University of Aizu, Graduation Thesis. Mar, 2002

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Upgrading the English-Japanese Hyper-Dictionary
Hideo Sugiura
Abstract

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Supervised by Nobuyoshi Asai

1.1.2 English study using the Indo-European roots

Professor Ikebe devised the English teaching materials for study using the Indo-European roots paying attention to this Indo-European roots. [2] The English
teaching materials for study are called the EnglishJapanese Hyper-Dictionary, and research has been conducted of the Tukuba University until now.
We
are doing the joint research with Shizuoka Sangyo
University students now. [3] The English-JapaneseHyper-Dictionary is an English-Japanese dictionary
on the web for ”searching the Indo-European rootsof a given English word, searching the whole ofthe derivative, and studying these collectively.” Now,
the English-Japanese Hyper-Dictionary is on the web（http://mfntsv1/hidic/hdhome.htm) [4], and can search
1 Introductiona Indo-European root from the present English word,
or a present English word from an Indo-European root.
1.1 BackgroundThe big merit of using this English word study hyperdictionary is being able to learn the English word as it
The plan which educates English from an elementary originates from the same root collectively. It is easy toschool or a kindergarten is examined recently in Japan. use the diﬃcult study method which can learn the difIn order to understand English, it is necessary to under- ference in a synonymous meaning and the diﬀerence instand the grammar of English culture, but If they are usage from the Indo-European root. Weaknesses of thememorized once on the body, we can apply it, and what current English word study Hyper dictionary are as folmust be studied permanently is English words. And lows.
when learning English words, the learning method using the Indo-European roots are more eﬃcient than other• It cannot be known along what route the present
learning methods.
English word has passed to the present EnglishJapanese Hyper-Dictionary.
1.1.1 What is Indo-European roots?
• There are a few English words registered too oﬀen.
A Indo-European roots is the ancestor of Indo-European
languages containing English, and it is examined that
• A bug of the program is that some Indo-European
is the single language group from B.C 5000 years toroots which are registered cannot be searched.
3000 years. Many languages progressed and derived
from Indo-European roots such as Iceland in Irish, Ire• A Rarity in the explanations about the diﬀerence inland, Russian, Indian, Chinese, etc., and they are divided
synonyms.
into about 12 word groups they form the most important language family in cultural history. Research of These Four points which we have noticed and should
the Indo-European roots began by William Jones who is be improved especially. The target of our research is
British and India scholar and lawyer and he has discov- to make an English-Japanese Hyper-Dictionary that isered the similarity of the remarkable language feature easier to use and more complete. I focused on fixing
between Sanskrit, and Greek and Latin which are a clas- bug and searching for the words between Indo-European
sic word of Europe from 1786. Recently, the genealogy roots and present English words.
and the feature of Indo-European languages family are
becoming clear by theoretical reconstruction of follow- 1.2 Purpose
ing the regular phonological transition in Indo-European This English-Japanese Hyper-Dictionary cannot becalled completed one yet, has and it points which should
languages or comparative linguistics etc. [1]In this study, we verify a function insuﬃcient in an
English-Japanese Hyper-Dictionary with using IndoEuropean roots, and try to adding new function. We
added the function which is able to search middle change
word to clear the flow of change word, and bug fix.This
research continues the preceding research of Ikebe at
University of Tsukuba. This study is based on the ideathat of English education in Japan cannnot be reformed
without reform of a dictionary. This research is done by
the student of Shizuoka Sangyo University, and Tsukuba
university,and the University of Aizu.

