presentation definition according to oxford dictionary

Presentation Definition: A Comprehensive Guide

Table of contents, unraveling the presentation definition.

Presentation – a word frequently used in English, Spanish, Latin, French, and Arabic contexts, but what does it exactly mean? In this article, we delve into the definition of presentation , exploring its various facets and applications in different fields.

The Essence of Presentation: A Definition

What is a presentation.

A presentation is the act of presenting information or ideas to a group of people in a structured and deliberate manner, often with the aid of visual aids like PowerPoint, Keynote, or multimedia tools.

Presentations are a ubiquitous part of the professional, educational, and social landscape. The act of presenting, essentially communicating information and ideas to a group of people, has evolved significantly over time. This article explores the definition of a presentation, its various formats, the skills required to make it effective, and the nuances of a great presentation, all while weaving in an eclectic mix of keywords.

Historical Roots: From Latin to Modern Day

The Evolution from ‘Praesentātiō’ to ‘Presentation’

In its essence, a presentation is the act of presenting or displaying information or ideas to an audience. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as “the action or process of presenting something to someone.” In Latin, the term stems from ‘praesentātiō’, denoting the action of placing before or showing. This definition has broadened in modern English to encompass various methods of showcasing information, whether it’s a business pitch, an academic lecture, or introducing a new product.

The term has its origins in Latin (‘praesentātiō’), evolving through various languages like French and British English, symbolizing the act of presenting, displaying, or giving something to others.

Types and Formats of Presentations

Diverse Formats for Different Needs

Presentations can vary in formats – from formal PowerPoint presentations to informal Prez (an informal abbreviation of presentation) discussions, each tailored to suit specific requirements.

Enhancing Presentation Skills: A Guide

Mastering the Art of Presentation

Presentations come in various formats, from the traditional speech to more contemporary multimedia showcases. PowerPoint, a widely used tool, allows the integration of text, images, and graphs to create visually appealing slides. Similarly, Apple’s Keynote offers tools for creating impactful multimedia presentations. The inclusion of visual aids, like graphs and charts, enhances comprehension and retention. For those interested in learning Spanish, Arabic, or French, incorporating these languages in presentations can broaden audience reach.

Effective presentation skills involve a blend of clear communication, eye contact , engaging visual aids , and a confident delivery. These skills are crucial in both business and educational settings.

Presentation in the Digital Age: Multimedia and Keynote

Embracing Technology for Impactful Presentations

In the era of digital communication, tools like multimedia presentations and Apple’s Keynote software have become indispensable for creating dynamic and interactive presentations.

The Art of Visual Aids: Graphs and More

Using Graphs and Visuals Effectively

Effective presentations often include graphs and other visual aids to convey complex information in an easily digestible format, enhancing the audience’s understanding.

Presentation in Different Languages

A Multilingual Perspective

The concept of presentation transcends languages, from English to Arabic , each offering unique nuances in the art of presenting.

Presentation in Literature and Culture

Presentation Copy and Beyond

The term also appears in literary contexts, such as a “presentation copy” of a book, and in cultural scenarios like a “breech presentation” in childbirth, where the baby is positioned to exit the birth canal feet first.

Effective Presentation: Tips and Techniques

Crafting an Impactful Presentation

An effective presentation is more than just delivering facts; it involves engaging storytelling, structured key points , and the ability to connect with the audience.

To deliver an effective presentation, certain skills are paramount. English, being a global lingua franca, is often the preferred language for presentations. However, the ability to present in multiple languages, like Spanish or French, can be a significant advantage.

Eye contact is a crucial skill, establishing a connection with the audience and making the presentation more engaging. Additionally, the ability to read the room and adjust the presentation accordingly is vital.

Incorporating Quizzes and Group Activities

Interactive elements like quizzes can transform a presentation from a monologue into a dynamic group activity. They encourage participation and can be especially effective in educational settings. Quizzes can also be used in business presentations to gauge audience understanding or to introduce a new product.

Presentation in Educational Contexts

Learning Through Presentations

In educational settings, presentations are used as a tool for teaching and assessment, often involving quizzes and interactive sessions to enhance learning.

Synonyms and Related Terms

Exploring Synonyms and the Thesaurus

The thesaurus offers a range of synonyms for ‘presentation,’ such as exhibition, demonstration, and display, each with slightly different connotations.

The Thesaurus and Vocabulary Expansion

Utilizing a thesaurus can enrich presentation language, offering synonyms and example sentences to clarify points. The ‘word of the day’ concept, often found in English learning resources, can be an interesting addition to presentations, especially in multilingual contexts.

Historical and Specialized Types of Presentations

The term ‘presentation’ also has specialized meanings. In historical contexts, a ‘presentation copy’ refers to a book or manuscript gifted by the author. In obstetrics, ‘breech presentation’ denotes a situation where the baby is positioned to exit the birth canal feet or buttocks first. Understanding these specialized definitions enriches the overall grasp of the term.

Presentation in Business: Introducing a New Product

The Role of Presentation in Business

In business contexts, presentations are crucial for scenarios like introducing a new product , persuading investors, or communicating with stakeholders.

Word of the Day: Presentation

Expanding Vocabulary with ‘Presentation’

In language learning, ‘presentation’ can be a word of the day , helping learners understand its usage through example sentences and pronunciation (notated as /ˌprez.ənˈteɪ.ʃən/ in English).

Key Points and Summarization

An effective presentation distills complex information into key points, making it easier for the audience to remember the most important takeaways. Summarization skills are critical in achieving this clarity.

Cultural Influences and Adaptations

The concept of presentations varies across cultures. In Arabic-speaking countries, the style of presentation might differ significantly from that in English-speaking contexts. The benefice of understanding cultural nuances cannot be overstated, as it can significantly impact the effectiveness of a presentation.

The Role of Technology

Technology, particularly multimedia, plays a pivotal role in modern presentations. From PowerPoint slides to advanced software like Keynote, the use of technology has revolutionized the way information is presented. The integration of videos, sound, and interactive elements makes presentations more engaging and memorable.

Eye Contact and Body Language

In delivering a presentation, non-verbal cues like eye contact and body language are as important as the spoken content. Maintaining eye contact with the audience establishes a connection and keeps them engaged. Similarly, confident body language can convey authority and enthusiasm.

The Art of Storytelling

A great presentation often resembles storytelling. It’s not just about relaying facts; it’s about weaving a narrative that resonates with the audience. This involves understanding the audience’s needs and interests and tailoring the content accordingly.

Innovation and New Products

Presentations are often the first introduction of a new product to the market. The effectiveness of these presentations can make or break the product’s success. Highlighting the unique features and benefits in a clear, compelling manner is crucial.

The Power of Presentation

Presentations are a powerful tool for communication and education. Whether in a formal business setting or an informal educational environment, mastering the art of presentation can lead to more effective and impactful communication.

1. Oxford English Dictionary

2. Merriam-Webster Thesaurus

3. Apple Keynote User Guide

4. Presentation Techniques in Educational Literature

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## Frequently Asked Questions About Presentations

### What is in a presentation?

A presentation typically includes a combination of spoken words and visual aids such as PowerPoint slides, graphs, or multimedia elements. It’s an organized way to convey information or ideas to a group of people.

### What is meant by giving a presentation?

Giving a presentation refers to the act of presenting information or ideas to an audience. This act, known in various languages including English, Spanish, and French as ‘presentation’ (or ‘praesentātiō’ in Latin), involves communication skills, visual aids, and sometimes interactive elements like quizzes.

### What makes a good presentation?

A good presentation effectively communicates key points, engages the audience through eye contact and clear speech (often practiced as a ‘word of the day’ in English classes), uses visual aids like graphs, and is well-structured. Effective presentation skills are crucial for this.

### What are the types of presentation?

There are various types of presentations, including formal business presentations (often using PowerPoint or Keynote), educational lectures, sales pitches for a new product, and informal talks. Each type uses different formats and approaches.

### What are the 4 parts of a presentation?

The four main parts of a presentation are the introduction, the main body, the conclusion, and the Q&A session. Each part plays a vital role in delivering an effective presentation.

### What are the three things that a good presentation should do?

A good presentation should inform, engage, and persuade or inspire the audience. It’s about more than just delivering facts; it’s an act of communication that can change perspectives or encourage action.

### How is a presentation linked with multimedia?

Presentations often use multimedia elements like videos, audio clips, and animated graphs to enhance the viewer’s understanding and engagement. Multimedia tools like PowerPoint and Keynote are widely used in creating dynamic presentations.

### How long should a presentation be?

The length of a presentation can vary, but it’s typically between 15 to 30 minutes. The duration depends on the context and the amount of information to be covered. It’s important to keep presentations concise to maintain the audience’s attention.

These answers incorporate various aspects of presentations, including their definition, formats, and the skills required, in multiple languages and contexts, as seen in resources like Oxford dictionaries and thesaurus.

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presentation

Definition of presentation

• fairing [ British ]
• freebee
• largess

Examples of presentation in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'presentation.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Phrases Containing presentation

• breech presentation

Dictionary Entries Near presentation

present arms

presentation copy

Cite this Entry

“Presentation.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/presentation. Accessed 14 Apr. 2024.

