Alenka Vrbinc

University of Ljubljana

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Co-Authors

Marjeta Vrbinc

University of Ljubljana

Donna M. T. Cr. Farina

New Jersey City University

DŠ

Danko Šipka

Arizona State University

Cooperative Institutions

New Jersey City University

United States Air Force Academy

University of Georgia

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Institute for Advanced Study

Arizona State University

SIL International

Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań

Institut für Urheber- und Medienrecht

Institut za filozofiju

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EFL students' use of grammatical information in five leading British learners' dictionaries

Linguistica (2007)

Alenka Vrbinc Marjeta Vrbinc

Grammar is one of the elements of lexicographic description. In order to find out whether dictionary users use their dictionaries to retrieve grammatical information, we carried out a research-based study investigating their skills. This article presents and discusses the results of a study into the use by EFL students of grammatical information included in five leading British learners' dictionaries. The ability of students to use dictionary entries was tested by means of 33 sentences. Some of the sentences were grammatically correct; others contained a grammatical mistake. The students had to detect mistakes with the help of enclosed dictionary entries. The aim of the study was to find out whether there were any great differences among the dictionaries used and how successful the test subjects were in finding and using grammatical information.

Mistake

Lexicographical order

10.4312/linguistica.47.1.145-158

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Citations (1)

The Complexity of the Translation of Phraseological Units and its Implications for English-Slovene Bilingual Dictionaries

De Gruyter eBooks (2010)

Alenka Vrbinc

10.1515/9783110234060.139

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Citations (1)

Prepletenost kulture in jezika na primeru angleških in slovenskih izlastnoimenskih frazemov

Slavistična revija/Slavistična revija (2019)

Alenka Vrbinc Marjeta Vrbinc

The connection between language and culture is reflected in the phraseology of a particular language. Despite the universality of some idioms which originate from common sources or have become established in a language because of language contact, many idioms are culture-specific. In this article, cultural specificity of English and Slovene onomastic idioms is discussed and special attention is paid to the onyms which are often names of people or places well-known among the members of a particular language community or culture. In such cases, the use of idioms is restricted to a national or local environment and the onym is more or less unknown outside the language community, which causes problems in idiom comprehension.

Phraseology

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Differences in the Inclusion and Treatment of Terminology in OALD3, OALD4 and OALD8

Lexikos (2013)

Marjeta Vrbinc Alenka Vrbinc

This article deals with the inclusion and treatment of scientific and technical vocabulary in the third, fourth and eighth editions of Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. The comparison of these editions is based on a random sample of 50 pages from OALD8 from the lemma foot to gimmick. The same lemma range was also studied in OALD3 and OALD4. First, different ways of indicating terminology were identified: i.e., subject-field labels, definitions and short cuts. Then all the lemmata or their senses marked with a subject-field label were found and a list of all subject-field labels used in this lemma range was compiled to see similarities and differences between individual editions. The comparison showed that the number of subject-field labels in all three editions is almost identical, but the subject-field labels differ from edition to edition. The issue of overly specific labels (e.g., 'anatomy', 'phonetics') and labels that are too broad (e.g., 'science', 'technical') is addressed. The next part of the article is devoted to the changes in the treatment of LSP lexical items in these three editions of OALD, from missing labels to changes in labels and ways of indicating terminology by means of definitions and/or short cuts. The conclusion suggests improvements in the subject-field labels themselves, a more consistent way of including subject-field labels even when the definitions indicate the subject field and an improved use of short cuts when the reference is to a certain subject field.

Lemma (botany)

10.5788/23-1-1224

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Citations (5)

Diasystematic Information in Learner’s Dictionaries: The Usability of Multiple Labels

GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies (2015)

Marjeta Vrbinc Alenka Vrbinc

Labels in dictionaries provide information about restrictions and constraints on the use of certain words or senses in the contexts in which they occur or in relation to other words described in a dictionary. These restrictions are referred to as diasystematic information. This contribution deals with diasystematic information in four British monolingual learner’s dictionaries (OALD8, LDOCE5, CALD3, and MED2) with the emphasis on multiple labels. A detailed classification of labels is presented and an in-depth overview of labels used in combination with one another in the dictionaries under investigation is given. Then follows a discussion of labels which are often used in combination, the aim being to establish whether labels belonging to one and the same category combine with one another or whether multiple labelling consists of labels from different categories of labels. The findings of this study show that labels belonging to different groups are mostly combined, and apart from that, labels expressing diaevaluative information and those expressing diastratic information can be combined within the group. Possible reasons for this are discussed in the contribution. The inclusion of diasystematic information largely depends on the type of dictionary and especially on its intended users. Therefore, lexicographers’ decisions about whether to use a label and how to use it appropriately should be based on the user profile. This is especially true of monolingual learner’s dictionaries, where one of the main functions is to promote the active use of a foreign language where every single piece of information included in the dictionary counts. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17576/GEMA-2015-1501-07

10.17576/gema-2015-1501-07

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Citations (4)

