Women and dictionary-making : gender, genre, and English language lexicography / Lindsay Rose Russell.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Russell, Lindsay Rose, 1980- author.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English language--Lexicography--History.

English language.

English language--Lexicography.

History.

Encyclopedias and dictionaries--History and criticism.

Encyclopedias and dictionaries.

Women in lexicography--Great Britain.

Women in lexicography.

Sex role--Great Britain--History.

Sex role.

Great Britain.

Genre:

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

History.

Physical Description:

xiii, 252 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Other Title:

Gender, genre, and English language lexicography

Place of Publication:

New York : Cambridge University Press, 2018.

Summary:

"Dictionaries are a powerful genre, perceived as authoritative and objective records of the language, impervious to personal bias. But who makes dictionaries shapes both how they are constructed and how they are used. Tracing the craft of dictionary making from the fifteenth century to the present day, this book explores the vital but little-known significance of women and gender in the creation of English language dictionaries. Women worked as dictionary patrons, collaborators, readers, compilers, and critics, while gender ideologies served, at turns, to prevent, secure, and veil women's involvements and innovations in dictionary making. Combining historical, rhetorical, and feminist methods, this is a monumental recovery of six centuries of women's participation in dictionary making and a robust investigation of how the social life of the genre is influenced by the social expectations of gender"-- Provided by publisher.

"This book explores the vital but little-known significance of women and gender in the creation of English language dictionaries. Women worked as dictionary patrons, collaborators, readers, compilers, and critics, while gender ideologies served, at turns, to prevent, secure, and veil women's involvements and innovations in dictionary making. Combining historical, rhetorical, and feminist methods, this is a monumental recovery of six centuries of women's participation in dictionary making and a robust investigation of how the social life of the genre is influenced by the social expectations of gender"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Walking dictionary, sleeping dictionary : toward a gendered history of a rhetorical genre

Patronizing dictionaries : invocations of women at the invention of the genre

Compiling dictionaries : lexicography attributable to women and alternative generic traditions

Living with and working for dictionaries : women's contributions and critique as the genre expanded

Reinventing dictionaries : the generic interventions of feminist lexicography

Conclusion: Waking dictionaries : reimagining the genre in light of a gendered past.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781107187702

1107187702

OCLC:

1000123100