Erin McKean: Redefining the dictionary

[joelryan365]

Guys, close your ears and listen. Totally sounds like Anne Hathaway eh!!!!

[crudhousefull]

Wow...she REALLY loves words

[orprado]

You can fall in love of a brain :)

[hymnofashes]

Yeah, this woman is probably insane in bed.

[sophy95926]

I'm really not sure what redefinition of the dictionary Erin is suggesting. She said that paper dictionaries can't hold enough words (now I'll always have to think about ham butt when I look things up), and online dictionaries lose the serendipity of finding unexpected words...so...then what?  I thought she was going to have some new and exciting ideas for alternative dictionaries, but instead she just had some bad jokes.

[sarcasticwhiteboard]

@sophy95926 you should check out her website wordnik(dot)com . I was wondering what sort of online dictionary she was envisioning, too, and found the site on her twitter. It looks pretty cool from what I've seen so far.

[beastyboiz]

every time she opens her mouth... little a part of me dies

i had to watch this in tok and about killed myself

[noobler9]

lol cool, although I think some jobs are important enough that they should be done, even if they're not fun :p

[lukealan09]

I LOVE HER!  she is so passionate!!! What a fascinating talk!

[cheesesandwhich12]

not funny. but give her props for trying

[strappinggermanlad]

I can find pretty much any infromation I'm looking for, including words and their etymology, on Wikipedia. Wiktionary is also on its way to become my number 1 online dictionary.

So I think a lot of professional lexicographers will soon be without a job...

[Burdell22000]

Her legs are also two hams that won´t fit in the pan

[jahrleriksen]

I think I'm in love...

[ablestmage]

to squiptipadoogleboinkaflop: to purposefully or inadvertently reveal one's belief that a word is not real unless it appears in a dictionary. // I suspect the belief comes from word games which require a set word bank (such as the Scrabble dictionary) whereby otherwise perfectly acceptable words would be an illegal move in play ^_^

[mikedubya]

I've fallen madly in love with Erin McKean.

[jjqnario]

She's such a geek...

And I love it.

[johbur2185]

That was a great presentation. I think it was the best PowerPoint I've seen. Think of all the presentations you've been to with the charts, graphs and 20 bullet points per screen. That was top notch.

[KCH1985]

Best PP Presentation was in my opinion "Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure"

[applesongs]

Summary: Lexicography is description not prescription

It's not even lexicography101

[teejers01]

She is impossibly sexy. I'm sure I would get way too irritated with her to have any kind of relationship, but she's cute... ahh well.

[8Dbaybled8D]

+1 and she even sounds like lacey chabert

[cromicus]

Clickiness... hahahaa

[seventoheaven]

rather interesting. i had to watch this for my philosophy class a few days ago. uh.. yea.

[EntertainedWatcher]

The jokes were cheap but yea.. she's kinda sexy. Also, wikipedia sucks but the internet always wins. Geeks ftw!

[Leg0z]

Talk nerdy to me. This chick is hot.

[LegendLength]

nice voice

[jedaqia]

'I'm a huge geek.' Its really awesome for somebody to admit that with such confidence.

[beautifulspam]

Geek girls <3

Ah well she's probably married to a big oaf who's never read anything more challenging than a TV guide.

[cookiedrew]

wow, how is this the most entertaning vid! i can wach here all day.

[Fabricwarp]

=D!! nah-uh I'm marrying her!!!

*sighs*

[AnarchyUnlimited]

Though she makes some very good points, I don't know that I agree with her.

I've always viewed the dictionary as a formal standardization of language. A set of standards that we conform to in order to facilitate accurate communication between members of our society.

What she seems to be proposing is a sort of "wiki-reality", where as long as something is used in speech, it becomes part of speech.

[PoeticJustice05]

What's wrong with that idea? Conformity is what's holding us back, the limitless possibilities of the English language cannot be contained in the traditional model. I agree with her because every time i write a paper, most recently for my psychology class, i encounter words in articles that are undictionaried; they are, i must admit, an obsolete structure for the demarcation of our language.

[sarcasticwhiteboard]

@AnarchyUnlimited It's a common misconception that lexicographers come up with definitions on their own and the speakers of the languages are a secondary authority to the dictionaries. It's actually the complete opposite - lexicographers study how speakers of a language use the word and derive the definition from them. That's why they must be updated, because language evolves. Lexicographers (and most linguists in general) are descriptivists, not prescriptivists.

[sarcasticwhiteboard]

@AnarchyUnlimited Strangely enough, your last sentence describes how language actually works. She's not proposing that it should to work that way, she's proposing that more people should have a deeper understanding of how language works.

[WarzSchoolchild]

Erin McKean neads to brush up on her lexicographical floccinaucinihilipilification skills!

[watzupdawg]

Makes me want to guggle.

[mcnug]

Marry me, crazy dictionary lady!

[yancur]

I wouldn't believe that talk about lexicography could be even remotely interesting, but now I believe it can :)

[MasterMark123]

Very entertaining idea and wonderfully presented Ms McKean !

[tyrbolo]

Oh My Goodness !!

We need to make this woman a super-star.

[PolliFaxToaster]

love how she compared the dictionary to steampunk

[oneundergod1]

pedophile =loves children[there has to be a better word]

what does 'gay' mean

indiginous means sans culture[ie a plant can be indiginous but people cant]

aborigonal means the same as jew[belonging to the land]

of course there are many leci con versions that rewrite at whim, just as there are people using words to define things evil ,but hidden behind words[no child left behind]surge]incursion, friendly fire,civil war,neo[new]con,alternative medicine

[Foober]

Friendly fire is not a euphemism though. "Friendly" is not being used as an adjective in the phrase; it is being used as a noun. The phrase means "fire from friendlies," a "friendly" being an allied soldier.

[beefdlo]

i enjoyed this video =]

i wonder if milf is in the dictionary

[reivilo]

i love your posts.... they make me feel alive. I use them in my blogs and class room!

[JohnDeBunkTest]

dictionaryevangelist . com

Well worth a mouse motion to find your next neologisms.

[djthe1st]

Hehe...