Keeping up with language

PERSONALLY he would have preferred to have begun the revision of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) several years ago, but with money forthcoming only recently, the OED Chief Editor, Mr. John Simpson, says "better late than never". In India recently to market OED Online, Mr. Simpson talks to ANITA JOSHUA about the first ever complete revision of the OED, Indian English, and the end of the dominance of British English.

Why such a comprehensive revision that will take over a decade to complete?

The OED was first published between 1884 and 1928, and, although new words and meanings have been added, we've never ever had the opportunity to comprehensively revise it. Partly because it is such an expensive operation and to have done so before computerisation would have probably not been possible. It's 60 million words of text. With the dictionary computerised, we can control the revision better now. Also, it required a large financial outlay from the university press and they could guarantee the money only now.

As for the need to revise the dictionary, keeping the OED up-to- date is central to Oxford University's objectives as a teaching and research institution, and to Oxford University Press (OUP) as a publisher.

Does the revision have anything to do with globalisation and the need to incorporate region-specific words that have crept into English?

Globalisation of English started early in the 20th Century with the expansion of American films to Britain and elsewhere. Internet and the global village have made the last 25 years or so a phase not just of expansion of vocabulary but also of networking between speakers of English, making it a very fluid time for the language throughout the world. It is a time in which we have an expanding core of English which is understood by speakers of different varieties around the world and also a realisation that each variety has its own integrity, be it Australian English, South African English, Indian English or American English... Hundred years ago, British English would have been regarded as the dominant variety of English whereas nowadays it is regarded as one of the number of significant varieties. So, there's more of an equality relationship now between the different varieties than in the past.

Will the 2010 deadline for the revision be met?

The 2010 deadline will depend on the scale of the revision; more and more electronic texts are becoming available, and we need to decide whether to include them in the revised work.

How voluminous will the print edition be?

The way it is looking at the moment, I would imagine it will be 40 volumes long - twice its present size. It doesn't mean it will necessarily have twice as many words because the dictionary entries include more than the definition.

How is the revision being done?

We do it by maintaining a Reading Programme and going through large text databases - literature or newspapers. Readers around the world read through historical and modern texts, and send material to our database. Some of the entries are completely new, and others are updated versions of existing entries. Once we have enough evidence for a new word or new meaning (maybe five examples from different sources over a period of five years), then the term has a chance of getting into the dictionary with some more research. It is slow and painstaking work, but contributes to the sense of "authority" associated with the OED.

Since language is changing fast, will a dictionary ever be up-to- date? Aren't supplements better than a complete revision?

No dictionary (book or online) will ever be up-to-date, but the online version will be more up-to-date than the book. Multiple supplements are problematic as they are either alphabetical (and so don't keep the dictionary up-to-date throughout the whole alphabet at any one time) or include new material across the alphabet, which means users find it very hard to track down what they are looking for. None of this applies to online versions.

Is the print edition of the OED on its way out?

We need to look at the market when the revision is complete to see if it wants a hard-copy edition. My guess is that there will be a place for the book version alongside the electronic version for a while yet! But who knows?

You have asked people to send in words. Has the OED always done this?

Yes, the original editor issued an appeal for material in 1879, when he took up his post. Scholars often write to us anyway. This appeal is more for everyday users of the dictionary who didn't realise that they could contribute to the revision. It's not solely an academic preserve.

This is where computers have made a difference. Earlier, we could just file information sent to us as we weren't in a flexible enough environment to publish it. But with the online edition, we can hope to introduce this kind of information whenever we conduct the quarterly release. And there is much more productive inter-communication between us and the OED users which is great because the dictionary ought to be changing in its measured way to reflect changes in the language. Earlier, it was a rather false picture of a fixed dictionary but a moving language.

You have set up an OED office in the U.S. Why now? What about India?

I'd have liked to have set up an American office earlier, but we have to balance our expenditure. We've had readers, consultants and contributors in the U.S. for over a century, so we're not really changing our approach to American English - just having some of the editing happening "on the ground" there.

I'd like to investigate the possibility of setting up a centre for Indian English in India. I'll be looking into this with OUP and others in the next year.

Is the quote about England and America being two countries divided by a common language still valid?

How valid was it when first said? Was it merely a clever quotation which set people thinking? Nowadays, languages are both getting closer and moving apart: Getting closer in that American English and British English (and the other varieties) become more homogeneous by interaction - through the media, etc. And drawing apart in as much as each variety generates its own new words and meanings which are specific to it and don't necessarily pass into international use.

Which country is contributing most to the changing face of English? How many Indian words have entered the OED during the revision and how do they compare with those from other English- speaking areas?

America (including Canada), then Britain, Australia, and then South Africa - if you want an off-the-cuff assessment, India is in the tier below this. I would expect maybe 5,000 terms from Indian English to enter the OED during its revision, but we'll have to wait and see.

Do you have anything lined up for India?

I want as many speakers of Indian English to contribute material through our web site (www.oed.com) or by post to Oxford. We'll be reading Indian sources (novels, poetry, etc.) ourselves. If we can inaugurate some real work on the history of Indian English in India, that would be great.

How do you rate Indian English? Has your visit to India changed your impression about Indian English?

It's a very interesting object of study because it doesn't have the homogeneity of other varieties spoken by first-language speakers. I think I'm much more aware that we need to keep a close look-out at idiomatic developments in Indian English - not just the loanwords from Indian languages.

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