Quotation: Erin McKean redefines the dictionary

2010年2月17日星期三

Love makes things real. If you love a word, use it. That makes it real.

oNi 提到...: "How do I know if a word is real?"

If we are worrying less about control and more about description.

Love makes things real. If you love a word, use it. That makes it real.; 2010年2月20日凌晨4:24
oNi 提到...: The Internet is actually made up of words and enthusiasm. And words and enthusiasm actually happen to be the recipe for lexicography.

So there are a lot of really good word-collecting sites out there right now, but the problem with some of them is that they're not scientific enough. They show the word, but they don't show any context: Where did it come from? Who said it? What newspaper was it in? What book?

Because a word is like an archaeological artifact. If you don't know the provenance or the source of the artifact, it's not science -- it's a pretty thing to look at. So a word without its source is like a cut flower.; 2010年2月20日凌晨4:24
oNi 提到...: And the thing is, if we can put in all the words, no longer have that artificial distinction between good and bad, we can really describe the language like scientists. We can leave the aesthetic judgments to the writers and the speakers. If we can do that, then I can spend all my time fishing and I don't have to be a traffic cop anymore.; 2010年2月20日凌晨4:25

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