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Overview
What goes into our dictionaries and why? This informative collection of essays shows how dictionaries today have grown from the small beginnings of English lexicography in Shakespeare's time. Discussion is anchored in the practice of the past, but the author has been concerned throughout to show how the difficulties which beset the first compilers are still with us today. The essays may thus be read as a stimulating, even chastening, introduction to some of the practical problems that might confront any trainee lexicographer.
The product of over forty years' scholarly work on Cawdrey, Kersey, Bailey, Johnson and other lexicographers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, these essays cover a wide variety of topics, including dialect words, variant spellings, how strict the alphabetical order can or should be, the treatment of phrasal verbs, of the literary and learned language, of common words, archaism and figurative usage. There are also critical assessments of some of the great historical dictionaries of Europe.
Editorials
LEXIKOS
“A remarkable aspect of this book is the way in which it displays the growth and development of lexicography as an academic industry and a fully-fledged discipline within the field of linguistics. Chosen Words has to be regarded as a fine example of academic Lexicography. However, this book can and should be appreciated by a much wider audience than practising and theoretical lexicographers. Any person interested in historical linguistics will benefit from this work. This book will also appeal to a more popular audience. Dictionaries are the most important containers of linguistic information utilised by ordinary language users. Chosen Words will be a stimulating experience on their reading list.” –LEXIKOS