The Oxford History of English Lexicography

Volume I: General-Purpose Dictionaries; Volume II: Specialized Dictionaries

Two-volume set

Edited by A. P. Cowie

Meets the needs of historians of lexicography and those interested in a specific topic such as place names or slang
Describes the OED-derived dictionaries, including dictionaries of Scots, and Old and Middle English
Covers all the major varieties of English
Covers the complete history from medieval glosses to contemporary on-line publication
Written by distinguished international scholars

The Oxford History of English Lexicography

Volume I: General-Purpose Dictionaries; Volume II: Specialized Dictionaries

Two-volume set

Edited by A. P. Cowie

Description

These substantial volumes present the fullest account yet published of the lexicography of English from its origins in medieval glosses, through its rapid development in the eighteenth century, to a fully-established high-tech industry that is as reliant as ever on learning and scholarship. The history covers dictionaries of English and its national varieties, including American English, with numerous references to developments in Europe and elsewhere which have influenced the course of English lexicography.

Part one of Volume I explores the early development of glosses and bilingual and multilingual dictionaries and examines their influence on lexicographical methods and ideas. Part two presents a systematic history of monolingual dictionaries of English and includes extensive chapters on Johnson, Webster and his successors in the USA, and the OED. It also contains descriptions of the development of dictionaries of national and regional varieties, and of Old and Middle English, and concludes with an account of the computerization of the OED.

The specialized dictionaries described in Volume II include dictionaries of science, dialects, synonyms, etymology, pronunciation, slang and cant, quotations, phraseology, and personal and place names. This volume also includes an account of the inception and development of dictionaries developed for particular users, especially foreign learners of English.

The Oxford History of English Lexicography unites scholarship with readability. It provides a unique and accessible reference for scholars and professional lexicographers and offers a series of fascinating encounters with the men and women involved over the centuries in the making of works of profound national and linguistic importance.

The Oxford History of English Lexicography

Volume I: General-Purpose Dictionaries; Volume II: Specialized Dictionaries

Two-volume set

Edited by A. P. Cowie

Volume I: General-purpose Dictionaries
1:Introduction, A. P. Cowie
Part I. Early Glossaries; Bilingual, and Multilingual Dictionaries
2:Glosses, Glossaries, and Dictionaries in the Medieval Period, Hans Sauer
3:Bilingual and Multilingual Dictionaries of the Renaissance and Early Seventeenth Century, Janet Bately
4:Bilingual Dictionaries of the Late Seventeeth and Eighteenth Centuries, Monique Cormier
5:Bilingual Dictionaries of the Nineteenth to the Twentieth Centuries, Carla Marello
6:Bilingual Dictionaries of English and Russian in the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Centuries, Donna Farina and George Durman
Part 2. The History of English Monolingual Dictionaries
7:The Early Development of the English Monolingual Dictionary Seventeenth and Early Eighteenthth Centuries, Noel Osselton
8:Johnson and Richardson, Allen Reddick
9:Major American Dictionaries, Sidney Landau
10:The Oxford English Dictionary, Lynda Mugglestone
11:The OED Supplements, Charlotte Brewer
12:National and Regional Dictionaries of English, Richard Bailey
13:Dictionaries of Scots, Margaret Dareau and Iseabail Macleod
14:The Period Dictionaries, Michael Adams
15:Dictionaries of Caribbean English, Jeannette Allsopp
16:The Electronic OED: the computerization of a historical dictionary, Edmund Weiner
References
Index of Names
Index of Subjects
Volume II: Specialized Dictionaries
Part 1. Dictionaries Specialized According to Ordering of Entries, Topical or Linguistic Content, or Speech Community
1:Dictionaries of Synonyms and Thesauri, Werner Hüllen
2:Scientific and Technical Dictionaries, Michael Hoare
3:Dictionaries of Place-names, Carole Hough
4:Dictionaries of Personal Names, Patrick Hanks
5:Pronouncing Dictionaries - i Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries, Joan Beal
6:Pronouncing Dictionaries - ii Mid to Late-Nineteenth Century, Beverley Collins and Inger Mees
7:Syntagmatic and Phraseological Dictionaries, Thomas Herbst and Michael Klotz
8:Dictionaries of Quotations, Elizabeth Knowles
9:English Etymological Dictionaries, Anatoly Liberman
10:Dialect Dictionaries, Robert Penhallurick
11:Slang and Cant Dictionaries, Julie Coleman
Part 2. Dictionaries Specialized According to Uses and Users
12:Dictionaries of Usage, Robert Allen
13:The American Collegiate Dictionaries, Sidney Landau
14:The Earliest Foreign Learners' Dictionaries, A. P. Cowie
15:Linguistic Research and Learner's Dictionaries: The Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Thierry Fontenelle
16:The Cobuild Project, Rosamund Moon
17:Dictionaries in Electronic Form, Hilary Nesi
References
Index of Names
Index of Subjects

The Oxford History of English Lexicography

Volume I: General-Purpose Dictionaries; Volume II: Specialized Dictionaries

Two-volume set

Edited by A. P. Cowie

Author Information

Edited by A. P. Cowie

Contributors:

A. P. Cowie, Leeds
Michael Adams, Indiana University
Robert Allen, Edinburgh
Jeannette Allsopp, UWI Cave Hill Campus
John Ayto. London
Richard Bailey, Michigan
Janet Bately, London
Joan Beal, University of Sheffield
Charlotte Brewer, Hertford College
Julie Coleman, University of Leicester
Beverley Collins, Utrecht
Monique Cormier, Montreal University
Margaret Dareau, Bazian
George Durman, contact via Donna Farina
Donna Farina, New Jersey City University
Thierry Fontenelle, Microsoft Corporation
Patrick Hanks, Czech Republic
Thomas Herbst, Erlangen-Nurnberg University
Michael Hoare, London
Carole Hough, University of Glasgow
Werner Hüllen, Dusseldorf
Michael Klotz, Erlangen-Nurnberg University
Elizabeth Knowles, Oxford University Press
Sidney Landau, New York
Anatoly Liberrman, University of Minnessota
Iseabail Macleod, Edinburgh University
Carla Marello, Torino University
Inger M. Mees, Copenhagen Business School
Rosamund Moon, University of Birmingham
Lynda Mugglestone, Pembroke College
Hilary Nesi, University of Warwick
Noel Osselton, Durham
Robert Penhallurick, University of Wales Swansea
Allen Reddick, Zurich University
Hans Sauer, Munich University
Edmund Weiner, Oxford University Press

The Oxford History of English Lexicography

Volume I: General-Purpose Dictionaries; Volume II: Specialized Dictionaries

Two-volume set

Edited by A. P. Cowie

Reviews and Awards

"offers the most comprehensive treatment to date of the development of English lexicography from the Middle Ages to the present... OHEL has already earned its place in the lexicographic canon. These splendid two volumes will no doubt be cherished by generations of IJL readers." - Areleta Adamska-Salaciak, International Journal of Lexicography

"my favourite book of this year, The Oxford History of English Lexicography. The essays in these two large volumes include pieces on the evolution of specialized dictionaries of science, technology and medicine." - W. F. Bynum, Personal favourites of 2009, Nature

"...invaluable, for its well-chosen team of specialists have brought together more historical points of detail than ever before" - David Crystal, Times Literary Supplement

"It is safe to say that any future work on English lexicography will begin here, that anyone interested in how lexicography impinges on specific historical issues will consult here, and that any speaker interested in the quixotic project of defining the undefinable - English - will linger here." - Tim William Machan, Marquette University, Milwaukee, writing for Journal of English Linguistics