Dictionaries via GoogleBooks

Ben Zimmer has drawn my attention to Steven K. Baum's comprehensive list of the dictionaries available through GoogleBooks. You can access it directly at Interesting Schtoff at Google Books or via Language Hat.

"The Dictionary in Print and in the Cloud" CFP

DSNA President Michael Hancher has issued the following call for papers, for a proposed session at the Modern Language Association meeting in January 2011:

Soon the MLA will publish the following call for paper proposals for a Special Session: "'The Dictionary in Print and in the Cloud': Benedict Anderson's 'philological-lexicographic revolution' and after. Cultural standardization and fixity in the regime of print-capitalism; implications of fluid lexicographical practice and access online. Abstracts: March 15."

More fully stated (using more than the 35 words that the MLA allowed): In Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (1983) Benedict Anderson closely identified the standardizing effects of lexicography with what he called "print-capitalism," itself linked to "the origins of national consciousness." Anderson's schematic references to "the lexicographical revolution in Europe" invite exemplification and critique. Also, in recent decades the lexicographical revolution has moved from print to cyberspace and the cloud. What do projects like dictionary.com, Wiktionary, le-dictionnaire.com, and DWDS, as well as Google's "define:" function, imply about communities constructed by "the dictionary" online today? Abstracts of proposed 15- or 20-minute presentations on either topic or both are welcome by March 15; please send them to mailto:mh%40umn.edu. In March I'll organize a panel for the MLA program committee to consider. The committee reports its decisions in May. Given sufficient interest I may edit a group of such papers for publication; therefore I invite proposals also from people who will not attend the MLA convention.

Additional information about the proposed volume is available at
http://www.hastac.org/blogs/mh/cfp-dictionary-print-and-cloud.

Hey! Quit shoving!

The LA Times reported yesterday that "Google quietly rolls out Dictionary." See the story at http://tinyurl.com/yc5wo7h. And here's a link to the site itself: http://www.google.com/dictionary. It's getting a mite crowded in the lexicon shoppe.

Affect, Esurient, Bush and Perseverence (Perserverence? Perseverance? hmmm)

Year-end tributes to popular words and neologisms continue with this press release from Dictionary.com: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/dictionarycom-reveals-its-top-searched-words-of-2009-78208067.html. Listing the words that its users most often looked up in 2009, as well as gainers, losers and most often misspelled words, the release suggests that these searches reflect "insights and trends." My graduate students, however, point out that searches often reflect classroom assignments ("Don't ask me how to spell the word, Jimmy, look it up!").

So what are elementary school students studying these days? Monty Python's Flying Circus? Ben Zimmer's commentary today on the Visual Thesaurus (http://www.visualthesaurus.com/) includes a gratifying link to the Cheese Shop sketch--which, he notes, is the only reason most of us know the word "esurient" in the first place.

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.

"Street Smart": Urban Dictionary

New York Times essayist Virginia Heffernan has a lively discussion of the Urban Dictionary at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/magazine/05FOB-medium-t.html?ref=magazine. You must sign up to read the Times on line but it's free.

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.

The Online Dictionary Revolution Starts with the Launch of Leximo

Leximo is a social dictionary that invites users to submit words in every spoken language of the world. To read more visit: http://www.pitchengine.com/leximo/the-online-dictionary-revolution-starts-with-the-launch-of-leximo/3512/