Book contents
- Conversations on Dictionaries
- Conversations on Dictionaries
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Ancient Greek
- 2 Esperanto
- 3 German
- 4 Chinese
- 5 Hybrid Languages
- 6 English
- 7 French
- 8 Italian
- 9 Arabic
- 10 Hebrew
- 11 Indigenous Languages
- 12 Irish
- 13 African Languages
- 14 Nahuatl
- 15 Yiddish
- 16 Portuguese
- 17 Japanese
- 18 Russian
- 19 Quechua
- 20 Scandinavian
- 21 Spanish
- Epilogue
- Index
- References
6 - English
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 December 2025
Edited by
Book contents
- Conversations on Dictionaries
- Conversations on Dictionaries
- Copyright page
- Epigraph
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Contributors
- Introduction
- 1 Ancient Greek
- 2 Esperanto
- 3 German
- 4 Chinese
- 5 Hybrid Languages
- 6 English
- 7 French
- 8 Italian
- 9 Arabic
- 10 Hebrew
- 11 Indigenous Languages
- 12 Irish
- 13 African Languages
- 14 Nahuatl
- 15 Yiddish
- 16 Portuguese
- 17 Japanese
- 18 Russian
- 19 Quechua
- 20 Scandinavian
- 21 Spanish
- Epilogue
- Index
- References
Summary
This conversation between Ilan Stavans and Peter Gilliver ranges over various aspects of historical lexicography – specifically with reference to the Oxford English Dictionary – and other matters relating to: the evolution of English (and Englishes); the history of dictionaries; the place and significance of dictionaries within English-speaking culture; and the practicalities and pragmatics of the compilation of a dictionary (and how these have changed over time, viewed from the perspective of a career spent working on a single project).
Information
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Conversations on DictionariesThe Universe in a Book, pp. 72 - 82Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2025
References
Suggested Readings
Cowie, A. P., ed. The Oxford History of English Lexicography. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Durkin, Philip, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Lexicography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.Google Scholar
Gilliver, Peter. The Making of the Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, Jonathon. Chasing the Sun: Dictionary-Makers and the Dictionaries They Made. London: Jonathan Cape, 1996.Google Scholar
Martin, Peter. The Dictionary Wars: The American Fight over the English Language. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2019.Google Scholar
McMorris, Jenny. The Warden of English: The Life of H. W. Fowler. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Mugglestone, Lynda, ed. Lexicography and the OED: Pioneers in the Untrodden Forest. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murray, K. M. Elisabeth. Caught in the Web of Words: James Murray and the Oxford English Dictionary. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1977.Google Scholar
Ogilvie, Sarah, ed. The Cambridge Companion to English Dictionaries. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shea, Ammon. Reading the OED: One Man, One Year, 21,730 Pages. New York: Perigee, 2008.Google Scholar
Simpson, John. The Word Detective: A Life in Words from Serendipity to Selfie. London: Little, Brown, 2016.Google Scholar
Stamper, Kory. Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries. New York: Pantheon, 2018.Google Scholar
Winchester, Simon. The Surgeon of Crowthorne. London: Viking, 1998. Published in the US as The Professor and the Madman.Google Scholar
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