Studies in Lexicography

This collection of essays is mainly concerned with the large historical, period, and regional dictionaries of the modern period. The formidable scholarship and practicality of Liddell and Scott's "Greek-English Lexicon", "The Oxford English Dictionary", the "Dictionary of American Regional English", the "Middle English Dictionary", and the "Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue", and other celebrated works, are re-examined and once more evaluated. A preview of the "Australian National Dictionary" is provided by its editor. A Russian scholar examines the treatment of homonyms in English dictionaries, and two British scholars consider respectively the treatment of polysemy and of English dialects. A scholar closely connected with the teaching of English to foreigners passes judgement on the effectiveness of learners' dictionaries, and the collection ends with a discussion by a Californian scholar of the way in which words of Romance origin are dealt with in English.