Hi Bryan, and thanks for responding. It seems we find ourselves facing each other across the traditional divide of lexicography, i.e. prescriptive vs. descriptive. I agree with you that our general English language dictionaries are “normative”. Even in these breakneck paced times, our language is still evolving very slowly, and so the snapshot of the language, as represented by the dictionary, remains de facto normative without actually striving to be. All modern dictionaries take the descriptive approach, reporting the language as it is actually used, and not as some elitist editor and his staff may arbitrarily decree to be standard. This is true of the American Heritage Dictionary, as well as the others, in spite of Heritage’s prescriptivist posturing.
Language is fundamentally a democratic phenomenon. Attempts to control it have always failed, miserably. The success or failure of any neologism is always tested in the crucible of demotic idiom. If a change is found to be useful, or attractive to the general speaker, it will continue to be used and eventually become standard. If not, it will have a shorter life. Ultimately, there is little anyone can do to control this process. Indeed, it is now felt that little need be done no matter how offensive or barbaric a new linguistic change may seem to the dons of academia or their proteges, who are usually inadequately informed to judge such a change objectively from within the context of their personal linguistic experience. The lexicographer’s role is therefore to remain steadfastly objective and to simply report how the language is being used by the general population. After more than two centuries of increasingly descriptivist dictionaries, this principle is now all but apodictic within the linguistic community. Unfortunately the lexicographer is often criticized and sometimes vilified by disgruntled people who feel passionately about their language, and insist that the dictionary use its influence to extirpate these barbarisms. A perfect example of this phenomenon is the experience of editor Philip Gove as portrayed in _The Story of Webster’s Third_, by Herbert Morton, which I found absorbing.
On the subject of language evolution and the natural laws that govern it, I would also recommend a little book by Charleton Laird, called _The Miracle of Language_. These books may be out of print but may be found through on-line used book sources (such as abebooks.com) or with the help of your local bouquiniste. Beware of other books with the same title as Laird’s. I would be interested in learning about your experiences Bryan, as a contributing lexicographer, e.g. which dictionary, when, etc. Would anyone care to comment on the new _Encarta World Dictionary of English_? In my opinion, it represents a new low in scholarship and lexicography, however boldly it parades the ephemera of the modern lexicon.
