Ronald E. Emmerick
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780197262856
- eISBN:
- 9780191753961
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197262856.003.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Asian and Middle Eastern History: BCE to 500CE
This chapter presents a speech that details the life and career of Harold Walter Bailey. It also addresses the question of whether he himself coined the phrase ‘hunting the hapax’. Bailey was very ...
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This chapter presents a speech that details the life and career of Harold Walter Bailey. It also addresses the question of whether he himself coined the phrase ‘hunting the hapax’. Bailey was very fond of hapaxes and he collected them not in order to do away with them but to try to account for them as what he would call ‘interesting words’. This approach has of course some justification when one is dealing with a language that is no longer spoken and that is known only as a result of studying a limited text corpus. In fact, however, Bailey's Dictionary of Khotan Saka contains hapaxes on almost every page, many of which will not survive the test of time—even though Bailey has been at great pains to defend them.Less
This chapter presents a speech that details the life and career of Harold Walter Bailey. It also addresses the question of whether he himself coined the phrase ‘hunting the hapax’. Bailey was very fond of hapaxes and he collected them not in order to do away with them but to try to account for them as what he would call ‘interesting words’. This approach has of course some justification when one is dealing with a language that is no longer spoken and that is known only as a result of studying a limited text corpus. In fact, however, Bailey's Dictionary of Khotan Saka contains hapaxes on almost every page, many of which will not survive the test of time—even though Bailey has been at great pains to defend them.
Max Saunders
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- May 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199579761
- eISBN:
- 9780191722882
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199579761.003.0012
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism, 20th-century Literature and Modernism
This chapter focuses on the British modernist whose work represents the most sustained fictionalising engagement with biography. It recounts changes in biographical theory in Woolf's lifetime; ...
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This chapter focuses on the British modernist whose work represents the most sustained fictionalising engagement with biography. It recounts changes in biographical theory in Woolf's lifetime; especially her father's Dictionary of National Biography; the influence of Freud on Bloomsbury; Woolf's own critical discussions of biography; and New Criticism's antagonism to biographical interpretation; though it also draws on recent biographical criticism of Woolf. It discusses Jacob's Room and Flush, but concentrates on Orlando, arguing that it draws on the notions of imaginary and composite portraits discussed earlier. Whereas Orlando is often read as a ‘debunking’ of an obtuse biographer‐narrator, it shows how Woolf's aims are much more complex. First, the book's historical range is alert to the historical development of biography; and that the narrator is no more fixed than Orlando, but transforms with each epoch. Second, towards the ending the narrator begins to sound curiously like Lytton Strachey, himself the arch‐debunker of Victorian biographical piety. Thus Orlando is read as both example and parody of what Woolf called ‘The New Biography’. The chapter reads Woolf in parallel with Harold Nicolson's The Development of English Biography, and also his book Some People—a text whose imaginary (self)portraiture provoked her discussion of ‘The New Biography’ as well as contributing to the conception of Orlando.Less
This chapter focuses on the British modernist whose work represents the most sustained fictionalising engagement with biography. It recounts changes in biographical theory in Woolf's lifetime; especially her father's Dictionary of National Biography; the influence of Freud on Bloomsbury; Woolf's own critical discussions of biography; and New Criticism's antagonism to biographical interpretation; though it also draws on recent biographical criticism of Woolf. It discusses Jacob's Room and Flush, but concentrates on Orlando, arguing that it draws on the notions of imaginary and composite portraits discussed earlier. Whereas Orlando is often read as a ‘debunking’ of an obtuse biographer‐narrator, it shows how Woolf's aims are much more complex. First, the book's historical range is alert to the historical development of biography; and that the narrator is no more fixed than Orlando, but transforms with each epoch. Second, towards the ending the narrator begins to sound curiously like Lytton Strachey, himself the arch‐debunker of Victorian biographical piety. Thus Orlando is read as both example and parody of what Woolf called ‘The New Biography’. The chapter reads Woolf in parallel with Harold Nicolson's The Development of English Biography, and also his book Some People—a text whose imaginary (self)portraiture provoked her discussion of ‘The New Biography’ as well as contributing to the conception of Orlando.
