Odd character annotation in ABC dictionary for 一会

[JD]

When I look at the definition of 一会 in my ABC dictionary, there is a small dot under the "yī", as seen in the attached image. I've seen it in several other places, for example at the bottom of the ABC entry for 会, where the word with the dot should be a link, but does not work.

Is the dot supposed to mean something, or is it a bug?

 

[jekbradbury]

The dots in ABC indicate tone sandhi.

 

[JD]

*THAT* is totally cool! I had no clue why that would be there, but that makes perfect sense, and I see it also under 不是 too.

Is there any place that explains amazing hidden features like this within the different dictionaries?

JD

 

[jekbradbury]

ABC is a little different from the others because it was created by linguists with the goal of replacing lexicographic conventions that are specifically Chinese with ones based more directly on contemporary linguistics. The main way they went about this (and the main impetus for the project in the first place after a call from Victor Mair for such a dictionary) is mostly irrelevant to Pleco - ABC completely ignores the radical-stroke categorization system in favor of a strict alphabetical order like any other language dictionary. But some others include more accurate and consistent ways of formatting Pinyin (such as the dots and new capitalization rules) and my personal favorite, the inclusion of "BF" as a definition category for individual characters. This means that the definitions listed under "BF" (bound form) are only available when the character is serving as a "bound morpheme" as part of a compound, and cannot be used as a standalone word.

These are all explained more in the dictionary manual (though for some reason I think it doesn't talk about the dots). There are probably other "hidden features" in other dictionaries but I don't know much about them.

 

[jekbradbury]

An example of how this is useful:

Say you're reading a text and come across the character 测, clearly used as an independent word. Another dictionary would say (e.g. KEY):

V
1 measure, gauge, survey, fathom
2 estimate, infer, predict, conjecture, judge​

But ABC tells you that the second meaning only occurs in compounds, so only the first meaning can be used as a standalone verb:

V.
survey; fathom; measure
B.F.
conjecture; infer in cāicè​