I need to make sure there is structure in this project and understanding of how words are formed. And in keeping with the collaboration aspect of this module it made sense to get in touch with professionals in the field of linguistics, philology and phonetics, so I put my focus on Oxford University with the hope to gain links with the Oxford English Dictionary also.
I pulled together a drafted email, well worded of course, that I could send out to contacts I find in the relevant fields. This email consisted of a breakdown of my project, my planned approach and how they could help me.
My first successful response came from Professor John Coleman, director at the Oxford University Phonetics Laboratory (17th November 2013) who pointed me immediately to the origin of the word Quiz (also see Origin of the word Quiz post). He did however highlight that not being a student of Oxford University his priorities lie with them first though “…I am happy to help it can only be in a small way and as time and other demands permit. But keep me posted on your work and if there are questions I can help with, just ask.”
He also kindly pointed me in the direction of Dr Philip Durkin, Principal Etymologist, Oxford English Dictionary, to understand the criteria of submission of words in to the Oxford English Dictionary. Unfortunately despite sending a couple of emails I have yet had a response.
I too tried to get in touch with Professor Aditi Lahiri, Professor of Linguistics and Fellow of Somerville College (19th November 2013), one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford. Unfortunately I received a response from her PA “We cannot give assistance to students who are studying for a Master’s degree in another university without a formal link with that university.”
I also got in touch with the Oxford University English Faculty Office (22nd November 2013) who responded to say they could not find anyone in the English Faculty who would be able to assist me. They pointed me to the Linguistics faculty whom I had already been in touch with but with no success.
I also approached LinkedIn with the hope to connect with the relevant people and follow up with an email to request some assistance. I got many accepted connections however only received one response from my follow up email which was from Viktor Pekar, currently Research Scientist at University of Birmingham, but who in the past has been an Independent Consultant and Language Data Engineer for the Oxford University Press. He responded really positively and as you shall see in my separate post, Collaboration with Viktor Pekar, proved to be extremely helpful in providing and sharing with me unknown knowledge!
