MLA Call for Papers: Lexicography Literature

Here's a proposed MLA session of lexicographical interest. The deadline looms!

Topic: Papers addressing fiction or poetry that involves dictionaries or their makers as an operating conceit. Please send 500-word abstracts by 1 March 2010, to Chris P. Pearce (cppearce@bu.edu).

New edition of "The F Word"

The new Oxford University Press edition of Jesse Sheidlower's The F Word is getting a fair amount of play in the media. Here's a link Inside Higher Ed's interview: http://tinyurl.com/yc3m8s6.
At the same time, Jesse Sheidlower's 1 October 2009 article on "Why its so hard to put sex in the dictionary" has the blogs buzzing. The (very graphic!) article is on Slate: http://www.slate.com/id/2227971/.

Gnothi Seauton by Samuel Johnson

We'll continue our celebration of the great Cham's 300th birthday (coming up on Friday!) with a link to Johnson's poem, translated into English. All practising lexicographers should read it, and probably tack a copy over their desks. Here's the peroration:

What then remains? Must I, in slow decline,
To mute inglorious ease old age resign?
Or, bold ambition kindling in my breast,
Attempt some arduous task? Or, were it best,
Brooding o'er lexicons to pass the day,
And in that labour drudge my life away?

For the rest of the poem and a good contextualizing essay, see Carol Rumens' column in the Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/sep/14/poem-week-dr-johnson.

Are Dictionaries obsolete in the Age of Google?

Julia Angwin argues in the Wall Street Journal that "We need a dictionary that is as dynamic as our use of the language... although Google is doing a pretty good job aggregating meanings, I would prefer some human experts to give authority and heft to a new database of meaning." Her column is practically a DSNA kaffee-klatch: see what I mean by visiting http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125209509231187233.html.

Dictionaries in Early Modern Europe

A new book from Cambridge University Press, John Considine's Dictionaries in Early Modern Europe: Lexicography and the Making of Heritage, has been favorably reviewed by Adam Smith in the Times Literary Supplement for 26 June 2009: 32-33. Considine's work draws on published and archival material to survey a wide range of dictionaries of western European languages (including English, German, Latin and Greek) published between the early sixteenth and mid-seventeenth centuries. Sorry, I couldn't find a link to this particular review in Times Online.

CFP: International Conference for Historical Lexicography & Lexicology

Papers are now invited for the fifth International Conference for Historical Lexicography and Lexicology, to be held at St Anne’s College Oxford 16-18 June 2010. Plenary speakers will be Michael Adams (‘World War II, Anglo-American Lexicography, and the Dictionary of American English’), Ulrike Hass (‘In search of the European dimension of lexicography’) and John Simpson (‘OED3 in the making’). The conference will mark the tenth anniversary of OED Online: i.e., the major revision of the OED currently underway in Oxford. Papers relating to dictionaries and dictionary-making are particularly welcome, but as with past conferences we hope to attract papers on a broad range of topics in lexicography and lexicology. Abstracts (no more than 300 words) should be sent to mailto:ichll%40herald.ox.ac.uk by 30 November 2009.

More information will be posted on the conference website, http://www.english.ox.ac.uk/ichll2010/ in due course.
For more information on ISHLL and its conferences see http://www.le.ac.uk/ee/jmc21/ishll.html.

Wordnik beta site launched

Wordnik, http://www.wordnik.com/, "wants to be a place for all the words, and everything known about them." The project is helmed by DSNA members Grant Barrett, Erin McKean and Orion Montoya.

Languages on Life Support

"Last year, when 89-year-old Marie Smith Jones died, a language died with her. Jones was the last speaker of a south-central Alaskan language called Eyak..." For the rest of the story, visit the Chronicle of Higher Education's website at:
http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i38/38linguistics.htm

My DURO: How I Accidently Invented a Word

By Erin McKean

I'VE BEEN WORKING as a lexicographer - someone who edits dictionaries, for those of you disinclined to pick one up just now - for more than 15 years, and the question that I am asked most often, by far, is "How can I make up my own word and get it in the dictionary?"

To read more of Erin's article, originally published in the Boston Globe, please visit: http://tinyurl.com/bxhjzy

Lexicography Topics at MLA convention

MLA annual convention, San Francisco, December 2008

Sunday, 28 December

322. Whose Dictionary Is It Anyway?1:45–3:00 p.m., Golden Gate 5, Hilton.
Program arranged by the Discussion Group on Lexicography
Presiding: Jeffery A. Triggs, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick
1. “Wanting a Name: Anonymity and Johnson’s Dictionary,” Gillian Paku, Harvard Univ.
2. “Authored by God: The Religious Demands on the New England Syllabary,” Michael S. Joseph, Rutgers Univ., New Brunswick
3. “Peirce’s Century,” Jeffery A. Triggs

Looking for a lexicographer?

The Executive Secretary has a list of DSNA members who are freelance lexicographers interested in employment. Please contact her if you are interested in employing such individuals.