Year: 2009
Type: article
Abstract: Lexicographers often provide an account of their working practices and policies, and reviewers and researchers generally take this on trust. Forensic dictionary analysis uses evidence-based methodologies to interrogate the dictionaries themselves about decision-making processes involved in their compilation. The version of events that this reveals is sometimes quite different from compilers’ accounts. This paper builds on a variety of approaches in historical dictionary research—statistical, textual, contextual, and qualitative—to present forensic dictionary analysis as a technique that allows researchers to examine and understand the complex relationships between editorial policy and lexicographic practice.
DOI: 10.1093/ijl/ecn048
Authors: J. Coleman, S. Ogilvie
Institutions: University of Leicester, University of Oxford
Language: English
Subfield: Language and Linguistics
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Award: G7579629536
OpenAlex ID: W2083364261