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Dictionary of Old English: 2008 Progress Report

 

Joan Holland, Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto

http://www.doe.utoronto.ca

We began our report last year with the news that Eric Stanley, Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor Emeritus of the University of Oxford and a thirty-year member of our International Advisory Committee, was to be awarded a Doctor of Sacred Letters degree from the University of Trinity College in the University of Toronto in May 2008. We are delighted to announce that in June of this year he was, as well, awarded a Doctor of Laws degree from the University itself. We extend to Eric our most sincere congratulations.

The highlight of the year has been the publications of the project. Following on the release, in December 2007, of the Dictionary of Old English: A to G online, our first Web-based dictionary, we published in April a Windows-based version of DOE: A to G on CD-ROM for those users who wish to install the DOE on their own computers. We have incorporated into the CD-ROM version a number of new features which we introduced into the online DOE: Boolean searches; the bundling and hotlinking of a bibliographic list of Latin sources; and hotlinks to the Oxford English Dictionary. In addition, we published, in October, Dictionary of Old English: G on microfiche for users who, for various reasons, are not able to use the electronic DOE. The CD-ROM and the microfiche are distributed by the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto. Their website is www.pims.ca. We look forward to comments and suggestions on all three formats from users of the Dictionary. We can be contacted at support@doe.utoronto.ca. Meanwhile, the drafting of entries for the letters H, I, Y, L and M is progressing well and the lemmatization (the assignment of spellings to headwords) of N is close to completion. We were sorry to lose Dorothy Haines from the editorial staff this year. She had been with the project since 2002. We wish her every success in her future career.

 

Technological Advances

The project, as part of a University of Toronto team, is applying again to the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), as one of thirteen universities across Canada, for funds to enlarge the TAPoR (Text Analysis Portal for Research) project: a grant from CFI in 2002 gave us the initial infrastructure we needed to develop DOEonline, and future funding would facilitate our plans to develop interlinks among databases and to try to create a common search interface across large-scale and heterogeneous language databases.

Our systems analyst, Xin Xiang, has begun preliminary work on building links with the Middle English Dictionary, using improved techniques which provide more accurate matches.

Early in 2009, we plan to issue an updated release of the Web Corpus, incorporating corrections found in our citation check for G. We can be contacted with inquiries about the Web Corpus at corpus@doe.utoronto.ca.

 

Grants and Gifts

We continue our search for funds to ensure the completion of the Dictionary, a particularly difficult task in the present economic climate. We are happy to report that in the course of the year we have been awarded a two-year grant (2008-2010) from the National Endowment for the Humanities. One-year grants from the Triangle Community Foundation, Raleigh, the Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, New York, the British Academy, London, and the Peter Munk Foundation, Toronto, as well as gifts from the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists and from colleagues and friends, are helping us fulfill the matching requirement for our 2008 NEH grant. We are, as always, immensely appreciative of the generosity of our funding agencies and of individual donors. We would welcome suggestions concerning the names of foundations or individuals who might be interested in helping support the Dictionary. A list of gifts to the project in the past year appears below.

 

Dissemination and Outreach

A happy outcome of the conferring of the honorary degrees on Professor Eric Stanley is that he had reason to visit the Dictionary offices several times in the course of the year, where he was put to work consulting with us on entries and delivering a lecture sponsored by the project. His first convocation was attended by Professor Joyce Hill of the University of Leeds, who also gave a lecture sponsored by the project. We were delighted that the second convocation gave us an opportunity to see another member of our International Advisory Committee, Professor Roberta Frank of Yale University.

We are always eager to display and talk about our work when the opportunity arises. In May, Antonette diPaolo Healey and Xin Xiang represented the project at the Humanities Book Fair at the University of Toronto when we were able to display our latest publications; we had overwhelmingly positive responses to demonstrations of the electronic DOE and especially to the links to the OED. In May, Antonette diPaolo Healey attended the 43rd International Medieval Congress at Western Michigan University and attended the annual board meeting of the Richard Rawlinson Center for Anglo-Saxon Studies and Manuscript Research. In June, she attended the meeting of the Canadian Society of Medievalists in Vancouver, British Columbia, which was held in conjunction with the annual Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities. At the meeting she was appointed to the Advisory Board of the Society. Also in June, Joan Holland gave a paper at the Fourth International Conference on Historical Lexicography and Lexicology in Edmonton, Alberta. In November, Antonette diPaolo Healey gave a workshop on the research tools of the DOE and a lecture to the Center for Medieval Studies, University of Minnesota. In December, she attended the meeting of the MLA in San Francisco, where she gave a report on the project to the Old English Executive Committee.

 

Staff

  • EDITOR: Antonette diPaolo Healey
  • REVISING EDITOR: Joan Holland
  • DRAFTING EDITORS: Dorothy Haines
  • David McDougall
  • Ian McDougall

EDITORIAL STAFF:

  • Catherine Monahan Picone
  • Xin Xiang (Systems Analyst)
  • Elaine Quanz

INTERNATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE:

  • Roberta Frank, Yale University
  • Helmut Gneuss, University of Munich
  • Simon Keynes, University of Cambridge
  • Andy Orchard, University of Toronto
  • Fred C. Robinson, Yale University
  • Eric Stanley, Pembroke College, Oxford

RESEARCH ASSISTANTS:

  • Emira Bouhafna
  • Michael Elliot
  • Rachel Kessler
  • Paul Langeslag
  • Tristan Major
  • Hilary Wynne

STUDENT ASSISTANTS:

  • Karen Law
  • Lauren Chan (Mentorship Student)
  • Erin Keenan (Mentorship Student)

