Identify and describe key milestones in the history of English and Arabic lexicography

Robert Cawdrey’s “A Table Alphabeticall” (1604) generally accounted as first English dictionary

Edmund Coote’s “English Schoole-Master” (1596)

Thomas Thomas’ “Dictionarium Linguae Latinae et Anglicanae” (1587)

Early history of English lexicography little more than judicious or flagrant copying

No such thing as a “new” dictionary

History

Bilingual glossaries from Latin or French to English were earliest word reference books for English-speaking people

Difficult words “glossed” with easier Latin words or Old English equivalents

Assembled together into a glossarium, today called a glossary

Earliest known Latin-English dictionary 1440

First printed Latin-English dictionary 1500

Early Bilingual Dictionaries

“Hard words” also called “inkhorn” terms – writer’s desire to appear elegant at the expense of reader’s understanding

Richard Mulcaster’s “Elementarie” (1582)

Early 17th century dictionaries Anglicized Thomas’ terms to increase volume of entries

Henry Cockram’s “The English Dictionarie: or, An Interpreter of Hard English Words” (1623)

Lifted from Bullokar and Cawdrey

Early English Dictionaries and the “Hard Words” Tradition

18th century moved from “hard words” tradition to more useful, general meanings

“A New English Dictionary” (1702) first English dictionary to attempt systematic coverage of common words as well as difficult ones

“An Universal Etymological English Dictionary” (1721) by Nathan Bailey

The Beginning of Modern Dictionary Practice

Published in 1747, masterful analysis of what would be required to halt language change and fix English in its present “pure” form

Addressed to would-be patron Earl of Chesterfield

While he wanted to standardize, he seemed to understand futility of “fixing” the language

“Dictionary” published 1755

Samuel Johnson’s “Plan”

Benjamin Martin’s “Lingua Britannica Reformata” (1749)

Resembles Johnson’s “Plan” and may have influenced Johnson’s “Dictionary”

Often incorrectly cited as first to include illustrative quotations

Johnson’s “Dictionary” is not distinguished by its innovations but by its skillful and original execution

Johnson’s “Dictionary” and its Competitors

Thomas Sheridan’s “A General Dictionary of the English Language” (1780) was a major advance in pronunciation

First lexicographer to consistently respell words to indicate pronunciation

Diacritic numbers

John Walker’s “Critical Pronouncing Dictionary and Expositor of the English Language” (1791)

Indicated actual usage but cautioned against it if it didn’t follow spelling and etymology

Pronouncing Dictionaries of the 18th & 19th Centuries

Noah Webster’s “The American Spelling Book” (1783) went through many editions

One of the most widely used books in America after the Bible

most popular schoolbook ever published

“A Compendious Dictionary of the English Language” (1806)

Included past tense and past participle of strong verbs

Dropped “u” from favour, etc., “k” from logick, etc., used –er endings in theater, etc., used check instead of cheque, etc.

Unlike Johnson, Webster welcomed change

Competition with Worcester

Webster and the 19th Century

“The New Method English Dictionary” (1935) was the first dictionary for foreign learners

Used a controlled defining vocabulary, a practice still employed by many ESL dictionaries

A.S. Hornby’s “Idiomatic and Syntactic English Dictionary” (1942)

“Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English” (1978)

Dictionaries for Foreign Learners

Richard Chenevix Trench presented criticisms of dictionaries, and suggested that lexicographers should function not as tastemakers but as historians

Trench’s criticisms formed the basis of guiding principle behind what would become “Oxford English Dictionary”

Series of editors worked on the project

Dictionary was supposed to take ten years but it took fifty

The “Oxford English Dictionary”

War of the dictionaries between Webster and his successors and Worcester resulted in ever larger and more comprehensive dictionaries

Webster’s 2nd edition of “New International Dictionary” (1934) is the largest lexicon in English with 600,000 vocabulary entries

Later editions reversed the trend, dropping entries to lower production costs, and remove the less necessary additions

The Unabridged Dictionary in America

About 2 million sold in the US each year

Enduring popularity of Webster name

In 1949, Merriam companies lost the exclusive right to Webster name; all of their main competitors publish dictionaries with Webster in the title

GI Bill of Rights increased amount of men attending college after WWII

British desk dictionaries, once very different from American college dictionaries, have come to resemble them

American College Dictionaries and their British Cousins

Some print dictionaries (particularly unabridged versions) might be replaced with new technologies

Desk dictionaries, American college dictionaries will remain attractive commodities in print

Hand-held electronic dictionaries are beneficial for bilingual lexicography

Electronic Dictionaries and the Internet