ABC Chinese-English Comprehensive Dictionary (ABC Chinese Dictionary Series) [Hardcover]

John DeFrancis (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 082482766X | ISBN-13: 978-0824827663 | Publication Date: July 2003 | Edition: Bilingual

This dictionary is an expansion of the ground-breaking ABC Chinese-English Dictionary, the first strictly alphabetically ordered and Pinyin computerized dictionary. It contains over 196,000 entries, compared to the 71,486 entries of the earlier work, making it the most comprehensive one-volume dictionary of Chinese.

The single-sort alphabetic order of the entries provides by far the simplest and fastest way to look up a term whose pronunciation is known. Radical charts help locate characters when the pronunciation of a term is not known and facilitate access to traditional, simplified, and variant forms of characters. Other distinctive features of this dictionary include: information on whether a character is free form, sometimes bound, or always bound; traditional character equivalents for preceding simplified characters for each entry where appropriate; measure words for particular nouns; data from both the PRC and Taiwan indicating the relative frequency of entries that are complete or partial homographs; unique one-to-one correspondence between transcription and characters that permits calling up on a computer the characters of any entry by simply typing the corresponding transcription.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

John DeFrancis is emeritus professor of Chinese at the University of Hawai'i.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1464 pages
• Publisher: University of Hawaii Press; Bilingual edition (July 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 082482766X
• ISBN-13: 978-0824827663
• Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 7.4 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #514,243 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

71 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best pinyin CED on the market. Peerless., June 8, 2003

By 

Kent M. Suarez (Taipei, Taiwan) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: ABC Chinese-English Comprehensive Dictionary (ABC Chinese Dictionary Series) (Hardcover)

A superbly complete and accurate work, worth every penny! Like the earlier and more portable 71,000-entry ABC Chinese-English Dictionary (another great book, reviewed separately), this is ordered strictly by pinyin, so you needn't know the characters in a word you hear in order to look it up. But it improves greatly on the original ABC in many important ways besides its comprehensive content (over 196,000 entries). Most vital is the addition of the traditional characters next to the simplified for compounds as well (the original had them only for main entries).
A second huge improvement is that the characters making up compounds are now listed singly *even if* they only occur in compounds, e.g., hu2 and die2 (butterfly) are now listed among the other hu2 and die2 main entries, but it clearly marks that they are bound forms occurring only in the compound hu2die2 (so you know not to use them alone). Actually, the dictionary goes into even more detail, distinguishing characters which are bound in one meaning like sheng1 as in xue2sheng1 student, but not in another like 'to give birth'.
Third is the invaluable addition of measure words, in several ways. By an entry such as umbrella (whether you look it up as the character san3 or the compound yu3san3), you'll find "M: 1ba3" (superscripted 1, then 3rd tone ba with diacritical). The measure word is thus ba3, and the 1 means it's the first character listed under the ba3 entries, so you can easily find it if you don't know it. There's also an appendix of measure words (4 pages worth, unlike many of the measly lists in some other books), not only nominal (to count nouns) but also verbal (for actions, like tang4 in pao3le yi2tang4, made one trip). Incredibly helpful!
Fourth, the top quality binding (library-style, cloth) will last a lifetime, and is worth every penny. Fifth, yes, its comprehensive content, over 196,000 entries, meaning it will definitely still be useful to you when your Chinese reaches an advanced, even fluent level, and they've been able to add much more slang and colloquial words, as well as more Taiwan vs. PRC usage.
Finally, (and this is important) the compilers have been phenomenally careful and professional, truly meticulous and accurate, unlike sloppy, error-laden works like UMUM's Learner's CED or Harbaugh's Chinese Characters: A Genealogy and Dictionary. They have also been very responsive to reader input, as is evidenced by the many improvements to this edition. Absolutely one of the best Chinese-English dictionaries in existence, and a definite must-buy!

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Indespensible, easy to use and comprehensive., November 6, 2005

By 

Stuart-Little - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: ABC Chinese-English Comprehensive Dictionary (ABC Chinese Dictionary Series) (Hardcover)

This dictionary is an indispensable dictionary for anyone who has any need for a Chinese-English dictionary. It is organized alphabetically by pinyin. Looking up a compound term is very easy. I know of no other Chinese-English dictionary that has so many compound entries or is so easy to use once the pinyin is known.

Another plus is it adheres to the National Standard of the People's Republic of China for Hanyu Pinyin Orthography. This means if you want to know the correct pinyin for a compound this dictionary is without peer. The rules for separating and joining words; rules for spelling fused phrase expressions are all given and adhered to. When I want to double check I have transliterated a Chinese term, book title or address correctly into pinyin this is the dictionary I use.

