false 137362 0 0 866301 0140434356 9780140434354 9 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179022675m/866301.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179022675s/866301.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/866301.Felix_Holt_The_Radical 3.60 116 173 3.74 20034 2270 137362 3.60 121 10 1866 331111 0300106998 9780300106992 0 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173808749m/331111.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173808749s/331111.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/331111.Lost_for_Words_The_Hidden_History_of_the_Oxford_English_Dictionary 4.00 2 Oxford English Dictionary (OED) holds a cherished position in English literary culture. The story behind the creation of what is indisputably the greatest dictionary in the language has become a popular fascination. This book looks at the history of the great first edition of 1928, and at the men (and occasionally women) who distilled words and usages from centuries of English writing and “through an act of intellectual alchemy captured the spirit of a civilization.”
The task of the dictionary was to bear full and impartial witness to the language it recorded. But behind the immaculate typography of the finished text, the proofs tell a very different story. This vast archive, unexamined until now, reveals the arguments and controversies over meanings, definitions, and pronunciation, and which words and senses were acceptable—and which were not.
Lost for Words examines the hidden history by which the great dictionary came into being, tracing—through letters and archives—the personal battles involved in charting a constantly changing language. Then as now, lexicographers reveal themselves vulnerable to the prejudices of their own linguistic preferences and to the influence of contemporary social history.

</div>]]> 137362 3.60 121 10 2005 234802 0199249318 9780199249312 1 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172972596m/234802.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172972596s/234802.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/234802.The_Oxford_History_of_English 3.00 1 137362 3.60 121 10 2006 658270 0199251959 9780199251957 0 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176837094m/658270.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1176837094s/658270.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/658270.Lexicography_and_the_OED_Pioneers_in_the_Untrodden_Forest 2.00 1 137362 3.60 121 10 2002 6214489 0199250626 9780199250622 0 http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6214489.Talking_Proper_The_Rise_of_Accent_As_Social_Symbol 0.0 0 137362 3.60 121 10 2003