Re: Cleaning House

On Sun, May 06, 2007 at 12:52:26PM +0100, James Graham wrote:

> >  But I'd love to see anyone write a serious dictionary by simply
> >  and mechanically taking down whatever people say and then suggest
> >  everyone else should use it to learn to communicate ...
> 
> "The aim of the OED is to provide a record of how the English language 
> is and has been used in writing and in speech. Whether a word is new or 
> long obsolete, its meaning can only be determined by looking at examples 
> of it in use.
> 
> The first step in creating or revising an entry is therefore to collect 
> evidence of words and phrases in use from all over the English-speaking 
> world." [1]

  Indeed. See my use of the word "mechanically" above. This is exactly
  why I said to add a taxonomy element to HTML 5 - for authors clearly
  want it.

  But the OED, as I believe you would be hard pressed to deny, does
  not simply toss everything and anything they find into the dictionary
  without some rather careful consideration.

  Luckily.

-- 
 - Tina Holmboe

Received on Sunday, 6 May 2007 12:01:19 UTC