Re: [edict-jmdict] Names: JMdict or ENAMDICT

[Jim Breen <jimbreen@*********>]

Thanks to Rene, Marcus and Francis for those comments. I think we're
agreeing on most points, and I'll start drafting a "Names Policy" based on them.

I'll comment on the others inline below.

On 6 September 2013 17:49, René Malenfant <rene_malenfant@***********> wrote:

On 2013-09-06, at 12:30 AM, Jim Breen <jimbreen@*********> wrote

-names of major Japanese cities (perhaps a population threshold)

I recommend setting the criterion either as being 'designated city':

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_designated_by_government_ordinance#List_of_designated_cities

Perhaps also including 'core cities' if you are feeling generous:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_cities_of_Japan#List_of_core_cities

Together with Tokyo, those should cover all the major Japanese city names anyone is likely to come across.

The "designated" cities along with the  prefectural capitals looks like a good
set. I checked the "core cities" batch and I feel adding them is a bit of

overkill.

>> States/provinces and their capitals:

I don't think it's necessary.  The list is too expansive, unless we specifically limit it to states/provinces of English-speaking countries (it is a J-E dictionary after all).

Let's do it with English-speaking countries. Most US and Australian states are there
already, along with some Canadian provinces. Wales and Scotland are there.

-names of very important individuals (criteria?)

Deities and other major religious figures or characters (e.g., Mohammad, Gautama, Virgin Mary), perhaps not from all religions but definitely from the Abrahamic faiths and Japanese religions.  A select number of extremely important historical figures known by pretty much everyone worldwide (Gandhi, Einstein, Darwin, Confucius, Hitler, Shakespeare, Beethoven, etc.) by judgment.  Perhaps the names of the current Japanese emperor, Japanese prime minister, U.S. president and other leaders of English-speaking (and/or G8) nations.

Good list, but I'm inclined to omit current political leaders. There are certainly ones above which are

missing (Einstein, Hitler, etc.)

-names currently in JMdict will not be removed unless they are
obscure and/or inappropriate (e.g. ワシントンポスト can probably
stay, but I'm not sure about ハンデルスブラット)

I'd say that consistency of inclusion criteria should trump the grandfather clause.

This is where I agree with Francis. At the edge there are indeed appropriate
removals, e.g.  I pushed 朝日新聞社 out but left 朝日新聞, but on the whole
the current ones are not causing problems. I think it's better to target a policy

at future additions rather than at a cull, e.g. of newspapers names.

-sets of related names currently in JMdict can be completed if
they are incomplete (I'm thinking of the books of the Bible where
there are a lot, but I'm not sure all are there.)

Speaking of which, the criteria above omit other non-person, non-place proper nouns (e.g., company names, book names, trademarked).  Thus far, the names of most religious texts have found their way into EDICT itself.  I guess most others should be banished to ENAMDICT unless they're things that have found their way into English like 'Pokemon'.

As above. Part of my reluctance to cull/banish existing entries is that
Enamdict is huge and the quality of a lot of it is not great. The names currently

in JMdict represent a sort-of-priority subset that I feel will get diluted or
diminished if they are moved.

I'll draft a policy based on where we've got to so far. More discussion please.

Cheers

Jim
 

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Jim Breen
Adjunct Snr Research Fellow, Japanese Studies Centre, Monash University