[Lexicog] How are consultants/advisors selected by a dictionary writing team?

[Christopher Brewster]

There are two distinctions to be made:

1. Dictionaries which use consultants vs. those that don't.
Encyclopedic disctionaries (like the Collins English Dictionary) tend to
have many consultants for the different areas of non-linguistic knowledge.
COBUILD (a Learner's dictionary) does not have consultants.

2. Consultants which are needed vs. consultants which just look good for
marketing purposes.
I sometimes have my doubts that all the consultants are actually needed by
dictionaries or are used properly given the constraints of time and money.

Two anecdotes about the time when I organised the Collins English-Greek
dictionary.
Collins hired an outside consultant to do quality control. He was very
competent in many ways, especially on grammatical issues. Part of the point
of that dictionary was that it had example sentences in English (from
COBUILD) translated into Greek. I went to an expert Greek translator to
evaluate the English-->Greek translated sentences. They were tanslated by
Greek university graduates mostly with English Degrees. She was horrified
and said they translations while mostly accurate were completely unnatural
and would never actually be said. What could I do? I could not start the
translation process again and the Collins consultant was happy - so they
stayed.

Ironically a couple of years later when the opposite direction of
translation was undertaken, I did a sample translation into English. Having
lived for many years abroad I was not surprised that the comments were
"unnatural, stilted" or something like that. So my translations (into
English) were rejected. By the same Collins consultant!

My 2d worth.

Christopher Brewster

ps. what are the lexicographic connotations of "smashing girl" - P.G.
Wodehouse ???  ;-)


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> -----Original Message-----
> From: smashing_girl_99 [mailto:smashing_girl_99 at yahoo.com]
> Sent: 12 April 2005 21:24
> To: lexicographylist at yahoogroups.com
> Subject: [Lexicog] How are consultants/advisors selected by a
> dictionary writing team?
>
>
>
> I am a student of lexicography doing some research on the
> making of dictionaries; specifically on how expert
> consultants and advisors are selected and how certain
> subjects are singled out as requiring expert consultation.
> If anyone has insight on this subject or could provide me
> with a contact who might be willing to answer my questions, I
> would greatly appreciate it.  I will also email my list of
> questions to those interested.  Thank you!
> -Debby
>
>
>
>
>
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