Reference Books in Jail, Prison, Hoosegow, Clink, Big House

5 September 2010

A Canadian federal judge in Vancouver has ruled that a prisoner is entitled to his own copy of a thesaurus, according to the Montreal Gazette. The judge ruled that a thesaurus is an “educational text” and not a “personal” book and that prison authorities should fork over the $23.14 to buy the Oxford University Press paperback for the prisoner. Prisoners in Canada have a personal expenditure budget, but this prisoner was over his limit and therefore submitted the invoice to the prison as an educational cost, which doesn’t fall under the “personal” category. Prison authorities denied the purchase, saying that thesauruses were available in the prison library.

The judge also cited the Humpty Dumpty scene from Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass in his decision.

(Hat Tip: Martin Laplante, DSNA mailing list)

Future of the Print OED

31 August 2010

The demise of the print version of the Oxford English Dictionary has been greatly exaggerated, or at least the obituary is premature. Several news articles in recent days have run with the statement that the third edition of the OED will not be printed, remaining an online resource only. According to these sources, the size of the dictionary (the second edition consisted of twenty volumes) and the decline of the print dictionary market in favor of the online market necessitated this decision.

But actually no such decision has been made and will probably not be made for another decade. Here is the official statement from Oxford University Press, via Jesse Sheidlower’s personal blog.

If I had to speculate, I would predict that there will be a print edition, but aimed at presentation copies and for those who have money to burn and like the ego boost that impressive-looking books filling their shelves gives them. The print runs will be small, and perhaps printed on demand. Other than possibly “college” or “pocket” dictionaries for quick reference, I just don’t see a market for print dictionaries. I don’t believe that “print is dead” (print is and will remain a very useful technological form), but certain classes of printed material certainly are dying, and dictionaries and similar reference books are among them.

A Whorfian Summary

31 August 2010

It is a few days old, but I just came across this New York Times article by Guy Deutscher. It is an excellent summation of how linguistic relativity (the Sapir-Whorf theory, which should really be called just the Whorf theory as Sapir really had nothing to do with it) is and is not valid.

I particularly like the quote from Roman Jakobson that, “Languages differ essentially in what they must convey and not in what they may convey.”

(Hat tip to Arts and Letters Daily)

Video Friday: Stephen Fry on Swearing

27 August 2010

Not much to say, other than seeing a young Hugh Laurie doing comedy is also fun. (Why is it that comedians so often turn out to be fine dramatic actors, but the reverse is usually not the case.) Enjoy.

(Hat tip to Pharyngula)