syntax_v2
Differences
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| syntax_v2 [2026/04/25 13:11] – Move "ambiguity due to homonyms" section, add labels link kbaiko | syntax_v2 [2026/05/16 09:39] (current) – Handling numbers with multiple digits kbaiko | ||
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| ==== Classifiers ==== | ==== Classifiers ==== | ||
| - | Classifiers | + | Classifiers, or "measure |
| - | 避風港 避风港 [bi4 feng1 gang3] / | + | |
| - | Classifiers follow the ' | + | < |
| + | 麵包 面包 [[mian4bao1]] / | ||
| + | 麵包店 面包店 [[mian4bao1dian4]] /bakery/CL:家[jia1]/ | ||
| + | </ | ||
| - | The classifier words itself can be described using:\\ | + | They follow the reference syntax of traditional|simplified[pinyin], |
| - | /classifier for small round things (peas, bullets, peanuts, pills, grains etc)/ | + | |
| + | We typically omit general classifiers like 個|个[ge4] which can be applied to almost every single noun. | ||
| + | |||
| + | A classifier itself can be described like so: | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | /classifier for small round things (peas, bullets, peanuts, pills, grains etc)/ | ||
| + | </ | ||
| ==== Bound forms ==== | ==== Bound forms ==== | ||
| Line 185: | Line 193: | ||
| </ | </ | ||
| - | ===== Retroflex finals | + | ===== 兒|儿, erhua and rhotacization |
| - | There are 3 kinds of R-ised words that use the 兒/儿 character: | + | The 兒|儿 character |
| - | - 兒/儿 is not-optional because it's its own syllable (usually meaning " | + | |
| - | - 兒/儿 is not-optional because it changes the definition of the word and is tacked on to the preceding syllable - 头兒/ | + | |
| - | - 兒/儿 is an optional northern pronunciation (er2hua4) and is tacked on to the preceding syllable - 花兒/ | + | |
| - | These 3 cases should be formatted as follows: | + | 1. 兒|儿[er2] |
| - | - 女兒 女儿 [nu:3 er2] / | + | |
| - | | + | |
| - | - 花兒 花儿 [hua1 r5] /erhua variant of 花/flower/ | + | |
| - | //Please note: words ending with ' | + | < |
| + | 女兒 女儿 | ||
| + | </code> | ||
| + | 2. 兒|儿[r5] is a non-optional suffix because it changes both the pronunciation and meaning of the word | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | 頭兒 头儿 [[tou2r5]] /leader/ | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | 3. 兒|儿[r5] is an optional suffix, changing the pronunciation of the word but not the meaning | ||
| + | |||
| + | < | ||
| + | 花兒 花儿 [[hua1r5]] /erhua form of 花[hua1]/ | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | //Please note: words ending with ' | ||
| ===== Choice of entries and translations ===== | ===== Choice of entries and translations ===== | ||
| Line 209: | Line 225: | ||
| </ | </ | ||
| //(the +"" | //(the +"" | ||
| - | |||
| - | ===== Variants ===== | ||
| - | |||
| - | Many characters have variants, sometimes more than one, sometimes with identical meaning or quite different meanings. Some choice of variants found in texts on websites will arise because of the different input methods, and the user may have had no intention of using the variant. | ||
| - | |||
| - | You can get rough usage frequency information by searching the alternative word forms in Google. Please use this syntax to make sure that Google doesn' | ||
| - | < | ||
| - | |||
| - | Additionally you can use Google' | ||
| - | 789 Chinese (Traditional) pages for +" | ||
| - | 17,700 Chinese (Simplified) pages for +" | ||
| - | 1,750 Chinese (Traditional) pages for +" | ||
| - | 66,900 Chinese (Simplified) pages for +" | ||
| - | |||
| - | It often happens that Google tells you that +" | ||
| - | |||
| - | When there are alternative forms of the same expression, and the less common form is at most 5 times less common, the less common entry should have /also written ../ referring to the more common form, e.g. 撐竿跳高 撑竿跳高 [cheng1 gan1 tiao4 gao1] / | ||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | **PROPOSED CHANGES** | ||
| - | |||
| - | (Summary: (1) Get rid of "also written", | ||
| - | |||
| - | (THE VARIANT RULES ABOVE CAN BE DELETED IF AND WHEN THESE CHANGES ARE ACCEPTED.) | ||
| - | |||
| - | (Also, the following notes can be tidied up and edited to remove references to " | ||
| - | |||
| - | Regarding "also written..." | ||
| - | |||
| - | According to our wiki, there are two kinds of variants. | ||
| - | https:// | ||
| - | |||
| - | 1) Where the less common form is relatively common (> 20% of the frequency of the more common form). | ||
| - | |||
| - | 2) Where the less common form is much less common (< 20% of the frequency of the more common form) | ||
| - | |||
| - | For the first type, the def of the less common form should look like this (according to the wiki): | ||
| - | < | ||
| - | |||
| - | And for the second type, the def of the less common form should be | ||