University of Aizu, Graduation Thesis. Mar, 2002

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still be improved partly. An english word did not become its present form from a Indo-European root suddenly. It became the present form through various routes,
such as Germanic language, old English, and Greek.
We cannot know along what route the present English
word has passed by the present English-Japanese HyperDictionary. One bug in the program is that there aresome Indo-European roots which cannot be searchedfrom among the words registered, and there are a few
words registered too often, and The explanation about
the diﬀerence in synonyms is not detailed. These four
points should be improved in particular. The target ofour research is to make an English word study hyperdictionary easier to use, and to be more completed. In
these points which should be improved, I researchedthat correct the bug on the program, and possible tosearch the middle words between Indo-European roots
and present English words. About the increase in a registration word, and the addition of synonyms and detailed explanation of that, please refer to a paper by
Hoshino and Yamanaka who studied the English word
study hyper-dictionary with me. [5], [6]are all diﬃcult to visualize. We think the reason for thisproblem is information in the English-Japanese HyperDictionary are only present English and Indo-Europeanroots.

2 Discussion

In order to solve this problem, we investigate the language in the middle changing from an Indo-European
root to the present word. The flow of abandon is frombh#a-2 through the old French ban; then it became thepresent form abandon. We can be reminded that themeaning of ban is from bh#a-2 which meaning is talking or meeting, and set to a meaning called the summonsfor military business. We can imagine that a militarycommand does not depend on individual convenience,
having been set to abandon from the meaning of abandoning individual convenience unavoidably. Next, in theword forsake, the Indo-European root is s#ag- meaning
discovered (table1: 1), and it becomes old English forsacan the meaning is stop spontaneously(discovering).
This becomes its present English word forsake. Finally,
desert became the ser-3 the meaning prepared and 1 sequence; it becomes the Latin serere, meaning securing ofarguing, and became the present word desert. If the three
above words are viewed, the change of a word is clearer
than with only a Indo-European root and the present English word. Next, we call the middle change word whichis the language between Indo-European root and present
words generically.

2.1 Necessarity of this research
The purpose of this research is to make an English
word study hyper-dictionary easier and more practical touse. The greatest selling point of an English word study
hyper-dictionary is it can give a story to a word by classifying it according to its root. We will be interested in
English words by these stories. However, if a English
word study hyper-dictionary is used, it may be diﬃcult
to imagine the path by which a present word is produced
from this root. In the case of a synonym, in spite of seeing the flow from a Indo-European root and judging thediﬀerence in delicate use, the flow can seldom be seen.
A concrete example is shown below [7].
2.1.1 The result when searching a English wordwith the present English word study hyperdictionary
The words abandon, forsake, desert, etc. all have themeaning abandon. First, when referring to abandon ina present hyper-dictionary, the Indo-European root isbh#a-2, and the meaning is to talk, declare. Next, when
forsake is searched (Figure: 1), Indo-European root iss#ag-, and the meaning is discovered. The last desert’s
Indo-European root is ser-3, and the meaning is 1 sequence and securing. Probably, it will be very diﬃcult tovisualize the diﬀerence in meaning between each word
and the diﬀerence in use from only this information. The
story between each word and their Indo-European roots

Figure 1: Case of serching forsake

2.1.2 The result when adding the middle change
word and searching an English word

2.2 Input to databaseWe say that a middle change word makes more clear theflow of word change in 2.1.2. Then, the middle change
word in stored the database which flows the word having synonym. Synonym is important to the flow of wordchange to understand the delicate diﬀerence of meaning.

University of Aizu, Graduation Thesis. Mar, 2002

Table 1: Information of forsake in AHD
s#ag- To seek out.
FORSAKE, from Old English forsacan,
to renounce, refuse

For this purpose a relational database Microsoft Accessis used.
2.2.1 What middle changes word of the present English word did we investigated?
A list of the words which have the middle change word is
the Learner’s Progressive English-Japanese Dictionary
Second Edition (Shogakukan). [8] In this dictionary, if
a word has a synonym explained, other synonyms areshown in another window.(table: 2)s1061091

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root4, middle word1, middle word2, prefix1, prefix2, stem]
The attribute of the middle word1-2 takes the integer
value to indicate the middle change words such as that ofroot1-4 or prefix1-2. If an English word does not have a
middle change word, it takes -1 not to take null value.
• middle word [distinction, spelling, meaning]
Distinction is made of the consecutive numbers of the
middle change word, and they used to attach in order
to increase the eﬃciency of the work which treats the
middle change word. Also, this distinction has the samecontents as the attribute of middle word 1-2 in relation of
the database word master which has the present English
word stored. Since the character which cannot be treatedin the usual European-languages font is contained in thenotation of the middle change word, it is replaced as follows:

