English Dictionary Research Articles

"Young people are calling for more action on what they say is a climate emergency": English learner's dictionaries and the global environmental issue

"Young people are calling for more action on what they say is a climate emergency": English learner's dictionaries and the global environmental issue

English School Science Dictionaries: A Comparative Analysis

ABSTRACT: Science is transferred and represented through its terminology. The acquisition of specialized knowledge is progressive and begins in elementary school. Even though science dictionaries for primary school students greatly facilitate this type of knowledge acquisition, such dictionaries are difficult to find, especially in languages such as Spanish. In contrast, English has a wide variety of pedagogical lexicographical resources. However, bilingual school science dictionaries are practically non-existent. This paper describes and compares a set of eight monolingual English school science dictionaries with a view to discussing what should be considered for the future design of a bilingual English–Spanish school science dictionary.

Do we learn from mistakes? The usefulness of examples of errors in online dictionaries

AbstractThe aim of this paper is to investigate the usefulness of examples that show typical learner errors in online pedagogical dictionaries of English for the accuracy of error correction as well as immediate and delayed retention of usage. The optimal positioning of examples of errors in entries is also researched. In an online experiment, participants did a sentence correction exercise with the help of purpose-built monolingual dictionary entries, where the provision and positioning of examples showing errors were controlled. Two test versions were created, which differed only in the presence of examples of errors in the entries. Usage retention was observed immediately after the test and two weeks later. The results indicate that it is worthwhile to include examples of errors in online learners’ dictionaries because they contribute greatly to the retention of usage in the long run. They also help to rectify errors, though the effect is not statistically significant. The positioning of examples showing errors in entries has no influence on error correction accuracy or usage retention. The study reveals examples of errors to be a valuable induction-oriented stand-alone dictionary component placed outside warning boxes, which typically include explicit grammar rules and promote deduction.

АВСТРАЛИЗМЫ В СОВРЕМЕННЫХ СЛОВАРЯХ АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА, КОРПУСАХ И СИСТЕМАХ ИСКУССТВЕННОГО ИНТЕЛЛЕКТА

The research examines the quality of Australian English words generated by a popular AI chatbot and compares the usage of regional labels in contemporary English dictionaries that are freely accessible online. The results are analyzed with the help of a standard reference on Australian English and a web-based newspaper and magazine corpus.

Trends in the development of vocabulary for emotion and cognition in English: A millennial perspective

Existing research has shown that there is much variation in diachronic development and borrowability rates across different semantic fields in English, but most work up to now has focused on specialized or technical vocabulary, rather than fields associated with how people express and conceptualize their feelings and thoughts. While some studies have explored the historical evolution of the emotion lexicon (e.g., Diller [2014]) and, to a lesser extent, the cognition lexicon (e.g., Kiricsi [2010]), the contrastive study of these semantic categories has yet to be a focus in the research landscape. Therefore, this paper aims to explore the development of the cognition and emotion lexicon over a period of thousand years, from Old to Present-Day English. We compare the emergence of words in these two semantic fields across three key dimensions: semantic subfields, source languages of roots and morphological structure. For this purpose, we created a sample of approx. 1400 nouns on the basis of the Historical Thesaurus of English (HTE; categories: 02.01 mental capacity and 02.04 emotion) and analysed their etymology with the help of the Oxford English Dictionary. To annotate the lexical items in our sample, we used the methods of formal-morphological analysis (e.g., Tyschenko [2003]; Krykoniuk [2022]) and semantic analysis (e.g., Pons-Sanz [2022]; HTE [2023]). We analyse our sample with clustering techniques (i.e., Principal Component Analysis and Correspondence Analysis) to determine general trends across the two lexicons (e.g. a greater involvement of Latin roots and compounding in the formation of the cognition lexicon, and Norse-derived roots and conversion in coinage of nouns referring to emotion), as well as specific features of each period of the English language (e.g. the significant impact that the Middle English period had on the lexicalization of memory, fear, compassion, pleasure and suffering, and the early integration of French-derived terms, as suggested by word-formation processes).

