(Translation
Studies / Bilingual Lexicography)
Department of English, School of
Foreign Studies,
南京大学外国语学院英语系
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姓名 |
耿云冬 |
学号 |
MG0709090 |
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年级 |
二年级 |
导师姓名 |
魏向清 |
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1. Specific topic of research On the Exemplification of Verb Entries in E-C Dictionaries for Advanced Chinese EFL Learners: A Perspective of Semantic-Syntactic Interface |
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2. Significance of the topic (the rationale for your proposed research) The present study is mainly motivated by three factors: the actual encoding needs of L2 learners (i.e. the dictionary users), the necessity of theoretical construction of bilingual lexicography and the new challenges brought by corpora for dictionary codification. As the kernel of a sentence, a verb for production usually has a range of collocations and complex argument structures about which EFL learners are uncertain (Xu Hai, 2008a, p.409). One paradox in language teaching is that the teacher cannot help students learn all of the lexical knowledge in classroom settings. Dictionaries then become especially important in presenting information about productive vocabulary, for they are regarded as “passports” for EFL learners to be independent in acquiring English word knowledge. Thus, a verb for production is supposed to be fully exemplified in learner’s dictionaries, so as to provide L2 learners with the information about the collocational and syntactic possibilities and constraints of a verb. This is one of the motivations for doing the present study ― to make E-C learner’s dictionaries serve better their users. In lexicographical research, some researchers (Fraser, 2008) have touched upon the issue of the correlation between parts-of-speech and the treatment of entries in dictionaries. Fraser (2008, p.82) contends that different ways of treatment need to be applied to each part-of-speech in dictionaries. As regards a verb, it is the lexicographer’s task to describe its syntactic behaviour, as far as possible in its native context: that is, in collocation with its neighbouring words. Since verbal illustrations are indispensable in displaying the information about the collocational and syntactic complexities of verbs, they should be made of effective use in the texts of learner’s dictionaries. Modern corpora have speeded up traditional lexicography, but at the same time they also compound the workloads of lexicographers. As regards the question “whether there is any particular reason for choosing one rather than another [dictionary example]” (Widdowson, 2007, x), the electronic corpora definitely can not give an explicit answer. In this sense, corpora have done little to change the traditional methodology of dictionary-making. The present thesis is just targeted at casting some light on the selection of verbal illustrations for verbs in E-C learner’s dictionaries from the perspective of linguistics. It is hoped that this study will help bilingual lexicographers sift the wheat from the chaff in the massive harvest of corpus data available to them today. The practical significance of the present study lies in its aim to better the status-quo of exemplifying verbs in E-C learner’s dictionaries and to make such type of dictionaries serve more satisfactorily the reference needs of advanced Chinese EFL learners. The present research is also of some theoretical significance. It is expected to make contribution to the research into “lexicography of encoding”, which is oriented at satisfying the needs for language production of dictionary users. Thirdly, it is also hoped that the present study contributes to research into corpus lexicography by providing lexicographers with a new semantic-syntactic perspective on dealing with enormous corpus data. |
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3. Existing research on this topic (literature review) The present study is in essence an interdisciplinary one, to which both the study of verbal exemplification in lexicography and that of research on verbs at the semantic-syntactic interface will contribute. a. Related
