![]() chuck a fit or chuck a tread, connected to his chuck v.(1), and then compounds such as "chuck bread," derived forms such as chucked adj. In the 2005 Cassell's, after the various entries for bare forms of the word come a variety of undifferentiated phrases and compounds in alphabetical order: first a number of phrases having the form chuck a -, e.g. (Green divides these into a number of homographs for both the noun and the verb.) In each volume, these take up over three columns of type. The new volume adopts a more traditional lexicographic treatment, with various types of derived forms (affixed terms, compounds, phrases, etc.) presented in sections underneath the main lemma to which they are associated.įor example, take the entries around chuck. It also made it rather more difficult to correlate entries though the etymologies referred each lemma to its source, the monolithic structure obscured these connections. This may have increased the main-entry count of the volume, but it also made the volume look amateurishly glossarial. Previous editions had presented every lemma, regardless of type (single words, compounds, phrases) or origin, as a main entry, in alphabetical order. ![]() ![]() Most prominently, the Chambers book features an entirely new, and much more helpful and sophisticated, way of structuring the entries. The Chambers Slang Dictionary is in many ways a third edition of the Cassell's (though is not so declared), from a new publisher, but there are enough major differences to merit a new look. Including slang from all English-speaking countries, dated entries, and historical as well as modern terms, the Cassell's dictionary became the one-volume dictionary of choice for the serious student of slang. Green, a highly prolific journalist and author of many books, often about language, produced his first slang dictionary in 1984, but it was the Cassell's Dictionary of Slang (1998 second edition, 2005) that truly established him as a serious presence. For the middle part of the last century, it was the Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, (1937 and later editions) by the New Zealand-born Eric Partridge, that was the representative of the comprehensive one-volume slang dictionary now, it is Jonathon Green's Chambers Slang Dictionary. This is no criticism until recently the academy had little interest in slang, and it was up to diligent enthusiasts, rather than linguistically trained scholars, to study this lexis. Traditionally, the most prominent slang dictionaries have been written by what are often called "amateurs," which is to say people outside of the academy who rely primarily on book sales, rather than university appointments, for their income.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |