Basic Formatting Suggestions for DDB Entries

Topics:

A. Introduction

B. Basic DDB Entry Format

C. Citations and References

Updated 2013.02.05

A. Introduction

The easiest way for us to handle contributor entries is for you to simply create an MS-Word, RTF, or LibreOffice file and send it as an attachment. The precise format you use is not that important. What is important, is that whatever format you decide upon, you use it consistently. In this way, we can create a script or macro to automate the main input of your data.

B. Basic DDB Entry Format

Up to now, the basic organization of a DDB entry has been like this (with some abridgments for the sake of simplicity):

Headword: (Han characters)

Pronunciations:

Chinese (Pinyin):

Chinese (Wade-Giles):

Korean (Hangul):

Korean (Ministry of Education System):

Korean (McCuneReischauer):

Japanese (Katakana):

Japanese (Hepburn):

Translation: (Simple, short-phrase equivalent of the headword, if available)

Explanation: (Detailed explanation of the entry headword)

Example: Jeffrey Kotyk, a prolific contributor to the DDB, formats his contributions like this.

If you were adding a term, you would type the Chinese next to "Headword." You would then add the pronunciations for the languages you know. Someone else can supply the readings for the languages you can't handle. After the pronunciations, we usually make an attempt to offer one common rendering of the term. If it were a person, place, temple, etc., we would just supply the commonly used name, such as "Zongmi," "Dongshan," "Jinglingsi," etc. If it were a concept, "middle way," etc. This is followed by a detailed explanation, which can have multiple nodes for multiple contributors, as necessary.

In terms of the long explanation: You can help us out if you like, by employing a small range of XML markup tags to certain elements of the text. These are:

• For foreign terms that would normally be italicized, you can use the <foreign> tag (along with ISO 639 language attributes if you like, in TEI style). For example, <foreign lang="sa">prajñā</foreign>. lang="sa" indicates that it is a Sanskrit term.
• For monograph titles terms that would normally be italicized, you can use the <title> tag (along with TEI "level" attributes if you like). For example, <title level="m">Lotus Sutra</title>. level="m" indicates that it is a monograph.
• For article titles and unpublished works that would normally be surrounded by double quotes, you can use the <title> tag, along with TEI "level" attribute for articles. For example, <title level="a">The Problem of Theodicy in the Awakening of Faith</title>. level="a" indicates that it is an article.
• For quoted sentences that would normally be surrounded by double quotes, the TEI-XML <quote> tag (along the TEI "rend" attribute if you like. For example: Ānanda said: <quote rend="dq">Thus I have heard</quote>.
• For so-called words that would normally be surrounded by double quotes the TEI-XML <soCalled> tag. For example: It is said to be <soCalled>great</soCalled>
• There are several other tags that we use, and if you would like, we can send you a full list. But the above probably covers 90% of the cases.

C. Citations and References

For citation of references, we request contributors to identify their sources according to basic academic standards. In terms of format, we follow the guidelines of the Chicago Manual of Style. Bibliographical references made from monographs and articles can be done parenthetically in the prose of the entry, with full bibliographical references at the end. References to popular lexicons and encyclopedias can be made with the title alone. Standard Chicago formatting can be used for Web resources, but we have given up on trying to maintain live hyperlinks for resources that are not under out direct control — these simply disappear to frequently, resulting in endless complaints from users.

Note: The DDB and CJKV-E dictionaries are encoded in XML, in a structure very close to TEI, so if it happens to be the case that you are used to working with XML, we are happy to send you a separate set of guidelines, along with DTD/Schema. In this case, please write to Charles Muller.