034_2002_v1_tom dalzell, terry victor & john williams_a labour so ungrateful_report of a project

8/18/2019 034_2002_V1_Tom Dalzell, Terry Victor & John Williams_A Labour So Ungrateful_Report of a Project

1/10

REPORTS ONLt:XICOGRAPlHCAl,

A N D

EXlCOLOGICAl, PROJECTS

A

labour so

ungratefu :

Report

ofa

project

to

update

Eric Partridge s ictionary

ofsl ng and unconventional

English

T om

Dal/ell

([email protected]),

Terry

Victor

([email protected]),

John

Williams

r johnw@whoever .com)

Freelance

Lexicographers

Abstract

This paper

offers

brief

account

of

th e

urrent

project

to

update

Eric

Partridge's Dictionary of

Slang

and

Unconventional

English, th e last

edition

ofwhich appeared in

1984. Much ofPartridge's original effort

w as

concerned

with

th e

slang

ofthe years

1890 to

1945 ;

th e present editors

aim

to

bring

it

up

to th e present day,

concentrating

on

terms m at have been

current at any time

since

1945 .

For th e

first time

in

a

Partridge

DSUE,

American

slang

is being

given

equal

coverage, an d there will be significant

inclusions

from

World

English.

A t

th e level ofindividual entries, th e spirit and tone

ofPartridge's

original is conveyed mainly

through

th e

'gloss',

a

discursive

note covering

anything

from etymology, to synonyms, to examples ofusage Th e

dictionary

text is

being

held

as

a

database

of

XM L

files,

nd

an

account

of

compiling procedures

s

given.

A

wide

range of

fictional,

non-fictional,

an d

audiovisual texts ar e

being

used

as

primary

sources

of

new

material.

Entries

from

previous editions

ofthe

dictionary

ar e

being

retained

where

appropriate.

Introduction

Eric

Partridge,

with

his

Dictionary

ofSlang

and

Unconventional

English,

made

a

profound

contribution

to th e

study

and

understanding

of

non-standard

English.

is body

of

work,

widely

acknowledged scholarship

an d

dignity

of

approach

se t

th e standard

fo r

every

other

English-language

slang

lexicographer

ofthe

20th century. Th e

first

edition was published in

1937, with

he

ighth nd

atest

dition DSUE8)

ppearing

n

984.

ork

s

now

n

progress on a substantial revision, to be entitled th e New Partridge

Dictionary

ofSlang

and

Unconventional

English

(henceforth referred

to

as

New

Partridge).

Th e

dictionary

will

be

published by Routledge

(Taylor

&

Francis)

an d is

scheduled

to appear

in

2005.

This

paper

offers a briefaccount ofthe

proposed

content

and

methodology

ofthe new

dictionary.

Th e

previous

editions

ofthe

DSUE

have

recorded

and

defined

th e

slang

and

unconventional

English f

Great

ritain,

nd o esser xtent

er

ominions,

ver

eriod

f

approximately

350 years from th e

1600's

through th e 1970's .

For th e years up until 1890,

Partridge

was

by

his

ow n

dmission

quite

eliant

on

Farmer an d

Henley's Slang

and

its

331


2/10


3/10

R E P O R T S ON LEXICOGRAPHICAL AN D LEXICOLOGICAL

PROJECTS

Partridge]

ould

aintain

he

lightest

uthority

ere

merica's

ontribution

o e

overlooked .

New

Partridge

will

herefore

be

th e

irst

truly

global

collection

of

English

slang.

W H E N : Since World W ar II. Th e great strength ofPartridge's

work

was th e slang ofthe late

19th century through to

th e

end

ofthe Second World

War.

New Partridge is focusing

on

slang

an d

unconventional English heard since World

W ar

II. However, words or phrases

coined prior

to

World W ar

II but

still heard

after

World

W ar II

will

be

included,

as

well as

words or phrases not heard after World W ar

II

but

possessing

a core historical value which

contributes significantly to

the

reader's

appreciation

and

understanding

ofpost-1945 slang.

