A. P. Cowie - Böcker

This is the first history of dictionaries of English for foreign learners, from their origins in Japan and East Asia in the 1920s to the computerized compilations of the present. Monolingual dictionaries for foreign speakers were a revolutionary development at their outset, and now represent a coming-together of intellectual, technological and commercial forces almost unequalled in book publishing. As the author shows, the early history of EFL dictionaries was research-driven, arising directly from research in linguistic theory and language pedagogy; now it is user-driven, determined by what users require or are thought to require. The pioneering dictionaries were the work of individuals. Current dictionaries are the products of huge databases manipulated by sophisticated processing, as publishers strive to share an immense and constantly growing global market. The book has both a thematic and a chronological structure. Three chapters describe the historical sequence over a period of some sixty years. These alternate with chapters dealing with phraseology, computers and corpus linguistics, and research into dictionary users and uses - three subjects central to the development of ELT dictionaries over the last thirty years. Dr Cowie examines the way in which availability of massive computing power has transformed the recording and analysis of current speech, and shows how the growth of research into the users and uses of dictionaries has led to developments both in ELT lexicography and method. This readable and non-technical account is directed both at professionals in applied linguistics and English language teaching, and at lexicographers, but it will interest and fascinate everyone concerned with the analysis of English and faced with the challenge of recording of the subtelties of its grammar and meaning.

Over the last twenty years, phraseology has become a major field of pure and applied research in Western European and North American linguistics. This book is made up of authoritative contributions from leading specialists who examine the increasingly crucial role played by ready-made word-combinations in language acquisition and adult language use. After a wide-ranging introduction by the editor, the book introduces the main theoretical approaches, analyses the corpus data and phrase typology, and finally considers the application of phraseology to associated disciplines including lexicography, language learning, stylistics, and computational analysis. This book is the first comprehensive and up-to-date account of the subject to be published in English. Series InformationSeries ISBN: 0-19-961811-9Series Editors: Richard W. Bailey, Noel Osselton, and Gabriele Stein;Oxford Studies in Lexicography and Lexicology provides a forum for the publication of substantial scholarly works on all issues of interest to lexicographers, lexicologists, and dictionary users. It is concerned with the theory and history of lexicography, lexicological theory, and related topics such as terminology, and computer applications in lexicography. It focuses attention too on the purposes for which dictionaries are compiled, on their uses, and on their reception and role in society today and in the past.

Over the last twenty years phraseology has become an important field of pure and applied research in Western European and North American linguistics. In this book the world's leading specialists examine the crucial role played by ready-made word-combinations in language acquisition and adult language use.After a wide-ranging introduction, the book presents full, critical accounts of the main theoretical approaches, analyses the corpus data and phrase typology, and finally considers the application of phraseology to associated disciplines including lexicography, language learning, stylistics, and computational analysis. This is the first comprehensive and up-to-date account of the subject to be published in English.