The use of lexical bundles in an online comprehensive dictionary of Indonesian (KBBI Daring)

Abstract

Research on lexical bundles in the last few decades has focused mostly on written registers, especially academic writing. In this study, I investigate the use of lexical bundles in a different genre – dictionaries. As a lexical bundle is formulaic language specific to a particular register, I hypothesize that particular lexical bundles are used in dictionaries. The research focus of this study is the extent to which lexical bundles are used in the online version of the Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI Daring; Comprehensive dictionary of Indonesian online), especially in the lemma, definition, and example sections. In addition, the study examines the characteristics of lexical bundles in dictionaries. The approach used is corpus based. As reference bundles, a total of 517 lexical bundles were extracted from the IndonesianWeb Corpus (available from SketchEngine). The bundles were then analyzed for their use in KBBI Daring in terms of their frequency, structure, and function. The results showed that the use of lexical bundles in KBBI Daring was mostly found in the definition section. The bundles found were generally in the form of phrases rather than clauses. In terms of structure, the lexical bundles were dominated by incomplete structures. The bundles, either in the definition or example sections, were mostly in the form of yang-clause fragments, such as yang digunakan untuk “that is used for,” yang terdiri atas “that consists of,” yang terbuat dari “that is made of/from,” yang berasal dari “that comes from,” and yang berhubungan dengan “that relates to.” In terms of function, presenting content is the dominant function in the KBBI, while organizing text is the least prevalent function. In a nutshell, each section in the dictionary, especially in the KBBI, has its own character.