Neuroscience
Cute story in today's Times about the American Heritage Dictionary: is it prescriptive or descriptive?
Read bits about its history, Webster's Third, and the Oxford American Dictionary. And find out about the panel who decides what's in & what's out.
Personally, I'm in the David Foster Wallace camp: "Syntax Nudnik of Our Time, or Snoot"; Wallace says "A fellow Snoot I know likes to say that listening to most people’s English feels like watching somebody use a Stradivarius to pound nails. We are the Few, the Proud, the Appalled at Everyone Else.”
Wordsmiths: They Also Serve Who Only Vote on "Ain't"
Dec. 23, 2006
ANDREW ADAM NEWMAN
The Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary is working to make a dictionary descriptive as well as
prescriptive.
- "infectiously Exuberant [lexicographical] Talk"
Terrific TedTalk by Erin McKean, editor in chief of the Oxford American Dictionary; on the TedTalks web site, they call her infectiously exuberant, and I'd have to agree. It's 15 minutes, but I could have listened for much longer. On the word...
- From Unregistered Words To Oed3
Just heard a great lecture / podcast by Simon Winchester on the Oxford English Dictionary. Winchester spoke at TVOntario’s Big Ideas show in May and told fascinating stories about the genesis of monolingual dictionaries, which came later than the multilingual...
- Search The Oed From Your Browser
... if you subscribe to the online Oxford English Dictionary, you can put a link to search it on your browser's toolbar. Their instructions indicate that this is possible for the usual browsers like Internet Explorer, but also Firefox and even Safari....
- Meet "america's Lexicographical Sweetheart"
Erin McKean, dubbed "America's Lexicographical Sweetheart" by National Public Radio, will speak in the Greenwich (Conn.) Library Meeting Room Thursday, December 1 at 7 p.m. Ms. McKean has just finished editing the new Oxford American Dictionary. Among...
- Print Is Mighty, Too
Have you seen the New Dictionary of the History of Ideas yet? Very impressive! The new edition is 6 volumes (compared with 4) and has some very topical and cognitive entries. There are several having to do with consciousness, the philosophers among you...
Neuroscience
American Heritage: __scriptive dictionary
Cute story in today's Times about the American Heritage Dictionary: is it prescriptive or descriptive?
Read bits about its history, Webster's Third, and the Oxford American Dictionary. And find out about the panel who decides what's in & what's out.
Personally, I'm in the David Foster Wallace camp: "Syntax Nudnik of Our Time, or Snoot"; Wallace says "A fellow Snoot I know likes to say that listening to most people’s English feels like watching somebody use a Stradivarius to pound nails. We are the Few, the Proud, the Appalled at Everyone Else.”
Wordsmiths: They Also Serve Who Only Vote on "Ain't"
Dec. 23, 2006
ANDREW ADAM NEWMAN
The Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary is working to make a dictionary descriptive as well as
prescriptive.
- "infectiously Exuberant [lexicographical] Talk"
Terrific TedTalk by Erin McKean, editor in chief of the Oxford American Dictionary; on the TedTalks web site, they call her infectiously exuberant, and I'd have to agree. It's 15 minutes, but I could have listened for much longer. On the word...
- From Unregistered Words To Oed3
Just heard a great lecture / podcast by Simon Winchester on the Oxford English Dictionary. Winchester spoke at TVOntario’s Big Ideas show in May and told fascinating stories about the genesis of monolingual dictionaries, which came later than the multilingual...
- Search The Oed From Your Browser
... if you subscribe to the online Oxford English Dictionary, you can put a link to search it on your browser's toolbar. Their instructions indicate that this is possible for the usual browsers like Internet Explorer, but also Firefox and even Safari....
- Meet "america's Lexicographical Sweetheart"
Erin McKean, dubbed "America's Lexicographical Sweetheart" by National Public Radio, will speak in the Greenwich (Conn.) Library Meeting Room Thursday, December 1 at 7 p.m. Ms. McKean has just finished editing the new Oxford American Dictionary. Among...
- Print Is Mighty, Too
Have you seen the New Dictionary of the History of Ideas yet? Very impressive! The new edition is 6 volumes (compared with 4) and has some very topical and cognitive entries. There are several having to do with consciousness, the philosophers among you...