harbaugh-chinesecharacters
Chinese Characters: A Genealogy and Dictionary
About 4000 characters are listed under 182 headings. Then these 4000 characters go to compose a total of about 13,000 (rough estimate) bisyllabic words which are given along with their translation into English. The specific arrangement of the 182 headings and the related characters grouped below each one provides the Genealogy function mentioned in the book's subtitle, and the roughly 13,000 words with English glosses provides the Dictionary function.
In September, 1988, when I bought my copies, I thought this paperback was a good deal at the price, which I think was around ten or twelve US dollars. I see it's now up to about $18, still reasonable. But if the quality of the paper, binding and printing doesn't improve, at anything over $20, it would begin to be overpriced. Dictionaries are subject to hard use and the physical book must be up to the task.
Discussion:
Published in 1998, I first thought this might provide the recursive analysis of Chinese zi into their respective hemigrams, in other words follow through on the work of Professor Peter A. Boodberg at UC Berkeley over two decades, from the mid 1950s through the 1970s. But Boodberg's work on the Genealogy of Chinese characters is not mentioned or alluded to in Harbaugh's book. Nevertheless, as perhaps a more user-friendly access to some of the sources of Boodberg's work, namely the Shuowenjiezi Dictionary, it is useful. [to be continued]
ISBN: 0966075005