English Dictionary Research Articles

Gauging the effectiveness of a mobile application for learning English phrasal verbs

Abstract This study used a mixed-methods approach to evaluate the efficacy of mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) in teaching English phrasal verbs (PVs) in a 12-week study. The participants were 122 EFL college students divided equally into an experimental and a control group. The experimental group was assigned PV learning on an iOS-based application (henceforth referred to as “app”) for eight weeks; the control group learned the same PVs through paper-based material. Pre-tests, post-tests, and weekly class tests were conducted, and one-way ANOVAs were performed to evaluate the differences between the two groups using their pre-test and post-test scores, with repeated measures ANOVA used to analyse the learning gains in weekly tests. The results revealed that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in the post-test (F = 6.09, p = .015, Cohen’s d = 0.45) and weekly tests (F = 31.68, p = .000). A Likert-scale-based e-questionnaire consisting of 19 items was administered to the experimental group to obtain their perceptions of the app’s usefulness for learning English PVs. The overall results suggest that MALL, particularly with this specific mobile app, may enhance students’ ability to understand and use English PVs, a key aspect of vocabulary skills. The findings can be used to encourage instructors to employ MALL for teaching the English lexicon for better learning outcomes in EFL settings.

Consonantal Variation of Hindi-Urdu Loanwords in Standard English: A Phonological Analysis

This study delves into the intricate phonological transformations that transpire when Hindi-Urdu loanwords are integrated into the English lexicon. Through a meticulous curation and analysis of a corpus comprising Hindi-Urdu loanwords in English, this research scrutinizes the nuanced consonantal changes that arise from the linguistic exchange between these languages. With a particular focus on the interplay between Hindi-Urdu consonantal sounds and English phonological structures, the study examines processes such as deaspiration, deretroflexion, and deuvularization, and other relevant phonetic adjustments to provide a comprehensive insight into how Standard English phonological norms impact the interpretation and articulation of Hindi-Urdu consonants within loanwords.

Complex Words as Shortest Paths in the Network of Lexical Knowledge.

Lexical models diverge on the question of how to represent complex words. Under the morpheme-based approach, each morpheme is treated as a separate unit, while under the word-based approach, morphological structure is derived from complex words. In this paper, we propose a new computational model of morphology that is based on graph theory and is intended to elaborate the word-based network approach. Specifically, we use a key concept of network science, the notion of shortest path, to investigate how complex words are learned, stored, and processed. The notion of shortest path refers to the task of finding the shortest or most optimal path connecting two non-adjacent nodes in a network. Building on this notion, the current study shows (i) that new complex words can be segmented into morphemesthrough the shortest path analysis; (ii) that attested English words tend to represent the shortest paths in the morphological network; and (iii) that novel (unattested) words receive higher acceptability ratings in experiments when they are formed along established optimal paths. The model's performance is tested in two experiments with human participants as well as against the behavioral data from the English Lexicon Project. We interpret our empirical results from the perspective of a usage-based model of grammar and argue that network science provides a powerful tool for analyzing language structure.

TEACHING ENGLISH LEXICON BASED ON COMPETENCY APPROACH IN A DIGITAL EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT

This article discusses the issues of teaching English lexicon based on a competency approach in a digital educational environment during the current era of advanced science and technology.

Exploring the Effectiveness and Specific Teaching Methods of English Etymology in Expanding Mental Lexicon for College Students

English etymology, as a discipline that studies the origin and development of words, reveals the intrinsic connection and meaning of vocabulary by tracing the historical background, etymology and semantic evolution of words, which not only helps learners to understand the deeper meaning of vocabulary, but also expands and builds their English mental lexicon effectively, thus helping students achieve effective vocabulary enhancement in a short time. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of English etymology in the construction and expansion of mental lexicon, analyze its actual teaching methods, and demonstrate its application and effect in educational practice.

English Vocabulary Learning System Web Based Using Rapid Application Method

English lexicon dominance is one of the imperative viewpoints in dialect learning at the Kindergarten (TK) level. Be that as it may, ordinary strategies utilized in lexicon learning are frequently less curiously and less successful in spurring understudies to memorize. The foundation of this think about is the require for a more interactive learning framework that's in understanding with innovative advancements to back the educating and learning handle at TK Al Amanah. The issue confronted is how to plan a lexicon learning framework that can increment students' intrigued and understanding successfully. As a arrangement, this consider proposes the improvement of a web-based English lexicon learning framework utilizing the Fast Application Advancement (RAD) strategy. The RAD strategy was chosen since it is able to create quick models and include clients in each organize of improvement, so that the coming about system can be more in agreement with the requirements of clients, in this case understudies and instructors at TK Al Amanah. The framework developed includes highlights such as intelligently works out, advanced flashcards, and tests planned to create it simpler for understudies to memorize and get it lexicon. The investigate strategy includes needs examination, framework plan, model advancement, testing, and assessment. The trial comes about appear that this framework isn't only able to extend understudy inspiration and interest, but too gives comfort for instructors in conveying learning materials. Hence, this web-based learning framework offers an innovative solution that can bolster the method of educating English lexicon at the kindergarten level

