Evening star., 1963-04-07

80 WV wiz ONNOAAl
was published. 1t was notable
for two innovations. Instead
of identifying certain words
as "illiterate" or erroneous"
1t used the terms "substand-
ard" and "nonstandard,"
and, although its pages were
filled with words normally
considered slang, 1t used the
label sparingly -" big shot,"
for example, is listed as
standard English. To a great
extent the dictionary abdi-
Gated its role of arbiter; it
wanted no longer to be an
authority but rather a collec-
tor Of popular contemporary
usage. Thus the distinctions
between "deprecate" and
"depreciate," exceptional"
and "exceptionable" and
many others heretofore
marks of the careful speak,
er or writer are not sharply
maintained in the dictionary
because they are often not
sharply maintained in vul-
gar speech.
4 4
Coll7 retreats from the
extreme position of wa, Of
which 1t is an abridgment,
but it is still astounding. "Ir-
regardless" is cited as the ex-
ample Of the nonstandard
word too widely current in
reputable context to be la
beled 'substandard.'" What
can W3 and Coll7 mean. in
heavens name, by reputable
context? "Ain't" is standard
English as a predicate used
with 81" - fused orally in
most parts of the United
States by many educated
speakers esp. in the phrase
amt I" (Coll7; in W3 "cul-
tivated speakers~. One
meaning Of "transpire" is
come to pass" COLT; "like-
wise" is standard English as
q reply to pleased to meet
you" Coll7; intestinal for
titude" is standard English
In COLT; so is "swimmily-
in a swimmy manner. "Goof
"a ridiculous stupid per-
son; a blunder. and to blum
der" is standard English in
Coll7, but "goof - to idle,
loaf, to make a mess Of, to
bungle" is slang! How nice a
distinctionl Also, is not Ito
idle, loaf" correctly "goof-
off," not Just "goof"? Boy
friend" in Coll7 is standard
English meaning "a male
friend, a frequent or regular
male companion Of a girl or
woman, q male paramour.
Certainly only the second
definition is valid.-the first
is either meaningless or nom
sense, and the last is mis-
leading unless tagged q eu-
phemism or cynical. ITO
learn" meaning Ito teach" is
nov chiefly substandard" in
W3. unequivocally substand-
ard in Coll7. Complete"
and perfect" have compar-
ative and superlative in "er"
and "est," the former of
ten," the latter sometimes"
in W3; in Coll7 these cur
rently illiterate forms are
dropped, although as we
have seen Coll7 approves Of
most complete"
Now there is no reason
why Webster's dictionaries
should not shuck off their
authority, their century-old
didactic role. If they want
to. They can list as many
words they read or hear as
they are able to get between
covers, but they should then
be wary of labelling only a
very few words "substand-
ard" and "nonstandard," pu-
sillanimous substitutes for
the older fortnight "illit-
crate" and erroneous" A
writer may use any word he
pleases, and his freedom is
not circumscribed by knowl-
edge Of what is accepted.
You can be quite sure that
Humpty Dumpty was able to
make words mean anything
he wanted them to mean not
in spite Of the fact that but
because he knew precisely
what those words denoted
and connoted in the ears Of
people attuned TO the per-
ception Of words and also be-
cause he knew what they
meant in the market place.
The second edition Of
Webster's unabridged. re-
placed In 1861 by W3. had
$50. 900 word entries; W3 has
450. 900. 10000 OF phich are
new. This means that 200.-
900 words have been dropped.
COLI includes 10000 words,
10000 Of which are new. and
virtually all Of which are
from W3 Il find "King
James Version" and "Douay
Version" the latter not ac-
curately defined, in COLI
but not wa. Thus we come
TO the second major short
coming Of both W3 and
Coll7 - neither includes
enough words. In an una
bridged dictionary you should
expect 10 find. In COLI you
should have q reasonable
hope Of finding. the meaning
of any word unfamiliar TO
you that appears In non-spe-
cialized reading. / took at
random % difficult words
from q famous English novel.
one that every college stu
dent reads or near misses.
and discovered that COLI
gives only nine. Plump. vb.
refocillated, peripateia. chat