6 Lexis and lexicography
6.7 Further major innovations (1990 onwards)
Other major and influential contributions to EFL lexicography have continued with subsequent editions of the Longman Dictionary of Con-temporary English (LDOCE, 2nd edn, 1987; 3rd edn 1995) and the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (OALD, 5th edn, 1995). Cambridge University Press have also published a learner’s dictionary: the Cambridge International Dictionary of English (CIDE, 1995). Although influenced by COBUILD’s computational methodology and in particular by the now established pre-requisite of a corpus of linguistic evidence, subsequent innovations and developments have uniquely evolved according to different presentational principles.
In terms of corpora, both LDOCE and OALD have benefited from the British National Corpus (BNC) – a corpus of 100 million words of written and 10 million words of spoken English – in the development of which both publishers (Longman and OUP; see Bibliography of language corpora for full details) have been partners. Additionally, Longman has further extensive corpora of American English which inform all dictionaries including the Longman Dictionary of American English, the Longman Lancaster Corpus (LLC ) – a corpus of 30 million words of written English – developed with advice from Prof. Geoffrey Leech at Lancaster University and a 10-million-word learner corpus including written texts from students at all levels from over 70 different language backgrounds. The latter is designed to provide evidence of the kinds of lexical mistakes most frequently made by learners as well as guidance concerning the kinds of words most likely to be understood by learners of English in dictionary definitions and explanations. Evidence from spoken corpora, in particular, has informed LDOCE (1995) in that the top 3,000 most frequent words in speech (as opposed to writing) are marked out for special attention. See the diagram given near the entry for mean in LDOCE (1995) at Figure 6.5.
Other particularly characteristic features of LDOCE (1995) include:
1 a continuing adherence to a finite defining vocabulary and to varied definition styles. However, of the words referred to in Section 6.2, bac-teria, arch, conscience, determine and empire have all been removed from 170 Lexis and lexicography
the 1995 edition of the defining vocabulary which is being constantly revised in the light of research with users. Another avowed aim is, where possible, to define the unit of meaning rather than individual words; this means that there are regular entries for phrases as well as for words.
Selection restrictions on particular word forms are also clearly indicated.
2 a newly introduced feature called ‘signposts’ to aid learners with the disambiguation of polysemous items. Signposts help the learner to make mental connections with the word in the context in which they encountered it.
3 corpus-based but not corpus-bound materials. Examples are given in an order which is most likely to help the learner rather than solely on the basis of the relative frequency of the exemplified sense. Authentic citations from the corpus are similarly not always helpful to the learner and in LDOCE it is an important principle that pedagogic mediation should precede the reality of the example.
See the example entry from LDOCE (1995) in Figure 6.6.
Figure 6.5 Frequencies of the verb mean in spoken and written English.
Source: LDOCE, 1995.
Figure 6.6 A dictionary entry for freak.
Source: LDOCE, 1995.
freak1
4 control freak
| a freak of nature
/fri:k/ n |C| 1 bike/fitness/film etc freak infor-mal someone who is so interested in bikes, fitness etc that
who looks very strange or behaves in a very unusual way: Women who were good at physics used to be con-sidered freaks. 3 something in nature, such as a
( something physically strange or unusual) By some freak of nature there was a snowstorm in june.
someone who always wants to control situations and other people
strangely shaped plant or animal, that is very unusual:
One of the lambs was a freak - it had two tails.
juice is a favuourite with health food freaks. 2 someoneother people think they are strange or unusual: Carrot
Based on the British National Corpus and the Longman Lancaster Corpus
Frequencies of the verb mean in spoken and written English
1000
WRITTEN SPOKEN
2000 3000 per million
This graph shows that the verb mean is much more common in spoken English than in written English. This is because it is used in a lot of common spoken phrases.
The fifth edition of OALD (1995) and the first edition of CIDE (1995) similarly contain numerous innvovations. CIDE draws on the 100-million-word Cambridge Language Survey (now the Cambridge International Corpus, or CIC ), with an emphasis on different national variations in English use and containing practical yet inventive features such as lists of false friends in English in comparison with fourteen other languages. CIDE also contains guide words which in the case of polysemous words orient the reader to the main or core meaning of the words listed in a single entry.
