Robert Burchfield ; with an introduction by Harold Bloom.
EDITION STATEMENT
Edition Statement
1st American ed.
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Place of Publication, Distribution, etc.
[New York] :
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
Hill and Wang,
Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.
1991.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item
xvi, 202 pages ;
Dimensions
24 cm
GENERAL NOTES
Text of Note
Originally published: Great Britain : Faber and Faber, 1989.
INTERNAL BIBLIOGRAPHIES/INDEXES NOTE
Text of Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
CONTENTS NOTE
Text of Note
pt. I: The T.S. Eliot Memorial Lectures, 1988. Linguistic milestones ; The naming of parts ; The boundaries of English grammar ; Words and meanings in the twentieth century -- pt. II: Eight essays on English lexicography and grammar. The treatment of controversial vocabulary in the Oxford English Dictionary ; The turn of the screw : ethnic vocabulary and dictionaries ; The point of severance : British and American English ; The Fowlers : their achievements in lexicography and grammar ; The genealogy of dictionaries ; The Oxford English Dictionary and its historical principles ; The end of the alphabet : last exit to grammar ; The OED : past and present.
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SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
As we grapple with an English language adapting and expanding faster than ever, Robert Burchfield offers a sane, humanistic, and historically illuminating account of how words enter our official vocabulary. In this lively collection of essays, he shows us that dictionaries, far from being static, are hotly contested social documents resulting from the interaction of the language, the lexicographer, and his times. Drawing on the author's thirty years' experience as the editor of the Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary, this book gives us a firsthand account of the sorts of decisions lexicographers have confronted since Samuel Johnson's great dictionary (such as the uses of literary authority, the inclusion of "ethnic" vocabulary, the establishment of standard usage), as well as more contemporary issues, including the implications of compiling dictionaries in the computer age. There is also a wealth of insights into the history of our language, its rich past, and its potential future.--From publisher description.