Items related to Conversations on Dictionaries

Conversations on Dictionaries - Softcover

 
9781009392396: Conversations on Dictionaries
Softcover
ISBN 10: 1009392395 ISBN 13: 9781009392396
Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2025

Synopsis

How did dictionaries come to be? When and how did they originate in a specific language? Who was involved in that origin story? How have they evolved over time? What is the tension between scholarly and commercial, and between prescriptive and descriptive, dictionaries? What is the politics behind each dictionary? And what is the connection between dictionaries and nation-building? This fascinating book has the answers. It brings together a collection of conversations with leading lexicographers from around the world to explore the role dictionaries have played in history, comparing the parallel histories of lexicography in twenty different languages. The conversations explore the way dictionaries, which preserve language while contributing to their standardization, are always political in nature, prescribing some words while cancelling others. Covering major world languages, indigenous languages, and hybrid languages, this is essential reading for academic researchers and students of lexicography, and professional and trainee professional lexicographers.

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About the Author

Ilan Stavans is the Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities and Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College, the publisher of Restless Books, and an advisor to the Oxford English Dictionary. His recent publications include How Yiddish Changed America and How America Changed Yiddish (2020), and The People's Tongue (2023).

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Publication date
2025
Language
English
ISBN 10 
1009392395
ISBN 13 
9781009392396
Binding
Paperback
Number of pages
322
Editor
Stavans Ilan