Evolution and Theoretical Interpretation: Usage Notes in the Different Editions of Oxford Advanced Learner's English-Chinese Dictionary

Since its fourth edition,the Oxford Advanced Learner's English-Chinese Dictionary(OALECD) has set up a column of Usage Note,which categorizes the words according to their paradigmatic relations for the convenience of comparison or differentiation,and for the purpose of explaining their usage.With several revisions in different editions,the categorization of the usage notes has underlied many changes.This paper is intended to sample all the Usage Note colomns from editions 4,6,7 and 8 to trace the trend of the changes and to attempt theoretical intepretations of it.