How a dictionary writer defines English

Summary

This Vox video features Kory Stamper, an associate editor at Merriam Webster, who gives an insight into the intriguing world of dictionary writing. Stamper explains her role is not to police language but to document it, capturing English as it evolves rather than dictating its use. She discusses the everyday processes of reading and marking and defining, explaining how words like 'korma' find a place in the dictionary. The video emphasizes the distinction between prescriptivism and descriptivism and articulates why the latter is more aligned with how dictionaries function. Stamper illustrates the living nature of language and highlights the importance of embracing all facets of English for its continued evolution.

Highlights

• Dictionary writing isn't about language policing, it's about documentation. ✍️
• Kory Stamper’s role is to document and reflect the real usage of language. 📚
• Words need to be widely used, have staying power, and a real meaning to be included. 🧐
• English is akin to a river, ever-changing and evolving with its currents. 🌊
• Descriptivism embraces language's organic growth unlike prescriptivism. 🌱

Key Takeaways

• Language isn't policed by dictionary writers, they document it for record. 📚
• Words need widespread usage, longevity, and meaningful usage to make it to the dictionary. 🗣️
• English is an evolving entity, much like a river with its many dialects adding to its flow. 🌊
• Descriptivism in dictionaries is about recording current use rather than ideal use. 📖
• Stamper’s job is to update and maintain the dictionary without imposing rigid structures. 🖋️

Overview

Kory Stamper leads us into the realm of dictionary writing, shedding light on her fascinating role at Merriam Webster. Her work is not about dictating how language should be used; it’s about documenting how it’s actually utilized. Stamper emphasizes that she’s not there to police the words people utter but to record their real-world applications. This process includes two primary activities: reading and marking, where editors rifle through sources for interesting language, and defining, where they ensure dictionary entries correctly mirror actual usage.

The video delves into the criteria necessary for a word to find its way into the dictionary. These include widespread use in different contexts, sustainability in a language's lexicon over time, and having a definable meaning. Stamper illustrates this with the example of 'korma,' which despite being an old word resurfaced due to a rise in its culinary use. Such tales exemplify the dynamic and organic growth of English, akin to a river enriched by various dialects and influences.

Stamper tackles the prescriptive versus descriptive approach, advocating for the latter as it resonates with the constantly evolving nature of English. Words like 'irregardless' make it into dictionaries not because they’re deemed correct, but because they're used. Language is compared to a child or river, growing unpredictably but valuably. Each dialect or slang is a vital current in English’s flow, and understanding that enhances our appreciation of its beautiful complexity.

