Book contents
- Standardising English
- Standardising English
- Copyright page
- Contents
- List of Figures, Maps and Tables
- List of Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Part I Norms and Margins: Ideology and Concepts
- Part II Norms and Margins: A Historical Perspective
- 4 Norms and Rules in the History of Grammar: French and English Handbooks in the Seventeenth Century
- 5 The End of Toleration? Language on the Margins in Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language
- 6 Eighteenth-Century Pronouncing Dictionaries: Reflecting Usage or Setting Their Own Standard?
- 7 Setting a Standard: Authors and Sources in the OED
- 8 Conflicting Linguistic Norms in the Letters of Virginian Soldiers during the American Civil War
- 9 Correcting English: Josephine Turck Baker (1873–1942) and the Early American Usage Guide Tradition
- Part III Norms and Margins: Moving into the Twenty-First Century
- Author Index
- Subject Index
- References
7 - Setting a Standard: Authors and Sources in the OED
from Part II - Norms and Margins: A Historical Perspective
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 March 2018
Book contents
- Standardising English
- Standardising English
- Copyright page
- Contents
- List of Figures, Maps and Tables
- List of Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Part I Norms and Margins: Ideology and Concepts
- Part II Norms and Margins: A Historical Perspective
- 4 Norms and Rules in the History of Grammar: French and English Handbooks in the Seventeenth Century
- 5 The End of Toleration? Language on the Margins in Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language
- 6 Eighteenth-Century Pronouncing Dictionaries: Reflecting Usage or Setting Their Own Standard?
- 7 Setting a Standard: Authors and Sources in the OED
- 8 Conflicting Linguistic Norms in the Letters of Virginian Soldiers during the American Civil War
- 9 Correcting English: Josephine Turck Baker (1873–1942) and the Early American Usage Guide Tradition
- Part III Norms and Margins: Moving into the Twenty-First Century
- Author Index
- Subject Index
- References
Summary
As the first English dictionary based on comprehensive quotation evidence, the OED (1884-1928) created a lexicographical revolution. From just under two million quotations in the first edition, the OED now has around three million. This quotation evidence is central to the dictionary’s claim to lexicographical authority. The quotations are not just illustrative of meaning, they are constitutive. The choices of quotations along with their description and labelling have influenced the dictionary’s content. These choices have affected the ‘standard’ set by OED. The first edition lexicographers favoured canonical, male-authored literary sources, underquoting the eighteenth century and overquoting the late-sixteenth. Their definitions reflect contemporary views on race, sex, gender and politics, thus partly departing from their own avowed allegiance to linguistic descriptivism. This is changing with the OED’s revision that began online publication in 2000 and is to be completed in another twenty years. This chapter examines quotation sources in the OED throughout its three editions, along with the definitions, labels, and editorial notes supplied to entries by a succession of editors.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Standardising EnglishNorms and Margins in the History of the English Language, pp. 127 - 143Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2018
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