Exercises for age 16-18 (UK A level, US grade 11-12 )

Worksheets for A level English Language

Introduction to OED Online

The Oxford English Dictionary is the world's leading authority on the history and development of the English language since 1150. It was first published in 10 volumes, which took 70 years to complete (1878-1928). A dictionary needs updating constantly because new words crop up in the language all the time. The Second Edition was published in 1989, by which time the original 10 volumes had doubled to 20.

Work on the Third Edition is currently underway. At this stage, in print, the OED would probably take up about 5 feet of space on your bookshelf. But fortunately, the world's largest dictionary is available on CD-ROM, and also online.

Go to http://dictionary.oed.com and log in.

1. Introduction - what is a dictionary?

What is a dictionary used for? What do you use one for?

⇒ Many people keep an English dictionary as a reference point for finding out what a word means or how a word is spelt. Some dictionaries are designed to be suitable for these basic purposes and the individual word entries are kept relatively minimal for ease and speed of use.

The OED is at the other end of the scale. Whereas the vast majority of English dictionaries have, of necessity, to carefully select a portion of the lexicon to include on their pages because there are just too many words in the language to have them all, the OED is the most fully comprehensive dictionary of the English language in the world.

Its objective is to give as accurate a picture as possible of the entire lexicon, so the number of entries it contains is vast, and the amount of information given for each lemma (i.e., entry word) allows a user to find out a great deal more than spellings and meanings.

Type dictionary in the search box and click find word.

OED definitions are given in bold type. If you scroll down you will see that this entry has 3 senses (numbered 1-3) and different uses within those senses (labelled a,b,c, etc.).

⇒ What does that mean?

Some words have multiple senses: "ball" can mean a spherical bouncy toy or a formal dancing assembly. "Dictionary" can refer to a book of the words of a language, or a book of vocabulary for a different branch of knowledge (the Timber Press Dictionary of Birds Names).

Sense 3, you will see, lists some combinations of "dictionary" with other words to make another term in common usage.

⇒ The subdivisions (a,b,c) account for instances where the word is used for the same meaning, but in a different way such as metaphorically. According to sense 2.b., a person could be called a "dictionary" because s/he is a useful reference point on a given subject, but not because s/he is a book.

How does the OED decide in what order to list its senses?

It is a historical dictionary, which means that the entries are listed in the order in which they are found to have occurred chronologically. According to sense 1.a., "Dictionary" was first used to mean a book of the words of a language.

To demonstrate this, the OED quotes from the earliest material that can be found featuring the word, and this quote is given in blue below the definition. Wynken de Worde published the oldest known instance of "dictionary" in 1526.

⇒ Each entry in the OED has a list of quotations to illustrate the use of the word in published materials since the first known occurrence and for a range of dates thereafter.

What is so good about the online version of the Dictionary?

Here is one of the perks.

⇒Do you sometimes get a memory blank when you know the word you want but you just can't think of it? Say, the word for an assumed name that an author uses instead of his/her real name. A dictionary in book form cannot help in this situation - you can't search for a word you can't remember.

You can with OED Online, because you can search for words within definitions as well as for the entry words themselves. So,

Click on the icon marked Advanced Search at the bottom of the screen.

This search allows you to do more than the find word search, with varying degrees of specificity. It is used to search for other things than the entry word itself, so is useful when you can't think of the word you want but you know (at least something about) what it means.

Type assumed in the first (top left) box

Select definitions from the scroll-down list to the right

Type name in the left hand box on the next line down

Select definitions again in the box to the right

Type author in the left hand box on the third line down

And select definitions to the right again

Click Start Search

Voilà! You will get a list of the few entries that match your search criteria and one of them is pseudonym! Phew. If you click on any of the words underlined in blue you will go to the dictionary entry for that word.

The fact that the OED is a historical dictionary means that once a word is included in it, it can never be taken out again. This is not the case in all dictionaries - many aim to include all of the buzzwords of the day, words that may not be around a couple of years down the line.

