David Skinner (1)
Autor de The Story of Ain't: America, Its Language, and the Most Controversial Dictionary Ever Published
Para otros autores llamados David Skinner, ver la página de desambiguación.
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Conocimiento común
- Género
- male
- Nacionalidad
- USA
- Lugares de residencia
- Alexandria, Virginia, USA
- Ocupaciones
- editor (Weekly Standard, Doublethink, Humanities)
journalist - Agente
- Sagalyn, Rafe
O'Neill, Shannon (Sagalyn Agency)
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The story of ain't : America, its language, and the… por David Skinner
An interesting background history of Webster’s third, the controversial dictionary that helped ignite the debate on whether dictionaries should be descriptive or prescriptive.
Besides the two quibbles I already stated, I had some problems with this. It seems as though Skinner's starting point on the whole issue might have been David Foster Wallace's essay on the dictionary in [b:Consider the Lobster and Other Essays|6751|Consider the Lobster and Other Essays|David Foster Wallace|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344266666s/6751.jpg|2207382]. I say seems because Wallace is mentioned in the into (I think) and in the last chapter, and the essay isn't really discussed at length.
You know what is covered at length? The political, professional, and romantic history of Macdonald, a guy who wrote an essay bashing Webster's Third when it came out. By contrast, the actual business of crafting the new dictionary is given fairly short shrift. It is meticulous, and tedious. The editorial room was kept quiet. The most enlivening detail was that smoking was permitted in the restroom, which was therefor a common hang-out.
Yes, I'm nerdy, but I'm really interested in the dictionary stuff. At least as much as someone who's never been taught English grammar could be, because I never really did understand the "shall" versus "will" issue. And since "ain't" is in the title, I would have expected the history of it to be a little more detailed. [turns out "ain't" had appeared in dictionaries before the third, so no big news there]
There was good stuff, too, besides smoking in the boy's room, but I can't recall it. It was buried under a cast of a gazillion middle-aged white guys, and irrelevant (to my interests) details about a failed bid to take over Merriam-Webster. Overall digressive info usually appeals, but this felt like misdirection: here's trivia about [a:Mary MacCarthy|502603|Mary MacCarthy|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-F-50x66-2a9d702c2a0f483c9f7dd119cc28a9a7.jpg]'s romantic life, pay no attention to the dictionary behind the curtain.
To be fair, maybe it's not Skinner, maybe it's me. I'm an OED fan, after all. If you are, too, read [b:The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary|25019|The Professor and the Madman A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary|Simon Winchester|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1349070925s/25019.jpg|1628566].
Library copy.… (más)
You know what is covered at length? The political, professional, and romantic history of Macdonald, a guy who wrote an essay bashing Webster's Third when it came out. By contrast, the actual business of crafting the new dictionary is given fairly short shrift. It is meticulous, and tedious. The editorial room was kept quiet. The most enlivening detail was that smoking was permitted in the restroom, which was therefor a common hang-out.
Yes, I'm nerdy, but I'm really interested in the dictionary stuff. At least as much as someone who's never been taught English grammar could be, because I never really did understand the "shall" versus "will" issue. And since "ain't" is in the title, I would have expected the history of it to be a little more detailed. [turns out "ain't" had appeared in dictionaries before the third, so no big news there]
There was good stuff, too, besides smoking in the boy's room, but I can't recall it. It was buried under a cast of a gazillion middle-aged white guys, and irrelevant (to my interests) details about a failed bid to take over Merriam-Webster. Overall digressive info usually appeals, but this felt like misdirection: here's trivia about [a:Mary MacCarthy|502603|Mary MacCarthy|http://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/nophoto-F-50x66-2a9d702c2a0f483c9f7dd119cc28a9a7.jpg]'s romantic life, pay no attention to the dictionary behind the curtain.
To be fair, maybe it's not Skinner, maybe it's me. I'm an OED fan, after all. If you are, too, read [b:The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary|25019|The Professor and the Madman A Tale of Murder, Insanity and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary|Simon Winchester|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1349070925s/25019.jpg|1628566].
Library copy.… (más)
Few decades have caused more controversy than the 1960s, a time of explosive change in which tradition and authority gave way to freedom - a sweeping transformation crystalized in the 1961 publication of "Webster's Third New International Dictionary".
A fascinating cultural history and an insightful look at the politics of lexicography.
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- 2
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- 251
- Popularidad
- #91,086
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- 3.5
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- 8
- ISBNs
- 34