Empowering voices: Breaking mental health stigma

Empowering voices: Breaking mental health stigma John Hoey and Mary Cannon from Department of Psychiatry, RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dublin, Ireland, share their research around breaking mental health stigma to empower voices. Research consistently shows that people from marginalised groups are almost four times as likely to experience mental conditions such as psychotic symptoms than the majority population (van der Ven et al., 2022). Yet, they are much less likely to seek timely clinical intervention or reach out to friends and family for support. Why is this, and what can be done to encourage people to seek help? In our April 2024 blog “Can the Arts be an Effective Tool to Combat Psychosis Stigma,” we described stigma, as defined in the Oxford English Dictionary, as “Negative feelings that people have about particular circumstances or characteristics that somebody may have.” Although in recent years, attitudes towards certain mental conditions such as anxiety or depression have become more ‘normalised’ and openly discussed, other conditions, such as psychotic symptoms, remain stubbornly stigmatic and shrouded in fear. When it comes to mental health, those who both fear most, and are the subjects of fear, are marginalised groups, which can negatively impact both engagement and recovery.

Introduction to the Proceedings of the 2023 Symposium ‘Historical English Word-Formation’

It has not yet been ten years since Klaus Dietz (2015: 1915) prophesised that "[f]uture research work [on historical word-formation in English] will profit by two kinds of new instruments: firstly, by the Dictionary of Old English (DOE) and its Web Corpus, by the Middle English Dictionary (MED) and by the nascent third edition of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), and secondly, by new corpora of historical English." The proceedings of the 2023 symposium respond to those predictions in manifold ways. Under the heading ‘Historical English Word-Formation’, the organisers of the symposium intended to “bring together researchers studying diachronic English word-formation and to showcase current research in this area” (Majewski 2023: 287). Although no particular temporal, thematic, or methodological focus was asked for, the five essays provide answers to some of the general questions that the symposium had initially raised, namely: How have large-scale corpus analyses and respective computational tools helped us study diachronic changes in the formation of new words? Which recent insights are there into the frequency and productivity as well as the rules and restrictions of word-formation units and patterns in the history of English? Further, which roles do regional, social, medial, and other factors as well as text types and (non‑)literary genres play for the creation of new words? The five contributions to this special issue of ZWJW illustrate that, as Dietz had anticipated, the study of word formations in past stages of English has profited extremely from the advances made in computational research and Artificial Intelligence, yet they also delineate both their advantages and limitations.

INGLIZ VA O‘ZBEK TILLARIDAGI LUG‘ATLARDA SINONIMLARNING LEKSIKOGRAFIK TALQINI

Synonyms are a very important factor for making human speech expressive and fluent. In order to use synonyms in speech, it is important to understand the nuances of meaning behind them and be able to use them correctly. Below are examples of synonyms from dictionaries compiled for use by speakers and lexicographic interpretations of synonyms in them. Several english and uzbek dictionaries and examples from them were used to express these synonyms.

The Impact of Literary Discourse on the Evolution of English Lexicon

This study explores the significant role of literary discourse in the evolution of the English lexicon, analyzing how works by authors such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, and Joyce contributed to the development of new words and meanings. By combining qualitative and corpus-based methods, the research highlights the creative and innovative use of language in literary texts, tracing how words originating in literature entered mainstream usage. The study examines the influence of different genres, particularly drama and prose, on lexical expansion and discusses how literary creativity extends beyond word invention to reshaping existing terms. Findings suggest that literary texts serve as crucial drivers of linguistic change, shaping the dynamic evolution of English vocabulary across centuries. Future research may explore the impact of digital literature and other modern forms of media on lexical growth.

EXPRESS: Stratified Distributional Analysis - a Novel Perspective on RT Distributions.

