ADMISSION, ADMITTANCE 1 страница

ADMISSION,for being allowed to enter (usually a place), is the commonly used word, and it has today almost entirely displaced ADMITTANCE, which is now restricted to a few idiomatic uses, e.g. “No admittance except on business".

(Collins V. H. The Choice of Words. A Book of Synonyms with Explanations)

When the selection of the dictionary entries, the contents and structure of the entries, their order of arrangement etc. are decided upon, the lexicographer is to settle upon this or that structure of the dictionary.

In spite of the great variety of linguistic dictionaries their composition has many features in common. Nearly all of them may be roughly divided into three unequal parts.

Apart from the dictionary proper, that make up the bulk of the wordbook, every reference book contains some separate sections which are to help the user in handling it — an Introduction and Guide to the use’ of the dictionary. This prefatory matter usually explains all the peculiarities of the word-book, it also contains a key to pronunciation, the list of abbreviations used and the like.

It is very important that the user of a dictionary should read this prefatory matter for this will enable him to know what is to be found in the word-book and what is not, will help him locate words quickly and easily, and derive the full amount of information the dictionary affords.

Appended to the dictionary proper there is some supplementary material valuable for language learners and language teachers. This material may be divided into one of linguistic nature, pertaining to vocabulary, its development and use, and the other pertaining to matters distinctly encyclopaedic. In explanatory dictionaries the appendixes

of the first kind usually include addenda or/and various word-lists: geographical names, foreign words and expressions, forenames, etc., record new meanings of words already entered and words that have come into existence since the compilation of the word-book. The educational material may include a list of colleges and universities, special signs and symbols used in various branches of science, tables of weights and measures, etc.

In translation dictionaries supplementary material is in some respects different from that in explanatory dictionaries, e.g. the Russian-English dictionary referred to above does not only include a list of geographical names, standard abbreviations pertaining to the public, political, economic and industrial life, but also contains the rules of English and Russian pronunciation as well as brief outlines of English and Russian grammar.

LEARNER'S DICTIONARIES AND SOME PROBLEMS

OF THEIR COMPILATION

Nowadays practical and theoretical learner’s lexicography is given great attention to, especially in our country. Lexicographers, linguists and methods specialists discuss such problems as the classification of learner’s dictionaries,¹ the scope of the. word-list for learners at different stages of advancement, the principles of word selection, etc.

In the broad sense of the word the term learner’s dictionaries might be applied to any word-book designed as an aid to various users, both native and foreign, studying a language from various angles. Thus, we might refer to this group of word-books such reference books as Student’s Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon by H. Sweet, the numerous school-level or college-level dictionaries for native speakers, the numerous spelling-books, etc. By tradition the term is confined to dictionaries specially compiled to meet the demands of the learners for whom English is not their mother tongue. It is in this sense that we shall use the term further on.

These dictionaries differ essentially from ordinary academic dictionaries, on the one hand, and from word-books compiled specially for English and American schoolchildren and college students, on the other hand.

Though foreign language learners and children speaking the same language as their mother tongue have both imperfect command of English, it is obvious that the needs and problems of the two groups of dictionary users are altogether different. A foreign adult student of

¹ See, e.g., the discussion “What should a learner’s dictionary be like?” on the pages of the magazine «Русский язык за рубежом», also «Вопросы учебной лексикографии» под ред. П. Н. Денисова и Л. А. Новикова, М., 1969.

English even at a moderately advanced stage of learning will have pitfalls and needs of his own: among the other things he may have difficulties with the use of the most “simple” words (such as play, wipe),he may not know the names for commonest things in everyday life (such as oatmeal, towel, rug)and he will experience in this or that degree interference of his mother tongue.

On the one hand, we have users who for the most part have command of the language, who have fluent speech habits, since this language is their mother tongue; they need guidance as to which of the usage they come across is correct. On the other hand, we have users that have a limited vocabulary and no speech habits or very weak ones and who have stable speech habits in another language which is their native tongue and these native speech habits interfere with the foreign ones. That is why these users must be given thorough instruction in how the words are to be used and this instruction must be given against the background of the learners’ native language.