| - | < | ||
| - | |||
| - | In practice, what has been happening in recent years is this: | ||
| - | |||
| - | 1. We have been ignoring the "also written ..." syntax, except maybe when we edit existing entries | ||
| - | |||
| - | 2. With variants, | ||
| - | |||
| - | a) if it's a full variant (i.e. exactly the same definition), | ||
| - | |||
| - | b) if it's a partial variant (i.e. only some of the senses of one form apply to the other form) we use | ||
| - | < | ||
| - | |||
| - | Part of the rationale for these changes is this: It's a hassle to check whether entries satisfy the "20% criteria", | ||
| - | |||
| - | Using the Editor website' | ||
| - | |||
| - | One idea that I've had in mind for a while is to clean up all these by | ||
| - | |||
| - | a) rewriting "also written" | ||
| - | |||
| - | b) regularizing the format of the " | ||
| - | |||
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| If an alternative romanization method is more popular for a certain word, that version can be added as an additional translation. | If an alternative romanization method is more popular for a certain word, that version can be added as an additional translation. | ||
| - | ===== Non-Chinese | + | ===== Non-Chinese |
| - | There are a very small number of entries that use symbols, numbers, or other non-Chinese characters in the word, for example | + | On occasion the Chinese language uses English letters or numerals to write a word. For example, we have |
| < | < | ||
| - | % % [pa1] /percent | + | # English letters |
| - | 3C 3C [san1 C] /computers, communications, | + | ky ky [[ky]] /(slang) socially tone-deaf; unable to read the room (from Japanese KY, acronym of 空気が読めない "kuuki ga yomenai" |
| - | 421 421 [si4 er4 yi1] /four grandparents, | + | coser coser [[coser]] /cosplayer/ |
| - | K人 K人 [K ren2] /(slang) to hit sb; to beat sb/ | + | |
| + | # Mix of English | ||
| + | e人 e人 [[e-ren2]] | ||
| + | 勿cue 勿cue | ||
| + | |||
| + | # Numbers | ||
| + | 3D打印 3D打印 [[san1-D da3yin4]] /to 3D print; 3D printing/ | ||
| + | 95後 95后 [[jiu3wu3hou4]] /people born between 1995-01-01 | ||
| + | 996 996 [[jiu3jiu3liu4]] /9am–9pm, six days a week (work schedule)/ | ||
| </ | </ | ||
| - | **Below are some notes on how these entries are handled in v2.** | + | As a general rule of thumb: |
| + | - When writing the Hanzi fields, non-Chinese characters should stay the same. | ||
| + | - When writing the pinyin, for English letters use the same letters in the pinyin (ky -> ky), but for numbers write out the pinyin for the corresponding Chinese character (9 -> jiu3) | ||
| - | Let's take " | ||
| - | There are several ways one might like to render " | + | ==== Technical details, and the use of {} ==== |
| - | - e-rén | + | |
| - | - erén | + | |
| - | - yìrén | + | |
| - | The Editor website attempts to match the parts of the headword with the parts of the pinyin, | + | When parsing |
| - | For example, in the following entry, | + | The pinyin is first split by spaces and punctuation, and then parsed based on valid pinyin syllables. One way of writing pinyin for the hypothetical headword above could be "jia3 abc yi1-er4-san1 yi3bing3". Note there are many valid ways that the pinyin |
| - | < | + | |
| - | If the Editor website https:// | + | It is a requirement that the number |
| + | < | ||
| + | 兡 兡 [[bai3ke4]] /.../ | ||
| + | </ | ||
| - | < | + | where a single character corresponds to two syllables. In these cases, {}'s may be used to manually group a section, so we can write |
| - | To specify " | + | < |
| - | < | + | 兡 兡 [[{bai3ke4}]] /.../ |
| + | </ | ||
| - | ... as would several other forms, including | + | which indicates " |
| - | < | + | |
| - | Here is a link to a webpage where a proposed | + | Another problem arises for entries with a number with multiple digits. Consider |
| - | "Parse entry" webpage: | + | < |
| - | https://cc-cedict.org/ | + | 11 11 [[shi2yi1]] |
| + | </code> | ||
| - | To specify " | + | which implies that the first 1 is pronounced |
| - | < | + | < |
| + | 21 21 [[er4shi2yi1]] /twenty one/ | ||
| + | </ | ||
| - | Generally, it is regarded as preferable not to indicate | + | which poses a different problem - we have two Hanzi sections but three pinyin sections due to the extra "shi2" |
| + | < | ||
| + | {21}三體綜合症 {21}三体综合症 [[{21} san1ti3 zong1he2zheng4]] /trisomy; Down's syndrome/ | ||
| + | </ | ||
| + | |||
| + | Note this is different from the 996 example above, which is treated as 3 digits "nine nine six" and parses without {}'s, not the number "nine hundred ninety six", which would need {}'s. | ||
| + | |||
| + | To check whether an entry will be parsed correctly, you can use this tool: | ||
| + | https:// | ||
syntax_v2.1777122665.txt.gz · Last modified: by kbaiko