I’m trying to write an essay, and it’s due in about 3 hours, and in an attempt to bulk up my apparent research - I need to check something in a dictionary that isn’t Merriam-Webster, which I think is the US standard(?).
I’m writing about an artist who had an exibition about the fact that there are 139 of 222 nationalities missing from the back of the Webster dictionary. I was wondering if anyone would be able to check in any other dictionaries to let me know if the list is complete, or more complete, or even less complete in their versions. I only have stupid pocket and concise versions on hand which don’t have any lists at all.
Different types of reference works have drastically different purposes. Typical dictionaries are primarily about language, not “world knowledge” (i.e. just about anything else.) They are not meant to be really brief encyclopedias. Their goals are different and they incorporate only a minimum non-language-related knowledge that is necessary for definitions and so on.
E.g. a dictionary might contain an entry for “Korean” but none for “South Korean” or “North Korean” because there is nothing interesting going on as far as language is concerned.
Just for further information, The World Factbook is a publication of the CIA(I know, I know). But it’s updated every two weeks and I have little doubt their factual statistics are anything but reliable.
Using their Rank Order-Population page, they list 240 countries. (small correction–perhaps 238, as one of the listings is “world” and one “European Union”)
kellner - I don’t disagree with you. Though there’s a map included with the list and it’s interesting to see which countries got left off. Check it out here if you’re at all interested. I’m not particuarly, it’s just that I have to write an essay on the artwork.
It’s a good thing the artist is an artist, rather than a logician. There is NO “list” of “Nationalities” in the back of a Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition." There IS a list of A"Geographical Names" which probably lists all the names of Countries which were extant when the eleventh ed. was published(2003).
She/he seems to be pissed that the name of a “Nationality/Country” isn’t listed in the main text of the dictionary. But that’s not the purpose of the Dictionary.
Perhaps you could score some points by criticising her/him for stupidity.
Oh, believe me, I’ve made enough crtical remarks just based on the fact that it’s not (according to me) very good art - but the focus of the essay is on the political issues (she thinks) she’s commenting on, not whether she’s right or wrong… but hell, I can always chuck it into the conclusion as an afterthought. Though in her defence, I am actually a fan of some of her other work. She did these great billboards around Auckland 5 or so years go advertisting NothingTM and people went nuts trying to buy it.
cheers for that by the way, I don’t actually have a copy of the Webster dictionary because I don’t speaka that kind of da english so I had no way of checking.
I have the full complete Collins from 1979 in front of me, and there is no separate list of countries in it at all. There are articles in the front The Development of English as a World Language and Meaning and Grammar, and the end papers have Tables of Weights and Measures, but that’s it.
