Oxford and the Dictionary [PDF Library]

3 Oxford and the Dictionary  Dictionar y  Our range o over 500 dictionaries, thesauruses, and language reerence works caters or the needs o very young children up to the accomplished academic, and or speakers o dierent languages across the world.

Dierent types o dictionary ❖ The Oxord English Dictionary  – the denitive record o the English language since

1150 ❖ Dictionaries o current English or general reerence and academic study  ❖ Dictionaries or children and students to the age o 16, supporting dierent

curricula and international qualications such as the iGSCE ❖ Dictionaries or learning English – designed or learners o English as a oreign

language. These are published or dierent countries around the world. ❖ Bilingual dictionaries or people learning and using other languages. Oxord

publishes dictionaries in over 40 languages, rom modern European languages to classical languages, as well as languages rom around t he world, including Russian, Chinese, Japanese, Gujarati, and Swahili. ❖ Dictionaries looking at dierent varieties o English, such as Canadian, Australian,

and South Arican English

The Oxford English Dictionary  Perhaps the most amous English dictionary in the world is the Oxord English  Dictionary  (OED). The dictionary was the brain-child o the Philological Society o  London, whose members started collecting examples o word usage or what was to become the OED in the late 1850s. In 1879 Oxord University Press agreed to take over the work, appointing an editor and revitalizing the data collection: words and their meanings were sent to the dictionary’s oce or ‘scriptorium’ by members o the public on ‘slips’, creating what was then the  world’s largest paper-based corpus or word bank. The dictionary was published in instalments between 1884 and 1928, but it soon had to be expanded as new words and meanings continued to food into the language, and so over the period 1933-86 ve supplementary volumes were published. Today, the Oxord English Dictionary  is the accepted authority on the evolution o the English language over the last millennium. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation o over 600,000 words, both present and past. It traces the usage o words through 2.5 million quotations rom a wide range o international English language sources across the English-speaking  world, rom classic literature and specialist periodicals to lm scripts and cookery books. Entries also contain detailed etymological analysis, making the OED a unique historical record o the English language. The Second Edition o the OED is currently available as a 20-volume print edition, on CD-ROM, and also online, where the text is now or the rst time being completely revised to produce a Third Edition. Updated quarterly with some 2,500 new and revised entries, OED Online oers unparalleled access to ‘the greatest dictionary in any language’ ( Daily Telegraph ).

Dictionaries o current English or reerence and academic study Oxord publishes an extensive range o dictionaries to meet the changing needs o  dictionary users, including versions on CD-ROMs and online. The range includes dictionaries or students at college and university, dictionaries or amily reerence, and or use at work. The world-amous Concise Oxord English Dictionary , now in its eleventh edition, has been in print or over 90 years.

Dictionaries written specifcally or Children Oxord also prides itsel on creating dictionaries  with age-appropriate content. This is particularly  important or children when they are rst starting to use dictionaries. Through a rigorous approach o including child-riendly denitions, examples in the context o the younger audience’s experiences, and example sentences rom children’s literature spanning a century o works, the Oxord English  Dictionary or Schools leads the way and heads a complete range o children’s dictionaries or use at home and school.

Learning English as a Foreign Language In the 1940s, A.S. Hornby, an English Language teacher working in Japan, compiled the groundbreaking Oxord Advanced Learner’s Dictionary  (OALD). Hornby realized that people learning English as a oreign language need a special type o  dictionary: a learner’s dictionary. His ideas put the learners rst, providing clear explanations, example sentences, and help with using words correctly. Now in its seventh edition, and standing rm as the best-selling advanced learner’s dictionary or over 50 years, the OALD has more words, more synonyms, and more help than any other advanced learner’s dictionary.