Alasdair A. MacDonald
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748622818
- eISBN:
- 9780748653362
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748622818.003.0001
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Scottish Studies
This introductory chapter first sets out the purpose of the book, which is to serve as a companion to the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (DOST). DOST is concerned with the Older Scots ...
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This introductory chapter first sets out the purpose of the book, which is to serve as a companion to the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (DOST). DOST is concerned with the Older Scots language, the ancestor of modern Lowland Scots, which — alongside Gaelic and English — is one of the three long-established languages currently used in Scotland. It briefly discusses the origins of Scots. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.Less
This introductory chapter first sets out the purpose of the book, which is to serve as a companion to the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (DOST). DOST is concerned with the Older Scots language, the ancestor of modern Lowland Scots, which — alongside Gaelic and English — is one of the three long-established languages currently used in Scotland. It briefly discusses the origins of Scots. An overview of the subsequent chapters is also presented.
Dennis Taylor
- Published in print:
- 1993
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198122616
- eISBN:
- 9780191671494
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198122616.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This is a detailed exploration of Thomas Hardy's linguistic ‘awkwardness’, a subject that has long puzzled critics. It shows that Hardy's language must be understood as a distinctive response to the ...
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This is a detailed exploration of Thomas Hardy's linguistic ‘awkwardness’, a subject that has long puzzled critics. It shows that Hardy's language must be understood as a distinctive response to the philological and literary issues of his time. Deeply influenced by the Victorian historical study of language, Hardy deliberately incorporated into his own writing a sense of language's recent and hidden history, its multiple stages and classes, and its arbitrary motivations. Indeed, the book argues, Hardy provides an example of how a writer ‘purifies the dialect of the tribe’ by inclusiveness, by heterogeniety, and by a sense of history which distinguishes Hardy from a more ahistorical, synchronic modernist aesthetic and which constitutes an ongoing challenge to literary language. In this treatment of a writer's relation to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the book also examines the influence on Hardy's language of the founding and development, in this period, of the OED.Less
This is a detailed exploration of Thomas Hardy's linguistic ‘awkwardness’, a subject that has long puzzled critics. It shows that Hardy's language must be understood as a distinctive response to the philological and literary issues of his time. Deeply influenced by the Victorian historical study of language, Hardy deliberately incorporated into his own writing a sense of language's recent and hidden history, its multiple stages and classes, and its arbitrary motivations. Indeed, the book argues, Hardy provides an example of how a writer ‘purifies the dialect of the tribe’ by inclusiveness, by heterogeniety, and by a sense of history which distinguishes Hardy from a more ahistorical, synchronic modernist aesthetic and which constitutes an ongoing challenge to literary language. In this treatment of a writer's relation to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), the book also examines the influence on Hardy's language of the founding and development, in this period, of the OED.
Marion Elizabeth Rodgers
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780195072389
- eISBN:
- 9780199787982
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195072389.003.0048
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
Although World War II did not affect Mencken personally, he was dismayed by the way shortages interfered with the routine of American life. He also became disillusioned with the practice of ...
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Although World War II did not affect Mencken personally, he was dismayed by the way shortages interfered with the routine of American life. He also became disillusioned with the practice of journalism. To Mencken, reporters have become timid bystanders, leaving their work early in order to play golf. Just as he had during World War I, Mencken focused on neutral subjects in his books. His trilogy of memoirs, Happy Days, Newspaper Days, and Heathen Days were greeted with much success, as was his New Dictionary of Quotations and the fourth edition of The American Language.Less
Although World War II did not affect Mencken personally, he was dismayed by the way shortages interfered with the routine of American life. He also became disillusioned with the practice of journalism. To Mencken, reporters have become timid bystanders, leaving their work early in order to play golf. Just as he had during World War I, Mencken focused on neutral subjects in his books. His trilogy of memoirs, Happy Days, Newspaper Days, and Heathen Days were greeted with much success, as was his New Dictionary of Quotations and the fourth edition of The American Language.
