Reflection On Defining Vocabulary From The Perspective Of Vocabulary Acquisition

Defining vocabulary, used for lexicographical definition, has been incorporated into metalanguage analysis for its descriptive and interpretative function. Metalanguage has drawn considerable attention at home and abroad, but study on defining vocabulary is still limited and unsystematic. The thesis reflects on defining vocabulary from the perspective of vocabulary acquisition, with the purpose to improve the quality of defining vocabulary and promote learner's vocabulary acquisition.With second language acquisition theories as the basis for discussion, the thesis firstly introduces the brief history of defining vocabulary, then probes into defining vocabulary and its relation to vocabulary acquisition: defining vocabulary, as the instrument for definition, contributes to learner's vocabulary acquisition.Secondly, the thesis collects the statistics of defining vocabulary in the aspects of quantity, words frequency, semantic distribution and so forth, and processes them with Excel and SPSS for contrast analysis. Based on the results, careful analysis is made of the strengths of high frequency on vocabulary expansion and extension, and universality on learner's language awareness cultivation. In contrast, availing of Krashen's affective filter hypothesis (1985), the thesis also analyzes the problem caused by limited number and sense ambiguity of defining vocabulary.Finally, in light of the weaknesses, suggestions for selectional criteria of defining vocabulary are proposed. Sentence definition style is strongly recommended. Effective strategies on polysemy teaching and learning are tentatively proposed. Metacognitive strategies are stressed.The author hopes through the research more and more attention will be devoted to defining vocabulary, so that it can serve best for learner's dictionary and lay a good foundation for machine translation, Natural Language Processing and large-scale thesaurus compilation.