Erin McKean: The joy of lexicography

Translator: Evridika Cuder Reviewer: Martina Mrsnik

Now, have any of y'all ever looked up this word?

Si je kdo izmed vas že kdaj pogledal to besedo?

You know, in a dictionary? (Laughter) Yeah, that's what I thought.

Saj veste, v slovarju? (Smeh) Ja, se mi je zdelo.

How about this word?

Kaj pa tole besedo?

Here, I'll show it to you.

Najbolje, da vam jo kar pokažem:

Lexicography: the practice of compiling dictionaries.

Leksikografija: sestavljanje slovarjev.

Notice -- we're very specific -- that word "compile."

Bodite pozorni -- smo zelo natančni -- na besedo "sestavljanje".

The dictionary is not carved out of a piece of granite,

Slovarji niso izklesani iz kocke granita

out of a lump of rock. It's made up of lots of little bits.

ali kosa kamna. Sestavljeni so iz množice majhnih delcev.

It's little discrete --

Majhnih diskretnih --

that's spelled D-I-S-C-R-E-T-E -- bits.

ločenih, ne zaupnih -- delcev.

And those bits are words.

In ti delci so besede.

Now one of the perks of being a lexicographer --

Ena izmed prednosti leksikografskega poklica je,

besides getting to come to TED -- is that you get to say really fun words,

poleg tega, da te povabijo na TED, da lahko izgovarjaš zares zabavne besede,

like lexicographical.

kot je leksikografinja.

Lexicographical has this great pattern:

Ta beseda ima čudovit vzorec z imenom

it's called a double dactyl. And just by saying double dactyl,

dvojni daktil. In zgolj z omenjanjem dvojnega daktila

I've sent the geek needle all the way into the red. (Laughter) (Applause)

sem kazalec na "piflarmetru" potisnila globoko v rdeče območje.

But "lexicographical" is the same pattern as "higgledy-piggledy."

Toda "leksikografinja" ima enako strukturo kot recimo

Right? It's a fun word to say,

"jejhata, jejhata", kajne? Je zabavna

and I get to say it a lot.

beseda, ki jo lahko pogosto uporabljam.

Now, one of the non-perks of being a lexicographer

Ena izmed slabosti leksikografskega poklica pa je,

is that people don't usually have a kind of warm, fuzzy, snuggly image of the dictionary.

da si slovarjev ponavadi ne predstavljamo kot nekaj toplega, puhastega in prijetnega,

Right? Nobody hugs their dictionaries.

kajne? Nihče ne objema svojih slovarjev.

But what people really often think about the dictionary is, they think more like this.

Ponavadi si ljudje slovar predstavljajo bolj tako.

Just to let you know, I do not have a lexicographical whistle.

Toliko da veste, nimam leksikografske piščalke.

But people think that my job is to let the good words

Toda ljudje vseeno mislijo, da je moja naloga pravilnim besedam

make that difficult left-hand turn into the dictionary,

pomagati najti pot v slovar

and keep the bad words out.

in napačnim besedam preprečevati vstop.

But the thing is, I don't want to be a traffic cop.

Jaz pa nočem igrati prometnega policista.

For one thing, I just do not do uniforms.

Prvič, uniforme niso moj stil.

And for another, deciding what words are good

In drugič, določanje, katere besede so pravilne

and what words are bad is actually not very easy.

in katere napačne, sploh ni tako enostavno.

And it's not very fun. And when parts of your job are not easy or fun,

In niti ni zabavno. In tistim delom poklica, ki niso lahki ali zabavni,

you kind of look for an excuse not to do them.

se ponavadi poskušamo izmakniti.

So if I had to think of some kind of occupation

Če bi že morala svoje delo primerjati s katerim izmed poklicev,

as a metaphor for my work, I would much rather be a fisherman.

bi veliko raje bila ribič.

I want to throw my big net into the deep, blue ocean of English

Svojo veliko mrežo bi vrgla v globoki modri ocean angleščine,

and see what marvelous creatures I can drag up from the bottom.

da bi videla, kakšna čudovita bitja lahko z dna privlečem na dan.

But why do people want me to direct traffic, when I would much rather go fishing?

Toda zakaj bi ljudje radi, da usmerjam promet, ko pa bi veliko raje šla lovit ribe?

Well, I blame the Queen.