Loanwords and polysemy: An investigation of specialized domain lexis in Middle English

This study investigates the polysemy of French loanwords in Middle English, analysing the attested senses of loan lexis in three occupational domains. Senses recorded in the Dictionnaire du moyen français and the Anglo-Norman dictionary were compared with corresponding lexical entries in the Middle English dictionary. Out of over 100 Middle English items borrowed from French, it is found that the great majority were polysemous in ways reflecting the source language semantics. This outcome contrasts with the usual finding that foreign borrowing in modern contexts produces monosemous loanwords. The conclusion is therefore drawn that the process of borrowing from French was of a different nature in the English medieval period. It is argued that bilingual users of French were agents of borrowing who replicated source word polysemy in their English. The likelihood that senses matching those of the French etymon arose in Middle English independently of source language polysemy is considered, but rejected.

The Structure of English Dictionaries

The Structure of English Dictionaries

Https://medialing.ru/proekt-povorota-sibirskih-rek-dinamika-prezentacii-v-tekstah-sovetskih-smi/

This article discusses how US and UK liberal media slowly but surely created a skewed representation of 45th US President Donald Trump. Asserting that the media are biase and the images of Donald Trump in print media show political slant of the newspapers, the research analyzes partisan media and image portraying words therein. Usage labels enable identification of the ever-powerful lexical instrument used by the media to create a distorted image of the politician and manipulate the citizens; therefore, the paper aims to analyze evaluative lexical items used in media texts to mould required images of Donald Trump. The research examines the articles on Donald Trump’s key activities in early 2020 in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Guardian, and the Independent. The methodological framework includes the data of the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA), which is evenly divided between the five genres of spoken discourse, fiction, popular magazines, newspapers, and academic journals. Analyzing words in terms of their usage frequency in each of these genres provides a clear picture of the target audience. The Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners provides the most precise and comprehensive classification of the style labels, including “formal”, “informal”, “literary”, “impolite”, “showing disapproval”, “journalism”, and “phrasal verbs”. This combination of the corpus-based approach and the dictionary-based approach resulted from the need to supplement the research with quantitative and qualitative data to study manifestations of political slant in the media holistically. Analyzing image portraying words in the media enables us to describe the key evaluative vocabulary, study Donald Trump’s profile and interpretations of his activities in the liberal media, identify political bias and distortion of facts in mass communications, and define new trends in journalism, medialinguistics, and political communication.

The Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction

ABSTRACT: The Historical Dictionary of Science Fiction ( HDSF ) is an online dictionary on historical principles dedicated to the vocabulary of English-language science fiction. Based on a project started at the Oxford English Dictionary , the HDSF contains approximately 1,500 entries and 12,000 quotations, many of which are linked to full views of their original publications or to bibliographic databases. It is regularly updated with new entries. This article describes the history of the project, the editorial decisions that inform it, the design of the dictionary, and the technical platform that runs it. It also discusses the future of the project, including the possibility of expanding it to cover related fields, such as video games or comics.

Acculturation of American English as Philippine English: An affective critique

This paper posits that Philippine English is a Filipino nativized variant of General American English, a unique linguistic outcome shaped by the historical imprints of Western Colonialism under Spain and the United States. Employing a Qualitative Research design, specifically a reader-response critique, the study delves into the acculturated lexicon processing of Philippine English. The findings indicate that English has evolved into the functional native tongue of Filipinos, serving diverse functions across linguistic and cultural groups. Filipinos demonstrate a tendency to overgeneralize word meanings and utilize derivational suffixes creatively. Notably, the preservation and widespread use of archaic or obsolete words persist in contemporary discourse. The Filipino English lexicon showcases analogical constructions, clippings, and coined words, contributing to the evolution of language. Spanish loanwords further enrich this linguistic tapestry. The study concludes that Philippine English is indeed a Filipino nativized variant of General American English. Recommendations include the creation of a monograph detailing English words and their functions in the Philippine context. Additionally, educators are urged to disseminate research insights within educational institutions or to higher authorities, fostering a deeper understanding of Philippine English and informing potential language education enhancements.