Research on Exemplification of Verbs in Learner’s Dictionaries The representative studies abroad are conducted by Atkins, Kegl, & Levin (1988), Atkins & Levin (1995), Maxwell (2004), etc.. Basically, they carry out their research from the linguistic perspective. Based on their investigation into the treatment of the verb bake in five learner’s dictionaries, Atkins et al (1988) identify inconsistencies in the way in which the five learner’s dictionaries deal with semantic-syntactic interdependencies across a number of verbs which pattern together. They suggest that the lack of any systematic approach in this area arises from an inadequate understanding of the semantic-syntactic properties of the verbs described. Atkins & Levin (1995) make further investigation into the treatment of seven shake verbs that share many components of meanings and syntactic properties in three leading monolingual learner’s dictionaries of English as a foreign language. They detect the lexicographical problem of descriptive coherence throughout a semantic field, using examples drawn from a large electronic corpus. They propose that a preliminary analysis within the framework of linguistics proper, but accessible to lexicographers, might help to systematize some aspects of their dictionary entries. In an online discussion in March, 2004, Maxwell maintains that “ … the exemplification of verbs, an open-class part-of-speech, is justified by their complex argument structures. And it may be necessary to have at least one example for each subcategorization frame [i.e. the part of the lexical entry of a word which encodes the syntactic environment it can be found in]”. His view on verbal exemplification is generally accepted by the Lexicographylist members. At home, although the issue of “verbal
illustrations” has been much discussed in published books and articles
concerning E-C bilingual lexicography, particular research on
exemplification, esp. that of verbs, remains a Cinderella. One noteworthy
study on exemplification in MLDs within In conclusion, the researchers have devoted their research to the exemplification of verbs from the linguistic perspective. But these pertinent studies are mainly confined to monolingual learner’s dictionaries. Besides, specific studies on the exemplification of verbs are still unsystematic. So the present author intends to go a step further, to explore the theoretical underpinnings for a better presentation of the semantic-syntactic information about a verb. A linguistic theory – syntactic alternation theory – will be applied into exemplifying verbs in E-C learner’s dictionaries, so as to make them better serve the reference needs of advanced Chinese EFL learners. The reason for bothering exploring the exemplification of verbs in E-C bilingual learner’s dictionaries is that monolingual learner’s dictionaries have their inborn deficiencies ―target language for the learner, but source language for the lexicographer. b. Lexicographic
Presentation of Verb Syntax in Learner’s Dictionaries It has been a distinctive feature of monolingual learner’s dictionaries to use abstract verb-patterns (e.g. V+O+C) and grammatical codes to indicate verb syntax. A survey of the evolution of the verb-patterns and coded systems in OALD, LDOCE, and COBUILD shows that the trend is towards simplification and – to a degree – standardization, and a contemporary student who switches from one dictionary to another no longer has to relearn an elaborate inventory of symbols and codes. The author agrees with Rundell (2007) in that the descriptive power of these coded systems was never in doubt: they enabled lexicographers to provide a delicate and fine-grained account of most syntactic patterns. But by the early 1980s, it was becoming clear that the average dictionary user got very little benefit from these patterns and codes. In his classic user-study, Béjoint reports that “their [the dictionaries’] introductions are not commonly referred to, and neither are the coding systems for syntactic patterns” (Béjoint, 1981, p.219). With regard to this aspect, the study of Dziemianko (2006) is noteworthy. In her book, she reports on a large-scale, rigorously-designed experiment conducted by her in order to assess the usefulness and usability of the various systems used in monolingual learner’s dictionaries for describing the syntactic behaviour of verbs. Dziemianko concludes (p.188) that “as far as syntactic information is concerned, a user-friendly verb entry should contain examples, a contextual definition and functional codes interspersed among examples.” In other words, verbal illustrations should take much more responsibility for displaying a verb’s syntactic information, while various grammatical codes complement corresponding verbal illustrations. c. Related
