Dictionaries A Very Short Intr - Lynda Mugglestone 2011

A large work is difficult because it is large’, wrote Samuel Johnson, one of the most famous of dictionary-makers, in the Preface to his Dictionary of the English Language which he published in 1755. Writing a Very Short Introduction to dictionaries prompts a rather different conclusion–that ‘A very short book is very difficult because it is particularly short’. Even Johnson found he could not include all that he had originally intended (‘such is design, while it is yet at a distance from execution’, as he lamented). Similar problems have, all too often, confronted attempts to encompass the complexity and diversity of dictionaries within a single volume – not least, of course, since the history and use of dictionaries spans over 4,000 years. Execution, rather than design, has meant, for instance, that thesauruses have had to be cast aside and the focus on regional and slang lexicography often reduced, along with other ...