Freya Johnston
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199251827
- eISBN:
- 9780191719080
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199251827.003.0003
- Subject:
- Literature, 18th-century Literature
This chapter concentrates on Johnson's prefaces and dedications, especially those donated anonymously to other people's works as forms of writing in which humility is at a premium. A dextrous ...
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This chapter concentrates on Johnson's prefaces and dedications, especially those donated anonymously to other people's works as forms of writing in which humility is at a premium. A dextrous vocabulary of mock-humility recurs throughout the 18th century as a means of simultaneously obeying and resisting the call to descend to everyday things, particularly in the context of journalistic writing Johnson's early journalism is read alongside that of his predecessors, Addison and Steele, whose Tatler and Spectator papers had set an example of how to familiarize heroic grandeur to private life — an example to which Johnson responded throughout his career.Less
This chapter concentrates on Johnson's prefaces and dedications, especially those donated anonymously to other people's works as forms of writing in which humility is at a premium. A dextrous vocabulary of mock-humility recurs throughout the 18th century as a means of simultaneously obeying and resisting the call to descend to everyday things, particularly in the context of journalistic writing Johnson's early journalism is read alongside that of his predecessors, Addison and Steele, whose Tatler and Spectator papers had set an example of how to familiarize heroic grandeur to private life — an example to which Johnson responded throughout his career.
Dayton Haskin
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- September 2007
- ISBN:
- 9780199212422
- eISBN:
- 9780191707216
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199212422.003.0006
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism
The publication of Rev Alexander B. Grosart's edition of The Complete Poems of John Donne, D.D., Dean of St. Paul's intensified interest in developing an integrated account of Izaak Walton's preacher ...
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The publication of Rev Alexander B. Grosart's edition of The Complete Poems of John Donne, D.D., Dean of St. Paul's intensified interest in developing an integrated account of Izaak Walton's preacher and Grosart's poetic ‘Imaginator’. Because nearly all the poems added by Grosart had not been accepted as genuine, it is easy underestimate the short-term significance of this expanded canon: late Victorian readers were taken in by Grosart's claims. Some, regarding a historic person's domestic life as too insubstantial to matter in the important work of writing the biography of the nation, dismissed the augmented body of love poetry as irrelevant to understanding Donne's significance. Chief here was Augustus Jessopp, who contributed the entry on Donne to The Dictionary of National Biography. Others felt excitement, however, at the prospect of drawing on long hidden materials, as Edward Dowden sought to do, to develop ‘a true and sufficient idea of John Donne’. Both groups agreed that the popular account by Walton warranted serious revision.Less
The publication of Rev Alexander B. Grosart's edition of The Complete Poems of John Donne, D.D., Dean of St. Paul's intensified interest in developing an integrated account of Izaak Walton's preacher and Grosart's poetic ‘Imaginator’. Because nearly all the poems added by Grosart had not been accepted as genuine, it is easy underestimate the short-term significance of this expanded canon: late Victorian readers were taken in by Grosart's claims. Some, regarding a historic person's domestic life as too insubstantial to matter in the important work of writing the biography of the nation, dismissed the augmented body of love poetry as irrelevant to understanding Donne's significance. Chief here was Augustus Jessopp, who contributed the entry on Donne to The Dictionary of National Biography. Others felt excitement, however, at the prospect of drawing on long hidden materials, as Edward Dowden sought to do, to develop ‘a true and sufficient idea of John Donne’. Both groups agreed that the popular account by Walton warranted serious revision.
David Huddart
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- January 2015
- ISBN:
- 9781781380253
- eISBN:
- 9781781381540
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5949/liverpool/9781781380253.003.0005
- Subject:
- Linguistics, English Language
This chapter considers the codifying role of the postcolonial dictionary. Such dictionaries, such as the Macquarie Dictionary, have been understood as declarations of linguistic independence. This ...