Studies on Syntax with Semantic Integration The traditional approach to syntax focuses on categories like the classification of words in terms of parts of speech and the identification of functions of words in terms of subject, predicate, etc. The semantic relationship between sentential constituents within a sentence does not receive much attention. But since 1970s, more and more syntactic theories assume that various aspects of the syntax of a sentence are determined by the meaning of the predicator [i.e. a verb or other argument-taking lexical item] in that sentence. Many linguists have argued for a model of sentence meaning in which verbs occupy the core position and function as the central organizers of sentences (Fellbaum, 1990, p.278). The verb provides the relational and semantic framework for its sentence. Its predicate-argument structure (or subcategorization frame) specifies the possible syntactic structures of the sentences in which it can occur (ibid.). According to syntactic alternation theory, the syntactic alternations of a verb can be predicted from its pertinent semantic components. A verb can have more than one semantic component, through which a verb is connected with multiple syntactic alternations. In other words, a verb can appear in multiple alternations. For example, the two verbs “break” and “hit” can both be used as transitive verbs on the senses of “separate into pieces” and “touch sb / sth hard” respectively. Despite the fact they can both take a subject and an object, they show much difference in their syntactic alternations: (1) causative alternation: break: The boy broke the window with a ball. / The window broke. hit: The boy hit the window with a ball. / * The window hit. (2) possessor-raising alternation: break: I broke his leg. / *I broke him on the leg. hit: I hit his leg. / I hit him on the leg. (3) with / against alternation: break: Perry broke the fence with the stick. / Perry broke the stick against the fence. (The sentential meanings are different.) hit: Perry hit the fence with the stick. / Perry hit the stick against the fence. (The sentential meanings are the same.) Fillmore (1970) attributes the differences in the syntactic alternations of “break” and “hit” to the fact that “break” involves a change of state in an entity, while “hit” involves contact, often forceful, with an entity, without entailing any change of state in that entity. In other words, the semantic component of “the change of state” determines the differences in syntactic constructions of these two verbs (Levin, 2005, p.1-2) Although the chicken-and-egg relationship between semantics and syntax is still hotly debated, the generalizations made about semantic-syntactic interdependencies may already be of value to lexicography (Atkins et al., 1988, p.101). However, apparently, in dictionary entries a word is never approached in isolation. Semantic-syntactic interdependencies are difficult to code in dictionaries and are often signaled by the careful juxtaposition of example sentences in conjunction with a number of implicit cues in the organization and presentation of sense distinctions. Frequently, interdependencies become apparent when uses of a verb that involve alternate expressions of the verb’s arguments within a single sense are compared and contrasted (ibid, p.86). d. Research Gap As the above literature review reveals, the previous research into exemplification is mainly concerned with monolingual learner’s dictionaries. In the field of E-C bilingual learner’s dictionaries, research into exemplification, esp. that of verbs, has so far been rather very limited. Although much can be learned from research into exemplification in monolingual learner’s dictionaries, the research into E-C learner’s dictionaries designed for advanced Chinese EFL learners deserves special attention. For a long time, E-C bilingual lexicographers have focused on the provision of Chinese sense equivalents, while attaching not too much weight to the choice of verbal illustrations. Against this background, the author intends to show that a semantic-syntactic perspective can offer some new insight into the exemplification of verbs in E-C bilingual learner’s dictionaries. In addition, the present study will explore better ways for exemplifying verbs in E-C bilingual learner’s dictionaries, which draws implications from syntactic alternation theory in the semantic-syntactic interface research area. The ultimate goal of this thesis is to provide dictionary-users as much semantic-syntactic description of verbs as possible under the constraints on dictionary space. |
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4. Specific, real questions existing research does not answer (or does not answer adequately) but you attempt to answer. Also, state if these are definitions, basic data, descriptive, or causes-and-effects questions and what you have done to avoid “reinventing the wheel” in your proposed study. The present study will be undertaken to find out a better way of lexicographic presentation of semantic-syntactic information about verbs within the theoretical framework of syntactic alternation theory. In particular, the author attempts to address the following research questions: 1. What are the shortcomings of the exemplification of verbs in the representative E-C learner’s dictionaries designed for advanced Chinese EFL learners? 2. What are the advanced Chinese EFL learners’ reference needs when they look up a verb in E-C learner’s dictionaries? 3. Which kind of help can syntactic alternation theory provide for bettering the status quo of exemplifying verbs in E-C learner’s dictionaries? To avoid “reinventing the wheel” in my study, I first conducted a preliminary investigation into verb entries randomly selected from MECD, AECD and NAECD, the results of which show that a relatively large proportion of the inadequacy and inconsistency of current verb entries in presenting semantic-syntactic information can be attributed to lexicographers’ intuition in selecting verbal illustrations. This means my issue is a genuine one and has relatively great significance. |