Microstructure

Each

entry will

typically

consist ofheadword, word class,

definition,

'gloss' (ofwhich more

below),

followed,

where

necessary,

by a

broad

geographical indication

and

an

approximate

dating

or

earliest

recorded

use.

Some sample

draft

entries are

shown

in

Appendix

.

Th e

efinition

tyle

s neutral n one,

nd

dopts he usual

orms nd

ordings

or

native-speaker dictionaries.

hen

ppropriate he

efinitions

ill

e hose

ritten

y

Partridge

or Beale

fo r

DSUE8. But it is

in

th e

discursive

'glosses' that th e

voice

and

tone

of

New Partridge will be most

obviously

established. The gloss may include

any

or all

ofthe

following:

a)

he

main users

of

th e

term or

phrase, on

a

cultural, demographic, an

r

geographical

basis;

b)

tymology,

including

false

or folk etymologies

which

should be dispelled;

c) llustrative xamples f

usage, rawn ro m wide ange f

written, usical, nd

audiovisual sources;

d)

nformation concerning

the

tone

of

voice or gestures

used

when

uttering th e

word

or

phrase;

e)

egreeofstigmatizationortaboo;

f) ynonyms, antonyms,

an d

collocates;

g) dentification

of

th e entry by figure

of speech or rhetorical

device

(such

as

metaphor,

metonym,

synecdoche,

euphemism,

dysphemism,

reduplication,

rhyme,

clipping,

etc).

The

glosses

afford

th e

compilers

a degree

of flexibility

n presenting

th e

information

and

developing

a personal

tone,

which could be scholarly or amusing by turns.

Partridge

noted

that he was invited to 'write - not merely compile'

[Crystal 1980] a dictionary ofslang and

unconventional

nglish,

nd

e

as

ttuned

o

he

lement

f

reativity n

he

lexicographer's task:

Unless

one

is

a

hack adapting

someone

else's

dictionary, lexicography

is

hard

work;

th e

conscientious exicographer,

f

he has a passion

or

his

ubject, dds

to

th e strain

by

doing

more

than,

strictly,

he

needs

to

do,

not

so

much

because

he

wishes

to

perpetuate

a

supererogation

as because he must. We hear of th e compulsions of the creative writer -

th e poet and th e dramatist, th e novelist or th e short-story practitioner.

333


4/10

EURALEX 2 0 0 2 PROCEEDINGS

Those

are

genuine compulsions;

the results

genuinely

creative. Yet

the

true

scholar

also

has

his

compulsions:

and his

results

may,

n

a

different

mode,

be

almost

as

creative

as

those ofother

wielders

ofwords.

Crystal 1980 ]

The ditors

f

th e

ew

dictionary

are

attempting o maintain

he pirit

and

ssence f

Partridge's

original

commentaries,

adjusting

the

one

where

necessary to

embrace

the ull

range

of

new material. Partridge was, after

all,

a

man

of his

ime,

and

his

occasionally

shows through

in

his

preferences

and

prejudices.

A s

Jonathon

Green

[1999]

points

out:

The language ofthe

sturdy

beggars ofthe 16th century or the rakes

and

whores

ofthe

18 th

offers

no

difficulties;

hat

of

modern youth

seems

o engender something of a

'Disgusted

ofTonbridge'

treatment.

W h a t

will

be

etained

ro m

h is

emark ,

however,

s

Partridge's diligent

and

air-minded

approach to

th e

anguage

of

the

socially marginalized, which

the

editors

of

New

Partridge

will seek to

extend

into

the

present

day.

Working

m e t h o d s

Every entry will

be

either compiled

or

reviewed

by

at

least

one

ofthe

two

principal

editors,

Terry

Victor

(UK)

and

Tom

Dalzell

(US) . For

material

beyond

the

UK

and the U S,

a

number

of

'worldwide contributors'

have

been

engaged;

the latest

addition

to

the

team

is

a

specialist

in

anadian

nglish.

ebsite

as

ecently

om e

nline

www.partridge-slang.com)

which,

am ong

other

things,

is

being

used

to

solicit

voluntary

contributions from

the general

public

(which

are

being

subjected

to

rigorous

review

by the

principal

editors) .