The breadth of the OED allows us to look at the way language develops and changes over time.

2. Language development

1. Do a find word search for naughty.

It tells you there are 4 results.

What does "naughty" mean to you?

Look at sense 1. Is this what you take "naughty" to mean?

In senses 1. and 2.a. the cross symbol † and Obs. (for obsolete) at the end tell us that the earliest senses of "naughty" are no longer in use today.

Several of the senses (eg, 2.a.) refer us to the entries for naught and nought.

⇒ What is "naught?" Another word for "zero"?

"naught" is derived from "not aught" or "not anything" (similarly, "none" is from "not one", "never" is from "not ever")

So, "naughty" in its early uses meant 'of nothing'. When Richard Benet was called "a nawghty man" in c.1460 (1^st quotation for sense 2.a.) it was a very cutting disparagement - he was worth naught, worthless.

In the present day, if I called a man naughty, it would be fair to assume I was reprimanding him playfully, or I was alluding to his behaviour being sexually suggestive.

The meaning of "naughty" has thus changed - quite subtly - over the centuries. Some words have developed even further to take on completely new significations.

You could look at: gay (merry → homosexual) or nice (foolish → pleasant).

⇒Is it possible to see a transition through time from an early meaning to a later one? In other words, can you see how one sense is connected to another? Or in some cases do words coin new definitions that are apparently unrelated?

Along the top of the screen when you bring up an entry are a number of icons with blue text on, although the Quotations one will be in red if you have been able to read the blue quotations under the definitions.

2. Click on the one marked Date Chart.

In order to get a better idea of the way different senses have occurred and developed over time, it can be helpful to use visual aid. Date Chart gives a timeline for each sense and maps onto them the dates for the cited quotations, illustrating the timeframe for which a sense is/was in use.

3. Etymology

Etymology concerns itself with tracing out the meaning of a word and how it has been derived.

1. Do a find word search for text, n.¹ (ie, sense 1 for the noun "text").

2. Click on the icon along the top of the screen marked Etymology

At the top in square brackets appears the etymological information for "text". The word derives from the Latin (L.) word textus meaning "that which is woven".

⇒This gives us the word "textile" for woven cloth.

⇒How do you think this relates to "text" as in "book"?

A word may have entered the English language from any number of sources. For instance:

Ancient languages - Latin, Ancient Greek, Old English
Foreign languages - including varieties of English such as American and Australian
Authors - from Shakespeare to J.K. Rowling

3. Click on the icon marked Advanced Search at the bottom of the screen.

This search allows you to do more than the find word search, with varying degrees of specificity. It is used to search for other things than the entry word (or headword) itself, so is useful when you can't think of the word you want but you know (at least something about) what it means.

4. Type O.E. in the top left box, and select etymologies in the scroll-down box to the right of it. In the column on the right hand side of the screen, select Case-sensitive searching at the top. Click Start Search

⇒You have asked the database to find words with etymological roots in Old English. Are they all familiar to you?

In order to find out that the OED uses O.E. to mean Old English, it is useful to know where to find a full list of abbreviations used in the Dictionary. At the bottom of the screen when you are searching or have an entry open, on the left is the Help icon.

Alternatively, the URL is http://dictionary.oed.com/help/.

Down the left hand side runs a directory of the contents of the help pages. Go to Abbreviations Understanding the OED. Also useful for reference is the Key to symbols list.

5. Another Advanced Search

Type Shakes. in the first (top left) box, and select first cited author in the box to the right. Click Start Search.

⇒You have asked the database to find words for which the earliest recorded usage is amongst the works of Shakespeare. What are some of those words?

6. And another Advanced Search:

Type the year of your birth (eg, 1987) in the first (top left) box, and select first cited date in the box to the right. Click Start Search.

⇒What are some of the new words that came into common usage the year you were born?

7. Yet another Advanced Search

Type Hind. in the first (top left) box, and select language names in the box to the right. Click Start Search.