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5. Your tentative answer to the questions (your hypothesis): interpretive, descriptive, explanatory, or predicative? How will you operationalize your hypothesis so that it can be tested (e.g. by measuring its key concepts)? If your hypothesis is an interpretive one, does it have testable consequences? Specifically speaking, my current answers to the above research questions are: (1) The main problems in the exemplification of verbs in existing E-C learner’s dictionaries are their inadequacy and inconsistency in presenting the syntactic information of a verb; (2) As regards the reference needs of Chinese upper-intermediate EFL learners, the author expects to find the answers from a questionnaire survey, which will be conducted at the end of June, 2009; (3) The syntactic alternation theory is expected to provide help for the exemplification of verbs in at least the following two aspects: a. the allocation of verbal illustrations within a single verb entry; b. the selection of verbal illustrations across synonymous verb entries. Answers (1) and (2) are descriptive in nature, while answer (3) is predicative. In order to operationalize my hypothesis, I will conduct a comparative study of the verb entries selected from three learner’s dictionaries: MECD, AECD and NAECD. My preliminary investigation shows that the insufficiency in the traditional way of presenting information about usage of verbs can be attributed to the intuitive choice of examples for verbs in dictionary-making. Moreover, the author will make reference to British National Corpus (BNC) to check the syntactic alternations discussed in the present study, in hopes of verifying the theoretical presumption. |
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6. Methods by which you will obtain and analyze your evidence: What theoretical model will you use? Do you propose to conduct conceptual research, empirical research, or applied research? If you opt for empirical research, what specific kind(s) of empirical research (naturalistic, experimental, qualitative, or quantitative?) will you do and what specific empirical research method(s) (case study, corpus study, survey, historical/archival study, etc.) will you use? The main theoretical model of my study will be a comparative one. However, the causal model will also be applied to justify the necessity of applying syntactic alternation theory into the exemplification of verbs. My study, in the first place, is applied research, since the focus of study is a new perspective on allocating examples in compiling E-C learner’s dictionaries. As regards the research method, I will adopt an integrated one. Specifically, I will use corpus study and survey study together. The corpus study is used for checking the frequencies of the syntactic alternations and for collecting authentic verbal illustrations which can be used in the text of an E-C learner’s dictionary. And the survey study is used for investigating advanced Chinese EFL learners’ needs for reference to verbs. |
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7. Evidence you will use or expect to find. Are they textual or contextual? Why do you think your evidence supports your hypothesis? Evidence that I expect to find is mainly textual variables. To be more specific, I will use dictionary-text variables, especially verbal illustrations in the existing learner’s dictionaries, monolingual as well as bilingual. Based on the preliminary investigation into the verbal illustrations abstracted from E-C learner’s dictionaries, the author found the problems of exemplifying verbs: repetitiveness, inadequacy and inconsistency. And the author attributes the problems to the fact that bilingual lexicographers are unaware of theoretical guidance from relative linguistic theories. Due to the knowledge scale of bilingual lexicographers, the intuitive way of selecting verbal illustrations is insufficient in presenting a holistic picture of the semantic-syntactic information about a verb. The semantic-syntactic perspective on dealing with exemplification of verbs will offer E-C bilingual lexicographers much theoretical guidance, which, hopefully, will contribute to a better design of verb entries in E-C learners’ dictionaries. |
