SUNDAY 14 MAY, 2017 – UWI TODAY
15
Professor Lise Winer
, the foremost authority on Trinidad
and Tobago (spoken) language(s), is the 2017 recipient
of the prestigious biennial Frederic G. Cassidy Award for
Distinguished Achievement in Lexicography or Lexicology
for her
Dictionary of the English/Creole of Trinidad &
Tobago: On Historical Principles
(
DE/CTT
, McGill-Queen’s
University Press, 2009).
As Prof Michael Adams, past president of the
Dictionary Society of North America and Chair of the
Award Committee, noted: “We so greatly admire your work
on Caribbean language generally, but especially your great
dictionary, more great in our minds because it was the work
of you and you alone. As at least one reviewer has noted,
no one else is ever likely to be brave enough to do such a
dictionary solo; as another noted, you have gone where
Webster [the early 19th century American lexicographer]
did not, which just goes to show that Webster isn’t the only
great lexicographer.”
So our very own Webster, or Winer, did come to
Trinidad (to reference the Mighty Conqueror’s 1962
calypso), and produced a world-class dictionary, a labour
of love and passionate devotion, now gaining international
recognition. It is the nation’s first comprehensive historical
scholarly descriptive dictionary of the national language(s)
of Trinidad &Tobago (English and our two English-lexicon
Creoles), based on the historical principles of the
Oxford
English Dictionary
(
OED
), itself the definitive record of the
English language, featuring 600,000 words. Winer’s word-
hoard therefore adds to the records of both the English and
English Creole languages.
Prof Winer recalls a conversation with Cassidy himself,
after whom the prestigious award is named: “In 1980, as a
doctoral student in linguistics at St. Augustine, I travelled to
Paramaribo, Suriname, formy first meeting of the Society for
Caribbean Linguistics (SCL). There I met Frederic Gomes
Cassidy, co-editor of the
Dictionary of Jamaican English
(
DJE
), and editor of the
Dictionary of American Regional
English
. I told him that in conjunction with my work in
T&T, I seemed to be making a dictionary. ‘Good! Much
needed!’ he replied. ‘But I have no lexicographical training,
and don’t really know what I’m doing,’ I said. ‘That’s fine,’
Cassidy replied. ‘Anyone with any lexicographical training
wouldn’t touch this project with a ten-foot pole!’”
This dictionary, now in its eighth year, has become
the single essential and indispensable tool for linguistic,
literary, cultural and botanical research, one that should
occupy pride of place on every desk, on every coffee table,
and in every library. The dictionary blurb puts it succinctly:
“the dictionary comprises over 12,200 entries, including
over 4,500 for flora and fauna alone, with numerous cross-
references. Entries include definitions, alternative spellings,
pronunciations, etymologies, grammatical information, and
illustrative citations of usage.Winer draws froma wide range
of sources – newspapers, literature, scientific reports, sound
Jamaican-born Frederic Gomes Cassidy
is also known for having developed, along
with
Robert B. LePage
, the standard
orthography for Jamaican (also known as
Jamaica English Creole or Jamaican Patwa),
known as the
Cassidy-Le Page
writing
system. He was the first President of the
Society for Caribbean Linguistics (SCL) in 1972.
Professor Winer
also became President of the
SCL, 30 years later in 2002.
Winer, the 21st CenturyWebster
B Y J O - A N N E F E R R E I R A
“So as I see, it is necessary, Trinidad should have its own dictionary...
Webster shoulda come to Trinidad to complete he dictionary, Doh doubt Conquie”
(
Trinidad Dictionary,
Mighty Conqueror, 1962)
LANGUAGE MATTERS
Jo-Anne S. Ferreira, PhD is the Deputy Dean of Programming and Planning, a Senior Lecturer in Linguistics; and Coordinator of the Portuguese and Brazilian Studies
programme in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics of the Faculty of Humanities and Education, St. Augustine Campus.
recordings of songs and interviews, spoken language – to
provide a wealth and depth of language, clearly situated
within a historical, cultural, and social context.”
Calypsonian, the Mighty Conqueror almost didn’t
think it was possible to trace the origin of T&T’s rich lexical
heritage.
“Well, no one could state how these words originate
But who invent them, they really great.”
But through years of painstaking research, Winer has
managed to provide etymologies and origins of the vast
majority of T&T’s words, and proposes reasonable ones
for those still shrouded in some mystery. She occasionally
provides addenda and updates, and welcomes new
information, suggestions and corrections.
Winer has also co-edited a series of Trinidad’s earliest
known novels with historian Bridget Brereton and other
scholars, and is the author of
Badjohns, Bhaaji & Banknote
Blue: Essays on the Social History of Language in Trinidad
and Tobago
(School of Continuing Studies, 2007).
Badjohns
is an excellent companion to the
DE/CTT
, tracing Winer’s
engagement withT&T’s language(s), documenting hermany
experiences and insights in articles that are both scholarly
and accessible.
So what next for ProfWiner? Now retired and Professor
Emerita of McGill, she continues to make annual visits to
T&T from her native Canada, and hopes to develop a suite
of apps for mobile devices – translations, pronunciations,
etymologies, meanings, games, aids for spelling bees and
much more.
As Conquie noted,
“And I feel the time go reach, the government will teach
The school children to use them in speech.”
These apps would be useful for teaching and capturing
the imagination of present and upcoming generations –
many are losing aspects of our national linguocultural
heritage, particularly at the level of our vocabulary (lexicon),
havingmuchmore exposure to and familiarity with external
norms through social media. National norms are now being
threatened with extinction or exoticism.
UWI, St Augustine graduate with a PhD in linguistics (1982), linguist
and lexicographer, Prof Lise Winer, winner of one of the 2011 UWI
Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumni Awards, is once again in
the spotlight.