That is why the word-lists and the sort of directions for use for the benefit of the foreign adult learners of English must differ very widely (if not fundamentally) from those given to English or American schoolchildren.

Hence the word-books of this group are characterised by the following features:

1) by their strictly limited word-list, the selection of which is based on carefully thought over scientific principles;

2) the great attention given to the functioning of lexical units in speech;

3) a strong prescriptive, normative character;

4) by their compilation with the native linguistic background in view.

Learner’s dictionaries may be classified in accordance with different principles, the main of which are: 1) the scope of the word-list and 2) the nature of the information afforded.

From the point of view of the scope (volume) of the word-list they fall into two groups. Those of the first group contain all lexical units that the prospective user may need, in the second group only the most essential and important words are selected. To the first group we can refer A. S. Hornby’s Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (50,000 lexical units) and M. West’s International Reader’s Dictionary (about 24,000 units); to the second group — A Grammar of English Words by H. Palmer (1,000 words), and The English-Russian Learner’s Dictionary by S. K. Folomkina and H. M. Weiser (3,500 units).

As to the information afforded by learner’s dictionaries lexicographers and methodologists seem to have agreed that there should be a whole series of them. There must be a group of dictionaries presenting different aspects of the vocabulary: showing mainly the semantic structure of words (explanatory), presenting the syntagmatic relations between words (dictionaries of collocations), providing information: about the word’s structure (derivational), supplying synonymous and antonymous words, etc.

Another grouping of dictionaries reflects the practice of teaching different aspects of speech. The word-books having as their goal the ability to read scientific and technical literature in a foreign language will need a vast word-list ensuring adequate comprehension of written speech. Teaching oral speech habits requires a dictionary that contains a selected list of active words explained from the point of view of their use.

Since learners of different linguistic background will have different pitfalls in mastering the same language, will need different directions for use, different restrictive remarks, each pair of languages requires its own dictionaries, dictionaries based on a contrastive study of the learner’s native tongue and the language to be learned.¹

In this connection it must be said that Hornby’s dictionary, with all its merits and advantages, has an essential demerit — it does not take into account the user’s linguistic background, so it cannot foresee and prevent the possible language problems of this or that national group of English learners.

Not long ago Soviet lexicographers came to the opinion that separate reference books are called for teachers and learners. As far as dictionaries of English go, perhaps the first attempts at producing dictionaries for teachers are the reference books Adjectival Collocations and Verbal Collocations.

Those are the main types of dictionaries considered necessary to ensure the process of foreign language teaching. As to the present state of learner’s lexicography, it may be characterised as just coming into being, as the already existing dictionaries are few in number and they do not make a system, rather some separate links of a system.

As to the information they provide they may be divided into two groups: those giving equal attention to the word’s semantic characteristics and the way it is used in speech (these may be called learner’s dictionaries proper) and those concentrating on detailed treatment of the word’s lexical and grammatical valency (dictionaries of collocations).

To learner’s dictionaries proper issued in English-speaking countries we may refer, for example, The Progressive English Dictionary and An English Reader’s Dictionary by A. S. Hornby and E. С Parnwell designed for beginners, as well as Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English by A. S. Hornby and The New Horizon Ladder Dictionary of the English Language by J. R. Shaw with J. Shaw for more advanced students.

Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English by A. Hornby has achieved international recognition as a most valuable practical reference book to English as a foreign language. It contains 50,000 units and is compiled on the basis of COD to meet the needs of advanced foreign learners of English and language teachers. It aims among other things at giving detailed information about the grammatical and partly lexical valency of words.

¹ We are now speaking about the nature of information, not the language it is couched in. Thus we may imagine several Anglo-Russian dictionaries, each designed for a separate group of learners with a different linguistic background.

The New Horizon Ladder Dictionary includes 5000 of the most frequently used words in written English. It is called Ladder Dictionary because the words are divided in it into five levels or ladder rungs of approximately 1000 each, according to the frequency of their use (a figure in brackets attached to each word shows to which thousand the word belongs).

