| Abstract |
The research reported below investigates the user-fnendliness of sources of verb syntax in learners' dictionaries, as measured by the frequency with which the properly identified and useful syntactic information is located in the sources. The sources in me entries compiled for me purpose of the experiment were the ones which feature in the four major pedagogical dictionaries most recent at the time of the study, i.e., OALDCE6, LDOCE3, COBUILD2 and CIDE. 606 subjects, divided into two groups of different proficiency in English, underlined in the manipulated entries the syntactic information which they considered helpful in answering multiple choice questions. The results indicate that examples were in general the most user-friendly source of verb syntax, although pattern illustrations, if present, were consulted more often by the more advanced. Besides, contextual definitions proved more user-friendly than analytical ones. It has also been found that while the use of symbols for functional categories in verb codes as well as the better knowledge of the language boosted the user-friendliness of codes, placing codes in the extra column had an opposite effect. |
| BibTex |
@InProceedings{ELX04-074,
author = {Anna Dziemianko},
title = {Verb syntax in monolingual English learners' dictionaries: a study of user-friendliness },
pages = {683-691},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 11th EURALEX International Congress},
year = {2004},
month = {july},
date = {6-10},
address = {Lorient, France},
editor = {Geoffrey Williams and Sandra Vessier},
publisher = {UniversiteĢ de Bretagne-Sud, FaculteĢ des lettres et des sciences humaines},
isbn = {29-52245-70-3},
} |
