14.3. Historical development of British & American lexicography

The history of D-making for the E language starts in the OE period: glosses of religious books with interlinear translation from Lat. Regular bilingual E-L Ds, the 15^th century.

The 1^st unilingual E D, “A Table Alphabeticall, containing and teaching the true writing and understanding of hard usuall English words borrowed from the Hebrew, Greeke, Latine or French”, 1604. It explained difficult Ws from books. The little volume of 120 p., explaining about 3000 Ws, by a schoolmaster R. Cawdrey.

N. Bailey, 1721, the 1^st attempt at a D including all the Ws of the language: the 1^st edition of “Universal Etymological English Dictionary”. The 1^st to include pronunciation & etymology.

Big explanatory Ds were created in France & Italy earlier. Learned academies had been established to preserve the purity of their languages. This was also the purpose of Dr Samuel Johnson’s D (1755), to establish the E language in its classical form (J. Dryden, A. Pope, J. Addison & their contemporaries). S. Johnson: every change, even for the best, is undesirable. Later he confessed in his preface that “no dictionary of a living tongue can ever be perfect, since while it is hastening to publication, some Ws are budding & some falling away”.

The most important innovation of S. Johnson’s D: introduction of illustrations of the meanings of the Ws “by examples from the best writers”, as in the D of the Fr Academy. The D dealt with separate Ws, almost no set expressions. Pronunciation was not marked, S. Johnson was aware of the wide variety of the E pronunciation & thought it impossible to set up a standard. S. Johnson remained the unquestionable authority on style & diction for over 75 years → a lofty bookish style received the name of “Johnsonian” / “Johnsonese”.

1^st pronouncing D, 1780, T. Sheridan, grandfather of the dramatist. 1791, “The Critical Pronouncing Dictionary and Expositor of the English Language” by J. Walker, an actor. The vogue of the 2^nd D was very great, in later publications Walker’s pronunciations were inserted into S. Johnson’s text – a further step to a modern unilingual D.

The Golden Age of E LG – the last quarter of the 19^th c. The E Philological Society started work on compiling OED, originally named “New E D on Historical Principles”. The purpose is to trace the development of E Ws from their form in OE; if they were not found in OE, to show when they were introduced into the language, & the development of each meaning & its historical relation to other meanings of the same W. For obsolete Ws & meanings the date of the latest occurrence is given. All this is done by means of dated quotations from the oldest to recent appearances of the Ws. The E of G. Chaucer, the Bible, W. Shakespeare is given as much attention as that of the modern authors. Spellings, pronunciations, detailed etymologies. The completion of the work took over 75 years. The result is a kind of encyclopaedia of language used not only for reference purposes but also as a basis for lexicological research.

The LG concept is very different from the prescriptive tradition of Dr S. Johnson: the lexicographer is the objective recorder of the language. The purpose of OED has nothing to do with prescription. The conception was born in a discussion at the E Philological Society. Suggested by F. Furnivall, later its 2^nd titular editor, to R. Trench, the author of the 1^st book on the E lexicology. R. Trench read to the society his paper “On Some Deficiencies in our English Dictionaries. The Philological Society set to gather the material, volunteers offered help by collecting quotations. National enterprise. A special committee prepared a list of books & assigned them to the volunteers, sending them special standard slips for quotations. 1881, the number of readers 800, they sent in many thousands of slips.

The 1^st part of the OED ,1884, the last, 1928. Later issued in 12 vol. To accommodate new Ws a 3-vol. Supplement, 1933. The vol. were revised in the 1970s. Nearly all the material of the original Supplement was retained & a large body of the recent accessions to the E language added. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English was 1^st published in 1911, before the work on the main version was completed.

Another big D, created by joined effort of enthusiasts, is J. Wright’s E Dialect D. A thorough study of E dialects had to be completed. W. W. Skeat, famous for his Etymological E D, founded the E Dialect Society in 1873. It existed till 1896, issued 80 publications, mostly monographs.

The 1^st Am D of the E language was compiled by a man whose name was also Samuel Johnson. A Connecticut schoolmaster published in 1798 a small book entitled “A School D”. It was followed in 1800 by another D by the same author, showed signs of Americanisation. It included Ws like tomahawk & wampum, borrowed from the Indian languages.

