The Macro-structure Of Chinese-english Learner’s Dictionaries:the Identification And Arrangement Of Entry Heads

The macro-structure of a Chinese dictionary is composed of two factors:the identification and arrangement of entry heads. Depending on what their head entries are, Chinese dictionaries are devided into two types:character dictionaries and word dictioanaries; and depending on the principle of head entry arrangement, Chinese dictionaries are devided into alphabetical-order dictionaries and graphological-order dictionaries. Most traditioanal dictioanaries adopted the graphological order while comtemporary Chinese-English learner’s dictionaries usually adopt the alphabetical order, which in fact follows the alphabetical order of syllables+the number of strokes in each syllable. The advantage of alphabetical order is that it is easy to locate an entry head; its disadvantage is that it is not very useful if the dictionary user does not know the pronunciation of the character he comes across. To help solve this problem, each alphabetical-order dictionary has to have an index of graphonologically ordered characters, which is usually very cumbersome to use.This study distinguishes6types of entry heads:1) simple characters;2) compound characters;3) morphemic characters;4) syllabic characters;5) affix characters;6) words composed of characters. The author attempts arrange the3,500most frequently used characters in The General Service List of Standardized Chinese Characters (2013) and the words they compose on the principle the sequence of strokes, namely the horizontal一, the vertical|, the leftfalling丿, the rightfalling (?), and the dot、and their18variants written in one single continuous stroke. The order of these strokes is:a long stroke comes before a shorter one; a upright troke before a slanting one; a straight troke before a bent or twisted one. The order of bent or twisted strokes is:a short bend or twist comes before a longer one; a single bend or twist before a multiple one; and left bends first, right-angle bends second, and right bends third. On the basis of stroke sequence, graphemes are arranged in the following order:1) graphemes with fewer strokes come before those with more strokes;2) paralle strokes come before joined and crossed ones;3) upper strokes come before lower ones;4) closed shapes come before open ones. Compound characters are arranged under graphemes in the order of left before right and higher ones before lower ones. The macro-structure this thesis proposes is also applicable to other Chinese dictionaries.