Robert W. Burchfield
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Robert William Burchfield CNZM,
CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...
(27 January 1923 – 5 July 2004) was a
lexicographer Lexicography is the study of lexicons, and is divided into two separate academic disciplines. It is the art of compiling dictionaries. * Practical lexicography is the art or craft of compiling, writing and editing dictionaries. * Theoretica ...
, scholar, and writer, who edited the ''
Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a co ...
'' for thirty years to 1986, and was chief editor from 1971.


Education and career

Born in
Whanganui Whanganui (; ), also spelled Wanganui, is a city in the Manawatū-Whanganui region of New Zealand. The city is located on the west coast of the North Island at the mouth of the Whanganui River, New Zealand's longest navigable waterway. Whang ...
,
New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
, he studied at
Wanganui Technical College Whanganui City College is located in Ingestre Street, Whanganui. It became Wanganui City College in 1994. It was formerly the Wanganui Technical College established in 1911 and it became Wanganui Boys' College in 1964. Notable alumni *Peter Bel ...
and Victoria University in
Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...
. After war service in the
Royal Regiment of New Zealand Artillery The Royal Regiment of New Zealand Artillery is the artillery regiment of the New Zealand Army. It is effectively a military administrative corps, and can comprise multiple component regiments. This nomenclature stems from its heritage as an off ...
, he graduated MA from Wellington in 1948 and won a Rhodes Scholarship to
Magdalen College Magdalen College (, ) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by William of Waynflete. Today, it is the fourth wealthiest college, with a financial endowment of £332.1 million as of 2019 and one of the s ...
,
Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...
, in England, where he was tutored by
C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Oxford University (Magdalen College, 1925–1954) and Cambridge Univers ...
. He became a Fellow of Magdalen and lecturer in English straight after graduating (1952–53), subsequently moving colleges to Christ Church (1953–57) and St Peter's (1955–79). Through C. T. Onions, the Magdalen librarian, Burchfield assisted in editing one of Onions's projects, the ''Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology''. His preparation of an edition of the ''
Ormulum The ''Ormulum'' or ''Orrmulum'' is a twelfth-century work of biblical exegesis, written by an Augustinian canon named Orm (or Ormin) and consisting of just under 19,000 lines of early Middle English verse. Because of the unique phonemic orth ...
'' was supervised by
J. R. R. Tolkien John Ronald Reuel Tolkien (, ; 3 January 1892 – 2 September 1973) was an English writer and philologist. He was the author of the high fantasy works ''The Hobbit'' and ''The Lord of the Rings''. From 1925 to 1945, Tolkien was the Rawlins ...
.''Oxford English Dictionary'' website entry for Robert Burchfield
including ''The Independents obituary. Onions recommended him to
Dan Davin Daniel Marcus Davin (1 September 1913 – 28 September 1990), generally known as Dan Davin, was an author who wrote about New Zealand, although for most of his career he lived in Oxford, England, working for Oxford University Press. The themes o ...
as editor of the second ''Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary'', on which he worked from 1957 to 1986. He re-established the network of volunteer readers sending in records of words that had helped to create the original OED but had been allowed to fall away. In 2004, it emerged that Burchfield's second supplement had removed a large number of words that were present in the earlier 1933 supplement edited by Onions and William Craigie, which Burchfield's second supplement incorporated. Four years later the full nature of his treatment of foreign words was shown: he deleted 17 per cent of the foreign
loan word A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because the ...
s and words from regional forms of English; and his coverage was not as extensive as his predecessors, especially Onions, who included 45 per cent more loanwords and
World Englishes World Englishes is a term for emerging localised or indigenised varieties of English, especially varieties that have developed in territories influenced by the United Kingdom or the United States. The study of World Englishes consists of identi ...
. In 2012, a book documented Burchfield's work and showed that many of the omitted words had only a single recorded usage, but their removal ran against both what was thought to be the established OED editorial practice and a perception that he had opened up the dictionary to "World English". The author of the book concerned, Sarah Ogilvie, complained that people were unfairly judging Burchfield and that her coverage had been misleadingly reported in the media. Burchfield also participated in a 1980s
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
committee that monitored compliance with the broadcaster's policy of using
received pronunciation Received Pronunciation (RP) is the accent traditionally regarded as the standard and most prestigious form of spoken British English. For over a century, there has been argument over such questions as the definition of RP, whether it is geog ...
in newscasting, before that policy was abandoned in 1989 in favor of "using announcers and newsreaders with a more representative range of accents." In retirement, he produced a controversial new edition, substantially rewritten and less
prescriptivist Linguistic prescription, or prescriptive grammar, is the establishment of rules defining preferred usage of language. These rules may address such linguistic aspects as spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax, and semantics. Sometimes infor ...
, of '' Fowler's Modern English Usage'', the long-established style guide by
Henry Watson Fowler Henry Watson Fowler (10 March 1858 – 26 December 1933) was an English schoolmaster, lexicographer and commentator on the usage of the English language. He is notable for both ''A Dictionary of Modern English Usage'' and his work on the ''Con ...
. He died in
Abingdon-on-Thames Abingdon-on-Thames ( ), commonly known as Abingdon, is a historic market town and civil parish in the ceremonial county of Oxfordshire, England, on the River Thames. Historically the county town of Berkshire, since 1974 Abingdon has been ad ...
at 81, in 2004. He married twice and had three children.


Selected works

*''Supplement to the Oxford English Dictionary'', 4 vols, 1972–1986 *''The Spoken Word'', 1981 *''The English Language'', 1985 *''Studies in Lexicography'', 1987 *''Unlocking the English Language'', 1989 *''
The Cambridge History of the English Language ''The Cambridge History of the English Language'' is a six volume history of English published between 1992 and 2001. The general editor was Richard Hogg. * Volume 1, The Beginnings to 1066, Richard Hogg, ed. * Volume 2, 1066–1476, Norman ...
, Vol. 5: English in Britain and Overseas'', 1994 * Editor, ''Fowler's Modern English Usage'', Revised Edition, 1998


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burchfield, Robert 1923 births 2004 deaths Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford New Zealand lexicographers British lexicographers Etymologists New Zealand Rhodes Scholars Victoria University of Wellington alumni Fellows of Christ Church, Oxford Fellows of St Peter's College, Oxford Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford Chief editors of the Oxford English Dictionary New Zealand expatriates in England New Zealand Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Companions of the New Zealand Order of Merit New Zealand military personnel of World War II 20th-century lexicographers