Jaz za to krivim kraljico.

Why do I blame the Queen?

Zakaj krivim kraljico?

Well, first of all, I blame the Queen because it's funny.

No, prvič zato, ker je smešno.

But secondly, I blame the Queen because

In drugič zato,

dictionaries have really not changed.

ker se slovar, oziroma naše predstave

Our idea of what a dictionary is has not changed since her reign.

o njem, od obdobja njenega vladanja niso spremenile.

The only thing that Queen Victoria would not be amused by in modern dictionaries

Edina stvar, ki kraljici Viktoriji pri sodobnih slovarjih ne bi bila všeč,

is our inclusion of the F-word, which has happened

je vključitev besede "f*", ki je v ameriških

in American dictionaries since 1965.

slovarjih prisotna od leta 1965.

So, there's this guy, right? Victorian era.

Gospod iz viktorijanske dobe, ki ga vidite na sliki,

James Murray, first editor of the Oxford English Dictionary.

je James Murray, prvi urednik slovarja Oxford English Dictionary.

I do not have that hat. I wish I had that hat.

Nimam takšnega klobuka, čeprav si želim, da bi ga imela.

So he's really responsible for a lot of

On je zaslužen za večino tega, kar

what we consider modern in dictionaries today.

imamo danes pri slovarjih za moderno.

When a guy who looks like that, in that hat,

Če je nekdo, ki izgleda tako -- s takšnim klobukom --

is the face of modernity, you have a problem.

simbol sodobnosti, je jasno, da imamo problem.

And so, James Murray could get a job on any dictionary today.

James Murray bi danes dobil službo pri uredništvu vsakega slovarja.

There'd be virtually no learning curve.

Učna krivulja se praktično ne bi spremenila.

And of course, a few of us are saying: okay, computers!

Seveda, nekateri boste ugovarjali z računalniki.

Computers! What about computers?

Računalniki! Kaj pa računalniki?

The thing about computers is, I love computers.

Z računalniki je tako, sama jih imam rada.

I mean, I'm a huge geek, I love computers.

Sem zagrizen "gik", obožujem računalnike.

I would go on a hunger strike before I let them take away Google Book Search from me.

Če bi mi kdo poskušal odvzeti Googlov Book Search, bi uprizorila gladovno stavko.

But computers don't do much else other than

Toda računalniki niso naredili nič drugega kot

speed up the process of compiling dictionaries.

pospešili procesa sestavljanja slovarjev.

They don't change the end result.

Končnega rezultata niso spremenili.

Because what a dictionary is,

Kajti slovarji so še vedno

is it's Victorian design merged with a little bit of modern propulsion.

zasnovani po viktorijanskih vzorcih, dodan jim je bil le moderni pogon.

It's steampunk. What we have is an electric velocipede.

To je kot znanstvena fantastika v viktorijanski dobi, električni velociped.

You know, we have Victorian design with an engine on it. That's all!

Imamo viktorijanski izum na motorni pogon. To je vse.

The design has not changed.

Princip se ni spremenil.

And OK, what about online dictionaries, right?

V redu, kaj pa spletni slovarji?

Online dictionaries must be different.

Spletni slovarji so gotovo drugačni.

This is the Oxford English Dictionary Online, one of the best online dictionaries.

To je Oxford English Dictionary Online, eden izmed najboljših spletnih slovarjev.

This is my favorite word, by the way.

Mimogrede, to je moja najljubša beseda:

Erinaceous: pertaining to the hedgehog family; of the nature of a hedgehog.

Erinaceinae: pravi jež, pripadajoč družini ježev.

Very useful word. So, look at that.

Zelo uporabna beseda. Če si ogledate to, vidite, da

Online dictionaries right now are paper thrown up on a screen.

je sodobni spletni slovar le papir, prenesen na ekran.

This is flat. Look how many links there are in the actual entry: two!

To je statično. Samo poglejte, koliko je na celotni strani povezav. Dve!

Right? Those little buttons,

Vidite? Te majhne okvirčke

I had them all expanded except for the date chart.

sem vse povečala, z izjemo grafikona.

So there's not very much going on here.

Kot vidite, se tu ne dogaja prav veliko.

There's not a lot of clickiness.

Nimamo veliko možnosti klikanja.

