A Comparative Study Of Agricultural Words In 1978 And 2012 Edition Of Modern Chinese Dictionary

This paper uses the methods of comparison, statistics, description and analysis to study the word collection and definition of agricultural words in the "Modern Chinese Dictionary" between the edition 1978 and the edition 2012. On the basis of the description of differences and trends in words, meanings, annotations and words which have the same meaning but in different forms, the study analyzes the characteristics and causes of these changes.The paper is divided into 4 chapters in all:The first chapter makes a description and analysis of the differences between the two versions of dictionary in collecting agricultural words. Through statistics, the development of agricultural words of "Modern Chinese Dictionary" shows a trend of "being added less but deleted more". In the two editions of the dictionary, the most are the biological name words when classified by meaning. While, when classified by the part of speech, the most are nouns, then verbs. The agricultural words which are increased and deleted in the edition 2012 have four sources:new and old agricultural words, marked ’dialect’ words, terminologies and other agricultural words. Through comparing the principles of collecting agricultural words between the two editions of dictionary, it can be known that the edition 2012 pursues to be more valuable, systematic, closed.The second chapter makes a description and analysis of the differences between two versions of dictionary in the meanings of agricultural words. On the one hand, the supplement of meanings, expurgation of meanings, separation and incorporation of meanings reflects the development, fading out and stability of the meaning of agricultural words.On the other hand, they follow the style of the dictionary or adjust the insufficiencies.The third chapter makes a description of the differences of the annotations of the agricultural words between two editions, at the same time, analyses the differences of them, and attributes these differences to the different principles they persist in. Under the guidance of objectivity, simplicity, systematicness. completeness, the edition 2012 supplements, expurgates and changes annotations.The fourth chapter makes a description and analysis of the differences between two editions of dictionary in such agricultural words which have the same meaning but in different forms. Firstly, by comparing the differences of word collection, the study concludes that the change of such words includes a trend of "being added less but deleted more". Secondly, this chapter respectively describes the changes of the words which have the same meaning but in different forms. Finally, through comparing their features in collecting such words, the paper finds that the edition 2012 pursues to be more scientific, normative and valuable.