500 Common Chinese Idioms: An Annotated Frequency Dictionary

by Liwei Jiao, Cornelius Kubler, Weiguo Zhang

Overview

First published in 2010. 500 Common Chinese Idioms is a unique tool for learners. Presenting the 500 most commonly used Chinese idioms or ‘chengyu’, this dictionary presents:

• The idiom in both simplified and traditional characters
• The idiom in pinyin romanisation
• A literal English translation and English equivalents
• Two suitable example sentences, plus explanations and usage notes

The dictionary offers a step-by-step approach to gaining greater fluency through a grasp of the most common idioms in the language, making it the ideal resource for the intermediate learner of Chinese and for Chinese language teachers. The book is also accompanied by recordings of all 500 idioms, available free through the companion website.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781136882562
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	08/06/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	323
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

The three co-authors are all involved in the teaching of Chinese as a second/foreign language.

Liwei Jiao is Lecturer in Chinese at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his Ph.D. in Chinese Linguistics in 2003 from Nankai University in Tianjin, China. He has been teaching Chinese as a Second/Foreign Language since 1998 at China People’s University, Durham University of England, Princeton in Beijing, Duke Study in China Program, and now University of Pennsylvania. His research fields include Chinese phonetics and dialectology as well as Teaching of Chinese as a Second/Foreign Language. His publications are Chinese Phonetics in the 20^th Century, Developing Chinese—Beginning Listening Comprehension, and Crossing Cultural Boundaries: An Advanced Chinese Multimedia Course. He is certified as a language examiner for Mandarin by the Chinese government.

Cornelius C. Kubler, Stanfield Professor of Asian Studies and Chair of the Department of Asian Studies at Williams College, received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in linguistics from Cornell University, with a second M.A. in Chinese literature from National Taiwan University. From 1980-1991 he was employed at the Foreign Service Institute, U.S. Department of State as Chinese linguist, Principal of the AIT Chinese Language and Area Studies School in Taipei, and as Chair of the Department of Asian and African Languages. Kubler, who is author or coauthor of seven books and some fifty articles on Chinese language pedagogy and linguistics, is currently serving as editor of the Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association and as chair of the Test Development Committee for the SAT Subject Test™ in Chinese.

Weiguo Zhang, Professor at China People’s University, is currently teaching at Woosung University in the Republic of Korea. Active in the field of Teaching Chinese as a Second/Foreign Language for over twenty years, Professor Zhang’s specialties include computational linguistics, applied linguistics, and lexicology. He has some sixteen different publications, including his well-known ICON Language Course and Basic Methods for Mathematical Statistics in Research on Chinese Language. Furthermore, he also has over a dozen different software programs and electronic publications on Chinese lexicology and dialectology, as well as numerous current projects on transcription of Chinese, lexicology, and computerization of the Chinese language.

　

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. Technical terms employed in the dictionary.

3. Dictionary. Entries arranged according to frequency.

4. Appendices:

Appendix A: Phonetic index of the 500 highest-frequency idioms

Appendix B: Stroke index of the 500 highest-frequency idioms

Appendix C: Frequency chart of the first 1,000 idioms according toThe People’s Daily newspaper corpus

Appendix D: Common idioms not included in the body of the dictionary.

Appendix E: Additional references and websites for Chinese idioms.

Editorial Reviews

'The authors have done a magnificent job explaining this important dimension in the use of Chinese. Learners will appreciate the care they have taken to ensure that the material is maximally relevant and clear. The dictionary will be an invaluable aid to both comprehension and production.'- Professor David Crystal

"Grounded in corpus research, this dictionary has a number of laudable features: with focused attention on learner usage, entries are clearly analyzed, exemplified and contextualized."- Zheng-sheng Zhang, San > Diego State University, USA

"500 Common Chinese Idioms is…possibly the first lexicographical work that thoroughly and consistently lists the Chinese characters, pinyin, and English translation for entries and example sentences. This feature makes it more complete and considerate than most Chinese idiom dictionaries and turns it into a learner-friendly textbook….students will appreciate the authors’ copious examples…Readers will find the well-written allusions to be an enjoyable experience as if they were reading a literary piece of work....(This is) an indispensable reference for readers.….As a frequency dictionary, 500 Chinese Common Idioms presents a beautiful marriage between a dictionary and a textbook… (It is) a quality resource in any Chinese learner and teacher’s library…. Its value extends beyond a supplementary textbook, a dictionary, or a collection of idiom stories." - Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association

"An important part of Chinese culture, idioms have a long history in China. Proper use of idioms often reflects education level and language skills. Because Chinese idioms are frequently associated with literary allusions, quotations, or metaphors ingrained in Chinese history and literature, they are rather challenging for non-native learners of Chinese to understand or use appropriately. Keeping learners' usage in mind, Jiao (Univ. of Pennsylvania), Kubler (Williams College), and Zhang (emer., Renmin Univ. of China) present the 500 most commonly used idioms, based on frequency statistics of large corpuses of language data used in both China and Taiwan….Readers will find the number of the entry, the idiom in simplified and traditional characters, Pinyin Romanization, English translation, example sentences, comments on usage, allusions, a note on sociolinguistic function, near synonyms, and antonyms. Material in the appendixes includes the common structural patterns of Chinese idioms. This volume is suitable for intermediate to advanced learners of Chinese when used in conjunction with a standard Chinese-English dictionary. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates and above." - K. T. Wei, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

"A beautiful marriage between a dictionary and a textbook."
- Hsiang-Hua Chang, Oakland University

"500 Idioms and 500 Proverbs are groundbreaking in their overall design and stand out due to the authors’ meticulous effort. They are tailored for intermediate to advanced learners of Chinese and have set high standards for similar books in the years to come. I hope to see more such reference works from these authors." - Journal of the Chinese Language Teachers Association

The authors have done a magnificent job explaining this important dimension in the use of Chinese. Learners will appreciate the care they have taken to ensure that the material is maximally relevant and clear. The dictionary will be an invaluable aid to both comprehension and production.

Professor David Crystal

Grounded in corpus research, this dictionary has a number of laudable

> features: with focused attention on learner usage, entries are clearly

> analyzed, exemplified and contextualized."-

Zheng-sheng Zhang, San > Diego State University, USA

'As a frequency dictionary, '500 Common Chinese Idioms' presents a beautiful marriage between a dictionary and a textbook... Its value extends beyond a supplementary textbook, a dictionary, or a collection of idiom stories. Students and teachers of Chinese language, culture, and civilization will all find worthwhile materials for their studies/classes in this book.' - LinguistList

From the Publisher