Kids Definition

Kids definition of presentation, medical definition, medical definition of presentation, more from merriam-webster on presentation.

Nglish: Translation of presentation for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of presentation for Arabic Speakers

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about presentation

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Definition of 'presentation'

• presentation

Video: pronunciation of presentation

presentation in British English

Presentation in american english, examples of 'presentation' in a sentence presentation, cobuild collocations presentation, trends of presentation.

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Speech vs. presentation: What’s the difference?

• Written by: Joby Blume
• Categories: Visual communication , Industry insights
• Comments: 6

What’s the difference between a presentation and a speech? Many people use the words interchangeably, but there are two main areas of difference according to the dictionary definitions. Whether one accepts the dictionary definition is another matter – my four year-old daughter sometimes refuses – but that makes further discussion pretty difficult.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), a speech is defined as:

a formal address or discourse delivered to an audience

According to the Scrabble fan’s choice – the Collins English Dictionary – a speech is:

a talk or address delivered to an audience

Note that in the Collins definition, the part about being formal is missing.

Presentation

Both the Oxford English and Collins dictionaries define presentation as including some sort of visual element. The OED definition is:

a speech or talk in which a new product, idea, or piece of work is shown and explained to an audience

Note that this includes the word ‘shown’. The Collins definition is even clearer in explicitly mentioning the use of illustrative material:

a verbal report presented with illustrative material, such as slides, graphs, etc

The Collins Dictionary also notes how the word presentation is used more generally to talk about how things are  shown – ‘ the manner of presenting, esp the organization of visual details to create an overall impression’.

Presentations and speeches

Does the distinction hold perfectly? No. Firstly, people use the terms interchangeably, so of course the real world is full of speeches that are called presentations and presentations that are called speeches. Which leads to a natural blurring of the boundaries. Second, some presentations are very formal indeed, and some set-piece speeches (e.g. The State of the Union Address ) can have visuals added to them but without the orator interacting with them.

The boundaries aren’t sharp. But, according to the definition, a speech is a talk or address, and a presentation is a talk  with the use of some sort of visual aid. 

Speech vs. presentation

Why does this matter? Because giving a speech – for a lot of people – seems harder than giving a presentation. Bad slides are actually worse than no slides . But the reason so many speakers want slides or props is because they find it too hard to deliver speeches, and because effective visual aids makes it easier for them to get their points across.

Effective visuals – that  support  a speaker – make delivering presentations easier than delivering speeches for most people. Not everyone feels they can hold an audience with simply the sound of their own voice.

Great speeches are, well… great. But they aren’t the same as presentations, and shouldn’t be held up as examples of what those giving presentations should emulate.

P.S. For more on words and definitions, see Meaning and Necessity by Saul Kripke.

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Deference between speech and presentation

Speech Vs Presentation Vs Debate Compitation? Speech: Speech Eleborate In Your Ideas That You Have Crammed(Ratafication). Presetation:To Suggest Anything Infront Of All Student By Using Your Slides Its Own Way That You Have Worked For Project. Debate Compitation:To Disscuss Your Ideas With One Another..

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presentation

an act of presenting.

the state of being presented.

a social introduction, as of a person at court.

an exhibition or performance, as of a play or film.

offering, delivering, or bestowal, as of a gift.

a demonstration, lecture, or welcoming speech.

a manner or style of speaking, instructing, or putting oneself forward: His presentation was very poor.

Commerce . the presentment of a bill, note, or the like.

Obstetrics .

the position of the fetus in the uterus during labor.

the appearance of a particular part of the fetus at the cervix during labor: a breech presentation.

Ecclesiastical . the act or the right of presenting a member of the clergy to the bishop for institution to a benefice.

Origin of presentation

Other words from presentation.

• non·pres·en·ta·tion, noun
• self-pres·en·ta·tion, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use presentation in a sentence

And, he has never been one to shy away from grand presentations.

At least one of those presentations is usually a silent film with organ accompaniment.

Instead, designers tend to focus more on business, making sure buyers view the collections, and less on dramatic presentations.

She had seen one of his presentations at a scientific conference and had been intrigued.

"I asked them to do presentations at the Broadway Dance Center showing me their version of Runyonland," he recalls.

George Washington enjoyed dramatic presentations very much and on numerous occasions visited the Williamsburg Playhouse.

Thinking, he maintains, does not need language or sensuous presentations.

In assorting his stock of fibulæ, he was enabled to lay out a series of eight styles, each different, but with many presentations.

Many of them are faithful and accurate presentations of the great deeds done in that war.

Who is there now that can read the five columns of Presentations in his Morning Newspaper without a shudder?

British Dictionary definitions for presentation

/ ( ˌprɛzənˈteɪʃən ) /

the act of presenting or state of being presented

the manner of presenting, esp the organization of visual details to create an overall impression : the presentation of the project is excellent but the content poor

the method of presenting : his presentation of the facts was muddled

a verbal report presented with illustrative material, such as slides, graphs, etc : a presentation on the company results

an offering or bestowal, as of a gift

( as modifier ) : a presentation copy of a book

a performance or representation, as of a play

the formal introduction of a person, as into society or at court; debut

the act or right of nominating a clergyman to a benefice

med the position of a baby relative to the birth canal at the time of birth

commerce another word for presentment (def. 4)

television linking material between programmes, such as announcements, trailers, or weather reports

an archaic word for gift

philosophy a sense datum

(often capital) another name for (feast of) Candlemas

Derived forms of presentation

• presentational , adjective

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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Definition of presentation – Learner’s Dictionary

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presentation noun ( SHOW )

Presentation noun ( talk ), presentation noun ( ceremony ).

(Definition of presentation from the Cambridge Learner's Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Translations of presentation

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pitch-perfect

singing each musical note perfectly, at exactly the right pitch (= level)

Alike and analogous (Talking about similarities, Part 1)

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Presentation Definition & A Complete Guide For Beginners

Last updated on September 9th, 2023

For many people it might sound like a strange question, however, many beginners still find it a bit confusing to understand what a presentation is. This not only includes students learning about the art of presenting their ideas but also people across various cultures who find the concept alien. For example, if you ask an engineer to give a presentation about an engineering concept or design, he/she might find it difficult to switch gears to public speaking. Similarly, many people who work within a vacuum might suddenly be asked to present something, without having any prior experience of speaking before an audience  or using presentation software like PowerPoint . Let’s take a look at a basic presentation definition, followed by dictionary definitions, with a complete guide for beginners.

What is a Presentation?

A presentation in the context of public speaking can be described as an activity where a presenter presents his/her ideas, explains a process, provides information, or raises questions regarding a subject for public debate. There can be many definitions of a presentation, however, it can be basically narrowed down to the aforementioned.

Presentation Definitions

While there are many definitions of what a presentation is and what it entails, here are a few dictionary definitions about what a presentation is generally considered to be:

An activity in which someone shows, describes, or explains something to a group of people.

Source: Presentation Definition by  Merriam-Webster’s Learner’s Dictionary

A speech or talk in which a new product, idea, or piece of work is shown and explained to an audience.

Source:   Presentation Definition by Oxford Dictionary

A talk giving information about something.

Source:   Presentation Definition by Cambridge Dictionary

5 Different Types of Presentations

Presentations can be presented for different purposes. Before presenting a presentation, it is necessary that you have a clear idea regarding the purpose of the presentation. Below is an overview of some of the 5 most common types of presentations:

1. Informative

You might need to create an informative presentation to explain important details tied to a topic before an audience. This type of presentation might be brief, with essential information. Such a presentation is usually based on facts and avoids too many complicated details and assumptions.

Examples: Class lectures, research findings, technical information, results from experiments, etc.

2. Persuasive

A persuasive presentation is geared towards convincing the audience to believe a specific point of view. Such a presentation might conclude with a call to action.

Examples: Product demos, sales pitch, investor pitch, presentations on social issues, debates, etc.

3. Instructional

Such a presentation might be to provide an audience with instructions, such as regarding a process, or the use of a product. Such presentations are usually longer, as they require demonstrations and detailed explanation of each aspect of the topic.

Examples: Tutorials for using a software, device or machine, employee orientation presentations, explanation of a course syllabus, etc.

4. Arousing

This type of presentation is meant to make the audience think about a certain topic. This can be to appeal to the intellect and emotions of the audience to point them towards a certain point of view or to start a social debate.

Example: Religious speech, presentation about a taboo, motivational presentation, etc.

5. Decision Making

Some presentations are conducted with the sole aim of providing facts and figures to help the audience reach a decision. This might include a business presentation about say, market share, profits, project revenue and market competition; so that the board members might be able to decide a future course of action for the company.

Examples: Business meetings, presentation about legislation and laws, a SWOT analysis presentation, etc.

3 Different Means of Presenting Presentations

How a presentation is presented can be roughly divided into 3 main categories, i.e. oral, visual only oral and visual.

