انجمن زبان شناسی ایران زبان و زبان‌شناسی 23223847 21 41 2025 12 22 A comparative study of the microstructure of two Persian learners' dictionaries بررسی مقایسه‌ای خردساختار دو فرهنگ زبان‌آموز تک‌زبانۀ فارسی 1 24 10743 10.30465/lsi.2025.51814.1803 FA نفیسه تدین چهارطاق فارغ‌التحصیل دکتری گروه زبان‌شناسی، دانشکده ادبیات، دانشگاه الزهرا، تهران، ایران 0000-0003-0464-8704 فریبا قطره دانشیار گروه زبان شناسی، دانشکده ادبیات دانشگاه الزهرا، تهران، ایران 0000-0002-6146-1180 Journal Article 2025 05 01 The present paper conducts a comparative analysis of the microstructure of two monolingual Persian learners' dictionaries: the Advanced Learners' Persian Dictionary and the Persian Learners' Dictionary for Elementary Language Learners. To achieve this goal, thirty-nine representative lexical entries were randomly selected from both dictionaries. These entries were analyzed in terms of how they represent microstructural features, including orthographic, phonological, grammatical, morphological, pragmatic, and semantic information. The evaluation criteria were based on established findings in lexicographic research. The results indicate that the Advanced Learners' Persian Dictionary places a strong emphasis on providing detailed usage information, distinguishing multiple senses of headwords, and offering a wide range of collocations and idiomatic expressions. It also makes use of illustrative images to enhance comprehension. In contrast, the Elementary Learners’ Dictionary focuses on supplying systematic and simplified definitions, highlighting lexical relations, and reinforcing understanding through carefully chosen examples. These findings suggest varying pedagogical orientations tailored to different learner proficiencies. 1. Introduction Learners’ dictionaries play a significant role in second-language acquisition. This is mainly because they provide users with essential semantic and pragmatic information they need to understand and produce words in the target language. However, the range of vocabulary they cover and the way they present information to the learner determine the effectiveness of these dictionaries. The present research comparatively analyzes the microstructural organization of two Persian learners’ dictionaries: Farhang-e Zabân’âmuz-e Fârsi barâye Zabân’âmuzân-e Satah-e Moqaddamâti (Zafarzadeh, 2009) and the Farhang-e Zabân’âmuz-e Pishrafte-ye Fârsi (Asi, 2019) (henceforth abbreviated as Z.M. and Z.P. respectively). The goal is to answer the following research questions: Research Questions 1. How do the microstructural strategies for presenting lexical information differ between Z.M. (beginner dictionary) and Z.P. (advanced dictionary), and how effectively do they address the needs of their respective learner groups? 2. What strengths and weaknesses can be identified in each dictionary’s approach to meaning explanation, example usage, and supplementary semantic information, and what implications do these findings have for improving future Persian learner dictionaries? 2. Literature Review The internal structures of learners' dictionaries have been a significant area of study, focusing on how these structures can enhance usability and information retrieval for language learners. The microstructure of a dictionary encompasses various elements contributing to its effectiveness. For instance, foundational studies emphasize that definitions should be structured to facilitate comprehension and correct contextual use (Tomaszczyk, 1981). Along similar lines, Moon (2016) highlights the pedagogical advantage of full-sentence definitional formats, which implicitly model syntactic behavior and collocational patterns. The lexicographic tradition represented by Jackson (2002) has also shaped analytical categories used in this study, including grammatical labeling, lexical relations (synonymy, antonymy, meronymy, hyponymy), and argument structure for verbs. This framework informed both the methodological coding scheme and the interpretation of relative strengths in the two dictionaries. Abu-Risha (2003) further advances the role of semantic relations, particularly synonyms, as meaning clarifiers when they are simpler or more frequent than the target lemma. However, critical perspectives, such as those of Hamdan and Fareh (1997), caution that reliance on synonymy can mislead learners when even subtle semantic-pragmatic distinctions exist between paired terms. Sharifi and Qatre (2019) in their work on definition typologies in Persian lexicography introduced distinctions among analytical, functional, sentential, cluster-based, and metaphor-based definitions, enabling systematic analysis of definitional variation across entries. Meanwhile, Landau (1984) emphasis on the function of examples as syntactic and pragmatic guidance. Together, these theoretical perspectives provide a framework for evaluating the pedagogical orientation of each dictionary and clarify how lexicographic design choices, definition style, microstructural markup, usage labeling, and example density, interface with learner proficiency and linguistic needs. 