Dictionaries or dierent varieties o English Oxord publishes dictionaries in a number o dierent countries, including: ❖  Australia and New Zealand – where

OUP publishes dictionaries and thesauruses or Primary and Secondary  schools. Monolingual dictionaries or adults and Higher Education are also available. There are also specic dictionaries developed or Primary  and Secondary schools in Papua New  Guinea. ❖ Canada – where OUP oers a range o 

monolingual Canadian dictionaries or the adult and school markets as well as companion thesauruses. ❖ China – or regional and international

markets, OUP China publishes EnglishChinese dictionaries and a broad range o college, academic, and general titles about and or China, again both in English and in Chinese. ❖ Malaysia – where OUP publishes local dictionaries in Malay, English, Chinese,

 Arabic, and Tamil. These are developed or Primary and Secondary schools. OUP also oers local learner’s and monolingual dictionaries developed or the adult and Higher Education markets. ❖ India – where OUP publishes bilingual dictionaries in Hindi, Bengali, Oriya,

Gujarati, Marathi, Kannada, etc. The range includes dictionaries or school and higher education students as well as the general reader. ❖ Pakistan – where OUP oers a range o English–Urdu dictionaries or the general

reader and school students. Dictionaries or Sindhi speakers are in development. ❖ Kenya and Tanzania – where Kiswahili dictionaries have been created or Primary 

schools and or general readers. ❖ South Africa – where a wide range o local dictionaries are available or schools and

general readers. As well as monolingual local dictionaries, the new bilingual range includes dictionaries or speakers o Arikaans, IsiXhosa, IsiZulu, Siswati, Sepedi, Sesotho, and Setswana.

What makes an Oxford Dictionary? People nd dictionary-making ascinating. The 250th anniversary o Samuel Johnson’s  Dictionary  in 2005 was widely celebrated, and the recent BBC television series  Balderdash and Pife had a huge response to its call to viewers to help track down elusive word and phrase origins or the OED. But how are dictionaries written today?  And how do you know that what is included in a dictionary is accurate and up to date?

Oxord English Corpus – language research based on real evidence  A corpus is a collection o texts o written (or spoken) language presented in electronic orm. It provides the evidence o how language is used in real situations, rom which lexicographers can write accurate and meaningul dictionary entries. The Oxord  English Corpus is at the heart o dictionary-making in Oxord in the 21st century and ensures that OUP can track and record the very  latest developments in language today. By analysing the corpus and using special sotware, we can see words in context and nd out how new words and senses are emerging, as well as spotting other trends in usage, spelling, World English, and more. The Oxord English Corpus gives us the ullest, most accurate picture o the language today. It represents all types o English, rom literary novels and specialist journals to everyday newspapers and magazines as well as the language o chatrooms, emails, and  weblogs. And, as English is a global language, used by an estimated one third o the world’s population, the Oxord English Corpus contains language rom all parts o the world – not only rom the UK and the United States but also rom Australia, the Caribbean, Canada, India, Singapore, and South Arica. It is the largest English corpus o its type: the most representative slice o the English language available. Oxord Dictionaries are continually monitoring and researching how language is evolving. The Oxord English Corpus is central to the process and to Oxord’s £35 million research programme – the largest language research programme in the world. Meanings o words and phrases change and so do spellings, despite the existence o  ‘standard’ or ‘correct’ spelling. A strength o the corpus is that it contains not only  published works in which the text has been edited (and made to conorm to standard spellings and grammar) but also unpublished and unedited writing like emails and  weblogs.

The Oxord Reading Programme The Oxord Reading Programme exists to provide Oxord lexicographers with evidence o how words are used today in the English-speaking world, and to alert them to the emergence o new words. The programme maintains a network o voluntary and paid readers who provide editors  with quotations which illustrate how words are used. Until the 1990s the quotations  were kept on alphabetically led slips o paper. Now they are entered on a searchable database called ‘Incomings’ which currently contains some 62 million words; on average, 17,000 quotations are sent in by readers every month. The Oxord Reading Programme has its origins in the programme o reading that was started in 1857 or the Oxord English Dictionary .

The range and quality o an Oxord Dictionary is beyond compare. Whatever your language needs and abilities, Oxord University Press has a dictionary or you. To nd out more about the Oxord dictionaries available in your country, please visit  your local Oxord University Press website’s Dictionary section.