ENGL 4663                                                                                                          Mercer

 

Study Questions for Exam on The Meaning of Everything

Revised 8-16-09

 

The questions on the exam may include but will not be limited to the following content:

 

  1. What were the first English dictionaries like?  What kinds and numbers of words did they contain?  What kinds of information did they give about each word?

 

  1. Before the publication of the OED, what was the most important English dictionary?  What was the most important dictionary of American English?  Who wrote each of these dictionaries, and when was each published?

 

  1. Why was the OED needed?  How is it different from previous dictionaries?  What words are included in the OED?  What kind of information can one find only in the OED?  What is the significance of the dates within OED entries?  Is the OED intended to be descriptive or prescriptive?

 

  1. What speech served as a catalyst for the creation of the OED?  What was the process by which the OED got started?  What was the original title of OED?

 

  1. Why were volunteer readers needed?  How were they recruited?  How did the volunteers know what books to read? What kinds of words were they supposed to write down?  What kinds of words did many early volunteers fail to include? What kinds of quotations were the volunteers supposed to choose?  What exactly were they supposed to write down?  How did the instructions for volunteers change over the years? 

 

  1. Who were the first two editors of the OED?  How successful was each of them in his work?  Why?  What was the state of work on the OED when Murray became editor? 

 

  1. What were James Murray’s qualifications to be editor of the OED?  What university degrees did he have?  During what years was he editor of the OED?

 

  1. What specific tasks did Murray perform as editor?  What specific parts of each OED entry did he write?  What provided the basis for the writing of definitions?  What rules did he follow for the writing of definitions?  What specific parts of each word’s entry did he edit (but not write)? 

 

  1. Where did Murray live while he was editor?  Where did he work?  What was Murray’s workplace called?  In his early years as editor, what additional occupation did Murray have?  What move did Murray make during his time as editor?  

 

  1. What was Murray’s family like?  What role did his wife and children play in the dictionary?  What was daily life like for him?

 

  1. Besides the volunteer readers, who assisted Murray in his work?  How, where, and by whom were the volunteers’ slips of paper organized?  How did the organization of slips change over the years?

 

  1. Why was writing and publishing the OED so expensive, tedious, and time-consuming?  What proposals were offered to save time and money?  What decisions were finally made about these proposals? 

 

  1. What contribution did Dr. W. C. Minor make to the OED?  Why is it surprising that he was able to make this contribution? How was his method of working on the OED different from that of other volunteers?  Why were his contributions more helpful than those of most other volunteers? 

 

  1. How (in what format) and when (at what intervals) was the OED originally published?  When was it completed?  How long did it take to complete the OED?  When and how has the OED been updated?

 

  1. Why did Murray not complete the dictionary?  What editors completed the project?

 

  1. How many different “headwords” did the OED define when it was completed in 1928?  How many “headwords” have been added since then? 

 

  1. How did each of the following contribute to the making of the OED?
    1. Philological Society
    2. Dean Richard Trench
    3. Pigeon-holes
    4. Herbert Coleridge
    5. Frederick James Furnivall
    6. Oxford University Press and its Delegates
    7. Sub-editors
    8. Scriptorium
    9. Benjamin Jowett
    10. Proof pages
    11. Compositors
    12. Henry Hucks Gibbs
    13. Henry Bradley
    14. Mill Hill School
    15. Philip Lyttelton Gell
    16. Senior editors
    17. Fitzedward Hall
    18. William Craigie
    19. Charles Onions
    20. Miss Edith Thompson and Miss E. P. Thompson
    21. Robert Burchfield
    22. John Simpson

 

A note concerning names: In most cases, exam questions will not require you to pick out one name from a list of names.  Instead, many questions will concern a single person’s contributions.  You should know, for example:

·         Why neither Henry Coleridge nor Frederick James Furnivall made much progress on the dictionary

·         How Benjamin Jowett created problems for Murray

·         How Henry Hucks Gibbs helped save the dictionary