Table 2: Information of synonym in English-Japanesedictionary
類語 ability: 頭脳的、肉体的に何かを成し遂げることができる能力、技能全般をいう。capability: タイプ、運転など
特定の技能に優れた能力。talent: 人が生来備えている、特に芸術的な天分のこと。genius: 限られた小数の人間にしか与えられていない生まれつきの独創的な才能。

In this research, we added to a database to the middle
change word with synonyms indicated by this dictionary.
2.2.2 Explanation of database relation
We explain the relation of the middle change word in
the database. The relation of the database word master
which has stored the English word was as follows.
• Word master [spelling, headline distinction, comment, word root1, word root2, word root3, wordroot4, prefix1, prefix2, stem]
The attribute of root1-4 or prefix1-2 takes the integer
value which marks the Indo-European root and prefix. If
an English word has some Indo-European root or prefix,
it takes these data from each attribute 1-4, and if not, it
takes -1 not to take the null value. We added the relation of middle change word to the above relation, whichbecame the following:• Word master [spelling, headline distinction, comment, word root1, word root2, word root3, word

Figure 2: Replaced font table
2.2.3 The realization method of the English word
study hyper-dictionary on WWW
In order to realize an English-Japanese HyperDictionary on WWW, an environment which enables
use of a relational database system from a WWW
server is required. The present English-Japanese HyperDictionary has planned the convenience of research using the original server (IIS) installed in the computer
which our laboratory owns. However, by this research,
we thought that it was better to use another server which
operates lightly by the local host, because we need to test
the English word study hyper-dictionary program, and it
is easy to setup server by GUI. For the above reason, an
environment which operates the WWW server was used,
and the system of English word study hyper-dictionary
used at the time of this research is as follows:• OS Microsoft WindowsNT (Microsoft)• WWW server AN HTTP Daemon version1.36b
AN HTTP is a WWW server for Windows95/98/Me/NT/2000. This server can oﬀer home
pages from a Windows machine connected to LAN, and
SSI/CGI can be local tested, and it is free-ware. Also,University of Aizu, Graduation Thesis. Mar, 2002

the test of CGI operation can run PC which is not connected to a network. Detailed information is indicatedby the creator’s home-page at (http://www.st.rim.or.jp/nakata/). This server program is not suitable formany people’s use, but only for test of research anddevelopment, because this program can treat CGI by astand-alone computer, and it is easy to carry out a server
setup.
• Relational database system Microsoft Access2000(Microsoft)• Program language Microsoft Visual Basic ver.6.0(VB)(Microsoft)
The BASIC compiler can create the execution file using the external runtime library. As a big feature, it isable to use a relational database system easily out of aprogram. A database can be controlled from a program
without writing a complicated code. Past researchers developed the program in this programming language by
these advantages. When a program is improved, since
the advantage of this programming language is very attractive, we can utilize the past property. This researchalso uses this programming language. The structure of
the English word study hyper-dictionary is shown below.
Structure of English-Japanese Hyper Dictionary

Input English word form

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European root like a sāg- are searched, this string is inputted as s#ag-. Then, in spite of registering the IndoEuropean root into the database, the result in which the
Indo-European root is not registered occurs. It becomes
clear that # is recognized as a special character which
has the arbitrary integers of 0-9 in the programming language VB. In order to # is recognized not as a special
character but normal character by VB, just to attach [] tothe both ends. Then, in the program, we solved the problem of when the character sequence containing # wasinputted, inserted [] before and after it to create a new
character sequence with [].
2.3.2 Overflow
The second bug is when Indo-European root are
searched, if there are 100 or more English words derived
from it. Since there are more English words than thenumber of the arrangements for storing them, there is
overflow, and a CGI error is occurs. For this problem,
I made the number of derivation English words correspond to 400 words, and solved it. The number of English words derived from one Indo-European root is at
most 200. But when a researcher tries to increase IndoEuropean roots or English words in the database, there
may be Indo-European roots whose number of derivation English words is 200 or more. Even when this occurs, we thought that it was unnecessary to rewrite theprogram, so it is referred to as 400 in the margin.

