Innovation and Continuity in English Learners' Dictionaries: The Single-clause When-definition  

Oleh:

Osselton, N. E.

Jenis: Article from Journal - ilmiah internasional
Dalam koleksi: International Journal of Lexicography (Full Text) vol. 20 no. 4 (Dec. 2007), page pg. 393.
Fulltext: INNOVATION.pdf (101.71KB)

Isi artikel

The recent innovative use of single-clause when-definitions for nouns entered in English learners' dictionaries is shown to be paralleled in the seventeenth-century dictionary of Elisha Coles, a self-styled 'Teacher of the Tongue to Forreigners'. It is uncertain whether the modern use of non-analytical word explanations for the benefit of learners derives from 'folk-definition', but in Coles the origin is clear. Most of the when-definitions in his compact octavo dictionary are truncated versions of more expansive and grammatically explicit entries taken from his main source-book, the dictionary of Edward Phillips, or from contemporary legal dictionaries and glossaries of nautical terms, dialect, etc. The Coles dictionary abounds in other unorthodox space-saving defining devices and the prime motive may therefore have been concision rather than a desire to help the learner by using 'easy language'. Continuity of lexicographical tradition in the use of this definition pattern between Coles and the present day merits further investigation.

Opini Anda

Klik untuk menuliskan opini Anda tentang koleksi ini!

Kembali