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22 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Prescriptive vs. Descriptive Lexicography
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Prescriptive is an attempt to tell people how to use words in the English language. Descriptive is an attempt to tell how the word is used in English.
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Robert Cawdry
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Robert Cawdry was the author of the first alphabetized dictionary. "A Table Alphabeticall of hard or unusual words for Ladies, Gentlewomen, and other unskilled persons" in 1604. Which contained 2500 entries taken from other sources with little or no change.
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Age of Dictionaries
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The Age of Dictionaries was a period encompassing the 17th Century, during which seven dictionaries wre published. It started with Cawdry's Table Alphabeticall and ended with An English Dictionary which contained 25000 entries and included obsolete entries and words used by Chaucer.
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Samuel Johnson
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Responsible for putting a dictionary in every household, and the three principals of lexicography in a general sense. Published a plan for his dictionary and set out to make it prescriptive. Discovered that this was impossible and created THE dictionary that lasted until Webster's was published. Included taboo and obsolete words as well as biased definitions.
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Historical Principal
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The lexicographer must show the history of ever word, it's origins and any changed of form and meaning. Loosely established by Samuel Johnson, basis for the New English Dictionary, and put into strict practice by Burchfield.
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Principal of General Inclusion
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The lexicographer myst collect all words rather than select good, hard, or unused words. The first requirement for the Oxford English Dictionary that it should include every word of the literature it professes to illustrate.
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Illustrative Quotations
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Besides simply defining a word a lexicographer must illustrate the historical changes of sense or semantic change by drawing on a body of literature. Used int he Oxford English Dictionary by braking English into three main periods so that certain literatures might be used.
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Noah Webster
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Published the American Spelling Book which was second in popularity only to the Bible. Then published A Compendious Dictionary of The English Language. He critized Johnson for using taboo or "off color" words. Included no etymologies, attempted to simplify spelling and included census figures and weights and measures.
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Offensive Vocabulary
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Tends to be included in dictionaries from Lexicographers in Great Britain, buit omitted from American works. Robert Burchfield established that words which offended some people were not to be left out of a dictionary and should be described according to the literature.
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Joseph Worcester
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Worked under Webster and then went independent. Published the first serious competitor to Webster. First to use wood cuts to illustrate words. Spent more time collecting entries and definitions with traditional spellings and neologisms.
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War of the Dictionaries
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Started in 1830 with the publishing of Worcester's Comprehensive Pronouncing and Explanatory Dictionary of The English Language, and ended with Websters 1864 A Dictionary of The English Language. Was fought mainly in the stores by the publishers using bully tactics to push the book.
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Popularity of dictionaries
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Grew due to growth of linguistic knowledge and especially Grimm's Law. Also grew because of growth in industrialization and technology, and a growth of population and public interest. Also is the time when the dictionary becomes an authority of words.
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James A. H. Murray
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A Scottish philologist with no doctoral degree. Was invited to joint he Philological Society and through Frederick Furnicall got a job at Mill Hill Secondary School. Wrote an article in 1857 called "One Some Deficiencies in our English Dictionaries." Was named editor of the OED in 1878, which he worked on until his death.
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Philogical Society
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Made several resolution and created a proposal for their Dictionary stating that it should include the three principals of lexicography. Divided English into three main periods to break apart the literary body. Published a lan for their dictionary to thank contributors and invite volunteers from the general reading public.
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Three Major Periods of English
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The first period was 1250-1526 with 1250 slated as the beginning of early modern language. The second period was 1526, the date of the first printed English New Testament until 1674. The thrid period was 1674, marked by the death of Milton and ended in 1858 or the "current day" as put forth by the Philological Society.
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Scriptorium
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A large structure, the first of which was built in James A. H. Murray's backyard. It houses the slips of paper sent in by the OED's volunteers. Was very cold in winter due to the need to keep fire out of the building. Was also damp because Murray had to lower it out of his neighbors view line, and then put shrubs around it on the dirt piles from lowering it. Was moved to Oxford when they offered to publish the dictionary.
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Volunteers
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Were the general reading public and were encouraged to write down words on specific size slips of paper and send them in. The papers were not as uniform as hoped. Furnivall eventually told people to cut the passage out of books and tape it on the paper, but this caused quite a fuss for the OED and librarians.
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Fitzedward Hall
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Spent six hours a day during 1881-1901 collecting entries. An American professor of Sanskrit.
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W. C. Minor
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Sent in 8,000 entries for the first Edition and was second only to Furnivall in contributions. Was a convincted murder sentenced to life in an insane asylum where he read and created over 10,000 total entries to the OED.
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James Platt
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Knew many obscure languages and helped with the etymologies.
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Impediments to OED
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Many of the impediments are consistent through time, those being money, space, and the time to create the work. However the first OED faced World War 1, which took away it's man power and probably a lot of it's funding. It also was hampered by the death of Murray.
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First Supplement to OED
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Was completed shortly after the final volume of the OED as some of the terms had already become out of date. Included an enlarged terminology, slang, and idioms. Also included more foreign words.
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