And in fact, online dictionaries replicate

V bistvu je spletni slovar ohranil

almost all the problems of print, except for searchability.

skoraj vse slabosti knjižnega, razen boljših iskalnih možnosti.

And when you improve searchability,

Z izboljšanimi možnostmi iskanja

you actually take away the one advantage of print, which is serendipity.

pa je uničena edina prednost knjižne oblike, ki je srečno naključje.

Serendipity is when you find things you weren't looking for,

Srečno naključje nastopi takrat, ko najdeš stvari, ki jih nisi iskal,

because finding what you are looking for is so damned difficult.

zato ker je tisto, kar si iskal, tako prekleto težko najti.

So -- (Laughter) (Applause) -- now, when you think about this,

Torej -- (Smeh) -- če pomislimo,

what we have here is a ham butt problem.

smo tukaj priča problemu zadnjega konca šunke.

Does everyone know the ham butt problem?

Pozna kdo izmed vas ta problem?

Woman's making a ham for a big, family dinner.

Žena kuha šunko za veliko družinsko večerjo.

She goes to cut the butt off the ham and throw it away,

Odreže zadnji konec šunke in ko ga že hoče vreči v smeti,

and she looks at this piece of ham and she's like,

nenadoma dobi preblisk:

"This is a perfectly good piece of ham. Why am I throwing this away?"

"Saj to je čisto dober kos šunke. Zakaj ga mečem stran?"

She thought, "Well, my mom always did this."

Nato se spomni: "Ker je mama vedno tako delala."

So she calls up mom, and she says,

Tako pokliče mamo in jo vpraša:

"Mom, why'd you cut the butt off the ham, when you're making a ham?"

"Mama, zakaj pri kuhanju šunke vedno odstraniš en konec?"

She says, "I don't know, my mom always did it!"

Mama pravi: "Ne vem, ker je moja mama vedno tako delala!"

So they call grandma, and grandma says,

Nato pokličeta še babico, ki pove:

"My pan was too small!" (Laughter)

"Moj lonec je bil premajhen!" (Smeh)

So, it's not that we have good words and bad words.

Nimamo torej pravilnih in napačnih besed --

We have a pan that's too small!

imamo samo premajhen lonec!

You know, that ham butt is delicious! There's no reason to throw it away.

Veste, šunkin zadnji konec je slasten in ni razloga, da bi ga metali proč.

The bad words -- see, when people think about a place

Če nekega kraja

and they don't find a place on the map,

ne najdemo na zemljevidu,

they think, "This map sucks!"

si mislimo, da je zemljevid brezvezen.

When they find a nightspot or a bar, and it's not in the guidebook,

Če naletimo na nočni klub ali lokal, ki ga ni v turističnem vodiču,

they're like, "Ooh, this place must be cool! It's not in the guidebook."

pomislimo: "Ta lokal mora niti nekaj posebnega, ker ga ni v vodiču."

When they find a word that's not in the dictionary, they think,

Če pa naletimo na besedo, ki je ni v slovarju, si rečemo:

"This must be a bad word." Why? It's more likely to be a bad dictionary.

"Ta beseda je gotovo slaba." Zakaj? Večja je možnost, da je slab slovar.

Why are you blaming the ham for being too big for the pan?

Zakaj krivimo šunko, ker je prevelika za lonec?

So, you can't get a smaller ham.

Šunke se ne da spremeniti.

The English language is as big as it is.

Angleščina je velika toliko, kolikor je.

So, if you have a ham butt problem,

Torej, če smo priča problemu zadnjega konca šunke

and you're thinking about the ham butt problem,

in o njem razmišljamo,

the conclusion that it leads you to is inexorable and counterintuitive:

pridemo do neizogibnega, a hkrati protislovnega zaključka, da je

paper is the enemy of words.

papir sovražnik besed.

How can this be? I mean, I love books. I really love books.

Kako je to možno? Ne razumite me narobe, knjige imam zelo rada. Resno.

Some of my best friends are books.

Nekateri izmed mojih najboljših prijateljev so knjige.

But the book is not the best shape for the dictionary.

Toda knjiga ni najboljši medij za slovar.

Now they're going to think "Oh, boy.

Sedaj se boste ustrašili: "Ojoj, ali

People are going to take away my beautiful, paper dictionaries?"

mi bodo odvzeli moje prelepe knjižne slovarje?"

