Birds of a Feather Don't Always Flock Together: User Problems in Identifying Headwords in Online English Learner's Dictionaries

Idioms, sayings and proverbs (referred to here as 'phrasemes'), are a central part of the English language. However, it is often difficult for learners of English as an Additional Language (EAL) to choose the correct headword when looking for such expressions in a dictionary. Learners ma...

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Autor principal:	Julia Miller
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	AF DE EN FR NL
Publicado:	Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal-WAT 2013
Materias:	english as an additional language dictionary online headword phraseme Philology. Linguistics P1-1091 Languages and literature of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania PL1-8844 Germanic languages. Scandinavian languages PD1-7159
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/c41ef80ee7ff4555b4bf8307226af47a
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:c41ef80ee7ff4555b4bf8307226af47a2021-12-03T09:15:13ZBirds of a Feather Don't Always Flock Together: User Problems in Identifying Headwords in Online English Learner's Dictionaries10.5788/23-1-12151684-49042224-0039https://doaj.org/article/c41ef80ee7ff4555b4bf8307226af47a2013-12-01T00:00:00Zhttps://lexikos.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/1215https://doaj.org/toc/1684-4904https://doaj.org/toc/2224-0039Idioms, sayings and proverbs (referred to here as 'phrasemes'), are a central part of the English language. However, it is often difficult for learners of English as an Additional Language (EAL) to choose the correct headword when looking for such expressions in a dictionary. Learners may not recognise a word as belonging to a phraseme, and so may not look under a single, 'important' word. Moreover, their choice of a salient word may not accord with the lexicographer's. Thirdly, they may not recognise phraseme variants, such as carry/take coals to Newcastle. They may therefore often fail to find the phraseme altogether. A study of 84 phrasemes in five online English learner's dictionaries (Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary, Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners and Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary) revealed a lack of uniformity across and often within dictionaries. This paper is based on 14 of these phrasemes, which appear in one or more of these dictionaries and include proper nouns and/ or variable words. To make learner's dictionaries more user friendly (Zgusta 1971), it is argued that they need greater consistency in their choice of phraseme headwords, both within and between dictionaries, and that greater cross-referencing is necessary within a single dictionary. Five strategies are presented to help learners with their dictionary searches.Julia MillerWoordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal-WATarticleenglish as an additional languagedictionaryonlineheadwordphrasemePhilology. LinguisticsP1-1091Languages and literature of Eastern Asia, Africa, OceaniaPL1-8844Germanic languages. Scandinavian languagesPD1-7159AFDEENFRNLLexikos, Vol 23, Pp 273-285 (2013)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	AF DE EN FR NL
topic	english as an additional language dictionary online headword phraseme Philology. Linguistics P1-1091 Languages and literature of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania PL1-8844 Germanic languages. Scandinavian languages PD1-7159
spellingShingle	english as an additional language dictionary online headword phraseme Philology. Linguistics P1-1091 Languages and literature of Eastern Asia, Africa, Oceania PL1-8844 Germanic languages. Scandinavian languages PD1-7159 Julia Miller Birds of a Feather Don't Always Flock Together: User Problems in Identifying Headwords in Online English Learner's Dictionaries
description	Idioms, sayings and proverbs (referred to here as 'phrasemes'), are a central part of the English language. However, it is often difficult for learners of English as an Additional Language (EAL) to choose the correct headword when looking for such expressions in a dictionary. Learners may not recognise a word as belonging to a phraseme, and so may not look under a single, 'important' word. Moreover, their choice of a salient word may not accord with the lexicographer's. Thirdly, they may not recognise phraseme variants, such as carry/take coals to Newcastle. They may therefore often fail to find the phraseme altogether. A study of 84 phrasemes in five online English learner's dictionaries (Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary, Collins COBUILD Advanced Dictionary, Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners and Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary) revealed a lack of uniformity across and often within dictionaries. This paper is based on 14 of these phrasemes, which appear in one or more of these dictionaries and include proper nouns and/ or variable words. To make learner's dictionaries more user friendly (Zgusta 1971), it is argued that they need greater consistency in their choice of phraseme headwords, both within and between dictionaries, and that greater cross-referencing is necessary within a single dictionary. Five strategies are presented to help learners with their dictionary searches.
format	article
author	Julia Miller
author_facet	Julia Miller
author_sort	Julia Miller
title	Birds of a Feather Don't Always Flock Together: User Problems in Identifying Headwords in Online English Learner's Dictionaries
title_short	Birds of a Feather Don't Always Flock Together: User Problems in Identifying Headwords in Online English Learner's Dictionaries
title_full	Birds of a Feather Don't Always Flock Together: User Problems in Identifying Headwords in Online English Learner's Dictionaries
title_fullStr	Birds of a Feather Don't Always Flock Together: User Problems in Identifying Headwords in Online English Learner's Dictionaries
title_full_unstemmed	Birds of a Feather Don't Always Flock Together: User Problems in Identifying Headwords in Online English Learner's Dictionaries
title_sort	birds of a feather don't always flock together: user problems in identifying headwords in online english learner's dictionaries
publisher	Woordeboek van die Afrikaanse Taal-WAT
publishDate	2013
url	https://doaj.org/article/c41ef80ee7ff4555b4bf8307226af47a
work_keys_str_mv	AT juliamiller birdsofafeatherdontalwaysflocktogetheruserproblemsinidentifyingheadwordsinonlineenglishlearnersdictionaries
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Birds of a Feather Don't Always Flock Together: User Problems in Identifying Headwords in Online English Learner's Dictionaries

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