1. Oral Only

This might simply include a presenter speaking directly to the audience, without any visual aid. This type of presentation can be difficult, since it can be hard to grab audience attention without any visual aid. If you are looking to give an oral presentation, you must have very good presentation skills and a compelling story to tell your audience. In fact, your audience is likely to be more interested in your presentation if you can present your ideas, concepts and explanations like a story.

While it might seem unlikely that someone would resort to an audio only presentation, however, this too can be quite an effective method for creating a sense of mystery of making your audience pay more attention to the content of your presentation. Such a presentation might be presented in the form of a story, read out or played via an audio device.

2. Visual Only

This might include a set of images or a video playing out before an audience. Such a presentation might include slides or a video clip with text that the audience requires to read to understand the visuals, a silent animation with a symbolic message, a set of images played like a slideshow, and the like.

3. Visual & Oral

This is the most common method of presenting a presentation. Whether it is a presenter directly or remotely presenting a presentation, or a video presentation playing out before an audience, the use of both visual and an oral explanation is usually the most effective method for presenting a presentation. Such a presentation may also include background music, and audio effects to make the presentation more compelling.

Other than presentation software, and the use of devices like projectors, monitors and TV screens, visual and oral presentations might also include photographs, whiteboards, and handouts.

Commonly Used Pesentation Software, Platforms & Methods

Here are a few commonly used apps, platforms and methods used by presenters for making presentations.

Slide Decks

Nowadays, most people simply relate the word ‘presentation’ with a slide deck, typically created in PowerPoint. This includes various slides, each with bits of information. These slides are presented one by one, usually starting with a title slide, introduction of the topic, main content, followed by a conclusion. According to some estimates, 30 million PowerPoint presentations are created on a daily basis.

PowerPoint, Keynote , Prezi , and Google Slides are a few of the most famous presentation platforms for designing and presenting slide decks.

Video Presentations

Presentations can also have other forms, such as video presentations. These can include slides converted from PowerPoint to video format , video clips created using web apps like PowToon , YouTube videos, as well as elaborate videos produced using sophisticated video editing and production software.

Interactive Presentations

This type of presentation might include the ability of the audience to interact with the presenter or presentation in some way. For example, the audience might be given the chance to view the slide deck and react to certain parts of the presentation using apps, polls, quizzes, etc. Hence, these type of presentations might include mechanisms where a presenter is able to switch between content using interactive buttons, with some sort of user interaction.

Some platforms for making interactive presentations include; Articulate , Mindomo , Office Mix , etc. Also see out post about interactive audience response systems .

Beyond the digital sense, interactive presentations might include something as simple as a class lecture with student participation, or a presentation where the audience is actively engaged to work with the presenter in some way.

Webinars & Online Presentations

Online presentations and webinars usually include Live presentations presented using various internet based platforms. While many people also share their presentations online for universal viewing, using services like SlideShare, SlideOnline and AuthorStream, usually, the word online presentations is used for Live presentations presented remotely using the Internet. These may or may not include visual aid, however, usually presenters opt for PowerPoint slides presented via a number of remote meeting and  conferencing apps like Skype, Google Hangouts, Zoom , Join.me , TeamViewer, and the like.

Related: Also see our post about best screens sharing solutions for presenters .

Other than apps, some presenters might choose to go old school and use paper handouts, with an oral speech or discussion to present a presentation. This method is most likely to be used by teachers, such as when handing out an assignment where students might have to make use of the handouts to draw conclusions.

It is also worth mentioning here that some presenters like giving their audience handouts for their PowerPoint presentations so the audience can follow their slides more conveniently. These handouts might be distributed in the form of printed or digital handouts. You can learn more about the latter from our posts about digital handouts .

Whiteboards and Interactive Whiteboards

This too is a method most likely to be used by educators to teach students using either a real whiteboard or a digital one. The presenter might use a marker to draw diagrams, or write down points and explanations on the whiteboard to explain the topic.

There are also interactive whiteboards and apps which can aid audience participation and interactivity. Some examples include; Deekit , RealTime Board , and digital whiteboard devices.

The image below shows an interactive whiteboard by Smart Tech. This range of boards developed by Smart tech are called Smart Boards .

Live Demonstration

This method is most likely to be used for a sales presentation to show the utility of a product. Such presentations are common during promotional events organized by different companies, and governments (to promote businesses); such as Expo events. Live demos have also been one of the most commonly used methods for selling products by door to door salesmen.

The presentation definitions, types, methods, apps and devices mentioned in this post includes some common examples of how and why presentations are presented. If you’re a newbie looking to give a killer presentation at Office or school and find the above mentioned too overwhelming; we would simply recommend that you use PowerPoint for making slides to present before your audience.

You can pick a template from these thousands of free PowerPoint templates to choose the one most relevant for your topic, create a slide deck, and rehearse the presentation beforehand.

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Information

Us english pronunciations, key to pronunciation.

Pronunciation Model

Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence petal /ˈpɛd(ə)l/ but petally /ˈpɛdl̩.i// .

Other symbols

The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that the syllable is pronounced with primary stress. The symbol ˌ indicates secondary stress. Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within is optional.

The principles underpinning the OED ’s U.S. English pronunciations are those of Professor William Kretzschmar, co-editor of  The Oxford Dictionary of Pronunciation for Current English  (Upton, Kretzschmar & Konopka 2001, hereafter  CDP ), who also directly consulted on many  OED  entries.  CDP  and its descendant, the  Routledge Dictionary of Pronunciation for Current English  (Upton & Kretzschmar 2017, hereafter  RDP ) continue to be key sources for U.S. English, along with American sources such as Merriam-Webster, and the U.S. pronunciations in the pronouncing dictionaries of Wells (2008) and Jones  et al . (2011). As with most  OED  pronunciation models, consideration is also given to the  Varieties of English  descriptions of relevant phonologies, in this case primarily the description of ‘Standard American English’ (Kretzschmar 2008), which sets the context of colonial settlement, expansion and urbanization spreading west, and the effect of demographic shifts in the 20 th  century.

A generally agreed standard for spoken U.S. English does not exist in quite the same way as ‘Received Pronunciation’ does for British English. Kretzschmar views ‘General American’ as an erroneous term, with educationally-determined standards of pronunciation varying considerably between different regions of the USA. However, he considers the trend among ‘younger educated speakers’ towards the suppression of strongly region-marked features in more formal contexts, and this is the focus of the U.S. model in  RDP  and similarly  OED . It is beyond our scope to explore the full range of regional U.S. accents and what is included or excluded in relation to each, but several key features are detailed below. ‘[Standard American English] can best be characterized as what is left over after speakers suppress the regional and social features that have risen to salience and become noticeable’ (Kretzschmar 2008, p.43). Salience in this respect is subjective and variable, resulting in ‘a linguistic continuum for American English in which no region or social group has pride of place’ (though a key exception is noted regarding Southern American English).

Subtle developments to the evolving  OED  U.S. English model build on Kretzschmar’s CDP / RDP  approach, influenced both by the specific lexicographical demands and remit of the  OED , and the nature of the natural language evidence that editors can now access, particularly in relation to many of the exceptionally low-frequency or more specialist terms. For example, the  CDP / RDP  difference between the vowels of north and force ( /nɔrθ/ , /fɔ(ə)rs/ ) are being merged to /ɔr/ in  OED , given the evident variability. (Some entries may legitimately have a weakly diphthongized vowel, but the contrasts are not deemed sufficiently salient or reliable to warrant inclusion).

Only the ‘unmarked’ pronunciation of Kretzschmar’s 2008 description is included for lot and palm words, although the patterning and stability of low back vowels is notoriously variable. Following  CDP ’s treatment, these historical /ɑ/ sets have only /ɑ/ , whereas the historical /ɔ/ sets ( cloth , thought ) are given both.  OED ’s general pattern of listing /ɔ/ before /ɑ/ variants is for lexicographical consistency and – like all variant pronunciation listings in  OED  – the order should not be interpreted as a reflection of frequency or popularity.

Although some U.S. English speakers will distinguish between them, words such as  marry ,  merry  and  Mary  are shown in their homophonous form /ˈmɛri/ , the former shown as the carry set in the table above.

The strut vowel is typically not as open as its British English counterpart, nor does it share its slightly dropped back quality, leading to  CDP / RDP ’s use of /ə/ . As a stressed vowel, this includes a range of qualities including those more similar to British English /ʌ/ , but highlights the general quality difference. Kretzschmar (2008 p.46) mentions the variety of postvocalic /r/ ‘ranging from fully constricted [r] to different levels of constriction (so-called “ r -colouring) to compensatory lengthening of the vowel to vocalization of the  r  to create a diphthong’, but resolves for nurse words the unmarked quality of a stressed rhotic schwa; /ər/ in  OED .

Vowel length (as shown in, e.g., British English fleece ) is considered environmentally conditioned and not marked. Potential diphthongal glide weakening in price and choice words is not indicated, but in  OED  as in  RDP  the loss of schwa glide in near and square words is shown in a slightly different pattern versus the 2008 description (which only discussed endings creating intervocalic /r/ ), such that near and square words are shown only with the glide when the vowel falls in the final syllable of the entry (hence /ˈskwɛrˌdæns/ and /ˈskwɛrɪŋ/ but /ˌəʊvərˈskwɛ(ə)r/ ). An equivalent approach is taken with the cure set.

