CHEN Mingfeng ( 陈 明 丰 )
Abstract
With the rapid development of economy, education, science and technology, language itself changes constantly. It is becoming more and more important to have excellent English-Chinese dictionaries for Chinese learners. This paper is an attempt to analyze the features of OALD-4.
INTRODUCTION
Oxford Advanced Learner’s English-Chinese Dictionary, Fourth Edition (Which is called OALD-4 for short in the following), the product of the joint efforts by the Commercial Press of China and Oxford University Press, was published in 1997.
With the rapid development of economy, education, science and technology, language itself changes constantly: some old words die out , or the use of some old words has changed , and new words keep emerging . So dictionaries, should also keep up with the changes of languages, and be able to provide the users with up-to-date usages of words. In the preface of OALD-4, the editors have pointed out: “proficiency in English implied the ability to compose as well as to understand, and the learner’s dictionaries must be designed to develop both kinds of skill.”
At the first glance, one may think that it is similar in quality to other dictionaries of the same kind. But after taking a close look at it, you may find it different from others in many ways. A.S.Hornby, the chief editor of the first and second editions of OALD, is a well-known dictionary expert and teaching expert. He spent a lot of time teaching English abroad. So he knew well the difficulties that foreign learners were facing. Thus OALD always thinks for users, and tries to help users to learn English well. The following is the analysis of some new features of the new dictionary.
FEACHURE ONE CLEAR AND CONCRETE DEFINITIONS OF ENTRIES
“The definitions of entries in a dictionary is the soul of it and is directly related to its popularity.”① Samuel Johnson, the chief editor of A Dictionary of the English Language, has also pointed out: “The definition must be accurate. That’s to say, the defining words and entry words should often be able to be exchanged.” As a general rule, definitions should be comprehensible to the general readers. So does OALD-4. The definitions in it are not only accurate, but also brief. The following are definitions of “horse” in different dictionaries.
Horse n. 1 solid-hoofed herbivorous quadruped (Equals caballas) with flowing mane and tail, used as beast of burden and draught, and for riding on…
----Oxford Concise Dictionary
Horse n. 1 a large strong animal that people ride on and use for pulling heavy things…
---Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Horse n. 1 (a) large strong four legged animal with a flowing mane and tails, used for riding on or to carry loads, pulling carts, etc.
----OALD-4
For readers, the meaning of “horse” is simple. But how can it be defined in English? Common sense suggests that definitions in a dictionary for speakers of English as a foreign language should not be more difficult than the words they define. Obviously, the definition in OALD-4 is the best among the three. In Oxford Concise Dictionary, there are some rarely used words like “herbivorous, quadruped”. In Longman Dictionary, the definition is brief, but is so simple that it can’t explain the entry “horse” accurately.
Besides, it also shows clearly the usage of nouns, adjectives, verbs and so on.
1. Nouns: countable or uncountable
As foreign learners, especially for Chinese, it is difficult to distinguish countable or uncountable. Even some nouns are sometimes countable, sometimes uncountable. In the Chinese language, there is no such difference. In OALD-4, it is shown clearly with a label “C”(meaning countable), or “U”(meaning uncountable). For example,
Study n. 1 [u](also studies [pl.]) process of gaining knowledge of a subject, esp. from books 2 [c](a) book, etc that is the result of an investigation of subject 3 [u] room esp. in sb’s home, used for reading and writing 4 [c] drawing, etc done for practice
Here, OALD-4 tells us not only when the word “study” is used as countable and when uncountable, but also how to use it appropriately. And for other entries, such as experience and success, OALD-4 also gives us clear definitions. When they refer to “event or activity” and “person or thing” respectively, the two words are countable; when they refer to “knowledge or skill” and “achievement” respectively, they are uncountable.
2. Adjectives: attributive use or predicative use
Most adjectives can be used either before a noun or after the infinitive, such as in “a serious affair” / “be happy to go home”. However, some adjectives are restricted to attributive or predicative. In OALD-4, the appropriate label is given. For example,
Asleep adj. [pred] 1 not awake, sleeping: Don’t wake him up. She is fast / sound sleep. 2. (of limits) having no feeling; numb: I’ve been sitting on my leg and now it’s asleep.
Eldest adj. [attrib.], n (of people, esp. Of three or more closely related members of a family; first born; oldest: Jim is my eldest daughter. Jill is the eldest of my three children.