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This chapter considers the codifying role of the postcolonial dictionary. Such dictionaries, such as the Macquarie Dictionary, have been understood as declarations of linguistic independence. This chapter argues that the Macquarie Dictionary intervenes as a both a description and declaration of independence, working through what Jacques Derrida, writing on the American colonies’ declaration of independence, calls a fabulous retroactivity. On the one hand, these independent Englishes already existed, and on the other they required the dictionary itself to make them happen: these Englishes both already were and yet also ought to be. The chapter explores the interesting implications of such a structure in our understanding of World Englishes.Less
This chapter considers the codifying role of the postcolonial dictionary. Such dictionaries, such as the Macquarie Dictionary, have been understood as declarations of linguistic independence. This chapter argues that the Macquarie Dictionary intervenes as a both a description and declaration of independence, working through what Jacques Derrida, writing on the American colonies’ declaration of independence, calls a fabulous retroactivity. On the one hand, these independent Englishes already existed, and on the other they required the dictionary itself to make them happen: these Englishes both already were and yet also ought to be. The chapter explores the interesting implications of such a structure in our understanding of World Englishes.
Simon Jarvis
- Published in print:
- 1995
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198182955
- eISBN:
- 9780191673924
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198182955.003.0007
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies
The fullest account of the social and political significance of Samuel Johnson's writings about language – that by John Barrell in his Equal, Wide, Survey – points to an apparent contradiction in ...
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The fullest account of the social and political significance of Samuel Johnson's writings about language – that by John Barrell in his Equal, Wide, Survey – points to an apparent contradiction in Johnson's account of English usage. Barrell argues that Johnson ‘regards the national language as derived from a world apart from and above the languages of those who follow particular callings’, but also refuses to specify any group of language users who might be thought to inhabit such a world. These suggestions are significant, both for the way in which Johnson thought about and used the illustrative quotations which were the decisively new feature of his Dictionary, and for the close relationship in Johnson's philological career between lexicography and textual criticism. A problem of circularity attends any attempt to define a community of authoritative users of a language, and Johnson's is no exception.Less
The fullest account of the social and political significance of Samuel Johnson's writings about language – that by John Barrell in his Equal, Wide, Survey – points to an apparent contradiction in Johnson's account of English usage. Barrell argues that Johnson ‘regards the national language as derived from a world apart from and above the languages of those who follow particular callings’, but also refuses to specify any group of language users who might be thought to inhabit such a world. These suggestions are significant, both for the way in which Johnson thought about and used the illustrative quotations which were the decisively new feature of his Dictionary, and for the close relationship in Johnson's philological career between lexicography and textual criticism. A problem of circularity attends any attempt to define a community of authoritative users of a language, and Johnson's is no exception.
Roy Morris
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780195126280
- eISBN:
- 9780199854165
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195126280.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Cultural History
This book is a portrait of one of the most acerbic and distinctive voices in American literature, a complex individual at odds with his country, his family, his times, and himself. The only American ...
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This book is a portrait of one of the most acerbic and distinctive voices in American literature, a complex individual at odds with his country, his family, his times, and himself. The only American writer of any stature to fight in and survive the Civil War, Bierce discovered in the conflict a bitter confirmation of his darkest assumptions about man and his nature. Profoundly disillusioned, Bierce spent the next 50 years struggling to disabuse his fellow Americans of their own cherished ideals—be they romantic, religious, or political. His groundbreaking short stories of the war, including his most famous work, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, have had a lasting influence on every subsequent American author dealing with war. And the heartless, hilarious aphorisms in his caustic lexicon The Devil's Dictionary have entered, often uncredited, our national consciousness. This biography accounts for both the influential art that Ambrose Bierce made from a harsh and unforgiving vision, and the high price he had to pay for it in loneliness, rancour, and spiritual isolation.Less
This book is a portrait of one of the most acerbic and distinctive voices in American literature, a complex individual at odds with his country, his family, his times, and himself. The only American writer of any stature to fight in and survive the Civil War, Bierce discovered in the conflict a bitter confirmation of his darkest assumptions about man and his nature. Profoundly disillusioned, Bierce spent the next 50 years struggling to disabuse his fellow Americans of their own cherished ideals—be they romantic, religious, or political. His groundbreaking short stories of the war, including his most famous work, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, have had a lasting influence on every subsequent American author dealing with war. And the heartless, hilarious aphorisms in his caustic lexicon The Devil's Dictionary have entered, often uncredited, our national consciousness. This biography accounts for both the influential art that Ambrose Bierce made from a harsh and unforgiving vision, and the high price he had to pay for it in loneliness, rancour, and spiritual isolation.
