1. OXFORD ENGLISH
DICTIONARY
Cristian Bedoya Valencia
Materiales Lingüísticos Informatizados

2. the english language as subject yo study
First were just attempts to create a volume which
gathered all words and expressions
People involved in this did not receive any help or
support from the government.
Editors were always in controversy with their fellows

3. Different periods
-The inkhorn controversy (C16th-C17th)
-Robert Cawdrey´s Table Alphabeticall (1604)
-Samuel Johnson´s Dictionary
-THE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY (OED)
(1857)
These volumes are relevant
because the add new characteristics or new words which didn
´t appear on the previous works

4. BEFORE 1604,THERE ARE SOME ATEMPTS OF
CREATING DICTIONARIES:
The first bilingual dictionaries and glossaries
appeared in the 15th c
William Caston´s
A French-English dictionary
(1480)
Sir Thomas Elyot´s
The Dictionary
(Bibliotheca Eliotae)
(1588)

5. IN THE 16th century began the inkhorn
controversy
Before this controversy, the main language in Britain
for the learning field was French or Latin
English was in second place. Some people started to
avoid some words in English.
The CONTROVERSY was BASED on the discussion
about the inclusion of some foreign words into the
english vocabulary, assuming them as new words for
teh English LEXICON

6. DIVIDED OPINION
Opinion was divided into two groups
The Inkhornists;
who thought that new
words would only
enrich the English
language
The Purists;
who wanted to
maintain the english
language as such in a
pure state, without
foreign words of any kind

7. after this controversy, the scholars realized that there was
a need for a dictionary in ENGLISH FOR COMPILING
ALL THE WORDS AND ITS USAGE
Mulcaster (1582) expresses his necessity:
“If some one well learned and as laborious a man,
wold gather all the words which we use in our
English tung... into one dictionarie, and besides the
right writing... wold open unto us therein both their
naturall force and their proper use.”

8. FINALLY, Robert Cawdry decides to carry out the
difficult enterprise of gathering English words on the
first monolingual dictionary of English:A Tale
Alphabeticall (1604).The aim of this dictionary was
mainly to compile hard words so everyone could
understand them.This dictionary was very simple.
300 entries 120 pages
Brief definitions
with no quotations
and etimology of
any kind

9. IN 1755,AFTER 9YEARS OF WORK, SAMUEL
JOHNSON'S DICTIONARY IS FINALLY PUBLISHED
Innovations in theInnovations in the
Dictionary:Dictionary:
1.- It compiles such a high number of entries and
definitions as never shown, 42,000 entries and over 140,000 definitions.
2.- It also includes details about spelling, pronunciation, etymology, and
illustrative quotations from highly known characters, as could be a
fragment from any Shakespearean work.
3.- It is also relevant the History and Grammar of English language which
was also included

10. All these elements as a whole gave to this work the possibility of
becoming a masterpiece.The only problem of such a good an elaborate
work was that Samuel Johnson gices idiosyncratic and often subjective
definitions, which might not have just the meaning that he gave to them.
Later on appeared some spelling and pronouncing dictionaries, but the
real revolution took place with the appearance of a new york: THE
OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY (OED) firstly known as The new English
Dictionary (NED).The OED is the actual most important dictionary on
English language.
The OED is daily revised and updated thanks to new technologies. It had
a slowly and long process of creation which started in 1884 and goes on
till nowadays.

11. The most important achievement of this last
and complete dictionary was mainly the
assumption that language change is inevitable,
so it keeps updating everyday of the new
findings on the development
the most important achievement

12. references & resourcesBarber, Charles. 2000.The English language [Chapter
9:pp.199-207]
Crystal, David. 1995.The stories of English. [Interlude
11:pp.280-284; Chapter 15:pp.442-443]
Early English Books Online (eebo.chadwyck.com)
Eighteenth-Century Collections Online
(http://www.gale.cengage.com/DigitalCollections/products/
ecco/index.htm)
Oxford English Dictionary
(http://oed.com/about/history.html