The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-02-16
A. Blow at the Dictionary.

American scholars Of late years have
been treating with little respect the
sacred fetish Of American education,
the dictionary, with its companion idols,
the grammar and the spelling book.
The conclusive argument " the diction-
arr a so leaves them unaffected.
Harvard, perhaps, has been somewhat
more conspicuous than the other col
leges in the effort to overthrow the old
gods, and it is at Cambridge that the
latest blow has been struck at them by
Prof. EDwABD 5. SHELDON in his Presi-
Dental address on " Practical Philol-
z before the Modern Language
Convention.
Prof. SHELDON is probably the high
est American authority N linguistics
now living; he ought to know the Eng
lish language if any man does, for he
prepared the etymologies in Webster's
dictionary, a notable achievement of
American scholarship. Nevertheless 10
the teachers of languages in the coll
legcs Prof. SHELDON protested against
the ~schoolboy with which grammars
are regarded by most persons, as con-
tanning rules to which people must con-
form, and against the prevalent belief
that English dictionaries contain all
the words that anybody has the right
il IL is in the dictionary. Such ideas
stand in the way Of sound scholarship.
= We look on grammar, = he said, speak
ing for all students of language, . sim
ply as the description Of the structure 81
a language, of rs condition during some
definite period in It's constantly chang
ing history and 10 US a dictionary is a
more o.. less incomplete list of the words
and phrases used i n language in some
periods of its life with definitions, often
inexact, Of these words and phrases
The necessity and the convenience
Of grammars as supplying rules that
beginners may follow, Prot. SHELDON adj
mits. and also the fact that the popular
view is almost inevitable from the usual
college study of dead languages with
highly developed forms of infection;
but he holds that belief in the %sacrosanct
quality of the rules becomes a stumbling
block for the student when he advances
beyond the schoolboy stage.
All dictionaries are inevitably incom-
plete, both as regards the words included
and the meanings given, so long as n
language il living and growing, as the
English language is: but in the matter
Of pronunciation Prof. SHELDON holds
49,, 49,. 49, oc-nat.ny- ;,,l,.z
The pronunciation in all dictionaries
Is Influenced by many misconceptions
that affect the standard " correctness
OF speech, for instance, the desire 10 be
consistent with certain spellings. The
student Of language has no business
with the right and the wrong of the
existing usage of language, he must
investigate the actual facts. Nothing
is harder TO get rid Of than p~reconccived
ideas on such matters, for educated
people in general hold to their opinions
about what is wrong and what is right
in language very firmly, and are I'M
willing to unlcarn them, yet there is
undoubtedly a %colloquial form Of Erg-
lish, used among educated people, which
the dictionaries do not recognize. 1t
is the natural. careless, unconscious,
colloquial speech which furnishes the
philologist with his best material be-
cause il is freest from intrusive artificial
influences
That colloquial pronunciation the
dictionaries should register. II may
not always be easy To tell what good
usage sanctions, but that does not COM
pei Us 10 give up the recognition of a
good ~colloquial English, TO be used as
well rs a more formal English, each in
rs proper place" How necessary it
is i shown by the great oxford die
tionary. The word annunciation " il
represented there with C pronounced as
:, while in e enunciation y the c is pro-
nounccd rs sh; the two letters 4 and F.
were edited by different persons SO
that il is clear that in England both pro-
nunciations exist in good usage, and
therefore both should be represented
IN the dictionary. So, in his preface,
Or. MURRAY tells how AT q scientific
meeting he heard the word =" gaseous '
pronounced in six different ways by as
many eminent physicists, each OF whom
presumably could claim the support
OF good usage; yet his dictionary gives
but W recommendations and American
dictionaries one or two more. The
sounds Of the !etter r in words like