⇒"Bangle", "guru", and "yoga" are among the words in that have originated in the Hindi language but have entered common usage among English-speakers. How many words in total?

8. One more Advanced Search

Type 1997 in the first (top left) box, and select first cited date in the box to the right. In the 2nd row down, type Rowling in the left hand box, and select quotation author in the box to the right.Click Start Search.

⇒You will get 1 hit in the results list! What is it?

4. Language growth

New words enter the English language all the time. In consequence, the OED Online is updated every 3 months.

Every day the editors at the OED consider a bundle of potential new entries and endeavour to determine whether or not each one has become a word in common usage that can go into the dictionary. There is no strict set of criteria that a word must fulfil in order to qualify - the job of sorting out which words make it and which do not is not an easy one.

Going back to the search for words that were first recorded in the year of your birth, did you notice how many new words entered the language (according to the OED) in that year?

1. Do an Advanced Search for all the new words that entered the language in the last century. In the first box type 1904-2004 and in the box to the right select first cited date. This gives a range of 100 years for the first recorded use of any word.

⇒How many new words?

2. Let's examine the rate of growth of the English lexicon over an arbitrary period of time. This will involve performing a series of searches similar to that above, because in order to get a thorough picture it is better to limit the date ranges to, say, a decade at a time.

Let's span 3 centuries this time: from the start of the 17th to the end of the 19th
Start with 1600-1609 in the first box with first cited date to the right (keep that the same throughout this exercise. There should be 7078 results.
Repeat this for 1610-1619 (7048 results), then 1620-1629, 1630-1639 and so on to 1890-1899. Note all your results in a table.

⇒Plot these results onto a graph. What do you notice? Does it appear to you that the 1700s were, in general, not fruitful years for language growth if we compare them with the early 1600s and 1800s?

⇒Any ideas why?

3. It is interesting to investigate what kinds of sources have been instrumental in recording new words in English. It can give us an idea of influential media over different periods in history.

⇒ The definition of Muggle, n.⁴ begins "In the fiction of J. K. Rowling". The definition of hobbit begins "In the tales of J. R. R. Tolkien".

4. Do some Advanced Searches for phrases such as the following occurring in definitions

in the novel/novels of
in the story/stories of/by
in the tales of
in the fiction of
in the works of
in the film

There will not be many results for each one, and some will include the phrase you searched for, but will not refer to a specific author or title as intended. Look at the dates as well: when your results list appears, click on the red icon at the top instructing it to list by Entry Date

⇒The film search gives only 3 valid results, all around the mid-20th century. Would you expect there to be examples going back earlier than that?

⇒The works search has 10 valid results. "Works" is a broader term than, say, "fiction". How does the range of dates for these results compare with the film ones?

5. Language borrowing

The English Language has acquired vocabulary from all over the world throughout history. Some subjects, for example, food and drink, are more multicultural than others. Consider how often these days we see the words "spaghetti", "pizza", "tortilla", "taramosalata", "popadam", "cappuccino", "vodka".

But the nationality of some words can be rather more surprising.

1. Do a Find Word search for Blighty, n.

Does "Blighty" not sound to you like the quintessentially English word? Said by brigadiers in the Army sporting Kitchener-style moustaches? It even means "England" for crying out loud!

Now select Etymology

Interestingly enough, our word "Blighty" was acquired by troops on foreign active service in the First World War. What language does the word derive from?

2. To get an idea of just how many words English had adopted from foreign tongues, try the following kinds of searches, bearing in mind the results list may contain words that will not be relevant:

"from India" in definitions
"French name" in definitions
"N.Y. Times" in first cited work (for some Americanisms)
"music" in definitions AND It. (for Italian) in etymologies

It is interesting to refine your search with particular quotation authors or maybe first cited authors that you know to have been influenced by foreign cultures.

⇒If you do an Advanced Search for Shakes. in first cited author and Italian in etymologies you get 1 result for an obsolete sense of "comply", v¹." (sense 2).

⇒For Kipling (Rudyard, author of The Jungle Book) as quotation author and Indian in etymologies you'll discover, if you hadn't already heard of it, "elephant rain".