N. Webster is considered the father of Am LG. He embodied in his book the specifically Am usage of his time. The Am D of the E Language, in 2 vol., 1828, numerous revised & enlarged editions. In many respects N. Webster follows the lead of Dr S. Johnson. He has improved & corrected many of S. Johnson’s etymologies & definitions. N. Webster attempted to simplify the spelling & pronunciation current in the USA.

N. Webster realised the importance of language for the development of a nation. He devoted his energy to giving the AmE the status of an independent language. The idea helped the unification of separate states into one federation. The tendency became reactionary later, when modern linguists (H. Mencken) shaped it into the theory of a separate Am language, surpassing BrE in efficiency, deserving to supersede all the languages of the world.

N. Webster’s dictionary enjoyed great popularity from its 1^st editions due to the accuracy & clarity of definitions & the richness of additional information of encyclopaedic character, which had become a tradition in Am LG. N. Webster’s book aims to treat the entire vocabulary of the language providing definitions, pronunciation & etymology. As an encyclopaedia it gives explanations about things named, including scientific & technical subjects.

Soon after N. Webster’s death 2 printers & booksellers of Massachusetts, George & Charles Merriam, secured the rights of his dictionary from his family & started the publication of revised single vol. editions under the name “Merriam-Webster”. The staff working is a big institution numbering hundreds of specialists in different branches of human activity.

The other great Am Ds are the “Century D”, 1891; “Funk and Wagnalls New Standard D”, 1895; the “Random House D of the E Language”, 1967; “The Heritage Illustrated D of the E Language”, 1969, C. L. Barnhart’s et al. “The World Book D”, a synchronic review of the language in the 20^th c. The 1^st 3 appear in variously named subsequent editions including abridged versions. Many small handy popular Ds for office, school & home use meet the demand in reference books on spelling, pronunciation, meaning & usage.

Questions

1. What is the essential difference between lexicology and lexicography?

2. Why couldn’t systematisation and completeness of describing the vocabulary be achieved simultaneously?

3. What are the dictionaries recording the history of form and meaning for every registered word termed?

4. What type of dictionaries explains words by giving their equivalents in another language?

5. According to which criteria are special dictionaries subdivided?

6. What is the difference between linguistic and non-linguistic dictionaries?

7. What are the most burning issues of lexicography?

8. What is the frequency of the words included into a bilingual dictionary important for?

9. Why are the questions of separateness and sameness of words essential for a lexicographer?

10. What does the difference in the number of entries for an equal bulk of vocabulary depend on?

11. What problems does the arrangement of the vocabulary entry present?

12. What was the most important innovation of S. Johnson’s dictionary?

13. Why is the last quarter of the 19^th century considered the Golden Age of the English lexicography?

14. Who and why is universally considered to be the father of the American lexicography?

Literature

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2. Арнольд И. В. Лексикология современного английского языка: учеб. для институтов и факультетов ин. яз. [на англ. яз.]. – 3‑е изд., перераб. и доп. – М.: Высш. шк., 1986. – 295 с.

3. Елисеева В. В. Лексикология английского языка : учеб. – СПб., 2003. – 58 с.

4. Зыкова И. В. A Practical Course in English Lexicology : учеб. пособ. для студентов лингв. вузов и ф-тов ин. языков. – 2-е изд., испр. и доп. – М. : Академія, 2007. – 288 с.

5. Atkins S. B. T., Rundell M. The Oxford Guide to Practical Lexicography. – OUP, 2008. – 552 p.

6. Fontenelle T. Practical Lexicography: A Reader. – OUP, 2008. – 416 p.

7. Hurford J. R., Heasley B., Smith M. B. Semantics. – CUP, 2007. – 364 p.

8. Landau S. I. Dictionaries: The Art and Craft of Lexicography. – CUP, 2001. – 496 p.

9. Singleton D. Language and the Lexicon: An Introduction. – Hodder Arnold, 2000. – 256 p.

10. Svensén B. A Handbook of Lexicography: The Theory and Practice of Dictionary-Making. – CUP, 2009. – 552 p.