Historical [o] in words such as  hoarse , still retained by some speakers, is commonly not distinguished from  horse  [ɔ] and so both are represented by /ɔ/ .

Weak vowels, e.g., the final vowels in words such as added and beautiful, are typically not as high as in British English. Weak vowels in words such as added tend towards schwa except where the most recent preceding vowel ended high and front ( /i, ɪ, eɪ, aɪ, ɔɪ/ ), in which case /ɪ/ might be found, or more often a quality on the ɪ-ə continuum represented with /ᵻ/ . The occurrence of /ᵿ/ in British English for a vowel on the ʊ-ə continuum is less commonly used in U.S. English. The first vowel in words such as beside are given extremes of /ə/ and /i/ , but an intermediate quality close to /ɪ/ is a feasible unshown variant.

Two nasalized vowels are recognized, /æ̃/ in words such as gratin and /ɑ̃/ in salon .

As in  CDP / RDP,   OED  demonstrates the rhoticity of U.S. English with ‘r’ following a vowel rather than with the International Phonetic Alphabet’s rhoticity diacritic (e.g., showing rhotic schwa/diphthongal glide as /ɚ/ ). Words such as  hammer  and  pair  are therefore /ˈhæmər/ and /pɛ(ə)r/ rather than /ˈhæmɚ/ and /pɛɚ/ . This ‘plus-r’ sequence approach simplifies the range of symbols users are required to understand as well as making broader equivalences between different instances of r-colouring and enabling r-colouring and syllabic /r/ possibilities to be combined. /r/ covers a wide range of qualities including trilled, tapped, bunched and alveolar articulations.

Intervocalic (between-vowel) /t/ is usually tapped (or ‘flapped’) and often with voicing, explained by Kretzschmar (2008) as resulting in the same forms for  latter  and  ladder  (note also that for many U.S. English speakers /d/ can also be tapped). Both are transcribed in  CDP  as /ˈlædər/ . Prevocalic voicing of /t/ is also noted by Kretzschmar in -kt-, -pt-, and -ft- sequences, but these are not routinely shown in  OED .

Post-initial /j/ in cure is shown unbracketed, but /j/ is bracketed in words such as  news  where it often does not occur.

Consonant clusters may also be simplified to a greater extent than in British English, including in contexts such as  fact  ( /fæk(t)/ ), and is consistently shown in /nt/ when between vowels with no intervening stress marker (e.g. in  hunter  /ˈhən(t)ər/ but not in  centile  ( /ˈsɛnˌtaɪl/ ).

The stronger preservation of secondary stress compared with British English results in most syllables with full vowels having at least a secondary stress mark. There is also a general pattern for words with several weak vowels in British English having at least one of those as a strong vowel (e.g.  contributory  U.S. /kənˈtrɪbjəˌtɔri/ versus British English /kənˈtrɪbjʊt(ə)ri/ , /ˌkɒntrɪˈbjuːt(ə)ri/ ). British and U.S. Englishes are also known for differences in preferred stress placement, with U.S. English often showing preference for primary stress at the beginning of words.

Jones, D. 2011. Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary. 18th edn. Edited by P. Roach, J. Setter, & J. Esling. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Kretzschmar, W. 2008. Standard American English Pronunciation . In: E.W. Schneider, ed. Varieties of English 2: the Americas and the Caribbean. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp.37-51.

Merriam-Webster. 2020. Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary [Online Resource]. Accessed 17/06/20 at https://www.merriam-webster.com/

Upton, C. & Kretzschmar, W. 2017. The Routledge Dictionary of Pronunciation for Current English. Abingdon: Routledge.

Upton, C., Kretzschmar, W. & Konopka, R. 2001. Oxford Dictionary of Pronunciation for Current English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Wells, J. C. 2008. Longman Pronouncing Dictionary. 3rd edn. Harlow: Pearson Education.

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34 Description and Prescription in Dictionaries

Lynda Mugglestoneis Professor of History of English at the University of Oxford, and a Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford. She has published widely on the history of the English, and on the social, cultural, and ideological issues that dictionary-making can reveal). Recent books include Lexicography and the OED. Pioneers in the Untrodden Forest (Oxford University Press, 2002), ‘Talking Proper’. The Rise of Accent as Social Symbol (Oxford University Press, 2007), Lost for Words. The Hidden History of the Oxford English Dictionary (Yale University Press, 2005), The Oxford History of English _(Oxford University Press, 2008) and Dictionaries. A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press 2011). She is currently writing a book on Samuel Johnson.

• Published: 07 March 2016
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In linguistics, descriptivism and prescriptivism are commonly depicted as antonyms. Dyads of objectivity and subjectivity, evidence-based analysis vs. the pull of opinion, and impartial engagement vs. the idiosyncrasies of individual response recur repeatedly. Yet prescription and description can be placed in markedly asymmetric relation. Being descriptive is made part of the legitimate practice of linguistic response. Prescriptivism is both delegitimized and devalorized. Such demarcations prove interestingly complex in lexicography, where descriptive and prescriptive can co-exist within a single work (or even a single entry). The point at which descriptivism shades into prescriptivism can be difficult to locate. Descriptive processes of collection and evaluation of evidence can be accompanied by prescriptive (and proscriptive) reservation. While a historical trajectory from prescriptive to descriptive can be identified, this exhibits unexpected configurations, especially if moral and cultural prescriptivism are considered. These issues are examined as reflected in English dictionaries, especially the Oxford English Dictionary .

34.1 Introduction

In linguistics, descriptivism and prescriptivism are commonly depicted as antonyms. ‘The emphasis on objectivity’ and ‘systematicness’ in descriptivism, Crystal’s Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics notes, ‘places it in contrast with PRESCRIPTIVE aims’; ‘the aim of descriptive linguistics is to describe the facts of linguistic usage as they are, and not how they ought to be, with reference to some imagined state’ ( Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics s.v. description). Being descriptive is what prescriptivism is not—and vice versa. ‘Linguists today understand their job as that of description, their purpose being to describe how people use language, not to prescribe how they should use it’, Kolln and Funk (2002: 4) affirm.

Dyads of objectivity and subjectivity, of evidence-based analysis versus the pull of opinion, and of impartial engagement set against the idiosyncrasies of individual response repeatedly recur in such accounts. Yet, rather than forming simple oppositions, prescription and description can thereby be placed in markedly asymmetric relation. Being descriptive is made part of the legitimate practice of linguistic response. Prescriptivism is, in contrast, both delegitimized and devalorized: ‘Prescription tries to change language by proscribing some forms that are in fact used and prescribing alternatives, where description accepts all forms that are used’, writes Richard Hudson (2010: 59) . If descriptivism deals in facts, prescriptivism veers, in this light, towards the fictional—the ‘imagined standards’ (Crystal Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics s.v. prescriptive) to which correct usage should necessarily conform.

Such demarcations prove interestingly complex when we turn to lexicography where descriptive and prescriptive can co-exist within a single work (and, indeed, at times within a single entry). The precise point at which descriptivism shades into prescriptivism can at times be difficult to locate. Descriptive processes of collection and evaluation of evidence can be accompanied by prescriptive (and proscriptive) reservation. While a general trajectory from prescriptive to descriptive can be identified in the history of dictionary-making, even this exhibits unexpected configurations, especially if agendas of moral and cultural prescriptivism are brought into consideration.

That dictionary-making is perhaps, of necessity, ‘regulative’ was stressed, for example, by Derwent Coleridge (uncle of the dictionary’s first editor) in the early stages of the Oxford English Dictionary ( OED ) project. ‘The office of a Dictionary, a unilingual Dictionary more especially, is eminently regulative—regulative in effect, though declarative in form’, Coleridge (1860: 156) reminded his audience at the Philological Society. The dictionary-maker is engaged in the construction of a reference model, a didactic text which must, by its nature, engage with recommended norms—of meaning, of spelling, of lexical use. An ‘element of normativity’, Ladislav Zgusta similarly affirms (here with reference to what he terms the ‘standard-descriptive dictionary’) will always co-exist with the specification of ‘what is generally regular, normal, what is the norm’ (1971: 211).