No. There will still be paper dictionaries.

Ne. Takšni slovarji bodo še vedno obstajali.

When we had cars -- when cars became the dominant mode of transportation,

S pojavom avtomobila, oziroma ko je ta postal glavno prevozno sredstvo,

we didn't round up all the horses and shoot them.

nismo zbrali vseh konjev in jih postrelili.

You know, there're still going to be paper dictionaries,

Slovar kot knjiga bo še vedno obstajal,

but it's not going to be the dominant dictionary.

le ne bo več zasedal dominantnega položaja.

The book-shaped dictionary is not going to be the only shape

Knjižna oblika ne bo edina oblika,

dictionaries come in. And it's not going to be

v kateri se bodo slovarji pojavljali. In ne bo

the prototype for the shapes dictionaries come in.

prototipična oblika za slovar.

So, think about it this way: if you've got an artificial constraint,

Zavedajte se, da postavljanje namišljenih omejitev

artificial constraints lead to

vodi v oblikovanje

arbitrary distinctions and a skewed worldview.

poljubnih kriterijev in privede do izkrivljenih predstav o svetu.

What if biologists could only study animals

Kaj če bi biologi lahko preučevali le živali,

that made people go, "Aww." Right?

ob katerih se ljudje raznežijo?

What if we made aesthetic judgments about animals,

Kaj če bi živali razvrščali po estetskih kriterijih

and only the ones we thought were cute were the ones that we could study?

in bi preučevali samo tiste, ki bi se nam zdele ljubke?

We'd know a whole lot about charismatic megafauna,

Ogromno bi vedeli o karizmatični megafavni

and not very much about much else.

in ne prav veliko o čem drugem.

And I think this is a problem.

In po mojem mnenju to predstavlja problem.

I think we should study all the words,

Mislim, da bi morali preučevati vse besede,

because when you think about words, you can make beautiful expressions

kajti če pomislimo, lahko s pomočjo skromnih gradnikov

from very humble parts.

izrazimo lepe misli.

Lexicography is really more about material science.

Leksikografija je v bistvu veda o gradivih.

We are studying the tolerances of the materials

Preučujemo vzdržljivost materialov,

that you use to build the structure of your expression:

ki jih uporabljamo za gradnjo svojega načina izražanja:

your speeches and your writing. And then, often people say to me,

govora in pisave. Ljudje me pogosto sprašujejo:

"Well, OK, how do I know that this word is real?"

"V redu, ampak kako veš, da določena beseda res obstaja?"

They think, "OK, if we think words are the tools

Če so besede orodje,

that we use to build the expressions of our thoughts,

s katerim ustvarjamo izraz naših misli,

how can you say that screwdrivers are better than hammers?

kako lahko potem rečemo, da so izvijači boljši od kladiv?

How can you say that a sledgehammer is better than a ball-peen hammer?"

Kako lahko trdimo, da je kovaško kladivo boljše od kladiva s kroglastim kljunom?

They're just the right tools for the job.

Sta le orodji, primerni za različna dela.

And so people say to me, "How do I know if a word is real?"

In tako me ljudje sprašujejo, kako vem, če je beseda resnična.

You know, anybody who's read a children's book

Veste, vsak, ki je kdaj bral knjige za otroke,

knows that love makes things real.

ve, da s pomočjo ljubezni stvari postanejo resnične.

If you love a word, use it. That makes it real.

Če imaš neko besedo rad, jo uporabljaj in jo tako naredi resnično.

Being in the dictionary is an artificial distinction.

Prisotnost v slovarju je umetni kriterij.

It doesn't make a word any more real than any other way.

Zaradi nje besede niso nič bolj ali manj resnične.

If you love a word, it becomes real.

Če imaš besedo rad, jo narediš resnično.

So if we're not worrying about directing traffic,

Torej, če se nehamo ukvarjati z usmerjanjem prometa,

if we've transcended paper, if we are worrying less

če presežemo papir in se raje bolj posvetimo

about control and more about description,

opisu kot nadzoru,

then we can think of the English language

potem si lahko angleščino predstavljamo

as being this beautiful mobile.

kot neko čudovito potujoče telo.

