| Abstract |
John Pickering is the author of the first dictionary of Americanisms, the Vocabulary, or Collection of Words and Phrases Which have been Supposed to Be Peculiar to the United States of America (1816). Allen Read, a masterly scholar of Americanisms, regards the dictionary as “an important landmark in the study of the English language in America”, acclaiming Pickering as “one of the most perceptive linguists America has produced”. However, there seems to be the situation that research on the Vocabulary has scarcely been done since the 1950’s. Then, has research on the Vocabulary been exhausted? My answer to the question is “Never in the least”. When browsing through the Vocabulary, we can notice Pickering having finely used quite a few reference materials, thus the body of the Vocabulary becoming highly scholarly. As far as I can judge, this fact has not been pointed out to date. My intention in this paper is to clarify Pickering’s use of English dictionaries out of such materials. To summarize my analysis, Pickering was versed in wide range of English dictionaries, making the fullest use of them for his investigation on the historical background of Americanisms. |
| BibTex |
@inproceedings{ELX2020_2021-032,
address = {Alexandroupolis},
title = {John {Pickering}’s {Vocabulary} (1816) {Reconsidered}: {America}’s {Earliest} {Philological} {Exploration} of {Lexicography}},
isbn = {978-618-85138-1-5},
url = {https://www.euralex.org/elx_proceedings/Euralex2020-2021/EURALEX2020-2021_Vol1-p315-320.pdf},
language = {en},
booktitle = {Lexicography for {Inclusion}: {Proceedings} of the 19th {EURALEX} {International} {Congress}, 7-9 {September} 2021, {Alexandroupolis}, {Vol}. 1},
publisher = {Democritus University of Thrace},
author = {Miyoshi, Kusujiro},
editor = {Gavriilidou, Zoe and Mitsiaki, Maria and Fliatouras, Asimakis},
year = {2020},
pages = {315--320},} |
