Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.32728/tab.16.2019.14
Choosing suitable examples for the learner’s dictionary: GDEX for Japanese and its usage options
Irena Srdanović
Abstract
Examples make up a significant component of a dictionary and can greatly assist in better understanding the meaning and usage of words. Therefore, an important step in creating a dictionary involves choosing suitable examples, where modern advanced technologies can be useful. The aims of this study are (1) to present the design and characteristics of the GDEX (Good Dictionary EXamples) tool for Japanese, devised to automatically extract good dictionary example candidates and thus assist lexicographers and language learners in choosing good dictionary examples, (2) to assess students’ opinions and attitudes towards the results of Japanese examples automatically extracted from corpora using the GDEX tool, and (3) to investigate how useful the tool can be in the process of choosing good dictionary examples for a Japanese learner’s dictionary by Japanese language students at an intermediate language level who were trained for lexicographic work using corpora and advanced technology. The GDEX tool for Japanese is designed by using and upgrading methods employed for other languages, which have proven to be useful in lexicographic projects. One step further in the development of the GDEX technology is the Learner’s GDEX for Japanese, which applies a language-learner oriented approach by taking into account the different difficulty levels of lexemes based on the Japanese Language Proficiency Test vocabulary list. A questionnaire on the GDEX for Japanese is distributed to intermediate level students at the Juraj Dobrila University of Pula bachelor’s program in the Japanese language and culture who were previously trained to use corpora, the corpus query tool Sketch Engine (SkE), and GDEX for Japanese. The results indicate that students most value the dictionary examples, whose inclusion into the learner’s dictionary they deem to be useful, and they manage to notice and mention some difficulties in choosing an appropriate dictionary example. A further assessment of the results reveals that trained students are in most cases able to make a good decision, but in some cases fail to translate examples properly or to mention and/or notice a need to simplify the example by excluding some context related expressions or difficult words. Finally, it can be concluded that the GDEX for Japanese proves to be useful as a tool for the semi-automatic extraction of dictionary examples, and that there is great potential in engaging students while monitoring their work in the ongoing lexicographic project of creating a Japanese-Croatian learner’s dictionary.
Keywords
Japanese language learner’s dictionary; GDEX (Good Dictionary Examples); Sketch Engine; lexicography; automatic extraction of examples; corpus lexicography; engaging students in lexicographic work
Hrčak ID:
228795
URI
Publication date:
29.11.2019.
Visits: 1.875 *