6. Patterns of word formation

A prefix is an element of a word, occurring at the beginning, which qualifies the meaning of the word as a whole. For example:

un- in "untie", "unkind", and "undone" where un- expresses negation
pre- in "prepared", "pretext", and "pre-empt" where pre- means 'before'

A suffix is similar but it occurs at the end of a word. For example:

ness- in "happiness", "worthiness", and "emptiness" where -ness makes the word into an abstract concept
-less in "homeless", "pointless", and "endless" where -less means 'without'

Let's look at a suffix that is less common than these two and more recent.

1. Type *aholic in the Find Word search box. The asterisk is a wildcard operation that allows you to ask for all words that end in -aholic.

⇒The results include shopaholic, workaholic, and spendaholic

⇒Click on -aholic, which is the OED entry for the suffix itself.

2.When did the trend of putting -aholic on the end of words to mean some kind of addict begin? What country started it?

3.Foodaholic appears in the results list and was also first used in 1965 in America. What other words entered the language in that year?

⇒Click on foodaholic and when the entry appears, click on the List by Date icon at the bottom left of the screen.

⇒The list down the left hand side of the screen will change from a list of the words in the dictionary surrounding the word you have searched for, to an alphabetical list of all other words first recorded in the same year as the word you have searched for.

⇒In the same year as foodaholic, the language coined the words digitalization, hypermedia, hypertext and log-in. It is fair to suggest that in the mid-60s England was adjusting to the increasing presence of computers.

What other observations can you make?

5. What sorts of words have -aholic appended to them? i.e., what part of speech is the original word? (nouns, verbs, adjectives, all different sorts, etc.).

6. What part of speech are words ending in -aholic? i.e., what parts of speech are the finished words?

You might also be interested in looking at words ending in -phobia, -philia, or -mania.

What is a blend word? A word derived from a corruption of two other words. There are several that are so commonplace these days that the original blended components are forgotten.

motor + hotel = motel
breakfast + lunch = brunch
Bombay + Hollywood = Bollywood

7. Do an Advanced Search for blend of occurring in etymologies OR in definitions.

⇒There are well over 300 blend words in all, although some will be used in specialist areas such as the chemical names used in medicine.

⇒What do you think of them? What makes one example cleverer than another? Which ones are a bit tenuous or clumsy?

⇒Is it always obvious what the blend is derived from? If not, does that affect your liking for that word?

Have a go at making up your own blend word. For example, think of a name for a group of people who go outside together for a cigarette break (fagarazzi?)

7. Information or instruction?

Does a dictionary tell us how the language is or how it ought to be?

The aim for the OED is to record the language as it is, as accurately as possible. It tries to be descriptive rather than prescriptive. The reason for including quotations is quite simply to illustrate how a word is used, because that is what its meaning depends on.

On the one hand, you expect a dictionary to tell you how to spell a word correctly, or how to use a word in its 'proper' sense. But on the other hand, language changes naturally all the time, and a formerly 'incorrect' usage will often merit a new sense entry in the OED because it has become part of common usage.

⇒20 years ago, a stickler for good grammar would have been appalled to hear access being used as a transitive verb. You could gain access to something, but not until the advent of computer technology could you laconically access a file.

Definitions depend on usage, and usage depends on context.

1. Do a find word search for china. There are surprisingly many senses for this word. Select china, n.¹ and a.

The phrase "my old china" would probably mean different things in the idiosyncratic languages of each of the following:

A person born in Beijing reminiscing fondly about the home country
A person serving lunch on crockery they bought in the 70s rather than their new Wedgewood
A person selecting which tea to have from a selection of Twinings boxes
A cockney Londoner talking about his/her friend

2. Match each of the above with the sense of china that they are most likely to use.

If it is pertinent to the definition of a word, the OED gives information relating to the contextual status in which it is commonly used.

3. Do an Advanced Search for any/all of the following occurring either in full text or in definitions: