Re: [tlug] Off-topic: Dictionaries

[Jim <jep200404@example.com>]

Michael Engel wrote:

> What functions do you use with online dictionaries 

OK, besides the completely obvious stuff

   Given a Chinese character, look up details on that character. 

      Meanings
      Pronunciation
      Number of brush strokes
      Radical 
      Its number for learning in school
      Animated drawing to show brush strokes

      show some of the more prominent/common words that use 
      that character, i.e., example words 
      (I have a paper book for this, but don't 
      see this in on-line dictionaries)

   Given a pronunciation, list all the Chinese characters 
   that can be pronounced that way. 

   For a selected word, 

      show examples using the word, for more meaning and grammar clues
      play recordings of correct pronunciation

         the online dictionaries I use are meant to help 
         non-English speakers learn English, so they have 
         recordings of the English words, but not of the 
         native words. 

      to indicate what _kind_ of a word it is (i.e., verb, noun)
      what is obvious to a native, ain't to me

I would like to see the etymology of the word, 
like is common in English dictionaries. 

It would be nice for folks to be able to modify the contents, like Wiktionary. 
There are explanations and especially pronunciations for 
English words that are just plain wrong, and that wrong 
pronunciation has become standard. I'd love to correct these 
rediculous formalized errors. 

On Tue, 16 May 2006 11:37:44 +0900 Edward Middleton <edward@example.com> wrote:

> find a compound of known length containing a known kanji in a specific
> position.  Fuzzy matches for easily mistaken kanji.

Amen brother. 

Regexes would be _very_ nice. 

Also, how would one say all the two syllable words, 
specifying the beginning consonant, and ending vowel? 
That might be one of the few places where romanization 
is superior to the native script. 

Of course, I'd like to see the code for the on-line dictionaries 
to be open-source, to be usable with open source browsers, 
and for the data to be freely available also. 
(Now we're back on-topic)

Jim