of different readings have often occurred due to changes or variations inpronunciation in the Japanese language. For example, today for rendaku, we can read 研究所
as kenkyusho or kenkyujo. The on-reading of the Chinese character 所 is sho but unvoiced andsequential sho is often changed to voiced jo, which is a euphonic change. As another modern
example, the Japanese word 奥義 can be read as oogi or okugi, both of which denote the heartof certain studies or art. The Chinese character 奥 has two possible readings, oo and oku, inJapan because the Japanese people received various Chinese pronunciations at least twice
during the ancient period. While oogi is an older reading than okugi, both pronunciations
continue in use even today.
In addition, with regard to the Racuyoxu and Vocabulario, like the example of jenguen andjengon introduced at the beginning, it is remarkable that some of these differences are notedin the explanation of the Vocabulario. In Ex.7 and Ex.8, the Racuyoxu includes the words
jengon [good and useful words] and cocumo [mother of the emperor], while the Vocabulario
indicates that jenguen and cocubo are better pronunciations than jengon and cocumo without
providing a detailed explanation. The Chinese character 言 has two possible pronunciations inJapanese: older gon and newer guen, and 母 likely has two pronunciation of older mo andnewer bo.
Ex.7: jenguen/jengon [good and useful words]
Racuyoxu:
善言 jengon
Vocabulario:
Iengon. Yoqi cotoba. [good words] Meliùs, Ienguen. [jenguen is better than jengon] Boas
palauras. [good words]
Ex.8: cocumo/cocubo [mother of the emperor]
Racuyoxu:
国母 cocumo
Vocabulario:
Cocumo. Melius. Cocubo. [cocubo is better than cocumo] Cunino faua. [mother of country]
Mãy del rei. [mother of king]Among such pairs of on-readings in the Vocabulario, we can find approximately 40 words inthe Racuyoxu that are regarded as better pronunciation in the Vocabulario. However, incontrast, at least 13 words are found in the Racuyoxu, including Ex.7 and 8 above: 国母
cocumo, 脱 去 dacqio [escape, Vocabulario says ‘dacco is better’], 下 筆 guefit [badhandwriting, ‘cafit is better’], 下官 guequan [officer of lower class, ‘caquan is better’], 下略
gueriacu [omission of under part of word or sentence, ‘cariacu is better’], 善言 jengon, 上略
jǒriacu [omission of upper part of word or sentence, ‘xǒriacu is better’], 勧賞 quanjǒ
399

[reward, ‘qenjǒ is better’], 束香 sucǒ [bad incense, ‘socucǒ is better’], 水泉 suixen [fountain,‘sensui is better’], 飲水 vonsui [to drink water, ‘vonzui is better’], 清香 xeicǒ [refreshing
incense, ‘xeiqiǒ is better’], 昇進 xôxin [to be promoted, ‘xôjin is better’]. Those words areclassified into three groups: nine of which are related to the change of on-reading such as
guefit /cafit, two are rendaku such as vonsui/vonzui and xôxin/xôjin, and the other two aresucǒ/ socucǒ and suixen/sensui.
Let us now consider what caused such differences. One main cause is probably the sources.
As indicated previously, the main section (honpen) and iroha-jishu of the Racuyoxu areclearly and wholly based on Japanese dictionaries like Setsuyoshu. Racuyoxu is quite similar
with Setsuyoshu not only on the point that they both show how to read words written in
Chinese characters by also representing them in the kana syllabary, but that they do notprovide word meanings. Today, it is known that approximately 50 types of Setsuyoshu were
handwritten or a in a few cases printed before the Racuyoxu and it has not been decided whichof these was the source; however, we can often find the same readings in the Racuyoxu andseveral kinds of Setsuyoshu, which were rather not found in the Vocabulario. In Ex.9, theVocabulario has the headword gueqixin, but no giacuxin, which is found in the Racuyoxu. We
can find both readings in the separated parts of Ekirin-bon Setsuyoshu, which was one of the
Setsuyoshu printed in 1597 by Ekirin.
Ex.9: giacuxin/gueqixin [rebellious subject]
Racuyoxu:
逆臣 giacuxin
Ekirin-bon Setsuyoshu:
逆臣 giacuxin [in the headwords of Qi/Gui]
逆臣 gueqixin [in the headwords of Qe/Gue]
Vocabulario:
Gueqixin. Sacaximano xinca. [rebellious subject] Criado traidor, ou aleuantado. [rebellious
subject, or traitor]
Ex.10 is an example of xôxin and xôjin, which demonstrates that we find xôxin in Racuyoxu,
and that the Vocabulario says that xôjin is better than xôxin, and Ekirin-bon Setsuyoshu
includes both readings in the separated sections inside. This seems to indicate that the word
had two pronunciations in Japan and that the choices of their respective editors differed
between the Racuyoxu and Vocabulario.
Ex.10: xôxin/xôjin [promotion, to be promoted]
Racuyoxu:
昇進 xôxin
Ekirin-bon Setsuyoshu:
昇進 xôxin [in the headwords of Xi/Ii(=Ji)]
昇進 xôjin [in the headwords of Xe/Ie(=Je)]
Vocabulario:
Xôxin. l, potiùs, Xôjin. [Xôxin. or, xôjin is better] Nobori susumu. [to climb and advance] O
subir a dignidade, &c. [to rise to a higher rank, etc.] Vt, Curaini xôxin suru. [for example, torise to a higher rank]
Furthermore, we should discuss the editors. Morita (1993) shows that the editors of the
Vocabulario may have referred not only to the Racuyoxu but directly to the Setsuyoshu;
however, it is clear that they did not contest the readings of several words. There are two
possibilities with regard to the different readings: one is that the editors of the Vocabulario
did not notice the different readings between their own knowledge and the Racuyoxu, and theother is that they noticed the difference but disagreed with the Racuyoxu. Thus, the evidence
leads us to believe that that the two dictionaries had different editors.
400

It has also recently become clear that the Vocabulario and the previous Latin-PortugueseJapanese dictionary the Dictionarium (1595) were edited by quite different Jesuit editors. It istrue that the two dictionaries had basically different targets: The Dictionarium was forlearners of both Latin and Japanese while the Vocabulario was for learners of Japanese.
However, Kishimoto (2012, 2015) indicates the difference in usage of several Japanesewords: the Dictionarium includes several words that the Vocabulario later notes as dialect orless proper. This is further evidence that each Jesuits’ dictionary had different sources andeditors.
3. Conclusion
The inconsistency of readings between the Racuyoxu and Vocabulario was caused by theirdiffering sources and editors. The editors of each dictionary should have used common
materials including books and native speakers; however, each work presents the originality of
its choice and usage of Japanese words. Moreover, from the viewpoint of Japanese language,
the differences between these dictionaries reflect the fact that the Jesuits were faced withvariety and change in the pronunciation of Japanese words, which may have been difficult forlearners.
Acknowledgements
This work is supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers 23320093, 24720209, 15K02573.

References
A. Primary sources
Alvares, Manuel. 1594. Emmanuelis Alvari e Sosietate Iesu de Institution Grammatica Libri
Tres. Amakusa: Collegio Amacusensis Societatis Iesu. (Facsimile. Tokyo: Yagishoten. 2012)
Anonymous. 1595. Dictionarium Latino Lusitanicum, ac Iaponicum. Amakusa: Collegio
Iaponico Societatis Iesu. (Facsimile. Tokyo: Benseisha. 1979)
Anonymous. 1598. Racuyoxu. Collegio Iaponico Societatis Iesu. (Facsimile. Tokyo: Kasamashoin. 1978. Tokyo: Yagi-shoten. 1986)
Anonymous. 1603–1604. Vocabulario da lingoa de Iapam. Nagasaki: Collegio de Iapam daCompanhia. (Facsimile. Osaka: Seibundo-shuppan. 1988)
Ekirin(?). 1597. Setsuyoshu. (Facsimile. Tokyo: Benseisha. 1979)
Rodrigues, João. 1604–1608. Arte da lingoa de Iapam. Nagasaki: Collegio de Iapão daCompanhia de Iesu. (Facsimile. Tokyo: Benseisha. 1976)
B. Secondary sources
Bailey, Don Clifford. 1961–62. The Rakuyōshū. Monumenta Nipponica 16(3/4): 289-376,
17(1/4): 214-264.
Doi, Tadao. 1971. Kirishitan-gogaku no kenkyu (A study on the Jesuits’ research on theJapanese language). Tokyo: Sanseido.
Kishimoto, Emi. 2012. Kirishitan-ban Raponichi-jisho no hogen-goi (Dialectal words in
Dictionarium Latino Lusitanicum, ac Iaponicum). Wakan-gobun-kenkyu (10): 155-141.
Kishimoto, Emi. 2015. Nippo-jisho no yuretsu-chuki wo toshite mita Raponichi-jisho no
Nihongo-yaku (Japanese translation of Dictionarium Latino Lusitanicum ac Iaponicum,
compared to the model annotations in Vocabulario da lingoa de Iapam). Kokugo-kokubun
84(5): (in press).
Morita, Takeshi. 1993. Nippo-jisho teiyo (Compendium on Vocabulario da lingoa de Iapam).
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Toyoshima, Masayuki. 2009. Kirishitan-ban no moji to hanshiki (Type and press of Jesuit
mission press). In Katsuji-insatsu no bunka-shi (Cultural history of typography), eds. Zhang,
Xiumin et al., 71-103. Tokyo: Bensei-shuppan.
Yamada, Toshio. 1971. Kanji no teikun ni tsuite no shiron: Kirhisitan-ban Racuyoxu shogyokuhen wo shiryo to shite (Studies on the standard kun-readings of Chinese characters
based on Racuyoxu sho-gyokuhen). Seijo-kokubungaku-ronshu 4: 1-256.

402

A Study of The Prototypical Definition of the “walk” Headword
Based on the Characteristic of its Non Self-Sufficiency
Feng Haixia, Meng Wanjing
Ludong Unversity, China
haixia872@163.com

Abstract
A result from current semantics research leads to a prototype semantic concept (prototypicaldefinition): Firstly the definition can give the exact explanation of the prototypical sememe (center
sememe). Secondly it also gives the explanation of the minor sememe, which adds or subtracts the mostdistinctive semantic features by offering the exact explanation of the sememe. As far as a semantic
field is concerned, the prototypical sememe is a basic categorical term, it is a “basic level term”. A verb
possesses characteristics of non-self-sufficiency; this can open a series of vacancies around the verb
core requiring at least one to be filled; this completes the phrase that gives the verb an understandable
meaning. With the support of semantic theories, we define the verb “walk” in a systematic andprototypical styled definition in the Language dictionary.
Keywords: language lexicography, prototypical definition, verb, non-Self-Sufficiency

1. The theoretical base
1.1 The verb and self-sufficiency
A pair of semantic concepts, self-sufficiency or non-sufficiency, was developed by Aristotle.
In his book “Predicamenta” (Categories), he divided semantics into entity, amount, property,
relation, place, time, posture, state, activity and sustainability. In the ten categories, “entity”
refers to “human”, “horse” nouns. Human cognition itself is this category, which is includedin the original. It is also the basis for the balance. The other nine are classified as “nonoriginal” categories. They exist within the entity or they are dependent on it. According toAristotle’s theory, the verb or the other words can be classified as noumenons. “If all the
relative matter is correctly defined, it must connect and lead to that which it is related” or “therelated exists at the same time” (Aristotle, 2003: 26-27). As it is shown, Aristotle’s main
meaning is that noun belongs to the original category in the real world, therefore, a noun is“auto-sufficient” or “self-sufficient” while the verb or the other words must depend on “therelated”—the original category, so it is “a non-original category” or “non-self-sufficient”.
A verb that is non-self-sufficient is always the opposite of a noun that is self-sufficient. It is aflawed opinion that Aristotle attributed all the nouns within the self-sufficiency category.
The verb sememe of non-self-sufficiency is one expression of the internal dependence of thesemantic structure.
A semantics group from Moscow (Zhang Jiahua, 2003: 60) once said that “all semantic units
can divide into two types, independent and dependent (variables)”. This group has pointed
out that the unit of predicative semantics reflects the property of the surrounding participants
and of their relationship as well as the related event. The scenic participants build up the unitof the predicative semantics which depicts the factor of the period. It not only refers to theindividual but also includes the time, place, behavior and attributed behavior surrounding thevariable. These participants can be divided into the two types: the necessary and unnecessary.
One of the particular group must be a necessary condition of the particular situation. Every
item varies from the change and breakup. These necessary participants are the explanation of403

the related predicative semantics in the dictionary and are the correspondent with the semantic
variables (abstract semantic parameter), named as the predicative semantic coordination
valence. For example, the predicative verb “to nail” is explained in the dictionary as follows“put the nail or screw in a set position.” In the Modern Chinese Dictionary (MCD) “oder orscrew” or screwines, “the particular position” is equal to the semantic variables meanwhile
are correspondent with the scenic method, object and location. If the explanation of themetalanguage in the dictionary is regarded as the perfect semantics in the verbal unit, themetalanguage explanation of the predicative semantic unit should be equal to the semantic
structure of the predicative semantic unit. From that, we can draw an easy conclusion that thesemantics group from Russia has inherited and developed traditionally the study of the verbs
and its components. They thought that the verb sememe not only is the superficial structure,
but also the meaning is in the deeper structure, which includes the completed and compulsory
requirements of the necessary setting. It is the typical expression of the verbal semantic unit.
In the 1960s C.J. Fillmore had discovered that the most important aspect was the semanticroles of the verb. In the 70s or 80s, he pointed out that one word defined one scene, whichstood out or emphasized one part in the scene, the various elements took the various semanticroles, meanwhile the verb was typically regarded as the related semantics within the internal
components in different ways. These verbs in different ways “(evoke)” situation. For instance,
a “commercial event” is the elements of the picture scene, which include the buyer who isinterested in using money in exchange of goods, the seller who is interested in exchanging
goods for money as well as goods and money. By making the full use of these elements, theverb “buy” emphasizes the buyer’s commercial manner and at the same time is the
background of “seller” and “money”. However, the verb “sell” is the opposite. The verb “pay”
emphasizes the relationships: the buyer/money/seller, with goods as the background.
Therefore, Fillmore (2003: 382-412) clearly pointed out that “one only understands the verbs’
meaning by reliance on the situation (our understanding is obtained by the differing parts andtransactions between buyers and sellers, so this scene is necessary background andincentive)…the frame structured the semantics, while the word semantics ‘evoke’ the frame”.
It is shown in Fillmore frame theory that the meaning of the verb is the analysis of processing.
That is to say, the process of the implied semantic roles of the verbal sememe is revealed.
Whether Апресян is the semantic valence which is the reprehensive of modern semantics“scene” in Russia or Fillmore is the top of reprehensive in the semantic frame. There is no
exception. It proves that the verb is not self-sufficient. The lacking self-sufficiency of the verb
opens a series of vacancies in the verbal kernel, which fills in at least one entity andconstitutes the complete meaning in the verb coordinate valence.
1.2 The systematic perspective of Lexicon
Language scholars have generally regarded language as having a systematic nature since
Saussure. But in the first half of the 20th century, the systematic nature of grammar andpronunciation was popular in the linguistic field, they believed that lexicon was disunited one.
The theory of lexical systematics did not come up until the sixties when it was questioned
severely. It was gradually accepted through the eighties.
Paraphrasing is a dependent variable of the lexical systematic nature. The compiling
dictionary’s thought of the traditional puts a nuclear concept at the top while thecontemporary put the whole as the domination. This shift results from the new trend of
linguistic philosophy, linguistics, and psychology in the early 20th century. Modern middlesized dictionaries were born with this new trend: “Concise Oxford English Dictionary(COED)” and “Le Petit Robert French Dictionary, Russian Dictionary and MCD”. However,“the related item” on compiling modern Chinese dictionary only represents the early shape of
the whole, which is far away from its systematic structure, fullness, development andperfection.” (Zhang Zhiyi, 2012: 335)
404

Zhang Zhiyi and Zhang Qingyun (2012: 340) has developed the theoretical instruction ofcompiling Chinese dictionary from the whole view of semantic field by absorbing the essenceof modern semantics. They clearly pointed out the theory of “the same field with the model”.
That is to say, “the item in the same semantic field should be explained in the same model”.
Xia Lixin (2007) also believed that the entry word in the same lexical set should be handledunified. He made a comparison between the Chinese Learning Dictionary and the Longman
Contemporary English Dictionary and discovered some shortcomings. At the same time hesuggested that the assumption and the measure of the paraphrasing model be based on
glossary (semantic category). That is to say, the systematic quality of the sememe be broken
up by its alphabetical order and built up the small unit of the polymerization of semantic
category, in addition, realized the whole systematic nature of the dictionary and provided the
supportive theory.
From the perspective of whole system theory, a sememe belongs to the whole language,
therefore, one sememe (even an individual one can be correctly understood and explained. It
is impossible to view the sememe in isolation but to observe the location of the meaningsystem, this regulates the nature of the individual. It is an emphasis that we view the
relationship from the internal language, which includes the sememe valiancy. “The concept of“difference” gives us implications. When we paraphrase the sememe in a typical group, we go
through the related theory of the systematic nature of language. That is to say, when we set up
the meaning, there is a standard of the accepted or rejected choice among the relationship of
the group in the sememe. A feature of semantic analysis is to depict selectively. It also is thetool whether this systematic characteristic of paraphrasing is strong or weak. An example isthe listing for “bear” in the Modern Chinese Dictionary can be paraphrased into “bear” “blackbear” “brown bear” “polar bear”
bear mammal, it has a large head , short tail with four short and sturdy legs, canclimb a tree and mainly eat animal food, sometimes eat fruits and nuts. There areseveral kinds of bears, for example, a brown bear or black bear. Some places called“hei xia zi”.
black bear mammal, it has a huge body , short tail , big palms and sharp claws withthe white stripes of the new moon shape in the chest, the rest part of the body is black,has a loneliness character, can swim and climb a tree, and even walk, named as gou
xiu . Some places called “heixiazi”.
a brown bear mammal, it has a huge body , shoulder uplift, brown color varies fromthe different areas, can swim and climb a tree, eat nuts, vegetables, worms, fish, birds,
or animals sometimes can hurt people and livestock.
a polar bear mammal , it has white thick fur with some yellow fur, has a black noseand black claws, lives in the north frigid zone and is good at swimming, named as awhite bear.
It is shown that there are four kinds of the explanations in the MCD, but it is not possible tosee that there is a relationship among them. The guess is the compiler was carefully
describing every single entry.
1.3 The prototypical view of paraphrasing
One of the results in modern semantics leads to the prototypical semantic. Lyons (1995)
believed that the prototypical view must pay attention to the application of the various words:
natural words such as (dog, fish, tiger, lemon), cultural words (bachelor’s degree, tea cup,
chair), verb, adjective，color.
The realization of the prototypical semantic view is that we select the center of the word (theprototype) in the meaning word, then develop the minor word，the common word and themarginal word. Finally, we can identify the semantic categories of several types and levels.
Cognitive linguistics has made a new contribution to the study of semantics and the semantic
field. The view of prototypical semantic brought out the prototypical definition. First is thecorrect explanation of the central sememe. The second is the minor sememe, which is equal to405

the correct explanation of the prototypical sememe plus or minus of the feature of semantic
property. In terms of the semantic field, the word lies in the basic category is the prototypicalsememe, named as (Basic Level Terms) or the word of the basic concept, while the minor
sememe of the word belongs to the up level of the meaning field or the down level of themeaning word.
“Bear” is a prototypical sememe of the semantic field. “ black bear”, “ brown bear” and“polar bear” belong to the down level entries, or are the non-central sememe of the semantic
field, therefore, the later explanation is close to the up level word “bear” category., at thesame time, choose the features of the semantic property. That is to say, the explanation of“bear” is based on the explanation of structure. The basic property of the explanation “bear” isthat it has a big fat body, big palms, sharp claws and has a non- gregarious character, canclimb treed while the non-different features are omitted. “A polar bear” has thick long fur,which feature is not differentiating, therefore, after sorting it out, we explain the followings:
black bear one kind of a bear has the white stripes of the new moon shape in thechest, the rest part of the body is black. It can walk, some places name it as hi xiazi.
brown bear one kind of a bear has shoulder uplift and brown color fur, the fur’scolor varies from the different places. It occasionally attacks human beings.
polar bear one kind of a bear has white fur with some yellow fur, has a nose andblackclaws, lives in the north frigid zone is a good swimmer, it can also be named asa white bear.
Therefore, the word entry in the same category has a systematic characteristic of the samemodel of the explanation and of the economy of the explanation of the dictionary, meanwhile
it meets the cognitive regularity from easy to difficulty. Certainly, if we presume “a bear”
correct explanation, the clarity of the explanation in the dictionary is close to the perfection in
the integration of the explanation.
2. The inspection and optimization of the prototypical explanation of the “walk” entry
based on it being non self-sufficient
In “the foot’s movement”, the “walk” shows the typical category. There are total 73 Chinesesememes and 95 English sememes in the “walk” entry.
The best model of the explanation is whether the sememe is located in the structure’s level,
the explanation verbal selectthe prototypical semem.e but as far as the “walk” integration
category is concerned, the “walk” is selected. This is the best model to assess these
dictionaries: MCD, COED, Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDCE) and
Collins COBUILD English Dictionary (CCED).
Table 1 the usage of the explanation of the verbal core meaning “walk” in the MCD
步行

走动

走路

闲走

行进

其他

6

2

1

1

1

1

13

synonymy对释 17

行走

22

times

走

Core verb

In Table 1, there are 22 explanations of the sememe, which use the verbal core meaning,taking account 33.3%. Here it includes the variants of “walk” such as: 走走, 走过去, 走开. In
406

the table, the other refers to the synonym of the verbal core meaning or the up level verbs
such as: 闲逛, 游逛, 散步, 趟, 徘徊.
Table 2 The usage of the explanation of the verbal core meaning “walk” in the COED
Core verb
walkmoveothers
times
40
25
15
In table 2, there are 40 prototypes of the sememe in the”walk”, taking up 50%. In the up levelwords”walk”, “move”words take up 31.25%. The other words are selected such as synonym
or up level words “go, come”.
Table 3 Usage of the explanation of the verbal core meaning “walk” in the LDCE
Core verb

walk

move

others

times

50

13

3

Table 4 Usage of the explanation of the verbal core meaning “walk” in the CCEDCore verb
walkmoveothers
times
40
17
14
From table 3, it is shown that 75.76% sememes in the “walk” category (LDCE) use the modelas “differentiated factor + prototypical sememe (walk)” (CCED).
We have easily discovered that there are some problems among these digital number:
33.33%﹤50%﹤56.34%﹤75.76%. In terms of a foreign language contrast to MCD,the”walk”category in the explanation needs optimizing. We can find out that each dictionary
is not systematically controlled according to the range. There are several reasons for this:First is a subjective reason, there are numerous sememes in the “walk” category. They do not
only refer to the action and state of the person or animal, that is to say, this verb has anothermove except ‘walk’, for this part of the sememe, we must accept them within “walk”
category. The lack of clarity and economy of a language enriches the sememe value, but it
still cannot set up independent sememes, therefore, this word’s core meaning of the
explanation cannot be selected just in the area “walk”, it needs the up level and a good
generation of the verbal core. In one word, the complexity of the verbal sememe leads to thenon-systematic nature of the core meaning, for instance:
迈进 大踏步前进。(MCD)slink move quietly with gliding steps，in a stealthy or sensuous manner. (COED)
trickle if people, vehicles, goods things trickle，they are moving slowly in small
groups or amounts.(COED)
The second is the structure hierarchy and explaining excursiveness of a language. The “walk”
category is based on the “walk category of the core and prototypical polymerization together.
The “walk” is not located in the same level in MCD. In this typical category, these factors“speed factor”, “state factor”, “place factor”, “pathway factor” are built up and borrow fromthe smaller aggregation group. There are several examples:徘徊，踯躅, 盘桓, 盘旋,
低回踌躇, 彷徨, 蹀躞…”散步”it is the typical group of the bottom level, it includes: 信步,
溜达, 遛弯儿, 串游, 绕弯儿, 遛, 遛早儿, 闲逛, 逛… corresponding with English “walk”
category, for example, according to the fast and slow speed, it can be divided into “speed” or“creep” the two of the aggregation group of the bottom level, and the action’s aimlessness canbe categorized into the “wander” aggregation group. According to the different states, it canbe categorized into “wander” aggregation group.
Facing this case, different Chinese dictionaries adopt different ways of the explanation, whichmainly exemplifies the prototypical sememe of the typical group—or handles differently
407

“walk”. It belongs to the “up level word” or synonym. The ideal one is based on the
explaining model of the category system (exception for the comprehensive way “synonym +labelled minor meaning”). Most non prototypical sememe are around the core meaning verb.
The choice and prominence of the differentiated factor is clearly built on the comparison of
the small typical group of sememe. For instance:
徘徊 ①在一个地方来回地走。
彷徨在一个地方来回地走，不知往那个方向去；比喻犹豫不决。(这个释义是我们对
照《现汉》调整的，参照了多本语文词典和同义词典，以及语料库)遛 ②牵着牲畜或带着鸟慢慢走。
闲逛 闲暇时到外面随便走。
游逛 为消遣而闲走。
漫步 没有目的而悠闲地走。
waddle walk with short steps and a clumsy swaying motion.(COED)
walk with short steps, with your body moving from one side to another - usedespecially about people or birds (ducks) with fat bodies and short legs. (LDCE)
walk there with short, quick steps, swinging slightly from side to side. A person or
animal that waddles usually has short legs and a fat body.(CCED)
hobble 1.walk awkwardly, typically because of pain.(COED)
walk with difficulty, especially because your legs or feet hurt.(LDCE)
if you hobble, you walk in an awkward way with small steps, for example because
your foot is injured.(CCED)
limp walk with difficulty because of an injured leg or foot.(COED)
1. to walk slowly and with difficulty because one leg is hurt or injured. (LCED)
if a person or animal limps, they walk with difficulty or in an uneven way because
one of their legs or feet is hurt.(LCED)In practice, the “walk” sememe of different levels is selected by the verbal core meaning. At
most cases, we give up the ideal systematic model of the explanation in the MCD we selectthe up level verbal sememe or the core meaning of synonym. For instance:
迈 ①提脚向前走；跨。
跨 ①抬起一只脚向前或向左右迈 (一大步)。
散步 随便走走。
遛早儿 早晨散步。
游逛 为消遣而闲走。
浪游 漫无目标地到处游逛。
To comparison with Chinese Dictionaries, there are less similar cases in the English
dictionaries:
march 1.walk in a military manner with a regular measured tread.(COED)
defile (of troops) march in single file.(COED)
wander If you wander in a place, you walk around there in a casual way, often
without intending to go in any particular direction. (CCED)
wander around it.(CCED)
roam If you roam an area or roam around it, you wander or travel around it without
having a particular purpose.(CCED)
LCED or CCED. These two dictionaries must have correlated relation in the quantitative limitof the explaining metalanguage. 2000 explaining words are limited in the LDCE while 3500
or so in CCED. The quantitative control of the explaining metalanguage makes a lot of usefulwords not into the explaining words. To some extent, this limit blocks the possibility ofcoming into the explanation of the excursiveness, so that promotes the development of a highdegree of unity of systematic explanation. For instance, we can see the choices of the verbal
core meaning in all sememes of the explanation in “walk” category (LCED), non-meanings of“walk” and “move” take into account 95.49%. If we see the point from the view of
discrimination, the explanation of the excursiveness damages the regularity and readability,408

but it has some advantages: when the core meaning is close to the up level word or synonym,
the word is easily and clearly be described. Taking the above “遛早儿” for an example,
supposed that we must take the prototypical verbal meaning “walk” as an explanation, it isoccurred these following’s explanation: “早晨随便走走”. Therefore, it is clear but redundant.
If we try to choose closely the up level or synonym, the result is contrary to what we expect.
If a reader cannot understand “游逛” the exact meaning, how can he or she even understand“浪游”? If we all use the meaning of “走”, we have to double the explanation. Therefore, theexplaining metalanguage is a two-edged sword, whether we choose the categoricalexplanation with a high degree of uniformity or we choose the explanation of the
excursiveness. We would better design the dictionary according to the character and size ofthe dictionary.
The last is due to codifiers’ view of the systematic explanation. Making an analytic
comparison between COD and CCED, we have discovered that there are 24 verbal sememes
in COD—no meanings of “walk”. In the differentiated factor, they do not change the verbal
sememes, and the verbal sememe can completely replace the “walk”. In addition, we also
have discovered the adjusting location of the core meaning of”行走, 步行, 走动”. We also
believe that the codifiers pay less attention to the systematic explanation to a great extent,
while paying less attention to the view of the prototypical explanation; therefore, they do not
use the same model of the explaining sememe at the same level and in the same
polymerization.
According to the above analysis, we can find out that the ideal explaining model of “walk”
category should carefully describe “walk”, just like as a mirror description, while the anothersememe is around the another category “walk”, it should feature the differentiate factors tosome degree and with some aspects: such as aim factor, direction factor, state factor (speed,way), time factor, place factor as well as reason factor.