How a dictionary writer defines English Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 When you spend all day in English and everything around you is words, you know, I imagine it's like being a podiatrist where like the whole world is feet. My name is Kory Stamper. I'm an associate editor at Merriam Webster, where I write dictionary definitions, and my new book is called “Word by Word: The Secret Life of Dictionaries.” For a while, people would ask what I did and I would just say I work in publishing, because
• 00:30 - 01:00 the minute I said, “Oh, I write dictionaries,” the first two things out of their mouth were, "Oh that's so cool," and, "Oh my God, I better watch what I say around you." Which was so sad to me because that's not my job. My job isn’t to police what people say, or how people talk, or things that people write even. My job is to record the language and not impose some sort of order on it.
• 01:00 - 01:30 I kept my practice defining slips. So, every definer, you practice writing dictionary definitions. There is one in here that I kept because it was the only definition the director of defining said, “Oh, that’s pretty good,” and didn’t mark up. And that is “bird strike”, which I defined as a collision in which a bird or flock of birds hits the engine of an aircraft. The editorial floor is incredibly quiet.
• 01:30 - 02:00 Not just really quiet, but sort of sepulchrally quiet. And you also know that when people are looking up, if you happen to be walking by someone’s cubicle and they’re looking up and staring at nothing, you know that you absolutely should not interrupt them. So there's two different processes that go behind it. The first is a daily thing, and that’s called reading and marking. And that’s where editors spend some time every day basically reading sources. And you’re reading sources to find new or interesting vocabulary.
• 02:00 - 02:30 The second part is defining. So when we revise a dictionary, we go through it A to Z, and you take all the instances for the word you’re looking up.You’re matching up the word and its contextual use with the existing dictionary definition. Sprachgefühl is a German word that we borrowed into English. It's a word that refers to the feeling for language. You have to be able to look at a sentence and know that "planting out the lettuce" is
• 02:30 - 03:00 different from "planting information." It’s really sort of where you can look at the warp and weft of language and read it. So for a word to get into the dictionary, it needs to meet three basic criteria. The first criteria is widespread use. If something’s used in the Wall Street Journal and Vibe, then you figure that’s pretty
• 03:00 - 03:30 widespread use. The second one is it needs to have a shelf life. Once words get into the dictionary, they tend to stay in dictionaries. The shelf life of a word really depends. There are other words that have very very little use for a lot of time and then suddenly have tons of use. The indian word korma is a great example. It first was used in English back in the 1830s or 1840s, and it had very very very little
• 03:30 - 04:00 use, really until the 1990s when people started eating lots of Indian food. So korma’s a more recent addition to the dictionary, even though it’s almost 200 years old at this point. The third criteria is a word has to have meaningful use — which means it has to have a meaning. The example I trot out is antidisestablishmentarianism — “Freddy, can you spell antidisestablishmentarianism?” “Uh...no.” — which most people know as a long word, but it doesn’t get used much in print.
• 04:00 - 04:30 It gets used as an example of a long word. “Antidisestablishmentarianism.” [Laughter from crowd] You want to make sure that the word has a meaning and is not just an example of letters smushed together. People think of English as something that needs to be defended. It's this beautiful pristine tower...actually it's much more like a child.
• 04:30 - 05:00 It’s an organic, living thing. You bring English into being, and then the minute that it gains gross motor skills, it goes right where you don't want it to go. So there are two main approaches to language. One is prescriptivism, one is descriptivism. Prescriptivism essentially promotes the best practices of English. Prescriptivism is, by its nature, exclusionary. Descriptivism on the other hand, as an approach to language, it follows where language goes.
• 05:00 - 05:30 Dictionaries exist on more of the descriptivist end of the spectrum. Dictionaries record language as it is used, not as you think it should be used. “Irregardless.” “Not a word.” “Well, irregardless of that.” Irregardless is a word that people have a specific and vehement hatred for. Irregardless, really for about 150, 175 years has been pegged as being uneducated, hickish,
• 05:30 - 06:00 representative of people who don’t speak English very well. It's also entered into dictionaries, which just infuriates people. It does me no good as a lexicographer to enter irregardless into the dictionary if I don't tell you that when you use it, people are going to think you're a moron. So all dictionaries are descriptivist and prescriptivist.
• 06:00 - 06:30 “It’s too dangerous.” What is the drama with decimate? “With the soul sword activated, Valentine could decimate the entire downworld.” It is a favorite of people called etymological fallicists, who believe that modern words should only mean what they meant in their origin language. Decimate comes from a Latin verb that means to select and kill one tenth of. You just don't really need a word that refers to selecting and killing one tenth of all
• 06:30 - 07:00 that often. So decimate gained what’s called an extended sense, which means that people began using it to refer to widespread devastation, or killing of a bunch of people. They also will ignore things, like that the word stew used to mean whorehouse. Nobody says, “I hate that we call this chunky soup stew, stew should only be used to refer to a whorehouse.” They want English to be pure.
• 07:00 - 07:30 And in their minds, purity means that you stick to the root word as closely as you can. And that’s fine, except that’s just not how English works. People think of English as this monolithic thing, but it’s really not, it's much more like a river. Every dialect of English is its own current.
• 07:30 - 08:00 And all of these currents come together to make this fairly cohesive looking ribbon of water. But every one of those is integral to the direction of English. Controlling water’s pretty difficult. If you say, well, you know, “Youth slang really is stupid, and there’s no point in paying attention to it,” you’re actually stopping this really vital way that new words come into English. If you say business jargon is ugly and stupid, and no one should ever use business jargon,
• 08:00 - 08:30 I might agree with you, but that’s also another important part of how words come into English, and that’s an important way that words are created. This idea of English being a river really sort of celebrates that every single part of the language is important for the whole. It's all part of the same thing, you need all of it for it to survive.
• 08:30 - 09:00 I am so happy to explain what those dots in the middle of the words are. Those dots in the middle of the words are not marking syllables. What they are is for people who have to break a word. So the whole word won’t fit on a line, so they have to find a place to put the hyphen and put the rest of the word. If you walk away and that’s all you remember of this, you will make every dictionary editor the happiest person in the world.