The basis of such judgements—of what is deemed ‘normal’ in terms of both norms and normativity—is of critical import in assessing descriptivism and prescriptivism (and their interplay) within lexicographical history and practice. As this chapter will explore, linguistic response as manifested in dictionaries is subject to a variety of factors which may affect the form and shape of the eventual entry, and the interpretative slant adopted in a given work or by a given editor. Reception too offers other aspects of the contiguities which description and prescription can, in reality, reveal. ‘How do you spell disyllabic dissyllabic ?’, James Murray, editor (1878–1915) of the OED asked, drafting this entry in 1885. Only one, in the pragmatics of the dictionary text, could appear as headword; the other must appear as a secondary and variant form. But, as Murray acknowledged, ‘recent events … have shown that people will not be content to let me be purely historical; they will take me by force, & make me a king orthographically’. Descriptive statements could, as he was aware, be translated into prescriptive edicts in the act of reading the dictionary. In Coleridge’s terms, the dictionary became regulative, even in the act of being intentionally descriptive. ‘I have to consider responsibilities’, Murray continued; ‘if I give a preference to Disyllable, multitudes will follow the standard’ and while ‘I prefer disyllable for my own practice … [I]‌ have no desire to pass an Act of Uniformity’ (MP/4/1/1885). 1

34.2 The Nature of Authority

As Murray’s letter confirms, assumptions about lexicographical authority can themselves occupy conflicted territory. On one hand is the authority of evidence, on the other the presumed authority of the lexicographer. Each, in different ways, can inform the decisions made in shaping the published entry. Proper consideration of the former underpins the ideal of an authoritative dictionary. Here the information presented is well-founded, based on the judicious (and descriptive) analysis of the range of evidence available at the time of the dictionary’s composition. For disyllable , for example, while <ss> and <s> spellings were attested in the assembled evidence for the OED , the fact that distributional patterns 2 revealed an increasing preference for the latter influenced the headword order ( disyllable, dissyllable ) which was eventually chosen for the published entry. The relationship of prescriptive dictionary-maker to evidence is somewhat different. In this context, the intended authority of the dictionary-maker is superimposed on the facts of usage, discounting or marginalizing its significance. ‘It is a vulgar and gross error’ to use expect ‘in speaking of the past; as, I expect the mail has arrived’, Chauncey Goodrich hence declared in the 1862 edition of Webster’s Dictionary . The meaning is rejected, irrespective of supporting evidence. The dictionary-maker in such configurations moves towards the authoritarian, imposing his or her view on the patterns of usage, and discarding—at least in terms of the dictionary entry—what does not, for whatever reason, meet with approval.

Even descriptive dictionaries such as the OED can occasionally display partialities of this kind. Henry Bradley’s editing of expect reveals a level of disapprobation which accords with that expressed by Goodrich (it is a ‘misuse’ which is ‘very common in dialectal, vulgar, or carelessly colloquial speech’, the entry declares). Quantitative and qualitative are divorced; what is ‘common’ may be deemed ‘careless’ (against the implied ‘carefulness’ of conservative speakers who may not exhibit the change in question). Markedly evaluative diction confirms the presence of prescriptivism, here alongside the descriptive facts which the entry also provides. Murray’s insistence that rime (and not rhyme ) was ‘intrinsically the best’ spelling—and should therefore be used throughout the dictionary—provides a similar example. While, as he admitted, rime was not ‘at present favoured by the preponderance of usage’ (1884: x), etymology—and the pull of history—intentionally justified the policy (and underlying model of correctness) adopted. Rhyme was ahistorical; its etymologically motivated spelling disguised the fact that the word had entered Middle English as rime, ryme via French rime , rather than directly from Latin rhythmu s. Usage and correctness are placed at odds in a clear conflict of descriptive and prescriptive principle.

Close examination of behind the scenes evidence from the making of the OED further illustrates the complexities of descriptive and prescriptive process in this respect. For William Craigie, who would edit this section of the dictionary in the early twentieth century, the authority of evidence was paramount, and he drafted the text accordingly. ‘ Rhyme is, and has been for at least two centuries, the standard spelling’, he wrote. ‘Some … derivatives do not occur at all with the spelling rim -, others very rarely’; as he argued, to put these under a headword rime would ‘expose one to a charge of misrepresenting facts’ (MP/18/5/1908). Rhyme (rather than rime ) duly appeared in headwords and definitions alike. Models of a different kind were, however, conspicuous in Murray’s response. ‘It was settled long ago … that the Dictionary spelling should be rime ’, he countered; ‘anarchy’ would be introduced by the preferential selection of rhyme (MP/22/5/1908). In the revisions which Craigie was subsequently made to impose, rhymeless was defined as ‘without rime; unrimed’, rhymeful as ‘abounding in rimes’, rhymer as ‘one who makes rimes’, and so on. These were, moreover, supported by quotations such as Southey’s ‘Should not rhymeless odes be as harmonious as possible?’, or Swinburne’s ‘Written in blank verse, or at least in rhymeless lines’ (my emphases).

‘I am quite prepared to defend the action publicly, whereas I could offer no defence of the practice which occurs in the made-up sheet’, Murray stated of Craigie’s original text. Whether this is—descriptively—true is, however, a moot point. Craigie had merely made use of empirically substantiated evidence; rhyme , in terms of distribution, was clearly the dominant variant by 1908, hence his own ‘defence’ of the lexicographical practice deployed. The changes instituted instead embody what Hudson (Section 34.1 ) identified as the classic territory of prescriptive action, in the attempted preservation of particular ‘standard’ forms against the proscription of others. Letters which Murray received during the process of making the dictionary make the descriptive disparities at stake still more apparent. ‘To hear bicycle made to rhyme (you say rime ) with icicle, distresses me’, James Dixon wrote in 1886 (my emphases)—even if in so doing he merely brought other notions of correctness into the lexicographical foreground.

Such insights from behind the scenes remind us that dictionary-making is a process of interpreting as well as gathering information. Precisely how, and why, different interpretations are proposed and accepted can be critical in influencing the particular trajectories which a dictionary can reveal. Even in the OED revisions under disyllabic , for instance, the complexities of descriptive/prescriptive boundaries (and the obligations which Coleridge’s ‘regulative’ practice suggest) are disturbingly transparent. If the descriptive case for disyllable was undoubted, evidence on disyllabic in the dictionary’s citation files pointed in precisely the opposite direction. Given with <s> in the published text (in the interests of orthographical consistency with related words), it was the <ss> of dissyllable which was uniformly attested in the underlying quotations. In this section of the text, was the dictionary descriptive or prescriptive or both?

34.3 Control and Correctness

The fact that rhyme and not rime has—in spite of Murray’s asseverations—remained the dominant variant suggests, of course, the limits of a dictionary’s authority. Popular convictions about the relationship of dictionary to language nevertheless often assume that the dictionary represents a form of linguistic government, its entries offering edicts to be obeyed. Such political metaphors can, in fact, be highly illuminating. Does usage offer an image of ‘anarchy’ and unregulated change, as, for instance, Lord Chesterfield suggested in 1754, advocating the claims of Johnson’s Dictionary to constrain and control diversity? More to the point, to what extent can the lexicographer also be a dictator, as in Chesterfield’s projected submission to whatever Johnson might propose (‘We must have recourse to the old Roman expedient in times of confusion, and chuse a dictator. Upon this principle I give my vote for Mr. Johnson to fill that great and arduous post. And I hereby declare that I make a total surrender of all my rights and privileges in the English language, as a free-born British subject, to the said Mr. Johnson, during the term of his dictatorship’ ( Boulton 1971 : 97))? What are the rights of democracy—the language of the majority—in such a view?

For Chesterfield, as for a number of earlier writers, lexicography’s rightful role was to provide a correct (and corrected) ‘standard’ of the language. Existing works, he noted, merely confirmed the abdication of proper prescriptive responsibility: ‘The injudicious reader may speak, and write as inelegantly, improperly, and vulgarly as he pleases, by and with the authority of one or other of our word-books ’ ( Boulton 1971 : 96). In the model Chesterfield advances, ‘superior’ dictionaries are selective and interventionist, exclusive and evaluative.

Rather than documenting the realities of supra-local practice (as a descriptive engagement with standardization might suggest), such assumptions about ‘standard’ use centre on the imposition of uniformity, correctness, and control, with the dictionary as agent of active linguistic reform. Academy discourses in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries acted, for instance, as prominent conduits for a shared emphasis on linguistic and lexicographical regulation. The Vocabulario of the Italian Accademia della Crusca (literally, ‘the academy of the bran’) made its concerns with sifting and winnowing language particularly explicit; if the ‘bran’ is retained, the chaff of language—that deemed of less or lower value—is intentionally discarded. The Académie française made manifest similar imperatives with regard to ‘pur usage’ in French.

Such models established a popular image of lexicographical process, by which the language is not to be represented per se, but is instead to be manifested as it ought to be, emblematizing ‘good’ or ‘best’ usage alone. As McArthur comments (1995: 382) , dictionaries tend to display a high degree of ‘psychological fit’ with the dominant linguistic ideologies of the period in which they are composed. Renaissance writers in Britain readily responded to the potential for reform of the vernacular language which lexicography apparently offered. ‘Why should not wee have such an excellent Dictionarie to shew the nature and propertie of our English speech, as learned and laborious Nicot hath made, shewing the utiltie and use of the French tongue’, as George Snell (1649: 36) stressed, for example. 3 A dictionary of this kind, he urged, would establish English as ‘a settled, certain, and corrected language’ (1649: 35). Like Latin, English could attain a classical and invariant grandeur: ‘The language of our Land, thus brought to a fixed and immutable state … will not, as in former ages, so alter out of date and knowledg … wee shall reap all the same profits and advantages that wee see the glorious Romans have gotten … all nations will esteem and honor the English-tongue next to the Latine’ (1649: 40–1).

