商务英语学习型词典选词目的优化

CHAPTER ONE  INTRODUCTION

Although  many  researches  concerning  entry  word  selection  and  arrangement  in ESP dictionaries have been made in recent years, they are rather broad and general, and most of them are stagnating at a theoretical level. To be more specific, studies on entry  word  selection  and  arrangement  conducted  from  the  perspective  of  Business English majors in China are still left in vacancy.  Hence, it is of necessity and significance to probe into the specific needs from a particular  group  of  learners  when  selecting  and  arranging  entry  words.  The  present research  is  set  out  to  find  out  solutions  to  remedy  the  deficiencies  of  entry  word selection  and  arrangement  in  existing  BELDs  for  the  benefits  of  Chinese  college Business English majors, in the hope of filling the blank in this field and making some contributions to further researches.  On  the  basis  of  above  observation,  this  thesis  makes  an  attempt  to  probe  into  the specific  needs  of  Business  English  majors  in  Chinese  colleges  concerning  the selection  and  arrangement  of  entry  words  under  the  guidance  of  lexicographic function theory (LFT). Then, the deficiencies of entry word selection and arrangement in the current BELDs are revealed by a contrastive analysis of three BELDs and one general  purpose  English  dictionary  in  the  theoretical  framework  of  Atkins  and Rundell’s  model  for  headword  list  (2008:178).  Moreover,  three  main  principles  for optimizing  entry  word  selection  in  BELDs  are  proposed,  and  a  tentative  “A”  letter headword list is presented. Some suggestions for improving entry word selection and arrangement  in  existing  BELDs  are  put  forward  in  the  end.  The  significance  of present research mainly lies in the following aspects: The objective of present research is to reveal the deficiencies of entry word selection and arrangement in existing BELDs and to find some feasible ways to optimize them, on  the  basis  of  Chinese  college  Business  English  majors’  specific  requirements  for entry  word  selection  and  arrangement.  Three  research  questions  which  will  be addressed are as follows: 1) What are the specific requirements of Chinese college Business English majors for entry word selection and arrangement? 2) What are the deficiencies in existing BELDs concerning entry word selection and  arrangement,  in  line  with  the  specific  needs  of  Business  English  majors  in Chinese colleges? 3)  How  to  optimize  entry  word  selection  and  arrangement  to  remedy  the deficiencies  in  existing  BELDs  in  the  light  of  Chinese  college  Business  English majors’ specific needs? 
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CHAPTER TWO  RELEVANT STUDIES ON ENTRY WORD SELECTION AND ARRANGEMENT

2.1 Principles of Entry Word Selection 
Since it is impossible to exhaust all the words in a dictionary, some principles of entry  word  selection  are  dispensable  in  any  type  of  dictionaries,  just  like  Landau (2001:357)  has  demonstrated  that  “even  an  unabridged  dictionary  must  have principles  of  selection  and  must  exclude  many  thousands  of  words  and  expressions because they are obsolete, rarely used, or too specialized for a general dictionary”.   Zgusta  (1971:240)  believes  that  the  individual  factors  which  influence  the lexicographer’s decision can be grouped into the following two broad categories: 1) the  form  of  the  lexical  unit;  2)  the  density  of  the  lexical  units  included  in  the dictionary.  In accordance with Al-Kasimi (1977:109), the practical level would be enhanced if the entry word selection of one dictionary is measured by the following four criteria: 1) the entry words selected by dictionaries include related morphemes; 2) each entry word is in relevance to the given subject; 3) entry words include idioms and two-word verbs;  4)  entry  words  contain  cultural-bound  words,  such  as  the  names  of  people, places and literature works.    Svensén (1993:41) specifies ten general principles that should be obeyed in entry word  selection—that  is,  authenticity,  representativeness,  coverage,  suitability,  the prescriptive  aspect,  the  social  aspect,  the  stylistic  aspect,  the  time  aspect,  the geographical aspect and the aspect of technical language.  Based on a systematic and neat analysis about entry words as lexical units, Akins and Rundell (2008:178) have summarized the lexical properties that should be taken into  account  when  deciding  headwords  that  would  best  meet  users’  need,  in  which they mainly divide headwords into common words and proper names. According to their  findings,  when  selecting  a  common  word  as  a  headword,  word  class,  lexical form, lexical structure and vocabulary types are the four perspectives that need to pay attention to; and proper names fall into three classifications, i.e. people names, place names and other names.      Among  all  the  principles  and  factors  deciding  on  headwords  mentioned  above, Atkins  and  Rundell’s  theory  is  standing  out  for  it  systematically  concludes  as complete as the factors—lexically, semantically, and grammatically—when selecting entry words.