Adelung’s English-German dictionary (1783, 1796)

Summary This article examines Johann Christoph Adelung’s English–German dictionary (1783, 1796). The dictionary deserves our attention because it was undertaken by the author of a ground–breaking German dictionary (Adelung 1774–86, 2 1793–1801), working from Samuel Johnson’s equally epoch–making English dictionary (1755, 41773). Yet the work has thus far been almost entirely overlooked. This article seeks to address that research gap. It reveals the very significant differences between the first dictionary volume (1783) and the second (1796), and argues that the second volume – for which a dictionary by Johannes Ebers is a major source (Ebers 1793–1794) – is almost certainly not the work of Adelung at all. Close analysis of the first volume nevertheless reveals the care that Adelung took with it, drawing not just on Johnson, but also on his own German dictionary and other sources, resulting in a dictionary that was innovative in English–German lexicography. I also show that Adelung’s experience of preparing the English–German dictionary informed his revision of his better–known German dictionary (1793–1801) in at least two concrete ways: his treatment of pronunciation and his use of metalinguistic labelling.

DEFINING THE SAME LEXEMES IN ONLINE DICTIONARIES: A CASE STUDY OF THREE POPULAR MONOLINGUAL ENGLISH DICTIONARIES

In this paper we presented the different ways in which three monolingual online English dictionaries (Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Online, Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries and Merriam-Webster Dictionary) define the same lexemes that belong to different language levels (from A1 to B2). Aside from the formal elements present in all of the (online) dictionaries – part of speech, pronunciation, examples, register, pictures and synonyms, we highlighted the very nature of the definitions. We studied two lexemes for each of the language levels. When analising individual examples we employed the descriptive method, while the comparison method was used to point out the key differences in which these dictionaries define concepts such as: artist, government, immortal, meanwhile, etc. The aim of the analysis and comparison was to highlight which of the aforementioned dictionaries would be suitable for high school students to use when learning English as a foreign language. We came to the following conclusions – Longman and Oxford dictionaries break down the more complex meanings into digestible instances and use language that is appropriate for the language level of the desired lexeme. Webster’s dictionary is more formal and often uses sentence patterns and words that are above the language level of the target lexeme.

The brand names of craft gins in South Africa*

Abstract Gin has become a very popular alcoholic drink, and is often used with various other mixers, often including fruit. The definition ( Collins Paperback English Dictionary ) reads as follows: “an alcoholic drink distilled from malted grain and flavoured juniper berries” (1994: 351). One of the most common drinks is gin mixed with tonic water, but there are also others mixers involved. Recently, in 2020, a competition was held in South Africa, with a panel of assessors tasting a wide variety of gins, and many who supplied their gin products with the brand names thereof achieved gold and silver medals for their entries of mainly craft gins. The purpose of this contribution is to analyze the various craft gin names in South Africa, as well as the names of the producing firms, distilleries, and estates. Within the context of onomastics, the focus is therefore on the actual name of the brand as it appears on the label, as well as on the location where it was produced, hence it is a combination of brand and location.

The problem of dictionary interpretation of the names of natural objects in the context of data from an associative experiment

