Lexicology

Akhmetova Asel IY-19-2
Dr. Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary published in 1755

In 1746 Johnson entered into an agreement with a group of London booksellers to
write an English dictionary, and began work the same year with only six assistants
to aid him. A year later he published a plan for the dictionary in which he outlined
his reasons for undertaking the project and explained exactly how he intended to
compile his work (see left). Johnson projected that the scheme would take about
three years, but he seriously underestimated the scale of the work involved, and in
the end it took him three times this length of time to write over 40,000 definitions
and select nearly 114,000 illustrative quotations from every field of learning and
literature.
Although little is known about how Johnson actually assembled his Dictionary i.e.
what sources he used to compile his word list or how he went about selecting the
quotations, it has been established that he, like most other lexicographers, relied at
least in part on the work of his predecessors. A general history of the English
dictionary usually begins with Cawdrey's A Table Alphabeticall (1604), but it is
possible to trace the origins of the dictionary back a lot further than this.
The first step in the evolution of the dictionary as a form was the gloss. Synonyms
would be written in between the lines of text, or in the margins of a page in a
manuscript, in order to provide an explanation or definition of any complicated or
'hard' words. These synonyms could be in the same language as the text, or if the
text was in a foreign language, they could be in the local vernacular. Before the
appearance of dictionaries, people would have annotated texts in such a way not
only to define hard words, but also to translate from one language to another; so if
one had a text in Latin, the gloss may consist of either easier Latin synonyms, or
words in English (or any other language) which interpret the original. Given that
this glossing of texts was a common practice from at least the eighth century
onwards, one could collect from a number of texts all the hard words and their
synonyms and arrange them in alphabetical order, providing the reader with a list
which they could then use for assistance in their future reading. From here on the
process takes on a snowball effect: such lists can be continually added to,
alterations in definition can be changed and updated, whole contrasting lists can be
merged together. Through this method we can see the first semblance of the
modern dictionary and we can understand how the earliest lexicographers could
form a word list from which to create their tomes.
Whilst in literature plagiarism is, as one would expect, treated sternly, to the early
lexicographer it was a necessary tool for creating the basis of a word list. Johnson,
for example, utilized Nathan Bailey's Dictionarium Britannicum (1730) whilst
Bailey called upon John Kersey's Dictionarium Anglo-Britannicum (1708). Kersey
on the other hand gained much of his word list from John Harris' An Universal
English Dictionary of Arts and Sciences (1704). In this way, the history of the
English dictionary can be traced all the way back to Robert Cawdrey's A table
Alphabetical (1604), which contained only about 2500 words, compared with the
vast 2 volumes and 40,000 words of Johnson's work. However, it should be
pointed out that lexicographers from the period did not simply take a predecessors
work, add a few words and pass it off as their own; rather they would act more like
an editor, amalgamating word lists and adding to it from their own knowledge
before carefully revising definitions and etymologies.
The original idea to undertake an English dictionary was suggested to Johnson by

his good friend Robert Dodsley. Although at first Johnson rejected the idea, he
eventually decided to take up the project several years later, explaining his reasons
for doing so in the preface of the Dictionary (see below). Dodsley, more than just
the instigator of the Dictionary, was in fact a lynchpin in the project; as Johnson's
friend he knew that he had found someone with the temperament and learning to
provide such a work, whilst as a bookseller in London he was able to secure
financial backing for the project. Whilst the booksellers aimed to make large
profits from the Dictionary, Johnson also aimed to make some money from the
project as he was desperately in need of a financial boost after the failure of his
latest project, a new edition of Shakespeare. Before his Dictionary, Johnson was
far from well known; his reputation at the time was limited, largely because most
of his work to date had been published anonymously, whilst none of his larger
projects outside of journalism had ever come to fruition. Therefore he saw the
venture as a way of raising his profile, knowing that even if the Dictionary failed to
reach publication, the admirable nature of the work would guarantee the
knowledge of his name in literary circles.
After nine years work Johnson's Dictionary was finally finished in 1755. Although
it was nearly identical in style and form to Scott-Bailey's A New Universal
Etymological English Dictionary, which was published in the same year, the ideas
which are inherent in both mainly stem from Johnson. Having published his Plan
of a Dictionary eight years beforehand, outlining his radical ideas to include
quotations and list all possible definitions of even the simplest word, Johnson had
left himself open to having his designs copied. That two such radically new
dictionaries should appear in the same year was beyond chance, and only Johnson
had made his far-reaching plans public knowledge. In fact, Scott openly
acknowledged his indebtedness to Johnson in the preface of his work (see below),
although it should be said in the interest of objectivity that Johnson himself
obtained much of his word list from Bailey's earlier Dictionarium Britannicum.
However, it is testament to Johnson's achievement that his influence can be seen in
later editions of works from which he himself had originally borrowed both
methods and materials.
Here are some facts abot Dr. Johnson and his Dictionary:
The words "Samuel Johnson" and "English" were printed in red; the rest was
printed in black. The preface and headings were set to 4.6mm "English" type, the
text - double column - was set to 3.5mm peak. This first edition of the dictionary
contained a list of 42,773 words, to which only a few additional ones were added
in subsequent editions. One of Johnson's important innovations was to illustrate the
meanings of his words with literary quotations, of which there are about 114,000.
Johnson most often quotes authors: Shakespeare, Milton and Dryden.
In addition, Johnson, unlike Bailey, added notes to the use of the word, and not just
described it.
Unlike most modern lexicographers, Johnson introduced humor or prejudice into a

number of his definitions.
In more detail, At a serious level, Johnson's work demonstrated unprecedented

meticulousness. Unlike all previous protocols, painstaking thoroughness was
aimed at completion when it came not only to "illustrations", but also definitions.
For example
, "Turn". had 16 definitions with 15 illustrations
"Time" had 20 definitions with 14 illustrations
"Put" contained more than 5000 words on 3 pages
"Take" contained 134 definitions, 8000 words, more than 5 pages
Most of his vocabulary was prescriptivist. He was also linguistically conservative,

championing traditional spellings such as publick rather than the simpler spellings
that 73 years later Noah Webster would have preferred.
Despite its shortcomings, the dictionary was undoubtedly the best in its time.. Its
scope and structure were carried over into subsequent dictionaries, including
Webster's Dictionary in 1828 and the Oxford English Dictionary later in the same
century.

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Akhmetova Asel IY-19-2

Dr. Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary published in 1755

The original idea to undertake an English dictionary was suggested to Johnson by

Unlike most modern lexicographers, Johnson introduced humor or prejudice into a

In more detail, At a serious level, Johnson's work demonstrated unprecedented

, "Turn". had 16 definitions with 15 illustrations

"Time" had 20 definitions with 14 illustrations

"Put" contained more than 5000 words on 3 pages

"Take" contained 134 definitions, 8000 words, more than 5 pages

Most of his vocabulary was prescriptivist. He was also linguistically conservative,

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