Compiled in our country is the English-Russian Dictionary of Most Commonly Used Words prepared by V. D. Arakin, H. M. Weiser and S. K. Folomkina under Prof. I. V. Rakhmanov’s direction. This is a vocabulary minimum of 3250 words, typical word-groups and phraseological units selected for active mastery in Soviet secondary school.

The Learner’s English-Russian Dictionary by S. Folomkina and H. Weiser does not, strictly speaking, belong to the group of dictionaries under consideration, as it is designed for use by English-speaking students of the Russian language, but is helpful as well when learning English. It contains about 3500 words.

The word-books given above differ in many respects: they are either monolingual or polylingual, they provide different information, they differ in the kind of the intended user (learners of the English language who have reached different stages in the course of their studies, adults or children of different linguistic background — English-speaking learners of Russian) and in aim (an aid to oral speech — the development of reading and writing skills) and in other features. However these dictionaries have some traits in common that distinguish them from the word-books considered in the preceding sections. They all aim at teaching how to speak, write, etc., while the tendency in modern English lexicography is not to prescribe as to usage, but to record what is actually used by speakers.

Dictionaries of collocation contain words which freely combine with the given head-word. The few reference books of this kind known to us belong to the pen of foreign compilers. For example, A. Reum’s Dictionary of English Style is designed for the Germans, Kenkyusha’s New Dictionary of English Collocations is intended for the Japanese, Adjectival Collocations in Modern English by T. S. Gorelik and Verbal Collocations in Modern English by R. Ginzburg, S. Khidekel, E. Mednikova and A. Sankin are designed for Russian school teachers and students of English.

Each of the two dictionaries of collocations prepared by Soviet linguists presents the collocability of 375 words that are used in Soviet school text-books. The presentation of the word’s grammatical and lexical valency is based on identical principles.

Compilers of learner’s dictionaries have to tackle the same cardinal problems as those of ordinary explanatory and translation dictionaries, but they often solve them in their own way, besides they have some specific policies to settle on to meet the needs of language learners to whom the book will be addressed.

The common purpose of learner’s dictionaries is to give information on what is currently accepted usage, besides most compilers seek to choose

the lexical units that foreign learners of English are likely to need. Therefore not only are obsolete, archaic and dialectal words excluded, but” also technical and scientific terms, substandard words and phrases, etc. Colloquial and slang words as well as foreign words of common occurrence in English are included only if they are of the sort likely to be met by students either in reading or in conversation. Moreover some of the common words may be omitted if they are not often encountered in books, newspapers, etc. or heard over the radio and in conversation.

Space is further saved by omitting certain derivatives and compounds the meaning of which can be easily inferred.

Alternative spellings and pronunciations are avoided, only the more accepted forms are listed.

Various criteria have been employed in choosing words for learner’s dictionaries. In the first place the selection of words is based on the frequency principle.

Frequency value, an important characteristic of lexical units, is closely connected with their other properties. That is why the word-counts enable the compiler to choose the most important, the most frequently used words.

However many methodologists and compilers of learner’s dictionaries have a tendency to exaggerate the significance of the frequency criterion. The research done in different countries (in our country and in France, for example) has shown that the frequency tables, helpful ‘as they are in the compilation of a vocabulary minimum, do not in themselves present the vocabulary minimum. While it is indisputable that every high-frequency word is useful, it is not every useful word that is frequent (e.g. carrots, fork, stamp,etc.). Consequently frequency cannot be the only point to be considered in selecting items for learner’s dictionaries as well as for other teaching materials. It must be complemented by some other principles, such as the words’ collocability, stylistic reference, derivational ability, semantic structure, etc.¹

The order of arrangement of meanings followed in learner’s dictionaries is usually empiric, that is beginning with the main meaning to minor ones. Besides the following principles of arrangement are considered proper for language learners: literal uses before figurative, general uses before special, common uses before rare and easily understandable uses before difficult. Each of these principles is subject to the limitation “other things being equal” and all are subject to the principle that that arrangement is best for any word which helps the learners most.

