Lexicography is a branch of applied linguistics dealing with the theory and practice of compiling dictionaries. Lexicology and lexicography are closely connected. They have the same object of investigation vocabulary (its form, meaning, usage, origin).
The History of Dictionary Making
The beginnings of dictionary history are concerned with the international language of medieval European civilization Latin. The next stage of development, attained in England around 1400, was the collection of the isolated glosses into what is called a glossarium, a kind of very early Latin-English dictionaries. A breakdown of Latin as an international language and the rapid development of international trade led to an immediate demand for foreign-language dictionaries.
There appeared Cooper's Thesaurus (1565) and Florio's Italian-English dictionary (1599), Cokeram 's The English Dictionary (1623), which was entitled "An Interpreter of Hard Words".
The first unilingual dictionary, a little book of some 120 pages, compiled by a certain Robert Cawdrey, was published in 1604 under the title of A Table Alphabeticall. R. Cawdrey concentrated on "scholarly" words.
In the 17th century, with printing well established, the first real English dictionary of importance appeared. It was John Kersey who was the first to attempt a universal dictionary of the language. Kersey is credited with producing several fine dictionaries between 1702 and 1718, all stressing the common word and aimed at the ordinary reader. His innovations were noted and borrowed by Nathaniel Bailey, who compiled a dictionary of 950 pages and about 40, 000 entries. Bailey's dictionary An Universal Etymological English Dictionary (1721) was followed later by one of the most successful of all early dictionaries. This was A Dictionary of Modern English Language written by Dr. Samuel Johnson. The dictionary was published on April 15, 1755. The work was tremendous. Johnson wrote the definitions of 41,000 words illustrating their meanings with 114,000 quotations. Johnson adopted his definitions on the principle of English common law according to the precedent. He believed that the real meaning of a word was determined by how people use it. That belief forced him to get the meanings for his definitions by consulting the writings of the great authors (the ones who wrote between 1550 and 1740). Johnson had compiled his dictionary in 8 years. After its publication, his Dictionary was not rivaled for over a century.
The chief contribution of the 18th and 19th centuries to dictionary making were: (1) recording of literary vocabulary and (2) accurate recording of pronunciation; (3) the recording of word history through dated quotations and (4) the development of encyclopaedic wordbooks.
The greatest of all dictionaries, the New English Dictionary (NED) in 12 volumes, covered 450,000 words and printed 1,800,000 quotations, more than 10 times as many as Johnson's. The NED's first volume appeared in 1884, the last in 1928. In 1933 the dictionary was republished under the title The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and contained 13 volumes.
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The first American dictionaries were unpretentious little school-books. The most important date in American lexicography is 1828. The work that makes it important is Noah Webster's An American Dictionary of the English Language in two volumes, the predecessor of all modern American dictionaries.
Noah Webster is the most famous of all American dictionary-makers. After graduating from Yale, Webster became a teacher. He then compiled his three-part Grammatical Institute of the English Language, including an elementary spelling book (in 1783), a grammar (in 1784), and a reader (in 1785). Part I became fantastically successful as The American Spelling Book. It was known as the "Blue-Backed Speller". The Webster's dictionaries were the first to help separate British English and American English. His main innovations included three items: reform of spelling, influence on pronunciation, and Americanization of the vocabulary.
The Webster's dictionaries were the first to contain such American words or meanings as americanism, appreciate, barbecue, Congressional, coop (for chicken), corn, druggist, and lot (piece of land). Noah Webster's was the first American dictionary and it remained the standard nearly 200 years later. His work, like Samuel Johnson's, was a landmark. The Comprehensive Pronouncing and Explanation Dictionary of the English Language by Joseph Worcester, Webster's lifelong rival, appeared in 1830.
In the field of unabridged dictionaries, the most important accretion is the Century Dictionary (1889) edited by the great American linguist William Dwight Whitney and issued in six volumes. In 1944 The Dictionary of American English on Historical Principles was completed by Craigie and Hulbert. This was followed by a Dictionary of Americanisms edited by Mathews and published in 1951, by a Middle English Dictionary, and the American Dialect Dictionary.
Modern dictionaries do their utmost to record usage. They provide a report on the way language is used. Dictionary makers do not by themselves decide what words mean or how they should be pronounced and spelled it is a result of careful scientific research. The dictionary records the customary language practice.
What's a dictionary for? No speaker of English knows all the words. Everyone needs help with the meaning, spelling, pronunciation, and use of a particular word. A dictionary is concerned with words and the common reader turns to a dictionary for information about the spelling, pronunciation, meaning and proper use of words. He wants to know what is current and respectable.
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