Creator
Louis Fabian Bachrach Jr
Title
Press photo of Philip B. Gove
Date
1961
Description
Lexicographic modernity begins with Philip Babcock Gove (1902–1972), named chief editor at Merriam after William Allan Neilson’s death in 1946. Gove brought the latest thinking in linguistics to bear on practical lexicography, including one principle above all: that dictionaries should describe the language as it is used, not prescribe how it should be used. Gove wanted a dictionary that would be objective, scientific, and modern. Although this was conventional wisdom among linguistic scholars, Gove’s manner of pursuing the ideal—for example, suggesting that ain’t is Standard English—shocked the literary world, which still thought of dictionaries as “authorities.”
Source
Ex coll. & Karolyne Bryan A. Garner. HHD no. 102