Project:ECCE Distinctive Features of the ECCE Dictionary
Please note: this page is still under construction. It is based on page viii of the portable print edition of ABC E-C/C-E, and requires revision to account for differences between the book and the wiki. In particular, the wiki edition includes far more vocabulary, including the entire unabridged ABC Comprehensive Chinese-English Dictionary with over 200,000 entries. See also wenlin.com/abc.
Distinctive Features of the ABC E-C/C-E Dictionary
1. In this student-oriented dictionary, the two sections, English-Chinese (E-C) and Chinese-English (C-E), together comprise a self-contained volume in which every Chinese and English expression used in a definition or example of usage can be found as a headword or sub-headword.
2. All Chinese definitions, example phrases, and sentences appear in both Pinyin and characters.
3. In comparison with similar works, both sections contain more of everything — more entries (headwords and sub-headwords), more illustrative or explanatory material, and more special features (noted below). The E-C section contains 29,670 entries (18,016 main entries and 11,654 sub-entries). The C-E section contains 37,952 entries (4,644 monosyllabic and 33,308 polysyllabic entries). Counting numbered definitions as distinct entries, E-C/C-E contains 98,627 entries altogether.
4. In E-C Sections IV and V we present the novel format PY/HZ/ENG, i.e., Pinyin on top, Hanzi in the middle, and English on the bottom. (This format was prompted by the bopomofo/HZ format extensively used in Taiwan and the alternative formats PY/HZ and HZ/PY introduced in some PRC elementary school textbooks.)
5. As a special aid for student learners of Chinese and English, E-C/C-E features graded word lists prepared by PRC specialists in teaching the two languages. (See E-C Appendix VI and C-E Appendix VII.)
6. For all Pinyin transcriptions, changes in tone are indicated while preserving the original tone (e.g., suọ̌yǐ, normally written suǒyǐ and pronounced suóyǐ). In this way, E-C/C-E, uniquely among dictionaries, reduces the burden placed on students in coping with tonal changes. (Details are in C-E Section III, Explanatory Notes and Examples, Note 2.)
7. The E-C/C-E Dictionary carries forward the many special features of the ABC series of dictionaries (e.g., ABC Chinese-English Dictionary and ABC Chinese-English Comprehensive Dictionary), chief among them the strict alphabetic order of the Pinyin entries as by far the simplest and fastest way to look up a term whose pronunciation is known.
