Chinese disyllabic polysemous words of the intermediate level

Chinese has a large number of polysemous words. Zhang (2005) found that in Chinese Contemporary Dictionary (Dictionary Department, 2002) there are 47021 words, out of which there are 8641 polysemes, accounting for 18.38%. Multiple senses of a word is a factor which affects vocabulary learning (Laufer, 1997). Li, Li, Fu, and He (2007) reported that in 65 out of 168 polysemes, students mainly focused on using a particular meaning, that is, 55.08% of the total polysemes. However, there lacks a resource that provides the sense information of Chinese polysemous words. Last year, a new syllabus International Curriculum for Chinese Language Education (Confucius Institute Headquarters / Hanban, 2014) was published. It provides the reference and standard for Chinese language teachers and learners. In it there is a vocabulary list with 5000 words, which are divided into six levels. The third and fourth levels are the intermediate level. This study focuses on the intermediate-level disyllabic polysemous words. It randomly selected 150 sentences from CCL corpus, annotated their senses, and suggested typical sentences for Chinese as a second language learners. The results not only reveal the frequency information of polysemous words, but also offer learners examples to refer to. The study can facilitate learners to learn new words, lexicographers to improve dictionaries and textbook editors to enhance book quality.