• See large image

  Dictionaries (Very Short Introductions) (Paperback) By (author) Lynda Mugglestone

  

  $12.07 - Save $0.63 (4%) - RRP $12.70 Free delivery worldwide (to United States and
  all these other countries) Usually dispatched within 48 hours Add to basket | Add to wishlist |

  Short Description for DictionariesDictionaries are far more than works which list the words and meanings of a language. In this Very Short Introduction Lynda Mugglestone takes a look at how dictionaries are made, considering how they reflect the dominant social and cultural assumptions of the time in which they were written.
  Full description

  • Publisher: Oxford University Press
  • Published: 25 September 2011
  • Format: Paperback 160 pages
  • See: Full bibliographic data
  • Categories: Language: History & General Works | Linguistics | Lexicography
  • ISBN 13: 9780199573790 ISBN 10: 0199573794
  • Sales rank: 179,112

• The Oxford History of English

  

  Add to basket $28.11 - Save $0.51 (1%) - RRP $28.62

• The Story of English

  

  Add to basket $6.03 - Save $8.26 57% off - RRP $14.29

• Amo, Amas, Amat... and All That

  

  Add to basket $12.07 - Save $0.63 (4%) - RRP $12.70

• Planet Word

  

  Add to basket $33.25 - Save $6.50 (16%) - RRP $39.75

• The First English Dictionary of ...

  

  Add to basket $19.62 - Save $1.04 (5%) - RRP $20.66

Full description for Dictionaries

• Do, or should, dictionaries control language? How do they treat language change, both now and in the past? Which words do dictionaries leave out - and on what grounds? Dictionaries are far more than works which list the words and meanings of a language. In this Very Short Introduction Lynda Mugglestone shows that all dictionaries are partial and all are selective. They are human products, reflecting the dominant social and cultural assumptions of the time in which they were written. Dictionaries exist then not only as works which seek to document language, but also as cultural documents that are connected to the world in which they were produced. Exploring common beliefs about dictionaries, providing glimpses of behind the scenes dictionary makers at work, and confronting the problems of how a word is to be defined, Mugglestone shows that dictionaries are always, and inevitably, more than the crafting of a simple list of words. Concluding with a look at the range of modern dictionaries and transformations, from online dictionaries such as urbandictionary.com or wictionary to txt-spk and slang, she reveals the controversial nature of the debates about communication and language, showing that only in written and spoken English does the language of dictionaries exist in full.