Response times and their distributions serve as a powerful lens into cognitive processes. We present a novel statistical methodology called Stratified Distributional Analysis (SDA) to quantitatively assess how key determinants of response times (word frequency and length) shape their distributions. Taking advantage of the availability of millions of lexical decision response times in the English Lexicon Project and the British Lexicon Project, we made important advances into the theoretical issue of linking response times and word frequency by analysing RT distributions as a function of word frequency and word length. We tested these distributions against the lognormal, Wald, and Gamma distributions and three measures of word occurrence (word form frequencies obtained from subtitles and contextual diversity as operationalized as discourse contextual diversity and user contextual diversity). We found that the RT distributions were best described by a lnorm distribution across both megastudies when word occurrence was quantified by a contextual diversity measure. The link between the lnorm distribution and its generative process highlights the power of SDA in elucidating mechanisms that govern the generation of RTs through the fitting of probability distributions. Using a hierarchical Bayesian framework, SDA yielded posterior distributions for the distributional parameters at the single-participant level, enabling probabilistic predictions of response times as a function of word frequency and word length, which has the potential to serve as a diagnostic tool to uncover idiosyncratic features of word processing. Crucially, while we applied our parsimonious methodology to lexical decision response times, it is applicable to a variety of tasks such as word-naming and eye-tracking data.

Arabic Loanwords in Kamus Dewan Perdana: Questions of Etymology, Word Class and Definition

Kamus Dewan Perdana (KDP) is the largest and most complete dictionary of the Malay language (ML) and is the latest edition of the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP), which targets ML native speakers and non-native speakers who are proficient in using ML. This study aims to identify Arabic loanwords (AL) in KDP and analyse questions of their entry regarding the aspects of etymology, word class, and definition from the perspective of users and researchers by using Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) as the methodology. The findings of this study found a total of 2847 entries of AL in KDP, which include 66% labelled Arabic (Ar) and 34% unlabelled. This study also found seven questions regarding AL entries in the KDP from the aspects of etymology, word class, and definition. Three questions arise from the etymological aspect, namely, (1) the inconsistent omission of etymological labelling, (2) the differences in terms of etymological labelling between KDP and Kamus Dewan Edisi Keempat (KDE4), and (3) justification for the source language information of the loanword placed at the end of the entry in the KDP; a question arises from the aspect of word class, which is the inconsistency in word class labelling for AL expression entries; and three questions from the aspect of definition, namely (1) the inaccuracy in the definition of homonymous word variations in KDP, (2) the absence of definition of the AL entries in the KDP and (3) the deletion of AL entry in the KDP. The results of this study serve as user feedback, which contributed to DBP as the body responsible for improving the compilation of KDP as well as other dictionaries such as Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI), Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (CALD), Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English New Edition (LDCENE), Oxford English Dictionaries (OED), and Concise Oxford English Dictionaries (COED). This improvement will in turn be able to provide complete vocabulary information to the user community, both among native speakers and non-native speakers.

Modern tendencies in learner’s lexicography (as exemplified in English spelling dictionaries)

Modern tendencies in learner’s lexicography (as exemplified in English spelling dictionaries)

French Loanwords in English cr-phonaesthemic group

Introduction. The article examines the influence of French borrowings on the process of development of phonaesthemic sound symbolism in the English language. Phonaesthemes work as a language instrument of semantic structuring of meanings of groups of words with similar form. The article aims to identify how French borrowings influenced the set of semes characteristic of the English phonaesthemic group cr-.Methodology and sources. The preselected 62 English words with the initial cr- consonant cluster borrowed from French, were analyzed for their possible influence on the respective English phonaesthemic group. 25 words were confirmed to be phonaesthemic. The words were selected from the Oxford English Dictionary by targeted sampling. Etymology, if necessary, was further verified after French etymological dictionaries Le Littré and Trésor. Theoretical framework for this research are the works of Mikhalev (phonosemantic field theory), Leonardi (on Latin phonaesthemes) and Bottineau (on French iconic words). Methods applied in the research are etymological and phonosemantic analyses. French loanwords included and not included in the English phonaesthemic group were analysed separately.Results and discussion. The data analyses have shown that in case the shared semes of the CR- word group in the donor language coincide with those of the recipient language, loanwords seem to augment and strengthen the tendency to form phonaesthemic groups. Otherwise, new words remain outside the English phonosemantic field of the group in question. Phonotactic restrictions may also leave such loanwords outside the studied phonaesthemic group. French loanwords of Germanic origin seem to demonstrate stronger sustainability in language as compared to those of Latin origin. Words of French origin appear to be onomatopoeic only.Conclusion. The results of the study demonstrate that French loanwords had a limited effect on the English cr- phonaesthemic group. French loanwords have expanded the group and strengthened the tendencies formed within the native English word group.

Evaluating the Typographical Features of "Word of the Day" in Online English Learner's Dictionaries Based on a Multimodal Communicative Approach

The emergence of online electronic dictionaries has brought convenience to English learners. The "Big Five" in English learning dictionaries have kept up with the pace of the times, and have established their own websites which are now working as online dictionaries, so that users can use any device which is connected to the Internet to access consultations for words. On the basis of previous studies, this paper aims to focus the research on "Word of the Day", a section unique to nowadays online dictionaries, and conducts an analysis of this section in the "Big Five" learner's dictionaries from the perspective of multimodality and typographical features.

