[Corpora-List] Quotation (lexicography)

[Khurshid Ahmad]

Dear Laura
Word sense -synthetic or 'real-world' artefacts? We extend the 'norm' of a
word? How do we extend the norm of words like 'atom' (as in an indivisible
unit), 'bio-' (as in biochemistry relating vitality to chemicl
atoms),'cleansing' (as in ethnic cleansing) 'intelligence' (as in
artificial intelligence again relating vitality to mechanical devices),
except by a concerted effort of a group of people (scientists,
politicians, computing professionals, or ideologues in short) dedicated to
inverting the established sense of a word. Then there is a whole story of
retronyms.

Master classes, notwithstanding, lexicographers, in my view, are at their
best when they act as archivists and not as historians.  An archivist logs
documents comprising details of objects and events, a historian is always
ideologically motivated in the best sense of the word.  A literary critic
may give me chapter and verse on norms and extension of norms (another
inversion here) a lexicographer logs and having logged moves on.

Best wishes


Khurshid Ahmad

Professor of Computer Science
Department of Computer Science
Trinity College,
DUBLIN-2
IRELAND
Phone 00 353 1 896 8429

Web Page: http://people.tcd.ie/kahmad

Khurshid Ahmad

Professor of Computer Science
Department of Computer Science
Trinity College,
DUBLIN-2
IRELAND
Phone 00 353 1 896 8429

Web Page: http://people.tcd.ie/kahmad


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