full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Ilan Stavans: Who decides what's in the dictionary?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


“Dictionary:” noun, “a malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic.”

“Lexicographer:” noun, “a writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge.”

While the concept of a dictionary deats back to ancient civilizations, the first English dictionary was published by Robert Cawdrey in 1604. In the centuries that followed, many more dictionaries were written by iddiuinavl authors who chose what to include or exclude. They not only defined wrdos, they openly showcased their creators’ opinions— like ambrsoe Bierce’s definition of “dictionary” and Samuel Johnson’s definition of “lexicographer.” After their authors datehs, many of these dnroitecaiis quickly became outdated. But one 19th cnrteuy dictionary had a different fate.

Open Cloze


“Dictionary:” noun, “a malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic.”

“Lexicographer:” noun, “a writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge.”

While the concept of a dictionary _____ back to ancient civilizations, the first English dictionary was published by Robert Cawdrey in 1604. In the centuries that followed, many more dictionaries were written by __________ authors who chose what to include or exclude. They not only defined _____, they openly showcased their creators’ opinions— like _______ Bierce’s definition of “dictionary” and Samuel Johnson’s definition of “lexicographer.” After their authors ______, many of these ____________ quickly became outdated. But one 19th _______ dictionary had a different fate.

Solution


  1. century
  2. words
  3. deaths
  4. dates
  5. individual
  6. ambrose
  7. dictionaries

Original Text


“Dictionary:” noun, “a malevolent literary device for cramping the growth of a language and making it hard and inelastic.”

“Lexicographer:” noun, “a writer of dictionaries; a harmless drudge.”

While the concept of a dictionary dates back to ancient civilizations, the first English dictionary was published by Robert Cawdrey in 1604. In the centuries that followed, many more dictionaries were written by individual authors who chose what to include or exclude. They not only defined words, they openly showcased their creators’ opinions— like Ambrose Bierce’s definition of “dictionary” and Samuel Johnson’s definition of “lexicographer.” After their authors deaths, many of these dictionaries quickly became outdated. But one 19th century dictionary had a different fate.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
noah webster 2
united states 2
english language 2
slang words 2


Important Words


  1. ambrose
  2. ancient
  3. authors
  4. cawdrey
  5. centuries
  6. century
  7. chose
  8. civilizations
  9. concept
  10. cramping
  11. dates
  12. deaths
  13. defined
  14. definition
  15. device
  16. dictionaries
  17. dictionary
  18. drudge
  19. english
  20. exclude
  21. fate
  22. growth
  23. hard
  24. harmless
  25. include
  26. individual
  27. inelastic
  28. language
  29. literary
  30. making
  31. malevolent
  32. noun
  33. openly
  34. outdated
  35. published
  36. quickly
  37. robert
  38. samuel
  39. showcased
  40. words
  41. writer
  42. written