Word buffs defend Canuck-written dictionary

"Word buffs defend Canuck-written dictionary"

The small team that put the Canuck into the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, along with thousands of other Canadianisms, has been sent to the pogey line.The team of four word experts has been laid off in a cost-cutting measure after sales of the old-fashioned book plummeted in the face of free online dictionaries.

http://tinyurl.com/4zghbn

Projected Moose References

...the word moose now appears more often than ever before in major newspapers...

http://jacklynch00.blogspot.com/

Happy Birthday, Noah!

Noah Webster was born on October 16, 1758 -- 250 years ago. Celebration events have been arranged by the Noah Webster House and West Hartford Historical Society; for details see http://noahwebster250.org/250th_events.htm.

A graduate of Yale College, class of 1778, Webster is commemorated in the exhibition "Noah Webster: American Patriot and Yale Loyalist," which is displayed in Sterling Memorial Library through the end of November. For details see http://www.library.yale.edu/librarynews/2008/09/noah_webster_american_patriot.html, and also a related article by Judith Ann Schiff, "The Yalie Behind the American Dictionary," Yale Alumni Magazine, September-October 2008, 24-25, archived at http://www.yalealumnimagazine.com/issues/2008_09/old_yale.html.

DSNA Award

The Dictionary Society of North America is offering its annual award for research and study in lexicography. The Award will support one or more lexicographical projects during the year 2009, with grants of up to $2,500.

Laurence Urdang funded this award from 1995 to 2008; the award for 2009 will be presented in his memory.

Applicants must be current members of the Dictionary Society of North America. To join the Society, visit the (other) DSNA website at http://polyglot.lss.wisc.edu/dsna/ or contact the Executive Secretary at berglul@buffalostate.edu.

The proposal should include the following:

· Project name.
· Applicant's name, mailing address and email address.
· A statement of the project's immediate goals and expected long-range results.
· A description of the methodology or procedures to be used.
· A summary budget of total expenses for the project. The budget may include costs of travel, tuition, materials, subsistence, and related expenses.
· An identification of other sources of support available for the project.
· A one-page biographical resume for the applicant.

The proposal, including the resume, should total no more than three pages, single-spaced.

Mail proposals to:
DSNA President PROF. TERRY PRATT
932 PETERS ROAD, RR#3
BONSHAW, P.E.I.
C0A 1C0, CANADA,

or to tpratt@upei.ca.

Proposals must be received by December 1, 2008. Awards will be bestowed and full payments sent early in 2009.

The Society requests that copies of any publications arising from the Award be sent to the Executive Secretary.

The Summer 2008 DSNA Newsletter

Is now available: download the PDF.

About the Society

The Dictionary Society of North America was formed in 1975 to bring together people interested in dictionary making, study, collection, and use. Our 500 members who live in 42 countries around the world include people working on dictionaries, academics who engage in research and writing about dictionaries, dictionary collectors, librarians, booksellers, translators, linguists, publishers, writers, collectors, journalists, and people with an avocational interest in dictionaries.

The only requirement for membership is an expression of interest in language, in words, dictionaries and lexicography, or any combination of these.

Members receive a semi-annual newsletter that gives information about the Society and its members, dictionaries or lexicographic research in progress or recently published, lexicography courses and workshops, and recent or forthcoming conferences of lexicographic interest. Once a year they also receive the journal /Dictionaries/, containing forums on issues in lexicography; articles or notes and queries on the making, critique, use, collection, and history of dictionaries, including sketches of lexicographers; descriptions of significant dictionary collections; reviews of dictionaries and books on lexicography or closely related topics; and bibliographies on various aspects of lexicography. A membership directory is published every few years. Other occasional publications are issued. Members are entitled to free classified advertising in the newsletter once a year. Memberships are for the calendar year, January through December.

Current annual dues (calendar year 2007) for regular members or institutions in the United States, Canada, and Mexico are still only $30, non-North America $40; for students and retired members in North America $20, others $30. See our Membership Form and Dues Schedule . New members (non-institutional) receive a Directory of Members and current issues of the newsletter and journal. We invite you to join us! Dues will increase in 2008.

We meet every other year to make or renew acquaintance with other lexicophiles and to present and hear papers about dictionaries. We have met in Terre Haute, Indiana; Urbana, Illinois; London, Ontario; Cincinnati, Ohio; Newark, Delaware; Ann Arbor, Michigan; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Cleveland, Ohio; Columbia, Missouri; Las Vegas, Nevada; Madison, Wisconsin; Berkeley, California; Ann Arbor, Michigan (in connection with the celebration of the completion of the /Middle English Dictionary, /the first fascicle of which was published in 1952); Durham, North Carolina; Boston, Massachussetts; and Chicago, Illinois. The next DSNA Biennial meeting will be held in 2009, in conjuction with Indiana University in Bloomington. See below for more information as it becomes available.

The Dictionary Society of North America was founded by participants in a colloquium entitled "Research on the History of English Dictionaries" held at Indiana State University, in Terre Haute, Indiana, on May 20-21, 1975. As stated in its handbook, "The purpose of the Society is to foster scholarly and professional activities relating to dictionaries" (defined as lists of words or other vocabulary items, with information about their meaning or other linguistic properties). "The Society shall carry out its stated purpose by promoting the exchange of information and ideas among members through meetings, research projects, publications (such as a newsletter, a journal, bibliographies, directories) and any other means it may deem appropriate."

The DSNA is a member of the American Council of Learned Societies, whose mission is "the advancement of humanistic studies in all fields of learning in the humanities and the social sciences and the maintenance and strengthening of relations among the national societies devoted to such studies."

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