Oxford dictionaries chinese8/13/2023 It contains lists of synonyms arranged into 19 semantic categories (e.g., "Explaining Plants", "Explaining Trees"). The circa 3rd-century BCE Erya ( 爾雅 "Approaching Correctness") is the oldest extant Chinese dictionary, and scholarship reveals that it is a pre-Qin compilation of glosses to classical texts. The first system of dictionary organization is by semantic categories. Nevertheless, the Chinese made their dictionaries, and developed three original systems for lexicographical ordering: semantic categories, graphic components, and pronunciations. They have not been able to form what all other nations have formed". 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. But Johnson's definition cannot be applied to the Chinese dictionaries, as Chinese is written in characters or logograph, not alphabets. Samuel Johnson defined dictionary as "a book containing the words of any language in alphabetical order, with explanations of their meaning" in his dictionary. For a language written in an alphabet or syllabary, dictionaries are usually ordered alphabetically. The collation or lexicographical ordering of a dictionary generally depends upon its writing system. The Cangjiepian ( 倉頡篇 "Chapters of Cang Jie"), named after the legendary inventor of writing, was edited by Li Si, and helped to standardize the Small seal script during the Qin dynasty. 827 BCE – 782 BCE), and was the source of the 籀文 zhòuwén variant forms listed in the Han dynasty Shuowen Jiezi dictionary. For example, the Shizhoupian ( 史籀篇) was compiled by one or more historians in the court of King Xuan of Zhou (r. The earliest of them only survive in fragments or quotations within Chinese classic texts. The precursors of Chinese dictionaries are primers designed for students of Chinese characters. 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'. 'character dictionary') combines zi ( 字 "character, graph letter, script, writing word") and dian ( 典 "dictionary, encyclopedia standard, rule statute, canon classical allusion").įor word dictionaries, cidian is interchangeably written ( 辭典/ 辞典 cídiǎn tzʻŭ²-tien³ "word dictionary") or ( 詞典/ 词典 cídiǎn tzʻŭ²-tien³ "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"). The Chinese language has two words for dictionary: zidian (character/logograph dictionary) for written forms, that is, Chinese characters, and cidian (word/phrase dictionary), for spoken forms.įor character dictionaries, zidian ( Chinese: 字典 pinyin: zìdiǎn Wade–Giles: tzŭ⁴-tien³ lit. The general term císhū ( 辭書, "lexicographic books") semantically encompasses "dictionary lexicon encyclopedia glossary". There are hundreds of dictionaries for the Chinese language, and this article discusses some of the most important. 8th century) page from the Yiqiejing yinyi, the oldest extant Chinese dictionary of Buddhist technical terminologyĬhinese dictionaries date back over two millennia to the Han dynasty, which is a significantly longer lexicographical history than any other language.
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