Discuss about the Sociolinguistic and Comparative Perspective.
Codification of the English language refers to the writing down of the English language in dictionaries and grammar books for the first time. Codification of English language is also identified as standardization. The process of codification occurred majorly in the 18th century (Hitchings, 2005). The commissioning of dictionaries relates to the authority that various groups had in the standardization of the English language. Authority was manifested on the grammarians and lexicographers (Lynch, 2002). The paper will also entail how words are able to be included in the dictionary, for example, the Oxford dictionary. Lastly, the prescription and the descriptive accounts of the dictionary will be looked into highlighting the shortcomings of the prescription account.
The codification process was notable in the 17th and the 18th century. Dyce and Pardon published the first ever dictionary that emphasized on grammar that was known as New general English dictionary in 1735 (Quirk, 2010).The dictionary had an emphasis on jargons, correctness, and pronunciation.
In 1755, Samuel Johnson published a dictionary by the name of Dictionary of the English Language that stood out amongst the other dictionaries and thus formed standards for other developers situated in America and England (Nevalainen, 2014). Before the publishing of the dictionary, the grammarians had authority over the language, but after the standardization by Johnson, a revolution occurred where the lexicographers took over the authority. During the reign of the grammarians in the 17th century, grammar books and dictionaries were characterized by primitive synonyms that aided in the translation of the international languages. At this time, the lexicographers had not yet showcased their ability. In the grammar books, they corresponded with the lexicographer’s style that was not limited to showcasing of the pronunciations, etymology, and examples of the usage of the words.
In the 18th century, the authority concerning policies in the English language shifted drastically to the lexicographers. On the other hand, the grammarians maintained their efforts on grammar other than developing an all-encompassing dictionary like Johnson’s. Johnson’s dictionary encompassed all the features of the grammarians and those of the lexicographers that were not short of examples of the usage of words, correct spellings and use of quotations (Hitchings, 2005).
In the 18th century, there was the effect of vernacular that reduced the demand for grammar textbooks and dictionaries became more paramount. In addition, features of the dictionaries advanced with an inclusion of parts of speech. Grammarians attempted to retain their authority through dictionaries through adding features in grammar books which included poetry and rhetoric styles. Due to the competition between the two groups during this time, the lexicographers were in to distinguish themselves through improving the appearance of their dictionaries to the form that they are today that is the incorporating of pictures (De Maria,1986).
The fact that the lexicographers were conversant with linguistic changes and the history of English, they responded promptly to the needs that arose, contrary to the grammarians that were static in their teachings and publications. With the enthusiasm of the lexicographers, the dictionaries are what they are today.
To begin with, the commissioning of the dictionaries was for the purpose of stabilizing the policies of the English language. Secondly, there was the need to reduce confusion amongst the readers through bestowing authority of publishing of dictionaries by specific individuals that had expertise in the field of linguistics (Deignan, 2015). The fact that the English language was changing called for the prompt inclusion of the dynamics of the language in the dictionary and thus there was the need to have someone or a group of individuals that would ensure that the changes were made with utmost urgency.
The publication of the dictionaries together with the grammar books was increasing at the time, with a lot of authors emerging day in day out. There was the call to commission the dictionary so that any errors in terms of pronunciations, spellings or usage could be corrected so that the words that were in the dictionary were accurate in all dimensions (Gupta, MacLean, Heer and Manning, 2014).
In addition, English was a language that was used in much diversity and as such, it was highly valued. The dictionary was the domicile of the English language and thusly it had to be safeguarded to preserve the greatness of the assorted language (Reddick, 1990). Collectively with this, is the fact that the English language had been popular, and thus the commissioning of the dictionary was for the intention of instigating the widespread use of the dictionary as a reference point .To make the dictionary popular, the authors that were given the authority had to incorporate words that were related to the lives of the readers into the dictionary.
Nevertheless, with the continued use of the language, the needs of the readers transformed and hence it was necessary to consider and encompass individual expectations into the dictionary. The authors were to develop dictionaries that had etymologies, pronunciations, and accents for them to be generally accepted by the readers (Ferber, 2017). Lastly, there were other reasons such as the maintaining the purity of the dictionary and ensuring longevity of its use by readers.
To begin with, the developers of the dictionaries research the context in which new words are being used by a large number of individuals. The words can be accessed on the internet sites, newspapers, journals or communities just to mention a few. When the real use or meaning of the word is arrived at then it can be incorporated in the dictionary (Shuttleworth and Cowie, 2014).
