Lexicographers have been arguing for the inclusion of abstract and complex grammatical information in dictionaries. This paper examines the extent to which information about quantifiers and the argument structure of verbs is encoded in English learner's dictionaries. The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (1989), the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (1987) and the Collins COBUILD Dictionary of the English Language (1987) are surveyed with reference to "each,""every,""all," and "any" as well as a number of dative and manner-of-speaking verbs. It is found that while most of the quantifier properties are described in the dictionaries, some properties are ignored by all of them. The dictionary information does not suffice to help learners avoid certain errors. Considerable variation is observed with respect to the argument structure of the verbs investigated. It is proposed that learnability should be an important criterion for deciding on the linguistic information to include in learner's dictionaries. (Author/JL)
