EFL Text Production Dictionaries for Law Students

1. EFL Text Production Dictionaries for Law Students Sandro Nielsen Aarhus University Business and Social Sciences Centre for Lexicography

2. Point of departure • Discussion of the theoreticalfoundation of online dictionarieson the basis of: • The Danish-English CISG Dictionary • UN Conventionon the International Sale of Goods • Danish-Englishdictionary • Sub-fielddictionary • Danish law students • Writing legal texts in English as a foreignlanguage Sandro Nielsen, 8 April 2011

3. The concept of dictionary Online dictionariesarecomplextools: • Surface features • Those features thatare visible to users in the two-dimensionalspace, i.e. on the screen • Underlying features • Those features that form the theoretical basis of dictionaries and thatare not immediately visible to users Sandro Nielsen, 8 April 2011

4. Underlying features Dictionaries have at least three underlying features: • they have been designed to fulfill one or more functions; • they contain data that have been selected because they help to fulfill their function(s); • they have structures that marshal the data into the task of fulfilling the relevant function(s). Sandro Nielsen, 8 April 2011

5. The primacy of functions • A lexicographical function is ‘the satisfaction of the specific types of lexicographically relevant needs that may arise in a specific type of potential user in a specific type of extra-lexicographical situation.’ (Bergenholtz and Tarp 2010: 30) • Communicative functions provide help in ongoing or planned communicative situations • Cognitive functions provide help if people want to acquire knowledge about factual or linguistic matters Sandro Nielsen, 8 April 2011

6. The EFL productiondictionary EFL production dictionaries for law students are information tools which, through their surface and underlying features, provide help to law students who produce texts pertaining to the field of law in English as a foreign language. Sandro Nielsen, 8 April 2011

7. Stages in EFL textproduction • Three stages: • a planning, an execution and a finalisation stage • Writing, editing and revising: • macro-level: concerns the relationship between paragraphs and larger units of text • micro-level: concerns words, collocations, phrases, sentences, and textual conventions Sandro Nielsen, 8 April 2011

8. User profiling • Danish law students: • Master the Danish language at a highlevel • Master English as a foreignlanguage at a medium level • Experience in producing legal texts in English at a lowlevel • General cultural and factualknowledge at a medium level • Master the subjectfield of Danish law at a lowlevel • Master the subjectfield of English law at a lowlevel (ornil) • Master Danish legal language at a lowlevel • Master English legal language at a lowlevel Sandro Nielsen, 8 April 2011

9. Producing EFL texts • Writersthinkexclusively in nativelanguage and translateintoforeignlanguage • Writersthinkpartly in nativelanguage and translateintoforeignlanguage, thinkpartly in foreignlanguage and writedirectly in foreignlanguage • Writersthink in foreignlanguage and writeexclusively in foreignlanguage Sandro Nielsen, 8 April 2011

10. Surface features • Homepage • Welcometext • Search page – entryword • Advancedsearch – strings of words • List of all entrywords • User guide • Links to relevant texts Sandro Nielsen, 8 April 2011

11. Data fields: lemma + equivalent • Danish lemma • Grammar note - Danish lemma • Word classindication - Danish lemma • Meaningdiscrimination – Danish lemma • English equivalent • Grammar note – English equivalent • Contrastive note – Danish lemma and English equivalent Sandro Nielsen, 8 April 2011

12. Data fields: strings of words • Danish collocations • English translations of Danish collocations • Danish short phrases • English translations of Danish short phrases • Danish long phrases • English translations of Danish long phrases Sandro Nielsen, 8 April 2011

13. Basis for data selection • The selection of data in online production dictionariesshould be based on the concept of relevance. • Relevance is defined as the quality of being directly connected with the subject field in question, the production function of the dictionary, and the production situation in which the dictionary is intended to be used. Sandro Nielsen, 8 April 2011

14. Search option 1: Show all Meaningdiscrimination Clickhere Sandro Nielsen, 8 April 2011

15. Fullarticle Sandro Nielsen, 8 April 2011

16. Search option 2: headword Search for headword Danish > English Type Danish word and clicksearch sælger search Sandro Nielsen, 8 April 2011

17. Searchheadword: example Searchresult Sandro Nielsen, 8 April 2011

18. Search option 3: advanced Advancedsearch Searchcollocations Type Danish word and clicksearch Search short phrases Type Danish word and clicksearch Search long phrases Type Danish word and clicksearch search ejendomsret seach search Sandro Nielsen, 8 April 2011

19. Advancedsearch: example Searchresult (Search in short phrases + searchword: ejendomsret) Wholeentry Sandro Nielsen, 8 April 2011

20. Note ongrammar • Danish plural: leveringsbetingelser Sandro Nielsen, 8 April 2011

21. Note ongrammar Sandro Nielsen, 8 April 2011

22. Contrastive note Sandro Nielsen, 8 April 2011

23. Contrastive note Sandro Nielsen, 8 April 2011

24. Possibleextensions • For userswhowritethroughtheirnativelanguage: • Search: in Danish data • On-screenpresentation: Danish + English data as well as Danish meta data • For userswhowritedirectly in the foreignlanguage: • Search: in English data • On-screenpresentation: English data as well as Danish meta data Sandro Nielsen, 8 April 2011