Agent
非泛指“人”

Purpose

+

Reaso
n

walk

Time

Place

Direction

Charact
er

Sou
rce

G
Pa Pl
Patt Speoa th acern edleFigure 1 Model of “walk” sememe explanation of category
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China (No. 13FYY012)

References
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Juri, Apresjan. 2000. Systematic lexicography. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wierzbicka, Anna.1985. Lexicography and conceptual analysis. Karoma Publishers.
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Aristotle. Categoriae De interpretatione. 2003 (translated by Fang Shuchun). Beijing: The
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Zhang Yihua. Lexicography of contemporary. 2007. Beijing: The Commercial Press.
Zhang Jiahua. Contemporary semantics in Russia. 2005. Beijing: The Commercial Press.
Fillmore, Charles J. 2003. A Frame-semantic (translated by Zhan Weidong). Essays on
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Zhang, Zhiyi, and Qingyun Zhang. 2012. Lexical semantics. Beijing: The Commercial Press.
Lyons, John. 1995. Linguistic semantics: An introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University
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Journal of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies 3:46-51.

410

A Comparative Study of War Metaphors in Business and General
News Articles Using a Dictionary-based Database
Zhong Xian
Lingnan University
xianzhong@ln.hk / okpidia@hotmail.com

Abstract“Metalude is an interactive database of conventional, lexicalized metaphors” (Goatly, 2002-2005). It
has a fine categorization of lexis which has both literal and metaphorical meanings recorded incontemporary English dictionaries under different conceptual metaphors. The Metalude data supports
the idea that activity in general, not just business activity, is pervasively understood as war, games,
sailing. And that organizations and systems in general, not just the economy, is conceptualized as amachine, or a human body which is more or less healthy. These metaphors can be used in businessdiscourse and general discourse to talk about business activity and activity in general. It thus becomes aquestion I investigated in this research, focusing on war metaphors, whether the war metaphors wereused more in business discourse to talk about business activities, than they were in other texts to referto activity in general. The study also attempted to compare the findings across English and Chinese.

Keywords: Metalude, war metaphor, business corpora, general corpora

1. Introduction
Metaphor is pervasive in various business-related materials and situations, including
economics and financial news articles (Charteris-Black 2004; Koller 2004), businessencounters (Handford and Koester, 2010), business research articles (Skorczynska andDeignan 2006) and books introducing organizational theories (Morgan, 1997; Weick 1979,2005). Among the various types, war metaphor is found to be dominant in business discourse
and it is used to conceptualize business activity as if with intense conflicts. Business life isconceptualized as a battlefield with intense conflicts. Corporate strategists prefer to use war as
metaphor to translate tactics on the battlefield into policy for the boardroom (Peattie 1990).
War metaphors constitute the third major metaphor cluster found in Charteris-Black andMusolff’s (2003) comparative study of metaphor for euro trading in British financial
reporting. They also found that war metaphors in English could carry evaluative force, such as
the adjective battered which personified the euro as a victim of physical combat. The
successive use of war metaphor could achieve intensification and hyperbole. Many of the war
metaphors were also found in Boers and Demecheleer (1997: 125-127) in their analysis ofmetaphors in economic discourse using corpora of English, French and Dutch as well as
Charteris-Black and Ennis (2001: 256). Herrera and White (2000) summarize the steps for thecommunication of business acquisitions as challenge, open conflict and victory and subsume
them under the conceptual metaphor BUSINESS IS WAR.
Based on a corpus of magazine and newspaper articles on marketing and sales, and another onmergers and acquisitions, Koller’s (2004) analysis shows the metaphor cluster of
WAR/FIGHTING is the most prominent one in the discourses. It is highly masculinized asmen play a constitutive role in the aggression and conflicts. The use of metaphors of
aggression also tend to influence the harmony and the team spirits within corporations, as theindividuals are motivated to engage in competitions and even conflicts within an environment
conceptualized metaphorically as being highly aggressive. War metaphor is thus used toconstruct the business setting as a fighting scenario where the market forces are represented as
411

fighters. War metaphor also carries with it the value-judgment towards the entity or event
referred to.
Though the conceptualization of business life as a battlefield with intense conflicts may be
widespread across languages and cultures, subtle differences exist under this conceptual
metaphor. The linguistic realizations of the war metaphor demonstrate that war itself is not a
uniform domain, comprising a blend of both physical violence and military strategy (Koller
2004). In Alousque’s (2011) exploration of the ideological stance in metaphors used in the
British and Spanish newspaper articles reporting the Endesa takeover, she finds that although
the same detailed metaphorical mappings can be found in English and Spanish, there are more
linguistic expressions as instantiations of the conceptual war metaphor in Spanish. Besides,
the war metaphorical expressions in the Spanish news coverage emphasize the toughcharacters of Endesa’s CEO and highlight the strategy deployed by rival companies, while thewar metaphorical terms in the English describe the process of takeover and the attitude of thecompetitors as hostile. Even though the conceptual metaphor of war is pervasive in economic
and business discourse and it activates the same metaphorical mappings in different
languages, the different instantiations and their uses in different languages can highlightselective aspects of the source of war and convey different ideological stance and implications
to the readers.
While war metaphor is ubiquitous in business and economic discourse, the linguistic
realizations of the war metaphor can be found in the database of Metalude, which is aninteractive database of conventional, lexicalized metaphors” (Goatly 2002-2005). The
database has a fine categorization of lexis which has both literal and metaphorical meanings
recorded in contemporary English dictionaries under different conceptual metaphors. The
Metalude data supports the idea that activity in general, not just business activity, ispervasively understood as war. The Metalude data shows that war metaphors can be used inbusiness discourse and general discourse to talk about business activity and activity ingeneral. So this paper aims to investigate whether the war metaphors are used more inbusiness discourse to talk about business activities, than they are in other texts to refer toactivity in general.
2. Data and method
The study adopts a corpus-driven approach. Two corpora of English and Chinese business
news articles were compiled respectively. The English business corpus consists of business
news articles taken from the American daily newspaper The New York Times published from2008 to 2010. The Chinese business corpus is comprised of business news articles taken from
Chinese daily newspaper Nanfang Daily published from the same period of time. The New
York Times and Nanfang Daily were chosen as they share a lot of similarities. Both of them
have a reputation for fair and accurate modern reporting. They are broadsheet daily papers
originated from New York City and Guangzhou which have a significant influence onnational commerce and finance. They have a clear Business section. Both newspapers have asimilar daily circulation and according to the staticstics presented above, they tend to attract
readers who are of similar age, with higher educational background, business-oriented andwith median to high income. The equivalence between the newspapers in terms of reputation,
readership and style makes possible the compilation of two equivalent business corpora withbusiness news reports from the two newspapers.
News reports from the New York Times and Nanfang Daily were extracted from thedatabases of Proquest and Wisenews respectively. The New York Times corpus has 2 million
words, while the Nanfang Daily corpus has 3.2 million words. Both databases offer searchengines for readers to search for specific articles. Articles in the business section weresearched for and randomly selected every month during the time range between 2008 and2010. The Wordsmith Tools were used to generate a word list of the English corpus and412

lexical items denoting aggressive and hostile actions in war were identified from the list. The
lexical items selected were manually examined in their concordance lines to find whether
there was a contrast between the contextual meanings and their basic war-related senses. The
software of Antconc was used to generate a word list of the Chinese corpus and words
denoting aggressive actions in war were identified from the list. The war-related terms
identified were manually examined in their concordance lines to see whether it was used
metaphorically or not. The English and Chinese words which were confirmed to be war
metaphors were noted down for further comparison with their occurrences in the reference
corpora.
The general corpus in English is part of the Corpus of Contemporary American English(COCA) which was created by Mark Davies of Brigham Young University and contains morethan 450 million words of text. The texts in the corpus are well classified according to the
topics of spoken, fiction, popular magazines, newspapers and academic. Below the umbrella
categorizations of the genres of spoken, fiction, popular magazines, newspapers andacademic, there are specific divisions under each of the five general categories. There are, forinstance, spoken texts from the broadcast ABC, NBC, CBS or CNN and articles in themagazine are divided among the topics of News/Opinion, Financial, Science/Technology,
Society/Arts, Religion, Sports, Entertain, Home/Health, Women/Men, African-American, andChildren. The study thus excluded texts from the sub-divisions of magazine and newspapers
which had to do with money and finance and focused on war-manifested lexical items in texts
from other discourse fields. The texts published between 2009 and 2010 were chosen andtherefore covered a period similar to that by the business news articles in the self-compiled
corpus.
The total number of words in the sub-genres of newspaper from 2009 to 2010 is around 7.37
million. Among the 7.37 million words, the concordance lines containing the war-related
lexical items were generated and all manually analyzed. The metaphorical frequency analyzed
from the concordance lines represented the metaphorical occurrences of elicited war-related
lexical items in the sub-genres of newspaper. The metaphorical frequencies were used tocompare with those in the English business corpus. Later, a statistical analysis was appliedwith the assistance of the SPSS program to investigate whether the frequency counts of war
metaphors in the business corpus are more or less when compared with those of war
metaphors in the general corpus. After the list of war metaphors found in the business corpus
were searched for their uses in the general corpus and their frequency counts in the general
corpus were noted down, the two sets of frequency counts, including the occurrences in thebusiness corpus and the general corpus, were typed into the program SPSS and a paired
samples test was conducted. If the significance level of the two-tailed test equals or is smaller
than 0.05, then the significance level indicates that there is a statistically reliable difference
between the two sets of frequency counts. Moreover, I’m interested in whether the use of war
metaphors in the business corpus is more often or less often than that in the general corpus, soa one-sample t-test was also conducted by the SPSS program and a threshold test value wasdetermined.
For the Chinese corpus, a section of the general reference corpus of CCL was used. CCL
contains 477 million characters and in particular, the study made use of the newspaper reports
within the corpus. The Xinhua News Agency reports published in 2004, amounting to 47
million characters, were taken from the CCL. After excluding the reports about business andeconomic activities from all the news reports, a reference corpus was compiled with the restof the reports with 41.7 million characters. The collocations and compounds of war lexis
found in the business corpus were searched in the reference corpus. Corresponding
concordance lines were later generated for identification of the metaphorical uses of thesecollocations and war compounds. The metaphorical frequencies were used to compare withthose in the Chinese business corpus. Later, a statistical analysis was applied with theassistance of the SPSS program to investigate whether the frequency counts of war metaphors413

in the business corpus are more or less when compared with those of war metaphors in thegeneral corpus. After the list of war metaphors found in the business corpus were searched fortheir uses in the general corpus and their frequency counts in the general corpus were noted
down, the two sets of frequency counts, including the occurrences in the business corpus andthe general corpus, were typed into the program SPSS and a paired samples test was
conducted. If the significance level of the two-tailed test equals or is smaller than 0.05, thenthe significance level indicates that there is a statistically reliable difference between the two
sets of frequency counts.
3. Findings
3.1 Statistical comparison between the English business corpus and general corpus
Table 1 compares the frequencies per 1 million words of war and fighting lexical items used
metaphorically in the general and business corpora. The lexical items listed in the table
include word families, such as the occurrences of combat, include combats, combating,combated and combative as well.

Table 1 War terms in the English business and general corpus with descending ratio
Noun

Verb

retreatinroadcohortaggression,
aggressivenessresistanceassault
troop
invasionblow
firepowerskirmishhostility
gun
combatforay
under firebullethit
arms
arsenalsiege
tussleto retreat
to pummelto grapple-

to resistto invade

Adjective/adverb

aggressive,
aggressively-

to batterto combat
to hitto armto safeguard

hostilebrutalcombative
beleaguered-

to besiege
to capitulate

-

armed
-

414

BusinesstokensGeneraltokensRatio
ofoccurrences

36
5
5
5
33
133

4
1
1
1
7
32

9
5
5
5
4.71
4.16

53
4
4
7
40
12
3
3
11
8
13
30
7
7
7
9
144
4
4
4
4
2
2

13
1
1
2
12
4
1
1
4
3
5
12
3
3
3
4
72
2
2
2
2
1
1

4.08
4
4
3.5
3.33
3
3
3
2.75
2.67
2.6
2.5
2.33
2.33
2.33
2.25
2
2
2
2
2
2
2

struggle
ammunition
challenge,
challenger
conflict
casualty
camp
deployment
tactics
fight, fighter
defensepunch
campaign,
campaigner
strikeweaponenemy
bomb,
bombshell
onslaught
brigadefrontline
minefield
truce

battle,battlefield,battlegroundattack,attacker
blitz
war,warfare,
warriorcrusadearmy
shotbarragestronghold
sword

to snipe
to torpedo
to struggle
to challenge

-

2
2
227
5
236

1
1
127
3
145

2
2
1.79
1.67
1.63

to beatfierce-to deploy-embattled

to fight
to defend
to punch
to campaign

-

50
3
18
67
8
9
5
15
134
50
11
274

32
2
13
50
6
7
4
12
109
43
10
255

1.56
1.5
1.38
1.34
1.33
1.26
1.25
1.25
1.23
1.16
1.1
1.07

to striketo bombard

striking
-

46
10
6
6

44
10
6
6

1.05
1
1
1

to surrenderto spearhead
to lashto defuse
to wield
to killto battle

-

6
4
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
4
18
78

6
4
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
4
18
79

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
0.99

67

70

0.96

to attackto warwarring

5
40

6
50

0.83
0.8

to enlist
to shoot

-

-

-

3
6
4
33
1
1
1

4
10
7
63
2
2
2

0.75
0.6
0.57
0.52
0.5
0.5
0.5

415

cloutrout
defeatpeace
victory, victor
offensesaber (saberrattling)melee
artillerybattalion
bazookacavalry
fusilladepugnacity

to defeatto duelto conquer-

to outflank-peaceful
violent
victorious
offensive
-

-

-

-

militaristic
-

3
3
18
6
2
36
1
1
10
4
2

7
7
44
17
7
140
4
5
86
0
0

2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

0.43
0.43
0.41
0.35
0.29
0.26
0.25
0.2
0.12

Table 1 shows that a majority of the war metaphorical lexical items are used slightly more
frequently per million words in the business corpus than the general corpus. The number ofoccurrences for a metaphorical lexical item does not vary much between the business corpus
and the general corpus and the biggest difference is 32 times per million words for the lexical
item retreat. Another clear observation of Table 1 is that the use of descriptive adjectives inthe business corpus is more frequent than in the general corpus. The adjectives include brutal,
fierce, and beleaguered. Other lexical items among the majority are used slightly more often
in the business corpus and their frequencies of occurrences in the business corpus and thegeneral corpus are quite close. It also shows that war metaphors are well exploited in news
reports.
The two sets of frequency counts were typed into the SPSS program to see whether they weresignificantly different with statistical evidence. The paired samples T-test performed by SPSS
generated the mean difference of 4.99 (SD= 26.61) and the two-tailed p-value of 0.096, which
is close to 1 and greater than the specified significance level of 0.05. So we can conclude that
there is not a statistically significant difference between the two sets of frequency counts(t=1.69, df=80, p=0.096), and it means the use of war metaphors in the business corpus is not
significantly more or less than that in the general corpus. Furthermore, the ratio between thefrequency counts for each word was also calculated and a one-sample t-test was conductedusing SPSS. The test result shows that there is a statistically significant difference between
the frequency of each word in the business corpus and in the general corpus (t=4.80, df=80,
p<0.05), which indicates that each word differs significantly in terms of their uses in thebusiness context and the general context. The inconsistent results of the paired samples t-test
and the one-sample t-test may be due to the significant difference between the frequencies ofa single word in the two corpora rather than the whole set of war-related lexis.
3.2 Detailed comparison between the English business corpus and general corpus
There are altogether sixteen lexemes and the derivatives used with similar frequency in thebusiness and general corpus, with the ratio around 1:1 in the business and general corpus.
Three of the sixteen lexemes, kill, onslaught and attack, are sorted under the subtype Attack416

in the subfield Actions and four, wield, defuse, bomb and weapon, belong to the subfield of
Weaponry. The other lexemes enemy, brigade, spearhead; surrender and truce; lash andbattle; frontline and minefield are sorted under the subfields of Forces, Result, Types ofaction, and Topography, respectively.
Table 3.1 shows that there are ninety-one war metaphorical types found in the business
English corpus and eighty-one war metaphorical types in the general English corpus. Fiftyseven types occur less frequently as metaphors in the general corpus, though their frequenciesof occurrence do not vary greatly with those in the business corpus. Sixty-three percent of thetypes are used more frequently in the business English corpus than in the general English
corpus. The lexeme RETREAT has the greatest frequency variance in the business andgeneral corpus. Its ratio of frequency reaches 9:1 in the business and general corpus. The
lexemes having relatively less frequency variance than RETREAT include INROAD,
PUMMEL and COHORT. All of the three lexemes occur five times in the English businesscorpus as metaphors and one time in the general English corpus, which suggests that they are
not frequently used as metaphors in both corpora. The lexeme GRAPPLE registers afrequency of 33 in the business English corpus and 7 in the general English corpus. So in thefollowing, I will analyze some selected words as examples to demonstrate the differences.
The use of derivatives of AGGRESS is more frequent in the business corpus than in thegeneral corpus, reaching the ratio of 4.1:1. The disparity in terms of frequency of use suggeststhat derivatives of AGGRESS are much more frequently used as metaphors in the businesscorpus than in the general corpus. Typically, the adjective form registered frequent
occurrences in the business corpus to describe the competitive business and financial
activities or confident and assertive entities involved in business dealings. The first type ofdescription presents the financial practices as “angry and threatening”, as shown in thefollowing concordance lines:
1. aid. Output dropped at a 1.1 percent rate in the previous period. Aggressive cost-cutting
has pushed productivity
2. pan, Britain enjoyed more than a decade of booming growth , fed by aggressive banklending and real estate investments.
3. anaging the risk of asset price bubbles as a result of last year 's aggressive expansion of
credit . '' Stephen Green,
While the second type describes the individuals or companies involved in financial practices
as “decisive and determined”, which are shown in the following concordance lines.
1. Rajaratnam since his days at Needham, said Mr. Rajaratnam was an aggressive buyer andseller of stocks. ''His was
2. forward to a safe and enjoyable shopping experience at Wal-Mart. ''Aggressive shoppers
are common the day after
3. Lenders are desperate to avoid the fate of Corus Bank shares, an aggressive condominium
lender that federal regulators
The comparative and superlative forms of the adjective can be observed often in the businesscorpus to describe the more and most assertive entities in business dealings or the levels ofcompetition that financial activities hold. However, the adjectival form is used far less often
as an expression of fighting metaphor in the general corpus when compared to its counterpart
in the business corpus. The pattern of using comparatives and superlative forms of theadjective can not be found in the general corpus. The metaphorical uses of aggressive in thegeneral corpus can be applied to realms such as politics and sports.
The most frequent war metaphors found in the business English corpus, including campaign,
challenge and struggle, also occur frequently in the general English corpus. The frequency
417

ratios of these three metaphors are around 1 and the highest one is 1.79 of struggle. The small
frequency variances suggest that campaign, challenge and struggle are conventional
metaphors often used in both corpora and their uses do not vary much. For instance, themetaphorical use of struggle can be applied in different discourse fields as the following
concordance lines from the general English corpus show.
1. Mainstay of familiarity and assistance in a new country. #” Gay Latinos constantly struggle
with multiple identities,
2. With China, we must combine partnership, cooperation, deterrence, and power struggle.
Achieving that requires cooperation
3. Badly, and I didn’t want to. “ # Most mothers say they struggle to make peace with hurtfulcomments. # Swanson says
The first concordance line concerns the gay Latinos who are trying hard to manage theiridentities and be accepted by the society. The second concordance line concerns politics withthe mention of partnership, cooperation, deterrence and power struggle in the context. The
third concordance line concerns mothers who want to raise their kids according to what thepediatricians suggest, whose method is not understood by other mothers. The third
concordance line is thus about daily life struggles. The three concordance lines involve thestruggles in different areas of life for different purposes, which suggest that wide andpervasive metaphorical use of struggle.
3.3 Statistical comparison between the Chinese business corpus and general corpus
Table 2 compares the frequencies per 1 .6 million words of war lexical items used
metaphorically in the Chinese general and business corpora, after checking all theconcordance lines.
Table 2 War terms in the Chinese business and general corpus with descending ratio
Chinese word

Business

GeneralRatio of comparison

弹药
失守
撤退
收复
进驻
地雷
关口
抗战
正规军
司令
子弹
火线
追兵
按兵不动
根据地
突围
集团军
战略性
冲锋

7
95
18
78
50
3
119
2
6
5
5
7
1
2
2
8
2
109
4

0.03
0.52
0.1
0.45
0.45
0.03
1.31
0.03
0.1
0.1
0.14
0.21
0.03
0.07
0.1
0.45
0.14
7.77
0.31

233.33182.69180.00173.33111.11100.00
90.84
66.67
60.00
50.00
35.71
33.33
33.33
28.57
20.00
17.78
14.29
14.03
12.90

418

战争
转战
排头兵
先锋
重兵
反攻
前锋
突袭
防卫
刀光剑影
兵强马壮
炮轰
生力军
搏杀
防御
重创
短兵相接
主战场
攻坚战
战场
退守
利剑
枪
杀
抵抗
标兵
锋芒
一线
坚守
精兵强将
肉搏
战火
武器
拉锯战
主攻
中坚
剑拔弩张
主力军
大刀阔斧
战备
滑铁卢
异军突起
攻克
连珠炮
交战
军心

10
14
15
42
2
27
11
8
1
1
1
4
15
10
42
33
2
6
4
13
2
3
10
123
15
4
4
31
17
2
1
3
5
4
11
10
4
16
6
1
4
10
10
1
3
2

0.81
1.14
1.24
3.54
0.17
2.34
1.02
0.76
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.41
1.65
1.1
4.75
3.96
0.24
0.79
0.55
1.93
0.31
0.48
1.65
21.54
2.68
0.72
0.76
5.95
3.41
0.41
0.21
0.65
1.1
0.89
2.54
2.31
0.93
3.75
1.41
0.24
1
2.51
2.79
0.28
0.86
0.62
419

12.35
12.28
12.10
11.86
11.76
11.54
10.78
10.53
10.00
10.00
10.00
9.76
9.09
9.09
8.84
8.33
8.33
7.59
7.27
6.74
6.45
6.25
6.06
5.71
5.60
5.56
5.26
5.21
4.99
4.88
4.76
4.62
4.55
4.49
4.33
4.33
4.30
4.27
4.26
4.17
4.00
3.98
3.58
3.57
3.49
3.23

遭遇战
抵御
胜出
新军
收兵
炮弹
初战
战役
守
抗衡
壁垒
攻守
大军
警戒线
进军
实战
大战
追击
告捷
持久战
攻势
袭击
攻破
战斗
攻击
战略
双刃剑
战士
拼杀
制胜
激战
争夺战
阵营
侵占
据点
参战
攻防
对抗
强攻
军团
抗击
鏖战
打击
厮杀
防线
狙击

1
24
16
3
1
2
1
9
36
9
3
4
7
6
48
8
18
2
3
1
7
8
8
12
31
330
2
1
1
6
3
7
17
2
1
1
5
12
4
23
15
1
145
1
6
5

0.31
7.5
0.31
1
0.34
0.76
0.38
3.44
0.87
3.54
1.2
1.62
2.86
2.62
21.62
3.72
8.69
1.03
1.55
0.52
3.68
0.28
4.65
7.09
18.6
202.52
1.24
0.62
0.62
3.85
2
4.68
11.46
1.38
0.72
0.72
3.65
9.56
3.37
19.61
12.94
0.96
154.34
1.1
6.92
0.38
420

3.23
3.20
51.61
3.00
2.94
2.63
2.63
2.62
41.38
2.54
2.50
2.47
2.45
2.29
2.22
2.15
2.07
1.94
1.94
1.92
1.90
28.57
1.72
1.69
1.67
1.63
1.61
1.61
1.61
1.56
1.50
1.50
1.48
1.45
1.39
1.39
1.37
1.26
1.19
1.17
1.16
1.04
0.94
0.91
0.87
13.16

攻关
混战
背水一战
挑战
打败
交锋
备战
战术
战线
失败
攻坚
决战
侵袭
冲突
进攻
惨败
作战
防守
出击
重击
不堪一击
袭
胜利
战胜
反击
回击
失利
后卫
出战
突击
助攻
攻
兵
夹击
胜负
阻击
击败
领军
空军
撤离
战团
驻扎
战区
打游击

11
2
1
92
2
7
18
14
3
25
3
3
3
6
16
2
7
11
18
1
1
45
12
14
37
2
3
4
1
10
1
84
15
1
6
1
2
27
12
11
3
2
1
1

