The Oxford companion to the English language

Language is the life blood of a culture, and to be interested in culture is in some sense to be interested in language, in the shapes and sounds of words, in the history of reading, writing, and speech, in the endless variety of dialects and slangs, in the incessant creativity of the human mind as it reaches out to others. It is surprising then that until now there has been no major one-volume reference devoted to the most widely dispersed and influential language of our time: the English language.
A language-lover's dream, The Oxford Companion to the English Language is a thousand-page cornucopia covering virtually every aspect of the English language as well as language in general. The range of topics is remarkable, offering a goldmine of information on writing and speech (including entries on grammar, literary terms, linguistics, rhetoric, and style) as well as on such wider issues as sexist language, bilingual education, child language acquisition, and the history of English. There are biographies of Shakespeare, Noah Webster, Noam Chomsky, James Joyce, and many others who have influenced the shape or study of the language; extended articles on everything from psycholinguistics to sign language to tragedy; coverage of every nation in which a significant part of the population speaks English as well as virtually every regional dialect and pidgin (from Gullah and Scouse to Cockney and Tok Pisin). In addition, the Companion provides bibliographies for the larger entries, generous cross-referencing, etymologies for headwords, a chronology of English from Roman times to 1990, and an index of people who appear in entries or bibliographies. And like all Oxford Companions, this volume is packed with delightful surprises. We learn, for instance, that the first Professor of Rhetoric at Harvard later became President (John Quincy Adams); that "slogan" originally meant "war cry"; that the keyboard arrangement QWERTY became popular not because it was efficient but the opposite (it slows down the fingers and keeps them from jamming the keys); that "mbenzi" is Swahili for "rich person" (i.e., one who owns a Mercedes Benz); and that in Scotland, "to dree yir ain weird" means "to follow your own star."
From Scrabble to Websters to TESOL to Gibraltar, the thirty-five hundred entries here offer more information on a wider variety of topics than any other reference on the English language. Featuring the work of nearly a hundred scholars from around the world, this unique volume is the ideal shelf-mate to The Oxford Companion to English Literature. It will captivate everyone who loves language.

Author Notes

About the Editor:
Tom McArthur is Editor of the journal English Today.

Reviews (3)

Booklist Review

Written to serve as an "interim report on the nature and use of the English language," this book is difficult to characterize. It combines some of the features of a dictionary, a style manual, and a usage guide. It attempts to provide a distillation of scholarship on the varieties of the increasingly global English language. Entries cover grammar, literary terms, linguistic terms, and subjects like sexist language and child language acquisition. There are entries for every nation where a significant part of the population speaks English as well as for dialects. The coverage of American English is extensive. (The fascinating entry American English and British English describes the systematic ways they differ.) Entries are provided for all major dictionaries and for people like Noah Webster who have influenced the language. Entry arrangement is alphabetical, but entries can also be accessed from a very sophisticated system of cross-referencing. At the first level, cross-references lead to closely related words or phrases. For example, Legalese is cross-referenced to Jargon, Law French, Legal Usage, and Register. At the second level, the cross-reference system leads users to 22 broad linguistic "themes" where long lists of additional references can be found. For example, Legalese is cross-referenced to the themes Style and Usage. At the entry for Style are listed more than 500 other entries, such as Analogy, Boilerplate, Stream of Consciousness, and Technospeak. Theme listings allow users to formulate reading plans or to draw up their own lists of terms within a field of study. The 22 themes used are based upon Murray's (editor, Oxford English Dictionary, 1933) description of a "circle of the English language." However, The Oxford Companion has extended Murray's original concept of a nucleus that branches out into a few related circles of words to one with 22 related circles. The approximately 5,000 entries range from the brief (e.g., Comic Relief is one sentence) to the lengthy (more than five pages for Suffix). Many entries also include references for further research and dates for a sense's use (when appropriate); all are signed by one of the more than 90 contributors. A few are accompanied by illustrations. For example, Great Vowel Shift has a chart that shows the change in pronunciation of vowels from Middle English. The development of this scholarly reference was truly a labor of love. Linguists, students, and even trivia buffs will find it useful. The entries for linguistics terms are fairly technical, but most entries are accessible to the educated layperson. This book will ably serve as a companion to English-language dictionaries. Academic libraries serving departments of English and lingustics should purchase; public libraries will want to consider it, too. (Reviewed Oct. 15, 1992)

Choice Review

This invaluable work has no competitor; the real problem will be trying to keep it on reference shelves, since it is as delightful to browse as it is useful for specific questions about any and all forms of the English language. There is an informative essay on the organization of the work, a usable if hardly definitive map of "English throughout the world," and a splendidly detailed presentation of the values of the phonetic symbols used. Cross-referencing is generous, with the inevitable occasional dropped ball as a result; try the "IGBO" entries for one example of incomplete information. Articles are signed and sources supplied in most cases. Essential for any library with even a moderate interest in the English language, this title is especially valuable in the present climate of concern for a variety of creoles, vernaculars, etc. Enthusiastically recommended. N. F. George; Kenyon College

Library Journal Review

If a telephone reference caller asks what deconstructionism is--or for the difference between a spondee and a dactyl, or for a clarification of Nice-Nellyism or the Gunning Fog Index--this is the source to reach for. The range here is wonderfully broad: language history, dialects, grammar, style, rhetoric, and so forth. A typical Oxford ``Companion,'' this is both authoritative and fun. Articles are thorough, concise, and signed; cross-referencing is excellent; the ancient and au courant receive equal treatment; and the scope is global. Some will quibble (yes, quibble has an entry, but it's a cross reference to pun ); e.g., sundry authors who ``influenced the shape or study of language'' have entries, so that Mary Wollstonecraft is listed but Ruskin is not (although ``Pathetic Fallacy'' is). And the occasional bibliographies are perfunctory afterthoughts. Nevertheless, this is a fine book for reference and browsing. Highly recommended.-- Robert E. Brown, Onondaga Cty. P.L., Syracuse, N.Y. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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