A Study On Chinese Expressions Used In Malaysia And A Brief Discussion On The New Century Global Chinese Dictionary

As the number of Chinese learners around the world is increasing, the variationof the Chinese language in different areas of the world has become an issue thatdraws academic attention. The aspect that reveals various cultural differences isthe expressions used in different areas. Many Chinese expressions used inMalaysia, which contain political, economic, historical and cultural elements, aredifferent from those used in China’s mainland. These differences can become acommunication barrier between Chinese speakers from different areas.The main objective of this paper is to study Chinese expressions used inMalaysia and compare them with their China’s mainland equivalents. Ten groups ofexpressions, which people in China might find confusing are selected for this study.The usage frequency, collocations and special usage of those selected expressionsare analyzed based on a database of expressions found in the Chinese media ofSoutheast Asia.The second objective of this paper is to discuss entries of the New CenturyGlobal Chinese Dictionary, a compilation of expressions used by Chinesecommunities in various areas. One Aspect that are discussed is the microstructureof the dictionary. A comparison between explanations found in the dictionary, andthe selected Chinese expressions of this paper shows that they do not closelycorrespond to each other. Based on the analysis of the microstructure of thedictionary, some suggestions about how to revise the dictionary are provided.