Towards better representation of phraseological meaning in dictionaries for learners

Abstract

The main research question we would like to discuss in this paper is the following: What is the best manner to represent the meaning of idioms in a phraseological dictionary for learners? In order to illustrate our discussion, this paper describes a part of a project whose long-term goal is to supply learners with explicit practical information about idioms, and to give unambiguous examples from which they can build their own competence. The analysis is based on the French idiom mouton noir ‘black sheep’. Although our focus is on French as a foreign language, it seems that the same method is applicable to the description of any language in the project (Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Russian). The paper is divided into five sections. Section 1 provides an overview of the project, defines its tasks and presents its main objective. Following this brief introduction, Sect. 2 explores the theoretical and methodological sources that are useful for the aims of our study. Section 3 shows what the microstructure looks like. Starting from a semasiological perspective, Sect. 4 investigates definition(s) and examples and considers how combining corpus methods, introspection and input from international students can render definitions more precise. Taking the onomasiological perspective, Sect. 5 describes the central organizing principle, based on notions. We will conclude with some final remarks and a presentation of issues that are worth exploring in the future.