Dear Phillip,
Yes, I understand where you are coming from. I have to say, though, that perhaps a little too much emphasis is put on the OED for defining "standard English". There are many terms in standard use in English that are not referenced in the OED. Some useful and/or regional terms can now be found only in dictionaries for areas where the terms are still used frequently, such as in Scottish or American dictionaries. Yorkshire terms especially can almost always be found in the Scottish dictionary I have because so many Anglo-Saxon words were kept in use in Scotland, after being abandoned by the southern English in favour of Norman French words. Just because it isn't in the OED (or the OED refers to it as "dialect"), doesn't make it non-standard. Perhaps the Thesaurus could redefine its "standard" to include a wider range of dictionaries?
Cheers,
Neil
>>> [log in to unmask] 19/03/2003 09:57:10 >>>
Dear Neil et al
My description of Outgang as a dialectal term is only following that which
appears in the OED - "Now Sc. or north. dial"
I appreciate that it is also a regional term - it obviously appears in more
than one dialect - but as the introduction to the thesaurus states
"Standard English is used wherever possible for preferred terms. However,
where a regional or dialect term has no recognized equivalent, for example,
FOGOU, then that term will be accepted as the preferred term".
My argument, and indeed yours, is that "outgang" is a
local/regional/dialectal term for a drove road. The rules of thesaurus
construction are very clear on the inclusion of synonyms and in this
instance we should only include it as a non-preferred term of trackway
and/or drove road.
Many of us would like regional terms included - I have a particular fondness
for "jitty" - and indeed there is nothing stopping anyone from using locally
preferred terms in their own systems, however for the national thesaurus we
have to use those terms which are most commonly used.
It was never my intention to start a dialectic discourse on dialects, but I
feel that I have to state the case for standards and maintaining them.
Otherwise we may as well just return to the world of free text and use
google as our search engines.
Which come to think of it would make my job a whole lot easier ;-)
Phil
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