OALD (1995) represents a marked extension of a number of key features and some innovations in other areas, with the 1995 edition offering a treat-ment of 2,800 new words and meanings when compared with earlier editions.
Additional features include: 90,000 corpus-based examples (drawn from the 100-million-word British National Corpus and the 40-million-word Oxford American-English Corpus); notes and illustrated pages giving information on cultural differences between British and American English; extensive usage notes covering areas of grammar and meaning which cause difficulty; and a defining vocabulary (now expanded to 3,500 words) is retained for purposes of definition and explanation. Figure 6.7 illustrates these features in the form of a sample dictionary page.
6.7.1 Lexicography and English-language learning: Contrasts and comparisons
Table 6.1 summarizes some basic data about the four main learner’s dictionaries (CCED [COBUILD], CIDE, LDOCE and OALD), versions of which were all published in 1995. Comparisons between these dictionaries depend, however, on the criteria adopted for comparison and the grounds can never therefore be entirely neutral, nor can any comparison be entirely valid without extensive empirical testing with users. However, among the evalu-ative frameworks to which reference needs to be made, at the very least according to the publishers’ own criteria, are:
1 clarity of definition and explanation, and the extent to which defining vocabularies assist in this aim;
2 authenticity, naturalness and pedagogic mediation of examples;
3 ease of access to the most frequent uses and core meanings (which are, of course, not necessarily identical);
4 the extent to which words are shown in natural syntactic and collocational environments;
5 the extent to which polysemous words and words which have different meanings in different phrasal forms is appropriately explained; ease of access to them;
A detailed comparison of these dictionaries is given in a special feature of the International Journal of Lexicography; see in particular, Bogaards (1996) 172 Lexis and lexicography
miss 746
. . . .
M
here. miss out (on sth) (infml ) to lose an opportunity to benefit from sth or to enjoy oneself: If I don’t go to the party. I’ll feel I’m missing out.
missing adj 1(a) that cannot be found or that is not in the usual place; lost: The book had two pages.
missing/two missing pages. The hammer is missing from my tool-box. (b) not present: He’s always missing when there’s work to be done. 2(a) (of a person or an animal) absent from home and impossible to find: a police file on missing persons They reported that their child had gone missing. Our cat’s been missing for a week. (b) not present after an accident, a battle, etc but not known to have been killed: 26 passengers on the liner were reported (as) missing. the missing n [p1 v]:
Captain Jones is among the missing.
missing link n (usu sing) a thing needed to complete a series.
miss3 /ms/ n a failure to hit, catch or reach sth that one has tried to hit, catch or reach: score ten hits and one miss The ball’s gone right past him – that was a bad miss (ie one he ought to have stopped, caught, etc). See also . IDM give sth/sb a 1miss (Brit infml ) 1 to omit sb/sth: I think I’ll give the fish course a miss. 2 to decide not to do sth one normally does: I think I’ll give badminton a miss (ie not play it) tonight.
missal /msl/ n a book containing the prayers. etc used at Mass throughout the year in the Roman Catholic Church.
misshapen /msʃerpən/ adj (esp of the body or a limb) not having the normal shape: not formed normally.
missile /msal; US msl/ n 1 an object or weapon that is thrown at fired a: a target: Missiles hurled at the police included stones and bottles. ⇒ picture. 2 an explosive weapon directed at a target automatically or by means of an electronic device: ballistic/nuclear missiles missile bases/sites/launching pads. ⇒ picture. See also
.
mission /mʃn/ n 1 a group of people sent, esp abroad, on political or commercial business: a British trade mis-sion to China go/send sb on a fact-finding mission 2(a) a group of religious people sent esp to remote areas to teach others about Christianity: a Catholic/Methodist mission in Africa. (b) a building or group of buildings where the work of these people is done: a mission station/school/hospital. 3 a particular task done by a person or a group: a top-secret mission mission control/headquarters The squadron flew a reconnais-sance mission. 4 a particular aim or duty that one wants to fulfil more than anything else: Her mission in life is to help AIDS victims.
missionary /mʃənri; US -neri/ n a person sent to teach the Christian religion to people who are ignorant of it:
Catholic/Anglican missionaries missionary work
speak with missionary zeal (ie great enthusiasm and faith).
