Article,
Johnson and the OED
International Journal of Lexicography, 18 (2): 231--242 (Jun 1, 2005)
DOI: 10.1093/ijl/eci023
Abstract
This paper is introduced by a brief comparison of the differing contexts in which Samuel Johnson and James Murray worked, and thus their differing perspectives towards lexicography. Johnson's dictionary is considered as an influence upon the Oxford English Dictionary (OED): it served as a word-list; it prompted Murray and his team to include otherwise unsubstantiated senses; it served as a model for elegant defining text, and provided a source for the borrowing of numerous definitions; it offered contemporary information and perspectives for Murray to include in notes within the entries; and, most significantly, it served as a rich mine of quotation evidence, both from Johnson's own definition- and meta-text, and from the numerous works he cited as illustrative examples of words in use. The paper discusses the OED's findings on the accuracy of these illustrative quotations in Johnson's dictionary, with examples, and explains the reasons why it has been decided, during the current total revision of the OED, to check them all in their original texts. The concluding paragraphs comment upon the significance of Johnson's dictionary in the writing of OED1.