OALD-4 tells readers different usage of adjectives, which can help us avoid speaking or writing such sentences like “He is an asleep boy.” It is not idiomatic in English.
And for other familiar words, such as “aware” or “fit”, OALD-4 also gives appropriate label. I have compared it with other dictionaries, and found that most of them have paid less attention to this point.
3. Verbs: different verb patterns of sentences
In OALD-4, there’re thirty-two patterns (with matching codes) to account for the various ways in which verbs can be used. A code such as [Dn.pr] (as in “He gave a book to John.”) is designed to suggest to the learners ‘double-transitive verb + noun + prepositional phrase’, ie the parts of speech (or phrases or clause types) of which the pattern is composed. These indications will be sufficient for most learners. Moreover, the meanings of the letters (n=noun, a=adjective, ph=phrase, etc) can be easily learnt, so that the learners are able to recall patterns simply by looking at their codes. It is better than the first three editions of OALD, where there’s forms of codes such as VP6A, 7A, 2A, etc. So learners have to refer to the chart inside the back cover. Of course, it is also better than some other dictionaries where verbs are only divided into Vi (=intransitive verb) and Vt (=transitive verb). So the division of verb pattern is helpful for readers to use verbs appropriately. For example,
Grade v. 1 [esp. passive: Tn, Tn.pr, Cn.n] ~sth/sb by/according to sth; ~sth/sb from sth to sth arrange sth/sb in order by grades or classes…2 [Tn, Cn.n](US) mark (written work); given (a student) a mark 3 [Tn]make (land, esp for roads) more nearly level by reducing the slope
Here, before each meaning of this entry, there’re codes indicating verb patterns. So readers can easily learn to use the word appropriately.
FEATURE TWO ABUNDANT EXAMPLES AND SYSTEMATIC COLLOCATIONS
Many experts on dictionaries consider that “examples of a dictionary are important standard to judge the quality of it.”② “Examples are used to give the users a clearer impression of a word’s meaning. They should reveal the connotation and denotation of the word to help readers to understand, they also should provide phrase examples and collocations.”③ So as an excellent dictionary, it is useful and necessary with appropriate examples as well as accurate definitions. OALD-4, as a learner’s dictionary with more than 81,500 examples, provides exhaustive examples with a combination of sentences and phrases in the limited space. And “they (examples) help learners to understand the meanings of words, they provide models for them to imitate when writing or speaking, and they illustrate the grammatical patterns in which words are used.”④ For example,
Dismiss v.1 [Tn, Tn.pr.] ~ sb. (from sth) remove sb (esp.an employee) from a position: workers who have been dismissed unfairly 2 [Tn, Tn.pr]~ sb. (from sth) send sb away; allow sb to leave: dismiss soldiers; dismiss a class 3 (a) [Tn,Tn.pr] ~ sb/sth (from sth) put (thought, feelings, etc.) out of one’s mind: he tried without success to dismiss her memory from his thought. (b) [Tn, Cn.n/a] consider sb/sth not worth thinking or talking about: she was dismissed as a dreamer: dismiss a suggestion, an objection, an idea, etc. 4 [Tn](law) reject (a case, an appeal, etc.) 5 [Tn](in cricket) end the innings of (the other team or one of its batsmen)
Besides plentiful verb-object word groups, OALD-4 gives adverb-verb or adverb-adjective collocations. For examples, in the entry “highly”, there are collocations like “a highly amusing film / be highly probable, contagious, inflammable/ highly priced / think highly of sb / speak highly of sb, etc.”
These abundant and systematical collocations, which give readers good examples to learn and imitate, show real situations of using language, and they reflect the principle that “language is the tool of communication”.
In OALD-4, to help learners to use words appropriately, a number of labels are used to denote the stylistic values of words or the technical fields in which they are used. For example, “infml” denotes “informal” words and senses, which indicates an unofficial occasion or setting. “Offensive” denotes words used to refer to people, usually with the deliberate intension of offending them, especially on account of their race or region, such as “dago, niger, etc”.
FEATURE THREE ACCURATE BUT CONCISE CHINESE TRANSLATION
Ladislav Zgusta, a famous expert on dictionaries, has said, “the chief duty for bilingual dictionary editors is to find the corresponding words for the source language in the target language.”⑤ So for an English-Chinese dictionary, the definition of the target language (Chinese) and that of the source language (English) are important and they both should be considered carefully.