In the one year that I have been using this dictionary I have only come across a few twentieth century compounds that not listed in this dictionary. A very nice feature is the entries clearly state when a character is a bound form and can not appear alone (modern usage only).

There is no wasted space in this dictionary, each page is laid out in the traditional three column dictionary format. The characters and compounds are labeled as to parts of speech, whether it is a measure word or compound, what the area of usage is (Taiwan as well as PRC; slang, colloquial, linguistic, medical, legal, scientific, etc.) and whether it is chiefly in written material versus ordinary speech. Both simple and complex forms of the character are given.

The appendices contain conversion tables for Pinyin, Wade-Giles, Guoyeu Romatzyh, Yale and Zhuyin Fuhao; character look up tables by stroke count (sub-indexed by stroke type) and by radical index. Also a table of standard and variant character forms is given.

The typeface is modern, easy to read and is slightly larger than the type in my Webster's Third New International Dictionary. (I.e., the big dictionary found in all libraries that sits on top of a dictionary stand.)

I own at least a half dozen Chinese-English dictionaries (including some very specialized ones) and two Chinese-Chinese dictionaries and this dictionary is the one that I use the most. A huge improvement over older (but modern) Chinese-English dictionaries.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An essential dictionary, August 31, 2005

By 

James Forsyth "www.jamesforsyth.net" (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: ABC Chinese-English Comprehensive Dictionary (ABC Chinese Dictionary Series) (Hardcover)

One can see from the credits page towards the start that quite a team went into putting this dictionary together. Other than the editor John DeFrancis himself, there are five associate editors, four editorial associates, two computer associates and twelve proofreading associates (two of whom double as associate editors). This spread of "eyes" is important with dictionary compilation as the fewer people working on the text, the more nuanced the definitions and selection of words.

I like the inclusion of the Kangxi and Comprehensive Radical Charts at the "back end paper verso" (back cover) of the dictionary. The front covers are blank, which could have been used in a similar way, perhaps for a summary of stroke-order rules.

Speaking of stroke-order rules, I have rarely, if ever, seen a satisfactory treatment of this in any Chinese text, let alone dictionary. Unfortunately this includes the volume at hand. The best method that I have seen is employed for the use of Japanese lexicography, in Hadamitzky and Spahn's Kanji & Kana (Tuttle - 0-8048-2077-5).

On the whole, however, the appendices included at the back are comprehensive, necessary and easy to follow.

The inclusion of words with Roman lettering (such as "a Q jingshen - attitude that treats defeats as personal moral victories" p9) shows the trend towards the use of English words and letters interspersed in Mandarin in modern China.

The "er" retroflexive suffix is a handy inclusion - at each relevant entry - for anyone wanting to travel to Beijing or the surrounding area. The same word can have this suffix appended or not, depending on the intended meaning. Thus, it is of great benefit to be able to check at a glance whether it is included in each individual entry, without having to memorise the rule/s concerned. A cheap handbook (shou ce) on the "er" suffix, called "hanyu erhuaci xuexi shouce / Chinese-er suffixed words without tears" is available, published by Beijing University.

It would have been good if measure words were included in the entries as well. But this may have overly complicated the process, as a word can have more than one measure word depending on the context in which it is used. On page 1360 and onwards, however, there is a very useful appendix listing many measure words and their respective usages.

Whenever a character has been simplified, the traditional character is shown in square brackets. This is essential for anyone interested in the etymology of a character. Also, if you have spent time in Hong Kong or Shen Zhen, or have studied Chinese before using fantizi (traditional characters) you will appreciate being able to move from the familiar to the more challenging.

This dictionary has an electronic counterpart, namely Wenlin. Wenlin is top-of-the-range Chinese dictionary software, with many added benefits over using the book alone. This includes a flashcards function, a drawing box for character look-up, and spoken pronunciation of a high quality; not to mention the ability to upgrade from Wenlin's website.

If you are thinking of buying both the ABC dictionary and Wenlin, I would err on the side of "lexical diversity" by choosing Wenlin and, possibly, Oxford's 3rd edition English-Chinese/Chinese-English dictionary, the one with the red cover (0-19-596457-8). The benefits of this, are twofold. First, you would have an English-Chinese dictionary (which ABC has not and Wenlin's is limited). Second, the Oxford dictionary is smaller, and much more portable, than ABC (but the 1999 edition of ABC is available in a smaller size).

Although the text size is quite small, the print quality is of such a standard that the components and shape of complicated characters (i.e. jiantizi - simplified - but still complicated) can still be discerned.

Perhaps most importantly, with this dictionary most of all, please read the Introduction and Reader's Guide at the front of this dictionary as soon as possible. It contains information on the arrangement of words, orthography, parts of speech and many other indispensable tools.

In short, highly recommended, 5 stars without a moment's hesitation.