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Ditch the Oxford Dictionary: UK think-tank
LONDON, March 16(Daily Times): The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) should no longer be
the main authority on the English language because it does not keep pace with
today's rapid linguistic changes, a report said on Thursday.
Left-wing
think-tank Demos said the OED should be replaced by a website – democtionary org
– that would allow English-speaking members of the public from Britain and
abroad to contribute their own words and definitions.
The report's
co-author, Sam Jones, said an online dictionary similar to the user-generated
Internet encyclopaedia Wikipedia was needed to track the pace of language change
and the influence of non-native speakers on it. Chief editor John Simpson
welcomed Demos's contribution, but denied the OED was a prescriptive rather than
a descriptive reference work.
"Demos are trading on a rather outdated
caricature of the Oxford English Dictionary. We don't regulate English – we
describe it," he said. "Nowadays the OED is online, accessed regularly all over
the world, and its entries trace many varieties of English that now form the
language.
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