Dictionary Evaluation Flashcards
What can we first evaluate from Dictionary?
From the work that you’ve done on dictionaries, it is clear that all dictionaries have a sense of prescriptivist attitude to them. Why? They achieve a sense of control to them, they contain words that dictate what a word is defined as and so, expect the reader to oblige and spread the form in that specific way. However, between the dictionary and the reader there is choice to be made on whether the definition suits them, in the end it’s in the reader’s choice to dictate whether the definition suits them and thus, decide to adopt and spread that form.
What language change concept does this link to?
This will affect the way think about the world i.e. linguistic determinism. The lexicographers who created the dictionaries each thought about the words in a different way and thus portray that idea to the users. As I’ve just said, users may choose to adapt this or not; in the end it all depends on them to decide whether they want to view the word in that specific way.
Evaluate how dictionaries can still hold a major descriptivist attitudes. Give examples.
Aside from all dictionaries holding a prescriptivist value; they can still achieve descriptivist attitude overall. We’ve seen the creators of OED who created the dictionary as a means of spreading and recording language use, but also the feature of requesting users to submit their own words and add them to the dictionary. Or Leo Rosten with his dictionary ‘Joys of Yiddish’ that was so popular he decided to create two other versions of the book such as ‘The Joys of Yinglish’ to document and spread further words influenced by Hebrew and English during the mix of Ashkenazi Jews and Americans. Perhaps, Allsopp’s Caribbean Dictionary as a way of showing the culture of words used in the Caribbean to disapprove of English teachers who saw ‘poor English use.
Evaluate what can’t you do with dictionaries?
With Dictionaries, you cannot enforce correct forms to users of the language as language change is always occurring. This is why we have OED online that helps to document current/old usages. Dictionaries previously mentioned will be outdated as a lot of new forms will have arisen. There will be more dictionaries to document them, which is why we’re seeing dictionaries as more of place to look back on history on language use rather than enforcing. Not completely, however as there is still the opportunity for the user to adopt the definition, word and spread it.
Are these evaluations set?
No, feel free to dwelve deeper and give more examples during exam period :D
