An Empirical Study Of The POS Labeling Of "X性" Words In The Chinese-English Dictiornary (3^rd Edition)

Parts of speech （POS for short）labeling in dictionaries is essential and useful,which plays as an important role in helping the foreigner to better learn Chinese, aswell as providing an effective source for the linguists who study Chinese characters.Though the importance of POS labeling in Chinese-English dictionaries（C-Edictionaries for short） has been recognized in recent years, researches in this filed arestill incomplete and many problems are waiting to be settled. One of them is theconfusing POS labeling conditions of words ended with suffix in C-E dictionaries.Many experts holds that it is the meaning of the suffix that determines the POS statusof such words, while through a full-sample investigation of "X性" words inChinese-English dictionary(the3^rd edition)（CED3for short）, we find out that it is notthe truth. Then a scientific empirical study of the POS labeling of "X性" words is inneed.This paper will adopt usage-based theory as its theory basis. This theorysuggests that a language construction derives from its usage in daily life, andlanguage will also change through its usage process. And the corpus, a tool whichcan properly provide the natural usage conditions of certain words, can workeffectively in helping tagging the parts of speech of "X性" words. The research willchoose CED3as a reference, where209"X性" words are selected out. Then the POSlabeling conditions of these209words will be studied in CED3, Chinese-EnglishDictionary (1^st edition)（CED1for short） and Chinese-English Dictionary (2^ndedition)（CED2for short） and Contemporary Chinese Dictionary（5th edition）（CCD5for short）. This preliminary result reveal many inconsistent and improper points inthe POS labeling conditions of "X性" words, and2large Chinese corpora will beapplied in the following study. After this full-sample investigation in corpus andanalysis of the statistic result, the following conclusions can be received: firstly,"X性" words have more than one POS, namely, noun, adjective, verb, adverb and multi-category. Secondly, the treatment of labeling the POS of "X性" words by thesuffix "性" is improper and unreasonable. Thirdly, when labeling the POS of "X性"words, C-E dictionaries should investigate the practical usage patterns of "X性"words with the help of the large scale corpus, but not on the basis of Chinesedictionaries.This thesis has focused on an empirical approach in studying the POS identityof "X性" words, and an objective and in-depth result will be reached in the end. Thisresearch has its own distinct innovations, which could not only do some help in theidentification of POS of words ended with suffix, but also make some usefulcontributions to the compilation of Chinese-English dictionaries.