Transcript Barli Bram, Ajeng Pradhipta and Voni Novita English Language Education Sanata Dharma University Yogyakarta, Indonesia.

Barli Bram, Ajeng Pradhipta and Voni Novita
English Language Education
Sanata Dharma University
Yogyakarta, Indonesia
hibiscus: bush, flower or plant?
Sanata Dharma University Yogyakarta Indonesia 2015
Pic credit: Barli Bram
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Presentation Structure
 Introduction, Objective
 Review
 Data, Methods
 Results
 Concluding Remarks
 References
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Why NP Patterns and Flower
Name Definitions?
NP patterns: highly productive as subjects and objects
and … might be complex (for English learners)
Flower name definitions in dictionaries:
how consistent (in using flower as headword)?
(hyponymy-hyper(o)nymy/superordinate relations)
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Objective
 to examine noun phrase patterns and definition
consistencies of flower names in English provided by
two online advanced learners’ dictionaries.
(consistent = flower as headword)
 In the context of language learning, complex noun
phrases might be problematic for English learners and
the uses of hyponymy and hypernymy/superordinate
in dictionary definitions may prove to be inconsistent.
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Review: Hyponym and Hypernym (1)
In semantics, the term hyponym refers to “a word of
more specific meaning than a hyper(o)nym or a
superordinate term applicable to it” (OALD); the noun
eagle is a hyponym of bird, for example.
The term hyper(o)nym or superordinate refers to “a
word with broad meaning constituting a category into
which words with more specific meanings fall”
(OALD). For instance, flower is a hyper(o)nym of tulip.
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Hyponym and Hypernym (2)
Poole (1999: 25) “Such a relationship between words whereby more specific terms are arranged under
their more general superordinate terms is known as hyponymy”. See the figure below:
animal
mammal
cat
dog
wolf
poodle terrier
spaniel
(Poole, 1999: 25)
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Hyponym and Hypernym (3)
diagram of flower name hyponym-hypernym (suggestion)
living being
plant
flower
bluebell
carnation
rose
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tulip
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Hyponym and Hypernym (4)
 “One of the most important structuring relations in the
vocabulary of a language is hyponymy. This is the relation
between apple and fruit, car and vehicle, slap and hit, and
so on. We say that apple is a hyponym of fruit, and
conversely, that fruit is a superordinate (occasionally
hypernym) of apple” (Cruse, 2000: 150).
 De Swart (1998: 18): “… hyponymy (often creating a
taxonomy, also called an isa-hierarchy … a German
shepherd is a dog, is a mammal, is a living being; a
dandelion is a flower, is a plant, is a living being”.
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Noun Phrase (1)
“In syntax, phrases consist of minimally a head, and it
is the syntactic category of the head that determines
the category of the phrase. … a phrase with a noun as
head is a Noun Phrase (NP) … For instance … hard
work is an NP with the noun work as its head” (Booij,
2005: 53).
A noun phrase: “a phrase whose head is a noun.
Thus, the expression lovers of opera is a noun phrase,
since its head is the noun lovers” (Radford, 1998: 518).
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Noun Phrase (2)
A head: a “word which acts as the core of a phrase
and gives it its grammatical character. In the noun
phrase ‘these big books about phonetics’, the noun
‘books’ is the head” (Swan, 2007: 111).
“It is customary to describe the English nominal as
consisting of a sequence of constituents:
predeterminers, determiners, adjectives, the noun
head, and finally certain postnominal modifiers, such
as relative clauses” (Lees, 1961: 2).
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Data and Methods
Forty-five (45) lexical items – flower names and their
definitions rom two online English-English dictionaries,
namely the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (OALD)
and Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (CALD).
Why these two? Authoritative, reliable and accessible
Collected lexical items: 45 flower definitions were
examined to identify noun phrase patterns or structures
used in the definitions and to discover whether or not the
definitions (hyponym-hyper(o)nym relations) in the two
dictionaries were consistent.
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Sample Screenshot from OALD (daffodil)
Pic ture credit: online source
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Table 1: Flower Definitions from OALD (Five Examples)
No
Flower
Definition
Pre-mod
Head
Post-mod
1
amaryllis
a tall white, pink or red flower shaped like
a trumpet
det+adjP
flower
clause
2
bluebell
a garden or wild flower with a short stem and det+adjP
small blue or white flowers shaped like bells
flower
PP
3
bougainvillea a tropical climbing plant with red, purple,
white or pink flowers
det+adjP
plant
PP
4
camellia
a bush with shiny leaves and white, red or
pink flowers that look like roses and are also
called camellias
det
bush
PP
5
carnation
a white, pink, red or yellow flower, often
worn as a decoration on formal occasions
det+adjP
flower
clause
(often)
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Table 2: Flower Definitions from CALD (Five Examples)
No
Flower
Definition
Pre-mod
Head
Post-mod
1
amaryllis
Not found
N/A
N/A
N/A
2
bluebell
a small European plant that usually
grows in woods and has blue flowers
shaped like bells
det+adjP
plant
clause (usually)
3
bougainvillea a climbing plant, common in hot
countries, that has red or purple flowers
det+adjP
plant
clause
(appositive)
4
camellia
a bush with dark, shiny leaves and large
white, pink, or red flowers that are similar
to roses
det
bush
PP
5
carnation
(a plant with) a small flower with a sweet det
smell, usually white, pink, or red in colour
plant/flower
PP
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Results: Headwords in OALD and CALD
OALD & CALD Headwords
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
bush
bush/plant
bush/tree
flower
OALD
flower/plant
plant
N/A
CALD
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Headword Percentages (OALD)
OALD Headwords
bush
7%
bush/tree
4%
bush/plant
5%
flower
24%
plant
58%
flower/plant
2%
bush
bush/plant
bush/tree
flower
flower/plant
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plant
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Headword Percentages (CALD)
CALD Headwords
bush
7%
N/A
9%
bush/plant
2%
bush/tree
5%
flower
13%
flower/plant
2%
plant
62%
bush
bush/plant
bush/tree
flower
flower/plant
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plant
N/A
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Pre-modifiers in OALD and CALD
OALD & CALD Pre-modifiers
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
det
det+adjP
det+PP
OALD
N/A
CALD
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Pre-modifier Percentages (OALD)
OALD Pre-modifiers
det
20%
det+adjP
80%
det
det+adjP
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Pre-modifier Percentages (CALD)
CALD Post-modifiers
det+PP
4%
N/A
9%
det
27%
det+adjP
60%
det
det+adjP
det+PP
N/A
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Post-modifiers in OALD and CALD
OALD & CALD Post-modifiers
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
adj clause
adj phrase
PP
OALD
no post-mod
N/A
CALD
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Post-modifier Percentages (OALD)
OALD Post-modifiers
no post-mod
2%
adj clause
20%
PP
78%
adj clause
PP
no post-mod
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Post-modifier Percentages (CALD)
CALD Post-modifiers
no post-mod
2%
N/A
9%
adj clause
29%
adj phrase
2%
PP
58%
adj clause
adj phrase
PP
no post-mod
N/A
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Concluding Remarks
1) the basic noun phrase pattern:
premodifier+headword+(postmodifier) and
2) inconsistencies in the definitions (flower not as head)
Study results: would assist learners of the English
language to understand better the patterns and
definitions of flower names which will then improve the
learners’ noun phrase mastery and semantic knowledge,
particularly hyponymy and hypernymy/superordinate.
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References (partial list)
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