Research On The Macrostructure And Microstructure Of Bilingual Chinese Medicine Dictionaries

Background and purposeTo promote the internationalization of traditional Chinese medicine(TCM),six bilingual TCM standards and nearly thirty bilingual TCM dictionaries have been composed at home and abroad,as the translation is the indispensable part of TCM international communication.However,compared with the large number of published bilingual standards and dictionaries,there are relatively fewer studies on bilingual TCM dictionaries.Specifically,most of the research focuses on the English translation of individual terms and paraphrases,only a few studies analyze the macro-structure and micro-structure of bilingual TCM dictionaries from the perspective of register and frame semantics and no research has analyzed the bilingual TCM dictionary on lexicographyIn lexicography,the macro-structure and micro-structure are important components of a dictionary.The macro-structure,in a narrow sense,is the way that words are arranged in the dictionary,by which editors and users could look up words;in a broad sense,macro-structure includes the layout,binding,preface,catalog,legend,index,appendix,etc.In general,the macro-structure is the basis of dictionary compilation,which determines the framework and quality.Micro-structure,the core of dictionary compilation,generally refers to each entry structure,including the left and the right parts,namely the heading and the corresponding explanation.Accordingly,this study deeply analyzes the macro-structure and micro-structure of bilingual TCM dictionaries from the perspective of lexicography to discuss the theoretical research of bilingual TCM dictionary and provide constructive suggestions on bilingual TCM dictionary compilation.Contents and MethodsThis research focuses on three questions:the current situation and problems of macro-structure of bilingual TCM dictionaries;the current situation and problems of micro-structure of bilingual TCM dictionaries;the components and ordering of micro-structure of Chinese/bilingual TCM dictionaries.Based on these analysis,this paper proposes suggestions on bilingual TCM dictionaries compilation.From the angle of macro-structure,this study uses quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze the entry sources,arrangement of entries and indexes of 8 bilingual TCM dictionaries.For micro-structure analysis,this study collects 54 entries by equally proportion stratified sampling method,describes and analyzes the components and ordering of each paraphrase of traditional Chinese medicine dictionary(the second edition).Based on the above findings,this paper analyzes the components and ordering of each paraphrase of six bilingual TCM dictionaries.Results and ConclusionsThe findings on the macro-structure showed the following problems in current dictionaries:unsystematic entries due to differed standardizations of entry quantity,source,type ratio and level;inconvenient searching and inefficient learning system due to phonetic/shape order arrangement;lack of adequate searching approaches due to improper index locations and inadequate indexes.Based on systematic principle,a well-structured bilingual TCM dictionary firstly should be TCM terminology-oriented with reliable entries sources,balanced types and proper ratio.Also,it should incorporate terms,phrases and sentences to characterize its TCM feature.Finally,sematic arrangement of entries is recommended to guarantee best productive searching outcomes possible and various types of indexes should be offered at the end of the dictionary.The findings on the micro-structure showed the following problems:different levels of entries;unstable components and unstructured arrangements of paraphrasing;inequivalent entries translation;incorrect translation of other components of paraphrases.Based on this,we suggest the entries should be well-structured and standardized guided by principles of compilation of bilingual dictionary.Besides,paraphrasing should be guided by selectivity and mainly apply the method of glossary definition.Based on the analysis of TCM Dictionary(the second edition),the suggested paraphrasing pattern is:category+synonym/synonym phases+featured information,the content of the featured information is decided by entry categories.The translation of entries and paraphrases should maintain the equivalence of form and content in terms of glossary,grammar and semantics.LimitationsWhen analyzing bilingual TCM dictionaries,this study mainly focuses on the entries,arrangement,and index of the macro-structure as well as entry types,entry translation,paraphrases components and arrangement of the micro-structure.Other elements,such as layout,binding,appendix and the translation of paraphrase need further research.