Some entries, which are familiar to Chinese learners, but strange to other foreign learners, are needless to explain with many words in Chinese. For examples,
Abacus n. (pl –cuses) frame with beads that slide along parallel rods, used for teaching numbers to en, and (in some countries) for counting 算盘
Except 1prep. ~(for sb / sth); ~(that…) not including (sb /sth); but not 除了（某人[某事物]）之外表示所说的不包括在内: The restaurant is open every day except Monday.
For “abacus”, the editors haven’t translated all English definition into Chinese; instead a simple corresponding word “算盘” is used. For Chinese learners, as soon as we read the Chinese definition, we can know the accurate meaning of this word.
For “except”, the definition is replenished with “表示所说的不包括在内”. It helps learners tell the difference between “besides” and “except”, and finally use it properly.
FEATURE FOUR RENEWAL OF LANGUAGE INFORMATION
As OALD-4, which is a bilingual dictionary, is composed according to Oxford Dictionary of English, 4th edition, which is a monolingual dictionary, published more than ten years ago. So it is inevitable to lag behind the times. Moreover, with the rapid development of science and technology, especially computer technology, lots of new words are emerging. So OALD-4 is not restrained to the old editions, but is revised suitably to renew language information promptly by absorbing new words and abridging out-of-date ones. For example，
Pious: adj1.having or showing a deep devotion to religion
2. (old use )dutiful to parents
---- OALD-3
Pious: adj1.having or showing a deep devotion to religion
2. (derog)hypocritically virtuous
----OALD-4
Through the comparison of the definitions in OALD-3 and OALD-4, we can know that in the Modern English, the word “pious” has the meaning of “hypocritically virtuous” instead of “dutiful to parents”.
I have compared the entries in OALD-3 and OALD-4. To my surprise, the definitions and examples have changed thoroughly. At the letter of “J” (only in 14 pages), twenty new entries are included, fifteen are omitted, and more than forty are given new definitions or examples. For example:
Jesuit n: member of the society of Jesus, a RC order founded in 1534 by Inguatins Logoia, Spanish priest, taking lous of obedience, poverty and chastity; (as used by opponents of the society) person who thinks that it may be right to dissemble or prevaricate if this helps to obtain good results…
----OALD-3
Jesuit n: 1.member of the society of Jesus, a Roman Catholic religious order 2. (derog)person who deceives others, or fails to tell the (whole)truth, to achieve his ends.
----OALD-4
It is obvious that the definition in OALD-4 is simpler and easier to understand than that in OALD-3. Besides, it adds a second definition. Because in modern English, the word “Jesuit” can be used to refer to “a person who deceives others to achieve his ends”. Due to the limitation of space, I would not compare other entries as examples. It is easy for us to find them if we take a close look at OALD-4.
FEATURE FIVE ADEQUATE USAGE NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS
Information on the grammatical practical patterns in which a word can or must be found is very important to language learners. In OALD-4, for further information of a contrastive or non-lexical type, there are about 200 “Notes on Usage”, which follow the certain entries to deal with difficulties on grammar or usage. As a learner’s dictionary, it is used to teach learners to use this language accurately as well as to learn the words. In order to present the advantage of “Note on Usage”, we’d better compare the different treatments on the comparison of “almost” and “nearly”.
Almost, USAGE NOTE
Both “almost” and “nearly” can be used before negative verbs: “I almost/nearly didn’t get up in time”.
Almost (not nearly) can be used before any and negative words like “no, nobody, never, and nothing”. However, it is more usual to use hardly or scarcely with any, anybody, ever, etc. than almost with no, nobody, never, etc…
----Longman Dictionary
Almost adv.1.(with v.v., adv. V., adj. j., n. n., replaceable by nearly): He slipped and ~ fell…
2.(with no, none, nothing, never; not replaceable by nearly; often replaced by hardly or scarcely with any): Almost no one (=hardly anyone) believed her…
----OALD-3
Almost adv.1.(used before adv. s., n. s., adj. s., v. s., dets and prons) nearly; not quite: He slipped and almost fell.
2.(used before no, nobody, none, nothing, never)virtually; practically: Almost no one (i.e. Hardly anyone) believed him.
