The Active Learner’s Construction-Combinatory Thesaurus: user-driven principles of compiling (a cognitive linguistic approach)

Keywords: cognitive lexicography, Active Learner’s Construction-Combinatory Thesaurus (ALCCT), user’s cognitive profile, principles of compiling, data selection, data arrangement, data application

Abstract

This article discusses the design of a new type of dictionaries, the Active Learner’s Construction-Combinatory Thesaurus (ALCCT) intended for adult learners of the second (foreign) language. The ALCCT is an ideographic dictionary where phrases, understood as instantiations of constructions, are arranged in accordance with the cognitive ontology of a particular conceptual thematic field. As such, the ALCCT is a project compatible with cognitive lexicography, a contemporary branch of dictionary-making that adopts the findings of cognitive science, cognitive linguistics in particular. The article proposes a cognitive profile of the dictionary’s target user, and makes it a departure point in elaborating the principles of compiling the ALCCT. They are defined as the principles of data selection, arrangement, and application. Data selection regards their thematic and formal coherence, their authenticity, and their prominence, or frequency. Data arrangement implies their relational coherence, and their elaboration. Relational coherence is realized through the lexicographic code, or the dictionary’s overall design that develops at three hierarchical levels: those of macrostructure (a conceptual ontology of the theme), mediostructure (the key words evolving into phrasal sets), and microstructure (description of phrasal lemmas). Elaboration of the data is provided via the overarching structure mapped onto the three hierarchical structures of the lexicographic code, and concerned with etymological, cultural, grammatical, and phraseological (metaphorical) extensions. Data application reaches out to the communicative situations in which the ALCCT’s resources can be used.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Apresjan, Ju. D. (2010). Prospekt aktivnogo slovarja russkogo jazyka [Project of the active dictionaly of Russian]. Moskva: Jazyki Slavjanskoj Kul’tury (in Russian).
Boyland, J. T. (2009). Usage-based models of language. In D. Eddington (Ed.), Experimental and quantitative linguistics (pp. 351–419). Munich: Lincom.
Brovchenko, I. V. (2011). Konceptual’naya metafora v klishe angloyazychnogo nauchnogo teksta [Conceptual metaphor in clichés of the academic text] (Unpublished candidate dissertation).
Bohdan Khmelnitsky National University, Cherkasy, Ukraine (in Russian).
Caine, R. N., & Caine, G. (1994). Making connections: Teaching and the human brain. Menlo Park, CA: Addison-Wesley.
Castellano-Risco, I., Alejo-González, R., & Piquer-Píriz, A. (2020). The development of receptive vocabulary in CLIL vs EFL: Is the learning context the main variable? System 91:101163, 102–263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2020.102263
Cenoz, J. (2015). Content-based instruction and content and language integrated learning: the same or different? Language, Culture and Curriculum, 28(1), 8–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/07908318.2014.1000922
Dalton-Puffer, Chr. (2011). Content-and-Language Integrated Learning: From practice to principles? Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, 31, 182–204. Retrieved from https://www.unifg.it/sites/default/files/allegatiparagrafo/20-01-2014/dalton-puffer_content_and_language_integrated_learning_from_practice_to_principles.pdf
Dirven, R., & Verspoor, M. (2004). Cognitive exploration of language and linguistics. 2nd ed. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Fair, D. A., Cohen, A. L., Dosenbach, N. U., Church, J. A., Miezin, F. M., Barch, D. M., Raichle, M. E., Petersen, S. E., & Schlaggar, B. L. (2008). The maturing architecture of the 105 brain’s default network. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105(10), 4028–4032. Retrieved from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18322013/
Frost, R., Siegelman, N., Narkiss, A., & Afek, L. (2013). What predicts successful literacy acquisition in a second language? Psychological science, 24(7), 1243–1252. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797612472207
Fuentes-Olivera, P. A., & Bergenholtz, H. (2018). Dictionaries for text production. In: P.A. Fuertes-Olivera (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of lexicography (pp. 267–283). Abingdon: Routledge.
Goldberg, A. E. (1995). Constructions. A construction grammar approach to argument structure. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
Guhe, M. (2003). Incremental conceptualization for language production. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Hamburg University, Hamburg, Germany.
Hay, D., Kinchin, I., & Lygo-Baker, S. (2008). Making learning visible: The role of concept mapping in higher education. Studies in Higher Education. 33(3), 295–311. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075070802049251
Huth, A. G., de Heer, W. A., Griffiths, T. L., Theunissen, F. E., & Gallant, J. L. (2016). Natural speech reveals the semantic maps that tile human cerebral cortex. Nature, 532(7600), 453–458.
Ioannou-Georgiou, S. (2012). Reviewing the puzzle of CLIL. ELT Journal, 66, 495–504. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccs047
Kiely, R. (2011). Understanding CLIL as an innovation. Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.14746/ssllt.2011.1.1.9
Knowles, M. S. (1984). Andragogy in action. Applying modern principles of adult education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.
Lenneberg, E. (1967). Biological foundations of language. New York, NY: John Wiley & Son.
