1. Lesson 11 But What's a Dictionary For?

2. I. Aims and Contents of Teaching 1. the comprehension of the text and the mastery of the important language points 2. the paraphrases of certain complicated or difficult sentences

3. I. Aims and Contents of Teaching 3. the enlargement of the students' vocabulary 4. the familiarisation with the styles of composition and devices of figuration

4. II. Procedure of teaching 1. Questions and answers 2. Analysis of the structure and language 3. Detailed study of the text 4. Supplementary and text-book exercises

5. III. Background information Webster, Noah (Oct. 16, 1748 - May 28, 1843) American lexicographer and philologist, born in West Hartford, Conn. A Yale graduate.

6. III. Background information His Elementary Spelling Book (the first part of the Grammatical Institute of the English Language) and The American Dictionary of the English Language established the nobility and vitality of the American Language.

7. III. Background information He holds that the spelling and grammar of a language must be based on actual usage rather than artificial principles. And thus laid a foundation for the 20th century lexicography.

8. III. Background information The Elementary Spelling Book, first published in the late years of the 18th cent., standardized American spelling and by 1850, when the whole population was under 23 million, was sold at 1 million copies annually.

9. III. Background information The American Dictionary of the English Language, his greatest work, was published in 1828. Of the 70,000 words, 12,000 had not appeared in any other dictionaries before. Within one year, all the 2,500 copies issued in American and the 3,000 copies in Britain were sold out.

10. III. Background information In 1840, the second edition was a failure and he had to sell the copy right to Merriam Publishing Company which thereafter became the Merriam-Webster Incorporation. Webster's other contributions include efforts in the passage of a national copyright law, in the founding of the Amherst College etc.

11. III. Background information Dictionary: a published list, in alphabetical order, of the words of a language, explaining and defining them, or in the case of a bilingual dictionary, translating them into another language.

12. III. Background information In the 20th cent., American dictionary makers began to adopt criteria of use rather than of etymological purity. Dictionaries were produced in China, Greece, Islam, and other complex early cultures.

13. III. Background information The first modern examples of lexicography are thought to be Nathan Bailey's Universal Etymological English Dictionary (1721) and his larger Dictionarium Britannicum (1730), which served Samuel Johnson,

14. III. Background information who was considered as England's first complete man of letters, in preparing his Dictionary of the English Language (1755), the first comprehensive English lexicography.

15. III. Background information The next great lexicographer was Noah Webster. His American Dictionary of the English Language has been skilfully revised and abridged over the years, thereby retaining its popularity. A six- volume American encyclopaedic dictionary, The Century Dictionary, was completed in 1891.

16. III. Background information American Dictionary of the English Language ---1828 1840, second edition, failure, copyright sold to Merriam 1961, third edition, 2752 pages, 460,000 entries, 200,000 usage examples, 3,000 pictorial illustrations and more than 1,000 synonyms

17. III. Background information British lexicographers from the 19th cent. on, began to collect and organize examples of usage.

18. III. Background information In 1857, the Philological Society began collecting dated examples of usage, culminating in the publication (1928) of the monumental, unrivalled lexicon known as the New English Dictionary, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) or Murray's Dictionary.

19. III. Background information Two major shorter editions exist: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Current English and the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. Other advances in lexicography are reflected in the frequently revised collegiate or desk dictionaries, such as the Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary.

20. III. Background information Encyclopedia: book or set of books giving information about every branch of knowledge, or about one particular subject, with articles in alphabetical order

21. III. Background information lexicon: dictionary, esp. of an ancient language or of words from a single subject thesaurus: book containing lists of words and phrases grouped according to their meanings or types (a thesaurus of slang)

22. IV. Detailed Study of the Text 1. abuse: n. & v. abusive, adj. – a. unkind, cruel or rude words, He burst into a storm of abuse. He constantly addressed her in terms of abuse. You are always abusing and offending people.

23. IV. Detailed Study of the Text – b. wrong use, misuse, improper treatment, maltreat Borrowing money is an abuse of friendship. abuse of power, drug abuse, to abuse one's power, authority, position, wealth, etc.

24. IV. Detailed Study of the Text 2. popular press: newspapers, journals that are aimed at the needs or tastes of ordinary people and not the specialists in a particular subject 3. phenomenon:(pl. phenomena) a fact or event in nature or society

25. IV. Detailed Study of the Text 4. scholarly: concerned with serious detailed study---opposite POPULAR – Scholarly matters, activities, etc involve or relate to scholars or their work. – His name is known in scholarly circles throughout the world.

26. IV. Detailed Study of the Text 5. stature – a. Someone's stature is their height and general size. She was rather small in stature. – b. The stature of a person or of their achievements is the importance and reputation that they have. a musician of international stature

27. IV. Detailed Study of the Text cf: statue: figure of a person, animal, etc., in wood, stone, bronze, etc. – the Statue of Liberty / Venus status: condition, position in relation to others – one's class / political / social / marital status

28. IV. Detailed Study of the Text 6. unbridled: not controlled or limited in any way, too violent and active, used to show disapproval – unbridled tongue / anger

29. IV. Detailed Study of the Text 7. fury: violent or very strong anger – There was fury in the Duchess' grey eyes. – Hearing this, they jumped on (scolded) him in a fury. – He flew into a fury and said that the whole thing was disgusting.

30. IV. Detailed Study of the Text 8. contempt: lack of respect – If you have contempt for someone or something, you do not like them and think that they are unimportant or of no value.

31. IV. Detailed Study of the Text – They would look at us with unmistakable contempt. – Her contempt for foreigners was obvious. – hold sb. / sth. in contempt

32. IV. Detailed Study of the Text Vary and differ Differ stresses the fact of unlikeness in kind or nature or in opinion, but does not indicate (except through the context) the extent or degree of divergence. Vary, though often interchangeable with differ, may call attention to readily apparent differences and sometimes suggests a range of differences.

33. IV. Detailed Study of the Text Interchangeable – People vary / differ very much in their ideas. Uninterchangeable – Wisdom differs from cunning. – The two parties differ very sharply from each other over the correct remedies to apply.

34. V. Type of Writing: 1. begin with details, specific examples or various of evidence and on the basis of these come to the conclusion or generalization. 2. begin with a general assertion which is followed by exploration and explanation of its implications and justification. Finally return to the assertion in the conclusion.

35. VI. Structural analysis : Part 1: para. 1 – para. 3 – The storm of abuse in the popular press. – The claim of the dictionary maker. – The question for argument: What is a dictionary for?