Comment on Two types
bstix@feddit.dk 4 weeks agoI think the description “first letter” is easily understood if you remember what a lexicon used to look like.
Comment on Two types
bstix@feddit.dk 4 weeks agoI think the description “first letter” is easily understood if you remember what a lexicon used to look like.
Acamon@lemmy.world 4 weeks ago
Ahh, I didn’t know that Americans* called dictionaries ‘lexicons’. In most forms of English I’ve heard, and in the field of linguistics, ‘lexicon’ is the complete set of vocabulary in a language, or subject. A dictionary is an alphabetical list of a lexicon, often with definitions.
*I’m presuming it’s Americans because mirriam webster lists the dictionary definition first, while OED and Cambridge only list that as archaic usage.
bstix@feddit.dk 4 weeks ago
Well I’m neither English or American, but to me the word lexicon means encyclopedia. It’s still alphabetical.
DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 4 weeks ago
It also means a person’s personal vocabulary… Aka a personal dictionary.
vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 4 weeks ago
Plenty of archaic uses are still common depending on dialect. One of the more annoying aspects of Cambridge and OED is the assignment of archaic to older or lesser used forms that may still be common in parlance bet fell out of favor in most other ways.
Also I refuse to listen to what the English have to say on the English because they keep intentionally fucking with their dialect.
Acamon@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Quite right! Never trust the English! But what do you mean, they “keep intentionally fucking with their dialect”? All languages, dialects, sociolects, etc are constantly changing in different ways, do you feel like the dialects of England change more than other? Or that they do it more purposefully?
vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 3 weeks ago
If memory serves they’ve had at least one government backed effort to relatinize certain words in their dialect. I do respect any country that does that on an intentional and purposeful level, it’s why I don’t respect the French and why I have gripes with the Icelandic.