Empire of Words: The Reign of the OED

Challenging the authority of the "Oxford English Dictionary", this study reveals many of the dictionary's inherent prejudices and questions the assumptions behind its continuous revision. It describes how judgemental the task of editing a major dictionary can be.

About the Author :
John Willinsky is Professor and Director of the Centre for the Study of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of British Columbia. Among his books are The Well-Tempered Tongue: The Politics of Standard English in High School, The Triumph of Literature/The Fate of Literacy, and The New Literacy.

Review :
"Willinsky . . . focuses on the source of the OED's authority--its imposing database of over five million examples of words used in context. . . . By scrutinizing OED entries, he exposes ambiguity and contradiction between citations and definitions and shows a nearly complete neglect of women and workers. Replete with statistical content analysis as well as engaging anecdotes." ". . . a scholarly study of the more than two million citations in the dictionary that are used to show shades of meanings of words. Willinsky questions the authority of the OED by demonstrating how idiosyncratic the choice of citations often has been." "[This] provocative new book dares question the OED; it raises some points that even the most devoted user of the great dictionary might want to consider."---Olin Chism, Dallas Morning News "This lively polemic amounts to an attack on the OED as a formidable weapon of the English establishment." "[In] this ambitious book . . . Willinsky argues that the OED gives unwarranted legitimacy to both the outlook of those who compiled it and the sources they drew upon. . . . Willinsky lays bare much more about language and society than can be mentioned in a small space. Thoroughly and inventively researched, his book deserves a home, if there's room, on the shelf beside the great dictionary itself." "John Willinsky . . . offers a study of the Oxford English Dictionary and how it got that way, its often subtle omissions and prejudices, and the absolute vastness of its achievement. . . . Willinsky has made a significant contribution to the appreciation and enjoyment of our language. . . . If you're a word nut, you need it. Even if you're only casually interested in our language, there are scores of tidbits that will intrigue." "The heart of the [OED] is its citations--the examples it gives of the words it is defining; for, as in any good dictionary, it is these that ultimately determine the definitions. . . . But, says Professor John Willinsky in Empire of Words, the citations in the . . . OED . . . were far too narrowly chosen. . . . Some would say there was not much wrong with that. Yes, there is, says Willinsky. It marks the OED as elitist, masculine in its emphasis, chauvinistic, imperialist even, and in a general way insulting to minority groups."---Nicholas Bagnall, The Sunday Telegraph "[In] Empire of Words: The Reign of the OED [John Willinsky] takes an affectionate but candid look at the great book's shortcomings. . . . He approaches his study of the OED through a close examination of its principal sources of authority for its definitions. . . . It's time, he believes, to make room in the OED for the English of wider global use."---Max Wyman, Vancouver Sun "John Willinsky . . . shows [that] The Dictionary is deeply and unavoidably flawed. Its architecture remains distinctly Victorian, and anyone using The Dictionary as a tool, or even a temple, needs to know the colour and slant of the windows they're looking through. . . . The OED is a brilliant, majestic, endlessly fascinating homage to a seriously wordy language. Empire of Words regularly applauds that achievement, while carefully posting much-needed warning signs all over it. . . . Willinsky is scholarly without ever being dry, writing with wit, elegance and unfailing insight. You couldn't ask for a better, more genial guide."---Randy Harris, Globe and Mail "What [John Willinsky] found--after years of old-fashioned study bolstered by a sophisticated computer analysis of the entire OED text--is fascinating and disconcerting. . . . [While he] never undermines or obscures the amazing enterprise that is the OED . . . [he] documents the human foibles undergirding the selection of [its] famous illustrative quotations."---Steve Weinberg, Star