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Finding the Right Words: An Account of Research for the Supplements to the Oxford English Dictionary

Finding the Right Words: An Account of Research for the Supplements to the Oxford English Dictionary FINDING THE RIGHT WORDS: AN ACCOUNT OF RESEARCH FOR THE SUPPLEMENTS TO THE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY YVONNE WARBURTON Now that the fourth and final volume of the Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary has been published, I find that I am spending more and more time talking to people about how the work was actually carried out. It is perhaps not too difficult to imagine how a definition is distilled from a set of illustrative quotations, but what I am often asked is how these quotations are found in the first place. The network of research on which so much of the quality of the Supplements rests has always suffered from a kind of invisibility in the final product. As the OED and its Supplements enter a new era in the shape of the New OED Project, it is inevitable that the immediate emphasis on the electronic manipulation of data will obscure even further this little-known aspect of our work. It therefore seems timely to describe some of our research methods and problems as they were experienced on the Supplements, and as they will no doubt continue to exist in our permanent battle to keep abreast of linguistic http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America Dictionary Society of North America

Finding the Right Words: An Account of Research for the Supplements to the Oxford English Dictionary

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Publisher
Dictionary Society of North America
Copyright
Copyright © The Dictionary Society of North America
ISSN
2160-5076
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

FINDING THE RIGHT WORDS: AN ACCOUNT OF RESEARCH FOR THE SUPPLEMENTS TO THE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY YVONNE WARBURTON Now that the fourth and final volume of the Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary has been published, I find that I am spending more and more time talking to people about how the work was actually carried out. It is perhaps not too difficult to imagine how a definition is distilled from a set of illustrative quotations, but what I am often asked is how these quotations are found in the first place. The network of research on which so much of the quality of the Supplements rests has always suffered from a kind of invisibility in the final product. As the OED and its Supplements enter a new era in the shape of the New OED Project, it is inevitable that the immediate emphasis on the electronic manipulation of data will obscure even further this little-known aspect of our work. It therefore seems timely to describe some of our research methods and problems as they were experienced on the Supplements, and as they will no doubt continue to exist in our permanent battle to keep abreast of linguistic

Journal

Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary Society of North AmericaDictionary Society of North America

Published: Apr 4, 1986

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