The ''Concise Dictionary of Spoken Chinese'' (1947), which was compiled by
Yuen Ren Chao
Yuen Ren Chao (; 3 November 1892 – 25 February 1982), also known as Zhao Yuanren, was a Chinese-American linguist, educator, scholar, poet, and composer, who contributed to the modern study of Chinese phonology and grammar. Chao was born an ...
and
Lien Sheng Yang, made numerous important
lexicographic
Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries.
* Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries.
* Theoretica ...
innovations. It was the first
Chinese dictionary
Chinese dictionaries date back over two millennia to the Han dynasty, which is a significantly longer lexicographical history than any other language. There are hundreds of dictionaries for the Chinese language, and this article discusses some of ...
specifically for spoken
Chinese words rather than for written
Chinese characters
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji' ...
, and one of the first to mark characters for being
"free" or "bound" morphemes according to whether or not they can stand alone as a complete and independent utterance.
History
The compilers of the ''Concise Dictionary of Chinese'', the linguist
Yuen Ren Chao
Yuen Ren Chao (; 3 November 1892 – 25 February 1982), also known as Zhao Yuanren, was a Chinese-American linguist, educator, scholar, poet, and composer, who contributed to the modern study of Chinese phonology and grammar. Chao was born an ...
(1892-1982) and the historian
Yang Lien-sheng
Yang Lien-sheng (; July 26, 1914November 16, 1990) who often wrote under the name L.S. Yang, was a Chinese-American sinologist and professor at Harvard University. He was the first full-time historian of China at Harvard and a prolific scholar s ...
(1914-1990), were famous Chinese-American scholars who worked in
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
wartime Chinese language programs for the
War Department War Department may refer to:
* War Department (United Kingdom)
* United States Department of War (1789–1947)
See also
* War Office, a former department of the British Government
* Ministry of defence
* Ministry of War
* Ministry of Defence
* Dep ...
. Chao was a visiting professor at Harvard from 1941 to 1946, while Yang entered the graduate program in 1940, and received an M.A. in 1942 and Ph.D. in 1946.
At the beginning of World War II, the shortage of Chinese and Japanese bilingual dictionaries became an urgent matter for English-speaking
Allies
An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are called ...
. The
Harvard–Yenching Institute
The Harvard–Yenching Institute is an independent foundation dedicated to advancing higher education in Asia in the humanities and social sciences, with special attention to the study of Asian culture. It traditionally had close ties to Harvard ...
said the need for Chinese dictionaries in America had "grown from chronic to acute", and selected two "practical dictionaries" to revise and reprint—without either author's permission—for "the immediate demands of American students". Both
photolithographic
In integrated circuit manufacturing, photolithography or optical lithography is a general term used for techniques that use light to produce minutely patterned thin films of suitable materials over a substrate, such as a silicon wafer, to protect ...
reproductions were retitled: ''
The Five Thousand Dictionary
''The Five Thousand Dictionary: A Chinese-English Dictionary...'' (1926) or ''Fenn's Chinese-English Pocket-Dictionary'' (1942), which was compiled by American missionary Courtenay H. Fenn, is a widely reprinted learners' dictionary that selected ...
'' became ''
Fenn's Chinese-English Pocket-Dictionary'' (1942) and ''
A Chinese-English Dictionary: Compiled for the China Inland Mission by R. H. Mathews'' (1931) became ''
Mathews' Chinese-English Dictionary'' (1943). Y. R. Chao contributed to both these reprints. He revised the introduction and wrote the Standards of Pronunciation, Styles of Pronunciation, and Tones sections for ''Fenn's'', and wrote the Introduction on Pronunciation for ''Mathews.
Yuen Ren Chao and Lien-sheng Yang divided the lexicographical work. Yang compiled the preliminary list of entries, partially drafted the definitions, served both as informant and as grammarian on
Beijing dialect
The Beijing dialect (), also known as Pekingese and Beijingese, is the prestige dialect of Mandarin spoken in the urban area of Beijing, China. It is the phonological basis of Standard Chinese, the official language in the People's Republic of ...
, and wrote the characters. Chao wrote most of the definitions, added pronunciations from regional
varieties of Chinese
Chinese, also known as Sinitic, is a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family consisting of hundreds of local varieties, many of which are not mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the more mountainous southeast of main ...
