On The Description And Presentation Of Semantic Prosody Information In English-Chinese Learner's Dictionaries

Semantic prosody is one of the hot topics in the research area of corpus linguistics.Explicit knowledge about it can help Chinese English learners understand the speaker's hidden idea and produce idiomatic English.Studies have found that the language performance of Chinese advanced English learners reflects an insufficient awareness towards the semantic prosody information of English lexical items.As an indispensable tool for Chinese learners to master the foreign language,English-Chinese learner's dictionaries(ECLDs)are supposed to attach importance to the linguistic phenomenon and provide adequate information in the text so as to facilitate learners'learning activities.However,the treatment of such information in ECLDs is unsatisfactory,a deficiency which is likely to mislead and cause unnecessary confusion for the user.Based on the literature on corpus linguistics,semantic prosody in second language learning and the cause of semantic prosody errors in English production,this study first analyzed the three key elements of semantic prosody,i.e.connotation,collocation restriction,and evaluative meaning;then summarized three attributes of semantic prosody,i.e.a hierarchical structure,typical usage of a lexical item,and hidden meaning,which served as theoretical guidance for the improvement of the description and presentation of semantic prosody information in ECLDs.Two surveys are conducted during the process of the research.The first is dictionary text survey.The author selected four groups of synonymous lexical items from three parts of speech and examined how they were treated in four sample ECLDs.The second is a diagnostic test of 20 items aimed at advanced English learners to find out the problems of semantic prosody reflected from students' test result.Altogether 65 Master of Translation and Interpreting(MTI)students participated in the test.The dictionary survey showed that there were several problems in the description and presentation of semantic prosody information in ECLD:the semantic prosody information provided in the ECLDs is not typical enough;the semantic prosody information in ECLDs is not explicit enough;the description and presentation of the semantic prosody information lacks consistency.The result of the diagnostic test showed that students have difficulty in mastering the specific linguistic knowledge:they are not clear about the difference and connections among a group of synonymous lexical items with semantic prosody in the aspect of connotation,collocation restriction,and evaluative meaning;they tend to overuse a lexical item with mixed semantic prosody in a context that expresses negative attitude,and ignore the fact that it could be equally appropriate to be used in a positive context;they circumvent a mistake by overusing a lexical item with mixed semantic prosody.On the basis of theoretical considerations,the dictionary survey,and the diagnostic test,the author proposed a model that systematically describes and presents semantic prosody information,which suggests three principles to improve the treatment of semantic prosody information in ECLDs.(1)Typicality.The connotation,typical collocates,and evaluative meaning of the lexical item should be provided in ECLDs.(2)Explicitness.ECLDs should employ clear ways to show the connotation,typical collocates,and evaluative meaning of the lexical item.(3)Consistency.Since semantic prosody is a hierarchical concept with three components,ECLDs should be consistent in the typical description and explicit presentation of semantic prosody information.Finally,some suggestions to further optimize the description and presentation of semantic prosody information in ECLDs were put forward.In macrostructure,ECLDs should give the lexical items with semantic prosody headword status.In microstructure,the Chinese equivalents should reflect the connotation of the prosodic lexical items in ECLDs;more typical collocates that show the collocational restriction should be included;more full-sentence examples that indicate the appropriate evaluative meaning should be added.At the same time,semantic prosody information should be presented explicitly.Some available choices include:adding glosses before the equivalents;using italics,boldface,or collocation boxes to highlight the typical collocates;making use of the Chinese translation to reveal the evaluative meaning.In mediostructure,establish cross-reference among the items within a group that shares similar denotation but different semantic prosody,so as to clarify their relatedness and difference.In magastructure,a passage can systematically and explicitly introduce semantic prosody to the dictionary userIt is hoped that this study can provide some theoretical and practical implications for learner lexicography.