2.2 Methods of Entry Word Selection 
The traditional way of selecting entry words depends largely on dictionary compilers’ intuition on the basis of a large quantity of card or paper file analyses.  Pan Xuelian (2001) provides us with a classic example of entry word selection by using  traditional  methods.  At  the  preliminary  stage  of  the  compilation  of  Modern Chinese Dictionary (1978), more than 1 million cards and paper files containing about 200,000 Chinese words had been collected, from which the lexicographers picked up 5,300 words as the entry words. Large as the quantity of cards and paper files are, the information  conveyed  by  traditional  methods  is  limited  and  yet  not  accurate. Therefore,  dictionary  compilers  are  required  to  possess  rigid  academic  and professional knowledge so as to make up the inadequacy of language material.  Landau  (2001:360)  gives  a  more  detailed  description  of  traditional  methods  of entry word selection: “In former years, the word list was compiled in a card or paper file, with each proposed lexical unit on a separate card or slip. This allowed space for other information, such as the source from which it was obtained, its part of speech, its  status  as  a  main  entry  or  run-on  derivative,  an  indication  as  to  whether  it  was  a general or a specialized word (and, if the latter, what specialty), and perhaps a symbol representing its degree of importance in the dictionary. Optional words could then be cut to conserve space at a later time.” To further improve the accuracy of dictionary word lists, Landau (2001:360-361) has  suggested  that  Thorndike  prepared  a  study  of  the  lexicon  in  1950s  for  the Thorndike-Barnhart  dictionaries  to  provide  guidance  that  reflects  the  distribution  of lexical  units  in  the  alphabet.  Based  on  his  study,  he  divided  the  alphabet  into  105 approximately equal units, called blocks. The block system is helpful to check on the criteria used by different compilers working in different parts of the alphabet. If one’s word list shows that “E” has as many entries as “S”, for example, one should suspect that whoever selected the terms for “E” was far more permissive than the one for “S”, and  adjust  the  word  list  accordingly.  Here  comes  the  question—will  the  overall distribution of words according to their initial letters change rapidly since languages keep  changing?  Landau  (2001:361)  proclaims  that  he  once  used  Thorndike’s  block system in several different dictionaries and found it a helpful guide in fashioning the word list. That is to say, Thorndike system still remains a fairly reliable guide to the alphabetic distribution of lexicon, which, in a sense, will shed some light on the entry word selection in making new dictionaries. 