missis = .
missive /msv/ n (fml or joc) a letter, esp a long or official one.
misspell /msspel/ v (pt, pp misspelled or mispelt /-spelt/) to spell sth wrongly: [Vn] My name had been misspelt.
misspelling n.
misspend /ms1spend/ v (pt. pp misspent/.spent/) (esp passive) to spend or use one’s money, time, etc fool-ishly or wrongly: [Vn]: misspent energy a misspent
youth.
missus (also missis) /msz/ n 1 (infml or joc) (used after the, my, your, his) a person’s wife: How’s the missus (ie your wife)? My missus hates me smoking indoors. 2 (sl) (used as a form of address to a woman): Are these your kids, missus? Compare 2.
mist /mst/ n 1 [U,C] a cloud of tiny drops of water hang-ing just above the ground. Mist is not so thick as
but is still difficult to see through: hills hidden/shrouded in mist Mist patches on the roads are making driving difficult. (fig) The origins of the story are lost in the with tiny drops of water: [Vn, Vnp] Her breath misted (up) the window-pane. [Vp] The mirror has misted up. [V, Vpr] His eyes misted (with tears). PHRV mist
over to become covered with mist: When I drink something hot, my glasses mist over. His eyes misted over.
misty /msti/ adj (-ier, -iest) full of or covered with mist:
not bright or clear: a misty morning misty weather/
hills misty rain misty eyes/colours. mistily adv.
mistake1 /mstek/ n 1 an action or opinion that is fool-ish or wrong: an error of judgement: This isn’t my bill – there must be some mistake. I made a mistake about Julie – she’s quite nice really. It was a big mistake to send her to boarding-school. A week after the wedding she realized she had made a terrible mistake. 2 a word, figure, sum, etc that is not correct: spelling mistakes The waiter made a mistake in adding up the bill
DV and no mistake (infml) without any doubt: She’s a strange woman and ‘no mistake’, by mistake acci-dentally: in error: I took your bag instead of mine by mistake make no mistake (about sth) (infml) do not be deceived into thinking otherwise: Make no mistake (about it), we’re facing a major financial crisis.
NOTE Compare mistake, error, blunder, fault and defect. They all refer to something that has not been done correctly or properly. Mistake is the most general and used in most situations: The letter had quite a few mistakes in it. Going on a camping holiday with young children was definitely a mistake. Error is used when talking about calculations, and in technical or formal contexts: I think there are a few errors in your calcula-tions. A blunder is a stupid or careless and quite ser-ious mistake made because of bad judgement: A hos-pital blunder led to 500 cancer patients getting the wrong radiation treatmeat.
Fault emphasizes a person’s responsibility for a mis-take: Tom broke the window, but it was my fault for letting him play football in the house. A fault can also be an imperfection in a person or thing: There was a design fault in the train doors. I accepted my father’s faults because I loved him. A defect is a serious imper-fection: The causes of many birth defects have not yet been discovered.
mistake2 /msterk/ v (pt mistook /mstok/ pp mistaken / msterkən/) 1 to be wrong or to get a wrong idea about sb/sth: [Vn] I must have mistaken your meaning/what you meant. You can’t mistake their house – it’s painted bright green. [Vn-adj] She mistook his smile as indi-cating agreement. [Vn to inf] I mistook you to mean that you wanted to come. 2 – sb/sth for sb/sth to suppose wrongly that sb/sth is sb/sth else: [Vnpr] She is often mistaken for her twin.
. . . .
[Vn to inf ] = verb + to infinitive [Vn.inf (no to)] = verb + noun + infinitive without to [V.ing] = verb + -ing form
Figure 6.7 A sample dictionary page.
Source: OALD, 1995.
Table 6.1 Some data about four learner’s dictionaries of English
LLC – Longman Lancaster Corpus (30 million words) BNC – British National Corpus (100 million words) OAEC – Oxford American English Corpus (40 million words) BE – Bank of English (200 million words; as of 1994) CLS – Cambridge Language Survey (100 million words)
and Herbst (1996). See also Béjoint (1994). Cameron (1998) raises valuable issues concerning the absence of diachronic information in many modern dictionaries arguing that important cultural and ideological inflections become thereby deleted.