, and wrote the front matter and the appendices. Chao and Yang finished compiling their ''Concise Dictionary of Spoken Chinese'' in 1945, the same year when the War Department published the anonymous ''Dictionary of Spoken Chinese: Chinese-English, English-Chinese''. Although the 847-page ''Dictionary of Spoken Chinese'' is large, it contains relatively few lexical items, approximately 2,500 English-Chinese head entries in 500 pages and 5,000 Chinese-English ones in 300 pages.
The Chinese-English section's head entries are not single characters, as in traditional Chinese dictionaries, but monosyllabic and polysyllabic words, which are alphabetically
collated
Collation is the assembly of written information into a standard order. Many systems of collation are based on numerical order or alphabetical order, or extensions and combinations thereof. Collation is a fundamental element of most office filin ...
using a newly devised system for
romanizing Chinese (which became the prototype for
Yale romanization). "This represents a radical departure from all earlier Chinese-English dictionaries, which were primarily dictionaries of Chinese characters (''hànzi'') and not of the spoken language as such". Although the Chinese-English section gives characters for head entries, they are treated as secondary. The ''Dictionary of Spoken Chinese'' records authentic colloquial pronunciation, and its chief function is to show a user how to employ the entries in spoken Chinese—in contrast, the chief function of previous bilingual dictionaries is to enable a user to decode written texts. Most entries provide one or more usage examples from colloquial speech. This dictionary classifies words into twelve complex
grammatical categories
In linguistics, a grammatical category or grammatical feature is a property of items within the grammar of a language. Within each category there are two or more possible values (sometimes called grammemes), which are normally mutually exclusiv ...
:
adjective
In linguistics, an adjective (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that generally grammatical modifier, modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun.
Tra ...
(A),
demonstrative
Demonstratives (abbreviated ) are words, such as ''this'' and ''that'', used to indicate which entities are being referred to and to distinguish those entities from others. They are typically deictic; their meaning depending on a particular frame ...
(Dem),
adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering ...
(H),
intransitive verb
In grammar, an intransitive verb is a verb whose context does not entail a direct object. That lack of transitivity distinguishes intransitive verbs from transitive verbs, which entail one or more objects. Additionally, intransitive verbs are ...
(I),
conjunction
Conjunction may refer to:
* Conjunction (grammar), a part of speech
* Logical conjunction, a mathematical operator
** Conjunction introduction, a rule of inference of propositional logic
* Conjunction (astronomy), in which two astronomical bodies ...
(J),
coverb
A coverb is a word or prefix that resembles a verb or co-operates with a verb. In languages that have the serial verb construction, coverbs are a type of word that shares features of verbs and prepositions. A coverb takes an object or complement a ...
(K),
measure word
In linguistics, measure words are words (or morphemes) that are used in combination with a numeral to indicate an amount of something represented by some noun.
Description
Measure words denote a unit or measurement and are used with mass nouns ...
(M),
noun
A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for:
* Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
(N),
numeral (Num),
pronoun
In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase.
Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the parts of speech, but some modern theorists would not co ...
(Pron),
resultative compound (RC) and
transitive verb
A transitive verb is a verb that accepts one or more objects, for example, 'cleaned' in ''Donald cleaned the window''. This contrasts with intransitive verbs, which do not have objects, for example, 'panicked' in ''Donald panicked''.
Transitiv ...
(V).
The ''Dictionary of Spoken Chineses English-Chinese section averages around 5 entries per page, compared to around 18 per page in the Chinese-English section. Some English-Chinese entries are quite elaborate, providing multiple Chinese translation equivalents and usage examples illustrating various semantic nuances of the English word.
The influence of
American structural linguistics, which shifted interest from the written to the spoken language, is evident in both the War Department's ''Dictionary of Spoken Chinese'' (1945) and Chao's and Yang's ''Concise Dictionary of Spoken Chinese'' (1947). "In both dictionaries we can observe the authors attempting not just to provide their Chinese entries with English equivalents but to demonstrate through grammatical categorization and examples how they are actually used".
Although the War Department dictionary was never widely distributed or used, it affected Chao's and Yang's ''Concise Dictionary of Spoken Chinese'', and served as the model for two well-known dictionaries.
