Thursday, March 11, 2010

Not a LINGUIST list choice: Lexicography

Actually, if I could have, I would have voted for lexicography as my favorite, but it wasn't an option in the challenge. There isn't much opportunity to study it in the U.S. There is a course here and there - e.g. Univ. of Georgia, Univ. of South Dakota - and England has some courses, in a degree program or just as training. But there are organizations and societies. Check out the Dictionary Society of North America, meeting next year in Montreal. Euralex is meeting this year in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, July 6-10. And the Fifth International Conference on Historical Lexicography and Lexicology will be held at St Anne's College, Oxford, 16-18 June 2010; the conference will mark the tenth anniversary of OED Online.

You can trace the words newly entered or newly revised in the Oxford English Dictionary under the Quarterly Updates - revisions and new words. Notes on OED's December 2009 release of new words (there should be another update this month) tells us, for example, that one of the words just entered is blogosphere - it even tells us why it was added to the Dictionary.

For us, it's all about the words.

6 comments:

Joe said...

I'm surprised that lexicography isn't listed, actually. They can add categories, I think. And with the whole hipness of lexicography -- including DARE of course -- it would bring in some support, I bet.

Unknown said...

Joe brought this to our attention and we're going to add Lexicography. It really should be there. Thank you, Mr. Verb.
-Helen Aristar-Dry (for LINGUIST List)

Mr. Verb said...

Excellent. Thanks to all of you!

James Crippen said...

HawaiĘ»i has a lexicography course, but it’s focused on language documentation needs rather than on lexicography of majority languages. A bit different emphasis. Unfortunately the rest of the lexicography world is largely unaware of lexicographic needs for small languages, but this is slowly beginning to change.

Luanne said...

The Dictionary Society of North America has members of all ilks. Herbert Purnell, for example, has an article in the journal Dictionaries (2007) entitled "Reference Works in Progress: Excerpts from An Iu Mien-English Dictionary With Cultural Notes.

Mr. Verb said...

I'm mostly hoping this will lead to some Lexicography contributions in the Subfield Challenge!

Go, phonology, go!!!!