[lg policy] Move Over, Wikipedia. Dictionaries Are Hot Again.

Sat Feb 11 16:31:09 UTC 2017

Move Over, Wikipedia. Dictionaries Are Hot Again.

Water Cooler <https://www.nytimes.com/column/water-cooler>

By KATHERINE ROSMAN FEB. 11, 2017

Credit Ron Barrett

In the hours after Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, was
silenced
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/08/us/politics/elizabeth-warren-coretta-scott-king.html?_r=0>
by her Republican colleagues for “impugning” a fellow senator by reading
aloud a letter Coretta Scott King had written that was critical of Jeff
Sessions, Republican of Alabama (later confirmed as attorney general),
thousands of Americans did what they always do: They tapped away at their
phones.

But they weren’t checking text messages or liking a photo on Facebook. They
were thumbing through online dictionaries, looking for a definition of
“impugn.” On Wednesday morning, the dictionary publisher Merriam-Webster posted
on its website
<https://www.merriam-webster.com/news-trend-watch/elizabeth-warren-said-to-impugn-jeff-sessions-20170208>
that searches on the word had surged.

“It’s been at the top for almost 12 hours now,” said Peter Sokolowski, the
company’s editor at large.

As he wrote on the Merriam-Webster website: “Impugn means ‘to oppose or
attack as false or lacking integrity’ or ‘to criticize (a person’s
character, intentions, etc.) by suggesting that someone is not honest and
should not be trusted.’ It comes from the Latin word pugnare meaning ‘to
fight,’ which is also the root of pugnacious
<https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pugnacious> and pugilism
<https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pugilism>.”
Continue reading the main story
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/11/fashion/merriam-webster-dictionary-social-media-politics.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=wide-thumb&module=mini-moth&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below&_r=0#story-continues-1>

Advertisement
Continue reading the main story
<https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/11/fashion/merriam-webster-dictionary-social-media-politics.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=wide-thumb&module=mini-moth&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below&_r=0#story-continues-2>

A tweet <https://twitter.com/MerriamWebster/status/829323277894111232>
posted to the dictionary’s feed linking to this definition quickly racked
up several hundred retweets.

At a time when many are questioning the definition of common words they
thought they understood, after years of the English language being degraded
by text messages and hashtags, dictionaries have made a surprising comeback
in the United States.

On dictionary apps and websites, “lookups” (which, according to
Merriam-Webster, is one word) of words or phrases related to news events
have precipitously <http://www.dictionary.com/browse/precipitous>
increased. Bibliophiles
<https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day/barbican-2017-01-26> are
becoming social media stars. Sales of print dictionaries remain brisk and
are a profit center for some publishers.

“Dictionaries are not regarded as sexy or interesting, but what
dictionaries are known for is telling the truth,” said Jesse Sheidlower
<http://www.jessesword.com/>, a lexicographer and past president of the
American Dialect Society. “Right now there are a lot of questions about
what is true. We want clear statements about what things are, and
dictionaries provide that.”

The most commonly used dictionaries, whether in print or digital, reflect
what is known as “descriptive lexicography,” meaning that editors study the
way people use words and determine their meaning based on that evidence.

Social media has been revolutionary in changing the access lexicographers
have to the evolution of how words are used. Yet the process of evaluating
evidence and writing definitions in a clear and unbiased manner remains the
objective, said Katherine Connor Martin, head of American dictionaries at
Oxford University Press.

The aim is to provide the most accurate information about where a word
comes from, how it is used grammatically and what meaning it conveys. “Our
goal is really simple,” she said, “and it contributes to a sense of
authoritativeness.”

But some dictionary companies are embracing the personality-driven culture
of the digital age to make lexicography more accessible and perhaps drive
advertising revenue through clicks. Merriam-Webster and Dictionary.com use
Twitter and other networks to share “word of the day” features, real-time
data about words that are suddenly being searched by large numbers of
people and cheeky observations on public figures and their use of language.
NYT Living Newsletter

Get lifestyle news from the Style, Travel and Food sections, from the
latest trends to news you can use.
Receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's
products and services.

   - See Sample
   <http://www.nytimes.com/pages/nytliving/nytliving-email/index.html?pgtype=subscriptionspage&version=new&contentId=LI&eventName=sample&module=newsletter-sign-up>
   - Manage Email Preferences <https://www.nytimes.com/mem/email.html>
   - Privacy Policy <https://www.nytimes.com/privacy>

Each company has been both criticized and heralded for using pointed words
in social media to promote its definitions. For instance, in early
February, President Trump posted on Twitter
<https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/827483841589891073>,
“Professional anarchists, thugs and paid protesters are proving the point
of the millions of people who voted to MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Later that day, the feed for Dictionary.com posted
<https://twitter.com/Dictionarycom/status/827546284663795712>,
“‘Professional anarchists’ falls into our new favorite category:
Alternative facts!” It then shared a link to its definition of oxymoron: “A
figure of speech by which a locution produces an incongruous, seemingly
self-contradictory effect, as in ‘cruel kindness’ or ‘to make haste
slowly.’”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/11/fashion/merriam-webster-dictionary-social-media-politics.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=wide-thumb&module=mini-moth&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below&_r=0

-- 
=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+

 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

-------------------------------------------------
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/lgpolicy-list/attachments/20170211/ca0b821c/attachment.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
_______________________________________________
This message came to you by way of the lgpolicy-list mailing list
lgpolicy-list at groups.sas.upenn.edu
To manage your subscription unsubscribe, or arrange digest format: https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/lgpolicy-list