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...
's Institute of Far Eastern Languages published a revised edition ''Dictionary of Spoken Chinese'' (1966), and
Fred Fangyu Wang published a two-volume ''Mandarin Chinese dictionary'', Chinese-English (1967) and English-Chinese (1971). With these dictionaries, "American efforts in Chinese lexicography effectively ceased"—until the ''
ABC Chinese-English Dictionary
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
'' (1996).
.
Content
The ''Concise Dictionary of Spoken Chinese'' comprises approximately 5,000 single-character head entries,
collated
Collation is the assembly of written information into a standard order. Many systems of collation are based on numerical order or alphabetical order, or extensions and combinations thereof. Collation is a fundamental element of most office filin ...
by
radical-and-stroke and numbered according to the 214
Kangxi radicals
The 214 Kangxi radicals (), also known as the Zihui radicals, form a system of radicals () of Chinese characters.
The radicals are numbered in stroke count order. They are the most popular system of radicals for dictionaries that order Traditio ...
. The twelve most frequent radicals are given at the bottom of the pages for the dictionary user to memorize. "To insure further the finding of the characters, the authors have entered each character under all its apparently possible radicals and made a cross reference to the main entry". For instance, 魯 ''luu'' is entered under
radical 72
Radical 72 or radical sun () meaning " sun" or "day" is one of the 34 Kangxi radicals (214 radicals in total) composed of 4 strokes.
In the ''Kangxi Dictionary'', there are 453 characters (out of 49,030) to be found under this radical.
is also ...
日 "sun", with the note "See
Rad. 195 魚
fish"" The ''Concise Dictionary'' includes the popular and
cursive
Cursive (also known as script, among other names) is any style of penmanship in which characters are written joined in a flowing manner, generally for the purpose of making writing faster, in contrast to block letters. It varies in functionalit ...
forms of many characters, as well as the
Suzhou numerals
The Suzhou numerals, also known as ' (), is a numeral system used in China before the introduction of Arabic numerals. The Suzhou numerals are also known as ' (), ' (), ' (), ' () and ' ().
History
The Suzhou numeral system is the only survivin ...
(e.g., "〢 ''ell'' Soochow numeral for '2', used in trade"), and the
Bopomofo
Bopomofo (), or Mandarin Phonetic Symbols, also named Zhuyin (), is a Chinese transliteration system for Mandarin Chinese and other related languages and dialects. More commonly used in Taiwanese Mandarin, it may also be used to transcribe ...
symbols ("ㄎ ''ke'' National Phonetic letter for the aspirated initial ''k''"), which had never been included in a Chinese dictionary, thus removing "one source of bewilderment for the foreign student of Chinese".
The ''Concise Dictionary'' has "many elaborate features to help the user study the refinements of spoken Chinese". Chao's introduction lists eight unique features not found in previous comparable Chinese-English dictionaries such as Fenn's and Mathews'.
(1) The
grammatical function
In linguistics, grammatical relations (also called grammatical functions, grammatical roles, or syntactic functions) are functional relationships between constituents in a clause. The standard examples of grammatical functions from traditional gra ...
of each word is distinguished according to whether it is
free
Free may refer to:
Concept
* Freedom, having the ability to do something, without having to obey anyone/anything
* Freethought, a position that beliefs should be formed only on the basis of logic, reason, and empiricism
* Emancipate, to procur ...
(F) or
bound
Bound or bounds may refer to:
Mathematics
* Bound variable
* Upper and lower bounds, observed limits of mathematical functions
Physics
* Bound state, a particle that has a tendency to remain localized in one or more regions of space
Geography
*B ...
(B). With the exception of
measure words
In linguistics, measure words are words (or morphemes) that are used in combination with a numeral to indicate an amount of something represented by some noun.
Description
Measure words denote a unit or measurement and are used with mass nouns ...
or
Chinese classifiers
The modern Chinese varieties make frequent use of what are called classifiers or measure words. One use of classifiers is when a noun is qualified by a numeral known as a noun phrase. When a phrase such as "one person" or "three books" is trans ...
, called "auxiliary nouns" (AN), the dictionary generally did not indicate syntactic
part of speech
In grammar, a part of speech or part-of-speech (abbreviated as POS or PoS, also known as word class or grammatical category) is a category of words (or, more generally, of lexical items) that have similar grammatical properties. Words that are assi ...
