Research idea - dictionaries

[Jonathan Lighter]

Sidney Landau's _Dictionaries_ (2001) is a good place to start.

The Dictionary Society of North America publishes a journal also called
_Dictionaries_.

James Sledd edited _Dictionaries and That Dictionary_ (1962),  all about
the Merriam-Webster moral panic.

JL

On Wed, Aug 1, 2012 at 10:29 AM, Garson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: Research idea - dictionaries
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Some of Samuel Johnson's definitions in "A Dictionary of the English
> Language" (1755) humorously illustrate the tension between describing
> and prescribing. The definition of patron is fun.
>
> Patron: One who countenances, supports or protects. Commonly a wretch
> who supports with insolence, and is paid with flattery.
>
> Oats: A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in
> Scotland appears to support the people.
>
> Distiller: One who makes and sells pernicious and inflammatory spirits.
>
> Lexicographer: A writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge that busies
> himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of
> words.
>
> Politician: 1. One versed in the arts of government; one skilled in
> politicks. 2. A man of artifice; one of deep contrivance.
>
> These items are abbreviated and taken from a secondary source (on the web).
>
> http://www.samueljohnson.com/definitions.html
>
> Perhaps one could search GB and JSTOR for pieces of these definitions.
> Matches might reveal critical essays on the topic of
> prescribing/describing.
>
> Garson
>
> On Wed, Aug 1, 2012 at 9:45 AM, W Brewer <brewerwa at gmail.com> wrote:
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> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       W Brewer <brewerwa at GMAIL.COM>
> > Subject:      Re: Research idea - dictionaries
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Arnold Zwicky wrote/requoted: <<<Do you know of any good critical studies
> > of dictionaries? Dictionaries as prescribing/ascribing vs. describing?>>>
> > WB: Understandably vague. Somewhere I have stuff on the Webster's Third
> > controversy, when descriptivism hit a brick wall in 1961. So much for the
> > Grande Vulgarisation of linguistic science. (Wikipedia s.v. Webster's
> > Dictionary looks like a good survey.)
> >
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