A Missing Characters Description Language for Han Characters

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to solve the interchange problem of missing characters. For decades, we always have to face the missing characters problem while using computers to process Han characters. Missing characters causes the information retrieval and interchange problem which is more serious in digitalize ancient books and Buddhist Sutra, however, there are only few studies on this problem. In this paper, we propose an interchange framework and Missing Characters Description Language(MCDL) - a language and protocol for describing the knowledge about Han characters to solve missing characters problem. An MCDL-based implementation is provided as well. Experimental implementation shows the missing characters problem can be solved successfully.