Dictionaries, Apuntes de Traducción

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Dictionaries. Historical notes

 The first recorded form

of dictionary much to

the surprise of many is

dated back to the 7th

century BC.

 It is interesting to note

that the concept of

dictionary was conceived

in 7th^ century BC. This

first dictionary belongs

to the library of the

Ashurbanipal, the king

of Assyria.

 (^) The evidence of next available dictionary takes a leap to 5th^ century AD and later.  (^) These dictionaries take a big leap not only in terms of chronology but, it also takes big leap in terms of Geographical location.  (^) The 5th^ AD century dictionaries are Sanskrit dictionaries. These are polyglot dictionaries in Sanskrit, Tibetan, Mongolian and Chinese.  (^) During this time were also found dictionaries in botany, astronomy and medicine in Sanskrit. Following these,

 (^) The Greeks had something similar to glossaries of unusual words and phrases rather than a comprehensive and exhaustive collection of words of their language.  (^) The need for bilingual and multilingual dictionaries was realized at a greater magnitude with the advent of mass movement of people enabled by trade and commerce – there was a growing need to learn and master foreign

English Monolingual Lexicography Patrick Hanks formerly Chief Editor, Current English Dictionaries, Oxford University Press

Outline  (^) The purpose of a monolingual dictionary  (^) History of English monolingual dictionaries

• Some milestones
• Examples of earlier English lexicography  (^) Writing definitions and explanations  (^) Selecting and arranging entries  (^) Etymologies and word histories

R. Cawdrey (1604): A Table alphabeticall

• explains “hard words” S. Johnson (1755): Dictionary
• Citations from literature. Full vocabulary coverage. N. Webster (1828): American Dictionary of the English Language
• A nationalistic adventure. Webster’s debt to Johnson.
• “consulting the opinions of some gentlemen in whose judgment I had trust” (seeking agreement on definitions – convention) J. A. H. Murray et al. (1884-1928): OED
• Historical principles. Interaction with literary, medieval and Indo-European scholarship. Isaac Funk (1894): Funk and Wagnall’s Standard Dictionary of the English Language.
• put the “most important current definition” first. Merriam Webster’s Second New International Dictionary (1933)

Lexicography is accretive

One dictionary builds on another.

 (^) William Dwight Witney (1891): The Century Dictionary

• “neither in meaning nor in form is language to be dominated by its past”  Clarence Barnhart (1947): American College Dictionary (1947)  (^) Jess Stein and Laurence Urdang (1966): Random House Dictionary  (^) Patrick Hanks (1971): Hamlyn Dictionary (UK)  (^) Arthur Delbridge (1981): Macquarie Dictionary (Australia) All these dictionaries attempt to “put the modern meaning first”. (Without corpus evidence, it is hard to decide what is the “modern meaning”.)

Some EFL dictionaries A.S. Hornby (1947): Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary

• Pedagogical. Gives syntax, e.g. verb patterns, count vs. uncount nouns. P. Procter (1978): Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
• Restricted defining vocabulary. More elaborate syntax.
• Semantic fields in the electronic version. J. M. Sinclair, P. Hanks, et al. (1987): Cobuild
• Corpus-based; real-language examples. Full-sentence definitions, showing how to use the word normally and naturally. P. Procter (1993): Cambridge International Dictionary of English
• Corpus-based; gives syntagmatics and semantic fields. M. Rundell (2001): Macmillan English Dictionary
• Much pedagogical help with vocabulary building.

Motivation and definition writing

in earlier English dictionaries

__

The first monolingual English dictionary Robert Cawdrey (1604): A Table Alphabeticall … of hard usuall English wordes, borrowed from the Hebrew, Greeke, Latin, or French, etc. … gathered for the benefit and help of Ladies, Gentlewomen, or any other unskillful persons

Why “for the benefit of ladies”? 1: historical background  (^) The English language was “softened up” by the Norman invasion (1066). [Contrast German]  (^) Norman French: the language of the law.  (^) Medieval Latin: the language of the Church and of scholarship.  (^) Early Modern English: the vernacular of the peasantry (but also Chaucer)  (^) Not much literary writing between Chaucer (died 1400) and Shakespeare (born 1564).

Entries from Cawdey 1604 alchimie, the art of turning other mettals into gold alien, a stranger alienate, to estrange, or with-drawe the mind, or to make a thing another mans allegorie, similitude, a misticall speech, more then the bare letter allegiance, obedience of a subiect allusion, meaning and pointing to another matter then is spoken in words allude, to speake one thing that hath resemblence and respect to another altercation, debate, wrangling, or contention altitude, height amaritude, bitternesse ambage, long circumstance of words

From Johnson 1755 (1) ALCHYMY,

1. the more sublime and occult part of chymystry, which proposes, for its object, the transmutation of metals, and other important operations. There is nothing more dangerous than this licentious and deluding art, which changeth the meaning of words, as alchymy doth, or would do, the substance of metals, maketh of anything what it listeth, and bringeth, in the end, all truth to nothing. Hooker. O he sits high in all the people’s hearts; And that which would appear offence in us, His countenance, like richest alchymy , Will change to virtue, and to worthiness. Shakesp. J. Caesar.