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§ 18. Setting of the Entry
The structure and content of the entry in learner’s dictionaries also have
some peculiar features. Chief among these is marked attention to the ways
words are used in speech, e.g.
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
points out which nouns, and in which of their meanings, can be used with
the indefinite articles (the symbols [C] and [U] stand for “countable” and
“uncountable"). It also indicates the patterns in which verbs can be used.
They are presented with the help of the abbreviation VP and the number of
the pattern preceding the definition of each meaning. All the patterns are
listed in
A Summary of the Verb Patterns.
The dictionary also gives infor-
mation of a more detailed character about the lexical valency of words.
Sets of words with which the head-word may combine as well as illustra-
tive examples taken from everyday language are given, e.g.
ar·rive
/э'raiv/
vi
[VP2A, С, ЗА] 1 reach a place, esp the end of a journey:
~
home,
~
at a
port,
~
in harbour.
2. come:
At last the day ~ d. Her
baby ~d
(= was born)
yesterday.
3. [VP3A]
~
at
, reach (a decision, a
price, the age of 40, manhood, etc) 4 [VP2A] establish one’s posi-
tion or reputation:
The flood of fan mail proved
he'd ~d.
Each dictionary has its own specific features. For instance, in the
Learner’s English-Russian Dictionary
there is no indication of the patterns
the English word is used in. Designed for English learners of Russian the
dictionary provides Russian equivalents for all meanings with the stress
indicated in each word and translation of all examples, indicates the types
of conjugation of Russian verbs. See the entry from the dictionary given
below:
arrive
[э'raiv] приезжать (64),
1
perf
приéхать (71); the delegation will ~
on Wednesday делегация приедет в среду; what time do we ~? в
котором часу мы приедем? ... when I ~d home they were already
there когда я приёхал(а) домой, они уже были там.
In dictionaries of collocations the setting of the entry assumes
a
differ-
ent shape. See, for example, the entry for
arrive
taken from the
Verbal
Collocations:
arrive
[э'raiv] I
2
[come to a place]; ~ at some time (unexpectedly, early,
late, safely, next week, at last,
etc.)
приезжать, прибывать
в какое-
л. время;
the train (the steamer, the plane,
etc.)
has~ d поезд (паро-
ход
и т. д.)
прибыл, пришел; your friend (his son
etc.)
has ~d
твой друг (его сын
и т. д.)
приехал /прибыл/; a parcel has ~d по-
сылка пришла;
1
The numbers in brackets indicate the number of the table presenting the type of con-
jugation of the Russian verb.
2
The black-faced Roman numbers indicate the pattern in which the word can be used.
232
I I I . [see I]; ~ with /by/ smth (with a train, with a steamer, by the
six o'clock train, by aeroplane,
etc.)
прибывать
чём-л.; ~
on smth
(on horseback, on one’s bicycle,
etc.)
приезжать
на
чём-л.;
~ at
some time (on time, just at the right moment, on Monday, on March
3rd, at six o'clock, before /after/ dark, before /after/ smb,
etc.)
при-
бывать
когда-л.;
~ somewhere (at a small station, at a village in
England, in a city, in London, in harbour,
etc.)
прибывать
куда-л.;
2. [reach, attain]; ~ at smth (at a goal, at perfection,
etc.)
достигать
чего-л.; ~
at smth (at a conclusion, at a correct result, at an opinion,
at an understanding,
etc.)
приходить к
чему-л.;
~ at a decision
принимать решение.
The supplementary matter in learner’s dictionaries, besides that usually
found in general dictionaries, may include other reference material neces-
sary for language learners. For instance,
Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dic-
tionary
includes not only lists of irregular verbs, common abbreviations,
geographical names, etc., but also common forenames listed with their pet
names, numerical expressions giving help in the reading, speaking and
writing of numbers and expressions which contain them, the works of Wil-
liam Shakespeare and even ranks in the Armed Forces of GB and US.
1. The numerous linguistic dictionaries of the
English language may be grouped by the fol-
lowing criteria: 1) the nature of their word-list, 2) the information they
contain, 3) the language of the explanations, 4) the intended user.
2.
