ABSTRACT
In the OED2, illustrative text consists almost entirely of attributed quotations from published sources.1 These quotations represent the substance of the OED’s claim to authority. They number almost 2.5 million and constitute more than half of the text of the dictionary (Berg, 1991: 4). According to Berg, quotations both ‘illustrate how a word is used in context in a particular sense’ and ‘help to define the meaning of a word or word sense’ (1991: 35). Quotations are usually supplementary to definitions, but occasionally they stand in place of them. In a relatively small number of cases, a quoted definition from another dictionary or authoritative work stands in place of a definition. The OED2 contains a large number of quotations containing references to China, which not only illustrate but also play an important defining role. Discussion of illustrative text in the OED2 thus borders on the earlier discussion of definition in Chapter 9.