Stephen Gill
- Published in print:
- 1998
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198119654
- eISBN:
- 9780191671180
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198119654.003.0008
- Subject:
- Literature, 19th-century Literature and Romanticism, 19th-century and Victorian Literature
This chapter deals with issues related to the popularity of William Wordsworth. After the publican of Tess of the D'Urbervilles in 1891, for two decades, articles and books had been honouring either ...
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This chapter deals with issues related to the popularity of William Wordsworth. After the publican of Tess of the D'Urbervilles in 1891, for two decades, articles and books had been honouring either Wordsworth’s poetry or his philosophy and often both. A society of notable people had been formed to promote the Wordsworthian message. In 1891 itself The Wordsworth Dictionary also appeared and the poet's home in Grasmere was bought by a group of devotees as a shrine for posterity. Wordsworth was once more in various forms a living cultural force, after a long period during which, even though he was being energetically marked, his visibility as an intellectual presence had faded.Less
This chapter deals with issues related to the popularity of William Wordsworth. After the publican of Tess of the D'Urbervilles in 1891, for two decades, articles and books had been honouring either Wordsworth’s poetry or his philosophy and often both. A society of notable people had been formed to promote the Wordsworthian message. In 1891 itself The Wordsworth Dictionary also appeared and the poet's home in Grasmere was bought by a group of devotees as a shrine for posterity. Wordsworth was once more in various forms a living cultural force, after a long period during which, even though he was being energetically marked, his visibility as an intellectual presence had faded.
Paul Schaffner
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748622818
- eISBN:
- 9780748653362
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748622818.003.0010
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Scottish Studies
The Middle English Dictionary (MED) and the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (DOST) were not only siblings but virtual twins, both born of Craigie's vision, first publicly enunciated in 1919, ...
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The Middle English Dictionary (MED) and the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (DOST) were not only siblings but virtual twins, both born of Craigie's vision, first publicly enunciated in 1919, of a series of period and regional dictionaries springing from and advancing work done in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Both MED and DOST departed in many ways from the OED model. This chapter discusses the most important ways in which they departed, including spelling, etymology, illustration, definition, and relation to English.Less
The Middle English Dictionary (MED) and the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (DOST) were not only siblings but virtual twins, both born of Craigie's vision, first publicly enunciated in 1919, of a series of period and regional dictionaries springing from and advancing work done in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Both MED and DOST departed in many ways from the OED model. This chapter discusses the most important ways in which they departed, including spelling, etymology, illustration, definition, and relation to English.
Mark D. LeBlanc and Betsey Dexter Dyer
- Published in print:
- 2007
- Published Online:
- April 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780195305890
- eISBN:
- 9780199773862
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195305890.003.11
- Subject:
- Biology, Biomathematics / Statistics and Data Analysis / Complexity Studies
This chapter provides guidelines for designing and outlining programs with two sequence aligning programs — BLAST and BLAT — as well as making a DNA Dictionary as examples. Algorithms (‘recipes’) are ...
