CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION
Although many researches concerning entry word selection and arrangement in ESP dictionaries have been made in recent years, they are rather broad and general, and most of them are stagnating at a theoretical level. To be more specific, studies on entry word selection and arrangement conducted from the perspective of Business English majors in China are still left in vacancy. Hence, it is of necessity and significance to probe into the specific needs from a particular group of learners when selecting and arranging entry words. The present research is set out to find out solutions to remedy the deficiencies of entry word selection and arrangement in existing BELDs for the benefits of Chinese college Business English majors, in the hope of filling the blank in this field and making some contributions to further researches. On the basis of above observation, this thesis makes an attempt to probe into the specific needs of Business English majors in Chinese colleges concerning the selection and arrangement of entry words under the guidance of lexicographic function theory (LFT). Then, the deficiencies of entry word selection and arrangement in the current BELDs are revealed by a contrastive analysis of three BELDs and one general purpose English dictionary in the theoretical framework of Atkins and Rundell’s model for headword list (2008:178). Moreover, three main principles for optimizing entry word selection in BELDs are proposed, and a tentative “A” letter headword list is presented. Some suggestions for improving entry word selection and arrangement in existing BELDs are put forward in the end. The significance of present research mainly lies in the following aspects: The objective of present research is to reveal the deficiencies of entry word selection and arrangement in existing BELDs and to find some feasible ways to optimize them, on the basis of Chinese college Business English majors’ specific requirements for entry word selection and arrangement. Three research questions which will be addressed are as follows: 1) What are the specific requirements of Chinese college Business English majors for entry word selection and arrangement? 2) What are the deficiencies in existing BELDs concerning entry word selection and arrangement, in line with the specific needs of Business English majors in Chinese colleges? 3) How to optimize entry word selection and arrangement to remedy the deficiencies in existing BELDs in the light of Chinese college Business English majors’ specific needs?
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CHAPTER TWO RELEVANT STUDIES ON ENTRY WORD SELECTION AND ARRANGEMENT
2.1 Principles of Entry Word Selection
Since it is impossible to exhaust all the words in a dictionary, some principles of entry word selection are dispensable in any
