Discussion




Para. 19-21 What's the Post's editorial's attitude to the definition of "door" offered by the Third International? Explain "takes the plain, downright, man-in-thestreet attitude". Para. 22-23 What's the biggest booby traps mentioned in the first sentence? Why was Dr. Johnson ridiculed?


China’s Army of graduates is struggling A Vermont Senator becomes a Twitter Senator
Discussion



Para 14 What is the full truth about American English today? How would you understand "certainty is impossible and simplification is misleading“? Para 15-18 What kind of facts should the dictionary record? What does the writer say about pronunciation?
“..it (life) is a tale Told by an idiot, full of Sound and fury Signifying nothing.” -Macbeth, Act V, Scene IV the novel Sound and Fury---William Faulkner

Paraphrase
Paraphrase
Between the much-touted Second International and the much-clouted Third International is not like the difference between yearly models but like the difference between the horse and buggy and the automobile. (para 5) If the editorials were serious, the publicand the stockholders-have reason to be grateful that the writers on these publications are more literate than the editors. (para 13)

What is the controversial issue raised by Bergen Evans? What is the position taken by Evans?


How is the argument presented?
Text Analysis

Part 1: para. 1 –3
Part 2: para. 4 –13 Part 3: para. 14 –25 Part 4: para. 26-28
Discussion
Para. 1 1.What happened when the WTNID appeared? 2.How did the well-known, wellreceived newspapers and magazines greet the WTNID? 3. In the last sentence, there’s a sarcasm, how do you understand the writer’s sarcastic meaning?
Noah Webster’s dictionaries
1) A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language: (1806) 2) An American Dictionary of the English Language: the first edition (1828)

4) The third edition (Webster’s Third New International Dictionary) was published in 1961. (It was based on descriptive linguistics)
Webster's Third New International
According to the writer, what is correctness based
on?



Leonard Bloomfield (1887-1949)
Discussion
Para. 8- 9 what is the criteria for assessing a dictionary? Why are new dictionaries needed?
Sound and Fury
Discussion
Para. 2 What is the claim of the dictionary maker? Para. 3 Questions for argument

Discussion

Para. 4-5 Two brief statements about dictionaries What was the first statement? What was the second statement? What is the implied meaning in “not like the difference between the yearly models but like the difference between the horse and buggy and automobile”?
3) An American Dictionary of the English Language: the second edition (1840) (The first edition and second edition were based on prescriptive linguistics.)
Noah Webster and America’s First Dictionary
Noah Webster (1758---1843)


an American lexicographer, journalist, textbook author, spelling reformer, advocate of cultural independence of the United States translator of the Bible

Discussion
Para. 10-13 1. What has caused the changes in English language? 2. According to the writer, what does he think of the language used in today’s publications? 3. How did the writer refute the Life and The New York Times and The Washington Post? 4. What kind of language does the Third International describe? 5. Explain the implied meaning of the last sentence in paragraph 13.
Type of Writing
Argumentation

What do you write about? A clear position taken by the writer A convincing argument A reasonable tone
Text Analysis
But what’s a dictionary for?
Bergen Evans
U.S. lexicographer; educator; English professor; master of ceremonies Dictionary of Quotations



“Freedom of speech and freedom of action are meaningless without freedom to think.” “Wisdom is meaningless until our own experience has given it meaning.” “It's the way you ride the trail that counts.” (life)
The storm of abuse in the popular press that greeted the appearance of Webster’s Third International Dictionary is a curious phenomenon. (para 1) They doubted that ቤተ መጻሕፍቲ ባይዱLincoln could have modeled his Gettysburg Address” on it-a concept of how things get written that throws very little light on Lincoln but a great deal on Life. (para 1)