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8. Preliminary findings (Give one example, e.g. variables you’ve identified and patterns or regularities you’ve found in your pilot study.) In my pilot study, I discovered that the allocated examples in current E-C learner’s dictionaries are unable to represent semantic-syntactic information of verbs very well. It shows that a relatively large proportion of the situation can be attributed to the intuitive way of allocating dictionaries examples. One specific example is provided by the exemplification of the transitive verb “bake” on the “cooking food (烘，烤，焙)” sense in the corresponding entries from three E-C learner’s dictionaries: bake /beik/ I vt 1烘，烤: bake bread 烤面包 2 … (abstracted from MECD) bake /beik/ vt & vi 1烘，烤: My sister bakes cakes every Sunday. 我姐姐每个星期天烤一次饼。I’ll take the cauliflower and baked potatoes. 我要花椰菜和烤土豆。2 … (abstracted from AECD) bake /beik/ I vt 1烘，烤，焙: bake bread for sb / bake sb bread 为某人烤面包 My mother is baking a cake in the oven. 母亲正用烤箱烘蛋糕。2 … (abstracted from NAECD) On careful analysis, the above three “bake” entries just display very limited semantic-syntactic information respectively. Specifically speaking, in the first entry, only the transitivity alternation of “bake” is shown by a verb phrase, which displays very limited information about this verb. In the second entry, two syntactic alternations relating to the sense “烘, 烤, 焙” are demonstrated: a) transitivity alternation, i.e. to be followed by an object (cakes); b) adjectival passive participle alternation (baked potatoes). The third entry also shows two syntactic alternations pertaining to this sense: a) benefactive alternation (bake bread for sb / bake sb bread); b) transitivity alternation, i.e. to be followed by an object (a cake). However, according to Levin (1993, p.33, 48, 56, 82, 243-44), there are at least four more types of syntactic alternations that are central to any account of the transitive verb bake on the sense of “烘, 烤, 焙”: (1) material / product alternation a. Martha baked the cake out of the dough. b. Martha baked the dough into a cake. (2) raw material subject alternation a. She baked wonderful bread from the whole wheat flour. b. That whole wheat flour bakes wonderful bread. (3) instrumental subject alternation a. Jennifer bakes the potatoes in the oven. b. This oven bakes potatoes well. (4) resultative phrase: Jennifer baked the potatoes to a crisp. Unfortunately, the above syntactic alternations relating to the sense “烘, 烤, 焙” of bake are not given any treatment in all the three representative E-C learner’s dictionaries. This is surely not beneficial to EFL Chinese learners to master the typical usage of this verb. |
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9. Major references Atkins, B. T. S., Kegl, J. and Levin, B. (1988). Anatomy of a Verb Entry: from Linguistic Theory to Lexicographic Practice. International Journal of Lexicography, 1(2): pp. 84-126. Atkins, B. T. S. and Levin, B. (1995). Building on a corpus: A linguistic and lexicographical look at some near-synonyms. International Journal of Lexicography, 8(2): pp. 85-114. Béjoint, H. (1981). The foreign student’s use of monolingual English dictionaries. Applied Linguistics, 2(3): pp.207-222. Dziemianko, A. (2006). User-friendliness of Verb Syntax in Pedagogical Dictionaries of English. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag. Fellbaum, C. (1990). English Verbs as a Semantic Net. International Journal of Lexicography, 3(4): pp. 278-301. Fraser, B. L. (2008). Beyond definition: organizing semantic information in bilingual dictionaries. International Journal of Lexicography, 21(1): pp. 69-93. Guo, S. Y. [郭世英]. (2002). 现代英汉词典 [A Modern English-Chinese Dictionary]. 北京：外语教学与研究出版社。(MECD) Levin, B. (1993). English Verb Classes and Alternations,
Levin, B. and M. Rappaport
Hovav. (2005). Argument
Realization, Maxwell, M. (2004). Criteria for examples sentences. from: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/lexicographylist/message/469/. Rundell, M. (2007). Review of User-friendliness of Verb Syntax in
Pedagogical Dictionaries of English. from: http://kdictionaries.com/kdn/kdn15/kdn1507-rundell.html. Widdowson, H. 2007. Foreword to
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. In S. Wehmeier
(Ed.) Oxford Advanced Learner’s
Dictionary. Xu, H. (2008a). Exemplification policy in English learner’s dictionaries. International Journal of Lexicography, 21 (4): pp.395-418. Xu, H. [徐海]. (2008b). 英语学习型词典典型词例的选取. 北京：科学出版社。 Yu, S. X. [余士雄]. (2002). 高级英汉词典 [An Advanced English-Chinese Dictionary]. 北京：外语教学与研究出版社。(AECD) Zhang, B. R. [张柏然]. (2004). 新时代英汉大词典 [New Age English-Chinese Dictionary]. 北京：商务印书馆。(NAECD) |
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10. The timetable for your research
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