From its website, I find 基礎字詞 to be very useful for CantoDict editors. Apart from giving us the most current character form, reading and meanings, the book also offers us insightful guidelines on the choice of word entries, which is applicable to CantoDict. The following paragraphs, for instance, are directly quoted from its “Basis of Materials and Research Procedures”:
“Furthermore, researchers also … studied the nature of word formation as well as the issue of systematisation in the collection of lexical items. For example, in general, surnames and proper nouns were not collected, excluding a few lexical items that are commonly used by Hong Kong students, such as "中國" and "香港". To give another example, lexical items which can infinitely produce other words by analogy, like "三哥”, "四哥", "五哥" and "初三", "初四", "初五", were also not listed generally.
Moreover, some highly productive affixes, such as "者", "室" and "商", though they cannot stand alone, can easily produce other words by analogy and form word groups (like "示威者", "流浪者", "陳列室", "閱覽室", "經銷商" and "出版商" ) , were listed to avoid an excessive collection of those derivative words.”
“Furthermore, researchers also … studied the nature of word formation as well as the issue of systematisation in the collection of lexical items. For example, in general, surnames and proper nouns were not collected, excluding a few lexical items that are commonly used by Hong Kong students, such as "中國" and "香港". To give another example, lexical items which can infinitely produce other words by analogy, like "三哥”, "四哥", "五哥" and "初三", "初四", "初五", were also not listed generally.
Moreover, some highly productive affixes, such as "者", "室" and "商", though they cannot stand alone, can easily produce other words by analogy and form word groups (like "示威者", "流浪者", "陳列室", "閱覽室", "經銷商" and "出版商" ) , were listed to avoid an excessive collection of those derivative words.”