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This chapter provides guidelines for designing and outlining programs with two sequence aligning programs — BLAST and BLAT — as well as making a DNA Dictionary as examples. Algorithms (‘recipes’) are typically represented in pseudocode, a set of instructions that resembles the organization, tempo, flow, and content of a set of directives from a programming language, such as Perl. Beginning programmers often wonder: Why bother with an algorithm on the whiteboard? Why not just sit down at the computer and start hacking together the program? If it doesn't run immediately just keep making little tweaks and adjustments until it does. The chapter argues that while some small programs can be written on the fly and plenty of programmers write them that way, the most reliable experimental software (and results) are based on a solid algorithmic design. Side boxes include: the importance of beauty, execution speed, and encouragement to talk with programmers.Less
This chapter provides guidelines for designing and outlining programs with two sequence aligning programs — BLAST and BLAT — as well as making a DNA Dictionary as examples. Algorithms (‘recipes’) are typically represented in pseudocode, a set of instructions that resembles the organization, tempo, flow, and content of a set of directives from a programming language, such as Perl. Beginning programmers often wonder: Why bother with an algorithm on the whiteboard? Why not just sit down at the computer and start hacking together the program? If it doesn't run immediately just keep making little tweaks and adjustments until it does. The chapter argues that while some small programs can be written on the fly and plenty of programmers write them that way, the most reliable experimental software (and results) are based on a solid algorithmic design. Side boxes include: the importance of beauty, execution speed, and encouragement to talk with programmers.
Thomas Dixon
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- January 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780197264263
- eISBN:
- 9780191734816
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197264263.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, History of Ideas
This chapter explains how ‘altruism’ made its way into the first published part of the greatest record of the English language, the Oxford English Dictionary. It uses this story of lexicographers, ...
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This chapter explains how ‘altruism’ made its way into the first published part of the greatest record of the English language, the Oxford English Dictionary. It uses this story of lexicographers, readers, definitions, and illustrative quotations as an initial vignette of the world of Victorian moral thought. It also discusses the relationship between words and concepts and the different assumptions and methods appropriate to writing the histories of each. In his History in English Words, Owen Barfield noted that the nineteenth century saw a proliferation of English words formed in combination with ‘self-’. Mentioning especially ‘self-help’ and a newly positive sense of ‘self-respect’, he saw this development as an aspect of the rise of Victorian ‘individualism’ and ‘humanism’.Less
This chapter explains how ‘altruism’ made its way into the first published part of the greatest record of the English language, the Oxford English Dictionary. It uses this story of lexicographers, readers, definitions, and illustrative quotations as an initial vignette of the world of Victorian moral thought. It also discusses the relationship between words and concepts and the different assumptions and methods appropriate to writing the histories of each. In his History in English Words, Owen Barfield noted that the nineteenth century saw a proliferation of English words formed in combination with ‘self-’. Mentioning especially ‘self-help’ and a newly positive sense of ‘self-respect’, he saw this development as an aspect of the rise of Victorian ‘individualism’ and ‘humanism’.
M. G. Dareau
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748622818
- eISBN:
- 9780748653362
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748622818.003.0003
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Scottish Studies
This chapter presents an account of the history of the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (DOST). The DOST was compiled between 1925 and 2001 according to the historical principles laid down in ...
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This chapter presents an account of the history of the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (DOST). The DOST was compiled between 1925 and 2001 according to the historical principles laid down in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). During the first phase, a methodology based on the OED was established. The chapter is divided into four sections identified as those periods which saw substantial innovations affecting the text of the published dictionary (1919–1948, 1948–1981, 1981–1994 and 1994–2001). It includes an outline of the external history as well as those aspects of editorial policy which most closely impinge on external history.Less
This chapter presents an account of the history of the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (DOST). The DOST was compiled between 1925 and 2001 according to the historical principles laid down in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). During the first phase, a methodology based on the OED was established. The chapter is divided into four sections identified as those periods which saw substantial innovations affecting the text of the published dictionary (1919–1948, 1948–1981, 1981–1994 and 1994–2001). It includes an outline of the external history as well as those aspects of editorial policy which most closely impinge on external history.