, called "word classes". Chao explains, "The same word, as a noun, means one thing; as an auxiliary noun (AN) something else, as a verb something else again. This is not a matter of inference, as those who say that Chinese has no parts of speech assume, but a matter of individual facts.". The dictionary's English translation equivalents usually can clarify Chinese part of speech; if 吃 ''chy''
'chī''is defined by the English verb "to eat", then it is itself also a verb. word classes are only specified in cases of ambiguity; 脂肪 ''jyfang''
'zhīfáng''"fat" is marked ''n.'' "noun" since English "fat" can also be an adjective. The dictionary lists other specialized
grammatical categories
In linguistics, a grammatical category or grammatical feature is a property of items within the grammar of a language. Within each category there are two or more possible values (sometimes called grammemes), which are normally mutually exclusiv ...
, for instance, "auxiliary nouns proper" and "quasi-auxiliary nouns", and introduces for the first time in a Chinese dictionary "many new ideas about the linguistic structure of Chinese, such as the four types of verbal
complements": the "pre-transitive," "verb-object construction", "possessive object," and "impersonal verb-object compound"".
(2) The stylistic
register
Register or registration may refer to:
Arts entertainment, and media Music
* Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc.
* ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller
* Registration (organ), the ...
or
usage
The usage of a language is the ways in which its written and spoken variations are routinely employed by its speakers; that is, it refers to "the collective habits of a language's native speakers", as opposed to idealized models of how a language ...
class of each entry is either marked by an abbreviation (e.g., ''derog.'', ''honorif.'', ''poet.'') or implied in the translation (as 殆 "well-nigh," but 差不多 "almost"), in order to "channel the student's efforts in using the language to more profitable directions".
(3) The ''Concise Dictionary of Spoken Chinese'' is the first Chinese dictionary to give detailed descriptions of
particles
In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscule in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass.
They vary greatly in size or quantity, from su ...
and
interjections
An interjection is a word or expression that occurs as an utterance on its own and expresses a spontaneous feeling or reaction. It is a diverse category, encompassing many different parts of speech, such as exclamations ''(ouch!'', ''wow!''), curse ...
. For example, 了 has three entries:
*了 ''leau''
'liǎo''"F
reeto finish, conclude" … -B
ound chiefly to a preceding word"to a finish" … BB
he word reduplicatedto understand clearly", with 13 usage examples
*了 ''.le''
eutral tone, pinyin ''le''"-.B
ound, with neutral tone, to a preceding wordfinal particle to indicate a new situation or a new realization of an existing situation … in narration … to indicate obviousness", with 6 examples
*了 ''.le'' "-.B word-particle: to indicate completed action when there is a numeral (or AN taking the place of 一) before the object … to indicate condition or time … to serve as a second compl.
omplementafter a result. compl.", with 5 usage examples, and a lengthy note about negative ''le'' constructions
(4) Dictionary entries give
morphological derivation
Morphological derivation, in linguistics, is the process of forming a new word from an existing word, often by adding a prefix or suffix, such as For example, ''unhappy'' and ''happiness'' derive from the root word ''happy.''
It is differentiat ...
s, words created by adding
affixes
In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. Affixes may be derivational, like English ''-ness'' and ''pre-'', or inflectional, like English plural ''-s'' and past tense ''-ed''. They ar ...
(e.g., 兒 ''erl''
'r'' the "syllabic diminutive suffix, frequently used in verse") or by
reduplication
In linguistics, reduplication is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word (or part of it) or even the whole word is repeated exactly or with a slight change.
The classic observation on the semantics of reduplication is Edwa ...
(單 ''dan''
'dān''single … 單單 "(this) only, alone; (this) of all things").
(5) Entries also give
collocative words that are frequently used together (e.g., "棋 ''chyi''
'qí''"chess" … 下棋 "to play chess or ''go''") and common
antonyms
In lexical semantics, opposites are words lying in an inherently incompatible binary relationship. For example, something that is ''long'' entails that it is not ''short''. It is referred to as a 'binary' relationship because there are two members ...
. This dictionary "includes a great number of meanings even of well-known words which so far have not been noted in any other dictionary".
