- •Why can’t we say that English has the biggest vocabulary?
- •Why can’t we count words in the language?
- •Problem with morphemes
- •Problems that lexicographers face compiling a dictionary
- •Corpora
- •Representative and well-balanced collections of texts.
- •Additional information on the properties of texts
- •History of British lexicography
- •Electronic dictionaries
- •Classification of dictionaries
- •Object of description
- •Hierarchical vs. Non-hierarchical relationships within the lexicon
- •Terminology of lexicology
- •Anglo-Saxon and Celtic part of the English wordstock
- •Peculiarities of Latin and Greek borrowings
- •Stratification of the English vocabulary
- •How do words change their meanings?
- •Lexicology vs Lexicography
- •‘A dictionary’ and other related terms
- •The organisation of a dictionary entry
- •History of lexicography
- •History of American and Russian lexicography
History of British lexicography
Stage |
Time period |
Achievements |
Written record |
1 st |
Old English (7-14) |
bilingual manuscript glossaries, writing interlinear glosses – explanations of difficult words – in manuscripts |
French-English vocabulary for the use of travellers, printed in England by William Caxton, without a title page, in 1480.
English-Latin vocabulary called the Promptorius puerorum (“Storehouse [of words] for Children”) brought out by Pynson in 1499. |
2 st |
14-15 |
creating both manuscript and printed glossaries, including rather simple wordlists |
|
3 rd |
15-16 |
printed bilingual glossaries having broaden word lists and versatile characteristics of words |
Latin-English dictionary appeared in 1538 from the hand of Sir Thomas Elyot The first dictionary with alphabetical order. |
4 th |
16 |
perfecting and developing of translating dictionaries of new western European languages |
|
5 th |
1521-1604 |
appearance of English dictionaries with another modern language. |
In 1521 the “Introductory to write and to pronounce French” by Alexander Barelay was issued. In 1599 Richard Minshen produced a polyglot dictionary of English ten other languages, British or Welsh, Low Dutch, High Dutch, French, Italian, Spenish, Nortuguese, Latin, Greek and Hebrew, which he entitled “Ductor in Linguas”, the Grude into Tongues. 1604 – The 1st unilingual English dictionary “A Table Alphabetical of Hard Words” by a schoolmaster Robert Cawdrey (proper spelling and meaning) and was for ladies or other unskilled users to understand Bible. |
6 th |
18 |
English Dictionary ought to contain all English words |
“Universal Etymological English Dictionary”, published in 1721 Nathaniel Bailey (including all English words for a practical purpose, pointing out words etymology and pronunciation). |
7 th |
|
Dictionary of all English words (not only difficult) with stress-accent and drown from literature. |
1st modern dictionary of English-Latin by Samuel Johnson (1755). |
8 th |
конец 18 |
Dictionary with indication of pronunciation. |
John Walker produced his famous “Critical Pronouncing Dictionary and Expositor of the English Language” (1791). 1808 – John Jamieson “Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish language” |
9 th |
19 (Golden age) |
The purpose of this monumental work was to show the development of each meaning and its historical relation to other meanings of the same word. For words and meanings which had become obsolete the date of the latest occurrence was given. The dictionary included spellings, pronunciations and detailed etymologies. 75 years |
English Philological Society started work on compiling what is now known as “The Oxford English Dictionary” (OED), but was originally named “New English Dictionary on Historical Principles”.
|
Johnson's Dictionary
Samuel Johnson's 'Dictionary of the English Language' published in 1755.
He worked for 8 years, required 6 helpers, and listed 40,000 words.
Compare: French Dictionnarre had taken 55 years to compile and required the dedication of 40 scholars.
Each word was defined in detail, the definitions illustrated with quotations covering every branch of learning.
Literary quotations
In all, there are over 114,000 quotations in the dictionary.
But thus the quotations reflect his literary taste and his rightwing political views.
Also he can change the meaning of the quotations, if needed.
Many of the words he included were incomprehensible to the average reader - long words such as ‘deosculation’, ‘odontalgick’. He is even believed to have made up some words. His definition of oats is very rude to the Scots. He defines the word as 'A Grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.' Johnson was criticised for imposing his personality on to the book. However, his dictionary was enormously popular and highly respected for its epic sense of scholarship.