Evolution of the Moral Lexicon.

Morality is central to social well-being and cognition, and moral lexicon is a key device for human communication of moral concepts and experiences. How was the moral lexicon formed? We explore this open question and hypothesize that words evolved to take on abstract moral meanings from concrete and grounded experiences. We test this hypothesis by analyzing semantic change and formation of over 800 words from the English Moral Foundations Dictionary and the Historical Thesaurus of English over the past hundreds of years. Across historical text corpora and dictionaries, we discover concrete-to-abstract shifts as words acquire moral meaning, in contrast with the broad observation that words become more concrete over time. Furthermore, we find that compound moral words tend to be derived from a concrete-to-abstract shift from their constituents, and this derivational property is more prominent in moral words compared to alternative compound words when word frequency is controlled for. We suggest that evolution of the moral lexicon depends on systematic metaphorical mappings from concrete domains to the moral domain. Our results provide large-scale evidence for the role of metaphor in shaping the historical development of the English moral lexicon.

Enhancing the English natural language processing dictionary using natural language processing++

<p><span lang="EN-US">Every natural language-based project requires the use of an English dictionary. But the current English dictionaries are not updated as the English language is constantly evolving. The English dictionary used for natural language processing (NLP) projects needs to be enhanced by adding more words and phrases. This helps in improving the accuracy of NLP applications such as machine translation, performance of text analysis, recognition, and part of speech (POS) tagging. Several approaches are proposed in this direction, this paper develops and demonstrates enhancement of the English dictionary using a more versatile and robust programming language known as NLP++, a plugin to distributed big data analytics platforms such as HPCC systems. The unique features of NLP++ language is the enabler for realization of the proposed approach. This paper also discusses key NLP techniques, dictionary refinements analysis using NLP and NLP++. The results show that the proposed approach using NLP++ has significantly improved the accuracy and comprehensiveness of the English dictionary.</span></p>

ASSESSING THE REPERCUSSIONS OF DICTIONARY FORMATS ON SCHOLARLY WRITING OUTCOMES: UNDERTAKING MIXED-METHOD APPROACH

The complexity of foreign vocabulary and the multifaceted meanings of word combinations often pose significant challenges to language learners, potentially deterring their motivation. Dictionaries, however, serve as pivotal tools in surmounting these obstacles. Extant research has extensively explored the intersection of language acquisition and dictionary utilization, revealing a marked preference among EFL students for online or electronic dictionaries over traditional paper formats. Despite the recognized importance of dictionary use in fostering language proficiency, there remains a notable paucity of research investigating the specific impact of different dictionary formats on learners' writing skills. This study adopted a quasi-experimental between-groups design, including a control group and two experimental groups, involving a cohort of 67 Chinese EFL graduates from an international college in China. Over a ten-week experimental period, participants in the experimental groups utilized digital and paper dictionaries as reference aids for abstract writing, whereas the control group was deprived of any dictionary usage. Following the experiment, a semi-structured interview was conducted to assess the benefits of dictionary use in abstract writing and to elicit learners' perceptions of digital versus print English dictionaries. The weekly abstract writing submissions from all three groups were collected and meticulously analyzed. The findings revealed that both digital and paper dictionaries significantly enhanced the abstract writing performance of the Chinese EFL graduates in the experimental groups. Notably, participants who used digital dictionaries demonstrated a substantial and statistically significant improvement in overall abstract writing quality and language usage compared to those in the print-dictionary group. Furthermore, the study reported that digital dictionaries were particularly favored by Chinese EFL graduates due to their numerous advantageous attributes, including their reliability and efficacy in identifying appropriate linguistic expressions and vocabulary. In conclusion, the empirical evidence underscores the efficacy of digital dictionaries in augmenting the writing skills of EFL learners, suggesting a potential pedagogical shift towards the integration of digital lexicographical resources in language education curricula.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0705/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Linguistic modeling of the discursive practice of “cancel culture” (based on definitions in English online dictionaries)

Linguistic modeling of the discursive practice of “cancel culture” (based on definitions in English online dictionaries)

On Organology: Introduction to the Organology Special Issue

ABSTRACT Organology, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, concerns “the study of the history of musical instruments.” This very narrow definition focuses on the past, and perhaps frames the field as a division of broader historical scholarship. But if you ask an organologist for a definition of organology, their answer will invariably point to a broad range of fields stretching across the humanities and sciences. This introduction to the double special issue, and the nine articles within, consider organology through various approaches, demonstrating the reach of the field beyond object-based study, and nodding to the possibility of an expanded field.