Peter Riley wrote (among other things):
> Surely a dictionary records rather than dictates. It is or should be a
> faithful record of the meanings people have given to words as they use
> them, absolutely tied to concrete instances, and so not itself capable of
> creating meanings. Only people can do that.
>
> /P
_The American Heritage Dictionary_ offers this definition of "capitalism" :
1. an economic system characterized by freedom of the market with
increasing concentration of private and corporate ownership of production
and distribution means, proportionate to increasing accumulation and
reinvestment of profits. 2. a political or social system regarded as being
based on this.
This morning, when I tuned in to radio station KPFA (Berkeley), the
announcer was saying, by way of introduction to an interview with John
Bellamy Foster, author of a book on Marx and the environment, "...that
system characterized by accumulation and exploitation, namely, capitalism."
He sounded like an American to me. By what right did he include the word
"exploitation"? It isn't in _The American Heritage Dictionary_'s definition
of "capitalism." Yet it is a word one often hears in connection with
capitalism. By what right did the human being who was put in charge of
that word when _The American Heritage Dictionary_ was being compiled, omit
the word "exploitation"? Presumably said human being decided that if
capitalism is exploitative, it isn't importantly so. Perhaps it isn't, in
which case, said human being was the right choice by the general editor,
for this important job.
Enough of my disingenuousness. I only practiced it to make a point. Which
is that perhaps capitalism _is_ importantly a matter of exploitation, but
that _The American Heritage Dictionary_ will not, dare not say so. In which
case Peter's wish is far from being fulfilled by a dictionary held in high
regard in the USA, to be found on the desks of thousands of educators.
Peter, dictionaries are compiled by human beings, and there is no such
creature as a justly neutral human being. Words fill dictionaries with
their created meanings, but only people can make dictionaries, and not all
meanings can get in the door.
David
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