Collocational networks and their application to an E-Advanced Learner's Dictionary of Verbs in Science (DicSci)

Resumen

The present article deals with a situation that lies between the needs of an advanced learner's dictionary and those of a specialised dictionary in attempting to build a pattern dictionary for verbs which are being used in scientific research papers. Current dictionaries do not necessary assist in the particular production environment of the scientific article. This can be tackled by building a bottom-up phraseological dictionary which will help both with decoding and encoding. The building method uses collocational networks in order to compile a dictionary which will demonstrate usage of individual verbs, grouping them into a natural classification system that will grow from the corpus data. This organic dictionary ultimately makes wide use of mind mapping technology to allow the user to navigate within the dictionary. It contains both individual entries containing phraseological information and super entries linking quasi-synonyms and writing assistance. The dictionary provides the environment which can link phraseological patterns to the corpus data so as to limit the information retrieval process whilst providing real examples of language in use in specialised contexts.