Levelt, W. J. M. (1989). Speaking: from intention to articulation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Li, P., & Jeong, H. (2020). The social brain of language: grounding second language learning in social interaction. Science of Learning 5(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-020-0068-7
Lyngfelt, B., Borin L., Ohara, K., & Torrent, T. T. (Eds.), (2018). Constructicography: Constructicon development across languages. Constructional Approaches to Language. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Mårtensson, J., Eriksson, J., Bodammer, N. C., Lindgren, M., Johansson, M., Nyberg, L., & Lövdén, M. (2012). Growth of language-related brain areas after foreign language learning. Neuroimage, 63(1), 240–244. https://doi.org/10.10.1016/j.neuroimage.2012.06.043
MacWhinney, B. A. (2005). Unified model of language development. In G. J. MacWhinney, A. M. Kroll, & B. de Groot (Eds.), Handbook of bilingualism: psycholinguistic approaches (pp. 49–67). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ostermann, C. (2015). Cognitive lexicography: A new approach to lexicography making use of cognitive semantics. Nürnberg: Universität Erlangen.
Ostman, J.-O., & Fried, M. (Eds.). (2004). Construction grammars. Cognitive grounding and theoretical extensions. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Paradis, M.A. (2004). A neurolinguistic theory of bilingualism. Amsterdam: John Benjamis.
Perniss, P., Thompson, R. L., & Vigliocco, G. (2010). Iconicity as a general property of language: evidence from spoken and signed languages. Frontiers in Psychology, 1, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2010.00227
Plakhotniuk, Ye. (2015). Dorobok kohnityvnoi linhvistyky u navchanni anhlijskoі movy doroslykh slukhachiv [Accoplishments of cognitive linguistics in teaching English to adult learners] (Unpublished Master’s thesis). Bohdan Khmelnitsky National University, Cherkasy, Ukraine (in Ukrainian).
Plakhotniuk, Ye. (2020a). An active dictionary: user needs and expectations. In Nova Philologia, 80. Zaporizhzhia: Zaporizhia National University. (In print). 106
Plakhotniuk, Ye. (2020b). Blend-dictionaries in a semiotic-cognitive perspective: An active learner’s construction-combinatory thesaurus “TRAVELLING”. Science and Education: A New Dimension, 63 (235), 44–50.
Radchenko, O. Yu. (2012). Konceptual’na metafora v termіnosistemі marketingu [Conceptual metaphor in the terminology of marketing] (Unpublished candidate dissertation). Bohdan Khmelnitsky National University, Cherkasy, Ukraine (in Ukrainian).
Radchenko, O. (2019). Marketing terminology thesaurus: The competition segment. Lege Artis. Language Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow, IV (1), 133–169. Retrieved from https://lartis.sk/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/Radchenko_Issue-1_2019.pdf
Tarp, S. (2008). Lexicography in the borderland between knowledge and non-knowledge. General lexicographical theory with particular focus on learner’s lexicography. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag.
Tarp, S. (2011). Reflections on lexicographical user research. Lexikos, 19. 275–296. https://doi.org/10.5788/19-0-440
Tomasello, M. (2003). Constructing a language: A usage-based theory of language acquisition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Valipour, V., & Asl, H. D. (2014). Differences between children and adults in foreign language pronunciation and grammatical rules learning. Indian Journal of Fundamental and Applied Life Sciences, 4 (S3), 195–198. Retrieved from: https://www.cibtech.org/sp.ed/jls/2014/03/JLS-026-S3-036-VALIPOUR-DIFFERENCES-LEARNING.pdf
Vincent-Lamarre, P., Massé, A. B., Lopes, M., Lord, M., Marcotte, O., & Harnad, S. (2016). The latent structure of dictionaries. Topics in Cognitive Science, 8(3), 625–659. Retrieved from https://pcl.sitehost.iu.edu/papers/Lamarre2016.pdf
Vorob’eva, O. P. (1993). Tekstovye kategorii i faktor adresata [Textual categories and the addressee factor]. Kiev: Vyshcha Shkola (in Russian).
Zhabotynska S. (2010). Principles of building conceptual models for thesaurus dictionaries. Cognition, communication, discourse, 1, 75–92. Retrieved from https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzbZ3piwVKrtVlI5cVlXTmZINW8/view
Zhabotynska, S. (2015). English clichés of scholarly texts: A thesaurus. (Materials for teaching Academic writing). Kyiv: Ukrainian Association of Cognitive Linguistics and Poetics.
Zhabotinskaja, S. (2018). Generativizm, kognitivizm i semantika lingval’nyh setej [Generative linguistics, cognitive linguistics, and semantics of lingual networks]. In Ye.A. Karpilovska (Ed.), Doctrina multiplex, veritas una. Uchen’bahato, istyna odna: zbirnyk prac’ do yuvileyu Izabelly Rafayilivny Buniyatovoyi (pp. 99–141). Kyiv: Un-t im. B. Hrinchenka (in Russian).
Zhabotyns’ka, S. (2019). Semantyka linhval’nyh merezh u navchal’nomu kombinatornomu tezaurusi [Semantics of lingual networks in the learner’s combinatory dictionary]. Studia Philologica, 2, Kyivs’kyi universytet imeni B. Hrinchenka, 17–27 (in Ukrainian).
Zhabotynska, S. (2020). Dominance of Ukrainian in a bilingual setting: neurocognitive factors. In O. Bilash (Ed.), Research initiative on democratic reforms in Ukraine (RIDRU) (pp. 92–115). Edmonton: University of Alberta. Retrieved from https://www.ualberta.ca/canadian-institute-of-ukrainian-studies/centres-and-programs/ulec/ulec-news/ridru_publication.pdf
Zhabotyns’ka, S., & Plakhotniuk, Ye. (2016). Vyvchennya inozemnoyi movy doroslymy: nejrokohnityvnyj rakurs [Learning a foreign language by adults: a neurocognitive aspect]. Movoznavchyj visnyk, 21, 7–17 (in Ukrainian).
Published
2020-11-30
How to Cite
Zhabotynska, S., & Plakhotniuk, Y. (2020). The Active Learner’s Construction-Combinatory Thesaurus: user-driven principles of compiling (a cognitive linguistic approach). Cognition, Communication, Discourse, (21), 93-107. https://doi.org/10.26565/2218-2926-2020-21-07