Often neglected in the history of English dictionaries, Snell’s work offers a persuasive image of prescriptive (and proscriptive) lexicography. Chesterfield’s hopes for the ‘lawful standard of our language’ which Johnson’s work would provide were similar. Yet, even in the eighteenth century, critical readings of prescriptive control can emerge. As Johnson pointed out in his ‘Preface’ ( Dictionary of the English Language , 1755 : sig.C2r), there was in fact ‘no example of a nation that has preserved their words and phrases from mutability’; the lexicographer who believes that ‘his dictionary can embalm his language, and secure it from corruption and decay’ merited derision rather than praise. As Johnson confessed, ‘Those who have been persuaded to think well of my design, require that it should fix our language, and put a stop to those alterations which time and chance have hitherto been suffered to make in it without opposition’. Yet, as nine years’ work on the Dictionary confirmed, any ‘opposition’ which lexicography might provide is constrained by the very nature of a living language, and the essential ‘liberty’ (1755: sig.C2v) of its speakers. ‘Neither reason nor experience’ could, in reality, justify trying to give ‘longevity to that which its own nature forbids to be immortal’ (1755: sig.C2v). French, as Johnson pointed out, had continued to change in spite of the ministrations of an Academy; the Dictionnaire was revised in response to a changing language, not the other way round. Control, in this respect, was clearly an illusion.

At least in part, Johnson here confounds McArthur’s maxims of ‘psychological fit’, moving away from prescriptive resolution even in the act of drawing his dictionary to a close. His Dictionary witnesses both descriptive and prescriptive impulses. The ‘Preface’, written at the end of the dictionary process, attests conclusions which stress the fallibilities of prescriptive belief. These differ markedly from the ambitious ‘design’ of purifying discourse with which the project began. Nevertheless, entries within the dictionary proper can indeed manifest the kind of resistance to change and innovation which Chesterfield (and Johnson’s publishers) expected. Change in progress in precarious is proscribed (‘no word is more unskilfully used than this’, Johnson declares); semantic divisions are neatly separated into legitimate and otherwise (‘It is used for uncertain in all its senses; but it only means uncertain, as dependent on others’). Usage and correctness divide. Roundabout ‘is used as an adjective … by a colloquial license of language, which ought not to have been admitted into books’, writes Johnson, providing evidence of usage and language attitudes alike. Collocations such as ‘most peculiar’ are deemed ‘improper’. More typical, however, is Johnson’s careful engagement with the quotation evidence he assembled for his dictionary which provides the basis of, say, his rigorous analysis of phrasal verbs (113 senses under take , 66 under put ). If Johnson is often made to emblematize the prescriptive lexicographer at work, in reality a spectrum or continuum of response appears in his Dictionary in which usage (the reality of language practice) is often descriptively given its due.

As the sociolinguist Peter Trudgill (1999: 125) points out, a ‘standard’ is, in reality, by no means reducible to ‘a set of a prescriptive rules’ which articulate norms of correctness removed from what speakers habitually do. Trudgill’s linguistically informed analysis of standardization importantly enables the links between lexicography and standard varieties to be established with greater clarity. A ‘reliable dictionary’, Atkins and Rundell (2008) state, is ‘one whose generalizations about word behaviour approximate closely to the ways in which people normally use (and understand) language when engaging in real communicative acts’ (2008: 45). In this respect, a ‘standard’ (and the lexicographical description of such) is located in the consensus norms of a national speech—in all its contextual variation. To configure a ‘standard’ in the evaluative diction of good and bad, ‘vulgar’ and ‘erroneous’ (especially when this runs counter to the directions of language practice) places lexicography in far more problematic territory. As always, the conjunction of evidence and interpretation is key.

34.4 Patrolling the Borders

What is (or is not) included in a given dictionary presents other opportunities for prescriptive/ descriptive conflict. (Compare Diamond, this volume.) No dictionary, however descriptive, can include all words and meanings. Even OED1 , intended as an ‘inventory’ of the language ( Trench 1860 : 4) omitted certain words, or categories of word—silencing taboo words, for instance, or the language of contraception (see Burchfield 1989 : 83–109; Mugglestone 2007 ), as well as omitting countless words because of pressures of space and the costs of editing (see Mugglestone 2005 ). In real terms, the pragmatics of publication for a living language constrain full representation; editing a word costs time and money and, in a physical text, space too. Likewise, a static text will necessarily lag behind a language on the move. Words on the margin, as in Burchfield’s (1989: 84–5) discussion of provisional entries such as miticide and mithril in the OED Supplements reveal the problems of choice and selection that lexicography also involves; data, editability, and currency all come into play in determining the admission of a word or sense.

‘Drawing the line’ can, however, often bring the lexicographer into highly conflicted territory. The recent edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary , with its omission of Empire and monarch , or words associated with Christianity ( aisle, disciple ) in favour of new entries such as MP3 player and broadband provides a useful example. Here the process of revision, intended to bring the dictionary up to date for its target audience, elicited accusations both of excessive descriptivism (an unwarranted pandering to neologism) as well as of proscription and the deliberate silencing of the particular images of traditional British culture. In reality, however, the reorientation of entry-words was driven by the concerns of representativeness, descriptively supported by quantitative data from the Oxford Children’s English Corpus . 4 The documentation of new lexical and semantic items on OED Online can attract similarly charged reactions. ‘The stalwart bastion of language, the Oxford English Dictionary , will now include ♥ and LOL as real words worthy of etymological recording’, wrote the Huffington Post in 2011. ‘Much to the dismay of language purists the internet slang term LOL has been officially inserted into the Oxford English Dictionary ’, the website techimpulsion.com proclaimed: ‘Their dismay gets converted into horror when they find that giving company to LOL is the internet slang OMG !’

Inclusion, as here, is often seen as a prescriptive act of legitimization, as proof that a form has ‘really’ entered the language. As in the Huffington Post ’s assumptions about LOL ’s new-found identity as ‘real word’, the dictionary is seen as conferring sanction and acceptability. Omission can conversely be interpreted as proscriptive silencing. The dictionary-maker is constructed as gate-keeper, momentarily opening up the ‘bastion’ to new members, irrespective of the fact that, in modern evidence-based lexicography, the process runs in precisely the opposite trajectory. Usage—the democracy of words—governs the decision to include or exclude a given word or sense (although the larger a dictionary is, the more it will, of course, be able to include). A range of citations, for example, provide indisputable testimony for the frequency of LOL and OMG in current usage. Worth remembering too is the fact that the citations included within an entry by no means represent the totality of evidence of the dictionary’s disposal. In reality, a far wider engagement descriptively underpins the conclusions drawn.

Conflicted readings of this kind repeatedly surface with reference to neologisms or the spread of loanwords. ‘Men might have no more libertie to write or innovate new language, than is permitted them to stamp and coin monie’, wrote Snell in 1649 (41–2), advocating another aspect of prescriptive and restrictive lexicography. Purism, as such comments indicate, can be a particularly potent prescriptive impulse. While the borders of any language are indeterminate (‘there is absolutely no defining line in any direction’, Murray wrote in the ‘General Explanations’ of the OED (1888: xvii)), notions that a line should be drawn—whether on the grounds of history, or need, or simple and visceral dislike—are commonplace, in lexicographical history and language attitudes alike. Ideas of lexical necessity, for instance, often appear in Johnson’s Dictionary in line with his pointed comments on the ‘folly of naturalizing useless foreigners to the injury of the natives’ (1755: sig.B1v)). Recent French loans such as ruse and finesse are deemed unnecessary; included in the dictionary, they are nevertheless placed outside the requirements of the lexicon. Need, however, is a complex mechanism; here Johnson’s prescriptive assessment of ‘need’ (and utility) in terms of existing lexical and semantic fields is, for instance, countered by the realities of ‘need’ as adjudged by users themselves. As the subsequent history of ruse and finesse confirms, loanwords acquire citizenship not through lexicographic sanction but through processes of assimilation where language users rather than lexicographers have the metaphorical last word. Dryden’s introduction of French-derived fraischeur fails to reach mainstream usage not because of Johnson’s proscription (‘A word foolishly innovated by Dryden’) but because, descriptively, writers and speakers continued to prefer ‘freshness’ and ‘coolness’.

Change in progress in terms of new sense divisions can operate in a similar way. Words such as transpire and fortuitous provide interesting snapshots of different patterns of lexicographic response. The semantic split of the former, by which a new sense signifying ‘to happen’ gradually come into widespread use, clearly met interpretative resistance in OED1 , in spite of accompanying evidence from the late eighteenth century onwards. As the entry confirms (‘Misused for: To occur, happen, take place’), it was tempting to see this as simple mistake—as testimony to writers misinterpreting what the word ‘really’ meant. Metalanguage is, as always, a reliable indicator of prescriptive or descriptive response. ‘Misuse’ consigns this sense of transpire , at least intentionally, to the realm of linguistic error, a contravention of accepted norms. Yet, if we look at the range of ‘mis-usages’ presented, they are strikingly widespread, taking us either into the problematic concept of ‘mass error’—or, if we read the same evidence descriptively, into the territory of a newly derived sense-division which was, even in print, already diffusing rapidly.

