Samuel Johnson & the journey into words /Lynda Mugglestone.

Mugglestone, Lynda,

Samuel Johnson & the journey into words /Lynda Mugglestone. Samuel Johnson and the journey into words. - First edition. - United Kingdom : Oxford University Press, (c)2015. - 1 online resource : illustrations

Includes bibliographies and index.

1. Journeys into words -- 2. Writing the Dictionary: departures and destinations -- 3.`Excursions into books': documenting the new world of words -- 4. The ordered state: power, authority, and the written word -- 5. Meaning, governance, and the `colours of words' -- 6. Defending the citadel, patrolling the borders -- 7. History and the flux of time -- 8. The praise of perfection.

Popular readings of Johnson as a dictionary-maker often depict him as a writer who both laments - and attempts to control - the state of the language. This book looks at the range of Johnson's writings on, and the complexity of his thinking about, language and lexicography, not least with reference to the difficulties of power when exerted over the 'sea of words'. Paying close attention to Johnson's attitudes to language change, loanwords, usage, spelling, history, and authority, this volume engages with the evolution of his ideas about the nature, purpose, and methods of lexicography.



9780191669507


Electronic Books.

PR3534 / .S268 2015