3. Methodology The empirical dataset for this study consisted of 38 lexical entries, each randomly selected to represent one letter of the Persian alphabet. The target lemmas ranged from high-frequency function words to common nouns, verbs, and adjectives, ensuring coverage of diverse lexical categories. One item (omrâ) did not appear in Z.M., reducing the comparative dataset for that dictionary to 37 entries. For each entry, both dictionaries were examined with respect to their microstructural design and the types of linguistic information they provide. The analysis employed established lexicographic criteria drawn from prior scholarship in Persian and general dictionary research. These criteria included orthographic representation, phonological rendering, grammatical classification, lexical category, and argument structure for verbs; morphological categorization of non-verbal entries; pragmatic and usage-related information; semantic exposition and definitional style (analytic, synonymous, functional, extensional, sentential, or cluster-based); lexical relations (synonymy, antonymy, meronymy, hyponymy); collocations and idiomatic expressions; illustrative examples; and the presence of visual support such as images. Each criterion was systematically applied to all selected entries across both dictionaries, enabling item-by-item comparison as well as observation of broader structural tendencies. Representative examples from the two dictionaries are drawn upon in the discussion to illustrate how specific microstructural features are implemented and to highlight practical consequences for learner comprehension. 4. Conclusion This study compared the microstructural architecture of two Persian learner dictionaries designed for different proficiency levels: Z.M. for beginners and Z.P. for advanced learners. The contrast between user profiles proved central to understanding the dictionaries’ divergent design choices. Z.P. prioritizes pragmatic, usage-based support, offering broader sense differentiation, indications of frequency, domain-specific and colloquial labels, and significantly richer coverage of collocations and idioms. Its treatment of homophones and homographs reflects more precise lexicographic modeling, and its extensive system of visual supplements supports complex conceptual associations expected of advanced users. Z.M., meanwhile, adopts a pedagogically oriented approach emphasizing transparent meaning-making through full-sentence definitions, user-addressed explanations, and intensive use of contextualized natural examples. It also provides explicit morphological information such as verb stems and noun countability, and relies on examples rather than formal grammar annotations to communicate argument structure and syntactic behavior. This strategy aligns well with beginner-level cognitive needs and supports gradual internalization of lexical grammar through exposure. The analysis suggests that Z.P. functions as a tool for enhancing depth of lexical competence and sociolinguistic awareness, while Z.M. serves as a scaffold for foundational comprehension and guided language acquisition. More broadly, the findings demonstrate how proficiency-sensitive lexicographic design can shape learners’ engagement with vocabulary, with implications for Persian lexicography as well as learner dictionary design in other languages. هدف از مطالعۀ حاضر بررسی و مقایسۀ کیفیت و کارآیی خردساختار دو فرهنگ زبان‌آموز تک‌زبانه، یعنی فرهنگ زبان‌آموز پیشرفتۀ فارسی و فرهنگ زبان‌آموز مقدماتی، است. بدین منظور سی و نه سرواژه به صورت تصادفی انتخاب شد. سپس شیوۀ ارائه اطلاعات املایی، تلفظی، دستوری، صرفی، کاربردی و معنایی برای این سی و نه سرواژه در هر یک از دو فرهنگ مورد ارزیابی و مقایسه قرار گرفت. این ارزیابی براساس ویژگی‌هایی انجام شد که با مطالعۀ پیشینۀ تحقیقات برای ارزیابی فرهنگ‌های زبان‌آموز به دست آمده است. نتایج به ‌دست آمده نشان می‌دهند که، به طور کلی، خردساختار فرهنگ زبان‌آموز پیشرفتۀ فارسی بیشتر بر ارائۀ اطلاعاتی مثل حوزۀ تخصصی و بسامد کاربردی، تفکیک معنایی، هم‌آیندها و عبارات اصطلاحی و ارائۀ تصاویری متمرکز است که در کاربرد صحیح و روزمرۀ سرواژه‌ها به کاربر کمک می‌کنند. این در حالی است که در خردساختار فرهنگ زبان‌آموز مقدماتی بیشترین تمرکز بر ارائۀ تعاریف نظام‌مند، اشاره بر روابط واژگانی و تکمیل آن به کمک مثال‌ها است.

https://lsi-linguistics.ihcs.ac.ir/article_10743_c9f06258da6455f5bf50c5b9260efeff.pdf