13.73
2.51
1.31
125.09
2.93
10.39
26.77
21.77
4.71
40.75
5.13
5.2
6.57
14.63
44.91
5.85
21.42
40.82
4.65
0.31
0.34
17.12
79.97
104.65
15.37
0.96
24.26
35.27
9.08
8.02
14.32
74.78
13.93
1.15
8.78
1.92
75.36
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

421

0.80
0.80
0.76
0.74
0.68
0.67
0.67
0.64
0.64
0.61
0.58
0.58
0.46
0.41
0.36
0.34
0.33
0.27
3.87
3.23
2.94
2.63
0.15
0.13
2.41
2.08
0.12
0.11
0.11
1.25
0.07
1.12
1.08
0.87
0.68
0.52
0.03

The two sets of war term frequency counts in Table 2 were typed into the SPSS program tosee whether they were significantly different. The paired samples t-test performed by SPSS
generated a mean difference of 6.18 (SD=25.31), and a significance level of 0.003, which was
far below the specified significance level of 0.05 which suggests that there is a statisticallysignificant difference between the two sets of frequency counts (t=3.041, df=154, p=0.003).
The result suggests the use of war metaphors in the business corpus is rather different fromthat in the general corpus in terms of frequency. Furthermore, the ratio between the frequency
counts for each word was also calculated and a one-sample t-test was conducted using SPSS.
The result show there is a statistically significant difference between the frequency of eachword in the Chinese business corpus and in the general Chinese corpus (t=4.440, df=147,
p<0.05). The war lexis is used significantly more in the Chinese business corpus than in thegeneral corpus. The test result also indicates that each word differs significantly in terms of
their uses in the business context and the general context and confirms the result of the pairsample t-test.
3.4 Detailed comparison between the Chinese business corpus and general corpus
According to Table 3.2, the most obvious difference between the war metaphors used in the
Chinese business corpus and the general corpus is that some expressions related to weapons in
warfare are hardly used metaphorically in the general corpus. While danyao ( 弹 药 ,ammunition) is used metaphorically seven times in the business corpus referring to money orcapital, the compound word is used 0.03 times metaphorically, which suggests it is basicallyused literally in the general corpus. The same applies to dilei (地雷, landmine) with its 3
occurrences all metaphorical in the business corpus and nearly no metaphorical occurrence inthe general corpus and zidan (子弹, bullet) with 5 occurrences in the business corpus andalmost no metaphorical occurrence in the general one. Words such as zhanqu (战区, warzone), zhantuan (战团, war clan) and lingjun (领军, lead-army) are not used as metaphors in
the general corpus. Expressions referring to troops withdrawing, such as chetui ( 撤 退 ,withdraw) 18 times all metaphorically, cheli (撤离, withdraw) 11 times all metaphorically all
metaphorically in the business corpus, are almost never used metaphorically in the general
corpus. Certain collocations can only be found in the business corpus, such as the collocationof the character gong (攻, attack) and prepositions. Formed with the bound morpheme gong (攻 , attack) and the preposition as well as the orientation metaphor shang ( 上 , up), thecollocation shanggong ( 上 攻 , up-attack) can not be found in the general corpus. The
collocation is a metaphorical expression referring to the rise in stock market index.
Collocations like this include shadie (杀跌, kill-fall).
Some war terms are used less often in the general corpus than in the business corpus, such as
kangji (抗击, beat back), juntuan (军团, army group) and qianggong (強攻, storm). The word
gongji (攻击, attak) is also less often used in the general corpus than in the business one witha ratio of 0.6 : 1. Further investigation of the word gongji (攻击, attak) shows that it can occur
alongside terms which manifest the liquid metaphor, e.g. gongji-lang (攻击浪, attack-wave=aseries of rising stocks). The compound gongji-lang ( 攻 击 浪 , attack-wave) is a mixed
metaphor with the war/fighting metaphor combined with the liquid metaphor. In the Chinese
stock market, labels are assigned to different shares or stocks according to their propensity torising or falling prices. If a stock usually has a shorter cycle of its price rising and fallingwhich can be induced in a short period of time, then it is called the “offensive or aggressive”
type of stock. On the contrary, the other type of stock is called the “defensive” type of stock.
It is also a way to comment on the market and its performance as being “aggressive” or“defensive”. As the market intends to reach or exceed a certain amount of trading volume,
constant and steady input of large amounts of investment to influence the market prices via
the process of trading in and out using multiple accounts can raise or devalue the stock prices.
The Ground of this war metaphor is that the stock prices constantly hover over a specific price422

or amount. The specific level or price is seen as a benchmark for the market stocks. If theywant to have their prices rise further, they need to reach the benchmark level. Thus the
manipulators are making use of their power to influence the prices in order to reach andexceed the level. The Ground for the liquid metaphor is that when efforts were made bymanipulators to increase or decrease the trading volumes, a wavy line in resemblance to tidal
waves can be identified when drawing connections between the trading volume points. It isbecause the input of intensive capital in the market left the line chart looking like a wave. The
shape of the line probably forms the grounds of the liquid metaphor which is in turn causedby the war metaphor itself. Thus the mixed metaphor is a good illustration of the war
metaphor and liquid image metaphor. In terms of the word gongji-lang (攻击浪, attack-wave)
which shows interaction between the war metaphor and liquid metaphor, if we are to
reactivate the image which can be evoked by the S-terms, we can get the image of humans
performing aggressive and attacking action and the image of tidal waves. They may seem
incongruous at first sight, but we can still understand them as attempts and actions of real
attack taking place continuously. The word gongji-lang (攻击浪, attack-wave) is rarely usedin the general corpus. Its only occurrence takes place in the field of sports, referring tosuccessive attempts made by Chinese footballers to score points against the Japanese footballteam.
4. Conclusion
The review of metaphor studies shows that war metaphor is dominant and deeply entrenchedin business discourse. War metaphor is more often exploited to talk about business activity
and conceptualize business life as a battlefield full of conflicts and hostility. However, thecomparison of frequency counts of war lexis in the English business and general corpus
shows no statistically significant difference, suggesting the war metaphors are no more
frequent for talking about business activity than they are for talking about activity in general.
War metaphor is not dominant for the conceptualization of business activity, as the English
data shows. The emphasis on the dominance of war in English business discourse may lead tothe misbelief that business activity is more often conceived as competition and war and theoverstatement of competition and war in the business field. On the other hand, the war andfighting lexis is used significantly more in the Chinese business corpus than in the general
corpus, which confirms the researchers’ argument that business activity is conceived more interms of competition and war than activity in general and it is dominant and deeply
entrenched in Chinese business discourse.
References
Alousque, I. N. (2011). Metaphor and ideology in the business press: The case of the Endesa
takeover. Miscelanea 43: 73-85.
Boers, F., & Demecheleer, F. (1997). A few metaphorical models in (western) economic
discourse. In Discourse and Perspective in Cognitive Linguistics, eds. W. A. Liebert, G.
Redeker & L. Waugh, 115-129. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Charteris-Black, J., & Ennis, T. (2001). A comparative study of metaphor in Spanish andEnglish financial reporting. English for Specific Purposes 20, 249-266.
Charteris-Black, J., & Musolff, A. (2003). ‘Battered hero’ or ‘innocent victim’? Acomparative study of metaphors for euro trading in British and German financial
reporting. English for Specific Purposes 22, 153-176.
Charteris-Black, J. 2004. Corpus Approaches to Critical Metaphor Analysis. London:
Palgrave-Macmillan.
Handford, M., & Koester, A. (2010). “It’s not rocket science”: metaphors and idioms inconflictual business meetings. Text & Talk 30(1), 27-51.
Herrera, H., & White, M. (2000). Cognitive linguistics and the language learning process. A
case from economics. Estudios Ingleses de la Universidad Complutense 8, 55-78.
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Koller, V. 2004. Metaphor and gender in business media discourse: A critical cognitive
study. Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Morgan, G. (1997). Images in organizations (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, London: Sage
Publications.
Skorczynska, H. & Deignan A (2006). Readership and purpose in the choice of economics
metaphors. Metaphor and Symbol 21(2): 87-104.
Peattie, K. (1990). Pretending to understand business policy. Management Education andDevelop 21(4), 287-300.
Weick, K. (1979). The social psychology of organizing. 2nd ed. Reading, MA: AddisonWesley Publishing Company.
Weick, K. (2005). Organizing and failures of imagination. International Public Management
Journal (8)3, 425-438.
Goatly, Andrew. 2002-2005. Metalude. http://www.ln.edu.hk/lle/cwd03/lnproject/home.html.

424

A Diachronic Comparison of the Strategies Adopted by The New
York Times in Translating Expressions with Chinese Characteristics
Meiyan Liu, Bo Li
Northwestern Polytechnical University, China
myliu@nwpu.edu.cn

Abstract
With the deepening of globalization and growing international influence, news about China appears in
the main media like The New York Times more frequently than ever before. Thus the words andexpressions with Chinese characteristics catch the eyes of the scholars in recent translation studies.
Based on cultural translation theory, the author did a diachronic study about the translation strategies
adopted by The New York Times from 2007 and 2013 in translating expressions with Chinesecharacteristics to find out the changes and development trend. The research results reveal that The New
York Times mainly adopts five translation strategies. The diachronic comparative result indicates thatthe proportion of transliteration and literal translation are gradually rising, while the proportion oftransliteration plus explanation and literal translation plus explanation drops slightly from 2007 to
2013. Moreover, there is an obvious decrease of liberal translation. Evidence suggests that The New
York Times is showing an increasing tendency to adopt foreignization strategy in translating
expressions with Chinese characteristics.
Keywords: translation strategy, expressions with Chinese characteristics, diachronic comparison,
foreignization, domestication

1. Introduction
China’s rapid development and increasing international status arouses much attention fromnews media all over the world. They begin to report China more frequently and widely. For
instance, Newsweek published a special report named China’s Century on May 9th, 2009,giving a twenty-one-page-long coverage of China from politics, economics, education,
culture, etc. Under such circumstances, an increasing number of scholars shift their attention
to the translation of words and expressions with Chinese characteristics.
However, as Hu (2008) holds, the studies are paying too much attention to general description
from macroscopic aspects instead of detailed analysis and specific case study. Wang (2009)
also argues that the existing studies are mainly based on top-down approach instead ofbottom-up. What’s more, little diachronic study has been done systematically with statistics
from international media. Therefore, the paper intends to figure out the strategies adopted by
The New York Times from 2007 and 2013 in translating expressions with Chinesecharacteristics and make a diachronic study with abundant first-hand data.
2. Literature review
2.1 Susan Bassnett’s cultural translation theory and two translation strategies suggested
2.1.1 Susan Bassnett’s cultural translation theory
The late 1980s witnessed a growing popularity of translation studies from the perspective of
cultural aspect. Susan Bassnett, the most outstanding and influential scholar points out thattranslation is not a pure language behavior and it is deeply rooted in the culture of thelanguage. Thus translation is a kind of communication between inner culture and inter culture.
In her book “Translation Studies”, she highlighted the close relationship between language,
culture and translation: “language is the heart of culture, and the surgeon, operating the heart,425

cannot neglect the body that surrounds it, so the translator treats the text in isolation from theculture at his peril” (Bassnet, 1988: 14).
In 1990, Susan Bassnett and Andre Lefevere published their co-edited book Translation,
History and Culture, in which they officially put forward the “cultural turn” in translation
studies and explored cultural translation theory. First, translation should take culture as thetranslation unit, not always linger on the discourse level. Second, translation is not a simple
process of decoding and recording, but an activity of communication Third, translation should
not be restricted as the description of source text but viewed as the functional equivalence inthe target language culture. Fourth, translation will have different principles and norms in
different times in order to meet different needs. Translation, in a word, is to satisfy the needsof different cultures and the needs of different groups in a certain culture (Bassnett, 1990: 4).
From Bassnett’s idea, we can conclude that translation is not a pure linguistic activity. It
includes not only the language transformation but also the cultural values transfer.
2.1.2 Foreignization and domestication
As translation studies attach more importance to culture, whether to adopt the strategy offoreignization or domestication has become a hot topic. According to Venuti (1995),
foreignization means taking the reader over to the foreign culture and making him or her see
the differences; while domestication means bringing the foreign culture close to the reader inthe target culture, making the text recognizable and familiar. Which of the two strategies
adopted determines the specific translation methods such as literal translation or liberaltranslation to be selected during the translation activity.
2.2 Present studies on translation strategies of expressions with Chinese characteristics
Since China English was first proposed in the early 1980, many linguists and translators like
Wang (1991), Li (1993), Xie (1995), etc. have all expressed their understanding of China
English. Although they define China English in different ways, the basic characteristics ofChina English they convey are the same. First, China English is an objective existence of
linguistic phenomenon in culture exchange between Chinese and English-speaking people.
Second, it takes normative English as its core to express things peculiar to Chinese society
and culture. Third, China English, as an English variety, can be accepted by native English
speakers and it has found its way into English language.
It is widely believed that the features of China English are most obvious and distinctive at thelexical level. According to Kirkpatrick (2007: 147), localized lexis of China English has beencreated through transliteration, direct translation and semantic shift. Jia (2008) analyses
China-specific words in Newsweek and concludes that foreignization approach is subject toideology to a great extent, so translators are required to combine foreignization anddomestication in translation. Fan (2012), after making a survey of the translation strategies
adopted by some international media about Chinese culture-loaded words, summarizes thatthe techniques of foreignization is mainly used in translating expressions with Chinesecharacteristic.
Generally speaking, the studies based on data from international media are still limited.
Furthermore, the studies are mainly based on top-down approach instead of bottom-up. And
most of the studies focus on synchronic study rather than diachronic study.
Therefore, in order to compensate for the weakness in the study of China English translation,
the author did a systematic diachronic study of the strategies and methods and the change ofthe strategies by The New York Times from 2007 to 2013 to reveal how native- speakers
translate expressions with Chinese characteristics in the hope to shed light to the related
domestic study.
426

3. Research methodology
3.1 Research questions(1) What strategies are adopted by The New York Times in translating expressions with
Chinese Characteristics?
(2) Are there any changes about the translation strategies adopted by The New York Timesfrom 2007 and 2013? If any, what is the development trend?
3.2 Research subject
The New York Times is selected as the subject of the research, because it is regarded as themost authoritative and influential English newspaper not only in its own country, but also in
the world and it covers the widest and most comprehensive reports about China among
American media (Fan, 2012). Thus, China English used in The New York Times can, to agreater extent, gain their entry to international society. Furthermore, almost all the reports are
written by native speakers, which make a great contribution to the accuracy and intelligibilityof China English in The New York Times. Thus, the samples collected from The New YorkTimes could make the findings and results of the research more valid, reliable andrepresentative.
3.3 Data collection
The author first downloads all the articles about China from the official website of the New
York Times with a period of six months from January to June in the year of 2007 and 2013
respectively. Altogether 760 articles have been collected with about 1.25 million words. All
the collected articles are given clear indication of their publication dates and pages in its printversion rather than those which are only circulated on the internet.
Then each article is read carefully, and 567 expressions with Chinese characteristics are
selected out, together with their publication dates and pages, and the corresponding Chinesemeaning is annotated by the author as well. Then the data is carefully classified according to
the translation strategies adopted, followed by a diachronic comparison between 2007 and2013.
3.4 Research findings
With careful data collection and analysis, the author concludes the translation strategies about
expressions with Chinese characteristics in 2007 and 2013 as follows.
Table 1 Classification of Translation Strategies about Expressions with Chinese
Characteristics in 2007
Transliteration Transliteration
plus explanation

Literaltranslation

Literaltranslation Liberalplus explanationtranslation

Total

SampleNumber

30

25

68

25

50

198

Percentage

15.20%

12.60%

34.30%

12.60%

25.30%

100%427

Table 2 Classification of Translation Strategies about Expressions with Chinese
Characteristics in 2013
Transliteration Transliteration plus Literalexplanationtranslation

Literaltranslation Liberalplus explanationtranslation

Total

SampleNumber

78

42

148

33

68

369

Percentage

21.1%

11.4%

40.1%

8.9%

18.4%

100%

Table 3 Comparison of Translation Strategies about Expressions with Chinese Characteristics
between 2007 and 2013
Transliteration

Transliteration
explanation

plus Literaltranslation

Literal translation plus Liberal
explanationtranslation

2007

15.2%

12.6%

34.3%

12.6%

25.3%

2013

21.1%

11.4%

40.1%

8.9%

18.4%

Trends

5.9% ↑

1.2% ↓

5.8% ↑

3.7% ↓

6.9% ↓

4. Analysis of the translation strategies adopted by The New York Times whentranslating expressions with Chinese characteristics
According to the data shown in Table 1 and Table 2 above, in translating expressions with
Chinese characteristics, The New York Times mainly adopts five translation strategies:
transliteration, transliteration plus explanation, literal translation, literal translation plus
explanation and liberal translation. The detailed classification of the collected 567 expressions
with Chinese characteristics are as follows: 108 samples are transliterated; 67 ones aretransliteration plus explanation; 216 ones belong to the strategy of literal translation; 58 ones
are literal translation plus explanation; and 118 go to the category of liberal translation.
Obviously, the techniques of literal translation is the most commonly used one, with 34.3% in2007 and 40.1% in 2013, followed by Transliteration, with 15.2% in 2007 and 21.1% in 2013and liberal translation, with 25.3% in 2007 and 18.4% in 2013. The following is a detailed
analysis of the strategies used by The New York Times.
4.1 Transliteration
Transliteration is one of the strategies adopted by The New York Times in dealing with someproper names or objects, things and phenomenon which are peculiar to Chinese culture withno correspondences in English. Altogether 108 samples (30 in 2007 and 78 in 2013) arefound, which account for 15.2% in 2007 and 21.1% in 2013. For example,(1) But since David wasn’t around when I checked in, I put my bags away, walked out
through the lane — where grandmothers played mah-jongg outside pink stucco homes andcicadas chirred in the trees — and grabbed a quick snack of jian bing, a crepe stuffed withegg, chili sauce and a piece of fried dough, from a street vendor (1 yuan). (January 21, 2007,
page TR12)(2) At the well-tended Tianshouyuan Cemetery in Beijing, an idyllic spot on the outskirts ofthe city that is famous for its feng shui, grave plots for ashes sell for as much as $46,000 per
square meter. (April 5, 2013, page A5)
The above “Mahjong” and “feng shui” are transliterated from Chinese “风水”, and “麻将”
respectively. Blessed with strong Chinese characteristics, they suffer semantic vacancy in428English. Thus, the techniques of transliteration is adopted by The New York Time to maintainthe “Chinese flavor”.
The following are more examples:
Chinese Items
太极

English Translation
tai chiPublished Date
April 5, 2007, page G1
March 17, 2013, page TR6

捞面
阴阳
户口
小笼包

lo meinyin and yang
Hukou
xiao long bao

March 8, 2007, page A1April 13, 2007, page E29
February 6, 2013, page A13
March 17, 2013, page TR7

人民币renminbi

March 17, 2013, page TR6

磕头Kowtow

May 11, 2013, page A1

4.2 Transliteration plus Explanation
Building strong exotic appeal and rightly filling up the cultural gap with additional
explanations, the technique of transliteration plus explanation wins a wide support fromtranslators both home and abroad, and has become a very popular and effective skill intranslating words with Chinese characteristics adopted by The New York Times . A total of 67
examples are collected, of which 25 ones (12.6%) are from 2007 and 42 (11.4%) are from2013. Evidence shows that many concepts about Chinese culture such as music, religion,
food, architecture, new concepts, hot issues and specific phenomenon in current Chinesesociety etc. are dealt with “transliteration plus explanation” approach. For example,(1) To ensure her good character and fortune, he insisted that her wuguan — a feng shui-likereading of the sense organs on the face — show perfect harmony. (March 10, 2013,
page BU1)(2) Seated cross-legged in her farmhouse on the kang, a brick sleeping platform warmed by afire below, Meng Shujing lifted her chin and sang a lullaby in Manchu, softly but clearly.
(March 18, 2007, page A8)
Here Wuguan( 五官 )and (Kang) 炕 , with local culture connotation, will definitely be lessintelligible to most native English readers, so annotation (wuguan) —“a feng shui-likereading of the sense organs on the face” and (kang), “a brick sleeping platform warmed bya fire below” are given to eliminate communication barriers. Here are some more examples:
Chinese
Items
新华社
石库门
富二代
胡同
萧
气功

English Translation

Published Date

Xinhua, the official state news agency
shikumen, or stone gatehouses that are built aroundinternal lanes
fuerdai, or “second-generation-rich,”

January 12, 2013, A7
April 7, 2007, page A4

hutongs — alleys formed by the outer wall ofcourtyard homes
xiao, an ancient, flutelike instrumen
Qigong, which entails coordinating slow
movements with breathing to cultivate the flow ofenergy, or qi, in a sort of graceful, fluid dance

429

March
10,
2013,
page BU1March 3, 2013, page
April 10, 2013, page C1
April 5, 2007, page G1

4.3 Literal translation
The data from The New York Times reveals that the strategy of literal translation is used mostfrequently with a total of 216 examples collected, which make up 34.3% in 2007 and 40.1%
in 2013 in the total samples. And multiple of items concerning economy, politics, society,culture, etc fall into this category. For example,(1) Since his appointment as party chief, Mr. Xi has championed the slogans of “the Chinese
dream” and a “great revival of the Chinese nation” to appeal to ordinary citizens who areoften angry over official corruption and wealth disparities. (中国梦; 中华民族的伟大复兴)(March 24, 2013, page A8)(2) The Chinese police said on Tuesday that they had detained Gong Ai’ai, popularly known
as House Sister, in a corruption case that has gripped China for weeks after it was revealed
that Ms. Gong and her family had accumulated dozens of houses and other properties. (房姐)(February 6, 2013, page A13)
As is shown in the above examples, these literally translated items, vividly expressed, can beeasily understood with contextual information. Furthermore, literal translation, by retaining
the foreignness of the source text as much as possible, refreshes target readers with original
Chinese culture.
Here are more examples from the collected data:
Chinese Items
和平崛起
第一桶金
人民当家做主Published Date
January 20, 2007, A7February 5, 2007, page A2
March 17, 2007, A3

农村医疗保险
学雷锋纪念日English Translation
peaceful risefirst bucket of gold
let the people be the masters of
their own home
special economic zone
crossing the river by groping
stonesrural health insurance
Learn From Lei Feng Day

一个中国政策“one-China policy”

April 14, 2013, A6

经济特区
摸着石头过河January 27, 2013, page SR7
February 15, 2013, page A1
March 6, 2013, page A12
March 12, 2013, page A5

4.4 Literal translation plus explanation
Based on data from The New York Times, a total of 58 samples (12.6% in 2007 and 8.9% in2013) relating to politics, social phenomenon, history, etc. are literally translated with
explanation. For example,(1) I have also shot the so-called “ant tribe,” which comprises graduates from provincial andunprestigious universities who flock to the capital in search of their Beijing Dream, only tofind themselves working low-paying jobs and living in dorm-style hostels on the outskirts ofthe city. (February 10, 2013, page A1)
Ant tribe (蚁族) is a new term popular in current Chinese society, which is used to describe
the poor living conditions of the young graduate in big cities. Here, literal translation conveys
the vivid rhetorical effect of Chinese language, and explanation details the specific meaning
and background information.
(2) The show featured talent from China, Tan Weiwei and Li Yuchun, two winners of China’s
Super Girl contest — a competition that attracts a far larger audience than “American Idol.”(April 19, 2007, C9)430

As a Chinese singing contest organized by Hunan TV station, Super Girl (超级女声) is oneof the most popular entertainment shows. Despite of its big hit in China, it appears to be
unfamiliar to American people. The reporter here compares it to “American Idol”, which issimilar to Super Girl in many aspects and enjoys unparalleled success in American
broadcasting history. With this annotation, the target readers will have a better understandingof China’s Super Girl contest.
The following are more examples:
ChineseItems
钉子户English Translation

Published Date
March 27, 2007, A4

老虎苍蝇一
起打

“nail house,” as many here have called it
because of the homeowner’s tenacity, like a nailthat cannot be pulled out“little emperors,” the singletons mandated by
the one-child policy of the past quarter of acenturytake on both “flies” and “tigers” — wayward
local officials and corrupt senior leaders微博

Sina Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter

March 2, 2013,A4

地沟油

“ditch” cooking oil that has been used anddumped in drains and processing it to be resold
for cooking.