EDITOR, Toronto Old English Series: Andy Orchard

EDITOR, Publications of the DOE: Andy Orchard

 

Funding

  • The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (formerly the Canada Council): Grants in Aid of Research, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975; Major Editorial Grants, 1976-81, 1981-86, 1986-91, 1991-96; Grants from the Federal Matching Funds Policy, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991; Special Presidential Grant, 1993; Consortium Support Programme 1996-98, 1998-2000, 2000-2003, 2003-2005, 2005–
  • The British Academy
  • Canada Foundation for Innovation (for TAPoR [Text Analysis Portal for Research]), 2002-2007
  • Connaught Fund, University of Toronto, 1986-1991
  • Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation, 1998-99, 1999-2000, 2000-2001, 2002-2003, 2004-2005, 2008-2009
  • Early English Text Society
  • Marc Fitch Fund
  • Foundation for Education and Social Development, Boston
  • Jackman Foundation
  • Macdonald-Stewart Foundation
  • McLean Foundation, 1992, 1995, 1998, 2000
  • Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, 1985-90, 1994-99, 2000-2005, 2006–
  • Peter Munk Charitable Foundation
  • National Endowment for the Humanities, Research Tools Program, 1991-93, 1993-95, 1995-98, 1998-2000, 2000-2002, 2002-2004, 2004-2006, 2006-2008, 2008–
  • Presidents' Committee, University of Toronto
  • Salamander Foundation, 1998-2001, 2001-2004, 2004-2006, 2006–
  • Salus Mundi Foundation, 2002, 2004
  • St. George's Society, Toronto, 2007–
  • Triangle Community Foundation
  • University of Toronto
  • Xerox Corporation University Grants Committee

 

Friends of the Dictionary of Old English, 2007-2008

The publication of the Dictionary of Old English: A to G online would not have been possible without the financial support we have received from friends, colleagues, learned societies, and foundations, as well as our granting agencies.

We wish to acknowledge the very generous contributions the project has received during the past year. Donors who supported our research in honour of or in memory of individuals are also noted separately at the end of the list. All of us on the project are grateful to each one of you. We would like to mention especially the generous donation of $1,312 US from the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists. The strong support of the most important scholarly organization in our field has been invaluable to us. We are also very grateful to all those scholars who have kindly donated books to the DOE library. Such contributions of publications, both old and new, enable us to maintain our research collection. We hope to have included all who have so generously supported our work but must apologize to any of our donors inadvertently left off this list of acknowledgements. This list encompasses gifts given between December 15, 2007 and December 15, 2008.

 

SUPPORTERS

  • Helen G. Balfour
  • Wendy Cameron
  • Roger Carruthers
  • Wendy Cecil
  • Howell Chickering
  • Daniel Donoghue
  • Steven Foulds
  • Antonette diPaolo Healey
  • John Hill
  • E.D. & M.P. Hirsch
  • International Society of Anglo-Saxonists
  • Philip & Mary Maude
  • James McIlwain
  • Linda Munk
  • Peter Munk Charitable Foundation
  • Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe
  • Young-Bae Park
  • George & Jennifer Rigg
  • Harry & Medora Roe
  • Salamander Foundation, Toronto
  • St. George's Society, Toronto
  • Triangle Community Foundation
  • Gernot Wieland
  • Anonymous (1)

 

DONORS

  • Cynthia Allen
  • Frank Battaglia
  • Raeleen Elsholz Chai
  • Roger Dahood
  • Nicole Discenza
  • Carolin Esser
  • Michael Gervers
  • Jon Harstone
  • Joan Holland
  • Ann M. Hutchison
  • William Kretzschmar
  • David Lampe
  • Patricia Matl
  • David McDougall
  • Brian & Pat Merrilees
  • Haruko Momma
  • Catherine Monahan
  • Hubert Morgan
  • Robin Norris
  • Carol Percy
  • James Perkin
  • Charles Smith
  • Helen Smith
  • Paul Szarmach
  • Germaine Warkentin
  • Xin Xiang

 

IN MEMORY OF DONNA BAKER

  • Helen Smith

 

IN MEMORY OF ST. CLAIR BALFOUR

  • Helen G. Balfour

 

IN MEMORY OF ANGUS CAMERON

  • Philip & Mary Maude
  • Brian & Pat Merrilees
  • George & Jennifer Rigg

 

IN MEMORY OF SYLVIA L. CHAI

  • Raeleen Elsholz Chai

 

IN MEMORY OF ROWLAND L. COLLINS

  • Howell Chickering
  • Ann M. Hutchison

 

IN HONOUR OF MARY TASCA diPAOLO

  • Antonette diPaolo Healey

 

IN MEMORY OF RICHARD HOGG

  • Cynthia Allen

 

IN MEMORY OF NICHOLAS HOWE

  • Robin Norris
  • Paul Szarmach

 

IN MEMORY OF EDWARD B. IRVING, JR.

  • Howell Chickering
  • John Hill

 

IN MEMORY OF JOHN LEYERLE

  • Brian & Pat Merrilees
  • George & Jennifer Rigg

 

IN MEMORY OF F. ANNE PAYNE

  • David Lampe

 

IN MEMORY OF JOHN C. POPE

  • Howell Chickering
  • E.D. & M.P. Hirsch

 

IN HONOUR OF FRED C. ROBINSON

  • Howell Chickering

 

IN HONOUR OF E.G. STANLEY

  • Ann M. Hutchison
  • Haruko Momma
  • Germaine Warkentin

 

IN MEMORY OF ROSELLA STOYANOWSKI

  • Raeleen Elsholz Chai

 

IN MEMORY OF RAYMOND P. TRIPP, JR.

  • John Hill