HIPs, wags and cryoablations...
Wordtrack is a comprehensive approach to new words analysis which ensures that Chambers dictionaries are the most up-to-date available. Our inhouse corpus, CHIC, is updated regularly and frequently, facilitating an overview of language development and, in particular, the emergence and life cycle of neologisms. CHIC implicitly contains information about when these new words entered the language, how long they stayed around and how they behaved. To make this information explicit we have developed a sophisticated program to automatically track and record new additions to the language. The output of this program is examined by lexicographers using an interactive web tool which links directly to relevant corpus evidence.
In addition to the automated approach to new word tracking, we have for a long time run a directed reading programme in which commissioned readers scan publications that have been selected as potentially productive sources of new words. The readers identify new words and new senses of existing words which are then logged on a database along with a citation and source information. This manual programme complements the automated approach as human readers tend to pick up on new senses of existing words which may be missed by the tracking software. We then programatically link the contents of this database to corpus evidence to help the lexicographers find out more about how the neologism is used.
Due to space constraints in traditional print dictionaries, lexicographers must limit the new entries added to each new edition of The Chambers Dictionary. Usually approximately 1000 are added. (The title above shows examples of new entries added to the latest edition of the Chambers Dictionary.) Using corpus evidence as a starting point, lexicographers must be discerning in their selection, focusing on words and phrases which have demonstrated some longevity as opposed to more ephemeral coinages.
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