Paper Is The Enemy Of Words

Thanks to the Twitter hashtag #linguistics, I discovered 5 Must-See TED Talks On Language. It's an interesting collection of short videos from past TED talks (still waiting for most of the 2010 TED talks to be available).

I found Pinker's 2005 talk enjoyable, if a bit conventional for anyone who has spent time in a linguistics department, that is. He runs the gamut of ditransitive/direct object alternation, Gricean maxims, game theory, etc. His key point is that language is a way of negotiating relationships.

But the real gem by far is the 2007 TED talk by Erin McKean, Editor-in-chief of the American Heritage dictionary. She is one of those rare people whose enthusiasm and bright personality is infectious and delightful. Highlights of her talk:

• Dictionaries are compiled, not carved.
• Lexicographers get to say fun words like lexicographical = double dactyl like Higgledy Piggledy.
• Lexicographers are not linguistic traffic cops, they're fisherman.
• The idea of the dictionary was fixed in the 1800s by the OED (this is bad).
• "Dictionaries are Victorian design merged with modern propulsion".
• OMG! She references steampunk at TED (3:47 mark). This is awesome!
• Bad online dictionaries take away serendipity -- this is bordering on brilliant.
• She ascends into sublime genius as she explains the ham-butt problem with dictionaries (5:01 mark). 
• Don't hate bad words, hate bad dictionaries.
• Paper is the enemy of words (6:12 mark).
• Interesting analogy: what if biologists only studied cute animals?
• How do you know if a word is real? Not because it's in a dictionary; rather, a word is real because people use it.
• Worry less about control, more about description.
• Undictionaried words. Brilliant.
• Asking for help is good.
• "We're missing California from American English." (11:55 mark)
• "If we can find comets without a telescope, shouldn't we be able to find words?" Preach it sistah!
• "The internet is made up of words and enthusiasm."
• Nice point: a word without its context is pretty... pretty useless.
• In which she uses a word with which I am not familiar, and as yet am unable to discover: synochdocaly or signicdocically or cynicdocically...
• Right now, dictionaries are imperfect samples, but we could make THE dictionary with ALL the words.
• Web dictionaries mean we can discard the artificial distinction between good words and bad words.
• I love this woman.