A Contrastive Study Of The Trisyllabic Words Collected Both In Mandarin Dictionary And Modern Chinese Dictionary

The study of representative dictionaries plays important roles in the compilation and the revision of modern Chinese dictionaries in different periods.This paper collected 1565 three-syllable words which both in Chinese Dictionary and Modern Chinese Dictionary.It deeply analyzed the basic characteristics of these words from the morpheme,grammar,structure,and rhetoric,summarized the two dictionaries in aspects of paraphrase characteristics,paraphrase evolution,and reasons of differences,and put forward corresponding suggestions for the revision of dictionaries after the database practical testing.The main part of this paper includes the following three parts.First,the trisyllable words in both two dictionaries are unique in morpheme compositions,grammatical attributes,structural types,and rhetorical features.Secondly,four aspects of interpretation features are shown in language styles,interpretation methods,annotation characteristics and paraphrase examples.The Mandarin Dictionary is the first Chinese dictionary in the modern sense,using simple and classical Chinese interpretation,while Modern Chinese Dictionary has become the most normative,accurate,concise,and reputable dictionary after inheriting research achievements of predecessors.The two dictionaries show differences in the evolution of Chinese character paraphrases and the lexicography in past 70 years from three changes: the paraphrase evolution,paraphrase increases and decreases,and paraphrase order changes.The changes are caused by internal reasons,such as the principle of word inclusion,the style of compilation,the nature of thesaurus and the difference in language characteristics,and external reasons,such as the era,technology,and cognitive level.Finally,after the contemporaneous database examination,the paper found that the paraphrase inclusion in Mandarin Dictionary is consistent with the actual usage,although there are missing paraphrases of three-syllable words.Based on database screening,this paper put forward some specific suggestions on revising part of paraphrases from Modern Chinese Dictionary,to enhance the timeliness,scientific nature,and guidance of the dictionary and provide references for future lexicography work in a certain extent.