Setting a good example. What kind of examples best serve the users of learners’ dictionaries?

By November 17, 2016,
Page 357-362
Author Liz Potter
Title Setting a good example. What kind of examples best serve the users of learners’ dictionaries?
Abstract Some have argued that learners are better served by examples that are, to a greater or lesser degree, invented by lexicographers than by examples selected from a corpus. This paper argues that learners are best served by carefully chosen corpus examples, not only because these represent the language as it is actually spoken and written, but also because learners can rely on the validity and accuracy of the information which the examples contain. It is argued that wholly or partially invented examples are not equally reliable reflections of usage, and that the large corpora available today give ample scope for finding suitable examples even for infrequent words and phrases.
Session PART 4 - The Dictionary-Making Process
Keywords examples, learners' dictionaries
BibTex
@InProceedings{ELX98_2-007,
author = {Liz Potter},
title = {Setting a good example. What kind of examples best serve the users of learners' dictionaries?},
pages = {357-362},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 8th EURALEX International Congress},
year = {1998},
month = {aug},
date = {4-8},
address = {Liège, Belgium},
editor = {Thierry Fontenelle, Philippe Hiligsmann, Archibald Michiels, André Moulin, Siegfried Theissen},
publisher = {Euralex},
isbn = {2-87233-091-7},
}
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