Similar patterns inform the recording of semantic shift in fortuitous . The American Heritage Dictionary ( AHD ) hence treads a careful line between what is described as its ‘best-established sense’ (‘ “happening by accident or chance.” Thus, a fortuitous meeting may have either fortunate or unfortunate consequences’), the transferred meaning which is ‘often been used in reference to happy accidents’ ( The company’s profits were enhanced as the result of a fortuitous drop in the cost of paper ), and what is given as the ‘more controversial’ meaning ‘lucky or fortunate’ (as in ‘ He came to the Giants in June as the result of a fortuitous trade that sent two players back to the Reds ’). While historical testimony for the latter is given (‘This use dates back at least to the 1920s’), presumably in an attempt to defuse controversy, so too is the evidence of language attitudes (‘it is still widely regarded as incorrect’). As the entry confirms, reconciling descriptive and prescriptive can be challenging, especially in a change in progress where norms of usage and norms of correctness continue to be in conflict. (In AHD5 an updated commentary on changing attitudes over time is substituted here.) As the proofs of OED1 indicate, however, the ‘controversial’ sense of fortuitous has existed for far longer than the editors of AHD suspected—as have attendant language attitudes. A hand-written note by Fitzedward Hall, one of the OED ’s critical readers, on the relevant proof sheet (dated 31 Oct 1896) states: ‘ Fortuitous = fortunate 1799. A gross error, not worth recording, & so not sent’. Hall simultaneously indicated the existence of a new sense, and prescriptively edited it out of the evidence supplied for the dictionary. Modern lexicography strives to achieve a different balance by its emphasis on the facts of usage, as well as documenting (while not endorsing) the sensibilities which such usage may provoke. ‘ Fortuitous tends to be often used to refer only to fortunate outcomes and the word has becomes more or less a synonym for “lucky” or “fortunate” ’, states the relevant entry in the 2010 Oxford Dictionary of English (ODE) ; ‘Although this usage is now widespread, it is still regarded by some people as incorrect’.

34.5 The Sources of Evidence

‘The Dictionarist, like an Historian, comes after the Affair; and gives a Description of what has passed’, wrote Ephraim Chambers (1728: xxii) . Long before the OED or Richard Chenevix Trench’s formative lectures of 1857, Chambers articulated the salient precepts of descriptive lexicography. The dictionary-writer must pay attention to the facts of language that already exist—rather than, as for Johnson’s entry for precarious or Goodrich’s for expect , trying to direct current and future usage alike. Nevertheless, even Chambers’s axiom—valid as it is—raises wider questions. Which facts, and how many, are to be taken into account? Are all facts equally valid, or should a line be drawn here as well? The nature (as well as the use) of evidence collected for a dictionary are further important facets of the alignment of dictionary-making with descriptive and prescriptive principles. Quality as well as quantity emerges as a recurrent topos in debates about lexicographical authority, especially in terms of the limits of descriptivism and the legitimization which might (or not) be provided by the non-canonical. ‘Who are we that we should use … graphiology , employed in one sense by Lady Lytton and another by the Daily Telegraph ?’ argued F.J.E. (1900: 547) with reference to evidence in the OED : ‘ Individualic may be an excellent word, but one may never have heard of J. Gilchrist who used in in 1824’. If ‘the Medical News and the British Medical Journal call a person unfit for an operation inoperable ’, are they ‘justified in doing so?’

The fact that dictionary citations were illustrative, attesting usage and currency, rather than exemplary—acting as models with potentially prescriptive force—was, for many, difficult to accept. While their canonicity is undoubted, literary writers such as Shakespeare or Browning are, for example, scarcely representative of ordinary usage, raising questions about their utility to the dictionary-user as illustrative examples, as well as to the dictionary-maker in the attempt to derive meaning. Presuppositions that good writers attested good usage, and that this was what a dictionary should provide nevertheless prove of surprising longevity. Historical precedent was clearly influential in this respect. While modern descriptive lexicography centres on knowing how language is typically used (‘the behavior of each word … in its natural contexts’, the New Oxford American Dictionary (2010) stresses), hierarchical models of data selection commonly underpinned earlier lexicography, as in Abel Boyer’s conviction that ‘best authors’ alone legitimize the language practices on which entries are based. ‘Words … found in any Writer of unsufficient Authority’ are to be marked ‘ Dubious ’ while ‘The English [is] collected chiefly out of the great masters of the English tongue, such as Archbishop Tillotson, Bishop Sprat, Sir Roger l’Estrange, Mr. Dryden, Sir William Temple’ ( Royal Dictionary , 1699 : title-page). ‘It will be proper to observe some obvious rules, such as preferring writers of the first reputation to those of an inferior rank’, Johnson (1747: 30–1) likewise affirmed.

The fundamental principle of citations—the gathering of a corpus of evidence—as the basis of descriptive dictionary-making was enshrined by writers such as Franz Passow who saw the citational history of a given word as a prime means by which it could, in effect, tell its own story (compare Considine, this volume). As Herbert Coleridge stressed in his early editorship of the OED , ‘the theory of lexicography which we profess is that which Passow was to the first to enunciate clearly and put into practice successfully—viz., “that every word should be made to tell its own story” ’ ( Trench 1860 : 72). Evidence thereby also becomes the means by which the potential partiality of the dictionary-maker can be excluded. Which story is told will nevertheless depend upon the nature of the evidence collected. Johnson’s strictures, for example, were clearly relaxed in the process of data collection. ‘Words must be sought where they are used’ (1755: sig.B2v), he admitted: ‘Some of the examples have been taken from writers who were never mentioned as masters of elegance or models of stile’. 5 A skewed empiricism, however, often remains in evidence. Literary texts (and male writers) undoubtedly dominate. Crystal’s ‘systematicness’ ( Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics s.v. description)—identified as an important prerequisite of descriptive analysis—is likewise awry. Reading Burton’s Anatomy of Melancholy , Johnson marks words such as culminating, partile, gravity , and muck-hill for inclusion. Yet other words in the same text ( horsemill, Painter’s-shop ) are neglected. Johnson’s statements that jeopardy is ‘a word not now in use’ or, under smouldring , that ‘This word seems to be a participle; but I know not whether the verb smoulder be in use’ presumably derive from similarly imperfect acts of reading. Describing language accurately depends upon the nature of the facts to which a dictionary-maker has access, as well as upon the interpretative strategies deployed.

Qualitative considerations—with their underlying agenda of prescriptive and proscriptive response—could also be difficult to eliminate. The validity of newspaper citations were a case in point. As information from the making of the OED confirms, such sources were deemed of incontestable value by Murray. Enabling the dictionary-maker to get much closer to ‘real’ language, ‘they show’, he argued, ‘how the language grows … make visible to us the actual steps which for earlier stages we must reconstruct by inference’ (MP/9/6/1882). The Delegates of Oxford University Press maintained a rather different notion of lexicographical appropriacy: ‘Should not the quotations illustrative of modern literary words be taken from great authors, and the language of newspapers banished?’, they demanded (MP/Meeting/1883). Evidence deriving from popular fiction could also be controversial. Henry Hucks Gibbs (another advisor on OED1 ) condemned the popular Victorian novelist Elizabeth Braddon as ‘hasty’ (‘she grinds out novels by the yard, and does not give herself time to think whether she is writing good English or not’ (MP/3/5/1883)). Similar arguments informed popular response to evidence used by Philip Gove in writing Webster’s Third New International Dictionary . ‘Systematic reading of books, magazines, newspapers, pamphlets, catalogs, and learned journals’ had provided a wealth of new information with which to describe contemporary American usage, Gove stressed, emphasizing the descriptive value of ‘independent investigation of usage borne out by genuine citations’, whether these derived from actors, journalists, politicians, or more established writers. Gove’s insistence on such quantitative salience was met with qualitative reservation in many reviews (see Morton 1994 ). Yet, as in Gibbs’s censure of Broughton, qualities such as ‘hastiness’ could in fact bring evidence closer to the realities of ordinary language practice— circumventing the artificiality which a closely monitored style can bring. If Gibbs subjectively contested Broughton’s status as ‘authority’ in the processes of lexicography, the argument could clearly be reversed.

Dictionary-making in this respect presents a changing pattern of empirical engagement and evaluative bias. While Murray’s descriptive ideals could, in practice, be challenged, 6 the modern OED , as in its inclusion of doh and OMG , is firmly orientated towards the realities of ordinary—rather than exemplary—usage. Citational evidence from journalism and popular discourse can characterize new entries, as well as revision of older ones. Recent editions of Merriam-Webster attest twenty-first-century blends without resistance—as in staycation, frenemy , and vlog (a video-blog). Modern corpora often eliminate the poetical altogether, while the literary is restricted in comparison to types of data which provide a more rigorous—and balanced—engagement with language as deployed by the majority rather than minority of its users. Collins Dictionaries base their evidence on the Bank of English (over 525 million words of written and spoken English by 2005). As John Sinclair (1987a) stressed in establishing the Cobuild project, the corpus was ‘a device though which the user will observe the living language. Not the frozen fillets of the printed citations, nor the stuffed dummies of the made-up examples, but the language as it is when it is being used’. Frequency scores provide empirical (and indisputable) evidence for currency and change.

