Dictionaries: The Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America is a peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles on all aspects of lexicography, as well as from areas of linguistic inquiry that relate to lexicography, and from the study of reference works in general as they bear on dictionary-making. The journal’s regular special sections include “Reference Works in Progress” and “Working Knowledge,” which report on and excerpt current lexicographical projects. A substantial portion of each year’s journal is devoted to reviews of recently published lexicons and lexicography websites, as well as to reviews of critical and historical studies of lexicography, and occasionally of biographies and popular literature related to dictionary-making, etymology, and similar topics.

Mah Meri is an Aslian (Austroasiatic: Mon-Khmer) language spoken in scattered settlements along a section of the southwest coast of Selangor in Peninsular Malaysia. The Mah Meri are the only Aslian speakers who live in a coastal environment. Their language, which may have about 2,000 speakers, has no written language and is highly endangered. This is the first comprehensive dictionary of Mah Meri and is based on the author’s extensive field research and consultation with members of the community over the last ten years. The dialect presented here is spoken by about 600 people at Bukit Bangkong, the most southerly Mah Meri settlement. The dictionary contains around 4,000 entries, each with a phonetic transcription and translations in both English and Malay. Many entries are further complemented by illustrative examples, notes on usage, derivations, ethnographic information, and illustrations—all provide insight into the world of Mah Meri speakers. Two finder lists (English–Mah Meri and Malay–Mah Meri) are included, giving access to the intended audience of international and local scholars and community members. The volume also includes a general introduction to the Mah Meri, notes to assist the reader in using the dictionary, and a short grammatical description.

This is a collection of articles on the topic of self-access language learning by a variety of experienced educators currently active in the field of English language teaching in Hong Kong. Separate chapters discuss a wide range of issues confronting ELT professionals in tertiary and secondary education, and in the private sector.

Dirty Words: The Rhetoric of Public Sex Education, 1870-1924, details the approaches and outcomes of sex-education initiatives in the Progressive Era. In analyzing the rhetorical strategies of sex-education advocates, Robin E. Jensen engages with rich sources such as lectures, books, movies, and posters that were often shaped by female health advocates and instructors. Her narrative demonstrates how women were both leaders and innovators in early U.S. sex-education movements, striving to provide education to underserved populations of women, minorities, and the working class. Investigating the communicative and rhetorical practices surrounding the emergence of public sex education in the United States, Jensen shows how women in particular struggled for a platform to create and circulate arguments concerning this controversial issue.

Dirty Work profiles a number of occupations that society deems tainted. The volume's vivid, ethnographic reports focus on the communication that helps workers manage the moral, social, and physical stains that derive from engaging in such occupations. The creative ways that those who perform such dirty work learn to communicate with each other, and with outsiders, regulate the negative aspects of the work itself and emphasize the positives so that workers can maintain a sense of self-value even while performing devalued occupations.

The volume argues, through theory and research in multicultural perspectives, that discourse/communication is a site of cultural contest, change and cooperation and sets out a practical research agenda for this new area.

In this volume, editor Cynthia B. Roy presents a stellar cast of cognitive linguists, sociolinguists, and discourse analysts to discover and demonstrate how sign language users make sense of what is going on within their social and cultural contexts in face-to-face interactions. In the first chapter, Paul Dudis presents an innovative perspective on depiction in discourse. Mary Thumann follows with her observations on constructed dialogue and constructed action. Jack Hoza delineates the discourse and politeness functions of HEY and WELL in ASL as examples of discourse markers in the third chapter. Laurie Swabey investigates reference in ASL discourse in the fourth chapter. In Chapter 5, Christopher Stone offers insights on register related to genre in British Sign Language discourse, and Daniel Roush addresses in Chapter 6 the “conduit” metaphor in English and ASL. Jeffrey Davis completes this collection by mapping out the nature of discourse in Plains Indian Sign Language, a previously unstudied language. The major thread that ties together the work of these varying linguists is their common focus on the forms and functions of sign languages used by people in actual situations. They each provide new keys to answering how thoughts expressed in one setting with one term or one utterance may mean something totally different when expressed in a different setting with different participants and different purposes.

The essays in this volume examine the discourses of Cultural China from a glocalization perspective, and attempt to understand contemporary Cultural China by recording, describing and explaining its current discourses.