Dictionaries, Standardisation, and other somesuch stuff

This lesson, we’ll look at the process of standardisation – how language is gradually drawn into the ‘centrifugal middle’.

Don’t forget; since the dawn of forever, humans have displayed a need to establish hierarchies, and one of the ways in which we do this is by the quality of the language they use; think of all the convergence stuff from last year. It follows that there needs to be 'correct' and 'incorrect' ways of using language.

First of all, William Caxton, learn all about him here. I won’t expect you to do the commentary on how the language he uses differs from modern English, but I do want you to have a look at the completed example, as you struggled a little with it the other week in your first attempt. Do have a go at tasks one, two and three, all underneath the tale of the merchant. I’m not going to bang on about him too much, and I expect you to be able to evaluate his technological importance.

Next up – Samuel Johnson! The big dog! (Although, you’ll lose points in a pub quiz for saying he was the first one to list words and their meanings...) When you read pp108-111 in your coursebooks, you might be a bit surprised by Johnson’s ideas about language change – what does he say?

Since the dictionary is generally seen to be the final arbiter in all disputes, how about that Urban Dictionary? Have a read of a useful article about it here. The question is, how much do you agree with Jonathon Green, the slang expert who seems a bit cheesed off that he’s being crowd-sourced out of his title?  You might want to think about the authenticity / reliability of urban dictionary, and especially compare it with the process by which words enter the OED. How do I know the entries in Urban Dictionary are accurate?

After that, have a look at this article that appeared in the Telegraph, concerning the new words that have been accepted into the OED. In particular, have a look at the gold in the comments section, namely from a guy named rolf (if he’s so in love with the old school rules, then why doesn’t he capitalise his name?). Decide for yourself – should the OED attempt to prescribe language usage, or should it attempt to reflect current language use? Also, just to cause a row... should <3 have been included? (To see what the OED have to say about their role as arbiters, check this out – paragraph three gives a neat summing up)

In the back of your minds, you should always be thinking of the diagram in the back of the classroom – does everything we have covered today fit in with our model of moving away from larger authoritarian structures toward a more individualistic one?

Finally finally – if putting your surname into Urban Dictionary doesn’t produce the required lulz, then you may well want to check out the Profanisaurus, as listed on the side of this page. There’s your language change right there, buddy.