Background. Difficulties in constructing dictionary definitions for nouns — nominations of natural objects — are caused by the fact that in the process of learning about such realities, people discover many different aspects of them. Among them, it is difficult to single out those that could be considered the most essential or integral. Because of this, the definitions of the same language unit in different dictionaries differ significantly in terms of the number and content of differential features.Contribution to the research field. The authors have the idea of identifying correlations between the results of associative experiments and the content of the definitions of natural objects, which are given in explanatory dictionaries of various languages.Purpose. The purpose of the study is to show to what extent data on a certain natural object, obtained directly from the native speaker of linguistic and cultural consciousness during associative experiments, correlate with definitions in general (non-terminological) dictionaries.Methods. A free associative experiment with further analysis of its results, a component analysis of definitions from explanatory dictionaries, as well as procedures for comparing the data of the experiment and the results of the component analysis were applied.Results. The authors came to the conclusion that in the minds of speakers of the Ukrainian language, the concept of a comet is represented as a complex combination of minimal scientific knowledge and ideas, which are transmitted in society mainly orally as elements of traditional folk culture. The analysis of 14 definitions, which were selected from dictionaries of Bulgarian, English, Polish, Russian and Ukrainian languages, showed that lexicographers prioritise scientific knowledge about the comet, ignoring the pragmatic meanings that speakers associate with this celestial body.Discussion. The authors of the study believe that a direct appeal to the consciousness of the speakers by means of an associative experiment can give lexicographers information about the current ideas of the speakers about certain realities. The experiment allows identifying those conceptual features that have the status of being relevant.

The Development of ESP Lexicon Through New Combining Forms

This paper investigates the role of new combining forms in the formation of neologisms which are currently expanding the lexicon of English for Special Purposes (ESP). In the past, only neoclassical combining forms, such as initial bio- or final -logy (in biology), were productively used in ESP. Nowadays, specialized combining forms also include abbreviated forms of existing words (e.g., cyber- from cybernetic in cyber-attack), as well as secreted (i.e. reinterpreted) forms (e.g., -bot from robot denoting ‘a type of automated program or software’ in knowbot). The paper explores a set of combining forms attested since the second half of last century in the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) with the aim to demonstrate how specialized sectors, such as science or information technology, are being enriched by series of combining-form combinations. The paper conducts quantitative analyses in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) and the News on the Web Corpus (NOW) to substantiate the frequency and stability of specialized combining forms and their profitability in the formation of both novel and nonce words.

Online English Monolingual Learner’s Dictionaries

Due to the development of technology, well-established publishers began to provide their English Monolingual Learner's Dictionaries (MLDs) online and free of charge. Dictionaries of this type have their own history, as well as common and distinctive features. The article presents a brief outline of the subsequent stages of the development of English Monolingual Dictionaries, with special reference to MLDs available online. Also, the article includes a synthetic description of the primary and secondary components of a dictionary entry and demonstrates if these components are present or absent in three online Monolingual Learner's Dictionaries: the Cambridge Dictionary, the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, and the Oxford Learner’s Dictionary. The article aims to characterise, compare and contrast some of the features of a typical entry in online English MLDs. Consequently, the scientific approach adopted in the analysis is a mixture of the comparative and the empirical method. Unlike previous topic-related research, the present study shows both common and distinctive features of the mentioned dictionaries and hints at their practical advantages (from the point of view of the end user).

Translation methods applied to translate Polish types and names of administrative law authority bodies into English – a case study.

The paper aims to discuss Polish terms that name authority bodies under the administrative law and their English equivalents. The Polish terms under analysis appear in the first Division of the Polish Code of Administrative Procedure of 14 June 1960 and the English equivalents of each Polish term researched have been suggested in the Polish Code of Administrative Procedure translation into English. The research problem is to determine the translation methods applied and to verify whether translation methods used in the Polish-English translation of the above terms which have been determined as culture-specific items appear among translation methods applied when translating culture-specific elements suggested by Hejwowski (2007). Furthermore, to verify whether the mentioned translation methods appear among the translation methods discussed by Weston (1993) which are recommended to be applied while translating legal terms. The theoretical part of the paper includes a presentation of the definitions of a legal term, culture-specific item and the classification of translation methods by Hejwowski and Weston. The research stages include the comparison of definitions of source elements and definitions of their equivalents, as long as they appear in monolingual English law dictionaries.

