Monday, 11 April 2016

Older texts and Standardisation

Dr. Johnson:
Dr Johnson's dictionary was published in the 18th century in 1755. He has been described as "a driver of standardising English"- he was specifically interested in spelling. At the time when Johnson published his dictionary, there was a large "explosion of popular print" like newspapers and magazines. Through this "explosion", Dr. Johnson "embalming English for all time, but he soon recognised that language has a plastic nature that can't be set in aspic."


Dr. Johnson's Dictionary wasn't the first dictionary to be created, there were many dictionaries that were created but none were more recognised as Johnson's. The dictionaries didn't have the same rules and the popular ones were those that were written by people who were respected for the literary world. In fact the first "word reference books" can be dated back to as early as the 8th century. Johnson provided etymologies for every word and a list of multiple meanings for the words. He also excluded obsolete terms and names.


He helped to "drive" the standardisation of English by doing many things. He helped pronunciation by showing how important stress was as a rule. He also cited words with similar vowel sounds. He quoted prestigious authors that were most popular to show the more standard way to write. The dictionary  then created a space for future works like the Oxford English Dictionary, which is one of the most used at the moment.




Robert Lowth:
Robert Lowth was an Oxford professor that published his book 'Short Introduction to English Grammar' in 1762, around the same time as Dr. Johnson published his dictionary. His book was really influential in school education and had 45 editions by 1800.


Lowth's book created the 'do's'  and 'don'ts's' of English Language. An example of one of the rules he created was using the word 'whom' correctly as the object form of 'who'.


Bibliography:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8255720.stm
https://prezi.com/imlh1dgypzho/samuel-johnsons-dictionary-and-its-contribution-to-the-standardisation-of-the-english-language/
http://www.1066andallthat.com/english_modern/standardising_03.asp
https://www.uni-due.de/SHE/HE_Standardisation.htm#grammars 

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