TURNER, George W(illiam) 1921-2003

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born October 26, 1921, in Dannevirke, New Zealand; died September 23, 2003. Educator and author. Turner was an authority on the English language who was particularly noted for his writings concerning Australian and New Zealand vocabulary. A graduate of the University of New Zealand, he earned his master's degree there in 1948; much later, in 1964, he also received a diploma in English linguistic studies from the University of London. After serving in the New Zealand Army during World War II, Turner taught high school science and agriculture and, in 1945, was on the faculty of Aukland Teachers' College. The next year, he taught languages at Wellington College before moving to England to work in the library at the University of Canterbury as head of the orders department. Turner became head of the reference department there in 1953 before returning to teaching. Remaining at Canterbury, he was a lecturer there from 1955 to 1964, when he became a senior lecturer in English. He then moved to Australia to be a reader in English at the University of Adelaide, where he also chaired the department from 1975 to 1977. Turner retired from the university in 1986. During his career, Turner published a variety of books about languages as both an author and an editor. He was the author of such works as The English Language in Australia and New Zealand (1966; 2nd edition, 1972), Stylistics (1973), and Australian English As a National Language in Varieties of English around the World (1997); as editor or coeditor, he worked on a variety of Oxford Australian dictionaries and other language guides, including The Australian Oxford Paperback Dictionary (1989), The Australian School Dictionary (1994; 2nd edition, 1998), The Australian Primary Thesaurus (1994), The Australian Student's Colour Dictionary (1997; published as The Australian Essential Colour Dictionary, 2002), The Australian Schoolmate File Dictionary (2nd edition, 1998), and The Australian Basic School Dictionary (1999).

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PERIODICALS

Times (London, England), January 9, 2004.