Note on Usage: Almost, nearly, scarcely, and hardly are adverbs and can be used with verbs, adverbs, adjectives and nouns.1.Almost and nearly are usually used in positive sentences: She fell and almost/nearly broke her neck. 2.Almost can be used with negative words. In these cases it can be replaced with hardly or scarcely: He ate almost nothing (=He ate hardly anything). 3.Hardly is generally preferred to almost + a negative verb: She sang so quietly that I could hardly hear her (not I almost couldn’t hear). 4.In sentences indicating one thing happening immediately after another, hardly and scarcely can be placed at the beginning of the sentence and then subject and verb are inverted: Hardly/Scarcely had we arrived, when it began to rain.
----OALD-4
From the comparison, we see that OALD-4 not only gives a clear explanation between the difference of them, but also offers adequate examples. Other dictionaries, however, don’t do as well as OALD-4. For Longman Dictionary, though the comparison is clear, it lacks examples. For OALD-3, the comparison is included in the definitions, so it is possible for readers to ignore their difference and even get confused about them.
For illustrations, OALD-4 has paid more attention to the practicality of them. Compared with OALD-3, it has added some illustrations to the appendix. On the other hand, it has omitted others, such as the picture of “abacus”. Thus it can be seen that OALD-4 is more suitable to the need of users and more “friendly to users”.
Certainly, besides that is mentioned above, OALD-4 has remained some excellent features of the first three editions: 1.A good “how to use the dictionary” section. 2.a set different indication of British and American pronunciation; 3.a set of appendixes on number; punctuation and writing; family relationships; common first names; military ranks; chemical elements; etc.
However, OALD-4 is not without problems. Samuel Johnson, the editor-in-chief of A Dictionary of English Language, has said, “Dictionaries are like watches, the worst is better than none, and the best cannot be expected to go quite true.” For some entries, it has failed to provide supplementary information of collocation, which is absolutely necessary in our reading and writing. We can’t even find some common phrases that are often used today. The lack of them will sometimes make it inconvenient for users who are in need of them. For example:
Edict n.: order or proclamation issued by an authority: by edict of the king; obey the edict of parliament.
Here, it will be better to give such collocations like “sign an edict/under an edict/issue an edict, etc.”
Another weak point is that in OALD-4 some definitions of entries are too tedious and annoying. For example:
Milk n.: 1.a white liquid produced by cows or goats that is drunk by people.
----Longman Dictionary
Milk n.[u] 1.white liquid produced by female mammals as food for their young, esp. that of cows, goats, etc. drunk by human beings and made into butter and cheese.
----OALD-4
Though the definition in OALD-4 is accurate, it is too tedious to understand. And the Longman’s definition is concise and easy to understand.
Conclusion
Through the analysis of some new features of OALD-4, we may have a general idea about what kind of dictionary it is and what are inside it. And we may notice its differences from other learner’s dictionaries. It reflects the kernel of dictionary-composing theory---“the editing for using language in real certain situation.” It has followed the excellent principle, set up by A.S.Hornby-that it helps foreign English learners to understand and utilize English well. So OALD-4, with all its outstanding features, has stood out in the ground of the learner’s dictionaries as a very practical and helpful dictionary to those who long to learn modern everyday English. As long as we make full use of it, we are sure to learn a lot from it and to improve our English quickly in both understanding and expression.
NOTES
①周荐,“词典条目释义、出处索源和例句引用中借鉴与抄袭的分野问题”，见【中国辞书论集】，P29
②[荷兰]阿尔卡西姆，【词典编写和评价的标准】，P162
③吴莹，“双语词典的编写”，见【上海市辞书学会论文集】，知识出版社，1987，P254
④“本词典用法---词条使用详细说明”，见“OALD-4”附录，1997，P1903
⑤拉兹古斯塔主编, 【词典学概论】[M], 北京: 商务印书馆，1983, P428
⑥陈楚祥，“词典评价十题”，见【辞书研究】，1994（1），P29
References
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[2] J. Pearsall (1999) Concise Oxford Dictionary of English (10th ed) [M] Oxford University Press
[3] P. Procter (1995) Cambridge International Dictionary of English [M] Cambridge University Press
[4] D. Summers (1995) Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (3rd ed) [M] Longman Group Ltd.
[5] A. Spears Richard (1998) NTC American English Learner’s Dictionary [M] NTC Publishing Group
[6]拉兹古斯塔主编,【词典学概论】[M], 北京: 商务印书馆, 1983
[7]李荫华著,【英语词典初探】[M], 北京: 商务印书馆, 1985
[8]张柏然主编,【双语词典研究】[C], 北京: 商务印书馆, 1993