This page is a placeholder. The methodology needs some thought, and examining how Raymond Williams did it will provide a lot of hints. It did take him quite a long time . .
- to discover the history of words, and identify how the layers of history are at work in the present day, or can be made active; and - to decide which words were in, and which were out, in the 'final cut' which was published as a book.
We have versions of both challenges, and need methods (protocols?) for finding practical resolutions on both fronts.
Here we'll consider the living history of words. In another page we'll consider the approach to focusing on Core words.
> What's on this page needs modiifying, in the light of a shift in methodology. The keywords in this wiki are now derived from the 'backstories' of the patterns in the foprop pattern language. Keywords as backstory The work of refining should go into the pattern language: identifying the most pivotal patterns. And this keyword vocabulary might then be something of a ragbag. We may think more about this - to be done xxx
Basically, the model for a keywords entry is: - a review of the life story of the word - when it became present, its rises and falls and fashions - a review of its affiliations - who used it, what for, to advance what interests - a sense of what 'buttons it can press', and the ways this arises from the residual, the dominant and the emergent affiliations of the word, all in some kind of 'dance' in the present moment.
So, a metholodology is called for, that can research, and describe, these dimensions of the practical **capability** that is alive in the word at this time in its life.
This needs to be addressed as if words were persons, in living historical dynamic relationships with other words - familiy, employers, enemies, neighbours, etc. Doing particular kinds of work, in particular segments of society. mobilising particular ranges of cognitive and emotional resources.
> This calls for some figuring. More to be added xxx