Raziskovalni center Ekonomske fakultete

Alenka Vrbinc

”This contribution deals with the inclusion and treatment of scientific and technical vocabulary in the third, fourth and eighth editions of Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. The comparison of these editions is based on a random sample of 50 pages from OALD8 from the lemma foot to gimmick. The same lemma range was also studied in OALD3 and OALD4. First, different ways of indicating terminology were identified: i.e., subject-field labels, definitions and short cuts. Then all the lemmata or their senses marked with a subject-field label were found and a list of all subject-field labels used in this lemma range was compiled to see similarities and differences between individual editions. The comparison showed that the number of subject-field labels in all three editions is almost identical, but the subject-field labels differ from edition to edition. The issue of overly specific labels (e.g., 'anatomy', 'phonetics') and labels that are too broad (e.g., 'science', 'technical') is addressed. The next part is devoted to the changes in the treatment of LSP lexical items in these three editions of OALD, from missing labels to changes in labels and ways of indicating terminology by means of definitions and/or short cuts. The conclusion suggests improvements in the subject-field labels themselves, a more consistent way of including subjectfield labels even when the definitions indicate the subject field and an improved use of short cuts when the reference is to a certain subject field.”

Lemma (botany)

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Diasystematic Information in the "Big Five": A Comparison of Print Dictionaries, CD-ROMS/DVD-ROMS and Online Dictionaries

Lexikos (2015)

Marjeta Vrbinc Alenka Vrbinc

The information provided by labels is called diasystematic information, which gives restrictions and limitations concerning the use of a lexical item. The focus of the study, the findings of which are presented in this contribution, is five British monolingual learner's dictionaries (OALD9, LDOCE6, COBUILD7, CALD4, MED2), which are often referred to as the "Big Five". The aims of the study are to compare the print edition and the electronic versions (CD-ROM/DVD-ROM and online dictionaries) of the same dictionary to see whether the lists of labels used in one particular dictionary coincide across versions of one and the same dictionary. Parallels are then drawn between dictionaries to determine similarities and differences in the use of labels providing different types of diasystematic information. Some of the most important findings of the study are that lists of labels differ in all three versions of one and the same dictionary and that some labels enumerated in the lists either are not used in the A–Z section at all or are used in a different form. Apart from that, some labels used in the dictionaries are so close in interpretation that the intended user will probably experience difficulty in distinguishing between them.Keywords: diasystematic information; taxonomies of diasystematic information; labels; monolingual learner's dictionaries; print dictionaries; dictionaries on cd-roms/dvd-roms; online dictionaries; restrictions and limitations concerning use; lists of labels in front matter; actual use of labels

Section (typography)

Lexicography

10.5788/25-1-1306

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Citations (1)

A research-based study of foreign students' use of grammatical codes in five leading British learners' dictionaries

Linguistica (2006)

Marjeta Vrbinc Alenka Vrbinc

Grammatical codes are one of several ways of including grammar in learners' dictionaries. In our research we focussed on the usability and user-friendliness of learners' dictionaries as regards grammatical information. The results presented and discussed in this article are based on answers obtained by a questionnaire that tested the understanding of codes found in five leading British monolingual learners' dictionaries and the success of the explanations of the same codes provided in the front matter of each dictionary. The results are presented by dictionaries and by codes. The most important finding of this research is that the understanding of the code and thus its usefulness depends on the code itself rather than on the dictionary.

Code (set theory)

10.4312/linguistica.46.1.227-242

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Citations (3)

The retrieval of data on the basis of part-of-speech labelling

Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics (2011)

Alenka Vrbinc Marjeta Vrbinc

The article focuses on the retrieval of information on the basis of part-of-speech labeling. When studying the inclusion of individual words, senses and phraseological units in five British monolingual learners’ dictionaries (OALD8, LDOCE5, COBUILD5, CALD3, MED2), it was found that the dictionaries under investigation do not always agree on a PoS label or that lemmata are equipped with more than one PoS label. Special attention is paid to locating words, senses and phraseological units where it is essential to identify the correct part of speech of the word under which they are included and dealt with in monolingual learners’ dictionaries. Without a shadow of a doubt, the problem of PoS labeling has been partly resolved by the introduction of multiple PoS labels; consequently, the user no longer needs to identify each and every part of speech of the word in question. Another simplification of the microstructure regarding the inclusion of phraseological units is that all phraseological units with one common element belonging to different parts of speech are simply grouped together in one special idioms section without distinction between individual parts of speech.

Section (typography)

10.2478/psicl-2011-0031

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Citations (0)

Problems in Online Dictionary Use for Advanced Slovenian Learners of English

International Journal of Lexicography (2019)

Donna M. T. Cr. Farina Marjeta Vrbinc Alenka Vrbinc

Abstract This article reports on findings from interviews with students from the University of Ljubljana. The study is based on fourteen questions about participants’ habits of dictionary use, their look-up abilities, and their perceptions of the utility and quality of definitions and illustrative examples. Students were given nine contexts containing a clearly-marked common word used in an infrequent sense; they had to locate the relevant sense in the online Merriam–Webster Learner’s Dictionary (MWLD). A think-aloud method enabled the researchers to follow the students’ look-up process and record their problems as well as their suggestions on how to improve the content and presentation of information in the dictionary. Recommendations are provided on: the improvement of drop-down menus; the inclusion of the form(s) of a target word; illustrative examples; the use of italics, boldface, and colors as well as what types of information should be displayed or available if needed.

Presentation (obstetrics)

Think aloud protocol

10.1093/ijl/ecz017

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Citations (12)