A Corpus-based Study on Collocation of Examples in Chinese Dictionaries for Foreign Learners

Abstract

This paper analyzes the features manifested in the usage of the Chinese synonyms of “Chansheng” (“to emerge”) and “Fasheng” (“to occur”) in language use data corpus and the explanatory information as illustrated in usage examples provided in dictionaries for language learners. A comparison is made of the two types of analyses. The analyses reveal some discrepancies between usage examples and use authenticity in that usage examples provided in dictionaries lack representativeness and sufficiency in connotation meanings. Error analyses of learners’ use of the pair of the synonyms in Chinese suggest that an absence of considering factors concerning the learners might lead to inadequate use of the Chinese synonyms.