Chapter 44 11. I compile "Contemporary Chinese-English Dictionary"①

①The original title is "The Origin of Contemporary Chinese-English Dictionary". Compiling a Chinese dictionary, imitating the Oxford Concise Dictionary, has been my long-cherished wish for decades.In the 33rd year of the Republic of China, the book was completed, with a total of more than 60 volumes, compiled by my elder brother Hang Lu and Mr. Hai Ge.At the beginning of the Anti-Japanese War, it was destroyed by war, and only thirteen volumes were taken away from the United States.I have always cherished this ambition for 30 years. In the 55th year of the Republic of China, I retired to Taipei. After seven years of hard work, I finally fulfilled my long-cherished wish. The main purpose of the election is as follows.

Guoyu must have a word book that records Guoyu in detail. This concept is completely different from the word book.Chinese calligraphy books are all based on characters, not on the words in the language.So up to now, there is no special book of a Chinese dictionary compiled from the viewpoint of modern linguistics.Western English and French "dictionaries" are based on those national languages, and the usages, grammatical parts of words in the national languages, and their changes are all recorded in detail.Ci books in our country, such as "Ci Yuan" and "Ci Hai", although the word is used as the unit, the content is biased towards the nature of an encyclopedia, and it is not possible to study the grammatical status and changes in the sentence, nor can it be used in a single The words formed by conjugating sound groups and number sound groups are sorted out and analyzed.Ordinary words in the Chinese language, such as: "if", "if" and "all of a sudden" are not included.Zhu Junsheng's "Shuowen Tongxun Dingsheng" has unique eyes and can distinguish the meaning of words, so he can give a new interpretation in the "Zhuanzhu" of Liushu, using the "long" and "parents" of "growth" "Chang", "ling" in "command" and "ling" in "county magistrate" (an example of Duan's "borrowing") are considered to be re-notes.Because he understands the principle of sound, he can pay attention to the sound in the language and understand the transformation of its pronunciation, and go beyond the scope of Shuowen to study the shape of characters.

China has always had no national language, because the national language has not yet been unified.After 50 years of foresight and continuous discussion by the leaders of the National Language Unification Association (such as Wu Zhihui, Li Jinxi, etc.), it was determined that Peiping dialect should be the national language.In 1932, "National Vocabulary" was published, and in 1947, "Chinese New Rhyme" was promulgated and published, and then the pronunciation began to have a unified standard.Following the implementation of the phonetic alphabet promulgated in 1918, there was the national language and pronunciation that is generally recognized today.Since the Literary Revolution, the Ministry of Education has set up the Compilation Office of the Chinese Dictionary, using Baihuo as a literary tool. After 30 years of collecting materials, Wang Yi edited the "Guoyu Dictionary", which was published in 1937 during the Anti-Japanese War. The first volume, until the fourth volume was published in 1945, and then we can say that Chinese Mandarin has a detailed and accurate dictionary.There are systematic records of past vernacular literature (poems, words, songs, and novels in Ming and Qing Dynasties) and modern Beiping national accent.This is the work of pioneering mountains. The achievements of the predecessors are the gift of our successors.That's why I dare to dream of making a more up-to-date Chinese-English dictionary.

1. Scope - The scope of this book includes all the words that are commonly used in contemporary Chinese, and that can be found in newspapers, magazines and books.Now the basic grammar of the national language is the vernacular, but a lot of rich vocabulary has been handed down from the classical Chinese, which has been mixed together.The so-called distinction between classical Chinese and vernacular is not strictly defined.As seen in today's newspapers, the composition of classical Chinese and vernacular is different, but since vernacular has become the literary tool of Chinese people, it must absorb the rich, tempered, and implicit imagery in ancient poetry.Such as "brainstorming", "haste makes waste", "fly to prosperity", "all night long" and "never leave" are idioms commonly used by literati in the education field, and they cannot be expressed in vernacular.Now "the year of Erli" has become a thing of the past, and scholars don't bother to quote it, thinking it's just for show. However, "Neijibuli", translated in vernacular, has lost its expressive use.Many commonly used expressions in classical Chinese, such as "the heart promises the person" and "the appearance is not good", are still common and elegant words.Because of these dictionaries honed over three thousand years, today's language is as expressive as English and French.All these words should become part of the national language, and should be included in this dictionary.