34.6 Acts of Interpretation

In Passow’s image of lexical biography, the word, as we have seen, tells its own story. The dictionary-maker merely facilitates the transmission of the facts. ‘The dream of the historical lexicographer is that the quotations chosen will be so apposite, will so accurately reveal the meaning and uses of the words they illustrate, that nothing more will need to be added’, as William Ramson (2002: 15) , editor of the Australian National Dictionary , later wrote. Yet such distancing can, in practice, be problematic. If the data provide the documentary evidence, it is, of necessity, the dictionary-maker who must shape the entry, telling the story, in effect, from a particular point of view.

Cultural prescriptivism—the presenting of norms and images of normativity which are ideologically rather than empirically affirmed—is a further aspect of lexicographical practice which demands scrutiny in this respect. It too can trade on a loaded metalanguage in which notions of acceptability (or otherwise) can come to the fore. ‘A dictionary’, Trench stated in his lectures, is ‘the history of nation documented from one point of view’ (1860: 6). If, on one level, Trench’s words indicate the intersection of language and material culture (the markers of a particular way of life, characteristic of one nation rather than another, together with their associated cultural matrices), it is clear that ‘point of view’ can intervene in ways which also move outside this descriptive remit. Individual point of view can be detected in, say, Johnson’s entry for foxhunter (‘a man whose chief ambition is to shew his bravery in hunting foxes’). More pervasive cultural and ideological positions can be at work elsewhere. Discourses of religious identity can be particularly problematic. Pronominal positioning (and negatively charged diction) in Bailey’s Universal Etymological English Dictionary firmly aligns ideal readers with mainstream Christianity (and against Catholicism); see e.g. crucifix : ‘a Figure representing our Saviour on the Cross’; limbus : ‘according to the Notion of the Roman Catholicks … a Place where the deceased Patriarchs resided till the Coming of our Saviour’. Exorcism in Dyche and Pardon’s New General English Dictionary (1735) is a ‘practice, imposing much upon the credulity of their blind adorers’. Similar notions of norm and ‘other’ can appear in OED1 , as under infidelity , which is intentionally explained by the gloss ‘Muhammadanism; heathenism’ or ghazi , defined as ‘a champion against infidels’. The elaboration of the latter (‘In modern use, chiefly applied to Muslim fanatics who have devoted themselves to the destruction of infidels’) is surely ripe for revision. 7

Sex, race, and taboo of various kinds all present similar opportunities for the imaging of cultural norms, whether in the disapprobation evident in Victorian definitions of masturbation (‘the practice of self-abuse’) or the illustrative citations given for tobacco in more recent works (‘Try to do without tobacco and alcohol’, in Cobuild ). The morally loaded diction of earlier texts is, however, now rare. ‘Lust’ (‘chiefly and now exclusively used implying intense moral reprobation’, OED lust sense 4) hence moves outside defining practice in revising pandar ( OED1 : ‘one who supplies another with the means of gratifying lust’: ‘a person who provides another with the means of sexual gratification’ in OED3 ). Prostitution is likewise revised upon factual rather than moral lines ( OED1 : ‘The offering of the body to indiscriminate lewdness’; OED3 : ‘the practice or occupation of engaging in sexual activity with someone for payment’). Configurations of ‘unnaturalness’ in the defining strategies for words such as tribade ( OED1 : ‘A woman who practices unnatural vice with other women’) present a further case in point. Cultural proscription articulated the boundaries of ‘natural’ and ‘normal’, legitimizing heterosexuality above homosexuality, and sexual continence above sexual activity. Tribade : ‘A woman who engages in sexual activity with other women; a Lesbian’, OED3 now states. As here, revision for new editions can also mean revising cultural norms and attitudes which the nuances of definition have hitherto expressed, and displacing prescriptivism with intentionally neutral description in this respect as well. Yet, as Kaye (1989) argues, even corpora do not necessarily resolve such problems of cultural bias. The dictionary-maker must still select examples, as well as decide on definition and the nature and type of sense-division.

The divide of description and prescription can therefore remain complex. Definitions reflect the dominant—and naturalized—ideologies of a given period, elucidating norms which seem ‘normal’ in their own time, whether this is in terms of sexual tolerance or repressiveness. The diction of openness, equality, and sexual tolerance, for instance, articulates relevant socio-cultural norms in modern lexicography, in line with changing social attitudes. Yet those who do not share such positions may also perceive the prescription (and proscription) of particular viewpoints in ways which may perhaps seem equally problematic. Descriptivism and prescriptivism can, in practice, be riven with areas of potential ambiguity and overlap. In the OED ’s attempts to capture the negative semantic prosodies of serviette , for example (‘It may now be regarded as naturalized, but latterly has come to be considered vulgar’), does ‘vulgar’ proscribe, or is it a way of trying (if in a somewhat heavy-handed way) to engage with the socio-cultural matrices of use? Such markers also have potentially dissuasive force, as well as dividing dictionary and dictionary-writer from a set of users who might indeed use serviette —but who would not consign themselves to ‘vulgarity’ as a result.

Absolute neutrality—the objective essence of descriptive lexicography—can therefore be extremely difficult to achieve. To look at the entry for literally , say, in the Oxford Dictionary of English (2010) is to witness the complex juggling required in the attempt to achieve balance, here in representing an often stigmatized pattern of usage. The non-literal sense, as in is ‘I literally died’ is, we are told, ‘very common’ but ‘can lead to unintentionally humorous effects’ which can mean that it is ‘not acceptable in formal contexts’ even though ‘it is widespread’. As this level of detail and specification confirms, the modern sense of a ‘good’ dictionary is clearly distinct from the prescriptive ideals espoused by Snell and Chesterfield. ‘A good dictionary reports the language as it is, not as the editors (or anyone else) would wish it to be’, the New Oxford American Dictionary (2010) avers. If popular language attitudes can still exhibit robust prescriptive allegiances, the dominant trends in dictionary-making have moved to the opposite side of the spectrum. ‘ “Discomfit” does not mean to make uncomfortable’ but ‘means to rout or overwhelm’, a recent article in The Times categorically announced, contesting its use by David Cameron. ‘The words discomfit and discomfort are etymologically unrelated but in modern use their principal meanings have collapsed into one: “make someone feel uneasy” ’, the Oxford Dictionary of English counters, firmly severing descriptive realities and prescriptive fictions. Objectivity displaces subjective response. Telling the story, aided by digital lexicography (and the scale of data analysis which this facilitates), has, in this respect, certainly moved much closer to Passow’s ideals.

Archival Documents

Murray Papers, Bodleian Library, Oxford:

MP/9/6/1882. James Murray to Bartholomew Price, 9 June 1882.

MP/Meeting/1883. ‘Report of a Meeting of a Committee of the Delegates Appointed to Consider the English Dictionary’, 10 May 1883.

MP/3/5/1883. Henry Hucks Gibbs to James Murray, 3 May 1883.

MP/4/1/1885. James Murray to Herbert Warren, 4 January 1885.

MP/18/5/1908. William Craigie to James Murray, 18 May 1908.

MP/22/5/1908. Draft of a letter from James Murray to William Craigie.

OED Archives at Oxford University Press:

BL/308/6. James Dixon to James Murray, 20 April 1886.

Archival documents referenced in this chapter are listed at the end of the chapter.

Of the four post-1880 quotations which appear under disyllable (n) in the first edition, three have the dis - form.

Jean Nicot’s Thresor de la langue françoyse was published in 1606, containing 18,000 entries.

See e.g. the response of Anthony Seldon, headmaster of Wellington College: ‘I think as well as being descriptive, the Oxford Junior Dictionary has to be prescriptive too, suggesting not just words that are used but words that should be used. It has a duty to keep these words within usage, not merely pander to an audience. We are looking at the loss of words of great beauty. I would rather have “marzipan” and “mistletoe” then “MP3 player”.’ ( Henry 2008 ).

See e.g. John Arbuthnot’s Essay Concerning the Nature of Aliments (1731) under alimentary (‘Of alimentary roots, some are pulpy and very nutritious; as, turneps and carrots’), and John Mortimer’s The Whole Art of Husbandry (1707) under fill n. (‘This mule being put in the fill of a cart, run away with the cart and timber’).

Data collection by volunteer readers could lead to over-representation of literary texts, as could the use of concordances to Shakespeare—which record every word in the Shakespeare canon. Likewise pressures of space could mean that newspaper data, often included at the end of an entry, proved particularly vulnerable to the processes of editing out, even if it was considered in the underlying analysis of an entry (see Mugglestone 2005 ).

This entry, taken from OED Online in July 2012, already bears the signs of partial cultural revision, in the displacement of ‘Mohammedan’ (used in OED1 ) by ‘Muslim’.

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