时间：2022-09-29 05:52:49
Abstract Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English is one of the commonly-used dictionaries for English learners， in order to help English learners learn more about the Longman Dictionary and make use of it better， the main common features of the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English group are summarized in this essay and based on that， the distinguished features and the deficiencies of the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English （edition 3） are analyzed.
Key words Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English（LDOCE）， the distinguished features of LDOCE3， the certain leeway of LDOCE3
中图分类号：G424 文献标识码：A
I. General Introduction
Before we really come the main topic of this paper， this writer would like to have a few words about the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English （shorten as LDOCE） group. We call it a group because it has altogether 4 editions so far in the same name. The first edition was edited by Paul Procter and published in 1978. Before LDOCE was published， it was the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary （shortened as OALD） that dominated the world’s learner’s dictionary. Since then OALD has a strong competitor for the learner’s dictionary of the world.
Due to the warm welcome by the learners， the second edition edited by Della Summers came into being in 1987. And in 1995， the third edition by the same author was born. All the 3 editions share the common features of the LDOCE group， though each edition has its own unique characteristics. The following are the main common features of LDOCE group.
1. Its core vocabulary of contemporary international English covers British English， American English and some other English speaking countries， such as Canadian English， Australian English， New Zealand English， Caribbean English， African English and so on. It is a learner’s dictionary of international English.
2. It uses 2，000 defining words to describe the headwords and all illustration sentences. These most common words ensure that English learners can read and understand the dictionary easily. The selection of the defining words takes into account the frequency of meanings rather than the frequency of word forms.
3. Its grammatical information is found in codes. There are several groups of set pattern that use clear abbreviations given in front of the illustration examples.
4. It provides a lot of usage notes on words， the use of words， grammar， etc. That will help the users use correct and idiomatic English.
5. More than 500 pictures have been devised to explain the meaning of words， e.g.： coil as a verb； the word deer （p. 268） to compare the difference between horn and antlers. （Some pictures， in this writer’s opinion， may not be necessary， such as cat， cock and monkey， because their images are quite common to users.）
II. The Distinguished Features of LDOCE3.
Since the publication of LDCE1 and LDOCE2， they have been warmly welcome and won high praise by their readers. It shows that the LDOCE group has won great success and since becomes a strong competitor of OALD in learners’ dictionary. But their editors would not rest on their previous accomplishment； they continue their efforts to make LDOCE an even remarkable one. Soon the third edition of LDOCE group， known as LDOCE3， was born. It keeps the common features of LDOCE group， and posses many of its own features； this makes it even more distinguished and friendly to the readers. The followings are the main unique features of LDOCE3.
1. LDOCE uses 3 large corpuses as its data bases for the making of the third edition. As it points out on the back cover： This new dictionary reveals for the first time the richness of the English language， from natural informal conversation to literature and business language， all based on the 100 million word British： National Corpus （set up jointly by Longman and Oxford and some other 4 companies； 30 million words by Longman Lancaster Corpus （mostly conversational materials）； 5 million learner’s Corpus.
2. Its entry increases one fifth of the vocabulary of LDOCE2， from 56 000 headwords to 80 000 . Take the headwords under K as an example， LDOCE2 has 271 headwords， while LDOCE3 has 307 headwords， about 60 headwords are newly added and 20 headwords are deleted. Some of the new words are： kaffeeklatch，kiddo， kiss-ass， karaoke， key card， keyhole surgery， email， internet， surf the net， PWA. Some newly added words are like kickstand， kidnapping， kilowatt hour. The deleted headwords are mostly technical terms that are not quite popular in everyday English， or not suitable for learners， such as kohlrabit， kwashiorkor， kike， kine.
3. Some new improvements on the definition of headwords and illustrate sentences：
3.1. To rewrite definition or to define the headwords with sentences， e.g.：
behind sb's back [LDOCE2] unknown to a person concerned
[LDOCE3] if you do something behind someone’s back， you do it without them knowing.
To increase the definition， so as to give more detail information， such as set when used as a verb： LDOCE2 has 17 definitions， while LDOCE3 has 33 definitions.
3.2. Most of the illustrated examples in LDOCE2 have been changed： e.g. there are altogether 26 examples under headword mad in LDOCE3， all are newly rewritten， none is from LDOCE 2.