May 4, 2013, A4

小皇帝

April 1, 2007, MAGZINE

January 24, 2013, A13

4.5 Liberal translation
When literal translation fails to convey the cultural connotation accurately, liberal translation
is often adopted. The data from The New York Times reveals that a total of 118 samples(50/25.3% in 2007 and 68/18.4% in 2013) adopt the strategy of literal translation. And many
items concerning politics, economy, culture, language, geography, etc. fall into this category.
For example,(1) He praised the real estate industry as an essential part of the national economy, but hecalled on developers, who have built expensive projects all over China, to also focus onbuilding affordable housing and not to threaten “primary farmland.” (March 5, 2007, A8)
In this example, “经济适用房” is difficult to translate word by word. Based on their meaning,
the writer liberally translates it into “affordable housing”
Chinese Items
外来务工子弟小康社会

English Translation
migrant children
moderately prosperous society

Published Date
January 25, 2007, A3
January 27, 2013, A5

春运

traditional New Year trips

February 17, 2013, page A1

彩礼

March 10, 2013, page BU1银耳bride price — a sort of dowry
used in rural Chinasnow fungus

May 13, 2013, page A1

公款吃喝

taxpayer-financed banquets

April 5, 2013, page A7

431

十二生肖

Chinese zodiac

April 27, 2013, page A4

5. Diachronic Comparison of Translation Strategies about Expressions with Chinese
Characteristics between 2007 and 2013
Comparing the figures in Table 3, differences can be found in translation strategies adopted
by The New York Times in 2007 and 2013. First, the proportion of transliteration and literaltranslation increased by 5.9% and 5.8% respectively in 2013 compared with that of 2007,
which indicate that these two methods enjoy an increasing popularity in international media in
dealing with expressions with Chinese characteristics.
Second, the proportion of transliteration plus explanation and literal translation plus
explanation decreased to some extent. In the process of data analysis, the author notices thatmany expressions, which were transliterated plus explanation or literally translated plus
explanation in 2007, begins to be transliterated or literally translated without annotations in2013. This phenomenon can be best illustrated by the examples in the following table.
Transliterated plus explanation / literally translated plus
explanation in 2007
the Chinese currency, the yuan or renminbi (人民币)January
26, 2007, C3
Qigong(气功), which entails coordinating slow movementswith breathing to cultivate the flow of energy, or qi, in a sortof graceful, fluid dance （April 5, 2007, G1）
Confucianism(儒家思想), the political and social philosophyof ancient China, which treats harmony as a core virtue (April
20, 2007, A1)
feng shui(风水), the ancient Chinese practice of positioning
objects to create a harmonious environment (May 2, 2007,
A4)
Great Hall of the People in Beijing, the country’s mostimportant political meeting place(人民大会堂) (March 27,
2007, C3)The Yangtze(长江), the third longest river in the world after
the Nile and the Amazon (April 17, 2007, A10)
Three Gorges Dam( 三 峡 大 坝 ), the world’s biggest
hydropower project (April 17, 2007, A10)

Transliterated or literally translated
in 2013renminbi （January 9, 2013, page A10）
Yuan (May 1, 2013, page A1)
Qigong (June 7, 2013, page C8)

Confucianism
page A23)(March1,

2013,

feng shui (April 5, 2013, page A5)

Great Hall of the People
2013, page A4)(March 5,

Yangtze River (March 17, 2013, page
TR6)
Three Gorges Dam (March 17, 2013,
page TR6)

Third, as is shown by the figure, there is an obvious reduce of the proportion of liberaltranslation by 6.9 %, indicating that the approach of liberal translation is less adopted in The
New York Times.
To sum up, of the five translation strategies adopted by The New York Times, transliteration,
literal translation, transliteration plus explanation and literal translation plus explanation keep
the original Chinese language features and cultural uniqueness to a great extent and thus can
be classified into foreignization approach. Liberal translation, adopting the expressions of thetarget culture, is a kind of domestication. The data implies that The New York Times tends toadopt the strategy of foreignization more in 2013 compared with that of 2007 in dealing with432

expressions with Chinese characteristics. Besides, the drop of transliteration plus explanationand literal translation plus explanation also add weight to the conclusion.
6. Conclusion and implications
Based on the studies discussed above, the major findings can be drawn as follows: First, Fivetranslation methods are mainly adopted by The New York Times in translating expressions
with Chinese characteristics. They are the approach of transliteration, transliteration plus
explanation, literal translation, literal translation plus explanation and liberal translation, of
which the most frequently used are literal translation, liberal translation and Transliteration.
Second, as indicated by the diachronic comparison, the proportion of transliteration and literaltranslation rise, while liberal translation, the typical domestication approach is falling withtime pass-by, showing an increasing tendency of foreignization approach in the translation of
expressions with Chinese characteristics by The New York Times.
Many reasons can account for the change. First, due to frequent cross-cultural communication
among nations, no culture can refuse to accept others’ culture, thus different cultures may
infiltrate into each other. Second, people all over the world are realizing the necessity andimportance of showing respect to cultural diversity and the widely adopt of foreignization
approach in The New York Times reveals their respect for foreign cultures. Third, to grab thereaders’ attention is the highest priority in news report writing, so an effective way is to adopt
foreignization translation method to attract readers’ interest and retain the original cultural
identity with exotic flavor. Fourth, the rhetorical style of news report in American media also
accounts for their preference to foreignization since foreignization contributes to theobjectiveness and authenticity of news. By adopting transliteration and literal translation, thereporter also reveals his professionalism and proficiency in reporting China. Furthermore,loan words are said to be preferred in news report in America. Besides, the advocating ofnovelty and ingenuity in news report in western society also add weight to the adoption offoreignization. Above all, due to China’s booming economy and increasing international
status, Chinese language and culture has been sweeping the world. In the context of a global“Chinese fever”, many countries have seen a growing number of Confucius Institute.
Therefore, more and more Chinese loanwords are gaining their entry to English vocabulary.
As is said by Paul Payack, the chairman of Global Language Monitor, “with tremendous
increase of China’s economy, China English exerts far more effect on international English
than English-speaking countries” (Li, 2009: 66). However, liberal translation is still an
important method adopted in translating Chinese culture-loaded words where gaps occur
between the two cultures.
The study could shed light on translation in the following aspects. First, expressions with
Chinese characteristics should be dealt flexibly in translation. As the westerners, eager toknow what are happening in the outside world, have been fully prepared to accept new
knowledge and new cultures to broaden their horizon, transliteration and literal translation
would be the best choice. So Chinese translators can confidently adopt foreignization intranslation to convey unique Chinese language and culture and attract foreign readers withexotic flavor. Second, despite the merits of foreignization, translators should be cautious ofover-foreignization. Be it foreignization or domestication, intelligibility and readability of thetarget text are the key points to keep in mind. Furthermore, liberal translation should be
adopted when cultural gap is difficult to fill so as to ensure intelligibility and readability of thetranslated text.
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Contemporary English Studies University (10):14-19.

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The Effects of Task Types on Incidental Vocabulary Acquisition
through L2 Listening
Ximing YUAN
Northwestern Polytechnical University, China
yuanxm@nwpu.edu.cn
Abstract
As Nagy, Herman and Anderson proposed, incidental learning occurs when learners acquire new
aspects of their L2 without being focused on doing so. Researchers have since been long interested inenlarging new vocabulary through incidental learning. Various empirical studies have been carried out
but mostly in the area of reading. This study intends to investigate: 1) whether learners can acquire
vocabulary through listening; 2) the effects of different task types on incidental vocabulary acquisition
based on the Involvement Load Hypothesis, especially the effects on instant and delayed vocabulary
recall and retention. 74 non-English major freshmen in Northwestern Polytechnical University havebeen involved in the study. The study reveals very meaningful findings. In the end, the study discusses
its implications for vocabulary teaching in college English teaching.
Keywords: incidental vocabulary acquisition, Involvement Load Hypothesis, task type

1. Introduction
Incidental learning is the process of learning something without the intention of doing so. It isalso learning one thing while intending to learn another (Richards and Schmidt 2002).
Language educators and researchers have long focused on the acquisition of new vocabularyknowledge through incidental learning (Day, Omura, and Hiramatsu 1991; Jenkins, Stein, andWysocki 1984; Nagy, Herman, and Anderson 1985; Saragi, Nation, and Meister 1978). Fromthe vast number of study, incidental vocabulary acquisition has been proved effective in the
uptake of new vocabulary, especially from the context of reading.
Craik and Lockhart (1972) presented the levels of processing framework as an alternative tothe theories of memory that postulated separate stages for sensory, working and long-term
memory. According to the framework, stimulus information is processed at different levels
simultaneously depending on its characteristics. While in incidental vocabulary acquisition,
they suggested that the “deeper” the processing, the more would be remembered. In light ofthis theory, Laufer (2005) proposes that form focused instruction is indispensable for L2
lexical acquisition. Form-focused vocabulary tasks prove superior to reading alone because
they push learners to engage in more elaborate processing of previously unknown words.
Laufer and Hulstijn (2001) proposed the Involvement Load Hypothesis, which leaves much
more room for future researchers in incidental vocabulary learning.
2. Involvement Load Hypothesis
Involvement load hypothesis claim that word learning and retention depend on the amount ofeffort and attention allocated to processing these words. Task-induced involvement is
considered as a motivational-cognitive construct entailing three factors: need, search, andevaluation. Need is motivational, non-cognitive element of involvement when learners are
required to use new words to complete a given task. Need is moderate when it is imposed by
the task, such as answering reading comprehension questions; while strong when learners are
intrinsically motivated. Search and evaluation are the cognitive elements of involvement
because they entail information processing and require focusing on word forms and meaning.
Search refers to the attempt learners make out the meaning of unknown words in a task.
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Search is present when learners try hard to complete the task through different ways likelooking up in the dictionary and consulting teachers; while it is present when no such effort isrequired, e.g. reading comprehension tasks accompanied by marginal glosses. Evaluation is a
decision making process, which entails “a comparison of a given word with other words, a
specific meaning of a word with its other meaning, or comparing the word with other words
in order to assess whether a word (i.e., a form-meaning pair) does or does not fit its context”(Laufer and Hulstijn 2001: 14). Evaluation is moderate when learners are required to identify
the differences between words provided in a given context (e.g. deciding which meaning of atarget word best fits the context in which it is encountered) and strong when the task requires
making decisions about new words and combining them with known words in originalcontexts, such as sentence making and writing.
3. The study
A large number of previous research studies have been conducted to prove the gains ofincidental vocabulary learning. Eelly (1989: 174-487) found that reading stories aloud tochildren could promote word learning; Vidal compared gains from listening and reading(2011), and found out that students acquired more from reading than from listening. Vidal
also explored incidental vocabulary acquisition gains from L2 listening (2003) by asking
students to complete fill-in-blank passages and answer true & false questions after watching 3
academic video lectures. As to the effectiveness of task-induced involvement load on
incidental vocabulary learning, Beal (2007) found that participants in the sentence productiongroup performed better than the multiple-choice glosses and textual glosses. Keating (2008)
assigned three different tasks in his vocabulary learning study, reading only, fill-in-blank task,
and sentence construction. With the comparison, he found subjects in the sentence writingtask group surpassed the other two. However most studies are carried out in reading andwriting instead of L2 listening. Findings are limited as well.
This study aims to provide a more complete picture of incidental vocabulary knowledge
learning from listening. With the basis of Involvement Load Hypothesis, the researcher tries
to test and compare the effect of word acquisition and retention under different task type withdifferent involvement load. The analysis was designed to answer the following researchquestions:
1. Whether language learners can acquire productive word knowledge in L2
listening?
2. Whether language learners can acquire receptive word knowledge in L2 listening?
3. Does task type strongly affect foreign language incidental vocabulary acquisition
and retention in L2 listening?
4. What type of task will evolve better effect in word acquisition in listening?
4. Research methodology
4.1 Participants
The participants were 74 undergraduates at Northwestern Polytechnical University in China.
They were non-English major freshmen from two classes, belonging to College English BandI level. To ensure they have the similar English listening and vocabulary level, a couple ofweeks prior to the treatment, 4 classes were randomly chosen to complete a listening test.
Two of them showing no significant differences in the test were eventually chosen to attend
the study.
4.2 Research materials and target words
Material selection will decisively affect the test result. Based on the findings that 95% lexical
coverage is sufficient for adequate listening comprehension of narrative text (van Zeeland andSchmitt 2012), it was ensured that this coverage level was reached by all participants. The
listening passage used was about the biggest snack maker in America and its chips. The whole436

passage contains 338 words with a familiar topic relating to daily life. 10 students who were
not included in the study were invited to have a pretest and circled out 12 new words. Withfurther confirmation, the researcher finally chose 10 target words.
4.3 Research procedure
The study intended to investigate three tasks with different involvement loads. The
involvement factors need and search were controlled constant, while the three tasks only
differed in the evaluation element they induced. After a careful study of Hulstijn and Laufer’stask design, more details are as below:
Task A: Listening + Reading comprehension + Word list:
Participants assigned to Task A were offered with seven listening comprehension questions
after listening to the passage. The meanings of the ten target words were explained both in L1(Chinese) and L2 (English) on the word list given to the participants. The directions of thelistening comprehension encouraged students to listen for meaning and to make use of theword list for comprehension. In task A, need was moderate. But the available access to themeanings of the target words made search and evaluation absent. Therefore, the involvement
load index for this task was 1 (1+0+0).
Task B: Listening + Fill-in blanks + Word list:
In task B, a summary of the listening passage was offered with 10 words deleted. Participants
were instructed to complete the blanks with 10 target words plus another additional 4 newly
given words related to the topic. Still, they could use word list for help. Task B induced
moderate need because participants needed to know the meaning of the target words to fill inthe blanks; the task induced moderate evaluation when the participants carefully study anddistinguish the target words; the task induced no need with the word list provided. Then the
involvement load index was 2 (1+0+1).
Task C: Listening + Composition writing + Word list:
After listening, participants assigned to task C were required to write a composition relating
to the topic of the passage with the ten target words. Need in task C was moderate because it
was imposed by the task and search was still absent. Evaluation was strong because
participants had to decide how to use these words together with his previous knowledge towrite appropriate sentences. The involvement load index for this task was 3 (1+0+2).
The testing procedure was simple. Immediately after listening to the material, participants
were randomly appointed to three groups to fulfill different tasks. And they would theninstantly take the posttest. To see the effect of the retention, one week later, all participants
would take the delayed posttest without knowing it in advance. The test type and items were
the same as the instant posttest only with reversed order.

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5. Data analysis
Having collected all data from the instant and delayed post-tests, the researcher employed
SPSS (21.0) for Windows Product for data analysis.

Table 1 shows the test type and scoring standard of the posttest, which intends to see theparticipants’ receptive and productive vocabulary knowledge acquisition. The total score forthe 4 posttests is 20 points each.
Receptive knowledge and productive knowledge of a word have commonly been used todescribe the degree of learners’ word knowledge (Nation 2001; Read 2000). Receptive
knowledge in vocabulary involves recognizing the form of a word while reading or listening
and retrieving its meaning from mental lexicon; productive vocabulary knowledge involves
expressing a message through speaking and writing and producing the appropriate word form
appropriately in context. The figures in Table 2 clearly answer the first two researchquestions. From the mean scores of each group, it is obvious that learners have incidentallyacquired vocabulary knowledge in L2 listening, with an improved learning both in receptive438

and productive knowledge. Furthermore, they demonstrate better knowledge of the targetwords in instant posttest than in delayed posttest, which obeys the common rules of word
acquisition and retention.
In Table 3, for both instant and delayed posttests, the mean scores in all groups are muchhigher in the gaining of receptive knowledge than in productive knowledge, and the t values
also show significant differences. The result indicates that productive knowledge seems
harder to acquire. Compared with Task A and B, Task C group has done better in all the tests.
The results in Table 3 already fully support the Involvement Load Hypothesis in that Task B
and Task C were more effective than Task A both in receptive and productive instantposttests. One week after treatment, however, Task B was superior to Task A, but Task C was
not more effective than Task B. It seems students in Task B group have done better in the
delayed posttest. That means with the time difference, different task type may involve
different learning effects.
The figures clearly point out that students fulfilling the task of fill-in blank and the task ofwriting all did well in learning words, and they are much better than students in Task A
group, which refer to the fact that tasks with more involvement load with lead to more
effective vocabulary acquisition in L2 listening. Epically students in Task C group, they all
felt they could learn new words much easier and better than before.
In delayed posttest, thought students didn’t do better than in the instant posttest, but just as
Hulstijn (2001) notes, one expects a decline in knowledge over time in the absence of
rehearsal or additional exposure to the target words. The participants in this study were notexposed to the target words between testing intervals. Thus, it is not surprising that there
would be a decline in word acquisition.
6. Conclusion
From the analysis above, we can conclude that learners can incidentally acquire vocabulary inL2 listening in both receptive knowledge and productive knowledge learning, but can domuch better in receptive knowledge gaining. In the meantime, Students with the task of fillin-blank and students with task of writing showed obvious gaining of the target words andthey did much better than the students with listening comprehension task. Therefore, the study
confirms that the type of task with greater involvement load will induce better learning effect.
The results of the delayed posttest indicate that students in all the three groups have gained
vocabulary retention to some degree, especially the group with writing the task. Based onthese results it can be suggested that teachers should design tasks with a higher involvement
load to enhance students’ vocabulary retention. Future research on incidental vocabulary
learning could include designing more effective task type for students to perform more output
and get better word retention.
Acknowledgments
The deepest gratitude goes to Northwestern Polytechnical University. This research study is specially sponsored by
Humanities, Social Sciences and Management Research Fund, Western Polytechnical University. The project
number is [3102014RW0021].

References
Beal, Vanessa. 2007. The weight of involvement load in college level reading and vocabularytasks (Unpublished master’s thesis). Concordia University, Quebec, Canada.
Craik, Fergus and Lockhart. 1972. Levels of processing: A framework for memory research.
Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior 11: 671–684.
Craik, Fergus and Tulving, Endel. 1975. Depth of processing and the retention of words in
episodic memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology 104: 268–294.
439

Elley, Warwick. 1989. Vocabulary acquisition from listening to stories. Reading Research
Quarterly 24: 174-187.
Hulstijn, Jan. 1992. Retention of inferred and given word meanings: Experiments inincidental vocabulary learning. In P. J. L. Arnaud & H. Bejoing (Eds.), Vocabulary
and applied linguistics (pp. 113–125). London: Macmillan.
Hulstijn, Jan., & Batia Laufer. 2001. Some empirical evidence for the involvement load
hypothesis in vocabulary acquisition. Language Learning 51: 539–558.
Keating, Gregory 2008. Task effectiveness and word learning in a second language: The
involvement load hypothesis on trial. Language Teaching Research 12: 365–386.
Nagy, William, Herman, Patricia and Richard, Anderson 1985. Learning words from context.
Reading Research Quarterly 20: 233-253.
Schmidt, Richard. 1994. Implicit learning and the cognitive unconscious of artificial
grammars and SLA. Implicit and explicit learning of languages 22: 165-210
Vidal, Karina. 2003. Academic listening: A source of vocabulary acquisition? Applied
Linguistics 24: 56-89.
Webb, Stuart. 2005. Receptive and productive vocabulary learning: The effects of reading andwriting on word knowledge. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 27: 33–52.
Webb, Stuart. 2007. Learning word pairs and glossed sentences: The effects of a single
context on vocabulary knowledge. Language Teaching Research 11: 63–81.

440

Improving an Electronic Dictionary for Morphological Analysis ofJapanese: Use of historical period information
Tomoaki Kouno, Toshinobu Ogiso
National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics, Japantkouno@ninjal.ac.jp, togiso@ninjal.ac.jp
Abstract
In this paper, we present our improvements to the electronic dictionary UniDic made during theconstruction of an annotated diachronic corpora of Japanese. In our work, we use UniDic to attachmorphological annotations. Each entry of UniDic has a hierarchical structure and consists of threelevels: the lemma, form, and orthographic levels. UniDic contains over 240,000 entries and covers not
only contemporary but also archaic words; however, using all of these entries is inefficient. In fact,
UniDic with all entries caused an increase in machine learning time. In order to cope with thisdifficulty, we controlled UniDic entries by using historical period information: information on the timespan a word was used over. We added historical period information to each entry level whileconsidering historical changes. As a result, UniDic discriminates among the vocabularies used in eachperiod. Applying this improved UniDic. We built two sub-dictionaries specialized for specific periods:
one dictionary for Early Middle Japanese and one for Kyōgen (Middle and Early Modern Japanese).
Compared to UniDic which uses all entries, UniDic for Early Middle Japanese is smaller (by half), andthe time needed for machine learning is remarkably diminished (by 75%). Moreover, machine analysis
maintains a high level of accuracy (97%).

Keywords: electronic dictionary, historical period information, diachronic corpus ofJapanese, morphological analysis

1 Background
The National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics (NINJAL) has been developing
annotated corpora of the Japanese language. First, we constructed and released the Balanced
Corpus of Contemporary Written Japanese (BCCWJ) containing 100 million words(Maekawa et al. 2014). We then developed the following diachronic corpora: the Corpus of
the Heian Period (Early Middle Japanese; 738,000 words), Kokumin no Tomo Corpus(Modern Japanese; 1 million words), and Kyōgen Corpus (Middle and Early Modern
Japanese; 235,000 words). All of these corpora are richly annotated, and the morphologicalinformation (e.g. word segmentation, parts of speech, reading, and conjugation patterns) is
especially useful for linguistic research.
We have used an electronic dictionary called UniDic to attach morphological annotations to
our corpora. UniDic contains over 240,000 entries and covers not only contemporary but alsoarchaic words. The text of the corpus is automatically tagged with morphological informationby the state-of-the-art morphological analyzer MeCab trained with Unidic (Kudo et al. 2004).
MeCab analyzes Contemporary Japanese with great accuracy (98%).
In the process of constructing diachronic corpora, we have added many words appearing inhistorical texts to the UniDic database (Ogiso et al. 2012). While some words are obsolete
now and inessential to the analysis of contemporary Japanese texts, others are newly-coined
and unnecessary for old texts; therefore, using all entries for all corpora is inefficient. In fact,
UniDic with all entries imposed heavy costs on machine learning and caused an increase inlearning time. Moreover, it can negatively affect the accuracy of machine analysis.

441

This paper aims to improve UniDic by using historical period information (HPI) and handle
the problem. In Section 2 we give an outline of our research method and discuss theperiodization of Japanese. In Sections 3 and 4, we explain and give examples of HPI. In
Section 5, we show the effects of HPI with numerical values, and in Section 6, we present ourconclusions.
2 Method
2.1 Outline
In order to cope with the difficulty, we employed HPI: information on the time span a word
was used over. To start, we examined the historical period when a word was used, referring to
general dictionaries and our developed corpora. This information was attached to each word
entry in UniDic as HPI. With HPI, the use of each word entry was limited to the proper
period. We went on to build sub-dictionaries specialized for specific periods (e.g. UniDic for
Early Middle Japanese, UniDic for Kyōgen) based on the HPI. As a result, the morphologicalanalyzer uses dedicated entries for texts of particular time periods (for example, it uses the
Early Middle Japanese entries for Early Middle Japanese texts) and can analyze historicaltexts more efficiently.
2.2 Periodization of the Japanese language
Recorded Japanese documents date back to the eighth century. From the eighth century to thetwenty-first century, Japanese has undergone both lexical and grammatical changes at somestages. To categorize the historical periods of Japanese, we adopt a sixfold classification:
Old, Early Middle (E-Mid.), Middle, Early Modern (E-Mod.), Modern, and Present (Pres.)periods. This linguistic periodization roughly corresponds to the political one (see Figure 1).

Figure 1 Periodization of the Japanese Language

3 Historical period information

3.1 The hierarchy of UniDic entries
Each word entry of UniDic has a hierarchical structure consisting three levels: the lemma,
form and orthographic levels. The lemma is like the headword of a general dictionary and is
the highest level of the hierarchy. The form level distinguishes different forms andconjugation types while the orthographic (orth) level distinguishes variant spellings. Thishierarchical representation is useful for linguistic researchers who study variations inorthography and word form.

442

Figure 2. Hierarchical Structure of UniDic

Figure 3. Structure of the Entry izuko 何処
Figure 3 shows the internal structure of the entry izuko 何処 (‘where’). The word izuko has
three form variations: izuko, izuku, and idoko. The form izuko is spelled いずこ or いづこ,
and so on.
3.2 Attachment of HPI
The HPI of a word entry varies depending on the lemma, form, and orthographic levels:
therefore, we should attach HPI to the entry at each respective level.

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Figure 4 HPI of the Entry izuko 何処
Figure 4 shows the result of the HPI attachment to the entry izuko. HPI is displayed as timebars to the right of each entry. The lemma izuko is used in all historical periods, so the HPI is‘FROM Old TO Pres.’ The form izuko was first used in the Early Middle period and is stillused today. Therefore the HPI is ‘FROM E-Mid. TO Pres.’ Izuku is the old form of izuko. The
izuku form has been used in all periods, so the HPI of this form is ‘FROM Old TO Pres.’ andis the same as that of the lemma izuko. Idoko is a rare form and was used only in the Early
Middle period. In the present day, izuko and izuku are spelled いずこ and いずく
respectively. Both いづこ and いづく are historical kana usage and are no longer in use.

3.3 Consistency
HPI is attached to an entry at each level in the hierarchical structure of UniDic, but the HPI
value is not freely selected. HPI should satisfy the following consistency condition: HPI on
one level must be equal to or less than the HPI of the higher level.

Figure 5. Consistency Condition
Figure 5 shows the consistency condition. The HPI of each level inherits the HPI of the higher
level as the default value. It is possible to modify the HPI as long as it does not violate theabove-mentioned condition.

444

4 Examples

4.1 Lemma Level
We first see an example of entries with the same meaning but different HPI at the lemma
level. Haha 母 (‘mother’) is one of the basic kinship terms in Japanese. In Old Japanese, theword omo was also used, but by the Early Middle period, it was obsolete.

Figure 6. HPI of haha 母 and omo母The word omo appears only in Old Japanese literature; therefore, we limit this word entry in
UniDic to the Old period by assigning the HPI ‘FROM Old TO Old’ (see Figure 6). As aresult, the morphological analyzer can use omo only when analyzing an Old Japanese text.
The second example concerns entries with the same lemma reading but different meanings
and HPI. The word morokoshi 唐土 means ‘China’, and is used in all historical periods.
Morokoshi 蜀黍 means ‘sorghum’ (a kind of grain) and first appeared in the Early Modern
dialect dictionary Butsurui shōko (1775). The HPI restricts the word entry morokoshi 蜀黍 in
UniDic to the Early Modern, Modern, and Present periods (see Figure 7); this entry is used
only for analyzing the texts of these periods.

Figure 7. HPI of morokoshi唐土 and morokoshi蜀黍
Thirdly, the following examples are words which have the same meaning (‘lunch’) and areoften spelled in the same way (昼飯), but differ in word origin.

Figure 8. HPI of chūhan昼飯, hirumeshi 昼飯, and hiruhan昼飯
Chūhan is a Sino-Japanese word (chū 昼 ‘noon’+han 飯 ‘food’) used since the Middle period.
Hirumeshi is a native Japanese word (hiru 昼 ‘noon’+ meshi飯 ‘food’) and is newer thanchūhan. Hiruhan is a hybrid word coined in the Meiji period, which quickly became outdated.
The use of these word entries for morphological analysis is limited to the historical periods asshown in Figure 8.
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4.2 Form level
The first example concerning the form level is the word dare 誰, which has multiple forms.

Figure 9. HPI of dare誰
Dare誰 had only the form tare until the Middle period, but the form dare has been used since
the Modern period. This form variation is attributable to phonological change in the Early
Modern period when tare became voiced. It is possible that the analyzer using UniDic with all
entries may choose the incorrect form dare for Old Japanese texts. With HPI, the form of 誰
in UniDic is determined uniquely as tare before the Early Modern period, and themorphological analyzer can correctly analyze 誰 as tare for texts in these periods.
Secondly, we see an example in which the same form (chikashi) appears in the two lemmas(chikai 近い and chikashii 近しい).

Figure10. HPI of chikai 近い and chikashii 近しい
These two lemmas are similar in meaning; chikai 近い means ‘near; close; familiar’ andchikashii 近しい means ‘intimate; familiar’. These entries have the same form chikashi, andthe morphological analyzer has difficulties in distinguishing between the lemmas. We
attached HPI ‘FROM E-Mod. TO Mod.’ to the form chikashi of the lemma chikashii近しい446

(see Figure 10) so that the analyzer would use it only for Early Modern and Modern Japanese
texts.
Thirdly, we mention the distinction of conjugation types. Conjugation types of verbs andadjectives have changed throughout the history of the Japanese language, with one majorchange being the transformation of bungo conjugation types to kōgo conjugation types. Thischange was progressing in the Early Modern and Modern periods. UniDic differentiates
between conjugation types at the form level. The HPI restricts kōgo conjugation types so thatthey are used only after the Early Modern period, and bungo conjugation types so that they
are not used for the Present period (see Figure 11).

Figure 11. HPI of kōgo and bungo Conjugation Types
The conjugation types of some words have undergone minor changes. There are different
bungo conjugation types (upper monograde/upper bigrade) for the verb hanahiru 嚔ひる(‘sneeze’). The upper monograde was used only in Old Japanese and was thereafter replacedby the upper bigrade (see Figure 12).

Figure 12. HPI of hanahiru 嚔ひる
Using UniDic with HPI, the analyzer can correctly select the upper monograde hanahu for
Old Japanese texts and the upper bigrade hanahiru for the texts of other periods.

