Johnson's Dictionary

Johnson's Dictionary
Author: Samuel Johnson
Publisher: Courier Corporation
Total Pages: 482
Release: 2013-02-13
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 0486168131

Written virtually single-handedly over a seven-year period by a revered dean of English letters, Johnson’s Dictionary first appeared in 1755. A remarkable monument to the vigor and variety of our language and to the genius of its author, it served as the standard dictionary for more than 150 years and formed the basis for all subsequent English dictionaries. This modern version reduces the original 2,300 pages of definitions and literary examples to a more manageable length, retaining the verbal pleasure and historical curiosity of the original. It features many entries that can no longer be found in most modern dictionaries, with intriguing definitions and examples of usage in the literature of Johnson’s time.

Defining the World

Defining the World
Author: Henry Hitchings
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2006-10-17
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780312426200

Brilliantly entertaining and enlightening, this volume tells the story of Samuel Johnson's endeavor to create an authoritative English dictionary. Hitchings describes Johnson's adventure--his ambition and vision, his moments of despair, the mistakes he made along the way, and his ultimate triumph.

Anniversary Essays on Johnson's Dictionary

Anniversary Essays on Johnson's Dictionary
Author: John T. Lynch
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 268
Release: 2005-04-14
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9780521848442

A collection of original essays celebrating the 250th anniversary of the publication of the Dictionary.

The Cambridge Companion to English Dictionaries

The Cambridge Companion to English Dictionaries
Author: Sarah Ogilvie
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 410
Release: 2020-09-24
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 1108568459

How did a single genre of text have the power to standardise the English language across time and region, rival the Bible in notions of authority, and challenge our understanding of objectivity, prescription, and description? Since the first monolingual dictionary appeared in 1604, the genre has sparked evolution, innovation, devotion, plagiarism, and controversy. This comprehensive volume presents an overview of essential issues pertaining to dictionary style and content and a fresh narrative of the development of English dictionaries throughout the centuries. Essays on the regional and global nature of English lexicography (dictionary making) explore its power in standardising varieties of English and defining nations seeking independence from the British Empire: from Canada to the Caribbean. Leading scholars and lexicographers historically contextualise an array of dictionaries and pose urgent theoretical and methodological questions relating to their role as tools of standardisation, prestige, power, education, literacy, and national identity.

The English Dictionary from Cawdrey to Johnson, 1604-1755

The English Dictionary from Cawdrey to Johnson, 1604-1755
Author: DeWitt Talmage Starnes
Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing
Total Pages: 434
Release: 1991
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 9027245444

This study by Starnes and Noyes was immediately recognized as a unique and pioneering work of scholarship and has long been the standard work on the emergence and early flowering of English lexicography. Within the last 20 years we have been witnessing a remarkable scholarly interest in the study of dictionary-making and the role played by dictionaries in the transmission and preservation of knowledge and learning. It is therefore essential to have this classic work available again to all students of linguistic history. In its new edition the book has been vastly enhanced by a lengthy and invaluable introduction by Gabriele Stein, Professor of English Linguistics in Heidelberg and author of The English Dictionary before Cawdrey (1985). In her introduction to the present volume she sets out in scholarly detail the work that has emerged since 1946, which makes this study of the English dictionary from Cawdrey to Johnson as complete as the original authors themselves would have wished.