Customer Reviews

Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
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This deserves a qualified five star rating. Qualified, in the sense that you need to have some interest in lexicography and history. Not a degree, mind you, but more than a distant interest. At times, it does get a little long-winded, but stay with it. Some interesting stories and good insight into a world that we often don't see, but we use its results quite frequently. Fairly easy to read, no more difficult than high school reading materials (probably easier than that). Give it a try, at least start and browse.

Second Editon review.

Highly unlikely to climb the best-sellers list, more's the pity, this is a most engaging, entertaining and of course informative read about how dictionaries are created. But it covers much more than that: within Sidney Landau has written a history of dictionaries, how dictionaries are used, considerations when creating a dictionary, considerations when printing a dictionary, how dictionaries are viewed in society [bigger is always better seems to be the unfortunate view] and much, much more.

While perhaps in regard to the technology a bit out of date [2001 -- technology has moved ahead in leaps and bounds; though Landau does cover how computers both help and hinder] -- perhaps a call to write a new edition please Sidney? -- the principles seem timeless. I knew a dictionary was a complicated endeavour, but until I read this I did not know just how complicated. And despite this, or perhaps because of their complexity, as well as Landau's enthusiasm and experience, I wish I could go and be part of a team working on one now.

I'd also add Sidney Landau's humour kept me amused througout; while of course meaning no disrepect to surgeons, and I am sure Landau thought the same, this quote, coming in a section dealing with style manuals and how to make them readable and suitable for different people, gives one example of a quote that had me laughing:

One must therefore prepare a simplified version of the style manual for contributors ... The same person who can separate and suture microscopic blood vessels of the eye with perfect assurance falls into a state of mental collapse when instructed in the proper use of parentheses.

This is a book full of fascinating information about how dictionaries are conceived of and made: how the information is collected and what the guiding principles of each publisher are. Reading this book and learning about how publishers "count" the words that are supposedly in their dictionaries has changed my entire outlook on how to buy a dictionary. Thanks to this book I've also become very aware of "latent words." The book is long, but never dull. If you're interested in words, word origins, and how dictionaries are compiled, this book will entertain and educate you.

An excellent introduction to the world of dictionaries. Well-informed and well-written.