myth of mankind and the representation of people in Late 18th-century British dictionaries of trade and commerce

Authors

  • Elisabetta Lonati University of Piemonte Orientale Amedeo Avogadro image/svg+xml

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54103/2282-0035/23075

Keywords:

People, Mankind, 18th-century lexicography, Trade and Commerce, Nation and Country

Abstract

The investigation aims at analysing the two general notions of mankind and people in two lexicographic reference works on trade and commerce published in London in the 1750s: Rolt’s A New Dictionary of Trade and Commerce (1756) and Postlethwayt’s The Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce (1757). An overview of the same notions in universal dictionaries of arts and sciences (cfr. References, Primary Sources), issued before and after ND and UD, will also be of help to define a more general background. Starting from the key words mankind and people, their frequency and relevance in the two dictionaries, the investigation is widened to include related terms (e.g. multiword expressions and language patterns in which mankind and people occur) and semantic categories (e.g. specific contexts of use: social condition, social values, demography, identity and citizenship, etc.). The many entries, cross-references, and the various lexical clusters reveal a complex lexicographic and lexicological network. This network, beyond providing information and contents on specific topics, ultimately emphasises the hierarchical organising principle at the basis of Late Modern British society: in particular, people unfolds into a myriad of ‘entities’. Dictionaries of trade and commerce are plentiful sources of knowledge, from general concepts and notions to more specific contents, but also powerful ideological tools.

Author Biography

Elisabetta Lonati, University of Piemonte Orientale Amedeo Avogadro

Elisabetta Lonati (MA, PhD) is Associate Professor of English Language and Linguistics at the University of Eastern Piedmont “Amedeo Avogadro” (Vercelli – Italy) where she teaches English Linguistics and the History of the English Language for the BA (Foreign Languages) and the MA (Languages, Cultures, and Tourism). Her research is mainly focussed on Early and Late Modern English lexicology and lexicography. The main topics of interest are: the origin, elaboration and classification of English technical and scientific vocabulary in eighteenth-century encyclopaedic works (universal dictionaries of arts and sciences, medical dictionaries); the language of identity and ideology (dictionaries of trade and commerce); the language of law, crime and punishment (focus on ethics, pain, penalty). Her present studies are devoted to the investigation of medical writing, and to the elaboration of British medical discourse in a variety of texts to be analysed in their historical and sociolinguistic contexts (textbooks, manuals of instruction, reference works in general). Further studies include: 18th-century medical paratext (prefaces, introductory sections, tables of contents, and indices, appendices, glossaries); the language of medical ethics; the linguistic and textual representation of midwifery over time; Late Modern English translation and dissemination of British medical works into Italian (DiachronicTS and cultural translation; second hand translation). She has published a book titled Communicating Medicine. British Medical Discourse in 18th-century Reference Works (Di/Segni, Ledizioni, Milano 2017).

References

PRIMARY SOURCES

AA.VV. (1768-)1771 : Encyclopaedia Britannica; or, a Dictionary of Arts and Sciences […], Edinburgh, 1768-1771.

CHAMBERS 1728 : E. Chambers, Cyclopaedia: or, an Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences […], London, 1728.

JOHNSON 1755 : S. Johnson, A Dictionary of the English Language [...], London, 1755.

POSTLETHWAYT 1749 : M. Postlethwayt, A Dissertation on the Plan, Use, and Importance, of the Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce; Translated from the French of the late Celebrated Mons. Savary […]. London, 1749.

POSTLETHWAYT 1757 : M. Postlethwayt, The Universal Dictionary of Trade and Commerce, [...], London, 1757 [2nd ed.; 1st ed. 1751-55].

ROLT 1756 : R. Rolt, A New Dictionary of Trade and Commerce, [...], London, 1756.

SECONDARY SOURCES

ANTHONY 2019 : L. ANTHONY, AntConc (Version 3.5.8.) [Computer Software], Tokyo, Japan, Waseda University. Available from https://www.laurenceanthony.net/software

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LONATI 2012 : E. Lonati, “Riches; money, or precious goods”: The Lexis of Wealth in Modern English, in English Dictionaries as Cultural Mines, a cura di R. Facchinetti, Newcastle, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 7-34.

LONATI 2014 : E. Lonati, “And trade is so noble a master”: Promoting and Censoring Commerce in 18th-century British Encyclopaedias, in Enforcing and Eluding Censorship. British and Anglo-Italian Perspectives, a cura di G. Iannàccaro, G. Iamartino, Newcastle, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 197-216.

LONATI 2020 : E. Lonati, The Mercantile Discovery of the World: “Geographical Commodities” in 18th-Century Dictionaries of Trade and Commerce, in The Language of Discovery, Exploration and Settlement, a cura di N. Brownlees, Newcastle upon Tyne, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 228-247.

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RIZZO 2004 : B. Rizzo, Rolt, Richard (bap. 1724, d. 1770), Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (ODNB), 2004.

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Published

2024-05-03

Issue

Vol. 76 No. 1-2 (2023):

Section

Saggi

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