Encyclopaedic information in learner‘s dictionaries

Term Paper (Advanced seminar) , 2011 , 18 Pages , Grade: 2,0

English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics

Talking about encyclopaedic information in learner‘s dictionaries might lead to a never ending debate whether learner‘s dictionaries should include such additional information and at the same time to what extent. In fact Herbert Andreas Welker‘s survey of empirical studies concerning the dictionary use also helps to point out that there is little consent when it comes to this debate.

As a matter of fact it is quite difficult to distinguish where exactly an entry becomes encyclopaedic or not. Therefore another special form of learner‘s dictionaries also is important to be mentioned when talking about encyclopaedic information: the encyclopaedic learner‘s dictionaries. Since those kind of dictionaries are somewhere in between a encyclopaedia and a dictionary, Martin Stark also likes to call them „Lexicographical Hybrid“ (Stark 1999: 3). In order to analyse encyclopaedic entries in learners‘s dictionaries it therefore seems to be inevitably regarding those encyclopaedic learner‘s dictionaries as well. As a consequence this paper will briefly illustrate some general information of learner‘s dictionaries as such. As a next step a closer look will be taken at the distinctive features of the encyclopaedic entries within learner‘s dictionaries and at the encyclopaedic learner‘s dictionaries and their role in language teaching and learning.

Table of contents:

1. Introduction

2. General information on learner‘s dictionaries and encyclopaedicity
2.1 The idea of the learner‘s dictionary
2.2 The idea of the encyclopaedic learner‘s dictionary
2.3 What makes encyclopaedic information encyclopaedic
2.4 Encyclopaedic tradition in English dictionaries

3. Encyclopaedic learner‘s dictionaries
3.1 Examples of encyclopaedic learner‘s dictionaries
3.1.1 The Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture
3.1.2 The Oxford Advanced Learner‘s Encyclopaedic Dictionary
3.2 Different types of encyclopaedic entries
3.2.1 Proper noun entries
3.2.2 Large encyclopaedic articles and their value for the learner
3.3 Comparing examples on the basis of those dictionaries

4. Conclusion

5. Bibliography

• College: Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg
• Grade: 2,0
• Author: Fabian Zschiesche (Author)
• Publication Year: 2011
• Pages: 18
• Catalog Number: V368119
• ISBN (eBook): 9783668465879
• ISBN (Book): 9783668465886
• Language: English
• Tags: encyclopaedic