More Harm than Good: Why Dictionaries Using Orthographic Transcription Instead of the IPA Should Be Handled with Care

Q2 Arts and Humanities

Research in Language Pub Date : 2022-12-29 DOI:10.18778/1731-7533.20.2.02

Agnieszka Bryła-Cruz

{"title":"More Harm than Good: Why Dictionaries Using Orthographic Transcription Instead of the IPA Should Be Handled with Care","authors":"Agnieszka Bryła-Cruz","doi":"10.18778/1731-7533.20.2.02","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"The aim of the present paper is to shed more light on using L1 (Polish) orthographic spelling to represent the pronunciation of English words in English-Polish dictionaries (e.g. journey /dżerni/, ship /szyp/) and discuss multiple drawbacks of this practice. While there are numerous advantages of using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) in foreign language teaching, some Polish lexicographers insist on, what they call, a “simplified” phonetic transcription. In my paper I conduct an overview of three English-Polish dictionaries which use orthographic transcription instead of the IPA and exemplify inevitable confusion and serious problems they present the learner with. The analysis reveals that orthographic transcription intensifies interference between L1 and L2 and contributes to the fossilization of the most persistent mispronunciations stemming from phonetic transfer. Inconsistent and inaccurate transcription prevents learners from spotting patterns and rules (such as e.g. non-rhoticity, vowel reduction, silent letters, etc.). It is argued that relying on ordinary spelling rather than the IPA is a short-sighted alternative which presents more problems than solutions.","PeriodicalId":38985,"journal":{"name":"Research in Language","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2022-12-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Research in Language","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.18778/1731-7533.20.2.02","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"Arts and Humanities","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

The aim of the present paper is to shed more light on using L1 (Polish) orthographic spelling to represent the pronunciation of English words in English-Polish dictionaries (e.g. journey /dżerni/, ship /szyp/) and discuss multiple drawbacks of this practice. While there are numerous advantages of using the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) in foreign language teaching, some Polish lexicographers insist on, what they call, a “simplified” phonetic transcription. In my paper I conduct an overview of three English-Polish dictionaries which use orthographic transcription instead of the IPA and exemplify inevitable confusion and serious problems they present the learner with. The analysis reveals that orthographic transcription intensifies interference between L1 and L2 and contributes to the fossilization of the most persistent mispronunciations stemming from phonetic transfer. Inconsistent and inaccurate transcription prevents learners from spotting patterns and rules (such as e.g. non-rhoticity, vowel reduction, silent letters, etc.). It is argued that relying on ordinary spelling rather than the IPA is a short-sighted alternative which presents more problems than solutions.

查看原文本刊更多论文

弊大于利:为什么字典使用正字法转录而不是国际音标应该小心处理

本论文的目的是阐明使用L1(波兰语)正字法拼写来表示英语单词在英语-波兰语词典中的发音(例如journey /dżerni/， ship /szyp/)，并讨论这种做法的多个缺点。虽然在外语教学中使用国际音标(IPA)有很多优点，但一些波兰词典编纂者坚持他们所谓的“简化”音标。在我的论文中，我概述了三种使用正字法转录而不是国际音标的英语-波兰语词典，并举例说明了它们给学习者带来的不可避免的混乱和严重问题。分析表明，正字法转录加剧了L1和L2之间的干扰，并导致了由语音转移引起的最持久的错误发音的僵化。不一致和不准确的转录使学习者无法发现模式和规则(例如，非卷舌音，元音略读，不发音的字母等)。有人认为，依靠普通拼写而不是国际音标是一种目光短浅的选择，它带来的问题多于解决方案。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Research in Language Arts and Humanities-Language and Linguistics

CiteScore

0.40

自引率

0.00%

发文量

期刊介绍： Research in Language (RiL) is an international journal committed to publishing excellent studies in the area of linguistics and related disciplines focused on human communication. Language studies, as other scholarly disciplines, undergo two seemingly counteracting processes: the process of diversification of the field into narrow specialized domains and the process of convergence, strengthened by interdisciplinarity. It is the latter perspective that RiL editors invite for the journal, whose aim is to present language in its entirety, meshing traditional modular compartments, such as phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, and offer a multidimensional perspective which exposes varied but relevant aspects of language, e.g. the cognitive, the psychological, the institutional aspect, as well as the social shaping of linguistic convention and creativity.