Most of the authors of the dictionary engage in continuous reading and extract words used in different contexts from diverse writings. The extracted word is marked and placed in searchable computer systems. The next step includes synthesizing of a citation, that incorporates the bibliography details, the word extracted and the context or applicability of the word. In the case that the word/phrase becomes a citation, it is in for an audit. For the word/phrase to be part of a dictionary, the authors must verify that the word has been cited severally so as to be certain that it is popular (Nation, 2013). However, the citations must be able to bring out the meaning of the word(s) as it was first identified. If the word or the phrase is commonly cited with a uniform meaning then the word is included in the dictionary.
Moreover, there are cases where words already exist in the dictionary, but with the changing world, the words gain new meanings, for instance, the meaning of ‘cookie’ has since changed with the emergence of the internet. Such words are catered for through the adding of the meaning of the words in the dictionary. Lastly, a word can be included in a dictionary if the word is most likely to be popular over time (Koplenig, 2014).
It can be stated that a dictionary can be rated in terms of its prescriptive and descriptive tendencies. The most common account is the descriptive account. It is so due to the sensitivity of the readers towards a language that is less commanding. A dictionary can be said to be prescriptive when it sets rules on what is right or wrong. A dictionary is widely used and thus it may be uncomfortable for the culture or norms of a certain group of individuals to be imposed on all the users (Beal, 2014). Such a dictionary can be said to be prescriptive and thus this version is not commonly used today. The prescriptive dictionary tended to bring about so many errors that left many of the readers confused and agitated on the placement of the words. The most common prescriptive dictionary was the Webster’s version.
In addition, a dictionary can be categorized as prescriptive if it is static and hence not incorporating the dynamics of the English language and the styles that change every day. In the case that a dictionary identifies the meaning of words as either slang, archaic or not of standard then it appreciates the prescriptive account of English (Adams, 2015).
On the other hand, the descriptive account of the dictionary is characterized by identification of the meaning of words as standard. The descriptive account does not impose any regulations on the use of words. In addition, there are limited mistakes and disputes on how specific words are supposed to be used (Curzan, 2014). The descriptive account creates the image of it showing how the word is used but not how one is supposed to utilize it, a case that is contrary to the prescriptive account. With the descriptive account, the dictionary allows the users to freely relate the meaning of the words to their norms but not identifying the best norms for them.
Conclusion
The history of the dictionary is imperative in the formulating of viable decisions in the developing of dictionaries today. The codification process is only meaningful if the included words are those that impact the whole society. It is impulsive to bestow authority in developing dictionaries to some individuals so that the dictionary can always be standardized. Lastly, the descriptive account of the dictionary should dictate the publication of most of the dictionaries given the limitations that the prescriptive account pose .Therefore, the English language will always remain unregulated.
Adams, M 2015, ‘ Language Ideologies and The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language: Evidence from Motive, Structure, and Design. Dictionaries’, Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America, vol 36, no. 1, pp. 17-46.
Beal, J 2014, English in modern times, Routledge.
Curzan, A 2014, Fixing English: Prescriptivism and language history, Cambridge University Press.
De Maria, R. 1986, Johnson’s Dictionary and the Language of Learning, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Deignan, A 2015, ‘MIP, the corpus and dictionaries: What makes for the best metaphor analysis?’, Metaphor and the Social World, vol 5, no. 1, pp. 145-154.
Ferber, M 2017, A dictionary of literary symbols, Cambridge University Press.
Gupta,S, MacLean, DL, Heer, J and Manning, CD 2014, ‘Induced lexico-syntactic patterns improve information extraction from online medical forums’, Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, vol 21, no. 5, pp. 902-909.
Hitchings, H 2005, Defining the world: the extraordinary story of Dr. Johnson’s Dictionary, 1st edn, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York.
Koplenig, AMPAM-SC 2014, ‘ Dictionary users do look up frequent words. A log file analysis.’, Using online dictionaries., pp. 229-250.
Lynch, J 2002, Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary: Selections from the 1755 Work that Defined the English Language, Walker and Co, New York.
Nation, IS 2013, Learning Vocabulary in Another Language Google eBook, Cambridge University Press.
Nevalainen, T 2014, ‘ Norms and usage in seventeenth-century English. Norms and usage in language history’, A Sociolinguistic and comparative perspective, pp. 103-128.
Quirk, R 2010, A comprehensive grammar of the English language, Pearson Education India.
Reddick, A. 1990, The Making of Johnson’s Dictionary 1746 – 1773, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Shuttleworth, M and Cowie, M 2014, Dictionary of translation studies, Routledge.
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