Conference Handbook DSNA-20 & SHEL-9, 4-7 June 2015, Vancouver BC Canada (original) (raw)

English Lexicography: A Global Perspective

Handbook of English Linguistics, Second Edition, 2020

This paper offers an overview of the discipline of English lexicography with special consideration of interdisciplinary connections with English linguistics. Emphasis is placed on dictionaries of varieties of English, period dictionaries, and learner dictionaries, the latter of which being currently most firmly tied to wider linguistic research agendas. Overall, the relationship is described as a difficult one, characterized by differences in emphasis that are reflected in competing philological, historical, and linguistic foci. The account seeks to identify gaps in the lexicographical documentation of varieties of English (e.g., Irish English, Ulster Scots, Indian English) and period coverage (e.g., in Early Modern English), and aims to identify strong suits and best practice examples (e.g., Dictionary of American Regional English). It is argued that English linguistics as a whole, especially the sociolinguistic discipline, would benefit from renewed interest in the lexicography of English. Keywords: lexicography, dictionaries, English language, linguistic variation, scholarly discourse, English linguistics, varieties of English, applied linguistics, historical linguistics

Revising the Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles: World Englishes and linguistic variation in real-time (published version)

Routledge Handbook of Lexicography, ed. by Pedro A Fuertes Olivera, 2017

This article presents the result of a 10-year project revising the Dictionary of Canadianisms on Historical Principles, First Edition (DCHP-1). DCHP-1 was the product of a period of nationalist zeal in Canada. Rushed to publication in 1967 to coincide with the 100th anniversary celebrations of the Canadian state, DCHP-1 was very warmly received – and relatively quickly forgotten. By the 1980s only specialist circles were aware of it. The Second Edition (DCHP-2) project set out in 2006 to place the lexicography of Canadian English on a new footing. The plan was to offer clear evidence for all Canadianisms, which are defined as words, expressions or meanings that are native to Canada or distinctively characteristic of Canadian usage. While DCHP-1 did conceptually do many things rights, it is only now, with the backing of computational methods, that the inherently comparative approach that this type of dictionary requires can be executed. All Canadianisms are classified by at least one of six categories and an explicit rationale is offered for their classification. It is a principle of DCHP-2 to offer the evidence and empirical data with each entry as much as possible while keeping the account readable and succinct. In addition to the six types, a rubric of "not Canadian" is added to dispel and correct some erroneous classifications. DCHP-2 is expected to go live in open access during the course of 2016 and is comprised of a digitized DCHP-1 (10,000 words) with an update of about 1,000 new Canadianisms in a contrastive framework.

Online dictionaries of English

2010

In this paper I present an overview of the spectrum of available online English language dictionaries, and then offer some general comments on a few selected key issues. Given the current explosion of web content, it is quite pointless to try to list every single dictionary available. It makes better sense to identify the salient categories of online dictionaries and selectively focus on their prominent and typical representatives.

Lexicography 2.0: Reimagining Dictionaries for the Digital Age

Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America, 2014

There is a growing consensus among lexical reference publishers that the move away from print is an inevitable one. What is gained and what is lost in the shift from page to pixel? Here I argue that the digital transformation of dictionaries and thesauruses provides fresh opportunities for lexicographers to engage with generations coming of age in the electronic era. I will survey some of the latest advances in the field, with an eye to making electronically based dictionaries and thesauruses maximally useful to a twenty-first-century readership.