The Perfect Learners' Dictionary (?)

Thomas Herbst, Kerstin Popp, Thomas Herbst, Kerstin Popp

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9783484309951
• eBook ISBN: 9783110947021
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Languages
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

This volume undertakes a detailed analysis of the latest generation of learners' dictionaries of English. It assembles the papers delivered at the eponymous symposium held at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg in April 1997. There are a number of reasons why these dictionaries are of special lexicographic interest: 1. the type of learners' dictionary associated notably with the name of Hornby can look back on a long tradition in British lexicography; 2. competition between various publishers since the late 70s has given crucial impetus to the development of these dictionaries; 3. these new dictionaries are decisively marked by the evaluation of large-scale computer corpora. Central to the volume is the in-depth comparison of four dictionaries published in 1995: OALD5, LDOCE3, COBUILD2, CIDE. The aim is to exemplify specific differences of approach in the four dictionaries from a wide range of viewpoints (definitions, information on valency and collocations, policy on usage examples, political correctness, etc.). A number of articles also enlarge on the history of learners' dictionaries of English, the significance of corpus linguistics for lexicography, and perspectives for the future, notably in connection with the electronic media.

Table of contents

• The Perfect Learners’ Dictionary (?)
• The 1995 English learners’ dictionaries – bibliographical references
• I. The new generation of English learners’ dictionaries: historical background – assessment of specific features – the perspective of the use
• Learners’ dictionaries in a historical and a theoretical perspective
• Syntactic information in OALD5, LDOCE3, COBUILD2 and CIDE
• Word complementation in English learners’ dictionaries – a quantitative study of CIDE, COBUILD2, LDOCE3 and OALD5
• Exemplification in EFL dictionaries
• The treatment of meaning in learners’ dictionaries – and others
• Compound nouns in learners’ dictionaries
• The treatment of collocations in OALD5, LDOCE3, COBUILD2 and CIDE
• Access structures of learners’ dictionaries
• Lexical units, suffixation, suffixes in OALD5, LDOCE3, COBUILD2 and CIDE
• The treatment of international varieties
• Lexical evolution and learners’ dictionaries
• Political correctness in learners’ dictionaries
• The advanced learners’ dictionary: syntax cum semantics
• Classroom experience with the new dictionaries: OALD5, LDOCE3, COBUILD2, CIDE
• Teachers’ demands on learners’ dictionaries
• II. Learners’ dictionaries – other dictionaries
• Semiotaxis and learners’ dictionaries
• Encyclopedic learners’ dictionaries
• On some differences between English and German (with respect to lexicography)
• Designing an English Valency Dictionary: combining linguistic theory and user-friendliness
• III. Dictionaries – corpora – perspectives
• Coverage of spoken English in relation to learners’ dictionaries, especially the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
• Needles and haystacks, idioms and corpora: Gaining insight into idioms, using corpus analysis
• Corpora and dictionaries
• Moving towards perfection: The learners’ (electronic) dictionary of the future
• Appendix: German and French abstracts