chrix Posted November 5, 2009 at 11:17 AM Report Share Posted November 5, 2009 at 11:17 AM Actually, the way I see it, is, nowadays a lot of the basic info is available freely on the net, so I'd be prepared to buy a book only for added value, such as - good English translations - more in-depth explanations of background etc. - grammatical info - more examples and other notes on usage - useful appendices, e.g. chengyu by author/source, by theme/occasion, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gato Posted November 5, 2009 at 11:47 AM Report Share Posted November 5, 2009 at 11:47 AM - good English translations The problem with adding English translation is that it takes up extra space that can be used for a more in-depth Chinese explanation. An advanced learner probably doesn't need the English except on rare occasion, and on those occasions you can just look it up on the internet. At least that's true for me. Now that I have 汉语规范词典 on Pleco, I mostly only use the ABC Dictionary when a word is not defined in the 规范词典 (ABC has a lot more idiom and classical Chinese entries than the 规范). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrix Posted November 5, 2009 at 11:50 AM Report Share Posted November 5, 2009 at 11:50 AM (edited) yeah, you're absolutely right. I didn't mean it from a learner's perspective, but more from a translator's persceptive, finding the right English chengyu so to speak. More often than not, there's an expression similar in meaning available, and it'd be nice if the dictionary indicated that, apart from a literal translation and a circumlocution. Edited March 17, 2010 at 08:16 PM by chrix Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chengyu Posted March 17, 2010 at 01:29 PM Report Share Posted March 17, 2010 at 01:29 PM I actually don't alway find it useful to try to find a matching English proverb. It often leads to a close-but-not-exact match, which is counter-productive, isn't it? Some Chengyu have excellent English equivalents (e.g. tip of the iceberg), but some do not at all. Usage examples are probably the most important bit - since it's never clear, what type of word (verb, noun, adjective etc) a Chengyu actually is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrix Posted March 17, 2010 at 08:14 PM Report Share Posted March 17, 2010 at 08:14 PM Why would it counterproductive? It would only be one part anyways, see my post about how I'd like to see three different types of translations in a carefully edited dictionary: literal translation, circumlocution and some equivalent proverbs (and a good dictionary would naturally include examples of usage as well). If you look around online, you can find comparative dictionaries of proverbs in the major European languages, and often a proverb in language X corresponds to several in language Y, so they'll list them all, ideally (but not always) with notes on differences in usage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and select your username and password later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.