Comparative Study on Synonymous Adjectives in English Learner's Dictionaries
From the viewpoint of lexicography,a comparative analysis of the definitions and illustra-tive examples of a group of six synonymous adjectives(huge,enormous,massive,vast,tremendous,and immense)is conducted in three English learner's dictionaries.Results have shown that English dic-tionaries fail to highlight the internal semantic structural differences of synonymous adjectives in static descriptions of definitions.They have also exhibited varying degrees of differences,shortcomings and deficiencies in dynamic descriptions of illustrative examples in demonstrating the functions of colloca-tion,syntax and register,which is not conducive to a full and accurate grasp of linguistic features of synonymous adjectives by foreign language learners.The findings of this study can provide some inspira-tion and guidance in the practices of dictionary compilation.
Synonymous adjectiveslexicographydefinitionsillustrative examplescomparative study
万方数据
维普