The most important problems the lexicographer faces are: 1) the se-
lection of items for inclusion and their arrangement,
2)
the setting of the
entries, 3) the selection, arrangement and definition of meanings, 4) the
illustrative examples to be supplied, and 5) the supplementary material.
The choice among the possible solutions depends upon the type to which
the dictionary will belong, the aim the compilers pursue, the prospective
user of the dictionary, the linguistic conceptions of the dictionary-maker,
etc.
3.
Designed for foreign learners of English, learner’s dictionaries are
characterised by their strictly limited word-list, the great attention given to
the functioning of lexical units in speech and their strong perspective ori-
entation.
§ 19. Summary and Conclusions
X. Methods and Procedures of
Lexicological Analysis
It is commonly recognised that acquaintance with at least some
of
the
currently used procedures of linguistic investigation is of considerable im-
portance both for language learners and for prospective teachers as it gives
them the possibility to observe how linguists obtain answers to certain
questions and is of help in the preparation of teaching material. It also
helps language learners to become good observers of how language works
and this is the only lasting way to become better users of language.
The process of scientific investigation may be subdivided into several
stages. O b s e r v a t i o n is an early and basic, phase of all modern
scientific investigation, including linguistic, and is the centre of what is
called the inductive method of inquiry.
The cardinal role of all inductive procedures is that statements of fact
must be based on o b s e r v a t i o n , not on unsupported authority, logi-
cal conclusions or personal preferences. Besides, linguists as a rule largely
confine themselves to making factual statements, i.e. statements capable of
objective verification. In other words a linguist assumes that a question
cannot be answered unless there are procedures by which reliable and veri-
fiable answers can be obtained.
The next stage after observation is c l a s s i f i c a t i o n or orderly
arrangement of the data obtained through observation. For example, it is
observed that in English nouns the suffixal morpheme
-er
is added to ver-
bal stems
(speak
+
-er, writ(e)
+
-er,
etc.), noun stem’s
(village + -er,
London
+
-er,
etc.), and that
-er
also occurs in non-derived words such as
mother, father,
etc. Accordingly all the nouns in
-er
may be classified
into two types — derived and simple words and the derived words may be
subdivided into two groups according to their stems. It should be pointed
out that at this stage the application of different methods of analysis is
common practice.
1
The following stage is usually that of g e n e r a l i s a t i o n , i.e.
the collection of data and their orderly arrangement must eventually lead
to the formulation of< a generalisation or hypothesis, rule, or law.
In our case we can formulate a rule that derived nouns in -er may have
either verbal or noun stems. The suffix
-er
in combination with adjectival
or adverbial stems cannot form nouns (cf.
(to) dig
—
digger
but
big
—
bigger).
Moreover, the difference in the meaning of the suffixal nouns observed
by the linguist allows him to infer that if
-er
is added to verbal stems, the
nouns thus formed denote an active doer —
teacher, learner,
etc.,
whereas when the suffix
-er
is combined with noun-stems the words de-
note residents of a place or profession (e.g.
villager, Londoner).
1
See ‘Word-Structure’, §§ 7-9, pp. 96 — 102; ‘Word-Formation’, § 9, p. 119. 234
One of the fundamental tests of the validity of a generalisation is
whether or not the generalisation is useful in making reliable p r e d i c -
t i o n s . For example, proceeding from the observation and generalisa-
tion discussed above we may ‘predict’ with a considerable degree of cer-
tainty that if a new word with a suffix
-er
appears in modern English and
the suffix is added to a verbal stem, the word is a noun denoting an active
doer (cf., e.g., the new words of the type
(moon-)crawler
,
(moon-)walker
(lunar-)rouer which appeared when the Soviet moon car was launched.
1
Moreover we may predict if we make use of statistical analysis that such
words are more likely to be coined than the other types of nouns with the
-
er
suffix.
Any linguistic generalisation is to be followed by the v e r i f у i n g
p r o c e s s . Stated, simply, the linguist is required, as are other scien-
tists, to seek verification of the generalisations that are the result of his in-
quiries. Here too, various procedures of linguistic analysis are commonly
applied.
It may be inferred from the above that acquaintance with at least some
of the methods of lexicological investigation, is essential for classification,
generalisation and above all for the verification of the hypothesis resulting
from initial observation. We may also assume that application of various
methods of analysis should be an essential part of the learning process and
consequently of teacher’s training.
