ENG367Y (History of the English Language): PDE lexicon & PDE dictionaries
Due: Thursday
10th October, 2002
Length: About 500 words
Format: Put
only your student number on the assignment, not your name.
Give Part 1 a specific and appealing
title.
In this
assignment, you’ll be writing
a. a brief (250-word) explanation of an “English language
usage issue”: pretend that you’re a weekly columnist for a newspaper like the Globe (audience: intelligent but
general)
b. a brief (250-word) assessment of the usefulness of 3 or
more sources for your column: the Oxford
English Dictionary, a reputable Canadian desk dictionary such as the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, and at least
one other source.
Append
(1)
a
properly-formatted bibliography and
(2)
a
copy of all non-OED material –
thanks.
This
assignment is designed
·
to
exercise your awareness of the kinds of resources available for investigating
(and explaining, if not settling) “usage issues”
·
to
alert you to the existence, strengths, and weaknesses of some relevant dictionaries
·
the
20-volume Oxford English Dictionary
(in print, PE 1625 M7 but often out of
sequence because it’s 20 volumes! and/or online)
·
your
own desk dictionary and another dictionary
·
to
give you the opportunity to investigate a “usage issue” of interest to you
·
to
make you aware of some other resources for the study of modern English, e.g.
·
The Oxford companion to the
English language,
ed. McArthur (PE 1625 O85 GENR, SMCR, TRIF, UNIR, VUPR).
Alphabetically-arranged; like the OED,
also includes histories of each letter of the alphabet (“E”, “K”, etc.).
·
Webster’s Dictionary of English
Usage (PE 1460
M45 at Innis, PE 1460 W425 at GENR, SMCR, VUPR & TRIF).
Alphabetically-arranged explanation of usage issues.
1.
Pick
one of the following topics, or (with my written/e-permission) another
topic in which modern Canadian usage is variable and/or contentious:
2.
Look for information
for your topic in
b. a good Canadian
desk dictionary such as the Canadian
Oxford Dictionary, and
d. Obsessive to
impress? check out other sources.
3.
Xerox/record
the full entry, and make a full bibliographic record for each entry (include
publisher, date, etc.). Attach a copy of
all-non-OED sources to your report.
4.
For
a general but intelligent audience, write an explanation of this usage is
5.
sue
in your own lively yet intelligent words (about 250 of them).
6.
For
an audience consisting of future ENG367Y students having to do this assignment,
assess the advantages and disadvantages of the sources that you chose. Remember
that the sources should have been relevant – don’t choose a grammar so that you
can find it useless for a lexical investigation!