Dictionary entries and bathtubs: Does it make sense?
Anna Dziemianko · International Journal of Lexicography · 2016
The paper is devoted to sense identification in polysemous entries as well as language reception and production. Five-sense entries devoid of any internal access facilitators and included in OALDCE8 in book form were used in an experiment where subjects identified senses in which target words were used in corpus sentences. Then, the senses had to be explained and original English sentences with the target words in the target senses had to be formulated. The major question answered in this paper is whether the bathtub effect, recently observed in polysemous entry consultation (Nesi and Tan 2011), holds for sense identification performed in other experimental conditions. An attempt is also made to see whether a similar effect exists for decoding and encoding. The secondary aim of the study is to determine whether the length of entries and the length of target senses affect sense identification, comprehension and use.