Chinese To English Dictionary Pdf Free Download [TOP]
Janet Stenstrom
A Chinese dictionary is a reference work for the Chinese language. There are two main types of Chinese dictionaries: zidian ("character dictionaries"), which list individual Chinese characters and their definitions, and cidian ("word/phrase dictionaries"), which list words (many of which use multiple characters) and short phrases along with their meanings. Because written Chinese consists of tens of thousands of characters, over time editors of Chinese dictionaries have developed a number of ways to organize them for convenient reference.
The general term cishu (Chinese: 辭書; pinyin: císhū; lit. 'lexicographic books') semantically encompasses "dictionary; lexicon; encyclopedia; glossary".[1] The Chinese language has two words for dictionary: zidian (character dictionary) for written forms, that is, Chinese characters, and cidian (word/phrase dictionary), for spoken forms.
For word dictionaries, cidian is interchangeably written (辭典/辞典; cídiǎn; tzʻŭ-tien; "word dictionary") or (詞典/词典; cídiǎn; tzʻŭ-tien; "word dictionary"); using cí (辭; "word, speech; phrase, expression; diction, phraseology; statement; a kind of poetic prose; depart; decline; resign"), and its graphic variant cí (詞; "word, term; expression, phrase; speech, statement; part of speech; a kind of tonal poetry"). Zidian is a much older and more common word than cidian, and Yang notes zidian is often "used for both 'character dictionary' and 'word dictionary'.[2]
The collation or lexicographical ordering of a dictionary generally depends upon its writing system. For a language written in an alphabet or syllabary, dictionaries are usually ordered alphabetically. Samuel Johnson defined dictionary as "a book containing the words of any language in alphabetical order, with explanations of their meaning" in his dictionary. But Johnson's definition cannot be applied to the Chinese dictionaries, as Chinese is written in characters or logograph, not alphabets. To Johnson, not having an alphabet is not to the Chinese's credit, as in 1778, when James Boswell asked about the Chinese characters, he replied "Sir, they have not an alphabet. They have not been able to form what all other nations have formed".[3] Nevertheless, the Chinese made their dictionaries, and developed three original systems for lexicographical ordering: semantic categories, graphic components, and pronunciations.
The first system of dictionary organization is by semantic categories. The circa 3rd-century BCE Erya ("Approaching Correctness") is the oldest extant Chinese dictionary, and scholarship reveals that it is a pre-Qin compilation of glosses to classical texts. It contains lists of synonyms arranged into 19 semantic categories (e.g., "Explaining Plants", "Explaining Trees"). The Han dynasty dictionary Xiao Erya ("Little Erya") reduces these 19 to 13 chapters. The early 3rd century CE Guangya ("Expanded Erya"), from the Northern Wei dynasty, followed the Erya's original 19 chapters. The circa 1080 CE Piya ("Increased Erya"), from the Song dynasty, has 8 semantically based chapters of names for plants and animals. For a dictionary user wanting to look up a character, this arbitrary semantic system is inefficient unless one already knows, or can guess, the meaning.
Two other Han dynasty lexicons are loosely organized by semantics. The 1st century CE Fangyan ("Regional Speech") is the world's oldest known dialectal dictionary. The circa 200 CE Shiming ("Explaining Names") employs paranomastic glosses to define words.
The third system of lexicographical ordering is by character pronunciation. This type of dictionary collates its entries by syllable rime and tones, and produces a so-called "rime dictionary". The first surviving rime dictionary is the 601 CE Qieyun ("Cutting [Spelling] Rimes") from the Sui dynasty; it became the standard of pronunciation for Middle Chinese. During the Song dynasty, it was expanded into the 1011 CE Guangyun ("Expanded Rimes") and the 1037 CE Jiyun ("Collected Rimes").
The Wenzi dictionaries, called zìshū (字書 "character book"), consist of Shuowen Jiezi, Yupian, Zihui, Zhengzitong, and the Kangxi Dictionary. This type of dictionary, which focuses on the shape and structure of the characters, subsumes both "orthography dictionaries", such as the Ganlu Zishu (干祿字書) of the Tang dynasty, and "script dictionaries", such as the Liyun (隸韻) of the Song dynasty. Although these dictionaries center upon the graphic properties of Chinese characters, they do not necessarily collate characters by radical. For instance, Liyun is a clerical script dictionary collated by tone and rime.
The Kangxi Dictionary served as the standard Chinese dictionary for generations, is still published and is now online. Contemporary lexicography is divisible between bilingual and monolingual Chinese dictionaries.
When the Republic of China began in 1912, educators and scholars recognized the need to update the 1716 Kangxi Dictionary. It was thoroughly revised in the (1915) Zhonghua Da Zidian ("Comprehensive Chinese-Character Dictionary"), which corrected over 4,000 Kangxi Dictionary mistakes and added more than 1,000 new characters.[21] Lu Erkui's (1915) Ciyuan ("Sources of Words") was a groundbreaking effort in Chinese lexicography and can be considered the first cidian "word dictionary".[22]
Shu Xincheng's (1936) Cihai ("Sea of Words") was a comprehensive dictionary of characters and expressions, and provided near-encyclopedic coverage in fields like science, philosophy, history.[23] The Cihai remains a popular dictionary and has been frequently revised.
Lü Shuxiang's (1973) Xiandai Hanyu Cidian ("Contemporary Chinese Dictionary") is a middle-sized dictionary of words.[27] It is arranged by characters, alphabetized by pinyin, which list compounds and phrases, with a total 56,000 entries (expanded to 70,000 in the 2016 edition). Both the Xinhua zidian and the Xiandai Hanyu cidian followed a simplified scheme of 189 radicals.
Chinese publishing houses print diverse types of zhuanke cidian (專科詞典/专科词典 "specialized dictionary"). One Chinese dictionary bibliography[30] lists over 130 subject categories, from "Abbreviations, Accounting" to "Veterinary, Zoology." The following examples are limited to specialized dictionaries from a few representative fields.
The first time I used a Chinese dictionary, I gave up immediately. Even explanations of simple words I knew well contained many words and characters I had never even seen before. In other words, I stepped into the labyrinth and saw the path ahead of me fork off in more directions than I could count. Picking one at random, I found that the next intersection was equally unfamiliar.
Thus, before you even think about entering the labyrinth, try to find out something about it, preferably by asking an advanced learner or a native speaker who can easily judge which dictionary is the most suitable for you (links to online dictionaries are included at the end). I would never ever recommend Merriam-Webster to a beginner (or even fairly advanced students), because the Longman dictionary is good enough for almost all situations. However, sometimes Merriam-Webster is a lot more complete and accurate, making it the preferred choice. It all depends on what knowledge and tools you carry with you into the labyrinth.
Save time doing dictionary lookups with Chinese OCR! Simply point your camera at some Chinese text to get all the English definitions. No need to even touch the screen! Also works on any image including screenshots!
This is Chinese-English/English-Chinese dictionary. You can search by providing Traditional or Simplified Chinese, Pinyin or English. The dictionary will find all references to provided search term and arrange entries by relevance. Pronunciation can be shown as Hanyu Pinyin, Zhuyin Fuhao (a.k.a. Bopomofo) or some other, less popular phonetic systems. Dictionary search by Zhuyin pronunciation is not available at the moment.
For more convenient use of this dictionary you can install MandarinSpot search provider in your browser. Click the button below and confirm your choice. The new search provider will be added to your search box, which is normally located at the top right corner of your browser.
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