Donald E. Meek
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748622818
- eISBN:
- 9780748653362
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748622818.003.0008
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Scottish Studies
Gaelic does not yet possess a dictionary comparable to the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (DOST). If such existed, it would readily illuminate the number and range of usages of words found ...
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Gaelic does not yet possess a dictionary comparable to the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (DOST). If such existed, it would readily illuminate the number and range of usages of words found in Scottish Gaelic also attested in Scots. The Historical Dictionary of Scottish Gaelic (HDSG) in Glasgow University was intended to fill this gap, but the project failed to produce any significant published output. Nevertheless, an archive of paper slips (HDSG-A) was compiled. This chapter takes evidence for the use of the verb scail in Scots mainly from the DOST, and that of the use of sgaoil in Scottish Gaelic largely from the HDSG-A. It shows that the two languages share a comparable range of idioms based on what appears to be the same verb.Less
Gaelic does not yet possess a dictionary comparable to the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (DOST). If such existed, it would readily illuminate the number and range of usages of words found in Scottish Gaelic also attested in Scots. The Historical Dictionary of Scottish Gaelic (HDSG) in Glasgow University was intended to fill this gap, but the project failed to produce any significant published output. Nevertheless, an archive of paper slips (HDSG-A) was compiled. This chapter takes evidence for the use of the verb scail in Scots mainly from the DOST, and that of the use of sgaoil in Scottish Gaelic largely from the HDSG-A. It shows that the two languages share a comparable range of idioms based on what appears to be the same verb.
G. L’E Turner
- Published in print:
- 2002
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780198515302
- eISBN:
- 9780191705694
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198515302.003.0002
- Subject:
- Physics, History of Physics
This chapter contains biographical sketches of the members, together with a record of attendance and non-attendance at the meetings, and brief commentary. The men who met at the Chapter Coffee House, ...
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This chapter contains biographical sketches of the members, together with a record of attendance and non-attendance at the meetings, and brief commentary. The men who met at the Chapter Coffee House, and later the Baptist Head Coffee House, regarded themselves as natural philosophers. Of the fifty two identified members, thirty three are included in the Dictionary of National Biography, thirty three were Fellows of the Royal Society of London, seven were Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London, twenty two had the degree of MD, and medical fellowships from London or Edinburgh were also common among the members. Not all those listed as members attended even one meeting. The author suggests that should one wish to make any claims regarding the intellectual or social character of the Society, one must look to those who actually came to meetings, rather than to the totality of the membership.Less
This chapter contains biographical sketches of the members, together with a record of attendance and non-attendance at the meetings, and brief commentary. The men who met at the Chapter Coffee House, and later the Baptist Head Coffee House, regarded themselves as natural philosophers. Of the fifty two identified members, thirty three are included in the Dictionary of National Biography, thirty three were Fellows of the Royal Society of London, seven were Fellows of the Society of Antiquaries of London, twenty two had the degree of MD, and medical fellowships from London or Edinburgh were also common among the members. Not all those listed as members attended even one meeting. The author suggests that should one wish to make any claims regarding the intellectual or social character of the Society, one must look to those who actually came to meetings, rather than to the totality of the membership.
William Gillies
- Published in print:
- 2005
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780748622818
- eISBN:
- 9780748653362
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748622818.003.0015
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Scottish Studies
This chapter discusses the completion of the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (DOST) and its many applications. DOST is a matter of palpable national pride for the Scottish public. Possessing ...