And any time one of those little parts of the mobile changes,

Vsakič, ko se nekdo dotakne enega izmed njegovih delov,

is touched, any time you touch a word,

ko se dotakne besede,

you use it in a new context, you give it a new connotation,

jo uporabi v novem kontekstu, ji doda pomen,

you verb it, you make the mobile move.

spremeni besedno vrsto, se telo premakne.

You didn't break it. It's just in a new position,

Zaradi tega se ne pokvari, je le v drugem položaju,

and that new position can be just as beautiful.

ki je lahko ravno tako lep kot prejšnji.

Now, if you're no longer a traffic cop --

Torej, če nismo več v vlogi prometnega policista --

the problem with being a traffic cop is

ti so problematični,

there can only be so many traffic cops in any one intersection,

ker jih je na enem križišču lahko le omejeno število,

or the cars get confused. Right?

drugače v prometu zavlada kaos, kajne?

But if your goal is no longer to direct the traffic,

Če naš cilj ni več usmerjanje prometa,

but maybe to count the cars that go by, then more eyeballs are better.

temveč štetje avtomobilov, potem potrebujemo čim več parov oči.

You can ask for help!

Lahko prosimo za pomoč!

If you ask for help, you get more done. And we really need help.

Tako lahko dosežemo več, saj pomoč resnično potrebujemo.

Library of Congress: 17 million books,

Ameriška nacionalna knjižnica Library of Congress vsebuje 17 milijonov knjig,

of which half are in English.

od tega jih je polovica v angleščini.

If only one out of every 10 of those books

Če je samo v eni izmed desetih knjig

had a word that's not in the dictionary in it,

ena beseda, ki je ni v slovarju,

that would be equivalent to more than two unabridged dictionaries.

bi jih skupaj naneslo za dva velika slovarja besed.

And I find an un-dictionaried word --

V skoraj vsaki knjigi, ki jo berem,

a word like "un-dictionaried," for example --

naletim na neposlovarjeno besedo,

in almost every book I read. What about newspapers?

kot je na primer "neposlovarjen". Kaj pa časopisi?

Newspaper archive goes back to 1759,

Časopisni arhiv vsebuje časnike od leta 1759.

58.1 million newspaper pages. If only one in 100

V njem je 58,1 milijona strani. Če je samo na eni izmed stotih

of those pages had an un-dictionaried word on it,

strani ena neposlovarjena beseda,

it would be an entire other OED.

bi jih bilo skupaj dovolj za slovar v obsegu Oxford English Dictionary.

That's 500,000 more words. So that's a lot.

To je 500.000 besed več. Kar je veliko.

And I'm not even talking about magazines. I'm not talking about blogs --

In da niti ne omenjam revij in blogov.

and I find more new words on BoingBoing in a given week

Na spletišču BoingBoing v enem tednu najdem več novih besed

than I do Newsweek or Time.

kot v Newsweeku ali Timeu.

There's a lot going on there.

Tam je jezik res živahen.

And I'm not even talking about polysemy,

In da niti ne omenjam polisemije,

which is the greedy habit some words have of taking

pohlepne navade nekaterih besed,

more than one meaning for themselves.

da si vzamejo več kot en pomen.

So if you think of the word "set," a set can be a badger's burrow,

Takšna je na primer angleška beseda "set", ki lahko označuje jazbečev brlog

a set can be one of the pleats in an Elizabethan ruff,

gubo na nabranem elizabetinskem ovratniku

and there's one numbered definition in the OED.

in še kaj, saj v slovarju Oxford English Dictionary

The OED has 33 different numbered definitions for set.

obstaja 33 definicij zanjo.

Tiny, little word, 33 numbered definitions.

Tako kratka besedica in kar 33 definicij.

One of them is just labeled "miscellaneous technical senses."

Ena izmed njih se glasi: "razni strokovni pomeni".

Do you know what that says to me?

Veste kaj to pomeni?

That says to me, it was Friday afternoon and somebody wanted to go down the pub. (Laughter)

Da je to iztočnico nekdo sestavljal na petek zvečer, ko se mu je mudilo ven.

That's a lexicographical cop out,

"Razni strokovni pomeni" je

to say, "miscellaneous technical senses."

leksikografski izhod v sili.

So, we have all these words, and we really need help!

Besed je veliko, zato resnično potrebujemo pomoč.

