Character count steps

Character count steps

 

1.     Start from the Chinese Text Project homepage

2.     Click on the title of the text you wish to count, as listed on that page:

a.     莊子 - Zhuangzi

b.     論語 - The Analects

c.     孟子 - Mengzi

d.     荀子 - Xunzi

e.     道德經 - Dao De Jing

f.      楚辭 - Chu Ci

3.     Here things get tricky. Some entries, like 道德經 - Dao De Jing, take you straight to the text; in effect, as a single chapter. Most of the others, like 論語 - The Analects, have the text broken down into separate chapters. Some of the others, like 莊子 - Zhuangzi and 楚辭 - Chu Ci, have the chapters organized into subgroups.

4.     Once we get to the chapter text, such as 逍遙遊 - Enjoyment in Untroubled Ease, there are some extraneous words and characters on the page (chapter titles repeated at the beginning of each section, English translations, some footnotes, etc.). All we are really interested in counting is the block of Chinese text on the lower right. So, if it is possible to go simply to that area, that might be simplest; but if we can’t avoid it, I don’t think including the others will make a difference in the outcome since they won’t appear in the Full Text Search.

5.     Take the first character. For example, in 逍遙遊 - Enjoyment in Untroubled Ease, it is .

6.     Check to see if it is Chinese or English. If it is English, go on to the next character. (This step may not be necessary. Some of the texts don’t include translations. And even if they do, searching for English words or letters will only result in empty searches.)

7.     If it is Chinese, add 1 to the count of Total Characters in the book.

8.     Check to see if we have looked at this character in this book before. If so, move on to the next character and return to step 6.

9.     Add one to the count of Distinct Characters.

10.  Return to the home page of the text we are searching (in this case, Zhuangzi).

11.  Enter the character (in this case, ) into the Full Text Search on the right.

12.  Check the number Matched on top. (39 in the case of .)

13.  If the number is 1, add 1 to the count of Unique Characters and 1 to the count of Rare Characters and add this character to the Unique Characters List.

14.  If the number is more than one but less than or equal to five, add 1 to the count of Rare Characters and add this character to the Rare Characters List.

15.  Return to the Chinese Text Project homepage.

16.  Enter the character into the Full Text Search on the right.

17.  Check the Number Matched on top. (6725 in the case of .)

18.  If the number is 1, add 1 to the count of Hapax Legomenoi and 1 to the count of the Rare Pre-Han Uses and add this character to the Hapax Legomenoi List.

19.  If the number is more than one but less than or equal to five, add 1 to the count of the Rare Pre-Han Uses and add this character to the Rare Pre-Han Uses List.

20.  Print:

a.     [The title of the text]

b.     Total number of characters = [Total Characters]

c.     Number of distinct characters = [Distinct Characters]

d.     Number of Unique Characters = [Unique Characters]

                                               i.     Frequency of Unique Characters = [Unique Characters/Total Characters]

                                             ii.     [Unique Characters List]

e.     Number of Rare Characters = [Rare Characters]

                                               i.     Frequency of Rare Characters = [Rare Characters/Total Characters]

                                             ii.     [Rare Characters List]

f.      Number of Hapax Legomenoi = [Hapax Legomenoi]

                                               i.     Frequency of Hapax Legomenoi = [Hapax Legomenoi /Total Characters]

                                             ii.     [Hapax Legomenoi List]

g.     Number of Rare Pre-Han Characters = [Rare Pre-Han Characters]

                                               i.     Frequency of Rare Pre-Han Characters = [Rare Pre-Han Characters/Total Characters]

                                             ii.     [Rare Pre-Han Characters List]

21.  Go on to the next text.