but-whats-a-dictionary-for.ppt

1、高级英语（3）Unit 11,But Whats A Dictionary For?,Background Material,1. Source note This text But Whats a Dictionary For? is excerpted from an article of the same title in the book The Play of Language. Actually the article first appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in May,1962. Little is known of the writer

2、Bergen Evans. The Play of Language is a collection of essays on language and usage edited by Leonard F. Dean and Kenneth G. Wilson, published in 1963 by Oxford University Press in the United States of America.,2. About Websters and the G. e.g. popular science, meals at popular prices.Cf. popular her

3、o, popular songs, etc. (liked and admired by the public) 3. appearance: act of appearing. Here, it means publication, coming out. Compare the following pairs of sentences: 1) The appearance of the miracle of being half starved.,4. stature: originally a persons bodily height (身高，身材). Figuratively, me

4、ntal or moral quality, development, growth, or level of attainment, especially as worthy of esteem （才干，非凡的气质，高境界，高水平. Not to be confused with statue or status, statute. Statue: a usually large likenss, of a person, animal etc, made in solid material such a stone or metal (雕像，塑像， 铸像); status: (1) one

5、s legal position or condition (人的身份，状况) e.g, marital status (婚姻状况)；(2) ones social or professional rank (社会地位专业资格，职位) （3）state or situation at a particular time (情形，状态，状况); statute: a law passed by a lawmaking body, e.g. Parliament, and normally written down (法令，法规，成文法) e.g. statute book (成文法典)，stat

6、ute law (成文法),5. the Atlantic: American monthly journal, doing investigative journalism, fiction and poetry. 6. the New York Times: daily newspaper; considered the most reputable daily by many. Equivalent to Londong Times. It puts out a huge Sunday issue covering just about everything - news, sports

7、, arts, etc. - also magazine section. 7. accelerate the deterioration of the language: speed up the lowering of the quality of the language. 8. betraying a public trust: failing to meet the hopes of the public, failing to live up to the expectations of the public:,9. the American Bar Association: Ba

8、r here mean lawyers collectively; or the legal profession, e.g. be called to the Bar (be received as a member of the Bar); read for the Bar ( study to become a barrister. Cf. lawyer , advocate, solicitor, attorney, counselor) lawyer: a person whose business is to advise people , write formal agreeme

9、nts, or to represent people in court (律师)；lawyer is the most general word for talking about someone who either represents people in a curt of law or advises people about legal problems. Lawyers sometimes do legal work that is related to only one particular area of the law, such as medical case, or c

10、ompany law, or they can do general work for many different types of legal cases. (to be continued),9. In the US, a lawyer can also be called an attorney (Note: AmE, a lawyer. Lawyers in the US have to be licenced by the state in which they practice, which allows them to practice in FEDERAL courts, b

11、ut not necessarily in other states) which means exactly the same. The word counselor is also used in US to mean a lawyer, esp. on working in a court of law, and it can also be used as a title when speaking to a lawyer in court. In the UK, a lawyer who speaks in court is called a barrister, and a law

12、yer who mainly works in an office is called a solicitor, and these two types of lawyer have different trainings. Advocate: (Scotish English) a lawyer who speaks in defence of or in favor of another perosn in court (辩护人，辩护律师),10. lexicographic irresponsibility: Lexicographic (or lexicographical) is t

13、he adjective of lexicography, which means the act, process, art, or work of writing or compiling a dictionary or dictionaries. A lexicographer is a person who writes or compiling a dictionary. Lexicographic irresponsibility means irresponsibility in making the dictionary. 11. The cause of good Engli

14、sh:The object for enhancing English, the efforts to maintain a high standard for English. 12. life: American popular pictorial magazine. It used to be a weekly and stopped about 1968. occassional issues still appear on special topics.,13. non-word deluge: Non-words are words not yet established, not

15、 acceptable, such as new slangs or newly-coined words. Here non- should not be understood simply as not. Other examples: non-book: (a book which has little literary merit or factual information; non_ person one having no social or legal status) deluge: great flood or heavy rain (洪水,大雨,暴雨), deluge is

16、 used metaphorically, meaning an overwhelming, flood-like rush of anything e.g. deluge of visitors. 14. monstrous: (1) extremely bad, improper, immoral, shocing, disgraceful; (2) of unnaturally large size, strange shape; (colloquial) quite absurd, scandalous; 15. abominable: disgusting,16. cause (fo

17、r dismay): reason or motive or ground for some action or feeling, etc., especially sufficient reason (cause for complaint). When cause means something producing an effect or result, it is followed by the preposition of, e.g. causes of the traffic accidents. 17. They doubted that “ Lincoln could have

18、 modeled his Gettysburg Address” on it:They didnt believe that Lincoln could have written his famous Gettysburg Address with the language described in the Third International as a model. 18. Lincoln: see Note 1 to the text.,20. Gettysburg Speech: See Note 2 to the text. Here are some often quoted li