And the thing is, we could ask for help --

In lahko prosimo zanjo,

asking for help's not that hard.

to ni tako težko,

I mean, lexicography is not rocket science.

saj leksikografija ni kvantna fizika.

See, I just gave you a lot of words and a lot of numbers,

Do sedaj sem vam podala le veliko besed in številk,

and this is more of a visual explanation.

sedaj pa je na vrsti vizualni prikaz stanja.

If we think of the dictionary as being the map of the English language,

Če si slovar predstavljamo kot zemljevid angleščine,

these bright spots are what we know about,

so svetla polja tisto, kar poznamo

and the dark spots are where we are in the dark.

in temna tisto, o čemer ne vemo še ničesar.

If that was the map of all the words in American English, we don't know very much.

Iz tega zemljevida ameriške angleščine je razvidno, da o njej še veliko ne vemo.

And we don't even know the shape of the language.

Ne poznamo niti njenega obsega.

If this was the dictionary -- if this was the map of American English --

Če bi to bil slovar -- če bi to bil zemljevid ameriške angleščine --

look, we have a kind of lumpy idea of Florida,

vidimo, da približno poznamo Florido,

but there's no California!

Kalifornije pa sploh ni!

We're missing California from American English.

Manjka nam cela Kalifornija ameriške angleščine.

We just don't know enough, and we don't even know that we're missing California.

Enostavno ne vemo dovolj, ne vemo niti, da nam manjka celotna Kalifornija.

We don't even see that there's a gap on the map.

Vrzeli na zemljevidu se še zavedamo ne.

So again, lexicography is not rocket science.

Še enkrat, leksikografija ni kvantna fizika

But even if it were, rocket science is being done

In tudi, če bi bila, s fiziko se dandanes

by dedicated amateurs these days. You know?

ukvarjajo tudi predani ljubitelji, kajne?

It can't be that hard to find some words!

Iskanje novih besed že ne more biti pretežko.

So, enough scientists in other disciplines

Kar nekaj znanstvenikov iz drugih disciplin

are really asking people to help, and they're doing a good job of it.

prosi za pomoč laike, ki dobro opravljajo svoje naloge.

For instance, there's eBird, where amateur birdwatchers

Primer za to je spletna stran eBird, kamor lahko ljubiteljski opazovalci ptičev

can upload information about their bird sightings.

naložijo podatke o svojih opažanjih.

And then, ornithologists can go

Ornitologi lahko na podlagi tega

and help track populations, migrations, etc.

lažje opazujejo populacije, selitve ptic itd.

And there's this guy, Mike Oates. Mike Oates lives in the U.K.

Mike Oates, direktor podjetja za galvanizacijo

He's a director of an electroplating company.

iz Velike Britanije,

He's found more than 140 comets.

je odkril več kot 140 kometov.

He's found so many comets, they named a comet after him.

Odkril jih je toliko, da so enega celo poimenovali po njem.

It's kind of out past Mars. It's a hike.

Je nekje malo naprej od Marsa, do njega je lep kos poti,

I don't think he's getting his picture taken there anytime soon.

ne verjamem, da se bo v bližnji prihodnosti tam slikal.

But he found 140 comets without a telescope.

Toda vseh 140 kometov je našel brez teleskopa.

He downloaded data from the NASA SOHO satellite,

Našel jih je tako,

and that's how he found them.

da je potrebne podatke prenesel z Nasinega satelita SOHO.

If we can find comets without a telescope,

Če lahko najdemo komete brez teleskopa,

shouldn't we be able to find words?

bomo pa že lahko našli tudi besede.

Now, y'all know where I'm going with this.

Vsem vam je jasno, kam merim s tem.

Because I'm going to the Internet, which is where everybody goes.

Pomoč bom poiskala na internetu, kot jo danes vsi.

And the Internet is great for collecting words,

Internet je zelo prikladen za zbiranje besed,

because the Internet's full of collectors.

saj je poln zbiralcev.

And this is a little-known technological fact about the Internet,

Manj znano dejstvo o internetu je,

but the Internet is actually made up of words and enthusiasm.

da pravzaprav temelji na besedah in navdušenju.

And words and enthusiasm actually happen to be

In prav besede in navdušenje so

the recipe for lexicography. Isn't that great?

sestavni del leksikografije, kaj ni to čudovito?

