Parts of speech in the explanatory Manchu-Mongolian dictionary of 1717

Abstract

The bilingual Manchu-Mongolian dictionary compiled during the reign of the emperor Kangxi (published in 1717) is an explanatory dictionary organized in subject order. Its analyses shows that along with the meaning of the words its authors took into consideration the part of speech the words belong to. There are four special sections (among total 280) which comprise pronouns, numerals, onomatopoeic words and so called “empty words” the latter is the section where adverbs and different auxiliary words are gathered. Moreover, the word order in all other sections where words are collected basing on their meaning is strictly organized. The basis for is their parts-of-speech characteristics. Refs 7. Tables 3.

Keywords:

Manchu-Mongolian dictionary, Manchu language, parts of speech, structure of the dictionary