Samuel Johnson Flashcards
Preface to Dictionary: Johnson born
1709
Preface to Dictionary: Johnson dies
1784
Preface to Dictionary: science, infinite
Cultivation of science leads to lngstc change; but praises e.g. Bacon & Boyle
Preface to Dictionary: hierarchy, order, cosmic thought
Words are the parts and England is the whole; leisure classes and reading
Preface to Dictionary: history, memory,
Bacon & an Edenic language (see quotes)
Preface to Dictionary: language
Bacon & an Edenic language (see quotes)
Preface to Dictionary: nostalgia
Bacon & an Edenic language (see quotes); tone of the whole piece
Preface to Dictionary: imperial vantage
Disdain for the mingling of languages
Preface to Dictionary: mingling
Imperial vantage; disdain for mingling center and margins
Preface to Dictionary: centres, margins, periphery
Imperial vantage; disdain for mingling center and margins
Preface to Dictionary: Yeats
“Things fall apart, the center cannot hold”
Preface to Dictionary: community
Classed societies > leisure > learning, reading, lngstic change
Preface to Dictionary: leisure, upper classes
Classed societies > leisure > learning, reading, lngstic change
Preface to Dictionary: time
Leisure time; reading. Johnson wants to slow change.
Preface to Dictionary: commerce
All-agora; commerce with strangers cited as the problem. The center is becoming the periphery–a move from self to other.
Preface to Dictionary: genre
Preface, apology, manifesto-essay
Preface to Dictionary: tone and style
Amiable: he has “parental fondness” for it; acquiescent to inevitable change. Just wants to slow it. Nostalgic.
Preface to Dictionary: content of dictionary
40,000 words, ~114,000 illustrative quotations
Preface to Dictionary: external causes of linguistic change
Commerce w strangers; translation
Preface to Dictionary: commerce w/ strangers
external cause of linguistic change. Leads to accmdtng and then mingled dialect
Preface to Dictionary: translation
imparts native (foreign) idiom. It is the most comprehensive & mischievous innvtn
Preface to Dictionary: internal causes for linguistic change
Polishing of arts; cultivation of sciences; copiousness of speech; vicissitudes of fashion; tropes of poetry; verbal changes; popular (but illiterate) writers; increased politeness
Preface to Dictionary: polishing of the arts; refinement
An internal cause of change. (reading books, etc.) & classing by subordination (one part of community sustained by labor of other; i.e. leisure)
Preface to Dictionary: cultivation of science
Internal cause of change. deflects words from original sense
Preface to Dictionary: copiousness of language
Internal cause of change. capricious choice
Preface to Dictionary: poetic tropes
Internal cause of change. metaphor will become the current sense
Preface to Dictionary: vicissitudes of fashion
Internal cause of change. enforce new signification, or extend old
Preface to Dictionary: popular writers
Internal cause of change. The illiterate ones use words w “colloquial licentiousness”
Preface to Dictionary: we must “retard…
“what we cannot repel”
Preface to Dictionary: J hopes dictionary grants foreign nations and distant ages
access to
Preface to Dictionary:
“the propagators of knowledge” and the “teachers of truth,” e.g. wants to “add celebrity to Bacon, to Hooker, to Milton, and to Boyle.”
Preface to Dictionary: manuscript publication in general
- 1st English dictionary
- Great commercial strategy: everyone needs
- J commissioned for project in 1746, when he’s still unknown
- J planned 3 yrs for project; took 9
- Had only 6 part-time assistants
- 2 large folio vols
Preface to Dictionary: commercial strategy
Every learned person has to have the dictionary
Preface to Dictionary: when Johnson was commissioned for the project, he was still
unknown
Preface to Dictionary: Johnson planned on spending __ years on the project; it took him __
3; 9
Preface to Dictionary: Johnson completed the dictionary with only
6 part-time assistants
Preface to Dictionary: published in 2
large folio volumes
Preface to Dictionary: continental context
Italian & French academies had dictionaries; w/o authority, English can change rapidly
Preface to Dictionary: Englishness, nationalism
Italian & French academies had dictionaries; w/o authority, English can change rapidly
Preface to Dictionary: competition
Italian & French academies had dictionaries; w/o authority, English can change rapidly
Preface to Dictionary: heritage, tradition, English lit
Italian & French academies had dictionaries; w/o authority, English can change rapidly
Preface to Dictionary: a particular source of pride for J
that it’s written w little assistance from the learned or patronage of the great, and not while he’s in an academy but beset with distractions, sickness, etc.
Preface to Dictionary: signs of the class Johnson is advocating for
Middle: proud that he didn’t receive patronage from the great, yet upholding the middle (and upper) class’s leisure privileges. Hard work, independence.
Preface to Dictionary: Pope
Essay on Criticism: “Our sons their fathers’ failing language see, / And such as Chaucer is, shall Dryden be.”
Preface to Dictionary: important intertextualities (just name four figures w/o explaining)
Pope, Swift, Yeats, Garner
Preface to Dictionary: Swift
“A Proposal for Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue”
Preface to Dictionary: legacy in usage
Discuss Garner’s Modern American Usage; prescriptivist and descriptivist linguistics.
Preface to Dictionary: why can’t the change be stopped forcibly? (using a quote)
“Sounds are too volatile and subtle for legal restraints”; foolish pride to try “to enchain syllables, and to lash the wind”
Preface to Dictionary: “the great pest of speech is…”
“frequency of translation”
Preface to Dictionary: quote about tongues and governments
“Tongues, like governments, have a natural tendency to degeneration”
Preface to Dictionary: talking point (commerce)
A point of new understanding (albeit nostalgic, resistant) of commerce. Allegory of necessity becoming multicultural
Preface to Dictionary: mutability, death, preservation, corpses, eternal life
preservation, corpses, eternal life; Elixir impossible > embalming fluid incapable > mutability
Preface to Dictionary: language as body (best talking point)
England the whole & language the parts; can’t use elixir or embalming fluid; translation a “pest”; “tongues, like governments”
Preface to Dictionary: best talking points (just headings)
Language as body; commerce and the center/periphery slide