E.g. in Hornby’s entry for committhe first meaning is ‘perform’ (a crime, foolish act, etc.) and its primary meaning ‘entrust’ is given as its second meaning.

¹ In the dictionary under Prof. I. V. Rakhmanov’s direction the choice of words is based upon three main principles: 1) combinability, 2) lack of stylistic limitations, 3) semantic value, and four additional principles: 1) word-building ability, 2) polysemy, 3) syntactical valency, 4) frequency.

But this is not always the case. For instance, the first meaning of the word revolutiongiven by Hornby is ‘act of revolving or journeying round’ and not ‘complete change, great reversal of conditions, esp. in methods of government’, which is more common nowadays. Thus the compilers preserve the historical order of meanings in this case.

In monolingual learner’s dictionaries the same types of definitions are used, as in ordinary monolingual explanatory word-books, but their proportion is different. Encyclopaedic definitions are usually used more rarely, the role of descriptive definitions is much greater.

Compare, for instance, the definition for coaltaken from the Ladder Dictionary with that from COD given above.¹

coaln. a black, hard substance that burns and gives off heat.

It would be wrong to think however that the definitions in learner’s dictionaries are always less complete than in the dictionaries designed for native users. More often than not these definitions are not so condensed in form and they are more complete in content, because the compilers have to make up for the user’s possible inadequacy in command of the language and lack of knowledge of some realia.

Compare, for example the two entries for prepgiven below:

COD II² (abbr prep)preparation of lessons as part of school routine;

OALD [U]³ (colloq abbr prep) (time given to) preparing lessons or writing exercises, after normal school hours (esp at GB public or grammar schools): two hours’ prep; do one’s French prep;

In learner’s dictionaries cross-references are for the most part reduced to a minimum.

Compilers of learner’s dictionaries attach great importance to the language in which the definition is couched, the goal being to word them in the simplest terms that are consistent with accuracy. Some compilers see to it that the definitions are couched in language which is commoner and more familiar to the language learner than the words defined.

Some lexicographers select a special defining vocabulary held to be the commonest words in English or those first learnt by foreigners. For example, in the International Reader’s Dictionary the word-list of 24,000 items is defined within a vocabulary of 1490 words selected by M. West.

In some learner’s dictionaries pictorial material is widely used as a means of semantisation of the words listed. Pictures cannot only define the meanings of such nouns as dike, portico, domes, columns, brushes,etc., but sometimes also of adjectives, verbs and adverbs.

E.g. in Hornby’s dictionary, the definitions of the adjective concentrated,the verb claspand the adverb abreastare illustrated with the pictures of concentrated circles, clasped hands, and boys walking three abreast.

¹ See ‘Fundamentals of English Lexicography’, § 9, p. 220.

² The parallel bars in COD = not US.

³ U = uncountable

§ 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 information of a more detailed character about the lexical valency of words. Sets of words with which the head-word may combine as well as illustrative 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 aport, ~ 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 position 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 adifferent shape. See, for example, the entry for arrivetaken from the Verbal Collocations:

arrive [э'raiv] I² [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 (пароход 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 посылка пришла;

¹ The numbers in brackets indicate the number of the table presenting the type of conjugation of the Russian verb.

² The black-faced Roman numbers indicate the pattern in which the word can be used.

III. [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.) прибывать 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 necessary for language learners. For instance, Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 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 William 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 following 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 selection 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 orientation.

X. Methods and Procedures of Lexicological Analysis

It is commonly recognised that acquaintance with at least some ofthe currently used procedures of linguistic investigation is of considerable importance 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. Observation 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 observation, not on unsupported authority, logical 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 verifiable answers can be obtained.

The next stage after observation is classification or orderly arrangement of the data obtained through observation. For example, it is observed that in English nouns the suffixal morpheme -eris added to verbal 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 generalisation, 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— diggerbut 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 -eris combined with noun-stems the words denote residents of a place or profession (e.g. villager, Londoner).