Input Endo-European root form
Input middle cange word form

3 Conclusion
Candidate list of English word

Candidate list of Indo-European root

Candidate list of middle change word

Information of English word

Information of Indo-European root

Information of middle change word

Originating Indo-European root

Explanatory note

Originating Indo-European root

Originating middle change word

List of derivation middle change word

List of derivation English word

List of derivation English word

Figure 3: Structure of Hyper-Dictionary

2.3 Bug fix
Some fatal bugs exist in the present English word study
hyper-dictionary. One bug is that there is a IndoEuropean root which cannot be searched. Some reasons for bugs like this include the problem in a program,the problem of a server, etc. Two examined as a reason
which cannot be searched, as shown in the example below.
2.3.1 Searching a word which has #First, if there is Indo-European root which has ā, or b̄,
etc, they are replaced by #a, #b, etc. When an Indo-

3.1 Consider about the focus to the middle
change words
When learning an English word, the concept of investigating a word from middle change words or IndoEuropean roots is seldom known. However, as described in sections 1.1 and 2.1, the merit of learning
Indo-European roots and middle change words cannot
be disregarded. By having included the information
about middle change words in the English word hyperdictionary, it became easier to memorize an English
word than before. A classification or explanation ofchronological order was not able to describe a word
which has two or more middle change words, since thiswas the first time that middle change words were classified. Moreover, the middle change words which were
investigated were the parts of English words now registered into the present database, we feel it necessary toinvestigate middle change words of other English words
not yet registered. However, these are so important thatthey should be examined as one research theme in the
future.

University of Aizu, Graduation Thesis. Mar, 2002

3.2 Future work
By having included the middle change words into theEnglish word study hyper-dictionary, we thought that information required to learn English words using IndoEuropean roots. However, the number of registered middle change words, or Indo-European roots, are still too
few than in a regular dictionary. In the future, it will benecessary to increase the number of registered words, orcorrect the bugs which still exist, so this hyper-dictionary
will be used by more people. It should be evaluated.

Acknowledgment
I wish to thank my supervisor, Prof. Yasuhiko Ikebe,for not only providing this interesting topic and helpful suggestions, but for help in learning English. I also
want to thank Prof. Nobuyoshi Asai, and Prof. Yasusi
Kikuchi for technical advice, Prof. Stephen Lambacher
for checking English drafts, and my collaborator Yoshihiro Hoshino and Chie Yamanaka for providing othervaluable information.

References[1] Y.Terasawa, “The kenkyusya Dictionary of English etymology”, IDG Kenkyusya, pp.1627-1685,
1997(in Japanese)[2] Y.Ikebe, “Eigogijutu purezentesyon no skill up number1”, Human Interfae Society, pp.27-30, 2001(inJapanese)[3] Y.Ikebe, “hyper-text dictionary: sogenteki oyobi
goshitekigogenkenkyu ni motoduku eigoi youseihou”, University of Tukuba, pp.801-808, 2000(inJapanese)[4] English-Japanese Hyper-Dictionary at Aizu University(http://mfntsv1.u-aizu.ac.jp:8080/hidic/hdhome.htm)[5] Y.Hoshino, “Upgrading the Indo-European-Root-Based
Hyper English Dictionary”, University of Aidu,2001[6] C.Yamanaka, “Synonym Usage viewed from Pre-Historic
Roots”, University of Aidu,2001[7] Calvert Watkins, ”The American Heritage Dictionary of INDO-EUROPEAN ROOTS, second edition”,
Houghton Miﬄin Company, 1995
[8] Lerner’s Progressive English-Japanese Dictionary Second Edition, Shogakukan, 1997(in Japanese)s10610915