So there are a lot of really good word-collecting sites out there right now,

Obstaja veliko spletnih strani za zbiranje besed,

but the problem with some of them is that they're not scientific enough.

toda njhova pomanjkljivost je, da niso dovolj znanstvene.

They show the word, but they don't show any context.

Prikažejo besedo izven konteksta.

Where did it come from? Who said it?

Od kje je prišla? Kdo jo je izrekel?

What newspaper was it in? What book?

V katerem časopisu, v kateri knjigi je bila objavljena?

Because a word is like an archaeological artifact.

Ker beseda je kot arheološki artefakt.

If you don't know the provenance or the source of the artifact,

Če njegov izvor ni znan,

it's not science, it's a pretty thing to look at.

to ni znanstveni primerek, je le lep okras.

So a word without its source is like a cut flower.

Tako je tudi beseda brez podatkov o izvoru kot utrgana roža.

You know, it's pretty to look at for a while, but then it dies.

Na pogled je lep le, dokler se ne posuši.

It dies too fast.

In posuši se prehitro.

So, this whole time I've been saying,

Do sedaj sem večinoma govorila

"The dictionary, the dictionary, the dictionary, the dictionary."

o slovarju v ednini

Not "a dictionary," or "dictionaries." And that's because,

in ne o slovarjih. To pa zato,

well, people use the dictionary to stand for the whole language.

ker ponavadi slovar simbolizira celoten jezik.

They use it synecdochically.

Ta beseda se uporablja sinekdohično.

And one of the problems of knowing a word like "synecdochically"

Problem poznavanja besed kot je "sinekdohično", je v tem,

is that you really want an excuse to say "synecdochically."

da pravzaprav iščeš izgovore, da se s tem pohvališ.

This whole talk has just been an excuse to get me to the point

Ta celoten govor sem v bistvu pripravila zato,

where I could say "synecdochically" to all of you.

da lahko pred vsemi vami rečem "sinekdohično".

So I'm really sorry. But when you use a part of something --

Se opravičujem. Toda ko del nečesa,

like the dictionary is a part of the language,

kot na primer slovar, ki je del jezika,

or a flag stands for the United States, it's a symbol of the country --

ali zastava, ki simbolizira državo, predstavlja celoto,

then you're using it synecdochically.

potem je ta del uporabljen sinekdohično.

But the thing is, we could make the dictionary the whole language.

Stvar je v tem, da bi slovar res lahko predstavljal jezik.

If we get a bigger pan, then we can put all the words in.

Če bi si priskrbeli večji lonec, bi lahko vanj spravili vse besede

We can put in all the meanings.

in vse pomene.

Doesn't everyone want more meaning in their lives?

Si ne želimo vsi, da bi naše življenje imelo več pomena?

And we can make the dictionary not just be a symbol of the language --

Slovar tako lahko postane ne le simbol za jezik,

we can make it be the whole language.

lahko postane jezik sam.

You see, what I'm really hoping for is that my son,

Resnično upam, da se bo moj sin, ki bo ta

who turns seven this month -- I want him to barely remember

mesec dopolnil sedem let,

that this is the form factor that dictionaries used to come in.

komaj spominjal, da je slovar včasih nastajal v tej obliki.

This is what dictionaries used to look like.

Tako je slovar izgledal včasih.

I want him to think of this kind of dictionary as an eight-track tape.

Želim, da bi o njem razmišljal kot o avdio kaseti.

It's a format that died because it wasn't useful enough.

Kot o formatu, ki ni več aktualen, ker ni bil dovolj uporaben,

It wasn't really what people needed.

ker ni zadovoljil človekovih potreb.

And the thing is, if we can put in all the words,

In če bomo v novodobni slovar vključili vse besede,

no longer have that artificial distinction between good and bad,

ne bomo več imeli navideznih razlik med pravilnim in napačnim.

we can really describe the language like scientists.

Jezik bomo lahko opisovali kot znanstveniki,

We can leave the aesthetic judgments to the writers and the speakers.

sodbe o estetskosti pa prepustili pisateljem in govorcem.

If we can do that, then I can spend all my time fishing,

Če nam to uspe, bom lahko ves čas ribarila

and I don't have to be a traffic cop anymore.

in ne bo mi treba več igrati prometnega policista.

Thank you very much for your kind attention.

Najlepša hvala za vašo prijazno pozornost.