(6) The
Gwoyeu Romatzyh
Gwoyeu Romatzyh (), abbreviated GR, is a system for writing Mandarin Chinese in the Latin alphabet. The system was conceived by Yuen Ren Chao and developed by a group of linguists including Chao and Lin Yutang from 1925 to 1926. Chao himself lat ...
"National Romanization" system, which Y.R. Chao co-created and popularized, is used for pronunciation of main entries, along with usual
Wade-Giles orthography given in parentheses. Appendix 1, Part 2, is a table of concordance for these two systems. Tonal spelling of the
four tones
This article summarizes the phonology (the sound system, or in more general terms, the pronunciation) of Standard Chinese (Standard Mandarin).
Standard Chinese phonology is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. Actual production varies widel ...
is the primary advantage of National Romanization, for instance, ''dau'' (1st tone), ''daur'' (2nd), ''dao'' (3rd), and ''daw'' (4th tone), corresponding to pinyin ''dāo'', ''dáo'', ''dǎo'', and ''dào''. The
neutral tone
This article summarizes the phonology (the sound system, or in more general terms, the pronunciation) of Standard Chinese (Standard Mandarin).
Standard Chinese phonology is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. Actual production varies widel ...
is indicated by a dot before the atonal syllable.
(7) Romanizations incorporate
superscripts
A subscript or superscript is a character (such as a number or letter) that is set slightly below or above the normal line of type, respectively. It is usually smaller than the rest of the text. Subscripts appear at or below the baseline, whil ...
and other symbols to denote the historical features of
Middle Chinese
Middle Chinese (formerly known as Ancient Chinese) or the Qieyun system (QYS) is the historical variety of Chinese recorded in the '' Qieyun'', a rime dictionary first published in 601 and followed by several revised and expanded editions. The ...
pronunciation and modern pronunciation in
varieties of Chinese
Chinese, also known as Sinitic, is a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family consisting of hundreds of local varieties, many of which are not mutually intelligible. Variation is particularly strong in the more mountainous southeast of main ...
, often misleadingly called "
dialects
The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena:
One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...
". For examples, a subscribed dot under an initial (恤 ''ṣhiuh''
ù"to pity, to give relief to") makes it possible for students interested in
Peking opera
Peking opera, or Beijing opera (), is the most dominant form of Chinese opera, which combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance and acrobatics. It arose in Beijing in the mid-Qing dynasty (1644–1912) and became fully developed and recognize ...
to distinguish 尖 "sharp"
dental consonants
A dental consonant is a consonant articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth, such as , . In some languages, dentals are distinguished from other groups, such as alveolar consonants, in which the tongue contacts the gum ridge. Dental c ...
from 圓 "rounded"
palatal consonants
Palatals are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth). Consonants with the tip of the tongue curled back against the palate are called retroflex.
Characteristic ...
, and a superscript
p indicates
Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...
has a final ''-p''
checked tone
A checked tone, commonly known by the Chinese calque entering tone, is one of the four syllable types in the phonology of Middle Chinese. Although usually translated as "tone", a checked tone is not a tone in the phonetic sense but rather a syl ...
and
Wu Chinese
The Wu languages (; Romanization of Wu Chinese, Wu romanization and Romanization of Wu Chinese#IPA, IPA: ''wu6 gniu6'' [] (Shanghainese), ''ng2 gniu6'' [] (Suzhounese), Mandarin pinyin and IPA: ''Wúyǔ'' []) is a major group of Sinitic languag ...
has a glottal stop.
(8) All entries "are treated as
morphemes
A morpheme is the smallest meaningful constituent of a linguistic expression. The field of linguistic study dedicated to morphemes is called morphology.
In English, morphemes are often but not necessarily words. Morphemes that stand alone a ...
, or monosyllabic meaningful spoken words", whether
bound morphemes
In linguistics, a bound morpheme is a morpheme (the elementary unit of morphosyntax) that can appear only as part of a larger expression; a free morpheme (or unbound morpheme) is one that can stand alone. A bound morpheme is a type of bound form, ...
or
free morphemes, rather than as
characters
Character or Characters may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Literature
* ''Character'' (novel), a 1936 Dutch novel by Ferdinand Bordewijk
* ''Characters'' (Theophrastus), a classical Greek set of character sketches attributed to The ...
