Inquiry About Dictionaries

[Shapiro, Fred]

A legal scholar has asked me for help with the following questions:

Is there any research or writing that might bear on conceptual problems with using dictionaries for interpretive purposes? One possible example involves research involving the taxonomy of dictionaries: are some more historically-focused? do some include new words more readily than others? do some embrace complex detail more than others? etc. Courts regularly choose among dictionaries to determine "ordinary" word meaning with no knowledge of this taxonomy.   More broadly, is there research about how to understand and apply dictionaries' acontextual, word-specific approach as it might relate to the contextual realities of interpreting any extended text--whether that text is legislative, literary, historical, etc?

If anyone has suggestions, please post to the list or send me a private message at fred.shapiro at yale.edu.

Fred Shapiro
Associate Librarian for Collections and Access and Lecturer in Legal Research
Yale Law School

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