19、nes from the Address: in a large sense, we can not dedicate- we cannot consecrate(把.奉为神圣； 给.祝圣)- we can not harrow （耙）- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what

20、 we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobley advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us - that from these honored de

21、ad we take increased devotion - that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain- that his nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom - and that government of the people, by people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.,20. a concept of how things get writ

22、ten that throws very little light on Lincoln but a great deal on Life: This sentence reveals Lifes editors dont really know how things get written. This concept can provide little information on how Lincoln wrote his Address. But it does explain how the editors of Life write their articles They are

23、ignorant enough to suggest writing with a dictionary as a model. 21. .all this sound and fury: refers to the abuse in the popular press. The writer is using a quotation from Shakerspeare: “.it is tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signigying nothing.” (Macbeth, Act V, Scence IV, L. 26-28

24、),22. citations: passages cited; quotations. The ten million citations assembled were meant for background material for definations. 23. is all this a fraud, a hoax?: all this stands for the idea expressed in “ claimin any language”. The “that” clauses are in apposition to the noun claim. Since the

25、sentence is too long, the verb is is repeated and all this is used in summing up what has gone before. fraud: criminal deception hoax: mischievous trick played on somebody for a joke.,24. So monstrous a discrepancy in evaluation requires us to examine basic principles: In evaluating this dictionary,

26、 two opposing views exist and the disagreement is so great that it is necessary for us to examine basic principles for dictionary making so that we shall be able to see which side is right. 25. Some remarks on style: The first three paragraph may be regarded as the opening paragraohs. The first para

27、graph sums up the worst attacks on the dictionary while the second states the claim of the dictionary compilers. Though he does not give his own proposition directly, its clear the writer is ready to defend the work. The difference of the two fiews calls for an examination of dictionary-making princ

28、iples. Hence the question of whats a dictionary for, which is the title of the whold article.,26. home remedies: medicines for common indisposition (a slight illness,小恙) such as colds, headache, fever, indigestion, etc. They are called home remedies because most families keep these medicines at home

29、. 27. extraneous: not belonging or directly connected, not essential , irrelevant, coming from outside. 28. between the much-touted Second international and the much-clouted Third International: assonance and antithesis. much-touted means much praised, and much- clouted means much -attacked. The two

30、 phrases are close in pronunciation but opposite in meaning. 29. the horse and buggy: It represents the period before motor vehicles came into use. A buggy is a light carriage pulled by one horse.,30. The difference for example, between. the horse and buggy and the automobile: The difference between

31、 the Second and Third International is not superficial (like the difference between the yearly models of the same car) but substantial (like the difference between two entirely different means of transportation). 31. these two editions: an edition is the total number of copies of a book or the like

32、printed from the same plate, types, etc. and published at about the same time. Compare “the second edition” with “the second printing”: an act of printing a number of copies of a book.,32. descriptive linguistics(描写语言学): Linguistics is the science of language, including phonology(音韵学) morphology(词法学

33、), syntax (句法学)and semantics(语义学). It is sub-divided into descriptive, historical, comparative, geographical, social applied, etc. linguistics. Descriptive linguistics is the branch of linguistics which describes the structure of a language or languages as they exist, without reference to their hist

34、ories or comparison with other languages. In contrast to descriptive linguistics is the “prescriptive linguistics(规定语言学,规范语言学,语言规划学”, Prescriptive linguistics objective is to lay down rules for “correct” behaviour. It tells people “what should be in language” or “ what people should say”. In prescri

35、ptive linguistics, many early grammars were based on “high” (literary, religious) written language.,33. charter: originally , it means a written or printed statement of specified rights of a person or corporation from a ruler or government(政府颁发的特许证, 特许令). Here it is used figuratively implying that B

36、loomfield is regarded as their authority. 34. Germanic: a principal branch of the Indo-European family of languages, subdivided into North Germanic (Norwegian, Icelandic, swedish, Danish, etc.), West Germanic (German, Yiddish, Dutch, Flemmish, Modern English, etc.), East Germanic (the extinct Gothic

37、) 35. philology: the study of written records, especially literary texts, in order to determine their authenticity meaning. etc. (语文学，语言学): earlier term of linguistics. 36. Yale: name of a well-known American University at New Haven, Connecticut.,37. inseminating scholars: inseminate means to put ma

38、le seeds into a female, by sexual act or by an artificial process (使怀孕,使受精) , inseminating here is used figuratively to refer to scholars who implant new ideas in the minds of people. 38. who cant be relegated to any department and dont dream of accepting established categories and procedures just b

39、ecause theyre established: who cant be classified as a scholar of just one particular field of knowledge (implying he was an all-round scholar) And they never think of accepting established concepts and ways of doing things just because they are already established.Relegate: to assign to a class, sp

40、here, realm, etc. classify as belonging to a certain order of things.Department: a field of knowledge. Dream: to imagine, think, or suppose possible.,39. He was as much an anthropologist (as a linguist: He was an anthropologist as well as a linguist: 40. Strunks Elements of Style: this volume on lan