. Chao gives a chemical analogy to differentiate between ''zìdiǎn''
字典 "character dictionaries" and ''cídiǎn''
辭典 "word dictionaries".
In China, dictionaries are divided into 字典 and 詞典, the former giving only single characters, which may be compared with chemical elements, and the latter compounds and phrases, like chemical compounds. To pursue the chemical analogy one step further, compounds are so numerous that they cannot all be included except in a much more comprehensive work. We can do more than merely list the elements and their atomic weights. We can classify their affinities, their electric polarity, indicate whether they can be ionized, and give such information as to enable us to predict more compounds than can be listed. Thus by giving the morphemes of the language properly analyzed, indicating whether they are bound or free, the attempt has been made to give the equivalent of a dictionary of compounds within the space of a dictionary of single words."
By treating all entries as bound or free morphemes rather than as characters, Chao and Yang have made an attempt to give the equivalent of a dictionary of compounds within the space of a dictionary of single words.
The dictionary's
spine
Spine or spinal may refer to:
Science Biology
* Vertebral column, also known as the backbone
* Dendritic spine, a small membranous protrusion from a neuron's dendrite
* Thorns, spines, and prickles, needle-like structures in plants
* Spine (zoolog ...
has English "''Concise Dictionary of Spoken Chinese'' / Chao and Yang" and the
front cover
''Front Cover'' is a 2015 American drama romance film written and directed by Ray Yeung. The story follows Ryan Fu, a gay Chinese American fashion stylist (Jake Choi), who rejects his ethnic heritage, who is assigned to style Ning ( James Chen), a ...
has equivalent Chinese "國語字典
'Guóyǔ zìdiǎn'', "Mandarin Chinese Dictionary"">Mandarin_Chinese.html" ;"title="'Guóyǔ zìdiǎn'', "Mandarin Chinese">'Guóyǔ zìdiǎn'', "Mandarin Chinese Dictionary"/ 趙元任 / 楊聯陞 / 合編" ["Zhào Yuánrèn, Yáng Liánshēng, co-editors"]. The title page has both English "''Concise Dictionary of Spoken Chinese'' / By Yuen Ren Chao and Lien Sheng Yang" and the same Chinese.
The Chinese character wikt:道, 道 (composed of radical 162
wikt:辶, 辶 "walk" and a ''shǒu''
首 "head" phonetic) for ''dào'' "way; path; say; the
Dao
Dao, Dão or DAO may refer to:
* Tao (Chinese: "The Way" 道), a philosophical concept
* Dao (Chinese sword) (刀), a type of Chinese sword
* Dao (Naga sword), a weapon and a tool of Naga people
People and language
* Yao people, a minority ethnic ...
" or ''dǎo'' "guide; lead; instruct" makes a good sample entry for illustrating a dictionary because it has two pronunciations and complex semantics. Chao's and Yang's dictionary entry gives detailed
syntactic
In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituency), ...
and
pragmatic
Pragmatism is a philosophical movement.
Pragmatism or pragmatic may also refer to:
*Pragmaticism, Charles Sanders Peirce's post-1905 branch of philosophy
*Pragmatics, a subfield of linguistics and semiotics
*''Pragmatics'', an academic journal in ...
information, but fails to note the pronunciation ''dǎo'' 道 that is a
variant Chinese character
Variant Chinese characters (; Kanji: ; Hepburn: ''itaiji''; ; Revised Romanization: ''icheja'') are Chinese characters that are homophones and synonyms. Most variants are allographs in most circumstances, such as casual handwriting. Some contexts ...
for ''dǎo''
導 (with
radical 41
Radical 41 or radical inch () meaning " thumb" or "inch" is one of the 31 Kangxi radicals (214 radicals total) composed of three strokes.
In the ''Kangxi Dictionary'', there are 40 characters (out of 49,030) to be found under this radical.
is ...
寸 "thumb") "to lead, to guide", which they do enter.
