first version

“Grammar Books and Dictionaries in the Seventeenth and eighteenth century”

                       

Dictionaries are very important in the modern life, especially with the advance  of education and    themassive literary works . When someone say (dictionary) it comes to our head that big fat book which contains huge amount of words with one language and its equivalent meanings in other language , and it is usually   arranged alphabetically and sometimes it explains more than two languages  , some may add that , there are different kinds of dictionaries  , for examples  , a dictionary that show the proper spelling and pronunciation  or a medical one that explains medical terminologies or  pictured one or audio … etc . But when did we start to use the word dictionary to refer to all of these? 

                        The first use of the word (dictionary) was in the 13th century, but it was used by John Garland as (Dictionrius). Then it was used as ( Dictionarium ) in the1 4th century. After that, came Sir Thomas Elyot and published the first English book titled as Dictionary (Latin - English dictionary) in 1538.

To the scholars in the medieval age ,  the word dictionary meant a collection of phrases and dictions that put together to help them in studying Latin and making it easier for them to employ synonyms and smooth the texts.

 But now days, dictionaries serves more purposes than that. For instance, a reader can use the dictionary to get more information about a word, like its type, right spelling, pronunciation, etymology, semantic, syntactic and etc. It also helps the reader to understand the proper usage provided with examples.

           After almost two centuries from Sir Thomas' Elyot dictionary , the English scientist Samuel Johnson made the   first attempt in 1755,  to compile a principled explanatory lexicography and called it ( A Dictionary of the English language) . It was a portray of the intricacy of the lexicon and of the English usage. The dictionary influenced the English vocabulary but also helped the English language to preserve its spelling in its conservative   shape. Johnson started compiling his dictionary in 1747,   after the union of prints asked him to do so. It took him almost 8 years to finish his book, though he employed 6 assistants, and all of them were working from his home off Fleet Street. Johnson wanted to beyond the grammarian's role in providing the lexicographical datum , as he wanted the reader of  his dictionary enjoy reading  and at the same time extant  their knowledge   

                               As the matter of fact, Johnson's dictionary was a turning point in the line of the authority, as it shifted the power from the language grammarian to the lexicographer. Since the Roman world and till the seventeenth century , grammarians were responsible for  making the decision regarding the English language , but it came a time where they began to battle with each other about the way of teaching grammar whether to  use Latin models or English models , or to maintain the practice of imitation and translation  or whether to teach grammar first in the native tongue or in Latin .   While they doing so, the Lexicographers made their move and started to set the

Standards of the English language. And who made the bed for the Lexicographer to take over the power?  It was Samuel Johnson. Although Johnson was fully dedicated all those years to his dictionary, yet many say that his lexicography is exaggerated.

                                   No one can denies his  brilliant  definitions  and his exquisite role in providing the dictionary with literary quotation to give more illustration of the meaning and the usage , going side by side with the majors early dictionary , that was produced in Italy , France and Portugal .

Johnson also ,  was the first to introduce the sense divisions into the dictionary entries, as he proposed to sort the senses of the words, exhibit its natural and primitive significance, then its consequential meaning and its metaphorical signification. In his lifetime, he published five more editions of his book, and after he died, a sixth edition was published.

                                       In fact, among the early English lexicographers, he was the first one to assure the cultural authority of the dictionary definitions. Samuel was one who created the role of the editor of the dictionary, and according to him, the responsibility of recording the anomalies lies on the lexicographer hands. Augustan forehead said about Johnson that the English vocabulary had sprout fully and flawless from his prominent. 

The lexicographers were focused on experimental data. In the eighteenth century, many of them went beyond compiling a dictionary that covers both lexicon and grammar.

                        During the seventeenth century, there were lists of the sequences consisted dictionaries as rudimentary definitions to translate foreign languages like Latin and French but then grammatical texts included many of what we take into consideration lexicographers component: the spelling, the definition and the pronunciation.

Dictionaries were primitive in its form in the 17th century, although it had English – English lists, but it was not stabilized nor developed as  a flair.

The dictionaries was mainly composed of short meanings  , some synonym or an explanation of a word .And its  main function was to focus on the short definitions just for the convenience of the reader . 

 There was not much use for it as all the business procedure and the  literary works were all done in Latin .  However, in (1604) Robert Cawdrey  made a list of  ( hard usual English Words ) that  usually come across the reader of the, sermons or Scriptures. Then came , Henry Cockeram'  in (1604)   and  made  goal to interpret hard

 English words to help the renderers to gain competence when they are

reading, speaking, and writing.

 On the other Hand , and also during the seventeenth century , the grammar books were more popular than the dictionaries . it even had the upper hand in the language decisions.   

But while the dictionaries had English -  English list of words , the grammar books had a Latin – English list ,  and it also were written  in Latin even when it named English grammar books. It included  meaning , etymology and  usage. It also included lot of  lexicographical elements that  lexicographers did not put it yet in their own dictionaries  . As the term ( grammar ) could mean spilling , pronunciation , etymology, logic ,homonyms  and   synonyms .

In fact , the grammar books  used many various ways to establish the foundation of the vocabulary and grammar . Like when Comenius used the images to match the names of the objects to its references.

  More grammar books were being  published in the first half of the eighteenth century , which made a great demand on the regard of vocabularies. It began to gain  more instructional role . It also contributed in the education of the meddle and lower classes in Britain and made them more literate. Many authors made grammar books to teach formats like receipts ,   business letters and contracts.  But all of that made the grammar books to shift its focus to be able of fulfilling the requirements , while dictionaries were focused on lexicon.

 The dictionaries during the eighteenth century , were still elementary ( short meanings , comment on a word ..etc )

But it also included grammar , etymology, functions , pronunciation  and even parts of speech. And there were many great editors and authors  of many dictionaries .

What really changed was the authority , as in the eighteenth century the guardian of the language became the dictionary editor  , not the grammar book authors , it became the task of the dictionary editor to protect the English language from decay . 

Your evaluation of the changing authority in decision making between grammarians and lexicographers supported by evidence

  Now , dictionaries and lexicographers held the linguistic authority  , but who is more worthy of the power ? the lexicographer ? or the grammarian?   As lexicography  is the craft or even the art of making dictionaries , and it  held  a very important place in the language study . Almost every day there is a new lexical  added to the dictionary. And like adding new words to the dictionary , there are   also lexicons being dropped , while others  being modified.

The lexicons are in a constantly change , unlike grammar which is stabled ( we do not hear that there is a new grammatical rule changing every day ). As the grammar is majorly concerned with  all the predictable  and  the habitual forms of the languages , while the dictionaries , on the other hand , are mainly  focused on the  unpredictable and irregular forms with an irregular meanings . As the lexicographer edits and writes those words , while  compiling the dictionary .
we see the continues changing of lexicon throughout  the  literary history , like when vowels changed from the time of The great Alfred , Passing to Chaucer and    then Shakespeare in the 16th century ,  although it was a change of pronunciation , but it was to keep up with the life changing .

Now I really understand why they shifted  the authority of making the decisions about language from the grammar books to the  dictionaries . In my opinion , the dictionaries are more suitable for the authority , as they can keep up with the changes of the modern age and fulfilling the requirements of both the people and the language .