4.3 Orthographic level
An important example of HPI at the orthographic level concerns kana usage. There are twokinds of kana usage in the Japanese writing system: historical kana usage and present-day
kana usage. For example, the lemma kyō 今日 (‘today’) is written けふ with historical kanausage and also written きょう with present-day kana usage. Historical kana usage wasabolished in 1946 by the Japanese government, which adopted present-day kana usage
instead. Therefore, the HPI of orths with historical kana usage is ‘TO Mod.’ and with presentday kana usage ‘FROM Pres. TO Pres.’
Some peculiar orthographies carry special meaning. The greeting yoroshiku 宜しく (‘nice tomeet you’) is sometimes spelled 夜 露 死 苦 by today’s motorcycle gangs. The Chinesecharacters 死 and 苦 mean ‘death’ and ‘agony’ respectively. Motorcycle gangs select this447

orthography to show ironic humor. The orthography 夜露死苦 was produced during the
Present period, so the HPI is ‘FROM Pres. TO Pres.’
Effects of HPI limitations
With HPI, UniDic discriminates among the vocabularies used in each historical period. Table
1 shows how the entries in each period are limited. The amount of conjugated orthographies
diminished drastically in the Old, Early Middle, Middle, and Present Japanese entries because
in UniDic, kōgo conjugation types are used only after the Early Modern period, and bungo
conjugation types cannot be used for the Present period.
Table 1 Number of Entries in Each Period
PeriodLemmas

Forms

Orths

ConjugatedOrths

All periods
Old
Early Middle
MiddleEarly Modern
ModernPresent

240459180428183161
186357188666202492221322270356
187871
191391
195317212063229672237365448532280421
286617296935339505349964327670147958569206171532074820513736841401782909864Using this improved UniDic, we built two sub-dictionaries specialized for specific periods:
one dictionary for Early Middle Japanese and one for Kyōgen. The former is based on Early
Middle entries and the latter on Middle and Early Modern entries. As shown in Table 2, these
dictionaries decrease in size (by half, in the case of UniDic for Early Middle Japanese).
Table 2 Comparison of Dictionary Sizes
Source file matrix.def(Lex.csv)
UniDic with all entries
315MB
3694MB
UniDic for Early Middle
145MB
832MB
Japanese
UniDic for Kyōgen
294MB
3497MB

Binarydictionary
800MB
268MB
747MB

The time for machine learning was shortened by 75% from 577 minutes (using UniDic withall entries) to 142 minutes (using UniDic for Early Middle Japanese).
Tables 3 and 4 show the analysis accuracy of UniDic for Early Middle Japanese and UniDic
for Kyōgen compared to UniDic with all entries. Level 1 is the accuracy of word
segmentation. Level 2 is about whether part-of-speech tagging is correct in addition tosegmentation. Level 3 is the accuracy of lemmatization for the correct entries at Levels 1 and
2. Lastly, Level 4 is the accuracy of discerning allomorphs. The accuracy of the two new
dictionaries is equal to or higher than that of UniDic with all entries, despite theircompactness.

Table 3 Comparisons of Accuracy (Analyzing Early Middle Japanese Text)
Level
1: Level
2: Level
3: Level
4:
Segmentation POS tagging Lemmatize Allomorph
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UniDic with all entries
0.9947
UniDic for Early Middle
0.9950Japanese

0.98150.97250.96980.98170.97230.9698

Table 4 Comparisons of Accuracy (Analyzing Kyōgen Text)
Level
1: Level
2: Level
3: Level
4:
Segmentation POS tagging Lemmatize Allomorph
UniDic with all entries
UniDic for Kyōgen

0.98850.98870.96980.97000.96080.96130.95900.9595

6. Conclusions
We added HPI to each entry level of UniDic. UniDic restricts the word entry so that it is used
only in its appropriate periods. The morphological analyzer uses these restricted entries and canthen efficiently analyze the texts of each period. This improvement to UniDic brings about
three beneficial effects: (a) more compact sub-dictionaries; (b) a reduction in time for machinelearning; (c) an equal to or higher analysis accuracy than that of UniDic with all entries. We
plan to attach more precise HPI, which will promote accuracy when analyzing new texts.

References
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dictionary formorphological analysis and its application to Japanese corpus
linguistics (in Japanese). Japanese Linguistics 22: 101-123.
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Wakako Kashino, Hanae Koiso, Masaya Yamaguchi, Makiro Tanaka, and Yasuharu
Den. 2014. Balanced corpus of contemporary written Japanese. Language Resources and
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Evaluation, 911-915. Istanbul, Turkey.

449

Portable Electronic Dictionary (PED) Use in Spanish as Second
Language Students in Japan
Lidia Sala Caja
Aichi Prefectural University, Japansala@for.aichi-pu.ac.jp
Abstract
It is well known that Japanese students of English are massive users of pocket electronic dictionaries(PED). The same can be said of Japanese students of other foreign languages, despite the fact that they
begin their second language acquisition later in their education at university, and that fewer dictionaries
are available to them (for the Spanish this is limited to three bilingual dictionaries and one
monolingual). It is understandable, therefore, that their user profile or habits have been largely ignored.
Recently however, some teachers have felt the need to adjust their teaching of lexicographical skills to
the PED, while others remain doubtful. To shed some light to this question, I prepared a questionnaire
for Aichi prefectural University students of Spanish. This paper presents some of its results, focusing
on the user profile of students of Spanish as first foreign language.
Keywords: portable electronic dictionaries, dictionary use, Spanish, Japan

1. Introduction
The portable electronic dictionary (PED) is a common learning tool in Japan. With already 36
years of history (Tono 2009), it has reached many specialization fields (medical, economical,etc.) and potential users (secondary, tertiary students and professionals). Since September
2004, Japanese learners of Spanish also have their pick1, although the number and type ofdictionaries available to them are fewer than those for English learners ones. The offer for2015 was limited to two bilingual Spanish-Japanese dictionaries, one bilingual JapaneseSpanish2 and one bilingual bidirectional Spanish-English3. As for monolinguals dictionaries, a
few years ago Casio launched a CD with the Gran Diccionario de la Lengua Española
Larousse (2003) that could be installed to some models, and Sii includes a Spanishbilingualized dictionary, the Spanish Kernermar西西和辞典.
In the Japanese education system, there is virtually no Spanish instruction in high schools.
Learning begins at the university as a first or second foreign language. The student’s level
when they start is therefore absolute beginner and eventually those in charge of such students
find themselves in the situation of having to teach them the basic mechanics of dictionary
lookup. Traditionally, paper dictionaries were used to give such guidance but, as PED became
more popular in the Spanish classroom, doubts arose among teachers as to which dictionary
support was more convenient or what should be taught in class and how4.
In order to find a way out of that impasse, following earlier studies (Kobayashi, 2008; Ronald
and Ozawa, 2009; Chen 2010; Boonmoh, 2010) I designed a questionnaire with the purposeof obtaining an initial user profile of students and teachers to provide the latter with useful
information so they could fine tune their recommendations and guidance regarding
dictionaries. Note that it is an exploratory approach, it was not intended to evaluate theiractual PED use or its impact on learning, which is a following endeavour.

1

The first one was the Casio XS-HA01.
Casio, Sharp and Sii sell models with Spanish dictionaries option. 現代スペイン語辞典改訂版 (1999) and
西和辞典 改訂版 (2011), both by Hakushuisha, and 小学館西和中辞典（第２版）(2007) by Shogakukan.
3
Oxford Spanish Dictionary
4
Same concerns expressed Bower and Mc Millan (2007) and Loucky (2010).
2450

In this paper, after a brief description of the questionnaire and its results, I will focus on somedifferences found between first and fourth year student answers regarding experience andsense of improvement.
2. The questionnaire
The questionnaire was addressed to three different respondent types: teachers, first foreign
language students (i.e. from the Spanish Studies Section) and second foreign language
students (i.e. from other sections, departments and faculties). Items targeted ownership,
frequency of use, experience, training, attitudes and believes. It was divided in three sections:(1) questions as owners and users of dictionaries, (2) as owners and users of a PED and (3) as
Spanish teachers//learners. Answers could be closed, open-ended, partially categorized or a 6degree Likert scale. Most of the items in parts (1) and (2) were identical in all questionnairetypes while part (3) items are somewhat different, I tried to keep them symmetric in order tobe able to compare their results afterwards 5 . To minimize misunderstandings, students
handled a Japanese version and teachers, a Spanish one.
It was conducted at Aichi Prefectural University (Japan) on July 2014. It was answered by 19
teachers, all of them in charge of Spanish language courses (conversation, reading,composition, grammar), and by 385 students: 211 from the Spanish Studies Section and 174
from the rest of the University. After, I maintained informal conversations with 10 teachers.
In this occasion, I will only report mainly on data obtained from the second ones.
3. Results
3.1. Spanish first language student profile
Data obtained were similar to recent surveys on PED use in Japan for English learners. Like
Kobayashi (2006: 227), we found that “the majority of students owned an ED, and those who
owned it tended to use it exclusively”: ownership started at 96% in first year and reach 100%
before graduation6. Frequency of use only decreased in 4ht year, being “every day” the mostcommon answer (77%) followed by “several times a week” (20%). Also, like Kobayashi(2008) and Nesi (2002), we found that they were satisfied with their dictionaries (73%satisfaction overall), but not completely a-critical. Participants no longer considered their
PED a waste of money nor a symbol of status, but a necessity to follow language studies7,
which anyway did not prevent them from making it an unreflecting purchase8.
Compared to previous surveys, perceived PED pros with respect to paper dictionaries haveincreased. Respondents considered them more advantageous not only for reading (79. 2%) but
also for writing, with a 20,8% average for “strongly agree”, 27.5% for “agree” and 23.7% of“somewhat agree”9. This trend can be explained if it is taken into account that recent PEDs
contain complete editions of renewed bilingual dictionaries that improved design and content
to better fulfil reception and production tasks. This, allied with the proverbial fast access to
information offered by PED, makes their preference logical. Interestingly, though, its wonders
did not reach vocabulary learning, where disagreement outnumbered agreement by 7%10.
5For example, the teacher version asked “Do you give any dictionary guidance in class?” and the student version,“Have you received any dictionary guidance in class?”
6
Bower and McMilland (2007), for example, collected similar percentages in foreign language learning faculties.
7
The statement “Buying a PED is a waste of money” only received 6% of some sort of agreement. The item
“Students buy a PED because it is a symbol of status” presented a 43% for “strongly disagree”; 13% for “disagree”
and 25% for “somewhat disagree”. Teachers’ questionnaires exhibited similar averages.
8
47% checked the option “Because it was sold in the University shop” as the first reason to purchase his actual
PED and another 24% “Because it included a dictionary that I wanted” (i.e. the Spanish ones). Only 10 students(out of 201) mentioned teacher advice as reason to purchase showing lack of guidance on this point.
9
Weschler and Pitts (2000) found that students seldom used PED for production, like Chen (2010) and Jian’s
advanced students (2009). Conversely, Ronald and Ozawa (2009) participants reported to use often their PED for
both writing and reading.
10
The teachers, strikingly, expressed a little more faith in PEDs as vocabulary learning tools, 58% thought it could
be helpful.

451

As for other dictionary ownership, 43.6% purchased a paper dictionary (PD) and 32.7%
access other electronic or online dictionaries but, as table 1 shows, abandonment proliferates
and happens fast with PD while frequency of use resists within the other digital options:around 50% declared to consult them at least several times a week. Results on this point differ
from Kobayashi (2008) and Chen (2010), where PD ownership and frequency of use werehigher.
Eventually, being in possession of multiple lexicographic resources is becoming the norm.
Looking at the figures, the most common combination is PD + PED (29.3%), followed by
PED + other ED (13.7%) but it must be born in mind that many of that PD are actually out ofuse, unlike their other electronic counterparts. Thus, it appears that we are in a transition
phase, where the more widespread combination11 of PED + PD is being replaced by PED +other electronic type dictionaries.
As for the monolingual choice, online dictionaries and applications helped raise its numbers12,
being the most remarkable fact that even a few first year students declared to have one. Its
low frequency of use, however, ends up depicting the average Japanese foreign language
student, as being highly dependent on the bilingual dictionary.
3. 1. Experienced users
Experience has been considered an element that may propel or inhibit efficient ED usage. For
example, Kobayashi (2006) mentioned habit transference and lack of experience to justify
that no significant difference was found between data from the PED and PD users. On theother hand, Ronald and Ozawa (2009) listed familiarity with PED as a factor that might affectuser behaviour and Loucky (2010:169) concluded that computer and engineering major
students more efficient use might “depend on the individual student’s level of English
proficiency and experience using computers”. In fact, the role that digital literacy plays inelectronic dictionary use is getting more attention from researchers and scholars recently13.
Also, it has been long observed that there is a correlation between experience, language
knowledge and paper dictionary usage: the more you handle them, the more successful you
are in your lookup; the more you know about a language, the more skillful you will beinterpreting the information contained. In Jian’s 2009 survey low proficiency students
preferred PED while high ones rely more on PD, which made him conclude that language
level affected the learner needs towards PED. And finally Okuyama and Igarashi (2007) andLoucky (2010) hypothesized such correlation too for EFL Japanese students using PED14.
In the questionnaire participants were asked whether they had more than two years experience
using PED: only 15% (N=211) gave a negative answer. Also, they were asked about previous
PED familiarity and ownership to find out how many years of experience using PED they
had. For 112 undergraduates (54%), the device on use was not the first one. Not surprisingly,
as this tendency has already been observed and described, if only first year students wereconsidered, average raised to 61%. Many of them purchased their first PED when they started
senior high school, so by the time they join the Spanish classroom, they have alreadyaccumulated two or three years of experience.

11

Kobayashi (2008): “ED owners tended to use an ED almost exclusively although they also owned a PD”.
50 students declared to have one, but only 6 of them in printed form.
13
See for example Aguilar Escobar (2006), or Lew (2014), who explicitly mentions digital literacy andinformation literacy as a factor that influences performance.
14“What is more likely is that less proficient language learners are less experienced and less proficient users ofEDs” (Loucky 2010:158).
12

452

These data carry two implications, the first one, already pointed out by Yukio Tono, is thatstudents have short experience in handling paper dictionaries 15 , and therefore limited
influence from that should be expected. The second one is that, unlike in English foreign
language learning, for many of them there will be no proportional correlation between
language (in that case Spanish) level and PED handling: our beginner learners come to classwith rooted usage habits, which might affect their pattern of use. Their senior’s16, on the other
hand, will offer a better insight of how constant PED use and progress in Spanish influenced
the acquisition of new reference habits as well as the bettering of skills and, consequently,
their perception of progress as users.
3.2. Progress and experience
According to the questionnaire, more students (63,3%) than less believed they had improved
their dictionary skills, but, intriguingly, the gap between positive and negative answers was
smaller by far among first years (6 point difference against 33, 20 and 55 points in thefollowing school years). Moreover, in previous research it has been found that students
perceived themselves as competent PED users, and that they feel they did not require any
further training17. The total agreement obtained in such statement (65%) would take us to thesame conclusion. But when analysed by entrance year, significant differences18 were foundbetween junior and senior students (vid. table 2): 70% of the former were much more prone toskip training while only 48% of the latter thought likewise.
Explanation of such data among first year students cannot be Spanish related, but must comefrom their previous experience with PED, or tangentially from familiarity with other digital
environments. An instance of which is the ability to transfer PED usage habits from theirsecondary education years.
Evidence of such transfer was found in the students’ belief that PED is a useful tool to learn
how to pronounce Spanish. Teachers, specifically native ones, disregarded it andconsequently gave no relevance to the sound option (no one checked it). Certainly, phonetictranscription has not been a traditional feature in Spanish paper lexicography19, the reason
being that grapho-phonemic correspondence is pretty straightforward in this language.
Furthermore, Japanese and Spanish phonological systems are very much alike and it does notentail a big obstacle for Japanese learners. Nevertheless, students believe PEDs play animportant role in supporting pronunciation (69.9% agreement average, 74% in first year) andexhibit a consistent wide choice of the sound function 20 . However, discrepancy with the
instructor group can be explained if usage transfer is considered: influenced by their previous
PED usage habits of studying English, they disregarded the fact that the sound function may

15

For Japan, Kobayashi (2008: 103) has even stated “some younger learners have never even used a printed
dictionary” to learn English.
16
Learning needs towards PED increased significantly in the last two University years: speciality seminar classes,
where extensive and dense reading takes place, start in third year; and in their last year, students take a compulsory
class on Academic Writing.
17
In Ronald and Ozawa’s (2009) survey 70% of the participants said no to guidance.
18
The difference in proportions is significant, x2(1, N=199) = 9,5414, p<0.05.
19
Phonetic transcription is absent even in some Spanish learners paper dictionaries like Clave or Diccionario
Salamanca de la lengua española, and online dictionaries, like IULA’s Diccionario de aprendizaje del español
como lengua extranjera (http://www.iula.upf.edu/rec/daele/). For Humberto Hernández its entrance in the Spanish
dictionaries “se explica por una razón puramente mimética hacia otras lexicografías de mayor prestigio”(Hernández, 2000: 101). It must be said, though, that phonetic transcription is present in the learner’s pioneer
Diccionario para la enseñanza de le lengua española and, naturally, in the bilingual Spanish-Japanesedictionaries.
20
In EFL literature, Bower and McMilland (2007) complained about little student awareness and use of sound
function, but admitted their popularity, Kobayashi (2010) and Chen (2010) later studies on the other hand foundthat it was a used function, perceived as one of the PED greater utilities. In our questionnaire, sound function takes
the lead as the most employed one among freshmen (38.7%) and it was checked often alone and not very far camethe hyper-textual jump (36.6%).

453

be superfluous when studying Spanish but nevertheless remember its usefulness and resort toit.
Another advantage of prior PED experience is that it allows them to easily acquire
lexicographical habits that fit their needs with the new language. This is the case of theinflected form lookup, an available option in recent PED models to satisfy the users need tocope with the Spanish rich verbal morphology21. Data gathered in the questionnaire showedthat this type of search was favoured by first year students even ahead of the word meaning
lookup (vid. table 2), drawing more a cliff-shaped feature acquisition process than an sshaped one22. Although its importance decreases the following years, as one would expect, it
still occupies a remarkable position in their lookup preferences in the following years,
overtaking search by combination of words or by example some years.
The means first year students declared to use in order to improve their PED usage hold
another clue as to why beginners can be so sure about their dictionary skills. On the top of thelist is “by themselves” (57%) and then “thanks to my classmates” (23%), teachers receiving
only a 9% (that is, 6 respondents). Later on, the perception of being on their own isunchallenged (65% average; 58% in forth year) but classmate influence leaves pass to anincreasing teachers presence in third and forth year (15% and 25% respectively). This was tobe foreseen because of the growing importance of reading and composition in that period, so
instructor hints about dictionary use became both more frequent and more relevant for them.
In short, the possibility of recycling old habits plus the fast, autonomous and effortless
acquisition of new ones that allowed previous acquaintance with PED, might explain no only
why PD frequency of use plummeted23 despite teachers active efforts to encourage its use, butalso the student’s overconfidence and limited prospects of progress.
Unlike them, as much as 74% of the last year students were convinced that the way theyhandle PED had changed. Growing figures about PED being used alongside other lexical
tools as well as the number of dictionary functions used seems to back up such perception24.
Another sign of user evolution was found in the nature of PED criticism. Kobayashi(2008:109) also noticed this point. She reckoned that students’ perception of PED advantages“progressed from the obvious (i.e. speed) to more subtle aspects (i.e. jump options)”. Indeed
first year student comments concentrate on the device (speed, information on screen), butfrom the second year onwards, respondents’ remarks concentrated on PED content (like thelack of a built-in monolingual or a thesaurus in Spanish) and in the last two years finereflections about the lexicographic works (misleading examples, translation accuracy)
appeared. And nevertheless, they feel they need training.
Function types remain unchanged along the four years: the first two positions are occupied byjump search and sound function, all of them with relatively small figures: an average of
56.2% students chose the former among the three most resorted functions and 49%, the latter.
Final year results witness a noteworthy raise of the jump function (62%) as well as a drop in
the frequency of use of the sound function (40%). However, the still important presence of
this function, a non-crucial Spanish learner feature, could be interpreted negatively at thispoint, as an habit inertia. Furthermore, bigger numbers in other functions like history search,
21

This function has raised some controversy. Lew (2014) foresees that it will make redundant the skill of“deciding on the appropriate form of the look-up item” and sees in this type of search the advantage of reducing
look-up failure, but some interviewed teachers loath it because they believed it hinders verb conjugationacquisition.
22
Lew (2015:7-8) proposed a s-shaped learning curve to illustrate the process of learning how to use a dictionary.
23
Kobayashi (2008) reported similar findings in her survey.
24
62% of last year students reported that they conducted more combined searches than two years ago and 74% ofthem declared using more functions.

454

only mentioned by two students, or flashcards are missed. This data resembles considerablythat of other surveys which concluded that students do not get the optimum use out of theirdictionaries.
Concerning lookup type, the slow progress towards the second place of word combination
search that table 2 describes suggests decoding-related skill improvement but the bottom
place occupied by example search points at a stagnation of encoding-related skills. Without
either a collocation dictionary or an easily accessible learner monolingual built in the PED, it
is mandatory to look at the examples provided in the bilingual dictionaries to know the usageof a word25, but not all the entries provide one and they might be displayed on a different
screen. Search by example is essential to encoding because through the accumulated
sentences students access relevant information (collocation prepositions choice, transitivity
related issues) about a word. Moreover, as the example comes with a Japanese translation, thesentence comprehension burden disappears.
With the exception of first years only, example lookup appears in last place of the students’preferences, which further illustrates the difference between knowing and using a dictionary
feature. Impossible to miss in every bilingual dictionary first screen, PED experienced user
students are well aware of it, but skip it anyway. It is likely that they are unable to interpretthe information that it contains, or fail to apply it to the writing task. It is only when facedwith the reality that their digital experience is not sufficient to fulfil their language
requirements, that they realised both their own limitation as users and the need of proper
dictionary training.
Conclusion
In this article, I have reported on the results of a questionnaire administered to learners of
Spanish as a second foreign language in Japan. Although the knowledge obtained, based on
self-reporting, can be only illustrative to a certain degree, it has been useful to notice some
general trends than might benefit future teaching. Data gathered showed that Japaneselearners of Spanish might have arrived late at the world of PEDs but are catching up fast
despite their limited range of choice. Furthermore, high PED ownership and steady if limited
frequency of use of other electronic dictionaries stood out against a shrinking PD use average.
It would therefore seem prudent for teachers to shift their first dictionary guidance towards
the electronic support accordingly.
Our learners also exhibit weaknesses found in their ESL mates like the reckless consultation
glimpsed through the excessive and long-lasting importance given to the inflected form
lookup. Also, under-exploitation of the PED’s capabilities, common to other educationalsettings, could be confirmed through the scarce use of functions like history search or therelegated position of search by example.
However, thanks to previous familiarity with PED and other digital environments, an initial
good knowledge of the device is guaranteed from the beginning of their Spanish studies. It
allows them to incorporate useful new features and lays the foundations for their usage patternin that language. Teachers can also take advantage of that situation by focussing less on themechanics of the lookup, which are already known, and more on understanding the dictionary
conventions or the component parts of the entry that might be new for them (like the noun
gender abbreviations f. and m.).
Nonetheless, as we have seen, digital experience does not assure a steady progress as users
nor does the incorporation lexicographic habits automatically equate to an improvement of theskills required for successful consultation. The students’ evolution as users is challenged by
the fact that their Spanish learning experience is not accompanied by training. Given the25

In monolingual consultation, “the most important source of information seems to be the examples rather than the
explicit gramatical information” (Chan 2012: 90)455

choices at hand, teachers should centre their efforts in skills such as deriving and applying
information from examples.
Research on electronic dictionaries from the user perspective is still incipient in Spanish, butvery much needed. In order to gain knowledge about actual dictionary use questionnaire
results like the one I have reported must be rounded up by further research using other datacollection means. Meanwhile, the teaching of reference skills should not be forgotten, andspecific training that will adjust to the Spanish learner profile should be developed.

DICTIONARY TYPE

Bilingual SpanishJapanese

Table 1 Paper dictionaries frequency of use 26
ENTRANCE YEARFRECUENCY
2014 2013 2012 20112010

Once a day

5

1

2

0

0

8

2, 3 times a week

7

0

1

4

3

15

3, 4 times a month

0

0

3

1

1

5

From time to time

2

5

4

8

3

22

Never in 6 months

5

5

5

9

4

19

13

13

22

11

Once a day

2

0

0

0

0

2

2, 3 times a week

3

3

0

0

0

6

3, 4 times a month

0

1

0

1

0

2

From time to time

2

1

1

5

1

10

Never in 6 months

8

5

8

7

8

TOTAL

Bilingual JapaneseSpanish

TOTAL

15

26

10

9

13

TOTAL

28

36
9

Last year students comprise 2011 and 2010 to include students that spent one year abroad. Data is not presented
in percentages because raw frequencies were too small.

456

Table 3 Lookup type96
LOOKUP TYPE

Meaning
1st
optionRanked in

Wordcombination

Inflected form

2nd
option1st
option2nd
option1st
optionExample2nd
option1st
option2nd
optionENTRANCE
YEAR

2014

18

22

23

12

1

2

1

2

2013

23

7

10

18

2

6

0

0

2012

29

0

3

8

0

17

0

7

2011

18

3

5

9

0

7

1

4

2010

11

0

1

4

0

6

0

3

TOTAL 1st opt.

99

42

TOTAL 2nd opt.

3

32

51

Most common 1st option

LOOKUP TYPE

38

16

Most common 2nd option

Meaning
3rd
optionRanked it2

Word
combination
3rd
4th
optionoptionInflected form

4th
option3rd
option4th
optionExample3rd
option4th
option

1

0

0

1

14

15

18

14

2013

2

0

2

4

13

10

12

15

2012

2

1

7

14

10

5

13

11

2011

0

1

3

5

13

3

7

12

2010

0

2

1

5

6

1

6

3

TOTAL 3rd opt.
TOTAL 4th opt.

5

ENTRANCE
YEAR

2014

13
4

29

Most common 3rd option

96

56

56
34

Most common 4th option

Some respondents (43 out of 202) failed to mention the preference order of each lookup type. The table only

includes the ranked answers.

457

55

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Weschler, Robert and Pitts, Chris. 2000. An experiment using electronic dictionaries with
EFL students. The Internet TESL Journal.http://iteslj.org/Articles/WeschlerElectroDict.html Accessed 6 April 2015.

