Pop!Tech 2006: Dangerous Ideas

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Erin McKean is the editor-in-chief of American Dictionaries for Oxford University Press, and the editor of VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly. Erin wanted to be a lexicographer since she was eight years old and calls herself a “dictionary evangelist.” She lives in Chicago, rants about dresses on her blog, www.dressaday.com, and is actually really bad at Scrabble.

From the Pop!Tech Wiki...

All Your Text Are Belong to Us

lex·i·cog·ra·pher: a person who compiles dictionaries

Once people find out Erin McKean is a lexicographer, they feel a bit sheepish. That is, after they look up the word lexicographer. Erin is a person who compiles dictionaries. That makes a lot of people feel guilty, like maybe, they don’t use their copy as much as they should.

She’s discovered in her work, that people have some misconceptions about dictionaries. Two of those wrong ideas:

1. They think it’s a beauty contest
   
2. They think it’s the Ten Commandments

Erin, whose favorite word is erinaceous (like or pertaining to a hedge hog), is on a mission to debunk those myths and to encourage more people to look at dictionaries as tools, useful tools. She’s also on a soapbox to have people submit their work for language research and the future of dictionaries. With her handy Dictionary-izer 3000 in tow, Erin studies published works to learn how people are using words and language as one way to improve the dictionaries.

Erin, a little bit punchdrunk on her own life’s work, describes dictionaries as “the vodka of literature.” Lots of pure material distilled down to some really good, clear stuff. “And dictionaries go well with Red Bull,” she quips. She touched on how some folks aren’t being good sharers. They’re putting son their works or including certain copyright language on their texts that does not allow lexicographers like Erin to use them for research.

She urges everyone to modify that standard language, paraphrased below: All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, sold or used for commercial or language research purposes.” Erin closed with a final plea to allow fair use for all future texts and other works: Make your text available to lexicographers and you will help improve the future of language research and the future of dictionaries.