Second, the language of the country must change with the times.For example, "supersonic speed" and "atomic energy" did not exist before.If we carefully read the words of the Minister of Economic Affairs in the "Central Daily" on November 12, 1970, we will understand that we have all the words in the West.He said: "Today's China must actively develop advanced and modernized basic key industries", "improve the investment environment", "explore oil resources in continental reefs", and "equipment for cracking light oil with an annual output of 20% ethylene over 10,000 tons".This kind of thinking is much more precise than before, and it is completely different from the ancient Chinese saying "chicken has five virtues", thought and writing.What modern languages, English, and French can express, we can also express.

3. Determination of words - Determination of words is the basic work of this book, the purpose is to determine monosyllabic and polysyllabic words (WORDS) and their grammatical parts of speech.No one knows how many words there are in Mandarin.This tragic situation is the reason why the author takes up this heavy responsibility angrily. In the previous word books, the formation of "word" and its parts of speech were ignored.Classical Chinese is polysyllabic, but modern Mandarin is by no means.Because in terms of characters, we already have the difference in radicals, such as "Hu, Hu, Hu, Hu", and we are not troubled by homophones.In spoken language, this problem must be solved, so a beard becomes a beard, a paste becomes a paste, a butterfly becomes a butterfly, a tiger becomes a tiger, the moon is called the moon, and the day is called the sun.Because the meaning is clear, which is the first general rule of language, the words of polyphonic groups evolved naturally.

Eighty percent of today's Mandarin is polyphonic, and a single tone must be added to a single tone in classical Chinese.Examples of common auxiliary verbs and prepositions: can - can but - but may - may though - must - must and - and will - will or - or need - need if - if should - should if - if our culture The words of thought are polyphonic words.Such as questions, answers, meetings, discussions, beliefs, doubts, obedience, decisions, discussions, dreams, scrutiny, speculation, promotion, recommendation, approval, opposition, etc., and so on.Therefore, if the speech is indefinite, the image is unclear, and scholars are uncertain. The word "heavy" has the meaning of heavy, and we have to mention serious (current situation, illness), grand (ceremony), prudent, and heavy (character).On the contrary, the word "light" becomes frivolous (personality-adjective), relaxed (once-verb), and easy (unspeakable-adjective).Contemptuous (contemptible) is his verb, frivolous is an adjective, or used as a verb, (give him a frivolous meal).

Without these polysyllabic words, we can only speak rough and smooth words. 4. Scenarios—From the above, we can see that in Mandarin, words are limited by situations, and their uses are different, or they may be used in other places, but they cannot be used here.All languages ​​start with a "situation". The most common thing is to ask the other party not to hang up on the phone. It is a situation. English is wait a minute, French is ne quittez pa, and German is ein Augenblick. The situation is the same but the words are different.The limitations of this scenario must be marked one by one.

In this book (AC) refers to the ancient meaning of scriptures, historical records, Hanshu, and ancient texts of the Six Dynasties, which is not current.In this dictionary, the ancient meanings are kept simple, but it is just a preparation, and there is no need to give examples. (MC) refers to the vernacular in the Middle Ages, which refers to past vernacular literature, Tang poetry, Song Ci, Yuan opera, and Ming and Qing novels. All past vernacular is not commonly used now, and the source can be found in the Mandarin Dictionary. (LL) refers to the opposite of classical Chinese and vernacular.Although the diction extracted from ancient prose may appear in poems, books, and changes, it has already become part of the national language.However, classical Chinese and diction should not be used indiscriminately, otherwise there will be many outdated words and sentences when writing.

(DIAL) refers to dialect words and usage. In addition, many words have situational restrictions on their use and place.Such as (Court) is used only when addressing politely. (SI) means slang.In addition, there are sarcasm (satir), teasing (facet), contempt (derog), abuse (abuse), slang (vulgar), gentle (litr) and other usages, and it is appropriate to use them at the right time. (Coll) refers to spoken language. It is used in oral language, but it is difficult to be elegant in writing.5. Vividness——Bai Juyi said it well: "Those who touch people's hearts, don't start with emotion, don't start with words, don't cut sounds, don't go deep with righteousness... From the sages, down to the ignorant, down to the porpoise, Ghosts and gods, the group is divided but the spirit is the same, the shape is different but the emotion is one. Those who do not respond when there is no sound, and those who are in love but not emotional" ("Book with Yuan Zhen").He has uniquely obtained the secret of the ages, and he knows that language comes from the scene, and the sound is placed on it, and the meaning is born from the sound.Language is not only expressive, but also expressive.The spirit must have its place and time, so it is also said: "Articles are written for the time, and poems are written for the event." Articles and poems have a touching effect, and they must have their place, their events, their feelings, and their emotions. Scenery, and then touching also deeply.Therefore, the use of diction in this book is three compliments.