Re: Opinions here of the "classic" Nelson?

Jack Crane wrote:
Bart Mathias <mathias@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
_LEQf.9907$CI6.2975@trnddc07:">news:_LEQf.9907$CI6.2975@trnddc07: [...]
I don't see much to correct, except the notion that the original
Nelson "corrected the irrationality of the traditional system" when he
moved the "wa" in question to the kuchi section.


No. The classic Nelson has "wa" in the nogi section. In the traditional system "wa" is in the kuchi section. Isn't it a Catch 22 that in the traditional system you have to already know that "wa" is in the kuchi section in order to look it up?

Unless you recognize the slip of the hand in what I wrote, it makes no sense at all.

I'm not arguing that character dictionaries can't be made for easier look-up. The four-corner system is neat, and the suggestion the New Nelson reviewer made about listing under false classifiers works too, but it isn't be the real 214-classifier system. The meaning of the character has nothing to do with grain so from the point of view of early Chinese lexicographers it shouldn't be classified under that element of the character, which was apparently chosen as a hint as to how to pronounce the word. Granted, that wasn't very thoughtful towards a person who finds the character out of context and has no way it isn't a grain word.

But the (sad?) fact remains that, as others have pointed out, unless one plans to get by with Nelson one's whole life, one needs to learn the basics of the original, non-pragmatic, system as well.

Bart
[...]
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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Opinions here of the "classic" Nelson?
    ... But I seem to remember using a kanwajiten and running into the problem, a Catch 22 if you will, of needing in some cases to know the traditionally assigned radical of a kanji before you could look it up. ... I don't see much to correct, except the notion that the original Nelson "corrected the irrationality of the traditional system" when he moved the "wa" in question to the kuchi section. ... But there is no rule that classifiers have to be on the left, or on the top, or anything like that. ...
    (sci.lang.japan)
  • Re: Opinions here of the "classic" Nelson?
    ... he moved the "wa" in question to the kuchi section. ... traditional system you have to already know that "wa" is in the kuchi ... Nelson reviewer made about listing under false classifiers works too, ... element of the character, which was apparently chosen as a hint as to ...
    (sci.lang.japan)