Chosen Words: Past and Present Problems for Dictionary Makers

Osselton, N.E.

ISBN 10: 0859894193 / ISBN 13: 9780859894197

Published by University Of Exeter Press, 1995

About this Item

This is an ex-library book and may have the usual library/used-book markings inside.This book has hardback covers. In good all round condition. No dust jacket. Please note the Image in this listing is a stock photo and may not match the covers of the actual item,500grams, ISBN:0859894193.

Seller Inventory # 9087545

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Chosen Words: Past and Present Problems for Dictionary Makers
• Publisher: University Of Exeter Press
• Publication Date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0859894193
• ISBN 13: 9780859894197
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Good
• Weight: 500 grams
• Seller catalogs:
  • Language & Linguistics

About this title

Synopsis

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.

About the Author

N.E. Osselton has divided his academic career equally between universities in Holland (Groningen, Leiden) and England (Southampton, Newcastle); he has held chairs of English Language in both countries. He was a founder member (and later President) of the European Association for Lexicography and now lives in retirement in Durham.