Linguistic Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Linguistic - Essay Example instance, was added to the OED in 2001, with a description of â€Å"Expressing frustration at the realization that things have turned out badly† and cites the cartoon The Simpsons in setting both its definition and its spelling (OED s.v. â€Å"D’oh†). A dictionary attempting to set rather than describe usage would be very unlikely to include a word made famous by a television cartoon. Furthermore, the policy of the Oxford English Dictionary board itself describes the resource as descriptive rather than prescriptive. In its â€Å"Guide to the Third Edition of the OED† the board writes that â€Å"the Dictionary is intended to be descriptive, not prescriptive,† though the dictionary notes that it will indicate when usages have been popularly considered â€Å"incorrect† (OED Online). Noting a usage as being popularly â€Å"incorrect† does not make the resource prescriptive, however: it simply describes the popular usage of the