B. T. S. Atkins
Encyclopedia
Beryl T. Atkins has been a professional lexicographer since 1966, first with Collins Publishers (now HarperCollins
), where she was General Editor of the first 'modern' English-French dictionary, the Collins-Robert English-French Dictionary, then as Lexicographic Adviser to Oxford University Press
, where she pioneered methodology for the creation of bilingual dictionaries from corpus data, ultimately resulting in the Oxford-Hachette English-French Dictionary. Among her most important contributions to corpus linguistics
, Sue Atkins originated the idea of the British National Corpus
.
She was educated at James Gillespie's High School in Edinburgh and graduated from Edinburgh University in 1952 with a first class honours degree in French with Spanish.
Among her honors, are an honorary DLitt by the University of Brighton
(2000), UK, for services to lexicography
and linguistics
; a festschrift
(2002) published by EURALEX to mark her contribution to international lexicography, and an honorary DLitt by the University of Pretoria (2008) for significant contributions to the development of lexicographic practices worldwide and in particular for the African languages in South Africa. She is also Past President and Honorary Life Member of the European Association for Lexicography (EURALEX).
Sue Atkins currently teaches and consults in lexicography, and participates in national and international research projects in the field of computational lexicography. She is a Lexicographic Adviser to the FrameNet
project at the International Computer Science Institute
, Berkeley, California, and a member of the Advisory Board of the American National Corpus
, and the International Journal of Lexicography
.
Among her most widely cited papers is "Predictable Meaning Shift: Some Linguistic Properties of Lexical Implication Rules", published in 1991. The colloquial quip, "to verbize one's nouns", would be an example of a lexical implication rule.
She is the author, with Michael Rundell, of The Oxford Guide to Practical Lexicography (2008), and, with Tom McArthur, of the Dictionary of English Phrasal Verbs and their Idioms (1974).
Linguist John McHardy Sinclair
was her brother.
HarperCollins
HarperCollins is a publishing company owned by News Corporation. It is the combination of the publishers William Collins, Sons and Co Ltd, a British company, and Harper & Row, an American company, itself the result of an earlier merger of Harper & Brothers and Row, Peterson & Company. The worldwide...
), where she was General Editor of the first 'modern' English-French dictionary, the Collins-Robert English-French Dictionary, then as Lexicographic Adviser to Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...
, where she pioneered methodology for the creation of bilingual dictionaries from corpus data, ultimately resulting in the Oxford-Hachette English-French Dictionary. Among her most important contributions to corpus linguistics
Corpus linguistics
Corpus linguistics is the study of language as expressed in samples or "real world" text. This method represents a digestive approach to deriving a set of abstract rules by which a natural language is governed or else relates to another language. Originally done by hand, corpora are now largely...
, Sue Atkins originated the idea of the British National Corpus
British National Corpus
The British National Corpus is a 100-million-word text corpus of samples of written and spoken English from a wide range of sources. It was compiled as a general corpus in the field of corpus linguistics...
.
She was educated at James Gillespie's High School in Edinburgh and graduated from Edinburgh University in 1952 with a first class honours degree in French with Spanish.
Among her honors, are an honorary DLitt by the University of Brighton
University of Brighton
The University of Brighton is an English university of the United Kingdom, with a community of over 23,000 students and 2,600 staff based on campuses in Brighton, Eastbourne and Hastings. It has one of the best teaching quality ratings in the UK and a strong research record, factors which...
(2000), UK, for services to lexicography
Lexicography
Lexicography is divided into two related disciplines:*Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries....
and linguistics
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
; a festschrift
Festschrift
In academia, a Festschrift , is a book honoring a respected person, especially an academic, and presented during his or her lifetime. The term, borrowed from German, could be translated as celebration publication or celebratory writing...
(2002) published by EURALEX to mark her contribution to international lexicography, and an honorary DLitt by the University of Pretoria (2008) for significant contributions to the development of lexicographic practices worldwide and in particular for the African languages in South Africa. She is also Past President and Honorary Life Member of the European Association for Lexicography (EURALEX).
Sue Atkins currently teaches and consults in lexicography, and participates in national and international research projects in the field of computational lexicography. She is a Lexicographic Adviser to the FrameNet
FrameNet
FrameNet is a project housed at the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley, California which produces an electronic resource based on...
project at the International Computer Science Institute
International Computer Science Institute
The International Computer Science Institute is an independent, non-profit research organization located in Berkeley, California, USA. Since its founding in 1988, ICSI has maintained an affiliation with the University of California, Berkeley, where several of its members hold faculty appointments...
, Berkeley, California, and a member of the Advisory Board of the American National Corpus
American National Corpus
The American National Corpus is a text corpus of American English currently containing 22 million words written and spoken data produced since 1990. The ANC may at some point of time include a range of genres comparable to the British National Corpus...
, and the International Journal of Lexicography
International Journal of Lexicography
The International Journal of Lexicography is a peer-reviewed academic journal in the field of lexicography published by Oxford University Press. It was established in 1988 and appears four times a year...
.
Among her most widely cited papers is "Predictable Meaning Shift: Some Linguistic Properties of Lexical Implication Rules", published in 1991. The colloquial quip, "to verbize one's nouns", would be an example of a lexical implication rule.
She is the author, with Michael Rundell, of The Oxford Guide to Practical Lexicography (2008), and, with Tom McArthur, of the Dictionary of English Phrasal Verbs and their Idioms (1974).
Linguist John McHardy Sinclair
John McHardy Sinclair
John McHardy Sinclair , Professor of Modern English Language at Birmingham University, 1965 – 2000. He pioneered work in corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, lexicography, and language teaching....
was her brother.
External links
- International Journal of Lexicography
- EURALEX
- British National Corpus website
- VIEW query interface for the BNC