Language awareness as a prerequisite for a successful use of lexicographic resources
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Martina Nied Curcio
Abstract
Although foreign language learners use online dictionaries, dictionary apps and translation tools for language issues quite naturally, it cannot always be assumed that they have adequate competence in using them, even if they are digital natives. There are many reasons for this. When consulting dictionaries, users mainly look for single-word equivalents and rarely, if at all, do they search for phrasemes. This generally leads to inaccuracies in the foreign language. Well-developed language awareness, coupled with the use of language comparison and metalinguistic reflection, seems to play a fundamental prerequisite for a successful use of linguistic and lexicographic resources in foreign language learning (Frankenberg-Garcia 2011, Ranalli 2013, Wolfer et al. 2016, Nied Curcio 2020). In this regard, it is important that foreign language learners are aware that words are connected to each other and that it is therefore often not useful to look up single words in lexicographic resources. Furthermore, learners need to be aware that the combination of words is language-specific and cannot be translated 1:1 between languages. The aim of the present study was to approach the relationship between language awareness and adequate use of lexicographic resources, testing the hypothesis whether higher language awareness actually leads to more adequate use of lexicographic resources and thus to a more successful use of the language studied. The study should be seen as a first exploratory approach to the topic and its results, while interesting, but is not generally valid; too few subjects and language pairs were involved. Further, broader studies that meet all the quality criteria of empirical studies are necessary.
Abstract
Although foreign language learners use online dictionaries, dictionary apps and translation tools for language issues quite naturally, it cannot always be assumed that they have adequate competence in using them, even if they are digital natives. There are many reasons for this. When consulting dictionaries, users mainly look for single-word equivalents and rarely, if at all, do they search for phrasemes. This generally leads to inaccuracies in the foreign language. Well-developed language awareness, coupled with the use of language comparison and metalinguistic reflection, seems to play a fundamental prerequisite for a successful use of linguistic and lexicographic resources in foreign language learning (Frankenberg-Garcia 2011, Ranalli 2013, Wolfer et al. 2016, Nied Curcio 2020). In this regard, it is important that foreign language learners are aware that words are connected to each other and that it is therefore often not useful to look up single words in lexicographic resources. Furthermore, learners need to be aware that the combination of words is language-specific and cannot be translated 1:1 between languages. The aim of the present study was to approach the relationship between language awareness and adequate use of lexicographic resources, testing the hypothesis whether higher language awareness actually leads to more adequate use of lexicographic resources and thus to a more successful use of the language studied. The study should be seen as a first exploratory approach to the topic and its results, while interesting, but is not generally valid; too few subjects and language pairs were involved. Further, broader studies that meet all the quality criteria of empirical studies are necessary.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Patterns of meaning in lexicography and lexicology 1
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Section 1: Lexicographical issues: The phraseological dimension of language in learner’s lexicography and the PhraseBase project
- Introduction to the PhraseBase project 15
- A theory for a usage-based cognitive lexicography 19
- Exploring BERT’s contextualized word embeddings: a suitable method for a lexicography-oriented analysis of argument structures? 91
- Towards a phrase-based active dictionary 111
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Section 2: Theoretical issues
- Verb senses and argument semantics: From linguistic theory to lexicographic practice 119
- Valency vs. Patterns: What do corpora tell us about argument structure? 139
- Layer upon layer, mistake after mistake – a case for learner’s dictionaries? 159
- Patterns of meanings between syntax and lexicon. a lexicological and lexicographic overview of italian partially lexically specified constructions 181
- A carry-coals-to-Newcastle exercise: The nature of phraseological units and their place in a constructicon of english 207
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Section 3: Methodological issues
- Language awareness as a prerequisite for a successful use of lexicographic resources 239
- Regular polysemy in Spanish nouns: corpus analysis and some implications for lexicography 257
- No word is an island: The phraseological nature of lemma in interlingual comparison 277
- Analysing, compiling, and representing argument pattern structures: From form to meaning and back 297
- Index 317
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- Patterns of meaning in lexicography and lexicology 1
-
Section 1: Lexicographical issues: The phraseological dimension of language in learner’s lexicography and the PhraseBase project
- Introduction to the PhraseBase project 15
- A theory for a usage-based cognitive lexicography 19
- Exploring BERT’s contextualized word embeddings: a suitable method for a lexicography-oriented analysis of argument structures? 91
- Towards a phrase-based active dictionary 111
-
Section 2: Theoretical issues
- Verb senses and argument semantics: From linguistic theory to lexicographic practice 119
- Valency vs. Patterns: What do corpora tell us about argument structure? 139
- Layer upon layer, mistake after mistake – a case for learner’s dictionaries? 159
- Patterns of meanings between syntax and lexicon. a lexicological and lexicographic overview of italian partially lexically specified constructions 181
- A carry-coals-to-Newcastle exercise: The nature of phraseological units and their place in a constructicon of english 207
-
Section 3: Methodological issues
- Language awareness as a prerequisite for a successful use of lexicographic resources 239
- Regular polysemy in Spanish nouns: corpus analysis and some implications for lexicography 257
- No word is an island: The phraseological nature of lemma in interlingual comparison 277
- Analysing, compiling, and representing argument pattern structures: From form to meaning and back 297
- Index 317