The first stage

ofthe

project involves collecting and

compiling

the

new

material

and storing

the

entries in

an online

database. The database

is

implemented

as

a

collection

of

XML files,

with each

file

corresponding to

an

ndividual

sense

of

a headword.

A

sample

XML

file

s

shown n Appendix 2.

A

user-friendly nterface s provided

see

Appendix 3 )

o

hat the

editors

do not have to engage

directly

with

the

XM L

coding.

The user nterface has

been

integrated

with a

dedicated

browser

so

that the editors

can

inspect

the

database online, select

files

or

downloading,

work

on

hem

n

he user nterface, hen

upload

hem back

o

he

database.

The

nterface also allows or a triage' ys tem,

e.

pre-selecting

or

excluding)

entr ies

or nclusion n

any of

th e

proposed

works

to

be

extracted ro m

the database. The

browser ncorporates ulletin oard,

r

orum, esigned

or ase

f

communication

between he rincipal ditors, he orldwide ontributors, nd he ditorial eam t

Routledge.

The ne-file/one-sense orrespondence

s

dapted o he orking ethods

f

he

lexicographers. Rather

than proceeding alphabetically,

they

are

recording

and

nvestigating

slang

terms

as

they

crop

up in

the

course

ofasystematic programme ofreading and citation,

which

s

used

o

generate

an

nitial

headword

ist.

Thus,

ik e

he

original

Partridge,

New

Partridge

will

be drawn almost exclusively rom written or otherwise ecorded) ources .

While

the

value

offieldwork,

such

as

that conducted

by

David

Maurer [1940 , 1 9 5 4 , 1981 ] or

Tony

Thorne

[1999] ,

is

entirely

recognized,

the

associated

costs

would

in

this

case

have

been

prohibitive.

At

times

the editors

m ay be

concentrating on

a particular

subject

area - such

as

334


5/10

REPORTS

O N

LEXICOGRAPHICAL

AN D LEXICOLOGICAL PROJECTS

drugs,

automobiles,

or military slang;

at

other

times

they may

be

working

through selected

fictional

or

non-fictional

texts

(which

might

include

movie

scripts,

novelizations,

and

song

lyrics).

mong

he

uthors

and

uteurs) eaturing

n

he

ibliographic

atabase

re

Armistead Maupin, Richard

Farina,

Quentin Tarantino, Naomi Klein, Alan Bleasdale, Guy

Ritchie,

and

Sacha

Baron-Cohen ( 'Ali

G').

Other

recent dictionaries

of

slang are being consulted

fo r

th e sake

of

completeness, but it

is

hoped

that

every

item

included

in New

Partridge

can be

attested

with

reference to

at least

one

primary source.

Each

item as it

occurs

is cross-checked against

DSUE8,

to

see whether

there

s

an

existing

entry

that

is

uitable

to

be

carried

over to

th e

new edition.

After

this

initial pass, each entry from

DSUE8

that

has not been included so fa r will be reviewed and

considered

fo r

inclusion

in

New

Partridge.

Once the database

s

more or less

complete,

urther editorial passes will be

necessary

n

order

to

lean up

he

database - there

s

bound

o

be a certain

amount

of

duplication,

misplaced

entries,

etc - an d then

to

consolidate th e

individual

files into (often multi-sense)

dictionary entries.

Concluding

remarks

Slang is inherently short-lived

and

ephemeral; most of

the slang collected by Partridge has

not

been heard since

World

W ar

II,

and

most

ofthe

slang

first heard

since World II

was

not

recorded

by

Partridge. This

makes

th e enterprise

of

updating

a

slang dictionary somewhat

paradoxical;

the

time

and

effort

needed

to

sift

through an

ever-growing

body

ofnew

material

(which itselfwill need to

be

updated again

before many

years have

passed) seems in inverse

proportion

o

he

nature

of

th e

material

under tudy. artridge himself recognized he

strenuous

and tiring

nature

ofthe

undertaking:

I

should

like

to

glance

at

a rather

special sort

oflexicography,

a

sort admittedly

ancillary

an d minor: hat

n

which

one s

nvited

o

bring

up

o date dictionary

written

by

someone

else;

someone

either dead or

no

longer

able

to

attempt

th e work. sa y invited

to

bring up

to date ,

because no

lexicographer, however

experienced

or however fatuous,

would,

ofhimself,

propose

to

engage

in

labour

so

ungrateful.