道 d̠aw. (tao4). ''B'' way, reason, principle, ''Tao'' 道.理96; ''-l'' a road ''AN'' 條, 個; ''AN'' a course (of food); ''-l'', ''tz'' a streak ''AN'' a streak ''-l''; ''F'' to say (introducing a direct quotation: novel style); ''B-'' to say (polite words), ''as'' 道喜30 ''v-o'' 'to congratulate,' 道謝 ''v-o'' 'to give thanks.' 有道 ''used at the end of the salutation in writing to a prominent scholar''; 沒道.理 unreasonable; mean; rude.
First, this 道 entry glosses pronunciation with National Romanization ''d̠aw'' and Wade-Giles ''tao
4''. The underscored ''d̠'' consonant indicates a
voiced
Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced.
The term, however, is used to refer ...
initial in Wu and a lower
register
Register or registration may refer to:
Arts entertainment, and media Music
* Register (music), the relative "height" or range of a note, melody, part, instrument, etc.
* ''Register'', a 2017 album by Travis Miller
* Registration (organ), the ...
tone in Cantonese. Second, it gives English translation equivalents for the bound word (''B'') ''dàoli''
道理, with the dot before 理 denoting neutral tone ''li'', and the subscript 96 meaning
radical 96
Radical 96 or radical jade () meaning "jade" is one of the 23 Kangxi radicals (214 radicals in total) composed of 5 strokes.
When appearing at the left side of a Chinese character, the radical transforms into consisting of four strokes.
In the ...
玉 "jade" where a dictionary user can find the character 理 ''lii'' listed under 96.7, with 7 being the number of strokes in the ''lǐ'' 里 phonetic. Third, it gives the colloquial term ''dàor'' 道兒 "road" with ''-l'' indicating the word plus the diminutive retroflex suffix ''-r''
兒, counted with ''tiáo''
條 "
measure word
In linguistics, measure words are words (or morphemes) that are used in combination with a numeral to indicate an amount of something represented by some noun.
Description
Measure words denote a unit or measurement and are used with mass nouns ...
for long, narrow things" (''AN'' abbreviates "auxiliary noun"). Fourth, the entry notes that 道 itself is used as a measure word for
courses during a meal. Fifth, ''dàor'' 道兒 or ''dàozi'' 道子 (''tz'' denotes the noun suffix 子) can mean "streak", counted with ''tiáo'' 條 or ''ge''
個 "general measure word". Sixth, ''dàor'' 道兒 can also be used as a measure word for streaks. Seventh, the free word (''F'') ''dào'' 道 ''dao'' means "to say". Eighth, it also means "to say (polite words)" in bound terms such as ''dàoxǐ''
道喜 (subscript 30 denotes
radical 30
Radical 30 or radical mouth () meaning "mouth" is one of 31 of the 214 Kangxi radicals that are composed of 3 strokes.
In the ''Kangxi Dictionary'', there are 1,146 characters (out of 40 000) to be found under this radical.
is also the 37th ...
口 "mouth"), ''dàoxiè''
道謝, and ''yǒudào''
有道. Ninth, the entry gives the bound word ''méi dàoli''
沒道理. Chao's and Yang's brief 道 entry is packed with linguistic information for users.
Reception
Most reviewers have praised the ''Concise Dictionary of Spoken Chinese'', while some have been critical. The co-author Lien-Sheng Yang responded to DeFrancis' and Simon's reviews in a 1949 article about free and bound morphemes in Chinese.
The Chinese linguist
Luo Changpei
Luo Changpei (; 9 August 1899 – 13 December 1958) was a Chinese linguist. He made important contributions to the study of historical Chinese phonology. He was also a pioneer of the modern studies of Chinese dialects and of non-Chinese languages ...
describes the dictionary as "unprecedented in the history of Chinese-European lexicography since its beginnings" in the early 17th century. Luo lists three unique features of the dictionary, combining six of the eight given by Chao (above); the first combines (1) and (3), the second (2), (7), (8), and the third is (6). Luo lists 15 corrections or suggestions, 9 of which are included in later editions of the dictionary, under Corrections and Additions.
[1957: x.]
The American linguist and lexicographer
John DeFrancis
John DeFrancis (August 31, 1911January 2, 2009) was an American linguist, sinologist, author of Chinese language textbooks, lexicographer of Chinese dictionaries, and Professor Emeritus of Chinese Studies at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa.
