With sharp wit, sheer delight, and a keen eye, Shea shares his year inside the "Oxford English Dictionary," delivering a hair-pulling, eye-crossing account of reading every word, and revealing the most obscure, hilarious, and wonderful gems he discovers along the way.
Communication is essential to our lives, but how often do we stop to think about where the words we use have come from? Have you ever thought about which words in English have been borrowed from Arabic, French or Dutch? Try admiral, landscape and marmalade just for starters. The Secret Life of Words is a wide-ranging account not only of the ...
"Words, Words, Words" is all about the wonder of words. Drawing on a lifetime's experience, David Crystal explores language in all its rich varieties through words: the very building blocks of our communication. Language has no life f its own: it only exists in the mouths and ears, hands, eyes and brains of its users. As we are guided expertly and ...
Two volumes thick and 2,300 pages long, "Samuel Johnson's Dictionary," published in 1755, marked a milestone in a language in desperate need of standards. No English dictionary before it had devoted so much space to everyday words, been so thorough in its definitions, or illustrated usage by quoting from Shakespeare and other great writers. ...
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) holds a cherished position in English literary culture. Indisputably the greatest dictionary in the language, the story of its creation has become a popular fascination. This book looks at the history of the great first edition of 1928, at the men (and occasionally women) who distilled words and usages from ...
This second edition of Sidney I. Landau's landmark work offers a comprehensive and completely up-to-date description of how dictionaries are researched and written, with particular attention to the ways in which computer technology has changed modern lexicography. A completely new chapter has been added and every chapter has been updated and ...
Brilliantly entertaining and enlightening, this volume tells the story of Samuel Johnson's endeavor to create an authoritative English dictionary. Hitchings describes Johnson's adventure--his ambition and vision, his moments of despair, the mistakes he made along the way, and his ultimate triumph.
H. W. Fowler's contribution to English language pedagogy, MODERN ENGLISH USAGE, known to students since 1926 merely as "Fowler," was the product of a singular Victorian personality. Fowler was eccentric, regimented, and duty-bound. This biography documents his life of steadfastness.
In 1800, irascible patriot Noah Webster set out to define the American language by collecting every word used in the U.S. "Websterisms" chronicles the labors of the man who is justifiably called the Founding Father of American English.
The publication of Webster's Third New International Dictionary in 1961 set off a storm of controversy in both the popular press and in scholarly journals that was virtually unprecedented in its scope and intensity. This is the first full account of the controversy, set within the larger background of how the dictionary was planned and put ...
This is the story of the dictionary, from the first lexicon created in 2340 BC in Sumeria, to the pinnacle of the "Oxford English Dictionary" and today's computer-generated successors. It also gives an insight into the lives of the lexographers, the men obsessed with words and language.
Many indigenous American languages face imminent extinction, and the dictionary, often the only written documentation of these languages stands as a powerful tool in preserving them. These essays provide a comprehensive picture of the theory and practice of Native American lexicography. The contributors discuss the technical, social, and personal ...
By 1700, France and Italy already had dictionaries of their own, and it became a matter of national pride that England should rival them. Dr Johnson rose to the challenge, turning over the garret of his London home to the creation of his Dictionary. He imagined it would take three years. Eight years later it was finally published, full of ...
Noah Webster was a graduate of Yale, a veteran of the American Revolution, and an accomplished legal and political scholar, but he first became famous with the publication of The American Spelling Book, in 1783, popularly called the Blue-Backed Speller for its bright blue cover. Webster dedicated the rest of his professional career to creating ...
From the Anglo-Saxons to the end of the Tudor era, many English glossaries and dictionaries were arranged topically rather than alphabetically and thus reflected the prevailing concerns of theology, philosophy, and natural history. These works are a fascinating part of the topical or onomasiological lexicographical tradition in England. In this ...
The whole of "The Catcher in the Rye" is in the "Oxford English Dictionary," waiting to be unscrambled, and so are all the novels of our past, present, and immediate future en-thu-si-ast Function: noun : a person filled with enthusiasm: as a: one who is ardently attached to a cause, object, or pursuit b: one who tends to become ardently ...
The authors of this book draw on previously unpublished archive material to explore the pioneering endeavours of the scholars who conceived the Oxford English Dictionary and, with the assistance of an army of correspondents, brought it into being after half a century of Herculean labour. Its first publication in 1928 as the twelve-volume A New ...
The legendary "Oxford English Dictionary" today contains over 600,000 words and a staggering 2,500,000 quotations to illuminate the meaning and history of those words. A glorious, bursting treasure-house, the "OED" serves as a guardian of the literary jewels of the past, a testament to the richness of the English language today, and a guarantor of ...
Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language, the first great English dictionary and one of the most famous books in the English language, appeared in April 1755. To commemorate the 250th anniversary, this volume brings together fourteen original essays by international scholars representing several disciplines: literature, lexicology, ...
In this collection of articles, the author reflects on the nature of language, the art of lexicography and the developments in communication, the media and information technology in the late 20th century. The three main subjects looked at are: language at large, and particulary English, the most widely used language in the history of the world; ...
This is a down-to-earth, 'how to do it' textbook on the making of dictionaries. Written by professional lexicographers with over seventy years' experience between them, the book presents a step-by-step course for the training of lexicographers in all settings, including publishing houses, colleges, and universities world-wide, and for the teaching ...
This book links the fascinating story of what eventually became the Oxford English Dictionary, to that of James A. H. Murray, its first editor and the driving force behind the dictionary. Murray's apparently obsessive nature was put to good use the O.E.D.'s compilation. He devised an intricate system of cubbyholes to sort information as it was ...
As the first great English dictionary, and the only dictionary created by a great writer, Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language is recognised as a landmark in English language and letters. The heroic effort of the work's creation over nine years has long been enshrined in English literary mythology. However, details pertaining to Johnson ...
Challenging the authority of the "Oxford English Dictionary", this study reveals many of the dictionary's inherent prejudices and questions the assumptions behind its continuous revision. It describes how judgemental the task of editing a major dictionary can be.
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