1/8/2024 0 Comments Linguistic dictionaries![]() If English is truly the world’s lingua franca, then, as Susan Kermas argues in relation to the Oxford English Dictionary ( OED), ‘lexicographers need to address the culture-specific dimension of knowledge sharing in today’s global village and broaden their cultural viewpoint’ (2012, 75). On one level, World Englishes constitute challenges that have been taken up by traditional authoritative dictionaries, with at least some success. This chapter focuses on a rather different written object as a source of authority (see Wells 1973) and ‘violence’ it focuses on the ‘postcolonial dictionary’. That being said, there are many ways in which written culture is obviously still key to understanding the worldwide spread of English, some of which relate precisely to that speed writing, as is well known, is argued to be increasingly speech-linked, most notably perhaps in online discourse. ![]() It may be assumed that literary culture is not a particularly good guide to the ways in which World Englishes are evolving, partly because of the startlingly rapid pace of that evolution. Indeed, much of the research on World Englishes requires focus on many different forms of evidence. In particular, it explores the sense in which looking at World Englishes forces postcolonial approaches to move beyond specifically literary culture. Now, of course, in one sense this book recommends focusing attention on non-written culture. In fact, this satirical dictionary indicates one of the ways in which speech-linked writing increasingly cuts across our distinctions concerning traditional authorities, literary or otherwise. In addition, as has been widely argued, one of the key components of ownership of a language, particularly perhaps in the context of World Englishes, is the capacity precisely to take it unseriously, to be playful, in short to be ludic in its use (see Y. The warning not to be too serious serves its own function, and numbers 1 and 4 tend to undermine number 2 it all rather depends on how you define ‘political’. IF YOU DON’T BELIEVE IN FREE EXPRESSION OR OPINION, GO SOMEWHERE ELSE’. Indeed, before you click through to the main site, you are encouraged to note the following: ‘1. Of course, this is ‘Singapore’s premier satirical humour website!’, and, as a colleague suggested to me, it is accordingly ‘for fun’, and perhaps should not be taken too seriously. There you can learn the proper pronunciation of the world’s premier fast food restaurant (‘Macnoner’ or ‘Mehnoner’), the nature of the advice, ‘Don’ch play-play’ (a warning against hubris, derived from Hokkien), or perhaps just remind yourself of the meaning of ‘kiasu’. Arguably, these two sources amount to one dictionary, available in print but more accessible online, and standing as an amalgamation of satirical comment on Singaporean society and a source of linguistic data. Volume two is an alphabetically organized index of all the Greek words treated in volume one plus an index of English words used in the definitions, enabling the work to be used to a limited extent as an English-Greek lexicon as well as Greek-English.Crack open the pages of The Coxford Singlish Dictionary ( 2002) or browse the rather different pages of, specifically its dictionary section, and you enter a world of proudly if (to non-Singaporeans) frequently opaque cultural identity and satire. These groupings are called semantic domains. Rather than listing entries alphabetically, volume one groups words together that have similar or overlapping meanings. ![]() They provide connections to other Greek words with similar meanings through the organization of the lexicon. Most Greek-English lexica provide lists of glosses-one word translation options-rather than actual definitions, but Louw and Nida have provided discussions of the meanings of each Greek word. This two volume set is not designed to compete with more traditional dictionaries like the one by Danker discussed above, but to provide two things they do not: definitions and connections to other Greek words with similar meanings. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains 2nd Ed.
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