Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T21:56:38.471Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Researching the Etymology of Australian English Colloquialisms in the Digital Age: Implications for 21st Century Lexicography

What impact is the ease of access to etymological information online having on contemporary lexicography and the status of the professional lexicographer?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 April 2016

Lisa Donlan
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

In the December 2012 issue of English Today, Philip Durkin argues that lexis is currently a ‘Cinderella’ subject: he suggests that the methodological problems generated by the study of lexis have led to it being marginalised in contemporary linguistic research (2012: 3). Nevertheless, Durkin notes that ‘lexis (or vocabulary) is probably the area of linguistics that is most accessible and most salient for a non-specialist audience’ (2012: 3). Thus, one cannot overestimate the importance of lexical research with regards to engaging a wider audience in linguistic discourses. Prior to the advent of the internet, however, researching etymology was a laborious process for English language enthusiasts, especially when the lexical items of interest were considered to be colloquialisms or slang. Indeed, ‘non-standard’ lexis, historically, has been marginalised and sometimes even excluded from dictionaries (Durkin, 2012: 6); however, the rise of the internet and social media has led to the increased visibility of ‘non-standard’ lexis, making information about language use more accessible to researchers outside of the local speech community (Browne & Uribe-Jongbloed, 2013: 23). Moreover, the internet has given language enthusiasts unprecedented access to a range of historical and contextual information which proves invaluable when considering etymology. This article demonstrates how more conventional language resources such as the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) can be used alongside a variety of other online resources and fictional and nonfictional texts to identify the etymologies of contemporary English lexical items. Specifically, this essay explores the etymologies of three Australian colloquial nouns (bogan, cobber, and sandgroper) taken from travel website TripAdvisor's (2011) user-generated glossary of Australian English colloquialisms.

Type
Research Article
Information
English Today , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , September 2016 , pp. 40 - 44
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Alexa, . 2015a. ‘Your Complete Web Analytics Toolkit.’ Online at <http://www.alexa.com/> (Accessed October 27, 2015).+(Accessed+October+27,+2015).>Google Scholar
Alexa, . 2015b. ‘Alexa Internet - About Us.’ Online at <http://www.alexa.com/about> (Accessed October 27, 2015).+(Accessed+October+27,+2015).>Google Scholar
Australian Oxford Dictionary . 2004. ‘bogan.’ Online at <http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195517965.001.0001/m-en_au-msdict-00001-0006331> (Accessed October 10, 2015).+(Accessed+October+10,+2015).>Google Scholar
Browne, D. R. & Uribe-Jongbloed, E. 2013. Social Media and Minority Languages: Convergence and the Creative Industries. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Doyle, H. 2003. ‘The Oxford Companion to Australian History: Sandgroper.’ Online at <http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195515039.001.0001/acref-9780195515039-e-1288> (Accessed October 10, 2015).+(Accessed+October+10,+2015).>Google Scholar
Durkin, P. 2009. The Oxford Guide to Etymology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Durkin, P. 2012. ‘Variation in the Lexicon: the “Cinderella” of Sociolinguistics?’ English Today, 28(4), 3–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
George, A. S. 2009. ‘Introduction.’ In Corrick, M. G. & Fuhrer, B. A., Wildflowers of Southern Western Australia (3rd ed.). New South Wales: Rosenberg Publishing Ltd, pp. 9–15.Google Scholar
Jupp, J. 2004. The English in Australia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koetsier, J. 2012. ‘Words with Friends: Collins Dictionary Now Crowdsourcing New Words, Like Tebowing and chummeling.’ Online at <http://venturebeat.com/2012/08/01/collins-dictionary-now-crowdsourcing-new-words-like-tebowing-and-chummeling/> (Accessed October 10, 2015).+(Accessed+October+10,+2015).>Google Scholar
Leitner, G. 2004. Australia's Many Voices: Australian English – the National Language. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lonergan, D. 2005. ‘Humping a Grouse Cobber.’ Ozwords, 12(2), 6.Google Scholar
Michel, J., Shen, Y. K., Aiden, A. P., Veres, A., Gray, M. K., The Google Books Team, Pickett, J. P., Hoiberg, D., Clancy, D., Norvig, P., Orwant, J., Pinker, S., Nowak, M. A., & Aiden, E. L. 2011. ‘Quantitative Analysis of Culture Using Millions of Digitized Books.’ Science, 331(6014), 176–182.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mugglestone, L. 2005. Lost for Words: the Secret History of the Oxford English Dictionary. London: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Ogilvie, S. 2013. Words of the World: a Global History of the Oxford English Dictionary. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
O'Neill, C. 2012. ‘Collins Dictionary Invites Word Suggestions.’ Online at <http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/collins-dictionary-invites-word-suggestions-7952775.html> (Accessed October 10, 2015). (Accessed October 10, 2015).' href=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=O'Neill,+C.+2012.+‘Collins+Dictionary+Invites+Word+Suggestions.’+Online+at++(Accessed+October+10,+2015).>Google Scholar
Oxford English Dictionary Online . 2015a. ‘bogan, n.’ Online at <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/344463> (Accessed October 10, 2015).+(Accessed+October+10,+2015).>Google Scholar
Oxford English Dictionary Online . 2015b. ‘cobber, n.2.’ Online at <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/35207> (Accessed October 10, 2015).+(Accessed+October+10,+2015).>Google Scholar
Oxford English Dictionary Online . 2015c. ‘sand, n.2.’ Online at <http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/170524> (Accessed October 10, 2015).+(Accessed+October+10,+2015).>Google Scholar
Payton, P. 2001. ‘Cornish.’ In Jupp, J. (ed.), The Australian People: An Encyclopedia of the Nation, its People and their Origins. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 227–234.Google Scholar
Payton, P. 2007. Making Moonta: the Invention of ‘Australia's Little Cornwall’. Exeter: University of Exeter Press.Google Scholar
Philological Society. 1859. Proposal for the Publication of a New English Dictionary. London: Trübner and Co.Google Scholar
Rose, T. 2013. ‘Talk: Bogan.’ Online at <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk%3ABogan> (Accessed October 10, 2015).+(Accessed+October+10,+2015).>Google Scholar
‘Sandgroper’. 1892. ‘A Bad Footpath.’ The West Australian, December 12, 6.Google Scholar
‘Sandgroper’. 1893. ‘East Ward Footpaths.’ The West Australian, February 13, 3.Google Scholar
TripAdvisor. 2011. ‘Australia: Australian Slang.’ Online at <http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Travel-g255055-c1148/Australia:Australian.Slang.html> (Accessed October 10, 2015).+(Accessed+October+10,+2015).>Google Scholar
Trove. 2015. ‘Trove: Digitised Newspapers and More.’ Online at <https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper> (Accessed October 10, 2015).+(Accessed+October+10,+2015).>Google Scholar
Winchester, S. 1999. The Surgeon of Crowthorne: a Tale of Murder, Madness and the Oxford English Dictionary. London: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Wright, J. (ed.) 1898. The English Dialect Dictionary: Being the Complete Vocabulary of All Dialect Words Still in Use, or Known to Have Been in Use During the Last Two Hundred Years: Volume 1 A-C. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Zappavigna, M. 2012. Discourse of Twitter and Social Media: How We Use Language to Create Affiliation on the Web. London: Continuum.Google Scholar