41、guage style was originally presented by Strunk to a freshmen class at Cornell University (New York State) in the form of lectures. 41. His concepts of language were shaped not by trunks Elements of Style but by his knowledge of Cree Indian dialects. His ideas of language were not based on stereotype

42、d book knowledge but on personal observation of existing languages including Cree Indian dialects.(for Cree Indians, see Note 5 to the text),42. All languages are systems of human conventions, not system of natural laws: All languages have rules , rules about how to form words and how to pronounce t

43、hem, how to put words in their places next to one another, and how words and especially combinations of them are related to the meanings that the speakers wish to communicate. These rules, however, are different from natural laws. They are determined by usages and practices of the people who use the

44、 given language. Convention: a customary practice, rule, method, etc 43. sitting down: recoding, putting in print or writing,44. It cannot be described in terms of logic or of some theoretical, ideal language: One cannot use the principls of logical reasoning or the rules and principles of a theoret

45、ical, ideal language to describe a living language. 45. It cannot be described in terms of any other language or even in terms of its own past: since each language has its own particular and unique rules, and since the rules of a particular language keep changing with the passage of time, we cannot

46、use their rules and principles to describe any particular language that is in use today. 46. all languages are dynamic rather than static: All languages (living languages) are in a metabolic 新陈代谢的 process of constant change. Nothing (including pronunciation , vocabulary and grammar remains the same)

47、,47. correctness can only rest upon usage: Correctness can only be based on usage. 48. proposition: statements, assertions , not to be confused with preposition 49. It follows that: It is necessarily true thate.g. Because a dictionary is concerned with definitions of words, it follows that accuracy

48、should come first. 50. insofar as(U.S.)= in so far as, to the extent that 51. Some indication of social and regional associations: something that points out social and regional connections, for example, using such usage labels as slang, vulgar, dialect,etc.,52. adapt to: to adjust (oneself) to new o

49、r changed circumstances. Not to be confused with adopt or adept (highly skilled 熟练的， 内行的 ). 53. pervasively: spreading through every part 54. utilitarian: made to be useful rather than decorative （有效用的，实用的）. characterized by usefulness rather than by beauty, truth, goodness. (sometimes derog, belivi

50、ng in that the more people a course of action helps, the better it is 功利主义的，实利主义的) compare with pragmatic (usual apprec. Dealing with matters in the way that seems best under the actual condition, rather than following a general principle; concerned with practical results. 讲究实际的， 务实的， 重实效的),55. Ever

51、y publication in America today includes pages that would appear, to the purist of forty years ago, unbuttoned gibberish: purist: is a person who insists on precise usage or on application of formal, often pedantic rules, as in language.unbuttoned: free or uncontrolled gibberish: rapid and incoherent

52、 talk, unintelligible nonsense.The whole sentence means that in every publication in America today, there are pages that would be considered by those who insist on formal, precise, pedantic usage of language to be uncontrolled, incoherent and unintelligible nonsense. 56. Not that they are: they are

53、not pages of unbuttoned gibberish. 57. you cant hold the language of one generation up as a model for the next: You cant put forward the language of one generation as an example for the next generation to follow.,58. The issue of the New York Times which hailed and nineteen others which are condemne

54、d in the Second: This is a long complex sentence with four attributive clauses in it. In the main sentence the subject is the word issue and the predicate is used. 59. Washington Post: American daily newspaper, more critical than New York Times 60. captioned: entitled, with the heading of 61. hang o

55、n to: retain, not sell or give to others 62. journal: a daily newspaper, any newspaper, magazine, or other periodical 63. periodical: a publication coming out at regular intervals, as weekly, monthly, quarterly, etc.,64. If the editorials were serious, the public and the stockholders - have reason t

56、o be grateful that the writers on these publications are more literate than the editors: It is a lucky thing that the writers on these publications are not as ignorant as the editors. If the editorials were serious, the editors would stick to the language described in a dictionary compiled in the 30

57、s, and if they did so, their publications would be unreadable and nobody would subscribe to them and as a result, they would cease to bring profits to their shareholders. Note the sarcastic tone here. 65. literate: well-educated, showing extensive knowledge, learning or culture. 66. current: commonl

58、y used, known, accepted, prevalent (e.g. a current term) 67. respectable: proper, correct. Cf: respectful, respective,68. a single certainty: something definite with no alternatives. 69. wager: same as bet 70. But neither his vanity nor his purse is any concern of the dictionarys: it must record the

59、 fact: A dictionary should record the fact without bothering whether it can satisfy the vanity of those who use a dictionary to prove their unyielding position in an argument or help those who bet some money in support of their conviction.Purse: (synecdoche) represents money 71. So with pronunciation: A dictionary cannot always be absolute in the matter of pronunciation, either. 72. Has he been betrayed?: Has he been let down? Has the dictionary failed to meet his hopes?,73. abdicated its responsibility: given up or neglected its responsibility, failed to do i