4. Some usage notes are rewritten so as to make the analysis clearer， e.g.： （p. 172） burned and burnt， there is some difference from that of LDOCE2.
5. LDOCE3 is rich in pictures that help show the meanings more accurately and make the book not only rich in its content， but prettier on the outlook as a whole.
5.1. A reader can find 2300 words that are showed with pictures， one of the specialties is that some of the abstract words can still be showed with pictures， such as： v. p5 absorb； adj. P1307 sharp； adverb p 329 cross-legged； prep p3 above； phrase p1482 tell off， etc.
5.2. Its 24 full color pictures show the meaning of the words that can sometimes not be defined with explanations， such as p690 verbs in the kitchen， and some others， e.g.： p.690， 983， 1113. Types of walk on p1439 show the minor difference of ways of walk.
6. LDOCE3 provides clear and obvious frequency information， so as to benefit learners to know what to learn first. Word frequency signs are： S1 shows that a word is one of the thousand most frequently used words in spoken； W1 shows that a word is one of the thousand most frequently used words in writing. At some most frequently used words， graphs give further information on frequency about spoken use and written use. e.g.： p. 49， p. 325. Frequency information includes the following four types：
6.1. The frequency of occurrence of grammatical structure and collocation， such as hate in p653.
6.2. The frequency of use of synonyms； such as need and require in p1209.
6.3. The frequency of a word used in written and spoken English， such as so in p1359.
6.4. The frequency of words used in British English and in American English， such as sweet and candy in p1457.
7. The use of "sign posts" （a pair of black triangles） is an invention for headwords with many definitions. It uses sign post to help users to find the definitions quicker， such as the entry office （p.979）. The dictionary divides the meanings of OFFICE into three meaning groups as BUILDING， ROOM and IMPORTANT JOB， and put them between sign posts separately. For some words that have many more definitions， LDOCE3 provides a catalog of the meanings first， such as put in p. 1151.
8. LDOCE3 reduces the use of grammatical codes or make the codes of the previous editions easier to read and understand. The ways are：
8.1. Maintain the original codes that are obvious and easy to read， such as [C] = countable， [U] = uncountable， [I] = intransitive， [T] = transitive.
8.2. Restore the codes or abbreviations in LDOCE2 that are not quite visually read， such as： [S] --> [singular]， [P] --> [plural]， [L] -->[linking verb]， [A] -->[only before now]， [F] --> [not before noun]， etc.
8.3. Change the complicated pattern codes in LDOCE2 into an easily-read way， such as the patterns in tell：
[+ obj + （that）] --> tell（that）
[obj（i） + obj（d）] --> tellsth
[+ obj + to-v] --> tellto do sth.
9. Stress the place of spoken language in communication， they set up a spoken language corpus， and enlist a lot of colloquial expressions. For example， it has a special area for SPOKEN PHRASES under the entry of FAIR and lists a number of colloquial expressions， such as （p489）： fair enough， it’s not fair， to be fair， be fair， you can’t fairer than that， it’s a fair cop， with your own fair hands.
In a word， LDOCE3 has many advantages over that of LDOCE2， this writer just name nine of them as mentioned above.
III. Some points that might be desired.
From the above discussion we may conclude that LDOCE3 has made many improvements； and posses a lot of distinguished features. As a result， it has won warm welcome by readers and been highly praised by the dictionary world. It is a learner’s dictionary that is hard to come by. But in this writer’s opinion， there is still certain leeway that can be improved， such as：
1. Some popular encyclopedic terms need to be added， so as to facilitate the learners when they are reading or writing. These terms are some thing like popular names of person， place names， and famous organizations， institutions， trade marks， etc.
2. The 2000 defining words seem need a few more so as to facilitate explanation and expression.
3. The registration for some words does not seem quite clear， such as propaganda， wooly（模糊的）， carp（吹毛求疵）are often with derogatory sense， but LDOCE3 does not give any hint.
4. The degrees that show the change of adjectives are not quite complete. Some adjectives give the comparative and highest forms， such as pretty， some others do not.
Anyway， LDOCE3 is a learners’ dictionary hard to get. It can be sure that it will benefit English learners even more.
References
[1] Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 3rd edition， 1995， Longman Group Ltd. Great Britain
[2] Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English 2nd edition， 1987， Longman Group Ltd. Great Britain