Cooperative File Improvement and Use of a Computer-Based Chinese/English Dictionary

The CETA (Chinese-English Translation Assistance) Group is an independent organization formed to coordinate development of Chinese to English translation aids and data analysis techniques. It began as an ad hoc body of individuals Library of Congress. Extension of interest into the scholarly community has broadened academic dimensions to include 43 US and international universities. CETA is developing a computer-based Chinese-English dictionary of current standard terms. It is also exploring tangential topics such as computer processing of Chinese research data, machine translation, and use of the CETA Dictionary file in an on-line computer aid system. Academic research and development of computer operations in , United States' universities has led to capability of computer generation of Chinese characters. Using this capability, CETA printed a 90,000 term dictionary file of Chinese-English entries and has developed a cooperative international process for refining and enriching the file. This process is called the C~TA File Improvement System. It is founded on gov-ernment/academic/private cooperation, designed to edit existing material and add new material. The improvement system is based on collective improvement of the file through a wide sharing of linguistic tasks and the use of computers to store the data and process changes. Thus far, thirty-seven government and forty-three academic linguists and language specialists have committed themselves to review an improvement of the file in return for which they receive the printed copy of the dictionary plus change pages as they are generated. Over 51,000 suggested improvements have been submitted and evaluated and are awaiting update. The File Improvement System proceeds by cycles in which progressively more rigid standards of review are applied.