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Applied Linguistics 1992 13(4):385-402; doi:10.1093/applin/13.4.385
© 1992 by Oxford University Press
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Lexicography and Mathematics Learning: A Case Study of Variable

WILLIAM FRAWLEY

University of Delaware

This paper is a programmatic study of the application of formal lexicography to mathematics learning and instruction. Its goal is to illustrate, by commenting on variable, that lexicography offers some useful new tools to researchers in mathematics education. The paper examines the relationship between the sublanguage of mathematics and the acquisition of mathematical knowledge and surveys recent work in mathematics education on using definitions as the basis for research and curriculum design. It then argues that definitions in the form of an Explanatory Combinatorial Dictionary (ECD) improve and facilitate mathematical definitions: this is demonstrated with an ECD definition of variable. Subsequent commentary on the ECD definition clarifies a variety of standard problems associated with the learning and teaching of the concept of variable and of mathematical discourse generally.


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