Dictionary users do look up frequent words. A log file analysis

Koplenig, Alexander; Meyer, Peter; Müller-Spitzer, Carolin

doi:10.1515/9783110341287.229

Cited by 10 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 3 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…In this section, we want to investigate whether this is a good strategy. We already showed that dictionary users indeed look up frequent words (Koplenig et al 2014). Here, we want to summarize our previous findings and evaluate them by transferring some of the methods we applied to the 2012 data from Wiktionary to the data from 2013.…”

Section: Correlation Between Corpus Frequency and Look-up Frequencymentioning

confidence: 96%

“…The first part of the analysis will examine the correlation between look-up frequency and corpus frequency (section 3). This section summarizes previous findings (Koplenig et al 2014). The second part of the analysis will consider questions of ambiguity and the role of (temporal) social relevance of words in connection with look-up frequency (section 4).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Previously (cf. Koplenig et al 2014) we introduced the variable "searches per one million searches" (searches poms) that captures relative search frequency normed to one million searches. Because the Wiktionary log files do not contain search terms but only the number of visits within a specific time frame for specific pages, we will call the variable "visits in one million visits" here.…”

Section: Obtaining the Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Observing Online Dictionary Users: Studies Using Wiktionary Log Files

Müller-Spitzer

Wolfer

Koplenig

2015

International Journal of Lexicography

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We present studies using the 2013 log files from the German version of Wiktionary. We investigate several lexicographically relevant variables and their effect on look-up frequency: Corpus frequency of the headword seems to have a strong effect on the number of visits to a Wiktionary entry. We then consider the question of whether polysemic words are looked up more often than monosemic ones. Here, we also have to take into account that polysemic words are more frequent in most languages. Finally, we present a technique to investigate the time-course of look-up behaviour for specific entries. We exemplify the method by investigating influences of (temporary) social relevance of specific headwords.

show abstract

Section: Correlation Between Corpus Frequency and Look-up Frequencymentioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Obtaining the Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Observing Online Dictionary Users: Studies Using Wiktionary Log Files

Müller-Spitzer

Wolfer

Koplenig

2015

International Journal of Lexicography

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…These studies reveal the role of electronic dictionaries in vocabulary learning but they are not without problems. One concern is that they do not reflect actual dictionary use, because users looked up both low-frequency words and high-frequency words in reading and translation, especially when high-frequency words have many different senses (Bogaards 1998;Frankenberg-Garcia 2011;Koplenig, Meyer and Müller-Spitzer 2014). Another problem is that most users consulted a dictionary to solve the problems arising during the linguistic activities rather than to memorize words.…”

Section: Studies Of Dictionary Usementioning

confidence: 99%

An Empirical Study of EFL Learners' Dictionary Use in Chinese–English Translation

Liang

2018

LEXI

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article reports on the results of a study which investigated English as Foreign Language (EFL) learners' use of an electronic dictionary in a L1-L2 translation task. Forty-seven university graduate students from a Chinese university were asked to translate a Chinese passage into English on computers with the support of an embedded dictionary. Screen recorders were used to record their dictionary use behavior and a follow-up interview was conducted to tap into the thinking processes behind their behavior. The results of the study show that when translating, EFL learners demonstrate preferences for L2 equivalents and content words in their lookups, and reveal specific problems such as a preoccupation with L2 equivalents and lack of awareness of other lexical information, which may hinder correct application of dictionary information. This study suggests that dictionary use behavior may affect the development of students' ability to translate and requires attention from both EFL learners and teachers. It is further suggested that translation teachers should alert learners to the importance of checking other lexical information in a dictionary in their translation practice.

show abstract

“…The authors for the first time ask a question later investigated more deeply in further studies (cf. De Schryver et al 2006, Verlinde and Binon 2010, Koplenig et al 2014, Trap-Jensen et al 2014, Müller-Spitzer et al 2015, about whether dictionary users actually look up frequent words. The research leads to an important conclusion: it seems that there is a relationship between the corpus frequency and the frequency of lookups.…”

Section: Log Files As a Tool Of Dictionary User Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Revisiting Lemma Lists in Swahili Dictionaries

Wójtowicz

2017

LEXI

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

When compiling a dictionary, a lexicographer has a set of decisions to make -starting with drawing up a lemma list to such issues as formatting a dictionary entry. Relying on corpus data while designing a lemma list and describing entries is standard in present lexicography, but there are still decisions -like the choice of a lemma or how to treat derivatives -that are often intuition-based. This article aims to investigate whether decisions put forward in Swahili dictionaries comply with users' expectations. We analyse log files from the new Swahili-Polish dictionary to investigate why looking up words goes wrong, and evaluate the choice of a lemma and the treatment of derivatives in Swahili dictionaries. Based on such data we intend to expand or modify the existing electronic dictionary to adapt to users' level of grammar and dictionary structure knowledge. During this research we identified a list of lemma lacuna that cause the majority of unsuccessful Swahili searches. The study shows that users know and understand the lemmatisation strategy of the dictionary but also reveals which word forms cause the most problems and how the lemma list of Swahili dictionaries could be expanded. Keywords: DICTIONARY USER RESEARCH, LOG FILES ANALYSIS, SWAHILI-POLISH DICTIONARY, LEMMA LIST, DERIVATIVESOpsomming: Die herbesoek van lemmalyste in Swahili-woordeboeke. Wanneer 'n woordeboek saamgestel word, moet 'n leksikograaf 'n reeks besluite neem -van die opstel van 'n lemmalys, tot kwessies soos die formatering van 'n woordeboekinskrywing. Om staat te maak op korpusdata wanneer 'n lemmalys opgestel en inskrywings beskryf word, is standaardpraktyk in die huidige leksikografie, maar daar is steeds dikwels besluite -soos die keuse van 'n lemma of hoe om afleidings te hanteer -wat op intuïsie gebaseer is. Hierdie artikel beoog om te ondersoek of besluite wat in Swahili-woordeboeke geneem is, voldoen aan gebruikers se verwagtings. Ons analiseer loglêers van die nuwe Swahili-Poolse woordeboek om te ondersoek waarom die opsoek van woorde skeefloop, en evalueer die lemmakeuse en die hantering van afleidings in Swahili-woordeboeke. Ons beoog om die bestaande elektroniese woordeboek op grond van hierdie data uit te brei of te wysig om aan te pas by gebruikers se vlak van kennis ten opsigte van grammatika en woordeboekstruktuur. Tydens hierdie navorsing het ons 'n lys van leemtes ten opsigte van lemmas geïdentifiseer wat die meerderheid van onsuksesvolle Swahili-soektogte veroorsaak. Die navorsing toon dat gebruikers die woordeboek se lemmatiseringstrategie ken en verstaan, maar openbaar ook watter woordvorme die meeste probleme veroorsaak en hoe die lemmalys van Swahiliwoordeboeke uitgebrei kan word.

show abstract

Dictionary users do look up frequent words. A log file analysis

Cited by 10 publications

References 3 publications

Observing Online Dictionary Users: Studies Using Wiktionary Log Files

Observing Online Dictionary Users: Studies Using Wiktionary Log Files

An Empirical Study of EFL Learners' Dictionary Use in Chinese–English Translation

Revisiting Lemma Lists in Swahili Dictionaries

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About