[KS] RESOURCE>Update on Web CJK Dictionary (DEALT)

Charles Muller acmuller at human.toyogakuen-u.ac.jp
Wed Apr 5 10:05:31 EDT 2000


Colleagues,

I have recently uploaded a
significantly expanded new update of
the Unicode version of the online
Dictionary of East Asian Literary Terms
(DEALT), which is available for
browsing at
http
://w
ww.h
uman
.toy
ogak
uen-u.ac.jp/~acmuller/dicts/title.htm.

1. Enhancements and Availability

The biggest enhancement this time is
that of the inclusion of the entire CJK
portion of the Unicode character set:
20,902 characters, along with compound
words. There are still only about 7500
characters that have complete phonetic
and semantic information, but I have
decided to make all characters
available, even if incomplete, as a way
of stimulating feedback and
contribution.

Each character and its related
compounds are compiled as a separate
HTML file, and the files posted on the
web are exactly the same as those in
the database on my local machine. This
means that they can be edited or added
to by anyone with an HTML editor, and
re-posted within days. Thus, if you
come across a character that has
incomplete information, and you would
like to work on it, please just copy
the file to your local system, edit it,
and forward the updated file to me by
e-mail attachment. Compound words can
also be added by using other compound
word entries as a template.

This lexicon-database is available for
download in two formats: (1)  As a
structured package of 21,000+ HTML
files in ZIP format, which can be
downloaded to one's hard drive and
expanded (taking up as much as 100 MB
of actual space). (2) In Windows Help
format (HTML-Help), where the files are
compacted densely into a single
"compiled help manual" (.chm) file.
This is optimal for Windows users,
taking up about 20 times less disk
space, and being much faster. Both
formats are bundled with the Digital
Dictionary of Buddhism, but this can
easily be deleted from one's hard drive
if not needed. These two packages are
the first two listed on the download
page at
(htt
p://
www.
huma
n.to
yoga
kue
n-u.
ac.jp/~acmuller/download/index.html).
Older S-JIS versions are still
available, but these are no longer
being updated.

University libraries and Asian Studies
departments are welcome to make both
the dictionary and downloadable files
available on their local servers.


2. Nature of the Compilation

The present title of the compilation is
"Dictionary of East Asian Literary
Terms", which is intended to
distinguish it from character
dictionaries that are mainly designed
for modern language learning, and thus
give only brief information regarding
modern meanings and compounds, without
loci classicus. As you will see, most
of the definitions of the characters in
the DEALT are detailed and extensive.
The same is true for the compound
words, which, wherever possible or
appropriate, include loci classicus.

The grand view for the DEALT is for it
to be a large cooperative effort, that
can eventually include all compounds
and characters from the East Asian
literary and historical corpus from the
earliest classics up to pre-modern
times--something on the order of a
digital Morohashi or Hanyu da
cidian--but in English. The DEALT
provides Pinyin, Wade-Giles, Korean
Han'gul, McCune-Reischauer, Katakana,
and Hepburn romanization, and will
hopefully include Vietnamese at some
point.

Up to the present, the great portion of
the compound words are have been
absorbed from studies in Confucian and
Daoist texts, but there is no intention
whatsoever to limit the compilation to
philosophy, or to even to Chinese
literature. A concerted attempt is
being made to include information from
Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese
philosophy, history, literature, etc.
Thus, contributions which contain
information from any field are
welcomed.

Please do write to me if you have any
suggestions for the further development
of this project.

Regards,

------------------------------
Charles Muller
[acmuller at human.toyogakuen-u.ac.jp]
Toyo Gakuen University, Faculty of
Humanities

Digital Resources for the Study of East
Asian Language and Thought
www.
huma
n.to
yogakuen-u.ac.jp/~acmuller/index.html

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