The Dictionary Is Not a Fortress: Definitional Fallacies and a Corpus-Based Approach to Plain Meaning

Abstract

Meaning[I]t is one of the surest indexes of a mature and developed jurisprudence not to make a fortress out of the dictionary. -Judge Learned Hand 1The judicial conception of lexical meaning-i.e., what judges think about what words mean, or, more importantly, how judges arrive at the meaning of contested terms-is often outcome determinative.Vast fortunes or years of confinement may balance precariously on the interpretation of a single word.When faced with hard cases 2 -cases in which contextual cues or legislative definitions do not decisively favor either party's asserted meaning-judges, like many speakers of English, will cast about for interpretive tools, often "looking for comfortable reassurance" in one of the language's "more firmly established and dependably stable institutions"-the English dictionary.3 Such dictionaries, said Justice Jackson, are "the last resort of the baffled judge." 4 Baffled or not, judges cannot escape the reverence with which society regards its dictionaries-a reverence that often borders on the devotional.5 Indeed, the dictionary is sometimes spoken of as a DO NOT DELETE

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