CHAPTER THREE   CHINESE COLLEGE BUSINESS ENGLISH MAJORS’ NEEDS FOR .. 15

3.1 Design of Direct Observation and Questionnaire Survey ............................ 16

3.2 Analysis of the Results ............................... 19

CHAPTER FOUR   DEFICIENCIES OF ENTRY WORD SELECTION AND ... 29

4.1 Dictionaries Involved in the Present Research .................................... 29

4.2 Deficiencies in the Selection of Entry Words ................................. 30

CHPTER FIVE   PROPOSED PRINCIPLES FOR ENTRY WORD SELECTION AND... 49

5.1 Proposed Principles ................49

CHAPTER SIX  FEASIBLE SUGGESTIONS FOR ENTRY WORD SELECTION AND ARRANGEMENT 

6.1 Suggestions for Entry Word Selection in BELDs
There should be a relatively higher ratio of abbreviations and multiword expressions as entry words in BELDs than that in general purpose English dictionaries.  It is true that many words in general English may have many potential collocates which drastically decrease in Business English. Therefore, the considerable number of business terminologies presented as multiword expressions are particularly important for BELDs, since the potential users may not recognize them as significant units of meaning, cannot usually compose them, and will have problems understanding them in business context.  Some  partial  words,  especially  those  frequently  used  in  business  context  and helpful  for  the  learners’  vocabulary  acquisition,  should  also  be  treated  as  separate entry words, such as anti- and ex-, and non-, etc. Two perspectives of vocabulary types are involved in this section: 1) From the perspective of business relevance, Business English vocabulary can be  classified  into  technical  terms,  sub-technical  terms  and  function  words.  It  is recommended  that  ever  more  sub-technical  and  function  words  should  be  covered unless the sufficiency of technical terms is guaranteed.  2)  From  the  perspective  of  subject  fields  involving  in  business  activities,  it  is commonly believed to be the more the better. However, more attention should be paid to the balance of entry words distributed in different subject fields, and the set up of subject labels are of assistance for the potential users to output Business English.

6.2 Suggestions for Entry Word Arrangement in BELDs
The cross-reference structure is defined as the arrangement of explicit or implicit indications  that  helps  the  users  to  find  relevant  or  supplement  information  (Wenjun 2000).  With  a  great  number  of  confusable  words  in  Business  English  vocabulary, cross references may avail the potential users of connecting separated information of these confusable words in BELDs. For example, by adding “SEE ALSO” in each of the  entries  presented  below,  the  three  confusable  business  terms  more  semantic connected: In  this  chapter,  in  order  to  better  satisfy  the  specific  needs  from  Chinese  college Business  English  majors,  some  suggestions  for  the  optimization  of  entry  word selection and arrangement in existing BELDs have been proposed. The framework of the  present  research  can  be  presented  in  figure  5-2.  In  accordance  with  the  specific needs from Chinese College Business English majors discussed under the guidance of LFT,  some  feasible  suggestions  have  been  proposed  for  the  optimization  of  entry word  selection  and  arrangement,  of  which  entry  word  selection  is  specifically elaborated through Atkins and Rundell’s headword list model. 
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CHAPTER SEVEN  CONCLUSION 

The present research focuses on selecting and arranging entry words on the basis of a contrastive analysis among three existing BELDs and OALD8, in the light of specific requirements from Business English majors in Chinese colleges. Major findings are as follows:   1)  Chinese  college  Business  English  majors’  specific  needs  for  entry  word selection and arrangement have been revealed, including: the students tend to check a large proportion of words that are commonly used in general English in a dictionary; they  expect  to  see  business  terms  with  Chinese  culture-bound  meanings  and  the common senses of sub-technical terms included in BELDs; they are in favor of setting up duplex structure within entries in BELDs.   2)  Deficiencies  in  existing  BELDs,  concerning  entry  word  selection  and arrangement,  have  been  investigated.  It  has  been  proved  that  there  is  a  lack  of consideration of the characteristics of Business English vocabulary with a huge gap between the subjects’ needs and the entry word selection and arrangement in existing BELDs.   3)  Three  principles  of  entry  word  selection  and  arrangement  for  BELDs  have been  proposed—the  principle  of  balance,  the  principle  of  high  frequency  and  the principle of specialism.  Theoretically speaking, since the previous research in the area of entry word selection and arrangement in specialized lexicography for ELDs, the present study attempts to fill this gap and appeal academic focus on theoretical research of entry word selection and arrangement in BELDs especially from Chinese college Business English majors’ perspective. Practically speaking, the deficiencies of existing BELDs in terms of entry word selection  and  arrangement  have  been  revealed,  and  an  “A”  letter  headword  list  has been  tentatively  generated  from  the  self-built  corpus  targeting  Chinese  college Business English majors so as to provide a practical method for entry word selection in BELDs.
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