VII. The Period of the Dictionary of the National English language, the Dictionary of prescriptive type (the second half of XVIII – the first half of XIX).

But upon the whole the English society was uncomfortably aware of the backwardness in the study of their own tongue. The air was full of schemes for improving the English language and giving it greater prestige.

Great English writers: Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, Edward Pope and others made proposals for establishing authoritative standards which could stop language change and fix it in its present ‘pure’ form forever. The time was ripe for a great literary figure to undertake the task of compiling a dictionary comparable to the best European academic dictionaries. It was Dr. Samuel Johnson, a critic and essayist considered by most of the artists and writers of his time to be the best judge and authority in matters of taste. He undertook the task and his ‘plan of a Dictionary of the English language’ was published in 1747.

When he first conceived the idea of making a standard dictionary, Johnson estimated that he could complete the task within three years. In 1755, eight years after he had signed the contract with his book-sellers, Johnson’s dictionary was published in two volumes: A Dictionary of the English Language in Which the Words are Deduced from Their Originals and Illustrated in Their General Significations by Examples from the Best Writers: In 2 vols. London, 1775) (40, 000); it meant to establish the English language in its classical form, to preserve it in all its glory as used by J. Dryden, A. Pope, J. Addison and their contemporaries.

In conformity with the social order of his time, S. Johnson attempted to ‘fix’ and regulate English. This was the period of much discussion about the necessity of ‘purifying’ and ‘fixing’ English, and S. Johnson wrote that every change was undesirable, even a change for the best (‘the dictionary might fix our language and put a stop to those alterations which spoilt it’). When his work was accomplished, however, he had to admit he had been wrong and confessed in his preface that ‘no dictionary of a living tongue can ever be perfect, since while it is hastening to publication, some words are budding and some falling away’.

For nearly one hundred years after its publication Johnson's dictionary was thedictionary in England and in America. It was the best dictionary created by a single man. Its numerous merits may be described as follows: it was the most comprehensive dictionary of English with extensive etymologies, complete and clear definitions, followed by quotations from reputable authors illustrating the use of a word, adding important dimensions to definitions. Various senses of meanings of the same word were numbered and distinguished.

All the peculiarities of the word (spelling, meaning, stylistic, grammatical) are given.

The most important innova­tion of S. Johnson’s Dictionary was the introduction of illustrations of the meanings of the words ‘by examples from the best writers’.

Johnson’s dictionarywas by no means perfect; some of the definitions were difficult to understand and he allowed personal remarks to creep into supplementary notes: job – a low word now much in use of which I cannot tell the etymology) ... petty, piddling work; a piece of chance work; spickand span(This word I should not have expected to have found authorized by a polite writer ... a low word). Quite new. Now first used.

Johnson’s dictionary contained a number of words inherited from early dictionaries. Thus he described the act of taking off shoes as ‘discalceation’.

The definitions he gave were often very ingenious. He was called ‘a skilful definer’, but sometimes he preferred to give way to sarcasm or humour and did not hesitate to be partial in his definitions: a lexicographer - ‘a writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge, that busies himself in tracing the original, and detailing the signification of words’; pension – ‘an allowance made to any one without an equivalent. In English it is generally understood to mean pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country’; oats – ‘a grain which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people’.

90 prescriptive notations of various kind (every 41 word has a notation): bad, barbarous, cant, corrupt, elegant, improper, barbarian, coarse, erroneous, graceful, harsh, inelegant, ungrammatical, vulgar, wrong, must be ejected from language, foolishly innovated by Dryden, sense scarcely English, an unnecessary word which is creeping into language (pretty – this is a very vulgar use; like – this is, I think, an improper, though frequent use; clever – this is a low word, scarcely ever used but in burlesque or conversation; ultimity – a word very convenient, but not in use; trustless – a word elegant, but out of use).

Thereception of Johnson’s DICTIONARY by his contemporaries was mixed.It was said to have too many quotations, sometimes of writers ‘of no authority’, its etymologies were attacked and even ridiculed; Johnson was criticized for not including more specialized terms of art and commerce and for including too many artificial or purely literary words.

But upon the whole the DICTIONARY was praised and his definitions were admired, his choice of illustrative quotations was accepted as major advances in the practice of lexicography. In fact, Johnson grandly fulfilled the expectations of the literary English establishment. For well over a century it remained the most authoritative dictionary of English.

VIII. The period of the Dictionary of the National English language, the Dictionary of registration type (the second half of the XIX – until now);

The Golden Age of English lexicography began in the last quarter of the 19th century when the 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’.

In November 1857, Richard Chenevix Trench, Dean of Westminster, presented two papers before the Philological Society under the title ‘On Some Deficiencies in Our English Dictionaries’. Dr Trench lists seven ways in which past dictionaries had been defective: their failure to include obsolete words, inconsistency in presenting families of words, shortcomings in describing historical development of words, neglecting synonymic differentiation, discrepancies in quoting illustrative material, a mixture of irrelevant and redundant information - mythological characters, encyclopedia articles.

The Philological Society decided that a new dictionary was needed and suggested an original title: ‘A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles’. The real beginning of the dictionary can be placed at 1879, when James A.H. Murray, a Scottish schoolmaster and an active member of the Philological Society, was persuaded to take over the editorship. At that time the dictionary was supposed to take ten years to complete; in fact, it would take fifty: the scope of the project was simply enormous. By the time of its completion the dictionary, published in fascicles from 1882 to 1928, numbered 15,487 pages, each of which contained three columns of type. Based on a file of 5 million citations, it printed 1,8 million. It includes more than 240.000 headwords and, counting subordinate words and combinations, contains about 450.000 entries. Later it was issued in twelve volumes and in order to accommo­date new words a three volume Supplement was issued in 1933. These volumes were revised in the seventies. Nearly all the material of the original Supplement was retained and a large body of the most recent accessions to the English language added.

Soon editorial board was expanded by adding Henry Bradley (1888), William Alexander Craigie and Charles Talbut Onions (1914).

The Oxford English dictionary is a monumental achievement, without parallel in the English language and in few others. The purpose of the dictionary:

· to trace the development of English words from their form in Old English;

· if they were not found in Old English, to show when they were introduced into the language;

· to show the development of each meaning and its historical relation to other meanings of the same word;

· for obsolete words and meanings the date of the latest occurrence given;

· dated quotations ranging from the oldest (G. Chaucer, the ‘Bible’, W. Shakespeare) to recent appearances of the words in question;

· spellings, pronunciations and detailed etymologies;

· the lexicographer is the objective re­corder of the language.