Verbalization of the Lexeme «LOVE» in Modern Animated Films

The article discusses the verbalization of the lexeme «LOVE» in modern animated films of American production at the beginning of the XXI century (family and adventure genre). 
 In the theoretical part, lexicographic interpretations of love given in Russian and English dictionaries were presented, the study of this concept in the works of S.G. Vorkachev was considered, and a working definition of love as a feeling of deep sympathy or attachment to animate and inanimate objects was formulated.
 In the practical part of the study, 121 examples were identified and analyzed that maximally verbalize the lexeme «LOVE» in the monologue and cartoon characters' dialogical speech.
 As a result of the study, it was revealed that the feeling of deep attachment manifests itself in subject-subject relationships (in the family, between partners, friends, colleagues, fans, as well as to oneself) and subject-object relationships (to pets, actions, states, place of stay). Individual cases of love have been identified as destructive.
 A percentage analysis of the frequency of use of the lexical unit «LOVE»
 has established the leading position of the manifestation of a sense of deep affection in family relationships. This is followed by partner love, love for pets, objects,
 friendly love, love for states, for the place of stay, for actions, destructive love.
 The least number of examples fell on fanatical and selfish love.
 Thus, the manifestation of a sense of deep affection and sympathy between
 all family members is the main indicator of the strong and positive emotional and
 mental states of the American nation.

Intertextuality, World Literature and Migration: Dictionaries and the Female Body in Najat El Hachmi’s L’últim Patriarca and Xiaolu Guo’s A Concise Chinese–English Dictionary for Lovers

This essay argues that globalization has textual implications and leads to increasing similarities between literary texts that emerge from the experience of migration but are located in disparate contexts. These textual entanglements are unintended but not necessarily arbitrary, since they are deeply rooted in today’s high interconnectivity between people, economic systems and cultural artefacts. The essay bridges the gap between the fields of world literature and literary theory by complementing Julia Kristeva’s notion of intertextuality with a contextual approach that adds understudied aspects of migration, multilingualism, gender and the market as key factors in discovering new resemblances between texts in a transnational context. By defining migration literature as a genre characterized by an open-ended web of intertextual relations and conceiving of intertextuality – the intersection of texts – as a concept that mirrors the crossing of different cultures that goes hand in hand with globalization, the essay also takes world literature studies into new directions. The essay shows how world literature’s focus on circulation and centre–periphery dynamics has implicitly favoured a narrow understanding of intertextuality as an intended world literary device that does not account for less linear crossings. Through a comparative analysis of A Concise Chinese–English Dictionary for Lovers by the Chinese-British author Xiaolu Guo and L’últim patriarca by the Catalan-Amazigh writer Najat El Hachmi the essay examines the processes of linguistic and sexual maturation that are at the core of both narratives of migration. The intertextual entanglements between these novels can be explained neither through conscious practices of rewriting nor through notions of intertextuality that focus exclusively on aesthetic matters and leave aside the cultural dimensions of globalization, but through a new approach that highlights the similarities between different subjectivities of migration and the social embeddedness of literature in a global context.

The Effectiveness of OpenAI GPT-Generated Definitions Versus Definitions from an English Learners’ Dictionary in a Lexically Orientated Reading Task

Abstract In metalexicographical research, experts have judged the performance of technologies such as OpenAI Generative Pretrained Transformer (GPT) in lexicographic production tasks as promising yet inferior to human lexicographers. It remains unclear whether this perceived inferiority limits the effectiveness of AI-generated lexicography in resolving practical language doubts. Accordingly, this study compares the effectiveness of AI-generated definitions to those from the Macmillan English Dictionary (MED) in resolving vocabulary doubts in a multiple-choice reading task designed to test lexical knowledge. It involves 43 L2 English users in the third year of an English studies degree at a Spanish university. Students provided with MED definitions performed better on the reading task than those without access to definitions. However, there was no significant difference between the performance of students with either MED definitions or without definitions altogether, and those provided with AI-definitions. The implications of these findings are discussed along with avenues for further research.