Empire of Words: The Reign of the OED - John Willinsky - Hardcover

What is the meaning of a word? Most readers turn to the dictionary for authoritative meanings and correct usage. But what is the source of authority in dictionaries? Some dictionaries employ panels of experts to fix meaning and prescribe usage, others rely on derivation through etymology. But perhaps no other dictionary has done more to standardize the English language than the formidable twenty-volume "Oxford English Dictionary in its 1989 second edition. Yet this most Victorian of modern dictionaries derives its meaning by citing the earliest known usage of words and by demonstrating shades of meaning through an awesome database of over five million examples of usage in context. In this fascinating study, John Willinsky challenges the authority of this imperial dictionary, revealing many of its inherent prejudices and questioning the assumptions of its ongoing revision. "Clearly, the OED is no simple record of the language as she is spoke, '" Willinsky writes. "It is a selective representation reflecting certain elusive ideas about the nature of the English language and people. "Empire of Words reveals, by statistic and table, incidWillinsky, John is the author of 'Empire of Words: The Reign of the OED - John Willinsky - Hardcover' with ISBN 9780691037196 and ISBN 0691037191.