rewards for lexicographical research

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 8/1/2002 5:41:00 PM, jdespres at MERRIAM-WEBSTER.COM writes:

I suppose we should be having this discussion on DSNA-L, but since there
isn't one (that I know of) I hope that ADS-L members will forgive us doing a
little bit of this sort of business. After all, ADS got its start in
scholarly work on the lexicon of American dialects, and DARE is one of our
most important projects, and Among the New Words has been a regular feature
of AMERICAN SPEECH since before I was born (and I am almost as old as Dennis
Preston).

The subject of how the capitalist system exploits workers is of course beyond
our dealing with here (which is not to say that most of the socialist systems
that I know of are not any better at rewarding lexicographers). I do feel
strongly--and have invested quite a bit of time and energy myself in
this--that academia does not reward lexicographers the way it should. Someone
can toil for years and produce a lot of significant scholarship that is then
swallowed up in a commercial project for which the scholar herself is not
given nearly enough credit (in terms of salaries, promotions, and tenure)
because no "book" (nor even an "article") has been "authored."

Maybe we should have some kind of formal discussion of this at the next DSNA
meeting (May 29-31 at Duke University, by the way).

<< So getting monetarily compensated -- by my employer, at least --
is probably too much to hope for.  But I think Professor Cohen is
right in seeing scholarly publishing as the best way for a serious
researcher to get rewarded for his or her work.  You get, first of all,
the endorsement of a respected publisher, the chance to have your
work appreciated by a wider range of people (and people who
understand how to judge it), a little piece of posterity if you don't
have kids, and, if you're lucky, maybe a little money too. >>