R. W. Burchfield (1923–2004)
Author of The New Fowler's Modern English Usage
About the Author
Image credit: R.W. Burchfield in June 1972 [credit: OED Archives]
Series
Works by R. W. Burchfield
The Compact Edition of The Oxford English Dictionary: Volume III: A Supplement to The Oxford English Dictionary,… (1987) 89 copies
A Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary: Volume 1: A-G (1972) — Editor, some editions — 17 copies
The Cambridge History of the English Language, Vol. 5: English in Britain and Overseas (1994) — Editor — 17 copies
Associated Works
The Pleasure of Reading: 43 Writers on the Discovery of Reading and the Books that Inspired Them (2015) — Contributor — 82 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Burchfield, R. W.
- Legal name
- Burchfield, Robert William
- Other names
- Burchfield, Robert
Burchfield, Bob - Birthdate
- 1923-01-27
- Date of death
- 2004-07-05
- Burial location
- Sutton Courtenay Churchyard, Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire, England, UK
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- New Zealand
- Birthplace
- Wanganui, New Zealand
- Place of death
- Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England, UK
- Cause of death
- bronchopneumonia
- Places of residence
- Wellington, New Zealand
Sutton Courtenay, Oxfordshire, England, UK - Education
- Magdalen College, Oxford University (BA|1951|MA|1955)
Victoria University of Wellington (BA|MA|1948)
Wanganui Technical College - Occupations
- lexicographer
writer
university lecturer
editor - Relationships
- Lewis, C. S. (tutor)
- Organizations
- Royal New Zealand Artillery (WWII)
Oxford University
Oxford University Press
English Association
British Text Society - Awards and honors
- Companion, New Zealand Order of Merit
Commander, Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (1975)
Rhodes Scholar
International Honorary Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1977) - Short biography
- Scholar, writer and lexicographer. He studied at Wanganui Technical College and Victoria University in Wellington. After war service in the Royal New Zealand Artillery, he graduated MA from Wellington in 1948 and won a Rhodes Scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford University in England, where his preparation of an edition of the Ormulum was supervised by J.R.R. Tolkien. C. T. Onions. He then became Chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionaries from 1971 to 1984, after Dan Davis, the Magdalen librarian, recommended him. After retiring from the dictionary, he turned his attention to grammar, heavily rewriting Henry Watson Fowler's 1926 classic.
Members
Reviews
Unlocking the English Language by Robert Burchfield
Essays by a former editor of the OED supplement. To be taken one at a time. Exciting fact: Joseph Priestley, among his many other accomplishments, wrote an important, and of course unconventional, English grammar book.
Purchased as a curio from a local charity shop, this little guide from the BBC turned out to be rather interesting. Written primarily as a reference guide for BBC broadcasters, its 40 pages offer advice to the broadcaster in three areas of speech: pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar. It's all rather basic really – avoid cliché, do not inflate speech unnecessarily, emphasise this or that syllable, et cetera – but what becomes obvious is just how seriously the BBC considered 'proper' speech at that time (1981). Reference is made, for example, to the 'BBC Pronunciation Unit', and to Mr Graham Pointon, 'Pronunciation Advisor to the BBC'. I suppose such offices must still exist in some form or another, although the titles would surely now be considered far too pedantic to have survived. In summary, this little booklet has very little value as far as language use is concerned (there are far better guides available now), but as an insight into the linguistic pedantry permeating the BBC office 30 years ago it is priceless.… (more)
The author was for thirty years the editor of the Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary, and writes about the language from a lexicographer's viewpoint -- which means it is about words, words, words. He talks about what makes a word worthy of inclusion in the OED, about American vs. British English, and about various other dictionaries and guides to usage. Very specialized, but fun for word mavens.
This is a very handy little introduction to "English language" as a subject for academic study. There are a couple of chapters on the historical development of the language, chapters on particular variants (literary and religious, regional, slang, overseas, etc.), quick looks at syntax and at word-formation and pronunciation, and a very interesting survey of the history of academic attempts to catalogue and analyse the language by lexicographers and grammarians. Burchfield gives a reasonably neutral overview of the main controversies, without obviously pushing a particular point of view, although as editor of the Supplement to the OED his main interest is clearly in the historical side of the subject.
Although the treatment is selective and very condensed, it is backed-up by examples and references to more extensive treatments, and it is certainly not dumbed-down. Expect to be confronted with chunks of Anglo-Saxon poetry, phonetic symbols, and all manner of technical terms. Everything is explained nicely the first time you see it, and Burchfield's style is very readable and unintimidating.
The edition I have is from 1986 - some of the controversies covered in it are certainly no longer in the forefront of academic in-fighting, and others will have emerged to take their place. There is only a tantalisingly brief mention of the impact of computer spell-checkers, for example, and not surprisingly nothing about the effects of internet and email on the development of English.
As one of the other reviews here points out, the title is a bit misleading - the book won't give you enough information to read Beowulf in the original or to parse a modern English sentence, and it's unlikely to help you very much if you're a beginner learning English as a second language. But it would be very useful as a jumping-off point for anyone interested in making a more serious study of the subject, or as a quick introduction if you want to put yourself into a position to make intelligent conversation with a colleague from the English faculty.… (more)
Although the treatment is selective and very condensed, it is backed-up by examples and references to more extensive treatments, and it is certainly not dumbed-down. Expect to be confronted with chunks of Anglo-Saxon poetry, phonetic symbols, and all manner of technical terms. Everything is explained nicely the first time you see it, and Burchfield's style is very readable and unintimidating.
The edition I have is from 1986 - some of the controversies covered in it are certainly no longer in the forefront of academic in-fighting, and others will have emerged to take their place. There is only a tantalisingly brief mention of the impact of computer spell-checkers, for example, and not surprisingly nothing about the effects of internet and email on the development of English.
As one of the other reviews here points out, the title is a bit misleading - the book won't give you enough information to read Beowulf in the original or to parse a modern English sentence, and it's unlikely to help you very much if you're a beginner learning English as a second language. But it would be very useful as a jumping-off point for anyone interested in making a more serious study of the subject, or as a quick introduction if you want to put yourself into a position to make intelligent conversation with a colleague from the English faculty.… (more)
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thorold | 2 other reviews | Jan 16, 2008 |
thorold | 2 other reviews | Jan 16, 2008 | Lists
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