CJKV Information Processing, 2nd Edition

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Chapter 11: Dictionaries and Dictionary Software

Ideograph Dictionary Indexes

In order to begin taking advantage of the wealth of information contained within ideo-

graph dictionaries, you rst need to know how to use them. e typical ideograph dic-

tionary contains two main parts:

Main entries

Provide all the useful information about the ideograph in one convenient location

One or more indexes

Provide more convenient ways with which to nd the target main entry

Needless to say, the more indexes a dictionary contains, the greater chance that you can

nd the target main entry—many ideographs are dicult to nd in dictionaries for a

variety of reasons, such as due to rare readings, dicult-to-determine indexing radicals,

ambiguous stroke counts, and so on.

e main entries in ideograph dictionaries are typically ordered in a standard way, such

as by radical plus the number of remaining strokes, total number of strokes, or reading.

e most common of these is by indexing radical plus the number of remaining strokes.

In fact, there is usually a simple radical index right inside the front (or back) cover of most

ideograph dictionaries to aid in quick lookup.

e following sections describe these indexing methods in greater detail and provide tips

for faster lookup.

Reading Index

One of the most eective ways to locate an ideograph in a dictionary is by its reading.

Once you locate the appr ...