A Survey of Register Labelling in Japanese Dictionaries: Towards the Labelling of Words in Dictionaries for Learners of Japanese

Abstract

Writing by learners of Japanese as a foreign language often contains words that do not fit the style of their context. One possible reason for this is the lack of information on word connotation and usage labels in existing dictionaries. The present study examines the current state of connotational information and register labels in Japanese learner’s dictionaries, Japanese language dictionaries and dictionaries of synonyms, and proposes a possible technique for analysing the words’ descriptions. The study reveals that Japanese learner’s dictionaries and dictionaries for Japanese native speakers use different register labels and assign them from a different perspective. In the case of synonyms, presenting them in their context of use appears to be more useful than only listing them. Finally, the Balanced Corpus of Contemporary Written Japanese (BCCWJ - Gendai Nihongo Kakikotoba Kinkoo Koopasu) is used to show how corpora can be a very important linguistic resource for the analysis of lexical register.