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The Design of an App for Learning Chinese Idioms
Shan Wang*, Yujia Wu
The Hong Kong Institute of Education
swang@ied.edu.hk, s1114428@s.ied.edu.hk
Abstract
The effective use of Chinese idioms allows for effective communication and adds vigor to thelanguage. However, due to the richness of idioms, foreign learners encounter many difficulties ingrasping them. Unfortunately, existing resources provide limited help. First, existing printed andelectronic dictionaries have a number drawbacks in showing the information of idioms: (i) they tend tolist senses randomly; (ii) contain little or no information concerning the grammatical function (iii) theylist synonyms or antonyms in isolation. To resolve this problem, the proposed App provides richinformation concerning idiomatic language, including: (i) dynamic sense arrangements, (ii) the
frequency of grammatical functions, and (iii) the lexical semantic network. Second, the App provides
multimedia functions to enrich students' learning experience. Third, most Apps are for reference onlyand very few are designed for learning idioms. Our app is designed to have an interactive learning
environment, including (i) the self-test system, (ii) peer assessment, and (iii) online games. In sum, thenewly designed idiom-learning App can help students efficiently grasp idioms.
Keywords: App, sense, grammatical function, lexical semantic network, learning environment

1. Introduction
With the development of technology, language learners have been transforming their way oflearning (de Schryver 2003, Chen 2010, Dziemianko 2010), such as using Apps on
smartphones and tablet computing devices. Though there are some Chinese-English
dictionary Apps in App stores, their function is mainly for reference, not for learning.
Chinese idioms have deep cultural connotations and are highly generalized and expressive.
Therefore effective use of them brings convenience to communication and adds vigor to thelanguage. However, due to the richness of idioms, foreign learners encounter manydifficulties in grasping them (Liu 2013b, An & Wang 2015). This paper introduces the designof a user-friendly App for learning Chinese idioms. Compared to existing resources, thedesign has three distinctive features: (i) rich and dynamic information of idioms, (ii)multimedia functions, and (iii) interactive learning environment.
2. Related researchThis section reviews related research from three respects: semantic and syntactic functions ofidioms, printed and electronic idiom dictionaries, and lexical semantic network.
2.1 Semantic and Syntactic Functions of Idioms
It is common that learners make errors in using Chinese idioms, such as semantic, syntactic
and pragmatic errors (Zhang 1999, Yang 2011, Shi 2014). Liu (2013a) collected 77 idiom
errors from the in-class and after-class homework of Year 3 Chinese learners at Beijing
Language and Culture University. She found 16 semantic errors (20%); and 24 syntactic
errors taking up (31%). Moreover, she also examined 64 idiom errors in “HSK Dynamic
Composition Corpus”1, out of which 17% are semantic errors and 34% are syntactic errors.
The two results indicate that semantic and syntactic errors account for over half of idiom
errors. An in-depth study to the semantics and syntactic functions of idioms is essential tohelp learners reduce errors and improve the accuracy in using Chinese.

1

http://202.112.195.192:8060/hsk/login.asp

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2.2 Printed and Electronic Idiom Dictionaries
There has been an increasing number of learners who take advantage of electronic
dictionaries (EDs). Zarei and Gujjar (2012) summarized 10 disadvantages of printed
dictionaries (PDs) and 12 advantages of ED. In addition, many studies have reported thatstudents find ED beneficial and facilitative for their learning (Nesi & Haill 2002, Golonka et
al. 2014).
2.3 Lexical Semantic Network
Everyone who acquired a language has a mental lexicon. Meara (1982) and Meara (1984)
found that there might be significant differences between the mental lexicon of a second
language learner and that of a native speaker. The connections between words in learners'
mental lexicon are less stable than in native speakers; the semantic links between words inlearners' mental lexicon differ systematically from those of native speakers.
These findings reveal that second language learners have a much weaker mental lexicon
compared to native speakers. Hence, constructing a lexical semantic network throughsystematic word relations will evidently benefit second language learners to achieve theproficiency of native speakers. However, none of the existing idiom Apps has such a function.
3. The reasons of designing the App
Chinese Idioms have their historical and cultural connotations, and thus many learners arehighly interested in this area. However, many students find them difficult to learn because alarge number of them have two layers of meaning and unique cultural characteristics. In
addition, EDs are mainly for native Chinese checking senses. There is very little software
designed for student to learn idioms. To solve these problems, this paper aims to design anefficient idiom App to help students learn them.
We conducted a survey on existing PDs and EDs for idiom learning before designing the new
idiom learning App.
(1) Xu (2006):【按图索骥】àn tú suǒ jì
索：寻求。骥：好马。按照图像寻求好马。比喻办事死板，拘泥成规。也比喻按照已有的线索去寻找事物。
语本《汉书·福梅传》“察伯乐之图求骐骥于市”。郭沫若《苏联纪行·七月二十二日》：“贵族写给他宠姬的信里泄露了这项秘密……~，全部都被收获。”“骥”不读yì。
(2) Huang (2008):
按图索骥 àn tú suǒ jì【典出】明·杨慎《艺林伐山》卷七载：春秋时，秦国有个相马高人伯乐，此人根据自己多年的相马经验写了《相马经》一书并配有插图。伯乐有个愚笨的儿子，一次他决定根据书中的插图去寻找良马。刚一出门，他就看到田埂上有只大蛤蟆，额头隆起，两眼突出，酷似《相马经》中好马的样子，于是将其带回家中，并对伯乐说：“我找到了一匹好马，其头和眼如你书里的画一样，只是蹄子不同。”伯乐见后，哭笑不得，叹道：“此马好跳，不堪御也。”【典义】索：寻找。骥：骏马。按照画像去寻求好马。比喻墨守成规办事。也比喻按照线索去寻求。也作“按图索骏”。
【例句】我们按图索骥，终于发现了藏宝之处。
(3) Tan (1993):【按图索骥】an tu suo ji
指按照线索去寻找好马。也比喻办事机械，死板。to look for a steed with the aid of
its picture // to locate sth. by a plan/chart // to try to locate sth. by following up a clue //461

tosearch
for
sth.
based
on
the
hints
given
例：每见一班~者，多失于骊黄牝牡。（《葬书问对》）Things are often like this:Those who look for a steed with the aid of its picture will probably fail to recognize a
good
one,
even
differentiate
a
mare
from
a
stallion.
/
他们~，提审了严家忠，攻下了曹约翰，然后才杀回马枪找到田玉堂。（方·内）F
ollowing up one lead after another, they interrogated Yan Jiazhong, launched an attack
against John Cao, and ultimately moved in for the kill on Tian Yutang.
Regarding PDs, we surveyed three types of dictionaries: student idiom dictionaries, such asXu (2006) in (1); idiom allusion dictionaries, such as Huang (2008) in (2); bilingual
dictionaries, such as Tan (1993) in (3). Take one widely used idiom 按图索骥 àntúsuǒjì as an
example, (1) simply lists three senses followed by its sources and one example sentence. The
drawbacks are: (a) it is hard for learners to know which sense is used by the example sentence;(b) the source is shown by only one short sentence written in classical Chinese, which isdifficult for students to understand. (2) introduces the story first, followed by its senses andone example sentences. Though it has a complete story of the source, it has the drawback of(1)(a) as well. (3) has bilingual interpretation, but there is no source of this idiom and its
allusion. Moreover, the English does not match the Chinese very well. For example, theEnglish sense “to locate sth. by a plan/chart” is not in the Chinese interpretation. Vice versa.
The Chinese metaphorical meaning “也比喻办事机械，死板” is not explained in English.
Furthermore, PDs are not easy to follow the changes and get updated. They have a mono-way
of explaining the senses through listing them directly, lacking relations between them.
Therefore it is difficult for students to grasp the main meaning and understand idioms incontext.
Regarding idiom Apps, there are already some, but most are small game Apps for native
Chinese to play with idioms. There are very few Apps aimed at learning idioms and theexisting ones are in Chinese with no other language translation. Below let’s see an idiom
dictionary on Apple shown in (4): Multi-function Idiom Dictionary. Due to the large capacityof EDs, its explanation of senses and functions are much more abundant, including theEnglish translation, specific usages and sample sentences.
(4)

But there are still some shortcomings. (i) There are no rules when the App lists the senses andthus it is not conducive for students to understand and remember them. (ii) The "usage" saysthat this idiom is negative, but the sense that it lists is not negative. (iii)Though it provides
two sample sentences, it does not indicate the grammatical function of this idiom and its
frequency of use. Hence it is not contributing for students to learn how to apply the idiom. (iv)
It lists the synonyms and antonyms, but these isolated idioms are difficult for students toremember one by one.
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Therefore, designing an idiom learning App that is more scientific and efficient in helping
students learn idioms is of urgent demand.
4. Ideas of Designing an App for Learning Chinese Idioms
This section describes how to design a Chinese idiom learning App to help learners
understand and apply idioms accurately. Compared to existing resources, the design iscomprised of three key features: (i) rich and dynamic information of idioms, (ii) multimedia
functions, and (iii) interactive learning environment.
4.1 Rich Information of Idioms
The App improves idiom information in three aspects: dynamic sense arrangements,
frequency of grammatical functions, and lexical semantic network.
4.1.1 Dynamic Sense Arrangements
Many idioms not only have a literal meaning, but also always have an extended meaning. The
two are linked implicitly. Due to such features, there is a need to help students build relations
among each meaning and enable them to remember. This was our main concern whenarranging the senses. In achieving this, this App contains a dynamic sense arrangement
system for the polysemous idioms. Multiple senses can be ordered by their historicaldevelopment, logical relation and frequency.
(i) Sense Ordering by Historical Development
Polysemous idioms have a certain sequence in forming the senses, so if they are listed bychronical order, learners can clearly understand the origin and the development. Take 按图索骥 àntúsuǒjì as an example, the design is like the following: First, list its original meaning,which is interpreted literally: to look for a steed according to a picture. This is the basic layerof meaning. The story of it can also be followed by this sense. Second, the extended
meaning 1: based on the original meaning, a metaphorical meaning arises, which is analogous
to mechanical work and rigid dogma. The source of this sense can be listed below it withtranslation. Third, the extended meaning 2: this idiom has come out with another sense,
indicating find things according to the clues.
The historical development of the senses can be shown below:
1. look for a steed with the aid of its picture
2. do things rigidly
3. try to locate something. by following up a clue
For each sense, we can give examples to help students understand. The following example
shows the second extended meaning:
旅客按图索骥,尝尽香港的经典美食。(CCL)Lǚkè àntúsuǒjì, cháng jǐn xiānggǎng de jīngdiǎn měishí.
“Visitors follow the clues and taste all the classic Hong Kong cuisine.”(ii) Sense Ordering by Logical Relations
Existing dictionaries do not show the logical connection between senses. However, idioms
have holistic semantics, and thus if you can sort out the logical relation, it will help students
remember the idiom better. For example, 按图索骥 àntúsuǒjì has this logical relation:
1. look for a steed with the aid of its picture
2. do things rigidly
3. try to locate sth. by following up aclue
First, the original meaning “look for a steed with the aid of its picture” has the implicationthat such behavior is inflexible, rigid, so its ironic metaphor is that doing things rigidly.
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Second, in the original meaning, the picture is the clue of looking for the steed, so themeaning is extended to “try to locate sth. by following up a clue”, which is not negative.
(iii) Sense Ordering by the Frequency
Due to the complexity of doing sense annotation, there is no Chinese idiom dictionary that iscompiled according to the sense frequency. Among the consulted dictionaries and Apps, whenordering the senses of 按图索骥 àntúsuǒjì, most of them just introduced two senses. That is,some even do not have the third sense. These dictionaries show that the major sense is thenegative one: "doing things rigidly." But according to the corpus of "Center for Chinese
Linguistics PKU" (CCL)2, we get an unexpected results. Among a collection of 130 sentenceswith 按图索骥 àntúsuǒjì, we annotated all their senses and the result is shown in Table 1. It
shows that the most commonly used sense nowadays is the third one, which developed later
than the other two senses and it is not negative at all.
Table 1. Sense Frequency of 按图索骥 àntúsuǒjì
SensesNo.
Percentage
3
117
90.00%
2
12
9.23%
1
1
0.77%
Total
130
100.00%
Therefore, when learning idioms, if students can see the permutations of usage frequency, it
will be beneficial for them to grasp and use the idiom quickly. Furthermore, senses frequency
statistics can also help lexicographers effectively improve dictionary’s quality. In the case of按图索骥 àntúsuǒjì, they won’t say that this idiom is often negative and they do will list thethird sense.
With the three kinds of sense order available, learners can click a button to get a way thatthey want. At the very beginning, to understand the idiom, the historical order and logicalorder can be more helpful. After they know its meanings, the most important will be which
sense is used more often, and therefore the frequency order will be more useful. No matter
which way is used, showing the connection among senses is beneficial for students. Besides,
we need to mention that stories, pictures and audios are provided under each sense as well forlearners to have a better learning experience.
4.1.2 Provide the Frequency of Grammatical Functions
For the learners who learn Chinese as a second language, the main purpose of learning idioms
are not only to read and remember but also to use. Since Chinese is not their native language,
they cannot use idioms and make sentences by their language sense, but they need to use theirlearned sentence structure and grammar to apply them.
At present, although there are some idiom dictionaries that have already listed thegrammatical functions, most of them are casual. That is, only list them separately in eachselected example sentence. It has obvious disadvantages. First, whether the selected example
is representative. Second, certain grammatical functions are common but the dictionary justdid not choose such a sentence, so it is impossible to mark the function. Third, it is difficult
for students to determine which function is often used.
To avoid such problems, the idea of our design is to annotate the grammatical functions to
get the frequency information. When providing examples, select representative ones and give
more examples for the most frequent function, listing them from high to low frequency. We
annotated the grammatical functions of 130 sentences of 按图索骥 àntúsuǒjì from CCL. The
result is shown in Table 2.

2

http://ccl.pku.edu.cn:8080/ccl_corpus/

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Table 2 The Frequency of Syntactic Functions of 按图索骥 àntúsuǒjì
Syntactic functions No. Percentage
Predicate
91 70.00%
Adverbial
21 16.15%
Attribute
9
6.92%
Object5
3.85%
Subject
4
3.08%
Total
130 100.00%
Table 2 indicates that being a predicate is its main function, followed by being an adverbial
and attributive. It can occasionally be an object and subject. According to this result, whencompiling a dictionary, it is better to give priority to providing sentences with it as a predicate.
In this way, students can master the most frequent usage first. It can help students to reduce
the learning burden and have a more effective learning experience.
4.1.3 Establish the Semantic Network
Though there is no consent about the exact number of Chinese idioms, it is commonly agreed
that Chinese has a large number of them. Some recently published dictionaries collected about
15000 (Dictionary Compilation and Research Group 2014) or even 24800 (Wang 2010)
idioms. How to effectively help students memorize so many idioms? Some existing App lists
the synonyms, antonyms of an idiom, but these isolated idioms are very difficult to remember
effectively. One of the special part of our App design is to create idiom semantic network
through meaningful connections and design games to help learners consolidate them. This canenrich learners’ mental lexicon as well.
阳春三月，春光明媚，正是游玩赏花的好时节。正逢植物园开花展，只见姹紫嫣红、春意盎然。芬香扑鼻的迎春花摇曳生姿，似在欢迎客人的到来；冰肌玉骨的梅花，历经风霜，仍傲然挺立；含苞待放的海棠花，羞羞答答，不愿让人看见它的真容；又怎能少了那雍容华贵、富丽端庄、芳香浓郁的“花中之王”——牡丹。
兴致勃勃地赏完了所有娇媚的花朵，已是华灯初上，只觉不虚此行，最后恋恋不舍的离开了植物园。3
Yángchūn sān yuè, chūnguāng míngmèi, zhèngshì yóuwán shǎng huā de hǎo shí
jié.
Zhèng féng zhíwùyuán kāi huāzhǎn, zhǐ jiàn chàzǐyānhóng, chūnyì àngrán. Fēn xiāngpūbí de yíngchūnhuā yáoyè shēng zī, sì zài huānyíng kèrén de dàolái; bīng jī yù gǔ deméihuā, lìjīng fēngshuāng, réng àorán tǐnglì; hánbāo dài fàng de hǎitánghuā, xiūxiūdādá,bù yuàn ràng rén kànjiàn tā de zhēnróng; yòu zěnnéng shǎo le nà yōngróng huáguì, fùlìduānzhuāng, fāngxiāng nóngyù de “huā zhōng zhī wáng”——mǔdān. Xìngzhìbóbó deshǎng wán le suǒyǒu jiāomèi de huāduǒ, yǐ shì huádēngchūshàng, zhǐ jué bùxūcǐxíng,zuìhòu liànliànbùshě de líkāi le zhíwùyuán.
“In March of Spring, in these bright spring days, it was a good time to go sightseeing andadmire the beauty of flowers. It was just the time that the botanical garden was holding aflower exhibition. It had different color of flowers and the spring was evident
everywhere. The fragrant jasmines were swaying, like welcoming guests; the plums werelike a beauty with flesh of ice and bones of jade, weathered so many storms, but still
stand proudly; the begonia flowers were in bud, were very shy, and did not want people
to see their true faces; how can (a spring) lack the "king of flowers" -- peonies whichwere elegant and poised, richly dignified and aromatic. After (I) finished the tour withfull of enthusiasm, the colorful lights were lit. It was a worthwhile trip; finally (I) left the
botanical garden reluctantly.”3

http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/193713181.html

465

This short paragraph used many idioms to introduce a trip to a botanical garden. There aredifferent ways of connecting them in a network. For example, according to the objects theydescribe, there are (i) idioms that describe flowers: 姹紫嫣红 chàzǐyānh ng “brilliant purples
and reds”, 摇曳生姿 yáoyèshēng zī “swaying”, 傲然挺立 àorán tǐnglì “stand proudly”, 含苞
待放 hánbāo dài fàng “in bud”, 冰肌玉骨 bīng jī yù gǔ “flesh of ice and bones of jade”, 雍容华贵 yōngr ng huáguì “elegant and poised”; (ii) idioms that describe the feelings of a person:
兴致勃勃 xìngzhìbóbó“full of enthusiasm”, 恋恋不舍 liànliànbùshě “have great attachment
for ... and unable to part from …”; (iii) idioms that describe spring: 春光明媚chūnguāng
míngmèi “bright spring days”, 春意盎然chūnyì àngrán “the spring was evident everywhere”.
According to the figure of speech used, there are idioms that are used anthropomorphically,such as 冰肌玉骨 bīng jī yù gǔ “flesh of ice and bones of jade”, 雍容华贵 yōngr ng huáguì
“elegant and poised”, and idioms that have metonymy, such as 历经风霜 lìjīng fēngshuāng“weather many storms”, 华灯初上 huádēng chūshàng “the colorful lights are lit”. 风霜fēngshuāng “wind and frost” can refer to “hardships of a journey or of one's life”. 华灯初上huádēng chūshàng “the colorful lights are lit” refers to the drawing of the evening.
In our learning App, after the learner has read or listened to a small story of idioms andlearnt a few new idioms (or remind them about the idioms they have known before) within therelated semantic network, they can play some games as well. For example, (i) select theidioms that describe flowers; (ii) select the idioms that can describe a person; (iii) selectidioms that have a different meaning from the surface. Pictures can also pop up to remind
students.
Using these approaches, students are not learning one isolated idiom, they can establish asemantic network, remember this idiom and other related idioms by using astory/picture/audio. This meaningful way of learning helps them master idioms more
efficiently.
In addition to the above mentioned functions, the App also has bilingual translation, whichenables most foreign learners to easily understand the text. No matter how much Chinese they
have already learnt, anyone who is interested in idioms can use it.
4.2 Multimedia Functions
Different from the dull exhibition of PDs, EDs can have vivid multimedia functions. Since it
combines Chinese traditional knowledge with modern technology, our App is also designed toprovide students with most vivid and effective learning environment. The App applies soundand image to stimulate the auditory and visual sense of students. The vast majority of idioms
have historical allusions, so when showing them, the setting options can use comics(conditions permitting, in the form of animation) and true voice explanation in order to reacha very good learning and the memory effect. In addition, for most foreign learners, the main
purpose of learning Chinese is for oral communication. Therefore when they are learning
idioms, the App has the setting option of pronunciation, which allows students to practicepronunciation through following and imitating the reading.
4.3 Interactive Learning Environment
The learning environment is designed to allow learners set speed according to their own
arrangement, do peer assessment, and play online games. Such interactive settings makelearners self-motived and have fun in learning.
4.3.1 The Self-testing System
First, the self-testing system allows users to set self-learning speed. Students can learn
according to their own schedule and arrangement. Therefore they will not have the problem of
not being able to catch up.
Second, new idiom learning can be divided into units. There’s a self-assessment system after
each unit. The methods of assessments include: (a) choose the correct character of an idiom
by listening; (b) select a proper sense of an idiom through various hints; (c) read the allusion
and then choose the right idiom; (d) choose the right idiom to fill in the blank and complete466the sentence. Third, the system is designed to remember every error rate after a unit ofevaluation, automatically classify the wrong words, and remind students to review them.
According to the theory of Ebbinghaus Memory Curve, repeated learning helps students
remember idioms from short-term memory to long-term memory.
4.3.2 Peer Assessment(i) Online Play with Peers
With the popularity of mobile devices, students can now learn anytime and anywhere byusing an electronic device. Besides, since the internet has been ubiquitous, students can not
only study on their own, but also study together through the internet with other "players" whoare using this App at the same time.
(ii) Understand or Collect Idiom Photos
On the one hand, the App can provide photos for students to guess which idioms fit them. On
the other, "players" can take photos from real life situations that are related to the learned
idiom and then upload them. This is a very effective way to check whether the students havegrasped the meaning and the use of the idioms. For example, give students this sentence, ask
them to find out which is an idiom, and take a photo in a situation that meets its meaning.
常常是演出还没开始，广场上就已人山人海。(CCL)
Chángcháng shì yǎnchū hái méi kāishǐ, guǎngchǎng shàng jiù yǐ rénshānrénhǎi.
“It is often the case that the show has not started, (but) the square has been packed.”In addition, students can share their interesting experience in life through making sentenceswith their learned idioms. For example, one student may create this sentence:
如今，一些大型商场还在风风火火地建，不能不叫人担心。(CCL)
Rújīn, yīxiē dàxíng shāngchǎng hái zài fēngfēnghuǒhuǒ de jiàn, bùnéng bù jiào rén
dānxīn.
“Now, some shopping malls are still rushed to be built; people cannot help but worry.”
Other learners can then leave their comments under this sentence and communicate with eachother. Such design means that learners can chat and interact with each other. This is a waythat largely stimulate students’ motivation for using the idioms.
4.3.3 Online GamesThe setting of games is also very important. In our App, the idiom learning games can bearranged after each unit for the purpose of reviewing and consolidating what students havelearned. After several units, it can have a review section. In addition, learners can still use thedouble or multiplayer mode, so that they can compete with each other to promote learning.

5. Conclusions
The Chinese idiom learning App in this study was designed to be based on both the features of Chinese
idiom and the drawbacks of existing resources. The study focuses on three issues: whether there isenough useful idiom information, whether there are multimedia functions, and whether there isinteractive learning environment.
Regarding useful information of idioms, this App aims to enable learners (i) to grasp the senses throughdifferent relations and choose the most suitable one for them (historical development, logical relation,
frequency), (ii) to learn the most common grammatical function of an idiom first, and (iii) to establish asemantic network through learning related idioms in a meaningful paragraph. All these will have
Chinese-English translations. Regarding multimedia functions, this App enables audio-video functions
to enrich learning experience. Regarding the interactive learning environment, it is built in by selftesting system, peer assessment function and online games, which combine the new media and idiom
study together. The study of these new functions makes this idiom-learning App a use-friendly,interesting and effective one, and can help a learner of Chinese as a second language grasp idioms moreeasily.
* Corresponding author.

467

Acknowledgement: This research is supported by the start-up research grant of The Hong Kong
Institute of Education. The reference number is RG 71/2014-2015R.

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Production and the Retention of Meaning and Collocations. International Journal of
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Technologies for foreign language learning: a review of technology types and theireffectiveness. Computer Assisted Language Learning 27 (1). pp.70-105.
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教学方法研究: 以《汉语教程》为例). Shijiazhuang: Hebei Normal University.
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Meara, Paul. 1984. The study of lexis in interlanguage. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Nesi, Hilary & Richard Haill. 2002. A study of dictionary use by international students at a British
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Shi, Lin. 2014. On the Formation of Errors and Mistakes in Chinese Idioms Made by Foreign Students(留学生汉语成语偏误成因分析). Journal Beijing University of Chemical Technology (Social
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468

An Electronic English Frequency Dictionary of Age Groups
LI Hanhong John
The Open University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
typetoken@gmail.com
Abstract
Age has been an important factor in linguistic studies, especially in second language acquisition,
psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics. Previous researches show a pattern of the relative frequency ofusing vernacular or nonstandard linguistic forms in different age groups: the frequency of vernacularforms are high in childhood and adolescence, steadily reduced in middle age, and gradually increaseagain in old age (Holmes 2013, Downes 1998). This indicates that age plays an important role inchoosing different styles of words. For English learners of foreign or second language, it is vital toknow a word’s stylistic features and usage. In order to capture how words are used in different age
groups of native speakers, the current research makes full use of the age group information in thecorpora of BNC XML (2007), CHILDES (2003), LCCPW(1996), POW (1984) to build up a balanced
Age Group Corpus of 6-million-word tokens. This corpus is composed of six sub-sections, each
representing one of the six age groups: Ag0 (aged 0-14), Ag1 (aged 15-24), Ag2 (aged 25-34), Ag3(aged 35-44), Ag4 (aged 45-59), and Ag5 (aged 60+). For each word type in the corpus, the following
information will be computed: its distributed frequency in different age groups, its total frequency inthe whole corpus, its range (how many sub-sections of a corpus a word appears in), and its dispersion
index (D-Value) and usage efficiency (U-value) (Carroll 1970). All of this information will be
displayed in the shape of bar charts for English learners to explore each word’s stylistic usage in
different age groups. Such a dictionary will not only provide one more approach to distinguish English
synonyms but also examples for studying the relation between age and language in sociolinguistics.
Keywords: frequency dictionary, distributed frequency, age group, corpus and style

Introduction
With the development of computational lexicography, corpora have become an indispensable
source in building a variety of dictionaries especially English learner’s dictionaries andfrequency dictionaries. Word frequency information has been used to select headwords anddefining vocabulary, order senses, and decide collocation, core vocabulary and language
style. The richer metalinguistic information (i.e. text types, genres, author and speaker’ age,gender, social background) is annotated in the header of a corpus file, the higher possibility
we can research into the relation between word frequency and these metalinguistic factors.
Distributed frequency, which computationally measures how a word is dispersed in different
sections of a corpus, contributes to a deeper understanding of the lexical property of a word
(Li 2013). Distributed frequency and dispersion index of a word in different sections of a
corpus have been used to build frequency dictionaries (Davies and Gardner 2010).
Distributed frequency combined with other factors such as text genres and writers andspeakers’ age have been used to select better core vocabulary for learners (Li 2010, Li 2011,
Li & Fang 2011). Furthermore, distributed frequency of a word in different genres can help todistinguish the differences between synonyms in terms of style (Li 2010).
In addition, age has been an important factor in linguistic studies, especially in second
language acquisition, psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics. Previous researches show apattern of the relative frequency of using vernacular or nonstandard linguistic forms in
different age groups: the frequency of vernacular forms are high in childhood andadolescence, steadily reduced in middle age, and gradually increase again in old age (Holmes
2013, Downes 1998).

