Paper details
The Oxford English Dictionary: Past, Present, and Future
Author
Peter Gilliver, Oxford University Press, United Kingdom
Documents to download
Foto přednášejícího / Picture Presentation
Abstract
The Oxford English Dictionary as it exists today is the end product of more than a century and a half of collective effort by thousands of people. This presentation tells the story of this project, from the earliest ideas about a comprehensive historical dictionary of English in the middle of the nineteenth century, to the creation of the twelve volumes of the first edition in 1884–1928, the appearance of the second edition in 1989, the transformation of the paper dictionary into electronic form, and on to the great research project which is revising the dictionary today. It will look at the resources and techniques used to compile and revise dictionary entries, and how the transformation of the dictionary into an online database has transformed the ways in which it may be used. Finally, it will briefly consider future developments.
Author's professional CV
Peter Gilliver has been working on the Oxford English Dictionary since 1987. He is also writing a history of the project, to be published by OUP. He is the co-author (with fellow lexicographers Jeremy Marshall and Edmund Weiner) of The Ring of Words: Tolkien and the Oxford English Dictionary (2006), and he has written numerous articles and conference papers on the Dictionary and its history.
