The Need for an Alphabetically Arranged General Usage Dictionary ...

Sitlo-Plarouic Pnper.~, 1 (February, 1986)Since both of these projects will likely be consuming large amountsof PRC and US government funding, it is in the interests of allconcerned to see that these dictionaries havc some means of alphabetizedaccess.In light of the recent appearance of the massive Bol'shoi Kir~risko-Klrsskii Slol~crl-' , compiled under the chief editorship of I. M. Oshanin.I would seriously recomn~end that efforts toward the creationof a large ncw Chinese-English dictionary be coordinated. It wouldbe niuch preferable if funding agencies were to make all of thcirgrants to a joint comtnission for the preparation of a quality, thoroughproduct ruther than frittering away several hundred thousand dollarsthrough sponsoring two or three medium-sized, mediocre dictionaries.We already have more than enough of these costly artifactsof incompetence clogging the shelves of our libraries. Whether fromgovernment agencies or private institutions, funds for the compilationof a new dictionary should be firmly withheld until thc organizersof the project can demonstrate that their work will exceed in scopeand excellence all existing Chinese-English lexicons. It would be ashame, indeed a pathetic travesty, if all that $200,000 could buywould be two additional dictionaries like Mathews', The PirryirlDirtion~ry Lin Yiltang 's, or Liang Shih-ch'iu's. Even one Inore suchdictionary - considering the fact that we are already blessed withsuch a plethora - would be a worthless excrescence. Two morewould be sirnply too IIIUC~, like bringing owls to Athens. There arenumerous desiderata for a good dictionary of Chinese. Since EllingEide (1975; sce also David Jordan. 1981) has already stated themso eloquently and forcefully, there is no need for me to repeat themhere. I will mention only that a good many of them havc been metin the impressive Russian dictionary mentioned at the beginning ofthis paragraph.The Bol'shoi Kitaisko-Rzrsskii Slol?nrP might almost serve as amodel of completeness for a dictionary of modern Chinese. In thefirst place, it is huge, containing around 250.000 words and expressionslisted under 15,681 characters. The entire first volume, out offour, is dedicated to making the life of the user as easy as possible(traditional Chinese lexicographers seem to have delighted in putting