Date:  Thu, 3 Aug 1995 10:20:54 -0400

From:  "M. Lynne Murphy" <104LYN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MUSE.ARTS.WITS.AC.ZA>

Subject: help--oxford dictionaries



i hope that you won't mind this request to help me drive the

principles of academic honesty into my students' skulls.



i'm trying to prove that a student plagiarized her lexicography

assignment. the assignment was to write definitions (in english) of

northern sotho words, but what a couple of students have done is to

look up english translational equivalents for these words in

english dictionaries and copy those. i've already shown that one

student used the american heritage (surprising for south africa),

but am unable to discern exactly which dictionary another used.

i've narrowed it down, however, to one of the oxford dictionaries

(several of the definitions are identical to those in the south

african pocket oxford).



if you have an oxford dictionary handy, could you help out a pissed-

off teacher by seeing if the following definition is in it?

(by saturday the 5th, if possible, when i have to give the students

their marks.)



i have already established that it is NOT the following:

  oxford english dictionary (first ed.)

  concise oxford dictionary (8th ed.)

  south african pocket oxford

   (but it's awfully close, so it might be another pocket oxford)



here's the definition:

stocking:  close-fitting, usually knitted, covering for foot and leg

up to or above the knee.



(punctuation or abbreviations may differ)



thank you in advance, my detectively colleagues,

lynne



---------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. M. Lynne Murphy            104lyn[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]muse.arts.wits.ac.za

Department of Linguistics            phone: 27(11)716-2340

University of the Witwatersrand          fax: 27(11)716-8030

Johannesburg 2050

SOUTH AFRICA