Word Discrimination Dictionary - Near-Synonyms

Author: Su Xinwen, Editor-in-Chief
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-12-01
Features: Our primary and secondary school Chinese language teaching has always placed great emphasis on improving the recognition and application abilities of Chinese characters. Learning Chinese language requires the correct use of characters, words, sentences, paragraphs, and passages, with the foundation being characters and words. Without a proper understanding of these two basic units—characters and words—it is difficult to effectively master larger linguistic units such as sentences, paragraphs, and passages. Due to some inherent characteristics of the Chinese language, such as the lack of extensive morphological features, relatively simple grammatical forms, a prevalence of monosyllabic words, and a focus on compound words based on monosyllabic morphemes, the connection between Chinese characters and Chinese vocabulary is particularly close. Therefore, character teaching has gone beyond the mere realm of pure character forms and is closely linked to the study of Chinese vocabulary. This is the reason why we chose to focus on characters and words first when planning supplementary materials for primary and secondary school Chinese language teaching.
The Character and Word Analysis Dictionary consists of six volumes, three of which are about single characters, and the other three are about compound words. Improving one's understanding and application of Chinese characters and words is a long-term need in language learning, so this series of reference books will also be helpful to the general public. Emphasizing foundational and common usage is the principle behind the compilation of this series of reference books. To this end, we have made some efforts:
1. Topic Selection: The six volumes represent six topics. The three volumes on single characters address issues of reading, writing, and usage, while the three volumes on compound words address issues of word meaning, similar/same pronunciation, and easily confused/misused words. These six topics are both fundamental and important in Chinese language learning.
2. Scope of Analyzed Words: The words selected for analysis are limited to common usage. Single characters are primarily selected from the 2,500 most common characters and 1,000 less common characters, with some general characters also included. The selection of compound words is based on the results of lexical measurement research. For example, synonyms are primarily selected based on data from the Modern Chinese Frequency Dictionary, roughly covering 8,548 common words. Homophones are selected with a focus on those that are highly common, have the same or similar pronunciation, but differ in meaning and are easily confused, including those that are easily confused between dialectal and standard Mandarin pronunciation. For heterographic words, the selection and analysis are conducted using a large-scale corpus containing billions of characters, ensuring more objective and accurate results.
3. Presentation of Word Knowledge: Instead of aiming for comprehensiveness, the focus is on analyzing easily confused and commonly misused words. Most dictionaries and glossaries focus on individual characters and words, striving for complete and thorough internal definitions. However, to gain a deep and correct understanding and application of a character or word, it is essential to understand the words adjacent to it and the subtle differences between them, thereby mastering their different usages. Providing this information and assistance is precisely what this series of reference books aims to convey to readers.
4. Definition and Analysis: Efforts are made to use colloquial and accessible language, striving to achieve "deep yet simple" explanations.