Dictionary Wishlist
- Thread starter HuShifang
- Start date
Finally pulled the trigger on the Hanyu Da Cidian. Well worth it i would say. Already came across a word in my studies that wasn't in any of my other dictionaries except for the HDC.
Is there any chance of getting the 漢語大字典 as well? Now, you might say that this is redundant because the HDC is bigger, however the HDZ (as I will call the 漢語大字典) has no compounds but does have 15% more characters than the HDC. That's a significant amount, and quite handy for people like myself who study Classical Chinese. Some entries in the HDZ have more robust definitions than the HDC as well (the latter being regarded more for the copious example references which provide context).
Aside from that, if we could get the Morohashi some day, that would be all anyone would need.
Thanks for offering the HDC. It's much cheaper than buying the CD-Rom or buying a set of the books (which would have cost me five times as much) and is more convenient as well, which makes up for the fact that the CD-Rom which the HDC offered here is based on is abridged.
Is there any chance of getting the 漢語大字典 as well? Now, you might say that this is redundant because the HDC is bigger, however the HDZ (as I will call the 漢語大字典) has no compounds but does have 15% more characters than the HDC. That's a significant amount, and quite handy for people like myself who study Classical Chinese. Some entries in the HDZ have more robust definitions than the HDC as well (the latter being regarded more for the copious example references which provide context).
Aside from that, if we could get the Morohashi some day, that would be all anyone would need.
Thanks for offering the HDC. It's much cheaper than buying the CD-Rom or buying a set of the books (which would have cost me five times as much) and is more convenient as well, which makes up for the fact that the CD-Rom which the HDC offered here is based on is abridged.
TimBenderSLS
举人
Is the version of 汉语大辞典 pleco uses indeed abridged? (In reference to John's comment above)
Slightly, yes - the people who originally digitized it stripped out the entries for characters not in the basic Unicode CJK Unified block. We looked into digitizing the missing bits, but it would be unbelievably expensive and HDC is already something of a break-even do-it-because-it-would-be-cool proposition for us. We do have a license + data to the HDC Supplement volume, though, and plan to incorporate that data in a forthcoming update.
TimBenderSLS
举人
Makes sense, so basically there are some rare non unicode characters entries missing, but no abridging of the entries that exist or ommision of compounds.
Thanks again for incorperating it - can't express how much easier it has made elements of my life!
Thanks again for incorperating it - can't express how much easier it has made elements of my life!
TimBenderSLS
举人
Question for JohnD and possibly others - what is the attraction to the Morohashi dictionary? Granted, it has more entries, but it is incredibly old, and there have been significant advances in such understanding in the ensuing 60 or 70 years. Besides, most everything that it includes that 汉语大辞典 does not is probably a variant character, old seal script, or something really, really, really rare, and for the latter category I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable relying on the understanding present in a handful of Japanese scholars 60 years ago. Instead, in all cases I'd just use Chant or some other database to run a search of the character in question, take a quick look at the kangxi dictionary for reference/ideas, and then judge its meaning by the context of other uses (which is probably what Morohashi did anyway, only he was searching faulty human memory and through printed texts, meaning far fewer and worse resources available and so couldn't be nearly as accurate as we can now). If there were any new dictionaries on the classical front, I'd think it much better to get something that reflects recent scholarship, comprehensiveness does not seem much of a recommendation when weighed against age or relative reliability (given the electronic tools we have available now).
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TimBenderSLS
举人
Makes sense - in that case, you might find the Taiwan ministry of education dictionary (adapted for pleco as a free download, link available here in the forums) useful, it has pretty extensive entries covering people and texts, and might fill this gap for you sufficiently, at least for now.
Mike has also expressed that pleco is looking into converting chinese wikipedia into a pleco free download - when that is done, I think these areas will be covered very nicely.
Mike has also expressed that pleco is looking into converting chinese wikipedia into a pleco free download - when that is done, I think these areas will be covered very nicely.
Oh, the MOE dictionary is a must-have for sure, and so far has been the most useful dictionary for me overall on Pleco, though I have just started using HDC. So I heartily concur. In fact, it would be great if Pleco could off it in their add-ons so that more people would be aware of it, but I don't know if that is possible or feasible.
TimBenderSLS
举人
Mike has explained that the problem lies in the license of it as defined by the ministry of education (or whoever released it) - the dictionary can't be used in a commercial sale or some such, so it would be a questionable thing to incorporate it as part of pleco (in that pleco is a paid product, and it could be conceived of as deriving profits from the dictionary). I may have gotten some details wrong, but that is the general concern, hence it is still a user download.
I'm actually really excited about the prospect of pleco wikipedia download, it would add a great deal for my purposes.
I'm actually really excited about the prospect of pleco wikipedia download, it would add a great deal for my purposes.
Demonic_Duck
Member
I have two items on my "wish list", but they're generic categories of dictionaries rather than specific dictionaries.
The first is a C-C dictionary specifically designed for learners of CSL. I've seen the 商务馆学汉语词典 recommended, and it looks good from what I can see, but I guess there must be others out there as well.
The second is a C-C dictionary that is either dedicated specifically to slang, or simply contains good coverage of slang (including but certainly not limited to profanity). The 规范 is great overall, but it seems it's terribly weak in this particular area. I guess this would likely be a version of some online resource, as it seems online stuff is overall much better than print when it comes to slang.
Anything in the pipeline that matches either of these descriptions? Or alternatively, are there any user-created dictionaries out there that would be relevant to my interests?
The first is a C-C dictionary specifically designed for learners of CSL. I've seen the 商务馆学汉语词典 recommended, and it looks good from what I can see, but I guess there must be others out there as well.
The second is a C-C dictionary that is either dedicated specifically to slang, or simply contains good coverage of slang (including but certainly not limited to profanity). The 规范 is great overall, but it seems it's terribly weak in this particular area. I guess this would likely be a version of some online resource, as it seems online stuff is overall much better than print when it comes to slang.
Anything in the pipeline that matches either of these descriptions? Or alternatively, are there any user-created dictionaries out there that would be relevant to my interests?
商务馆 is tough at the moment - we do have a business relationship with them now for another product but they've generally seemed reluctant to license out dictionaries. The 学汉语词典 might be a good one to try, though, since it would seem like Pleco users are exactly the people it was designed for.
For slang, I think it does indeed have to be electronic and continuously updated, but in general electronic resources like this in China seem much less likely to be freely licensed under Creative Commons or whatever than in the West - 百度百科 e.g. doesn't share their content with others - so I don't know where exactly we could get it from.
For slang, I think it does indeed have to be electronic and continuously updated, but in general electronic resources like this in China seem much less likely to be freely licensed under Creative Commons or whatever than in the West - 百度百科 e.g. doesn't share their content with others - so I don't know where exactly we could get it from.
goldyn chyld
状元
Speaking of 商务馆, I'd love to have their 谚语, 成语 and 歇后语 dictionaries in electronic form...
goldyn chyld
状元
Btw, any progress on [兩岸常用詞典]? I use it on Mac and it works great...
alex_hk90
状元
What tends to be their explanation for not wanting to license it out? Surely it's a win-win situation for them?
PS: I didn't notice all the new dictionaries in 3.1 and just bought the KEY C-E dictionary - seems useful thanks!