[Partridge

1963,

p.78]

Ancillary

and

minor

though it m ay

be, 'to write

-

not

merely

to compile' such

a

dictionary

is

a abour which he present

ditors

re

honoured

to

undertake,

f

it

means

being

ble o

celebrate th e

achievements ofEric

Partridge, an d give

him

fresh

voice

in

the 21

st

century.

References

[Crystal

1980]

Crystal,

D.

(ed.)

1980.

Eric Partridge in his own

words,

André

Deutsch,

London.

[Farmer & Henley

903]

Farmer, J . S . & W. E. Henley,

903. Slang

and its

Analogues

past and

present, London.

[Green

1999]

Green,

J.,

1999.

Private

correspondence

with

Routledge

publishers.

[Maurer

1940]

Maurer,

D.,

1940.

The

bigcon, Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis.

335


6/10

.EURALEX 2002

PROCEEDINGS

Pvlaurer

1954]

Maurer, D ., 1954.

Narcotics

andnarcotic

addiction,

Charles

C.

Thomas, Springfield,

Illinois.

PvIaurer

981]

aurer, D .,

981. Language ofthe

nderworld,

niversity

ress of

Kentucky,

Lexington.

Partridge 1937] Partridge, E., 1937.

Dictionary

f

lang

nd

nconventional nglish,

G. Routledge

&

Sons, London.

P>artridge

1963]

Partridge,

E.,

1963.

The gentle art oflexicography, André Deutsch, London.

Partr idge

984] Partridge, E. with P. Beale)

984.

A

Dictionary

ofSlang

and

Unconventional

English,

8

th

edition,

Routledge

& Kegan

Paul,

London,

rihorne 1997] Thorne, T., 1997.

Dictionary

ofcontemporary slang,

Bloomsbury,

London.

3 3 6


7/10

REPORTS

ON

LEXICOGRAPHICAL

A N D LEXICOLOGICAL

PROJECTS

Appendix Sample

draft

entries

from

the

database

adbusting

oun

in nticorporate ctivism, the ct f

ubverting

rand

advertising,

usually

y

arody

r

mockery

[ Hebelievesthatadbustingwill

eventuaUy

spark

a

paradigm shift in

public

consciousness.'

Naomi

Klein,

No

Logo,

p.286.

2001.]

Canada, since late

980s

-core suffix

sed n ombination with tyle o reate ock r ip-hop

music

enre

[On

the

hardcore

model.

Spook-core punks

A FI have just inked

a

deal

with DreamWorks[.]'

Rock Sound,

p.ll.

March 2002. '[T]he briefly

popular

[in 2001]

horror-

core

rap genre.' The

Source,

p.l21. March 2002.]

Jack

traw

oun marijuana

[

ackStrawMP,UKHomeSecretaryl997-2001,

responsible

for strengthening

anti-drug

legislation,

was

embarrassed

when

his

son

was

busted

for

marijuana.

'SOMETHING POSITIVE MUST COME

OU T

OF THE S A G A OF

JACK

STRAW

A N D HIS SON

WILLIAM'S I N V O L V E M E N T

WITH DRUGS' Voice ofthe People' in

The

People

newspaper, 4th

January 1998. Within days the rhyming slang Jack Straw, draw

(marijuana)

had been added to

the lexicon.] U K. Since 1998

juke erb

o ance

n

oisterous

ashion [It

is

theorized

that

the

word,

today

only recognized in the formation

juke ox,

was derived from the African

Wolof ,

Banut,

or

Bambara languages.