469

Making use of the previous study of distributed frequency, the current study attempts tocombine age information tagged in corpora and a word’s frequency in different age groups soas to build an Electronic Frequency Dictionary of Age Groups. With this new dictionary, weoffer a database for English learners to explore how a word is used in different age groups interms of stylistics and sociolinguistics.
Age and vocabulary style
Will speakers of different age-grading show preference to different styles of words? Downes(1998) found a relationship between the use of vernacular forms and age as displayed in thefollowing figure.

Figure 1 Relationship between use of vernacular forms and age
Source: Reproduced from Downes (1998: 191).
The figure suggests the relative frequency of vernacular forms used in different age groups(Holmes 2013). People in childhood and adolescence tend to use more vernacular forms oflanguage. When they are approaching middle age, the use of vernacular forms drops “whensocietal pressure to conform is greatest” (Holmes 2013: 177). “Vernacular usage gradually
increases again in old age as social pressures reduce, with people moving out of theworkforce and into a more relaxed phase of their lives” (177).
This sociolinguistic model indicates that speakers of different age groups prefer different
linguistic forms including different styles of words.
Aims
Inspired by the above sociolinguistic theory of language style and age, this research aims tobuild an Electronic English Frequency Dictionary of Age Groups with the help of modern
English corpora. English learners can use this dictionary to explore how a word is frequently
used by different age groups. In this case, we can study how a word is preferred by different
age groups, and how the factor of age influences the usage of a word. Such a dictionary will
not only provide one more approach to distinguish English synonyms but also examples forstudying the relation between age and language in sociolinguistics.

Construction of Age Group Corpus
In order to build the Frequency Dictionary of Age Groups, we need to build a corpus
according to the factor of age. According to the annotation of authors’ and speakers’ age
470information in the header of corpora, we tried to select corpus files and build a balanced AgeGroup Corpus.
BNC XML and Age Group“The British National Corpus (BNC) is a 100 million word collection of samples of written
and spoken language from a wide range of sources, designed to represent a wide cross-sectionof British English from the later part of the 20th century, both spoken and written” (Burnard2009). Since BNC headers offer the tagging of age group information for each writer andspeaker, it offers an opportunity to sum up the vocabulary usage according to age groups.
The vocabulary summary according to age groups in BNC XML (2007) is as follows:
Table 1 Word tokens of each age group in the whole BNC XML (Li & Fang 2011: 163)

Based on the above information, a program was compiled to select corpus files randomly
from different age groups of BNC XML. For each age group, it aims to collect written textsof half a million tokens and spoken texts of half a million tokens. The result is as follows:
Table 2 Word tokens sampled from each age group of the BNC XML (Li & Fang 2011: 163)

In this step, we have built up subcopora of The Age Group Corpus for the following age
groups in BNC XML: Ag1 (aged 15-24), Ag2 (aged 25-34), Ag3 (aged 35-44), Ag4 (aged 4559), Ag5 (aged 60+). Each age group contains 1 million tokens, half of which are spoken
tokens and the other half written tokens.
However, for Ag0 (aged 0-14), BNC XML does not have enough data to build up a 1-milliontoken sub-corpus. Therefore, extra corpus files are needed.
Supplementary Corpora for Ag0
For the Ag0 in BNC XML, we combine it with other corpus data so as to collect texts of 1
million words for Ag0 (aged 0-14). We include all words from the Polytechnic of Wales
Corpus (POW 4 , Souter 1989). In addition, we include words from the following threecomponents of the British English Corpora in the Child Language Data Exchange System
4

The Edited POW can be downloaded here after application http://ota.ox.ac.uk/desc/1514

471

(CHILDES, MacWhinney 2000): the Howe sub-corpus (Howe 1981), the Manchester subcorpus (Theakston, Lieven, Pine & Rowland 2001) and the Wells sub-corpus (Wells 1981).
The composition of the first age group (Ag0) can be summed up as follows:
Table 3 Composition of the first age group (Ag0) in the Age Group Corpus (Li & Fang 2011:164)

Age Group Corpus
With BNCXML and the supplementary corpora, we finally collect all the needed corpus datafor constructing a balanced Age Group Corpus. The composition of this corpus can besummed up as follows:
Table 4 Composition of the Age-Group Corpus (Li & Fang 2011: 165)

In this corpus, there are 1 million tokens for each age group. Basically, it is a balanced corpus
of spoken and written language, containing around 6 million words.

Data processing for the Frequency Dictionary of Age Groups
For the established Age Group Corpus, we compute each word type’s frequency in each age
group, its range, total frequency, coverage, dispersion index (D-Value) and usage efficiency(U-value) (Carroll 1970).

Figure 2 Computation of the Frequency Dictionary of Age Groups
Hw=headword
472

frqAg0=frequency in Age Group (0-14)
frqAg1=frequency in Age Group (15-24)
frqAg2=frequency in Age Group (25-34)
frqAg3=frequency in Age Group (35-44)
frqAg4=frequency in Age Group (45-59)
frqAg5=frequency in Age Group (60+)
FrqSum=total frequency
C=coverage
CC=cumulative coverage
D = Dispersion Index by John Carroll (1970)
U = Usage Efficiency by John Carroll (1970)
Dispersion index (D) can indicate how widely a word is distributed. If a word occurs in eachage group, D will be 1. If a word occurs in only one age group, D will be 0. Carroll’s Usage
Efficiency (U) is another parameter to measure how widely a word is distributed in different
age groups in our research. It not only considers a word’s total frequency in a corpus but also
its frequency distributed in different corpus sections (Carroll 1970).
The formula of calculating Carroll’s D and U is as follows: (Carroll 1970: 63)

Data visualization and electronic frequency dictionary of age groups
In order to build the Electronic English Frequency Dictionary of Age Groups5, the computed
data in Figure 2 will be visualized into different bar charts and embedded with a searchfunction via Tableau software6. For example, Figure 2 shows how funny appears in different
age groups. According to the search result of the dictionary, R (Range) is 6 and D (dispersion
index) is 0.96, which indicate that funny is a word widely used by different age groups.
According to the frequency distributed in each group, funny tends to be used more frequently
among young people. Its frequency continues to drop when speakers grow older. This word is5This Electronic English Frequency Dictionary of Age Groups is available online
https://sites.google.com/site/typetoken/home/english-frequency-dictionary
6
Tableau software http://get.tableau.com/trial/473

most frequently used by people of Ag0 (aged 0-14) . It might tell us that children andteenagers tend to be happier and have more funny things.

Figure 3. Electronic Frequency Dictionary of Age Groups

Application of the electronic Frequency Dictionary of Age Groups
In order to test the newly built Electronic Frequency Dictionary of Age Groups, we apply it to
the following aspects: 1) to identify typical words in certain age group, 2) to distinguishsynonyms, 3) to find sociolinguistc patterns.
Typical words in certain age group
We search piggy in the dictionary and its distributed frequency in different age groups is
displayed in Figure 4. Judging from the search result, it is obvious that piggy is mostfrequently used in age group Ag0 (aged 0-14). This indicates that piggy is a typical word usedamong children.

474

Figure 4 Distributed frequency of piggy
Differences between synonyms
We try to explore whether the dictionary can help learners to distinguish synonyms. We test
the dictionary by searching get and obtain. The results are displayed in Figure 5 and Figure 6.
Figure 5 indicates that obtain, as a formal word, is used less frequently in Ag0 (aged 0-14),
Ag1(aged 15-24) and Ag2(aged 25-34) while it is most frequently used in Ag3(35-44),
Ag4(aged 45-59) and Ag5(aged 60+). It matches the sociolinguistic pattern discussed in
section 2. Speakers at middle age tend to use more formal form. Obtain is more formal thango. Moreover, it is acquired at an elder age in the language development.

475

Figure 5 Distributed frequency of obtain476

Figure 6 Distributed Frequency of get
Figure 6 shows that get is a common word, frequently used by different age groups.

Sociolinguistic pattern for vocabulary use
As pointed out in section 2, young speakers tend to use more vernacular or non-standard formof language, and as they grow older they tend to use more standard form due to socialpressure. We try to search swearing words such as shit and damn in the Electronic Frequency
Dictionary of Age Groups with result displayed in Figure 7 and Figure 8. It turns out thatthese informal and swearing words are much more frequently used by youngsters in Ag0 (014), Ag1 (15-24) and Ag2 (25-34) than the middle aged people, Ag3 (35-44) and Ag4 (4559). Middle-aged people tend to use more standard form or formal form of language. One
reason is that they need to conform to social pressure. When employed, they pay more
attention to their language style and try to conform to social norms. If they are parents ofchildren, they pay attention to their language style and using swearing words will be bad
examples for their children. The Electronic Frequency Dictionary of Age Groups thus helps
us to understand better how a word is used in different age groups due to sociolinguistic
factors.

477

Figure 7 Distributed Frequency of shit

478

Figure 8 Distributed frequency of damnConclusion
The Electronic Frequency Dictionary of Age Groups makes full of modern corpora,computational method and sociolinguistic theories. It can show how a word’s frequency is
distributed in different age groups. It offers a possibility for a learner to identify typical words
used by certain age group, and contrast the differences of synonyms by observing how they
are used among different age groups. Moreover, it can be used as a database forsociolinguistic studies to find out the relation between a word usage and social factors.
Due to the limitation of only one-million tokens in each age group, the frequency of somewords is low in each age group. With the development to modern corpora and moreannotation of age information in headers, it is hoped that a better version will be available.
References
BNC XML. 2007. The British National Corpus XML Edition DVD. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Burnard, Lou. 2009. What is BNC? Oxford Text Archive.
http://www.natcorp.ox.ac.uk/corpus/index.xml. Access 25 May 2015.
Carroll, John. B. 1970. An alternative to Juilland's Usage Coefficient for lexical frequencies
and a proposal for a Standard Frequency Index (SFI). Computer Studies in the Humanities
and Verbal Behavior 3: 61–65.

479

CHILDES. 2003. Child Language Data Exchange System. http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/.
Accessed 1 Feb 2015.
Davies, Mark and Dee Gardner. 2010. A frequency dictionary of contemporary American
English: word sketches, collocates, and thematic lists. London: Routledge.
Downes, William. 1998. Language and society 2nd . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Holmes, Janet. 2013. An introduction to sociolinguistics 4th. London: Pearson.
Howe, Christine. 1981. Acquiring language in a conversational context. New York:
Academic Press.
Li, Hanhong. 2010. Word frequency distribution for electronic learners' English dictionaries.
In Elexicography in the 21st Century: New Challenges, New Applications, ed. ,Sylviane
Granger and Magali Paquot, 217-228. Cahiers du CENTAL, Louvain-la-Neuve: Presses
Universitaires de Louva.
Li, Hanhong. 2011. A computational approach to English core vocabulary based on the
British National Corpus. PhD Thesis. City University of Hong Kong.
Li, Hanhong. 2013. The correlation between lexical core index, age-of-acquisition, familiarity
and imageability. In 7th International Corpus Linguistics Conference CL2013: 167-171.
Lancaster: UCREL, Lancaster University.
Li, Hanhong and Alex Fang. 2011. Age tagging and word frequency for learner’s dictionaries.
In Corpus-based studies in language documentation, use, and learning, eds. John Newman,
Sally Rice, and Harald Baayen, 157-173. Amsterdam: Rodopi Press.
LCCPW. 1996. The Lancaster Corpus of Children's Project Writing.
http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/projects/lever/index.htm. Accessed 1 Feb 2015.
MacWhinney, Brian. 2000. The CHILDES project: tools for analyzing talk (3rd ed.). Mahwah,(NJ): Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
POW. 1989. The Polytechnic of Wales Corpus. http://clu.uni.no/icame/manuals/POW.HTM.
Accessed 1 Feb 2015.
Souter Clive. PoW Corpus Manual 1989. http://clu.uni.no/icame/manuals/POW.HTM.
Accessed 25 May 2015.
Theakston, Anna L., Elena V. M. Lieven, Julian M. Pine & Caroline F. Rowland (2001), ‘The
role of performance limitations in the acquisition of verb-argument structure: an alternative
account’. Journal of child language, 28: 127-152.
Wells, Gordon. 1981. Learning through interaction: the study of language development.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

480

LINE Dictionary: More than a dictionary
Tae-hoon Lee and Eun-joo Jeon
NAVER Co. Ltd, South Korea
paper.smell@navercorp.com and eunjoo.jeon@navercorp.com
Abstract
Due to the technical development of Internet and mobile phones, foreign learners, interpreters, andtranslators are able to use dictionaries with their PCs and smart phones easily. Since 1999, NAVER
launched NAVER Dictionary for Korean users, now servicing dictionaries of 31 languages and 11
million headwords through PC Web, Mobile Web, Mobile APP, etc. currently in March, 2015. Withvarious contents and experiences accumulated for 15 years, NAVER launched LINE Dictionary APP
in 2014 for Chinese, Thai, and Indonesian users by cooperating with LINE. LINE Dictionary not only
provides reliable dictionary contents with the most advantages of online dictionary, but also nativespoken word audio, self-developed TTS (Text to Speech), Translator, and word-learning program
Words Up to make users easily learn languages. Beyond simple dictionary search service, LINE
Dictionary presents comprehensive service model that can satisfy language learners, interpreters, andtranslators by sending a variety of helpful daily contents such as Today’s Expression, Quotes/Proverbs,
and Grammars through LINE messenger for language study.
Keywords: LINE DICTIONARY, translator, words up, mobile app, language learning

1. Naver Dictionary
Since 1999, NAVER has provided the service of NAVER Dictionary through PC Web,
Mobile Web, Apps. As of May 1, 2015, it is servicing 11 million headwords of 31 languages
currently, and for the month of April 2015, it reached 11 million monthly UB (Uniquebrowsers) and 300 million page views. Almost 50% of them were English-Korean Dictionary.
In addition, Multilingual Translator/Interpreter, Multilingual phrasebook, user-participatingtranslation, Word Study and Quiz services, etc. have also been getting positive reviews fromthe users.
It has been decided to develop and manage dictionary service targeting global users with theaccumulated contents and experience earned from NAVER Dictionary as a base. Under the
globally familiar brand name of LINE Dictionary, it released English-Indonesian dictionary
service in June, 2014, and English-Thai dictionary service in October, 2014. Then, it
combined nciku Chinese-English dictionary that was running from 2007 with LINE
Dictionary.

481

Figure 1 apple of Naver English Dictionary

Table 1. Naver Dictionaries
Dictinoary
KoreanEnglishHanzi
Japanese
ChineseVietnameseIndonesianThai
ArabicCambodian
Mongolian
Hindi
Persian
Swahili
FrenchSpanishHeadwords
522964
5,134,445
398,533
582,730
1,854,884
112,819
73,19490,573
21,991
9,339
16,89340,801
31,69915,4701,624,388
429,943

Dictinoary
Italian
Portuguese
Georgian
Ukrainian
Rumanian
SwedishPolishGermanRussian
Latin
TurkishAlbanian
Uzbek
Dutch
Hungarian
Czech

Headwords
85504
170,210
15,848
16,68134,802
71,70933,070203,643414,683
42,89913,42012,231
36,468
121,393
57,922
26,433

2. LINE Dictionary
2.1 About LINE
LINE has been serviced worldwide with the mobile messenger app, and it is deriving a lot ofinterests from Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries
especially. Apart from being a messenger app, LINE has been operating various Family Apps
that are useful to the mobile users such as LINE Dictionary, LINE TV, LINE Webtoon, LINE
SHOP, LINE Antivirus, LINE Camera, etc.
482

Requests from Southeast Asian users for the Dictionary App
In order to plan the features and build contents for the LINE Dictionary, in-depth Interviews
with 14 people were done in Hanoi, Vietnam, Bangkok, Thailand, and Jakarta, Indonesia fromJanuary 1st to 18th, 2014. We selected the interviewees who were university
students/postgraduate students/office workers learning English, using the Dictionary App,studying English more than three hours a week and using Dictionary App more than threetimes a week. We asked interviewees to sort 41 cards related to Dictionary App features inorder of importance and then recorded their opinion regarding usage of Dictionary applicationin detail while showing them the prototypes of LINE Dictionary. The common importantfactors that interviewees picked follows:
Contents
Number of headwords
Example sentences and translations of various fields
Learning information such as phonetic alphabets (International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA),
conjugated forms, thesaurus, etc.
Learning contents such as expressions, wise saying, etc.
Features
Translator
Offline app support
Auto-completion of searched words
Listening to the native audio pronunciation
Enabling to search the conjugated forms support
Learning function support such as memorizing words, sentences, etc.

In particular, for the functions, there were lots of requests regarding offline app support due topoor Internet and mobile infrastructure environment and also there were high demand forwillingness towards combining translator and Dictionary Apps in one.
In addition, overwhelming demand for offline support and translator was observed throughthe results of online surveys conducted with 4,500 LINE Dictionary Indonesian users on
September 16, 2014.

Figure 2 LINE Dictionary online survey. 2015.

483

Therefore, we have planned LINE Dictionary to solve those users’ requests of using
dictionary search, translator, learn foreign language at once and has been getting positive
reviews from the users.
2.3 LINE Dictionary Contents
LINE Dictionary has been providing English-Indonesian, English-Thai, and Chinese-English
dictionary services from June 2014. It started with the mobile app service but also released PC
Web, Mobile Web versions to use seamlessly in a variety of environments.
Table 2 LINE Dictionaries
Dictinoary
English-Chinese
Chinese-English
English-IndonesianIndonesian-English
English-Thai
Thai-English

Headwords
1,479,194
1,364,251
159,935
55,80
142,673
51,132

Example Sentences
7,191,803
7,248,847
7,299,329

Audio Files
65,305
240,416
58,69340,447It had also been providing dictionaries such as SE-ED and Oxford with high reliability andallows users to search a simple meaning on the offline status. It has been planned to get the
headwords from research center and publishing company which have public confidence, andlatest Internet open dictionary continuously and update.

Figure 3 Support simple meaning search on the offline
Apart from main dictionary, it provides various contents that are helpful in learning foreign
languages such as today’s expression, wise saying/proverb, quiz, etc. and they are getting
positive reviews from the users. Also, listening to the American/British English pronunciationof native speakers, and listening to the standard Chinese pronunciation are essential contents
using dictionary.

484

Figure 4 Variety of learning contents such as Today’s expression, wise saying, quiz, etc.
LINE Dictionary Features
2.4.1. Auto-Completion (Supports offline mode)
It supports the auto-completion feature that recommends relevant search results if users only
type the part of the word to search. In addition, user can check out the main meaning of theword and the phonetic information on the auto-completion result page and it also operated on
the offline mode so users can use it more conveniently.
2.4.2 Phonetic Search
User can search the word by phonetic search even if users do not know the exact spelling of
the English words.

Figure 5 Auto-complete, Phonetic search
2.4.3 Pop-up Dictionary
If users touch the word that used on the example sentence, user can see the meaning of theword from the pop-up dictionary so users do not have to jump to another screen.
2.4.4 Example Sentence Search and User Participated Translation
It provides the example sentence search so it allows users to see the various examples of
specific word and can get the help for the writings. Also users can participate in translation
and upload the translated sentences if there are no translated ones.

485

Figure 6 Pop-up Dictionary, Example sentence search

2.4.5 Translator
It includes self-developed translator so users can use both dictionary search and translate thesentence together. In order to improve the translation quality, we are continuously looking forthe good example sentence source and improving the translator by reviewing the users’translated results every day.
2.4.6 Words Up Program for the Word Study
Users can seize on the words searched from LINE Dictionary through the Words Up function.
All the words that users searched are stored in Words Up, and if the users run the Words Up,
the variety of programs like revise, arrange words in order, selecting best word, etc. will beavailable to memorize and understand the words best. It also sends push-alarm periodically to
encourage users to study words continuously.
Words Up allows users to study words with the words that LINE Dictionary prepared apartfrom the words that users searched and it is planned to expand as a better program through thepartnership with other publishing companies later.

Figure 7 “Words Up” Learning Program

3. Conclusion
We have created LINE Dictionary in a situation of wondering how to make everyone satisfied
as the dictionary users have been gradually decreasing and translator users have been getting
increased. Finally, we have developed LINE Dictionary that allows users to have dictionary,486

translator, and study functions in one app through the results derived from user interviews andsurveys, and it has been getting positive reviews from the users.
Obviously the functions and contents as a Dictionary App basically will be improved and wewill try to propose the model of digital dictionary in the upcoming future.

References
Vitayapirak, Jirapa. 2013. Mobile dictionary user and the design of an electronic bilingual
dictionary on mobile phones for Thai users. Proceedings of ASIALEX 2013: 115-118.
Kamus Inggris (Kamusku): Available athttps://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dridev.kamusku
LEXiTRON Thai-English Electronic Dictionary: Available at
http://lexitron.nectec.or.th/2009_1
LINE Dictionary Introduction: Available at http://linedict.naver.com/about LONGDO Dict:
Available at http://dict.longdo.com/
NAVER Dictionary: Available at http://dic.naver.com/

487

Spelling Variation Problem in Persian:
Automatic Development of a Spelling Database for a Digital
Dictionary
Saghar Sharifi
Karaj Branch, Islamic Azad University, Karaj, Iransaghar.sharifi@kiau.ac.ir
Marziye Sanaati
Research Center of Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization, Tehran, Iranmsanaati20@gmail.com
Masood Ghayoomi
Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
masood.ghayoomi@fu-berlin.de
Abstract:
In developing digital dictionaries, data-driven approaches are given a particular attention whose
advantages being their easily updating and reusability for other advanced language processing
applications. In corpus linguistics, when there are different spellings of words in the texts, the task
would be difficult, because the search result of one particular word in the corpus without taking its
spelling variations into consideration might be incomplete. This problem is severe in Persian and ispartly rooted in the nature of the Persian alphabet in terms of joined-up writing and space application,
the Hamzeh character and its base, among others, and partly due to its phonological and morphologicalproperties, all of which leading to the appearance of ambiguous forms.
This paper aims at proposing a data-driven model to develop a database that contains the spellingvariations of a word in the corpus along with their relevant frequencies to represent the degree of theagreement among the native speakers to spell a word. In our proposed method, we conduct a weighted
algorithm using the Levenstein distance to find various spellings of a word in the Persian corpus via
assigning low weight to particular characters that are substituted or inserted. The prepared data is
manually error-analyzed to find the ambiguous cases. Towards the goal, we also propose to classify thespelling variations into orthographic and morpho-phonological classes.
Keywords: the Persian Language, Spelling Variation, Corpus Linguistics, Classification, Spelling
Database, the Levenstein distance

1. Introduction
Writing is a medium through which language is represented via using graphic signs andsymbols. It is a complement to speech and is a system that should be acquired. Although
Persian is an Indo-European Language, it uses the Arabic Alphabet, also called Perso-Arabic,
which is a modified version of Arabic script.
The Persian alphabet, has four letters more than Arabic, namely ''‫ ژ‬/ž/, ' '‫پ‬/p/, ' '‫چ‬/č/, and '‫'گ‬/g/ .Moreover, some letters in the Persian Alphabet have a different sound from their Arabic
counterpart. For instance, in Arabic, '‫ 'ط‬represents the pharyngealized dental stop, while in
Persian, it represents the same phoneme as ''‫ت‬, i.e. the dental stop.
The specific properties of the Persian script bring about difficulties in writing Persian in suchas way that Moshiri (1997: 9) argues that there is hardly anyone who has not been in trouble
with the Persian spelling. The inconsistency in Persian writing is a major factor giving rise tovarious spelling forms for words. This is found in written texts, both formal and informal,
488

such as novels, textbooks, business correspondence, the press and in short text messages aswell. Researchers and those having a hand in writing Persian have much discussed the
problem and referred to the points which are mainly orthographic. In order to solve some ofthese problems in the field of studying the Persian language, we need to have access to a
corpus which is not biased. Creating such a corpus gathered from different linguistic sources,
we should meet the challenges: determining word-internal boundary, different writing styles,
use of some specific Arabic letters and Latin alphabet in Persian texts, to name a few(Ghayoomi et al 2010).
In this paper, we investigate the automatic development of a spelling database as a dictionary
from a new perspective. Then, we propose a fine-grained classification of the factors leading
to spelling variation. Furthermore, we aim at organizing the data as a database to be analyzed
and used in language teaching, corpus linguistics, and various computational linguistics
applications.
This paper contains six sections. In Section 2, we refer to the previous studies in the field.
Section 3 introduces the corpora, and the method used in our research is described in Section
4. In Section 5, the classification of the factors giving rise to the spelling variation is
explained, and additionally, we discuss the analysis of the data. And finally, the paper ends
with concluding remarks in Section 6.
2. Review of literature
Spelling variation in Persian has been much discussed in the literature. Moshiri (1997: 9)
regards spelling problem a prevailing one even among the educated. She refers to invasion offoreign spelling, especially Arabic, into Persian and the existence of homophones in the
Persianlanguage,thewords''‫قالب‬/qāleb/'mould'and''‫ غالب‬/qāleb/ 'conqueror', as an example.
Nasri (1936), Ashuri (1987), Tayyeb (1993), AmirJanloo (2003), Eftekhari (2006) and
Mortezayi (2002) have discussed the most important points about the spelling problem in
Persian which are described as follows:a) In Persian writing, short vowels (/a/, /e/ and /o/) and gemination ( ّ) are not shown in thealphabet. This may allow different readings of a word. For example, the form ''‫ در‬might beread either /dar/ 'door' or /dorr/ 'pearl'.
b) In some cases, one phoneme is represented with more than a grapheme and vice versa. For
instance, /t/ is represented both with ''‫ ت‬and 'sa atu tsIo i ta ebnonI Inac tI .'‫ 'و' ط‬that
represents both the consonant /v/ and the vowels /u/ and /o/.
c) Sometimes for the letter '‫'آ‬, which represents the glottal stop word-initially, the tilde ( ˜ ) is
not written on Alef ( ‫) ا‬, consequently two word forms for one Inac tI ,dess i wi eliw' '‫آبان‬'‫ 'ابان‬tuw /ʔābān/ 'name of the 8th month'.
d) Hamzeh (‫)ء‬, the letter signifying the glottal stop, may be written on various bases. This
results in to have various word forms for one, such as '‫ 'مسؤول‬and '‫ 'مسئول‬/masʔul/'responsible'.
e) Letters have different shapes with respect to the position they appear, at the beginning of aword, in the middle, or at the end. For example, /g/ is represented by ''‫ ﮔ‬word-initially and ''‫ﮓ‬
word-terminally, as in/ '‫ 'ﮔل‬gol/ 'flower' or ' /at b/ '‫'مرگ‬death'. There are also some lettersthat join their adjacent letters from both sides, while others join only from the right (See
Section 5.1.1 for the examples).
489

f) In some words, there might be a letter which is not pronounced. In ''‫ خواستن‬/xāstan/ 'want',
for instance, the letter ''‫ و‬is not pronounced.
g) At times, complex words are written continuously in a flowing line without following a
logical rule. For instance, /mišavad/ 'becomes' can be written in three forms: joined-up as'‫'میشود‬, disjoined with a white space as'‫'می شود‬, and disjoined with pseudo-space, as '‫'میشود‬.
h) Some Arabic words and expressions have entered Persian texts with their own native
spelling, such as' '‫حتیاالمکان‬/hattalʔemkan/ 'as far as possible'.
i) In the Persian alphabet, some diacritics are used to make a distinction among some letters.
This leads to the similarity of some of these letters, such as '‫ 'ر‬/r/, '‫ 'ز‬/z/, '‫ 'ژ‬/ž/ and ' ,/č/ '‫ 'چ‬,/j/ '‫ج‬./x/ '‫ 'خ‬,/c/ '‫ 'ح‬tuw
Sadeghi and Zandi Moghadam (2006) studied different styles in writing simple and derived
words, such as'/ '‫ جدائی‬/ ‫ جدایی‬/ ‫جدای‬jodāʔi/jodāyi/ 'separation', and they refer to lack of uniformity in joinedup writing and space application in complex words as in '/ '‫تجارتخانه‬tejārat-xāne/ 'commercial
office' and/ '‫ 'چاپخانه‬čāpxāne/ 'printing house'. They address the problem to the difference
between Arabic and Persian scripts and believe that the Academy of the Persian Language
plays a leading role in unifying different writing styles (Sadeghi and Zandi Moghadam, 2006:5-8). Besides the Academy of the Persian Language, other institutions, for instance Iran
University Press, have much contributed the case through publishing style guides (Sami’i
Gilani, 1988).
In addition, several papers have been written on studying the challenges and introducing
automatic methods to resolve the orthographical problems in a Persian corpus created fromthe Web, among which Ghayoomi et al (2010) could be mentioned.
As can be seen, much of what is reviewed focus on orthographic properties of the Persian
writing system. In this study, we aim at presenting a new classification via investigating thefactors causing the spelling variation. To this end, we use a data oriented approach that is
discussed in the next section.
3. The corpora investigated
In a data driven approach, a corpus is required. To this end, we gather a collection of datafrom three corpora. The BijanKhan Corpus 7 (BijanKhan 2004) contains 2.5 million word
tokens and it is accessible online for free. Produced by the Research Center of Intelligent
Signal Processing 8 , this corpus constitutes a subsidiary of a larger one with 100 million
words. It is comprised of various formal written texts in which the words have been tagged
both semantically and morpho-syntactically.
The second corpus is the Persian Language Dependency Treebank 9 (Rasooli et al 2013)
created by Dadegan Group10. It contains over 500,000 words and can be accessed online forfree. The corpus is well- balanced with a good textual variety. In addition to POS tags,
syntactic structure of the sentences has been given.
7
8
9
10

http://ece.ut.ac.ir/dbrg/bijankhan/
http://www.jsdp.rcisp.ac.ir
http://dadegan.ir/catalog/perdt
http://www.dadegan.ir490

