| Affixoid is an intermediate word category that stands between word and affix.It is a free morpheme with property of an affix by frequently combining with other words to form new compounds.In English,affixoids tend to form transparent compounds such as user-friendly,environment friendly;or semi-transparent compounds like childproof,foolproof.This implies that affixoid may not be regarded as exactly the same as an affix,and it enjoys its own status in English lexicon.Though affixoid has been researched sufficiently in linguistics,the lexicographic attention to it is scant.In view of the special status that affixoid enjoys in the lexicon and its value of helping users to understand and coin new words,coupled with the fact that word-formation knowledge has been increasingly emphasized in EFL dictionaries recently,it is necessary to investigate how current EFL dictionary compilers deal with this emerging morphological category.Three research questions are thus proposed:(1)How is affixoid represented in current British and American English dictionaries for advanced learners?(2)What are the deficiencies of affixoid treatment in these dictionaries?(3)What are the implications of Construction Morphology for the optimization of affixoid treatment in EFL dictionaries?The present thesis takes Construction Morphology as a theoretical perspective.Construction Morphology brings the concept of "construction" from Construction Grammar into the morphological study of words.It posits that every word in a language can be regarded as a construction,which is the pairing of form and meaning.The constructional meaning of the whole word is not always equal to the compositional meanings of its constituents.To view a word as a construction can better account for the phenomenon of semi-transparent compounds.Furthermore,Construction Morphology maintains that language speakers,through generalizing over recurring language patterns,form the schema and sub-schema which represent the rules of word formation in their minds.Schema,subschema and concrete words co-exist in the hierarchical lexicon.Construction Morphology takes affixoid as a subschema for coining compounds and considers affixoid-formed compound as a construction.The insights of Construction Morphology can provide theoretical underpinning and implications for the adequate description of affixoid in EFL dictionaries.The present study conducts a qualitative analysis of dictionary texts and,in order to reveal the contrast of affixoid treatment in quantity,necessary descriptive statistics are presented.With an aim to capture the overall picture of the affixoid treatment in English dictionaries for advanced learners,the current study selects six online British and American English dictionaries for advanced learners as the research objects:Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary Online,Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Online,Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners Online,Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary Online,Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner’s Dictionary Online,Merriam-Webster’s Advanced Learner’s English Dictionary Online.Furthermore,48 productive affixoids are selected from Collins COBUILD English Guides 2:Word Formation and other affixoid-oriented literature as the test items.To further explore the contrast,British National Corpus and English Web 2015 Corpus(13 billion words)are used for the extraction of new cases and the frequency of some affixoid-formed compounds.The present study finds that there are similarities and differences among six dictionaries in terms of inclusion,position,part of speech labeling,definitions,examples and cross-references.In sum,three common deficiencies have been pinpointed:(1)Findability issues.All of the six dictionaries have varying degrees of affixoid omission.Some productive and widely-used affixoids fail to be included;certain affixoids are not accorded the headword status but are placed within the micro structure of their corresponding word entries,which prevents users from locating them with efficiency.(2)Insufficiencies in definitions and examples.The meaning omission exists in every dictionary.The selection of examples falls short of pertinence,typicality and ingenuity.Some semi-transparent compounds in the examples are not supplied with explanatory notes.(3)The weak cross-reference system.Affixoid entries in the majority of the dictionaries are not provided with cross-reference or with few cross-reference items.These insufficiencies indicate that current EFL lexicographers have not attached great importance to the value of affixoid for the vocabulary acquisition and there is still room for the improvement of affixoid treatment in EFL dictionaries.In the light of Construction Morphology and the explicitness principle in EFL lexicography,the present thesis provides some suggestions on improving affixoid entries from megastructure,microstructure and mediostructure of the dictionary:(1)Lemmatize the affixoid and provide the explanatory information about affixoids in the outside matter of the dictionary.(2)Indicate productivity of affixoid explicitly and instruct users how to form new compounds in the definition.(3)Exploit corpora for the most typical,pedagogical and innovative affixoid-formed compounds for the selection of examples.(4)Set up usage note in some affixoid entries to encourage users to be creative in coining new words.(5)Equip suffixoid entries with comprehensive crossreferences and establish the connection between suffixoids with related meanings.The present study broadens the scope of affixoid studies,enriches the word-formation research in EFL lexicography,and provides implications for the treatment of affixoidsin English-Chinese learners’ dictionaries. |
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