The metho_ds and procedures briefly discussed below are as follows:
1. Contrastive analysis, 2. Statistical methods of analysis. 3. Immediate
Constituents analysis, 4 Distributional analysis and co-occurrence, 5.
Transformational analysis, 6. Componental analysis, 7. Method of seman-
tic differential.
2
All methods of linguistic analysis are traditionally subdivided into
formalised and non-formalised procedures.
It is common knowledge that formalised methods of analysis proved to
be in many cases inapplicable to natural languages and did not yield the
desired results, nevertheless if not theoretical tenets at least some proce-
dures of these methods of analysis have been used by linguists of different
schools of thought and have become part of modern linguists’ equipment.
Naturally, the selection of this or that particular procedure largely de-
pends on the goal set before the investigator.
I f , e.g., the linguist wishes to find out the derivational structure of the
lexical unit he is likely to make use of the 1С analysis and/or the transfor-
mational analysis.
3
If the semantic structure of two correlated words is
compared, componental analysis will probably be applied.
Some of the methods of lexicological analysis are of primary impor-
tance for teachers of English and are widely used in the preparation of
1
See
C. Barnhart,
op. cit.
2
Method of contextual analysis suggested by Prof. N. N. Amosova is not discussed
here because there is a monograph devoted to this procedure. See
N. N. Amosova.
English
Contextology, L., 1968.
3
See ‘Word-Structure’, § 6, p. 95; .Word-Formation’, § 30, p. 146.
235
teaching material, some are of lesser importance. The comparative value of
individual methods for practicing teachers and also the interconnecttion of
some of the procedures determined the order of their presentation. The first
method discussed here is that of c o n t r a s t i v e a n a l y s i s as we
consider it indispensable in teaching English as a foreign language. This is
followed by a brief survey of s t a t i s t i c a l m e t h o d s of
a n a l y s i s a s qua nt it a t i ve eva lua t i on is u sua ll y a n essential
part of any linguistic procedure. The so-called formalised methods of
analysis — the IC a n a l y s i s , d i s t r i b u t i o n a l a n d
t r a n s f o r m a t i o n a l p r o c e d u r e s precede t h e c o m -
p o n e n t a l a n a l y s i s not because of their greater value in
terms of teaching English, but because componental analysis may be com-
bined with distributional and/or transformational procedures, hence the
necessity of introducing both procedures before we start the discussion of
t he comp onent a l a na lysis.
Contrastive linguistics as a systematic branch of
linguistic science is of fairly,
recent date though it is not the idea which is new but rather the systema t i-
sa t ion a nd t he u nder l yi ng pr i nc ip l es. It is c om mon knowl edg e
that comparison is the basic principle in comparative philology. However
the aims and methods of comparative philology differ considerably from
those of contrastive linguistics. The comparativist compares languages in
order to trace their philogenic relationships. The material he draws for
comparison consists mainly of individual sounds, sound combinations and
words, the aim is to establish f a m i l y relationship. The term used to
describe this field of investigation is historical linguistics or diachronic lin-
guistics.
Comparison is also applied in typological classification and analysis.
This comparison classifies languages by types rather than origins and rela-
tionships. One of the purposes of typological comparison is to arrive at
language universals — those elements and processes despite their surface
diversity that all language have in common.
C o n t r a s t i v e l i n g u i s t i c s attempts to find out simi-
larities and differences in both philogenically related and non-related lan-
guages.
It is now universally recognised that contrastive linguistics is a field of
particular interest to teachers of foreign languages.
1
In fact contrastive analysis grew as the result of the practical demands
of language teaching methodology where it was empirically shown that the
errors which are made recurrently by foreign language students can be of-
ten traced back to the differences in structure between the target language
and the language of the learner. This naturally implies the necessity of a
detailed comparison of the structure of a native and a target language
which has been named c o n t r a s t i v e anal y s i s .
1
Contrastive analysis is becoming nowadays one of the fundamental requirements in
teaching foreign languages in general. See, e. g.,
Proceedings of the Warsaw Session of the
General Assembly of the International Association of Russian Teachers
held in August
1976.
236
§ 1. Contrastive Analysis