Talkbank is another corpus with a volume of over 500 million words gathered from Persian
websites and blogs. This data set is collected by the research group of Schlomo Argamon at
the Illinois Institute of Technology11. The advantage of this corpus comparing to the othercorpora is that the data is user- generated and is the outcome of the interaction between theuser and the Web. As a result, unlike the other two, it has the variety of register and style andis far from being standard.
4. Computational method used to find the spelling variations
As mentioned in Section 1, we aim to provide a framework for identifying spelling variation
which is a big challenge in corpus creation and corpus linguistics in Persian. To do this, we
propose a computational method and also a new classification. Ghayoomi et al (2015) haveintroduced an extended version of the Levenstein Distance algorithm (Levenstein 1966) toautomatically extract those variations from the integrated corpora. Using the algorithm, one
can measure the distance between two words in terms of 'substitution' and 'insertion'. By
default, the weight for each distance is measured 1. In the extended algorithm by Ghayoomi etal (2015), weighting is changed to 0.1 for the distance between certain characters that cause
spelling variation (See Section 5 for these variations), while in other cases, the weight remains
1. The change in weighting is done to make searching the data easier for creating a databaseof the spelling variations.
5. Spelling variation and data analysis
In this section, we study the proposed categories and show the factors giving rise to spellingvariation in Persian. In the following of this section, we present the analysis statistically anddiscuss about it.
5.1 The Causes
Investigating the data from the integrated corpora revealed that spelling variation in Persian
may be classified under 6 groups as follows:
5. 1. 1 Joined-up Writing and Space Application
Being an orthographic property of the Persian script, joined-up writing and space application,
seems to be a major problem in spelling a word. Some Persian characters are joined to theadjacent letters from both sides ''‫ س‬in ''‫ سر‬/sar/ 'head' and in ''‫ بس‬/bas/ 'enough', while others
are joined only from the right, as ''‫ ر‬in ''‫ کر‬/kar/ 'deaf'. This may lead to the emergence ofvarious and sometimes obscure or even meaningless spelling forms12.
In all words (both simple and complex) with the letters from the latter group in the initial andmiddle position, a disjoined form may appear, such as in ''‫ اﮔر‬/ʔagar/ 'if' and ''‫ داد‬/dād/ 'he/shegave'. Obviously, in the above examples, there is no need to apply space after Alef, the firstand second letter respectively.
In complex words (including derivatives, compounds and derivative-compounds), in addition
to the above-mentioned cases, disjoined forms emerge mostly at the boundary between
morphemes, regardless of the fact that which group the final letter of the morpheme belongs
to, as in Examples (1) and (2):)1(‫می شد‬mišod

11

http://web.iit.edu/
It should be mentioned that joined-up writing could be a matter of personal preference.
Previously, it was a general trend.
12491

IMPF13 became'was becoming'‫آن ها‬ʔān hā
that PL14'they')2(

In these words, the component parts, i.e. the morphemes, can be written in three different
ways: joined, disjoined (with a space) or disjoined without a space (with pseudo-space), as is
the case in '‫ 'میشود‬and '‫'می شود‬, and ' .'‫میشود‬Inconsistency in choosing each of these forms
could be attributed to the writer or the typist’s hastiness, carelessness or the absence of awriting style for applying space rules correctly and consistently. Besides, the choice may be
influenced by some morpho-phonological factors, i.e. substitution and deletion (See Sections
5.1.4 and 5.1.5).
5.1.2 Absence of Tilde on Alef
There are examples in which the absence of tilde on Alef leads to the spelling variation, suchas''‫ابان‬insteadof'.'‫آبان‬5.1.3 Hamzeh
Writing Hamzeh on various bases, such as '‫'أ‬, '‫'إ‬, ''‫ 'ئ‬,'‫ؤ‬, its replacement with ''‫( ی‬representing/y/) or its omission could lead to the emergence of different forms for one word, such as
Examples (3) and (4):(3) a)‫آیین‬
ʔāyin
traditionb) ‫آئین‬eu'āʔ
tradition)t )4(‫مسؤول‬masʔulresponsible)‫مسئول‬masʔulresponsible

5.1.4 Morpho-phonological Factors: Phonological Changes
At times, due to the application of some phonological processes, especially in informal
speech, the spelling of a word changes. These changes occur rather on a regular basis in theform of substitution of a letter with another. Various forms resulting from phonologicalchanges can be divided into the following sub-categories:a) Word Form
This type of change is found word-internally in all word classes. Phonetic change often causesa change in style or register of a word mainly from standard to colloquial or slang and rarely
to literary. For instance, ''‫ اﮔر‬/ʔagar/ 'if' changes into ''‫ اﮔه‬/ʔage/ and ''‫ راه‬/rāh/ 'way' becomes ''‫ره‬/rah/.
13
14

Imperfect
Plural Affix

492

In verbs (except the present tense of the linking verb '/ '‫بودن‬budan/ 'to be'), the changes
may occur in personal and number endings, such as Example (5):)5(‫میخورد‬→mi.xor.ad
IMPF.eat.3SG'he/she eats'‫میخوره‬mi.xor.e
IMPF.eat.3SG'he/she eats'

It should be noted that only the verbs belonging to the standard level undergo this type ofchange and those having a literary register, such as ''‫ روییدن‬/ruyidan/ 'to grow', ''‫ ﮔشتن‬/gaštan/'to become' or ''‫ رهانیدن‬/rahānidan/ 'to save', with no application in informal settings, are notsubject to such changes.

b) Multi-Unit Word FormIn this case, the phonological change crosses the word boundary and converts it into a
combination. Here, a free morpheme changes into a bound morpheme and is necessarily
attached to another word as its base, as in Examples (6) and (7).
(6)

‫منو‬
o.atu
I/me.and/PAR15

(7)

‫منه‬
i.atu
eI.ai/s

Accordingly, instead of '/ '‫من است‬man ʔast/ 'is mine', we have ''‫ منه‬/man.e/ 'is mine' in whichthefreemorpheme''‫ است‬/ʔast/ 'is' changes into a bound one ( ‫ ) ـه‬due to a phonological change.
c) Word Meaning
At times, phonological change leads to homography, polysemy or ambiguity. Thus, forexample, the linguistic form ''‫ بره‬could signify both /bere/ 'if he/she goes' and /barre/ 'lamb'.
5.1.5 Morpho-phonological: Deletion
Similar to phonological changes, deletion of a letter from a word may allow the following
sub-categories:a) Word Form
In verbs, the deletion may occur in the stem, in personal and number endings or in both, as in
Example (8) to (10):)8(‫میآورم‬→mi.āvar.am
IMPF.bring.1SG'I bring'‫میآرم‬ta.ʔ .ae
IMPF.eat.1SG'I bring')9(‫میشوید‬→mi.šav.id
IMPF.become.2PL‫میشین‬eu.š.ae
IMPF.become.2PL

15Particle ‫ ﺍر‬/rā/ as the direct object marker

493

'you become'
)11(

‫شوی‬
šav.i
become.2SG'you become''you become'
→

‫شی‬
e.š
become.2SG'you become'b) Multi-Unit Word Form
Here a due to deletion of a letter from the spelling of a word, it changes into a boundmorpheme and attaches into another word as its base. For example, ''-‫ ها‬/hā/ (the plural suffix)
becomes ''‫ ا‬/ā/, a.)12(tuw )11(I ip iIiuaiw eu extapsiI)11(‫درختها‬deraxt-hātree.PL'a iiI'→‫درختا‬ʔ-wi txa
tree.PL'a iiI')12(‫آن است‬ʔān ʔast
it is'ea eI'→‫آنست‬
tIa.āʔuit.is'ea eI'c) Word Meaning
In such words, in addition to deletion, polysemy and meaning ambiguity may occur. For
example, ''‫ شی‬may be pronounced either /ši/ 'you become' or /šei/ 'thing'.
5.1.6 Others
Studying the data, we came across word types which seem to have no sense in Persian, suchas'‫'هها‬,'tuw,'‫دای‬.'‫' میک‬Some forms are likely to be part of a Quranic verse as ''‫ لها‬or be used as a trademark not
so familiar in the language, such as ''‫ مون‬and '.'‫ مای‬Obviously, these forms do not enter
dictionaries, thus they have been classified under 'Others'.
5.2 Analysis
In this paper, we investigated and classified 1000 word types spelled variously from theintegrated corpora. The sum of the frequency of this number of word types is 36,652,829
word tokens. The output of the extended Levenstein Distance algorithm was checked andanalyzed qualitatively from the linguistics point of view. After giving a fine-grainedclassification of variation types, a statistical analysis is provided.
Table 1 presents the coarse-grained classification of the spelling variation in Persian in two
main categories: orthographic and morpho-phonological. The third category, Others, includes
word types having spelling error or being meaningless.
Each of the forms may be put in more than one category, such as ''‫ منو‬which has undergone achange in style due to a phonological change and is read either /man.o/ (a combination of ' '‫من‬and ''‫ )و‬or /meno/ 'menu'. In most categories, a sub-category of ambiguous forms can beobserved. It was also revealed that Orthography had the most and Phonology the least
distribution, regardless of others.
Table 1 Coarse-grained Classification of Variation Types
Coarse-Grain Category Relative Frequency (%)
Orthography

71.35

494

Morpho-phonology

28.13

Others0.52

The fine-grained classification of the categories for orthographical reasons is presented in
Figure 1. According to the figure, the three major factors giving rise to spelling variation are
wrong application of space word-internally or at the morpheme boundary, absence of tilde on
Alef, and failing to follow the rules of joined-up writing. As for Morpho-phonological factors,
ambiguity and change in register are two main reasons for spelling variation, as presented in
Figures 2 and 3. The rate of these two factors seems to be equal in both figures.

Figure 1 Fine-grained Classification of Spelling Variation due to Orthographical Reasons

Figure 2 Fine-grained classification of spelling variation due to phonological reasons495

Figure 3. Fine-grained classification of variation types due to deletion

6. Concluding remarks
As was previously mentioned, cursive nature of Persian script and also application of somephonological processes in informal speech, cause spelling variation to be a major challenge inthis language, with joined-up writing and space application standing at the top. Thus, incomplex words, if the space is applied at the morpheme boundary, unification in choosing
each of the forms, joined or disjoined with space or without space, can be reached via
preparing a good style guide. In this case, the corpus needs to contain morphologicalinformation of the words. If space is not applied at the morpheme boundary, unification canbe gained through teaching the properties of Persian script and, thus, the correct writing style.
Through identifying and classifying the phonological changes, we can make a list of suchvarious forms and incorporate them into teaching materials for non-native language learners.
Based on the analyzed data, issues related to the Persian script are the main sources forspelling variation. This indicates the importance of making the corpus usable and applicablefor corpus linguistics and computational linguistics applications.
This research was based on studying 1000 word types. Obviously, investigating on more
tokens will result in having a better picture on the topic to find the major problems that cause
spelling variation in Persian.

References
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Bijankhan, Mahmood. 2004. The role of corpora in writing a grammar: Introducing asoftware. Journal of Linguistics 19(2): 48–67.
Eftekhari, Seyyed Esmā'il. 2006. Darāmadi bar khatshenāsi va nazmgorizie neveshtāre Farsi(An Introduction to Persian Orthography and its Anomaly). Mesbāh 14(58): 33-62.
Ghayoomi, Masood, Saeedeh Momtazi and Mahmood Bijankhan. 2010. A study of corpus
development for Persian. International Journal on Asian Language Processing 20(1):17-33.
Ghayoomi, Masood, Saghar Sharifi and Marziyeh Sanaati. 2015. Tannvo'e negāreshi dar
zabāne Farsi va tahiyeye khodkāre dādegane emlāyi az peykareye zabānie mobtani barveb (Spelling variation in the Persian language and automatic development of aspelling database from a Web-based corpus). In Proceedings of the 1st International496

Conference on Web Research (ICWR). University of Science and Culture, Tehran, Iran,March 15-16.
Levenstein, Vladimir I. 1966. Binary codes capable of correcting deletions, insertions, andreversals. Soviet Physics Doklady 10(8): 707–710.
Moshiri, Mahshid. 1997. Farhange āvayi-alefbāyie zabāne Farsi (A Phonetic and Spelling
Dictionary of Persian Language). Tehran: Ketabsara.
Rasooli, Mohammad Sadegh, Manouchehr Kouhestani and Amirsaeid Moloodi. 2013.
Development of a Persian syntactic dependency treebank. In Proceedings of the North
American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language
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Mortezayi, Leila. 2002. Masā'ele zabān va khatte Farsi dar zakhiresāzi va bāzyābie ettelā'āt(Issues in Saving and Retrieving Information in Persian). Ettela'Resāni 17(1&2): 193200.
Nasri, Musa. 1314. Bā khatte konunie Farsi che bāyad kard? (What to do with current Persian
orthography?). Mehr 3(26): 200-205.
Sadeghi, Ali Ashraf and Zahra Zandi Moghaddam. 2006. A Dictionary of Persian
Orthography and Spelling. Tehran: Academy of Persian Language and Literature.
Sadr Amirjanloo, Asghar. 2003. Kāstihāye khatte Farsi va peyāmadhāye ān dar āmuseshezabāne Farsi (Shortcomings of Persian Orthography and its consequences in language
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Sami'i Gilani, Ahmad. 1988. Ayine Negāresh (A Style Guide for Writing). Tehran: Iran
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Tabātabāyi, Alā'eddin. 1998. Fe'le Basite Farsi va Vājesāzi (Simple Verbs and Word
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497

Towards Automatic Translation from Sanskrit to English
Chitresh Soni, Girish Nath Jha, Naveen Kumar Jha
Mohanlal Sukhadia University, India
soni.chitresh@gmail.com

Abstract
The paper is a reflection of ongoing research on building a Sanskrit-English Translator throughstatistical methods. In this work the help of Microsoft Translator Hub for training of system is taken.
The main contribution of the research is to address complexities involved in making such system andways to handle those challenges. For the purpose of training the system both parallel and monolingual
data of Sanskrit and English as well as dictionaries of terms is used. Parallel data is manually translated
from Sanskrit classical texts into English. After the initial phases of tuning, testing and evaluation weanalyzed the issues and challenges arriving in it such as Named Entity Recognition [NER] and casemarkers which are discussed in the paper. The objective of the paper is to suggest the ways to better
equip the statistical machine to learn and handle such ramifications with some sample analyzed data.
Here to supplement the result a simple yet innovative way of morphological transformations to increase
the efficacy of dictionary entries and assigning probabilities to the system is used. Both of that lead to
improvements in the translation quality.
Keywords: Sanskrit-English translator, Microsoft translator hub, Sanskrit classical texts, named entity
recognition, case markers, morphological transformations

1. Introduction:
The massive literature in Sanskrit language contains knowledge helpful for the well being of
humanity. This vast knowledge should be made available to the masses. If a MachineTranslation System (MTS) from Sanskrit to English is created then Sanskrit connects withmany Indo-European languages because MTS from English to those languages are currently
available. Sanskrit-English translation is also crucial because of the literary superiority ofboth the languages and also English being the lingua-franca of actual, scholarly and computerworlds.
2. Role of computers and field of MT
Why choose a Machine Translation system over a human translator? Although there is nosuch goal like substituting a human translator, yet sometimes we need quick and handy
translations without worrying for pinpoint accuracy. Cost- effectiveness is another driver for
Machine Translation researches because an MT system can translate for you at free of cost or
at cheap license and installing charges. The factor of confidentiality also aides to the utility ofan MT system just in the case of some important law draft or secret military docs.
Universality is always an advantage with the MT systems as they can be accessed through the
net at any point of time without the botheration to find a particular person. Moreover MT
systems possess more consistency because they will always translate a input into a same way,
so it is another example of viability of an MT system. And most importantly its neutrality andimpartial nature, because biased human scholars sometimes more or less start interpreting the
texts in an incorrect manner while translating them.
MT is a sub-field of computational linguistics that tries to use the computer software totranslate text or speech from one natural language (source) to another (target). In lenient terms
a MTS decodes the meaning of the source text of the given language and re-encodes thismeaning in the target language. But behind this simple procedure there lies a complex
cognitive operation. To decode the meaning of the source text in its entirety, computer must498

interpret and analyze all the features of the text, a process that requires in-depth knowledge ofthe grammar, semantics, syntax, idioms, etc. of the source language, as well as the culture ofits speakers. The system needs the same in depth knowledge to re-encode the meaning in thetarget language. Therein lay the challenge of machine translation: how to program a computerthat will "understand" a text as a person does, and that will "create" a new text in the target
language that "sounds" as if it has been written by a person.
3. Existing automatic translation systems in Indian languages
3.1. Anglabharati (1991)
Developed by Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, this system translates from English to
Indian languages, primarily Hindi, using a rule-based transfer approach. The primary strategy
for handling ambiguity is post-editing.
3.2. Anusaaraka (1995)
Originated at IIT Kanpur and later shifted to the Centre for Applied Linguistics andTranslation Studies (CALTS), Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, University ofHyderabad, the Anusaaraka project’s goal is on Language Access between Indian languages.
Anusaaraka system maps local word groups between the SL and TL, using principles ofPaninian Grammar (PG).
3.3. The Mantra (MAchiNe assisted TRAnslation tool) (1999)
The Mantra (Machine Assisted Translation tool) Project has been developed by C- DAC,
Bangalore. Mantra translates English text into Hindi in a specified domain.
3.4. The Matra system (2004)
MaTra is an ongoing project at C-DAC, Mumbai. It aims at machine-assisted translation fromEnglish into Hindi, essentially based on a transfer approach using a frame-like structured
representation.
3.5. Anubharati (2004)
Anubharti, another recent project at IIT Kanpur, is a template-based MT from Hindi toEnglish, using hybrid example-based model for MT (HEBMT).
3.6. Shiva and Shakti (2004)
Two machine translation systems from English to Hindi, developed jointly by Carnegie
Mellon University USA, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India, and International
Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad. Shakti machine translation system has been
designed to produce machine translation systems for new languages rapidly. Shakti system
combines rule-based approach with statistical approach whereas Shiva is example based
machine translation system. Some modules also use semantic information. Currently Shakti is
working for three target languages, Hindi, Marathi and Telugu.
4. Difficulty in translating Sanskrit into English
The grammar of the Sanskrit language has a complex verbal system, rich nominal declension,and extensive use of compound nouns which create issues and challenges while translation to
English. Other than grammar issues translation of cultural terms such as dharma etc. is notpossible and also should not be forcibly done. So, teaching the computer that not to translatethem and how to handle them is pretty necessary.
Now, divergence is a major issue in translation between two natural languages. The language
divergence arises when lexically and syntactically similar sentences of the source language do
not translate into sentences of identical structure in the target language. Depending upon the
direction of translation, divergence is of two sorts: unilateral and bilateral. If divergence499

occurs when we translate from Sanskrit to English or vice versa then this type of divergence isfallen into unilateral type of divergence. If divergence occurs in round trip then this type ofdivergence is called as bilateral type of divergence. The language divergences between
Sanskrit and English can be considered as representing the divergences between Subject Object - Verb and Subject - Verb - Object classes of languages. This phenomenon may occur
in any pair of languages for machine translation.

5. Undergoing research on SET System
For making Sanskrit to English Machine Translator, the support of Microsoft translator hub
was crucial. We used MST hub for training of data for making of system.
In the process of translation the language to translate from is called Source Language and thelanguage to translate to is called target language.
Here the translation system we can make either may be domain specific or domain
independent. We are in a process of making a domain independent translation system.
To build a translation system for our project, we needed to assemble a set of documents.
These documents were of two types
5.1. Parallel documents
This refers to a pair of documents in our set, both containing the same information. One
document in the pair contains sentences in the source language and another document in thepair contains sentences in the target language.
Parallel documents are used by the system to learn how words, phrases and sentences arecommonly mapped between the two languages, to learn how to process the appropriate
context depending on the surrounding phrases, and as a result a particular word may notalways translate the same way.
5.2. Monolingual documents
This refers to target language documents in our set for which we do not have a corresponding
source language document containing the same information. Monolingual documents help atranslation system decide which of the considered alternative translations is more accurate,
more natural-sounding, and more in-tune with the context in the examples of the target
language.
The quality of the resulting translation system will depend on the no. of sentences in the
document set and the quality of the sentences. The more examples the documents contain on
diverse usages for a word, the better job it can do during the translation of something it has
not seen before.
The system requires a minimum of 10,000 parallel sentences to start with and then adding
more parallel content improves the quality of the translation system. When setting up
Trainings, Hub allows us to partition the documents under 3 mutually exclusive data sets.
5.3. Training data set
Sentences of parallel and monolingual documents included in this set are used by the Hub as
the basis for building the translation system.
5.4. Tuning data set
Sentences of parallel documents included in this set are used by the Hub to tune thetranslation system for optimal results. The tuning set is used to set all parameters of thetranslation system to the optimal values. The tuning set is selected manually, in order toachieve the most representative selection of sentences. When we let the system choose thetuning set automatically, it will use a random subset of sentences from the bilingual training
documents, and exclude these sentences from the training material itself.

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5.5. Testing data set
Sentences of parallel documents included in this set are used to compute the BLEU (Bilingual
Evaluation Understudy) score of the translation system.
Only bilingual documents can be part of the testing data set. Not more than 2500 sentences
are needed as testing set.
When we let the system choose the testing set automatically, it uses a random subset ofsentences from the bilingual training documents, and excludes these sentences from thetraining material itself.

Figure 1 System architecture

Figure 2 Document upload

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Figure 3 Training Stage

Figure 4 Testing Stage

6. Using dictionaries
We can specify a dictionary of terms that Microsoft Translator should use in translation, in
addition to the training data for the translation system.
Use of a dictionary has the potential of degrading the quality of the translations. Because
training documents showing the terms used in context are better than a plain dictionary.
Terms used in sentence form teach the system the correct inflection and agreement, better
than a dictionary can. Also the dictionary maps the dictionary term or phrase exactly to thegiven translated form. So we tried to minimize the dictionary to the terms that are already inthe training sets. The dictionary works well for compound nouns like product names proper
names (“City of New Delhi”), or features of the product. It doesn’t work equally well forverbs or adjectives, because these are typically highly inflected. So we avoided dictionary
entries for anything but compound nouns.
7. Initial challenges posed502

In initial stages while evaluating and reviewing our system, we found many issues andchallenges. Significant amount of them are difficulty recognising named entities,
comprehending tense usage, understanding case markers and verbs. To improve on thesedivergent translations a large corpus of bilingual data is in process of being created including
as many of varieties as possible of the source text which will help the system in handlingthese repercussions better. The platform is also improved time to time by Microsoft.
References
Jha, Girish Nath. 1996. “Designing a Lexical Semantic Component for English-Hindi
Machine Translation in the Domain of Share-Market”, PhD thesis, Centre of
Linguistics, JNU, New Delhi - 67.
Eric Wehrli, Luka Nerima, and Yves Scherrer. 2009. Deep linguistic multilingual translation
and bilingual dictionaries. In Proceedings of the Fourth Workshop on Statistical
Machine Translation, pages 90-94.
Lucia Specia, Marco Turchi, Nicola Cancedda, Marc Dymetman, and Nello Cristianini. 2009.
Estimating the Sentence-Level Quality of Machine Translation Systems. In
Proceedings of the 13th Conference of the European Association for MachineTranslation, pages 28-37.
Lucia Specia. 2011. Exploiting Objective Annotations for Measuring Translation Post-editing
Effort. In Proceedings of the 15th Conference of the European Association for
Machine Translation, pages 73-80.
Sylvain Raybaud, David Langlois, and Kamel Smaili. 2011.” This sentence is wrong.”
Detecting errors in machine-translated sentences. Machine Translation, 25(1): 1

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