Cross-straits arrows

[naphta]

Hi Mike,

I've been using the LAC dictionary for a while without really paying attention to the variations in prononciation it explains. When a word is pronounced differently in Taiwan or China there's an arrow before the phonetic transcription. It is supposed to indicate where it is pronounced like that, but I find it quite confusing.

The thing is that on the list preview you can actually see what corresponds to 台拼 and what to 陸拼. See my screenshots. I think that having that information on the definition screen as well would be much more clear than just the arrows.

 

[Shun]

Hi naphta,

interesting point, but aren't the arrows just a discreet way of saying "left of the Strait" for the left arrow, and "right of the Strait" for the right arrow? Taiwan and 大陆 cannot be looked upon as distinct entities, the political reason is clear.

Best, Shun

 

[naphta]

I would prefer 台拼 and 陸拼 than → and ←, and that's how it appears already on the entries list (see my screenshots). I find it less confusing.
I'm sorry but I don't see the political point of using two characters instead of an arrow in a dictionary of differences in usage between Taiwan and China.

 

[Shun]

I see your point, and I know it's almost childish, but to use 台 and 陸 as distinction would be like saying "US and England", i.e. two separate countries which are on the same level. Because the regions have different names, they must be like different countries. But Beijing doesn't want any country to recognize Taiwan as a separate country. An arrow, however, simply says "the region on the left/right" without making any political statement. I feel that's why they used this somewhat unorthodox naming convention. I guess Mike wouldn't be allowed to change it from the printed dictionary of his own accord, anyway. For me, what matters is that the meaning is always clear, and knowing this, I'm fine with it.

 

[naphta]

Pleco is already using 台拼 and 陸拼 instead of the arrows in the entries list. Is only when you enter the definition page that these words are replaced by arrows. So again, it doesn't seem that Mike is under big political pressure from Beijing. Besides, as you can see in Pleco's own description, it is the "dictionary from the Taiwan Ministry of Education, focusing on differences in usage between Taiwan and not-Taiwan". In the dictionary webpage, they clearly distinguish between 臺灣音讀 and 大陸音讀.

 

[Shun]

Yes, let's wait for Mike's statement, I am also curious. Perhaps they did it just for the sake of brevity, to keep the pinyin field from getting too cluttered.

 

[Abun]

I have heard people with a strong sense of Taiwanese national identity object to the term 大陸 as well. Their argument is the exact opposite, namely that it implies political unity by referring to geography rather than states (and to be fair, that is in fact likely the original intention of the term 大陸 as it was propagated by the KMT during the Cold War era). You can also refer to an earlier discussion on the same topic here: http://plecoforums.com/threads/january-27th-dictionary-releases.5127/page-2, also including the following page.

 

[naphta]

So yes, Mike's answer there is clear, the arrows are there to avoid offending people. I don't want to reopen the discussion but I personally would have respected the editor's choice, even if there are good reasons to disagree with it (I never use the term "mainland" to refer to China).
Still, Pleco shows the arrows in the definitions and 臺拼 and 陸拼 in the entries list when searching for a word.
The problem being that the arrows are confusing insofar as depending on how you search (all dictionaries or just LAC), you get "←ㄕˊ(or →ㄕˋ)" or "→ㄕˋ(or ←ㄕˊ)" for my exemple 識. Which I think is harder to read that just 臺 and 陸