The

term spread

through

southern blacks from

the

GuUah,

and then

into wider slang

usage, although with a

distinctly southern flavour:

'Now the

big black

guy

said

something,

grinning,

and the

whores

laughed

and

started

juking

around,

feeUng

something about

to

happen.' Elmore

Leonard,

SuHtch,

1978.] U S 1930s

postal

a

jective

xtremely ngry,

furious o

he

oint f iolence

[From

a

series

of

highly

pubhcised

workplace shootings by

frustrated

and furious

employees

of

the

US

Postal Service. Like

Josh

thinking I

was mean

was

making

me

postaL'

Clueless, 1995.

'Ifanother one ofthese chairs hits me

in

the

nuts,

I'm gonna

go

postaL'

Austin Powers: The

Spy

Who Shagged

Me, 1999.]

U S

337


8/10

EURALEX

2 2

PROCEEDINGS

ppen ix

:

X

representation

of

a

dictionary

f i l e

4 05

adbusting

no

no

in

anticorporate

activism,

the

act

of

subverting

brand

advertising,

usually

by

parody

or

mockery,

Naomi Klein

Book

No Logo

286

2001

He

believes that adbusting

will

eventually

spark

2paradigm

shift in public

conciousness.

TV

ca

noun

Counterculture

late 1980ssrarr;

New

Entry

yes

no

yes

yes

no

no

no

yes

no

no

no

no

338


9/10

REPORTS

ON LEXICOGRAPHICAL AN D LEXICOLOGICAL PROJECTS

Appendix

3 :

Screen

shots

ofthe

user

interface

••1••tIobk'-E^d-'Heto¿ ̂

VÉf&Vy- --

T

----_, ̂~,.

,7 A tM^.y.i

•

•

5

.̂ ^̂>?̂ >̂̂^̂••̂ ; ̂

•

1

•

•>-̂ .

•%

•|

••»

•̂ •̂

•

^ y *.

- ^

.•. '̂..-. '̂.V-^^-V^

•

;

, jfrjgayww.*'.',T

•

"

1

--4;.\#̂ if|jE^̂ ^̂ -̂iA^̂ ^̂ ^̂ ^̂ ^̂ ^̂ ^̂

H«itórd:^*JJMex¡canairbeg

^

.4.»

.Ty

V, ^

•

f S 8 .

•i*g A

Mn^.J^..T_4„--\-

*

pi^RïB.

:Phraséì'

;

fa


10/10

EURALEX 2 0 0 2 PROCEEDINGS

|*

•

•

••••

•

.

•

«•••

• 1 1 1

| • |||||

LE*>_E* i

bf""j5SLA"*

4

I r £H*L = t>

.„_

̂

„___

b

~

^hO

x iffi/

n^ji^rv >

|j4T^|5.

4

^

i

l,rlfil*,

DfiîônajiErtiy

ßtfä̂ 3lî â ibrä»lel«enc«|y««(Er*ji|

|endToDatabMe|

Mnefiäöl»»

CounttyoiOnfltrr

i

:

•*«

:

'(;

u s

•

••••

«

Pert

of

Speech:

noun

Subp e t

Mat tel

1

|

SubtoctMatto2; |

•

Subject

Matter

3

¿ l ì

Dating |1990s&iait

„ j

Ord«

of

Se ns e

j

i

r , -DSUE8

ReEancâ-

^ ̂

StandngMatte

O

Revwed

f¿

NewEntry

y

T r i a g e

zz

r̂ 'Concise

"|Matffna)

•

-1

DinternpufayOctronary

|̂NewPartndge

Q0ther

C >bJp''iiif?

iA .

r*iiit

^Sfctus

•

,

•

Draf tEnt ry

PìRepctEntry

fž

DApproved

• h eek C on t empa a ry

P^TVAppioved

P 1sca1d

Draft Entry

P heckEnt ry

ji4-

2

•

•_

••

•

nte£»r^JNo(e» lor th e Ertby Hete [•••••

•

•••

ŝT |̂Jffiî ĵ̂ >>

|j

@ M 8 g g^OFF'T^FIn

|&Re l

l̂ RD f̂gyMicrlQ3Expll^DVj

•

•

340

034_2002_v1_tom dalzell, terry victor & john williams_a labour so ungrateful_report of a project

Documents