Towards A Theoretical Framework Of The C-E Dictionary For Foreign Learners From The Cognitive Perspective

With an increasing popularity of Chinese learning all over the world, more and more scholars and learners have realized the importance of the dictionary for foreign learners. The C-E Dictionary for foreign learners is a very useful tool for helping the foreign learners to learn Chinese. Theoretically, the study of the C-E bilingual dictionary for foreign learners is far behind the practice, and most papers are limited to the technical level and short of theoretical bases and guidance.The present thesis aims at a theoretical framework of C-E bilingual dictionaries for foreign learners from the cognitive perspective so as to establish a practical model for the compilation of the C-E bilingual dictionary for foreign learners.The present thesis starts with a general introduction. The notion discrimination (definition of bilingual dictionary and cognitive perspective), the need for the study, the scope, aims and purposes, and research methods are briefly manifested. Then the organization of the present thesis is made clear respectively.To guarantee a strong theoretical basis of the study of the C-E dictionary for foreign learners, Chapter Two devotes itself to the relevant findings of cognitive linguistics, including language and cognition, categorization & the theory of prototype, image schemas and metaphor, and discusses the enlightenment of these relevant findings in the study of the C-E dictionary for foreign learners.After a review of literature on cognitive linguistics in Chapter Two, the present writer describes and analyzes the C-E dictionary for foreign learners from the cognitive perspective. Through discussing macrostructure, microstructure and mediostructure of the dictionary, the present thesis constructs a theoretical framework of the C-E dictionary for foreign learners from the cognitive perspective. In each part, the present writer reviews the achievements and puts forward his own view.Chapter Four does two case studies. One is to discuss the published C-E dictionaries, and the other is to guide the compilation of a dictionary which is under construction. In practical aspect, the present thesis reinforces the study of the C-E dictionary for foreign learners from the cognitive perspective.Four main findings in the present thesis are summarized in Chapter Five, which are the three levels in categories to guide the selection of common word list, cognitive information in microstructure, equivalents of categorization and a theoretical framework of the C-E bilingual dictionary for foreign learners from the cognitive perspective. The present writer makes use of the three levels in categories to guide the selection of a common word list in the C-E bilingual dictionary for foreign learners. Cognitive information in microstructure, which is a new term created by the present writer, includes word formation, categorization, prototypical members, encyclopedic and cultural specific knowledge and illustration. The present writer proposes that it should begin from the origin of human's cognition to find appropriate equivalents in the target language to the units of the source language in the C-E bilingual dictionary for foreign learners. The present thesis sets forth a theoretical framework of the C-E bilingual dictionary for foreign learners, including some main aspects of lexicography.