#wordsatsx

[allthingslinguistic]

Word Curation: Dictionaries, Tech and the Future

My panel from SXSW 2017 with Erin McKean, Jane Solomon, and Ben Zimmer is now online, in a fairly decent audio recording considering that I made it at the last minute on my phone. Listen on soundcloud.

[allthingslinguistic]

Word Curation: Dictionaries, Tech and the Future

SXSW 2017 Panel with Ben Zimmer, Erin McKean, Gretchen McCulloch, and Jane Solomon

I’m moderating a panel at South by Southwest Interactive on Word Curation: Dictionaries, Tech, and the Future, where I’ll get to ask questions of linguists/lexicographers Erin McKean, Jane Solomon, and Ben Zimmer. We’re pretty excited. 

Here’s the panel description:

Are emoji words? Should "Pokémon," "genderqueer," or "Brexit" be added to the dictionary? What word best sums up 2016? Lexicography is a venerable profession that's changed a lot with new technology: now we can crowdfund a million new free-range definitions, find the exact person who first tweeted a new word and see in real time which words people are looking up and why. Join this panel of linguistic decision-makers for a behind-the-scenes look into how a new word makes it into the dictionary, where Words of the Year come from, how dictionaries use social media to engage the public and more.

Join us at 5pm on Saturday, March 11 in the Hyatt Regency Austin Texas Ballroom 1-3 if you happen to be at SXSW this year, or check out #WordsAtSX on twitter for livetweets or to tweet questions at us in advance. 

If you can’t wait for the panel, you can also check out my slides and audio from last year, on the linguistics of billions of emoji.