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This chapter discusses the completion of the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (DOST) and its many applications. DOST is a matter of palpable national pride for the Scottish public. Possessing DOST along with the Scottish National Dictionary for post-Union usage bring Scotland finally into line with majority of European countries which have a vernacular literary history and historical records worth talking about. The chapter also describes how the lexicographer's work is never truly ends; that even as work on DOST was winding down, there were already mounting piles of slips containing material needed for the revision of earlier parts of the alphabet.Less
This chapter discusses the completion of the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (DOST) and its many applications. DOST is a matter of palpable national pride for the Scottish public. Possessing DOST along with the Scottish National Dictionary for post-Union usage bring Scotland finally into line with majority of European countries which have a vernacular literary history and historical records worth talking about. The chapter also describes how the lexicographer's work is never truly ends; that even as work on DOST was winding down, there were already mounting piles of slips containing material needed for the revision of earlier parts of the alphabet.
Peter Gilliver
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199283620
- eISBN:
- 9780191826092
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199283620.003.0012
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Lexicography, Historical Linguistics
This chapter describes the two and a half decades following the completion of the 1933 Supplement. The main projects in English historical lexicography during this period were based outside Oxford, ...
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This chapter describes the two and a half decades following the completion of the 1933 Supplement. The main projects in English historical lexicography during this period were based outside Oxford, but many of them derived from or were related to the OED, and they are summarized here, including the Middle English Dictionary, the abortive Early Modern English Dictionary project, the Dictionary of American English, the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (both partially edited by William Craigie), and the Scottish National Dictionary. In Oxford, the compilation of the Oxford Latin Dictionary was the main activity of James Wyllie; in due course he was identified as an appropriate person to revise the Supplement to the OED, but this plan had to be abandoned following Wyllie’s breakdown, and the search for an alternative editor eventually settled on Robert Burchfield. The chapter concludes with the commencement of preparatory work for the new Supplement.Less
This chapter describes the two and a half decades following the completion of the 1933 Supplement. The main projects in English historical lexicography during this period were based outside Oxford, but many of them derived from or were related to the OED, and they are summarized here, including the Middle English Dictionary, the abortive Early Modern English Dictionary project, the Dictionary of American English, the Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (both partially edited by William Craigie), and the Scottish National Dictionary. In Oxford, the compilation of the Oxford Latin Dictionary was the main activity of James Wyllie; in due course he was identified as an appropriate person to revise the Supplement to the OED, but this plan had to be abandoned following Wyllie’s breakdown, and the search for an alternative editor eventually settled on Robert Burchfield. The chapter concludes with the commencement of preparatory work for the new Supplement.
Peter Gilliver
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- September 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199283620
- eISBN:
- 9780191826092
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199283620.001.0001
- Subject:
- Linguistics, Lexicography, Historical Linguistics
This book tells the history of the Oxford English Dictionary from its beginnings in the middle of the nineteenth century to the present. It explores the cultural background from which the idea of a ...
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This book tells the history of the Oxford English Dictionary from its beginnings in the middle of the nineteenth century to the present. It explores the cultural background from which the idea of a comprehensive historical dictionary emerged as a new concept in the lexicography of English, and traces the process of bringing this concept to fruition, from the first attempts to collect quotation evidence in the 1850s, under the auspices of the Philological Society of London, through the engagement of Oxford University Press as the Dictionary’s publisher, the appearance of the first printed fascicle in 1884, and various other publishing developments, to the launching of the OED as an online database in 2000 and beyond. It also examines the evolution of the lexicographers’ working methods, and provides much information about the individuals who have contributed to the project over the last century and a half. Numerous individual words, and their entries in the Dictionary, are also discussed.Less
This book tells the history of the Oxford English Dictionary from its beginnings in the middle of the nineteenth century to the present. It explores the cultural background from which the idea of a comprehensive historical dictionary emerged as a new concept in the lexicography of English, and traces the process of bringing this concept to fruition, from the first attempts to collect quotation evidence in the 1850s, under the auspices of the Philological Society of London, through the engagement of Oxford University Press as the Dictionary’s publisher, the appearance of the first printed fascicle in 1884, and various other publishing developments, to the launching of the OED as an online database in 2000 and beyond. It also examines the evolution of the lexicographers’ working methods, and provides much information about the individuals who have contributed to the project over the last century and a half. Numerous individual words, and their entries in the Dictionary, are also discussed.
