Feature request: Another Monolingual Dictionary

simple

秀才
Hello

Firstly I'd like to say I love pleco. While the E-C and C-E are great I am starting to try and use monolingual dictionaries more. I personally would love to see another monolingual dictionary available - I like the dictionary already available but find I get a better sense of the meaning if a consult a couple of dictionaries. The Taiwan MOE's 國語辭典 or (even better at my level) 國語辭典簡編本 would be fantastic.

Thank you

-S
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Thanks for the note on this.

We're certainly open to adding more monolingual dictionaries, but we're inclined to do so more to address specific areas that aren't well-covered by C-E dictionaries than to add more general-purpose titles; monolingual dictionaries for 古文 / 成语 / 粤语 / character etymology are all considerably easier to come by than bilingual ones.

Are there any particular general-purpose C-C dictionaries you're fond of, though? 现代汉语辞典 doesn't seem to be gettable - we've tried - but any others?
 

Sarevok

进士
A pity about not getting 现代汉语词典, that one would have been really nice to have. But Guifan does suffice I suppose...

Don't know whether its gettable, but my personal favorite 汉语8000词词典, basically the detailed version of HSK词汇大纲 (the good ol' HSK we know and love :), not the hideous new mutation of the exam). Its number of entries is not very high, there are only 8822 in total. What makes it stand out is the detailed description for each entry - the sheer number of example sentences and collocations makes the paper version quite thick, much thicker than... say 现代汉语词典. It would be an excellent resource if there was some better sentence support in flashcards (as discussed elsewhere). There are also 近义词/反义词 listed for each entry... speaking of which, some dedicated 近义词反义词词典 would also be a nice addition...
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
We haven't had much luck with that publisher in the past, though I suppose we could try approaching them again - they may not value that title as highly now that the new HSK is out anyway. Thanks!
 

Sarevok

进士
...and since Hanban basically stole the exam from them (according to what I have heard). There might be a new exam out, but that doesn't mean the contents of that dictionary are out of date - it is certainly worth a try.

Another idea for a useful monolingual dictionary would be 现代汉语搭配词典 published by 汉语大词典出版社. There is only a handful of titles like that (in comparison with say 近反义词词典... of which there is a ton of various titles) as it is highly specialized. Definitely useful for an advanced learner or a translator, but don't know how interesting it would be from the financial point of view, since there probably won't be that many customers for this particular title (provided it can be licensed of course). Anyways, these just some random thoughts about dictionaries...
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
Sarevok said:
Another idea for a useful monolingual dictionary would be 现代汉语搭配词典 published by 汉语大词典出版社.

Haven't actually approached them before... we can certainly look into it, though it does seem like it may be a bit too obscure a subject to generate enough sales to justify licensing it; I doubt the majority of Chinese learners even know what a 搭配 is, though I suppose most intermediate / advanced ones would be able to think of a few examples if you described it to them.
 

xin

Member
I have bought a lot of diffenrent kinds of Chinese dictionaries in the past. Measure word dictionaries, visual, idioms, synonyms... you name it. Among them all there is a one dictionary that I really wish you could add to your product. It's called "A Learner's Chinese Dictionary: Illustrations of the Usages" (学汉语用例词典). It's published by Beijing language and culture university press (北京语言大学出版社) ISBN 7-5619-1460-1. Dictionary is not for beginners as everything is written in Chinese besides the translation of the words and idioms but it's a great help for advanced learners because it usually has 2-5 phrases to illustrate usage of the word. It has been the best studying tool for me to understand how, when and in what kind of situation I should use the word.

The same press has also best synonyms dictionary the I have used called "1700 Groups of Frequently Used Chinese Synonyms" (1700对近义词语用法对比) ISBN 7-5619-1265-X.

I don't have any ideas how licenses work or how you make the software but if you can add this dictionaries I'll be first one to buy them.
 

mikelove

皇帝
Staff member
We haven't had a whole lot of luck with BLCU press, unfortunately - they've got a couple of titles we'd like to get our hands on, but they haven't responded to any of our recent emails. But we'll make sure to investigate these titles the next time we make an attempt at contacting them - thanks!
 
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