Robert Burchfield

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert William Burchfield (born January 27, 1923 in Whanganui , New Zealand , † July 5, 2004 in Abingdon-on-Thames ) was a New Zealand-British lexicographer. He was editor of the Oxford English Dictionary for thirty years until 1986 , from 1971 as editor-in-chief.

Life

Burchfield came from a working class, attended Wanganui Technical College and graduated from Victoria University of Wellington . After military service with the New Zealand artillery in Italy in World War II, he continued to study at Victoria University from 1946 and from autumn 1949 as a Rhodes scholarship holder at Oxford University with Jack Bennett and CS Lewis, among others . He was the captain of his college rugby team, but gave up to pursue English studies. After graduating in 1952, he became a Fellow of Magdalen College and a Junior Lecturer in English. From 1953 to 1957 he was a lecturer at Christ Church College and from 1955 a lecturer at St. Peter's College, where he was a tutorial fellow from 1963 to 1979. In 1979 he became a Senior Research Fellow of the college and in 1990 Emeritus Fellow.

In Oxford he came to lexicography through Charles Talbut Onions (CT Onions), with William Craigie, editor of the supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary from 1933 and librarian at Magdalen College, and in 1957 he worked on the second supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). The first edition was from 1884 to 1928. Before that he also dealt with Old and Middle English literature as well as Old Scandinavian languages, so he published an edition of the Ormulum under the supervision of JRR Tolkien , but it was never completed.

At OED, he rebuilt the original network of volunteer readers (founded by James Murray ), whose members sent the editorial team new words and uses of words. However, he also removed many loanwords and regional forms, especially from overseas, that were still present in the 1933 supplement. In a way, this stood in the way of the dictionary's ascribed openness to the worldwide use of English. His original task was to update the OED with new words, but he also recognized the need for revision of the existing ones. In 1971 he became chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionaries. The first of the four extensive volumes of the supplement appeared in 1972, the last in 1984. It also recorded slang expressions, including obscene words that were previously frowned upon in the OED, and considerably more scientific and technical expressions. As an editor, he was tough and a workaholic .

1955 to 1968 he was Honorary Secretary of the British Text Society and 1959 to 1962 with JC Maxwell editor of Notes and Queries .

In 1998 he published a completely rewritten edition of Fowler's Modern English Usage , originally by Henry Watson Fowler (1858–1933). In contrast to Fowler, he prescribed the user less.

In 1994 he received the Shakespeare Prize . He was CBE (1975) and was Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM). He was an honorary doctor from Victoria University and Liverpool University. 1978/79 he was President of the English Association. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

Until the divorce in 1976 he was married to Ethel Yates and with her a son and two daughters. In 1976 he married Elizabeth Knight, like his first wife, also from New Zealand.

literature

  • Terry F. Hoad (Ed.): Words: for Robert Burchfield's sixty-fifth birthday, 1988

Fonts

  • Editor: Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary, 4 volumes, 1972–1986
  • The Spoken Word, 1981
  • The English Language, 1985
  • The New Zealand Pocket Oxford Dictionary, 1986
  • Editor: Studies in Lexicography, 1987
  • Unlocking the English Language, 1991
  • Editor: Cambridge History of the English Language, Vol. 5: English in Britain and Overseas, 1994
  • as editor of the new edition: Fowler's Modern English Usage, Oxford UP 1998

He assisted Tolkien in completing his Ancrene Wisse (1962) and Onions in completing The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology (1966).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ But later he prepared etymological material from the Ormulum for the planned new edition of the OED
  2. ^ Sarah Ogilvie, Words of the World: A Global History of the Oxford English Dictionary, Cambridge University Press, 2013
  3. ↑ He removed 17% of the foreign loanwords and regional forms from the 1933 edition
  4. ↑ According to his successor, John Simpson, he had a practical, no-nonsense work style. He didn't suffer fools gladly; he didn't suffer fools at all.
personal data
SURNAME Burchfield, Robert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Burchfield, Robert William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English lexicographer and Anglist
DATE OF BIRTH January 27, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Whanganui
DATE OF DEATH July 5, 2004
Place of death Abingdon-on-Thames