tlug: Dictionaries [was Re: FSF Emacs 20.x ... ]

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>]

>>>>> "Tim" == Tim Meggs <tim@example.com> writes:

    Tim> wrong kanji, but after checking my online dictionary [光の辞典 

    Tim> つとめる【努める】try (hard) (to do).

    Tim> つとめる【勤める 務める】(勤務する) work (at; in; for). (役を
    Tim> ) play (a leading part). (遂行する) serve (as).

    Tim> Which lead me to think that maybe they were interchangeable.
    Tim> I guess that this is not the case and that I need a better
    Tim> dictionary.

I think the clues are there, even in the English, once you get used to
it.  Especially with the related meanings, and the fact they made a
point of separating 努める from 勤める and 務める.  It's hard to see
how you could get a "better" dictionary.  It's important to remember
that the translations are generally not really English in a certain
sense; they are Japanese wolves in English sheepskin, if you follow
me.  And the main publishers' dictionaries make a habit of following
each other in their mistakes (sometimes I get the feeling that there
is a JIS standard for ei-wa/wa-ei dictionaries, which is every bit as
useful as the JIS standard for college classroom chairs, designed for
people 160cm tall).

Edict has its problems, but the fact that Jim Breen prohibits
contributors from taking swaths from existing dictionaries means that
(usually) an English-speaker has thought carefully about almost every
definition before sending it in (the people who are writing
dictionaries professionally are not incompetent, but they do get
tired---it's just a job), and even more important, independently of
the existing dictionaries in many cases.

The Japanese also helps, and in fact I never consult only the wa-ei
dictionary unless I already know what the word means and its usage,
and can't think of an English synonym due to kernel panic in the
wetware.  Always, always, I start with the wa-ei to get in the city,
then the kokugo to find the ballpark, then ask a native-speaker to get
it right.  Nowadays, sometimes I short-circuit the wa-ei and go
straight to the kokugo.

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