B ...
described the ''Concise Dictionary'' as "a landmark notable for its presentation of a great deal of extremely valuable information—grammatical, phonetic, dialectical, and otherwise".
DeFrancis suggests that Chao and Yang have been "unduly influenced by the ideographs and the myths of Chinese monosyllabism". Although the dictionary title has "Spoken Chinese", the authors approach the subject through characters rather than through speech. Using data from a 10-page sample, DeFrancis disproves Chao's contention that with "very few exceptions" Chinese morphemes are "for the most part monosyllabic". The sample dictionary entries marked as "literary" (L), "comparable to ''yclept'' in English and hence not really belonging in a dictionary of spoken Chinese", amount to 16% of the total entries. (
Yclept is an archaic or humorous word meaning "called; named".
Of the entries which really represent spoken forms, no more than 29 per cent have been classified by the authors as Free, the only category which is generally accepted as designating a word in English and other languages. But not all the remaining 71 per cent are classified as Bound forms of the type ''er'' in ''banker'' or ''sender''. Only 49 per cent are of this type of meaningful syllables without independent life. The remaining 22 per cent, represented by ''shan'' and ''hu'' in ''shanhu'', "coral," are of a type which have no more meaning or independence than do ''cor'' and ''al'' in the English equivalent.
DeFrancis proposes that the category of Bound syllables (not "words") should be divided into two groups: "meaningless bound syllables" (like ''shan'' and ''hu'' in ''shanhu'' 珊瑚 "coral") and "meaningful bound syllables" (like ''fu'' "father" and ''mu'' "mother" in ''fumu'' 父母 "parents"). "The former are fully bound (occurring in only one word), and the latter are semibound (occurring in more than one word)." DeFrancis concludes that the contributions of scholars like Dr. Chao, "give hope that lexicographers, if they can concentrate on Chinese speech and not be misled by the ideographic writing, will eventually succeed in compiling a real dictionary of the Chinese spoken language".
In response to DeFrancis' review, Lien-sheng Yang states that comparing the dictionary entries designated as literary to ''yclept'' in English is "misleading, because the latter is an archaic word, whereas the former are still used in modern Spoken Chinese". Yang says DeFrancis' suggestion of differentiating "meaningless bound syllables" and "meaningful bound syllables" appears interesting but unfortunately it involves three difficulties. First, since the word ''meaning'' is ambiguous, a linguist has to define "meaningful" and "meaningless" and ascertain whether all native-speaker informants agree. Second, a linguist needs to consider differences in the informants' background and education, "One syllable which is meaningful to one may be meaningless to another". Third, the identification of meaningful and meaningless syllables with those occurring in more than one word and those occurring in only one "is doubtful". Taking the example of ''shan'' and ''hu'' in ''shanhu'' "coral", Yang notes both characters are used in other compounds, namely, ''shanshan'' 珊珊 "tinkling sound (of ornaments)" and ''hulian'' 瑚璉 "two types of ritual vessels".
The German sinologist
Walter Simon says the ''Concise Dictionary of Spoken Chinese'' is a "definite advance on our knowledge of the Chinese language" and calls it a "very important lexicographical contribution" from which "students cannot fail to derive great benefit". Simon says
e can readily see that a dictionary which notes the alternatives "free" or "bound" in the case of each single character, is a mine of information which may lend itself to very important subsequent research. Questions like the following come to the mind at once. "How many of the characters included in the dictionary occur only 'free' or only 'bound', how many occur with the suffix –''tz'' or –''l'', what is the distribution if we proceed to grouping words according to their meanings (e.g., parts of the body)? Are practically all verbs free and all nouns 'bound', etc., etc.?"
Quoting this remark, Yang says, "These are good questions. The last one is particularly suggestive, because it leads to the question whether there are free and bound parts of speech."
Yu-Ju Chih, a teacher and developer of Chinese language textbooks, says that unlike almost all the commonly used Chinese-English dictionaries that are geared primarily to reading Chinese texts, the ''Concise Dictionary of Spoken Chinese'' is the "only one of its kind available to the public".
References
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Footnotes
Further reading
* Yang, Paul Fu-mien (1985), ''Chinese Lexicology and Lexicography: A Selected and Classified Bibliography'', Chinese University Press.
{{Dictionaries of Chinese
Chinese dictionaries