Kulturka

Phonetics of EFL Dictionary Definitions

This is a phonostatistic and phonolapsological study of definitions in MEDAL, the Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners , a monolingual English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) dictionary published in 2002 under the editorship of Michael Rundell. The study argues that phonolexicographic attention should be extended to those elements of dictionary microstructure which have traditionally remained outside of any phonetic control, including definitions and example sentences. There is room for improvement in this area. S pecifically, definition text can, and should, be to some extent phonetically controlled to avoid lexical maxima of high phonetic dif ficulty, ensure easy (subvocal) reading, hence - foster understanding and incidental vocabulary learning by learners.

• author: Włodzimierz Sobkowiak